Mark Kvamme

Why Buying Your First Business is the hardest & Financing The Fear is Being seen as too risky by lenders and investors. The Solution: Prepare a solid business plan with detailed financial projections. Work with a financial advisor to enhance your credibility. Consider alternative financing options like SBA loans or seller financing.

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2 active fund offerings from the Echelon Fund team who have been killing it ever since their cohort at The Fund School. https://lnkd.in/gVd-dhfY sidecarportfoliofund.com This presentation of Echelon Fund, LLC and Sidecar Portfolio Fund (the “Company”) is for information only and shall not constitute an offer to buy, sell, issue or subscribe for, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or issue, or subscribe for any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is based on publicly-available information, internally developed data, third party information and other sources. The third party information has not been independently verified. While the Company may not have verified the third party information, nevertheless, it believes that it obtained the information from reliable sources and has no reason to believe it is not accurate in all material respects.

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If you enjoyed our first blog on the metrics that matter for Verticalized SaaS then don't miss on the Part II of the series where my colleagues Devraj Hom Roy and Matt Schaar discuss the strategic and operational choices to improve these operational indicators. https://lnkd.in/g5QkCrcH

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In vertical SaaS, the very best companies landed with a product solving a specific, burning pain point that horizontal solutions solved badly and then became broad product suites over time (ServiceTitan, Veeva Systems, Doximity, etc). My partner Gordon Ritter calls this “layering the cake”. In vertical AI, the landing wedges are much more brittle. While the painpoints they solve are very real (and often unaddressable by SaaS alone), they’re also much more likely to commodotize in the near term as the tech advances. 👀 Therefore, the need to layer the cake in vertical AI is much more urgent than in vertical SaaS. 👀 The best vertical AI CEOs not only recognize the dynamic, but talk about it openly. Helps those around them keep up the speed of innovation and their eyes on the bigger prize.

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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What do you do when a radical new technology puts your main product right in the crosshairs of disruption? Listen to David Okuniev — co-founder of Typeform | Ask awesomely — discuss the challenges of innovation within existing structures. David shared a game-changing insight: Radical innovation is really, really difficult to do inside your own product. He emphasized the need to break free from the constraints of familiarity and embrace change from outside the box. Henrik Werdelin and I have both seen our fair share of this in our respective careers. What struck us most was how David leveraged structure to overcome the innovator’s dilemma. By creating a culture of experimentation and providing space for bold ideas, he propelled Typeform beyond incremental improvements. What other hacks have you seen or employed to help your organization overcome the innovator’s dilemma? Share your stories below! 👇 And if you want to dive deeper into our conversation, click the link in the comments to catch the full podcast episode!

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Interesting post, Frank Rotman . I'd argue that rather than try to use your markups as traction for raising funds 2, 3 and 4 , emerging managers should consider helping their startups get earlier liquidity via suggesting listing on growth exchanges like the Toronto Stock Exchange, the LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) or the ASX . DPI > IRR or TVPI when it comes to LPs. A VC that returns >2x in 7 years to LPs is going to have a much easier time raising the next fund than a fund with an IRR or TVPI of whatever. The entire vc industry has drank the kool aid that companies should be doing >$300m in ARR before listing. The LP community needs / wants liquidity before the 12 to 14 years its currently taking to IPO in the US, however. Startups can list on the above exchanges doing $20m in revenue with 30% YoY growth, they don't have to deal with Sarb Ox compliance and follow on raises are orders of magnitude easier for a listed company. Why? There's so many more public market investors than private market investors. The only other option for Emerging managers to stand out is by getting DPI via selling secondaries to a fund like Practical Venture Capital Chris Mayo, CFA Neil Shah Delilah Panio Amit Verma Dave McClure Aman Verjee, CFA Karin Tenenboim

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Suppose you are a VC, Early investor, or CIO trying to keep your eye on the industry trends. In that case, you’ve probably heard already about hallucinations, context shifts, and accuracy measurement problems in LLMs. These scary concepts kill motivation to invest in LLM-based projects and build RnD departments. Are they really so scary? Yes, but just for now, you have a good strategy to cope with them. Is this strategy already known? Yes, old but still one of the most effective approaches- knowledge graphs in combination with fresh new RAGs will allow you to keep your models free of hallucinations, stable in accuracy, and easily adaptable for context change. Btw, do you know that knowledge graphs are seeing as one of the most impactful AI enables during this year?🙌🏻 How big companies like Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft are seeing the future of LLMs adoption you can find here https://lnkd.in/d4B3t56z

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A big reason to be bullish for any tech hub: communities of technical builders. Some great communities launched by Landon W. Campbell and Drive Capital in #Chicago in 2024, in addition to all the other technical communities thriving in Chicago today - The Compute Collective, ETHChicago, AI 2030, Chicago Innovation, 1871, Omaxn: 1. AI Tinkerers Chicago: a monthly meetup that brings technical builders to discuss the latest models and use cases for LLMs. They reached over 900 members in 2024. 2. Chicago Data Night: a partnership with University of Chicago, where they bridge academia and industry in monthly speaker series. 3. The Chicago Futurist Meetup: a new meetup connecting local energy experts to discuss the technical implications of AI, data centers, and nuclear. Other reasons to be bullish Chicago in 2025, from Landon: https://lnkd.in/ebS39QEK

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Advice to founders: Your AI strategy needs to evolve beyond workflow automation. Here's why. The enterprise AI market is evolving from path 1 to path 2: Path 1: Automated workflows aka traditional automation → Rule-based processes → Manual data inputs → Human oversight at every step → Limited to structured data Path 2: Systems of Agents (the future) → Networks of specialized AI workers → Real-time data capture and analysis → Continuous learning from each interaction → End-to-end business capabilities Repetitive, rule-based tasks were the low-hanging fruit 🍎 Meaningful breakthroughs happen when we build systems that enhance human teams' capabilities. This human < > AI collaboration opens up completely new categories of work—things we couldn't even attempt before. Agree? LMK in comments.

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The practical application of AI to help manufacturers eliminate unplanned downtime is key to our current and future offering. We do not label ourselves as purely an AI company, as that is one component of our value delivery, but I can say we have a world class team of AI Engineers building incredible tech alongside a team of world class Condition Monitoring Engineers. I am bullish and excited to see how Central Ohio emerges as a global AI hub with Intel as an anchor. cc: Brian Graham, Seyed Mohammad Parvasi, Ph.D., Jaidev Krishnan, Matt Longhouse, Chris Berry

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Want to build wealth faster? Skip startups. Buy Boring Old Businesses. Here’s why: 1. They’re already making money. 2. They come with customers, systems, and momentum. 3. They’re undervalued – 2.5x profits is standard. 4. SBA loans or seller financing make them accessible. 5. Easy profit boosters: raise prices or add new products. 6. They’re easier to scale than startups. Startups fail 65% of the time within the first 5 years. But "boring" businesses? They’re built to last. Don’t build from scratch. Buy something proven. If you could buy a "boring" business, what type of business would you buy?

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Harnessing Proprietary Information for Strategic Healthcare Investments Healthcare investments offer a unique combination of financial returns and the potential for significant social impact. For family offices and discerning investors, navigating this complex landscape requires more than just capital—it demands strategic insights fueled by proprietary information. The Foundation of Strategic Investment: Proprietary Information In the investment world, knowledge is power. This is particularly true in the healthcare sector, where regulatory landscapes, technological advancements, and policy changes can drastically impact the viability and potential of investment opportunities. Access to proprietary information gives investors a critical edge, enabling them to: - Anticipate Market Movements: With insights into healthcare policies and emerging trends, investors can position their portfolios to capitalize on upcoming shifts in the market. - Enhance Due Diligence: Tailored underwriting and due diligence tools grounded in exclusive data can highlight risks and reveal hidden potentials in investment prospects. - Maximize Value Creation: By understanding the intricacies of the US healthcare economy, investors can devise strategies for long-term value creation, rather than short-term gains. Empowering Family Offices Family offices often seek investments that offer both competitive financial returns and the opportunity to create a positive legacy. By refining investment platforms to address the specific needs of these entities, such as instant diversification and upside capture, they can achieve their financial and legacy-driven goals. These platforms can provide: - Market Insights: Curated intelligence that focuses on the most promising healthcare segments. - Educational Resources: In-depth content to deepen the understanding of healthcare technology trends and investment strategies. Building Relationships and Trust Investing is not just about the numbers; it's also about people. To attract and retain high-potential family office prospects, investment platforms must foster empathy and engagement. This involves: - Offering Exclusive Rights: Providing access to follow-on deals and direct investment opportunities with board or advisory roles. - Understanding Emotions: Addressing fears of missing out on prime opportunities due to geographical limitations and dissatisfaction with average investment options. - Creating Community: Facilitating a network of like-minded investors focused on collaborative, high-impact healthcare investments. Harnessing proprietary information is critical for making strategic healthcare investments that offer significant financial returns and contribute to the betterment of society. If you like to learn more about strategic healthcare investments or discuss your specific investment goals and how proprietary information can be leveraged to achieve them? Please feel free to reach out or leave a comment below.

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Excited to publicly announce today that Rebellion Ventures emerges to build the future of AI super capability, generating 10-100x productivity gains. We've been partnering with entrepreneurs for some time and oversubscribed and closed our debut fund but haven't publicly disclosed it until now. We announced today our inaugural fund, which is dedicated to partnering with entrepreneurs to build what we coined the era of artificial super capability (ASC) through autonomous operations and AI agents that have the power to revolutionize business models and unleash the greatest productivity boost in human history. We foresee the shift from passive, intelligence-focused AI to action-oriented artificial super capability that drives business outcomes autonomously. In the real world, it is the context-specific ability to act that delivers results, rather than general intelligence. AI capabilities will evolve to be superior to humans in areas such as speed, cost, and accuracy. This shift will create an era of artificial super capability (ASC), with the potential to increase productivity by 10-100x. We see the emergence of a diverse AI workforce across industries, including AI workers, digital humans, autopilots, and autonomous agents. These will continuously learn, observe, think, and act 24/7 to proactively achieve business goals and elevate human work. Through the fund's companies, we target to collectively create at least $100 billion in annual productivity value for customers by 2030 based on initial ROI metrics. Our fund brings an operating track record of building companies to multi-billion dollar IPO and M&A exits and an advisor network of over 70 unicorn founders, operating executives, and industry experts in AI and automation who are LPs in the fund. We'll provide access to industry relationships, operating playbooks, and critical expertise that entrepreneurs need to build and scale disruptive startups. Our fund has thus far partnered with 12 pre-seed/seed startups creating or enabling autonomous operations and AI agents in areas such as engineering, sales, financial services, insurance, and healthcare (over half of these have already raised more capital at higher valuations). We'll partner with 25+ additional startups over the next 18 months. Recognizing our responsibility in this new era, we seek to be a force for good by elevating human work, committing to ethical practices in AI and automation, and contributing positively to societal and economic development (including pledging 1% of our profits to give back to the community). More details are in the announcement below. https://lnkd.in/gBbnAr3p

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Exciting to see startups aiming to use AI to discover chemicals, materials, drugs, etc. Semi companies have taken notice: AMD is investing in and Cadence is acquiring them. Semi/EDA companies have broken out by becoming critical path, whether it’s through critical software, packaging, IP, design kits from foundries, or user communities. Aside from just making it easy to make new materials, these “AI for making X” companies also need to articulate a vision as to how they can establish monopolistic positions in their industries.

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It seems inevitable that as the underlying foundation models become more powerful, the LLM players will seek to justify the enormous investment that has gone into training their models by moving "up the stack", and evolve from an API or chat interface, to async agents. Regardless of whether the foundation model companies end up directly competing with you in your vertical, I believe as a B2B AI startup, you NEED to go through the thought experiment: how do I future proof my company as the underlying models progress? More here: https://lnkd.in/gkdhmVer

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