Adam Markowitz

DoD is pushing startups to take on venture capital pretty hard these days. VC funding can be a great option but it's not an out-of-the-box great fit for Defense Tech. Relying on private debt to effectively dictate what new tech into Defense agencies will have consequences and I don't want to experience that particular learning curve. #defensetech #emergingtechnology #venturecapital

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A few weeks ago, I was at Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator Meeting with a dozen different companies. - I love getting to help people bring their vision to the life. - Seeing their products start as seeds and then become reality. - Building the future in emerging tech or any industry. It always reminds me of the reason I founded First Principles. ↳ To improve the human condition, one product at a time. There can be tough days in the journey for founding teams: - Losing deals you spend hours, weeks, or even months developing. - Investing time testing great ideas only to discover no one cares. - Creating good content no one reads or bad content everyone loves 🙂. - Sacrificing time and focus when with family and friends. But being in a room full of motivated people at the earliest phases of the journey always re-energizes my personal mission. Because nothing feels better than helping others to have an impact on a seemingly intractable problem.

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🚀 It’s a big day at Hoop! We’re excited to share we’ve raised $5m led by Index Ventures with participation from Origin Ventures, Chingona Ventures, Divergent Capital, and an inspiring group of angel investors. Two years ago, Justin, Brian, and I got together and started brainstorming. We had worked together as early executives at Trello for 7.5 years! We wanted to recreate the magic of the early days of Trello and respond to the epidemic of distraction we were seeing in the workplace. When I left Atlassian, I was in back-to-back meetings most days. Slack was constantly buzzing. My whole day was spent going between apps and praying I wouldn’t miss something important. I would wake up in the middle of the night remembering that DM I forgot to respond to. In an age of AI, this kind of mental fatigue across tools drains humans of our energy to do the work that really matters: the focused and creative work that comes when we can feel secure that we’re on top of all important work. Hoop is the product I wish I had. It connects to Zoom, Google Meet, Slack and email and automatically captures tasks for me using AI. It then centralizes everything in one spot so I never miss a task. Our vision is to rethink task management with an AI first principles mindset. There’s so much we can do now that we couldn’t have imagined back when we were building Trello. It’s an exciting time to be building in the space, and we’ve got a world class team taking on this challenge. Now’s the time to try Hoop out and let us know what you think! We couldn’t be more grateful for all the amazing support from our community, investors, and friends. Let’s go team! 👏🏼 Special thanks to our investors for all their belief and support - Damir Becirovic Neil Rimer Katie Shea Samara Mejia Hernandez Jason Heltzer Andy Dunn Wade Foster Linda Lian Michael Pryor Kristen Habacht Elizabeth Hall Barry Clark Nikita Miller Mihika Kapoor Jiaona Zhang (JZ) Maggie Adhami-Boynton Sonia Sahney Nagar Sean Harper Darren Murph Mike Arauz Job van der Voort Annie Duke Jay Simons Maria Christopoulos Katris Ezra Galston Sheel Mohnot Ilya Fushman #futureofwork #ai #startups #fundraising

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r/PropTech, 2018 someone asked: "Anything new and interesting in prop tech lately?" Didn't get much of a response. I think I can help answer... If I was going to answer this in 2018, I'd say we were seeing a lot of exciting things around residential fintech. Our residential fintech investments have been premised on the fact that there's these inherent inefficiencies, these archaic and anachronistic processes, around buying and selling real estate in the U.S. and all of the ancillary financial products you have to buy. This was of course affected by rising rates and lessened home affordability. I actually think now more than ever is an exciting time in proptech, because difficult times for the real estate industry (and it's been very, very difficult over the past few years) have totally opened up the industry to seeing the value in adopting technology. This adverse environment has totally thrust this imperative to become innovative (which is something the real estate industry has historically not been good at) front and center onto the real estate industry. I think that attitude shift is going to make for a really exciting time, and it's going to lead to some amazing new companies being born, doing everything from the proptech classic of "digitizing pen-and-paper processes to make them more efficient" to building entirely new real estate businesses on the backs of data and technology -- much like we saw Lineage do with cold storage and logistics. #proptech

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Reflecting on another fantastic StartupAZ retreat in Flagstaff last month! I’m grateful to be a part of this incredible community that continually supports technology founders in Arizona. StartupAZ is more than just a network; it’s a powerful ecosystem of founders, mentors, and seasoned entrepreneurs who come together to uplift and propel each other forward. The monthly cohort meetings provide the kind of support and mentorship that makes all the difference in launching and scaling a technology company. This organization has been a game-changer for me personally, connecting me with like-minded leaders and providing the resources needed to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship. Being surrounded by other founders who are as passionate about innovation and growth as I am has been truly inspiring. Below is a video from our retreat, showcasing the spirit and energy of this incredible group of people dedicated to pushing the limits of what’s possible. Seeing how much we’ve grown and the impact we’ve had on Arizona’s tech landscape is both humbling and motivating. If you're a founder in Arizona or someone passionate about the startup ecosystem, I highly encourage you to get involved with StartupAZ. Let’s keep building, growing, and supporting the next wave of innovators right here in Arizona! #StartupAZ #FoundersSupportingFounders #ArizonaTech #Entrepreneurship #StartupCommunity #Innovation

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The most impactful technology augments human capability. Take assembly line work as an example: Robots enhance speed and precision but still require human oversight. This dynamic mirrors our evolving relationship with AI, especially within the service-as-software paradigm shift. As Jaya and I wrote in our recent blog post, AI's evolution from a basic tool into an autonomous agent isn't about replacing jobs. It's about reshaping them. This shift is part of a $4.6 trillion opportunity where AI not only boosts efficiency but also creates new roles, blending tech with human insights. AI doesn’t just replace—it reinvents how we work, creating more value than ever.

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Who doesn't love chatting about the frontier of Space?! Loved getting this insiders look from Epsilon3 CEO Laura Crabtree (ex-SpaceX, Northrop Grumman) as the industry reshapes into a lightening fast startup ecosystem for us to marvel. Small teams are lowering the cost to access space. Homegrown automation software is dramatically reducing team size -- as Laura puts it: "You won’t see 50 people in a control room for launch…you’ll see 5 controlling 50 different assets and a couple of 100 assets that are mostly operating on their own." Personally i'm keeping a close eye on the new interconnectedness between space and the broader economy will spark a flywheel of innovation. 🎙️ Listen in to our discussion (link in comments) as we release today -- 5YF#16: Space command reimagined, automating mission control, new deep tech hubs, interstellar missions, and the future of space operations w/ Epsilon3 CEO Laura Crabtree To infinity!

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Defense tech is booming—but who will actually win? A look at the startups and investors prepared to thrive in this complex industry. https://buff.ly/4gFGbsr

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Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi resigns from self-driving truck startup Aurora’s board The deal in 2020 involved Uber handing over its equity in ATG and investing $400 million into Aurora, giving it a 26% stake in the combined company. Khosrowshahi joined Aurora’s board as part of the deal. A major reason for the step is citing a desire to focus on his ongoing responsibilities as CEO of Uber and reduce external board commitments, according to a Friday regulatory filing. This may channel more focus and growth-focused results in Uber's future.

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Led by Anduril, defense tech funding sets a new record this year | TechCrunch https://buff.ly/4129kts Anduril, a leader in defense technology, has driven defense tech funding to an unprecedented high this year. Investments in this sector have surged, reflecting a growing interest in advanced military solutions and cutting-edge innovations. This milestone underscores the increasing importance of tech-driven defense initiatives in modern security strategies. As global tensions rise, there's a notable shift towards integrating AI, robotics, and autonomous systems into defense operations. The record-breaking funding highlights the critical role technology plays in national and international security landscapes. #DefenseTech #InnovationInSecurity

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Today we share Nominal with the world. We are on a mission to revolutionize the way mission-critical hardware systems are tested, validated, and monitored. We’ve been hard at work for the past 18 months building our core product offering, working with early customers across commercial and DoD applications, and assembling a world-class team. With $27.5M in funding, we are hitting the accelerator and scaling. Thank you to Lizette Chapman at Bloomberg for sharing our story here! https://lnkd.in/eJQVwf9P The Nominal platform gives engineers and operators a first-class way to organize, visualize, transform, validate, and monitor data—all in one application. Flexible. Scalable. Collaborative. We are supporting the world’s most advanced hardware companies with best-in-class testing and analysis workflows. Our customers build and operate satellites, rockets, drones, autonomous aircraft, advanced nuclear reactors, and more. Our mission is to support their mission. Our early traction as a team is the result of years of patient observations, experience both building and operating software in diverse and demanding environments, and earned insights from working with some the best companies in the business. I’m thankful to be standing on the shoulders of giants. If 18 months is any indication, it’s proving to be the fulfillment of a lifetime. And we are just getting started. For me, Nominal is the conversion of a massive amount of potential to kinetic energy. I’ve spent a decade operating at the intersection of mission, technology, product, and company-building. My time in uniform as a US Navy submarine officer and later as a startup operator (Anduril Industries, Applied Intuition, Saildrone Inc) in critical technology areas has personally cemented a powerful truth: engineers and operators who are testing, validating, and monitoring high-stakes hardware systems deserve the world’s best software. I’m proud to be on this journey with Bryce Strauss and Jason Hoch—I can’t imagine two better people to motivate and inspire me every single day. Finally, we are lucky to be backed by some of the best investors in the world—thank you to Lux Capital, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, XYZ Venture Capital, Haystack, Human Capital, BoxGroup, and Overmatch. Your support from the earliest moments has propelled Nominal into a bright future! All systems Nominal. 🚀 Bryce Strauss, Jason Hoch, Paul Kwan, Alexa Liautaud, Bilal Zuberi, Josh Wolfe, Delian Asparouhov, Trae Stephens, Ross Fubini, Semil Shah, Aashay Sanghvi, Matthew Colford, Baris Akis, Adina Davis, Claire Smilow, Evan Loomis

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Today I’m thrilled to announce Pictorus (pictor.us) has closed a $3.5M seed financing round, led by Catapult Ventures. Full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/dxe-7-5M After a year in stealth and nearly the same in Beta, we’re excited to use this latest funding to bring Pictorus to the aerospace, automotive, and robotic markets with a formal release later this year. The problem we’re solving is simple: Developing software for hardware is still way too hard. Most hardware startups we’ve encountered end up rebuilding the same core tools and infrastructure over and over again… some combination of makeshift Python scripts, hacky sims and visualizations, and some kludgy infra code.. all cobbled together to design, deploy, and debug the software running on each vehicle. It’s a mess, but it is today’s developer experience. In large part, this is because the engineering tools we all learned back at university (Matlab & Simulink) just don’t cut it for what we need to build and deploy today. And unless Elon is footing the bill, internal engineering tools are really inefficient to develop in-house; both in engineering hours sunk, and avoidable mistakes repeated. Engineers need better workflows for bringing new hardware to life - and at the scale and pace of modern, globally distributed fleets. Meanwhile, large, established aerospace and automotive teams feel trapped by the old Matlab/Simulink toolchain they committed to over 30 years ago, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars annually (each). At Pictorus, we’ve built a solution for this entire spectrum of experience - from scrappy aerospace startups looking to bootstrap their first hardware product, to large automotive OEMs looking to port their legacy Simulink code into Rust. “From the moment I saw what Pictorus had built, I knew this was the future of embedded systems programming. I’ve spent too much time banging my head on my keyboard debugging C/C++ or Matlab/Simulink while squinting at a screen hunched over a car, airplane, drone, or tractor.” says Darren Liccardo, General Partner at Catapult Ventures. “The aerospace industry is rapidly innovating, yet it lacks the flexible tools to quickly program and iterate,” Marlinspike Co-Founder Mislav Tolusic adds. “Pictorus can fill that gap.” I want to give a big shout out to the investors backing us this round, starting with our original partners at Lux Capital and Webb Investment Network, and introducing our latest partners at Marlinspike, Friends & Family Capital, RedBlue Capital, and Never Lift. We’ve assembled a team with deep connections across the industries most excited about our product, and are eager to accelerate our progress with their partnership. Finally, we’re doubling our core team, across engineering and GTM, so do reach out if this mission resonates with your aspirations!

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https://lnkd.in/en6i2WN3 One classic piece of startup advice is to work at bigger companies for just long enough to identify the pain points, figure out if those pain points generalize to other companies, and, if so, build a product that solves them. But from the company's perspective, this is an economic inefficiency—their most ambitious employees are engaged in a heist, and it's a heist of intellectual property the company didn't know it had! As companies look at how much of their expenses comes from various SaaS bills, they've come to the same conclusion in the opposite direction: solve their problems in a scalable way, and they've probably built the basics of a scalable company. This is all very high-level and theoretical, but it is actually happening: Alaska Airlines has a startup incubator, and it's just spun out its first company, which is now spinning off. The true function of a company is to aggregate information and align incentives, and this is an instance of both.

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People sometimes expect us to be like those Top Gun characters: full of ego and swagger. But honestly, the reality couldn’t be more different. Real fighter pilots thrive on humility. Every day brings a new lesson, and I’m lucky to work alongside people who are just as committed to improving their skills. It’s not about being “the best” in a flashy way; it’s about respecting the craft, constantly growing, and supporting each other. Our core values (humility, approachability, and credibility) are what define excellence in this field, and without humility, the rest just don’t hold up. This commitment to humility is at the core of effective leadership too. The best leaders aren’t those who think they know it all, they’re the ones who stay open to learning and keep their ego in check. True expertise doesn’t come with an inflated ego; it comes with a dedication to growth and a genuine respect for the work. And this makes teams stronger and more supportive, building trust and mutual respect. Confidence and skill don’t need arrogance to back them up. They thrive best when grounded in humility and respect. If you want to learn how to bring this mindset to your own life, check out Fighter Pilot Focus at the link https://lnkd.in/ghnF4sSz

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AST SpaceMobile Stock Surges, Hits $5.6B Market Cap 🛰 Huge news from AST SpaceMobile as share price jumped another 18% yesterday, bringing its year-to-date market gains to a staggering 326%. The company’s market cap now sits at $5.6B, ranking it among the highest-valued space businesses in the world after SpaceX. AST SpaceMobile Stock Surges, Hits $5.6B Market Cap - Payload (payloadspace.com)

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Bold prediction from one of the most thoughtful people in tech. 👇 My take: Manufacturing is certainly part of the solution, but it's not the full story. We also need to build the right drones for the right missions and ensure our military is trained to deploy them effectively. The cat-and-mouse game of tech-enabled warfare is just beginning—and it's only going to accelerate from here.

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Let’s geek out on name matching algorithms in the midst of a world full consent orders and burned out compliance teams.  An example to illustrate: There are lots of people named Jose Lopez or John Smith in the world, so when you are trying to automate names to watchlists, common names can yield a lot of complexity. Socure uses many novel approaches for name matching algorithms.  One example is the use of Siamese Neural Networks with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) layers. These models are designed to learn and compare sequential data, such as text or time series, and are particularly useful for tasks like name matching, sentiment analysis, or speech recognition, where the order of the input sequence matters. We use Siamese LSTM models because they are: 1️⃣ Well-suited for name matching from their ability to capture and learn the sequential nature of names. 2️⃣ Able to effectively capture long-term dependencies and contextual information within names, such as the order of the characters or the presence of specific patterns. 3️⃣ Enabled to learn robust representations for names and accurately compare them, even when dealing with variations, misspellings, or different name orders. This is one of thousands of examples of what innovation looks like in an industry that has not seen innovation in far too long.  Joshua Linn, Debra Geister, and Ganesh Kumar- we appreciate your leadership and dedication for always innovating.

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Do you live in Seattle? Are you interested in Seattle's crime reports? Seattle makes its reported crime data publicly available on the city's website. The only problem is the dataset from 2008 to the present is 1.1M rows. That's a lot of data for the average person to manage and analyze. They can't simply open it in Excel because it's too big. To help, we've imported the entire dataset into a Row Zero spreadsheet and analyzed a number of different trends. If you want to take a look for yourself, you can open the data in Row Zero (for free) and drill down into your neighborhood to look at specific types of crimes. https://lnkd.in/gNcTqAwW Below are some noteworthy examples. Keep in mind that the Seattle city population decreased slightly during the pandemic and has since recovered, up about 5% from pre-pandemic levels. So small increases in crime would be expected due to population growth. - Total reported Seattle crime has decreased compared to pre-pandemic with notable drops in 2023 and 2024, even as the population has increased. Reported cases in 2022: 75.044k, 2023: 70.179k, 2024: 62.152k YTD. - Homicides are up significantly over the last 5 years. The last 5 years are the 5 worst years in the data, with reported homicides up more than 75% in the last 5 years. - Motor Vehicle Theft has nearly doubled since pre-pandemic with 2023 seeing a sharp spike in Seattle car theft. - Drug Offenses are up significantly in 2024, possibly reflecting stricter enforcement. However, they are still well below pre-pandemic numbers. - Despite national media reports of increased shoplifting, reported shoplifting crimes continue to be well below pre-pandemic levels, down more than 20% vs pre-pandemic. - Top 5 Worst Seattle Neighborhoods for Car Break-ins QUEEN ANNE (50% more car break-ins than any other neighborhood) DOWNTOWN COMMERCIAL UNIVERSITY SLU/CASCADE ROOSEVELT/RAVENNA Row Zero #Excel #spreadsheets #dataanalysis #seattle

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"WHY I'M COMING TO REINDUSTRIALIZE" Said differently, how I realized manufacturing is a multiverse 🤯 A compilation: * * * "Highly relevant as my office implements the National Defense Industrial Strategy we published earlier this year" Julie Loiland Deputy Director, Industry Engagement, OSD(A&S) * * * "Seems like a great gathering of industrial founders, investors, etc. Let's exascale the industrial sector!" Adam Gluck CEO/Founder, Copia Automation * * * "Meet US Series A/B space companies consuming additive manufacturing" Kevin Compher Vice President, In-Q-Tel * * * "Our Venture fund is focused on digital transformation in legacy industries. Reindustrialize is focused on these key technologies segments." Mason A. Partner, Industrious Ventures * * * "I’m interested in the future" Joshua Steinman 🇺🇸 CEO/Founder, Galvanick * * * "Hear cutting edge perspectives and proposed solutions to the greatest challenges facing a broad host of industrial challenges facing our defense industrial base" Edward Miskowski Innovation, Capability and Modernization (ICAM) * * * "To assess the potential for industrial projects and to network for strategic partnerships" Benjamin Kohlmann Investor, Cubit Capital * * * "Bits to atoms is the next frontier of industrial growth" Van Espahbodi Partner, Generational Partners * * * "Support movement to scale advanced manufacturing in the United States to advance national competitiveness" Liza Tobin Senior Director for Economy, SCSP * * * "To support our portfolio companies and strengthen relationship with people who are passionate about next-gen manufacturing" Kei Onishi CEO & Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Ventures * * * "We are very interested in supporting startups and nontraditional defense companies as they explore pathways to scale" Ariel Kayne Commercial Engagement Analyst, Army Applications Laboratory * * * "Been reinventing the tool and die business for years" Austin Schmidt President, Additive Engineering Solutions * * * "To learn more about Investing in the Future of AI Infrastructure for the Industrials sector" JD Weinstein Global Director, VC Practice, Oracle * * * "Foster economic vibrancy in Michigan" Daniel Feder, CFA Sr. Managing Director, U of M Endowment * * * "I want to meet founders and potential co-investors that are interested in collaborating with Newlab." Alex Prather Director of Ventures, @Newlab * * * "To deepen relationships with cutting-edge technologists shaping the future of the U.S. industrial base and to network with key leaders from technology, industry, and government sectors. Ultimately, towards making impactful investments fostering collaborations that support the American agenda" Andrew Schoen Partner, NEA * * * "To engage across sectors with others in the advanced manufacturing space" Brandon Bodor Global BD - Defense, Parker Hannifin Corporation #REINDUSTRIALIZE

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