Sanchan S Saxena

Imagine you’re meeting a VC today and pitching your company. Now, also imagine the VC goes home tonight and tells his or her spouse about the meeting with you. How do you think the VC would (or should) describe your product to the spouse? Remember, this is for someone who doesn’t have any context, and probably doesn’t have time to listen the whole story. If you can think of a story version that's plain and simple -- how you want the VC to describe your product to the spouse -- perhaps that version should be your pitch in the first place?

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I’m thrilled to be announcing that Notion Capital is leading the $15m Series A investment in Cogna today. In the industry, we like to think that software has been eating the world. But when you look at the data a better description would be more of a nibble. Depending on what source you look at the software industry represents between 5-8% of global GDP. Contrast that with the services industry that represents between 60-70% of GDP and worth around $25 trillion on a global basis. Most services have been out of reach for the software industry. They have either been too complex or too specialized for off the shelf software to access in any economically viable way. But that’s beginnning to change with GenAI leading to the emergence of ‘service as a software.’ Cogna is at the forefront of this opportunity - building precision software at scale and delivering huge productivity gains for traditional industries. We know Ben Peters & Lars Mennen well having backed their previous company Five AI that was acquired by Bosch in 2022. And we’re very excited to be backing them again together with Hoxton Ventures & Chalfen Ventures Read my full blog post on why we invested here. Radu Bozga Ben Peters Lars Mennen Bryan Gartner Mike Chalfen Hussein Kanji Kirsten Connell https://lnkd.in/eh8mhcJb

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Spoke to Techstars (SF & Oakland) yesterday on building a growth machine. 13 takeaways to get to PMF & scale faster -   1. Growth is optional: Post-PMF, growth is hard, but the roadmap is simple (and mostly in your control).   2. Even the best startups get punched in the face (and often): But they find ways to not get demoralized, will things into existence, and take bad news well.   3. Sustainable growth is about scale AND unit-economics: You need both.   4. It’s easy to fake growth: Total Actives is a vanity metric. Understand the health of its inputs i.e. New, Resurrected, and Retained. The same concept applies to revenue, MRR, etc.   5. Marketing’s purpose Pre- and Post-PMF are different: When Pre, only spend to bring enough people back to validate PMF; when Post, go for scale.   6. A strong marketing mix has Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion: They’re all a hedge with unique pros and cons i.e., time to results, cost, effort, defensibility, etc.   7. You don’t need a Growth Team: The whole company is the Growth Team.   8. There’s 4-stages of growth: Know where you’re at b/c it’ll tell you where to focus, and focus is the lifeblood of a startup.   9. There’s various frameworks to hypothesize models for growth: AARRR, Growth Loops, The PLG Flywheel, and Network Effects are my favorite.   10. ICE is a great way to prioritize (Impact, Confidence, and Ease). Nothing easier than being busy in a startup, but it means nothing. Be effective.   11. Build great process to get through The Growth Flywheel fast: More tests > more learnings > better tests > higher success rates > faster path to growth.   12. When you find things that work, double down: Finding winners takes time; don’t take them for granted.   13. Make time to think and play offense: "Time to think” is 100% in your control; you have no excuse; when in doubt, do less.

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I wrote two term sheets this week into startups backed by amazing founding teams, and in both cases I recommended a pivot to the team’s initial GTM strategy.   Sometimes being well networked, or building in a white hot problem space can be a gift and a curse when it catches the attention of enterprise customers.   On paper, it is the exact type of validation a funding team is seeking as they work through an initial version of their product, but more often than not it has the potential to derail a startup’s potential for success.   The startups in question were both experiencing this exact dynamic.  In one case, the team had caught the eye of one of the largest robotics companies in the world and begun conversations around a potential partnership.   The second company is backed by a 20 year industry veteran with a deep rolodex of enterprise customers within his ICP.  Some of the largest retailers in the world were engaging in conversations around piloting his product.  As I explained to both of these founders, this was amazing validation, but should also not be the focal point of their initial GTM.   The reality is, in order to successfully deploy within either of these customers, they were looking at a long and arduous path, filled with security reviews and product feature sets that realistically an early stage pre-seed company with 2 founders could not deliver upon.   My advice to them, continue those conversations, with the realization that they could take 1 year+ before realistic deployments, but focus the lion’s share of their GTM energies toward customers with lower deployment hurdles, in this case Series A/B backed robotics companies and $50M-$250M retailers.    To be clear, the  genuine interest from these enterprises is a massively positive indicator on the problem/solution set they are building for, and it is part of the reason we are bullish on the market opportunity of each startup.  I’ve just seen so many startups fail to deploy an initial product and ultimately never raise a seed round because they get stuck in a seemingly never ending enterprise sales cycle.

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In a surprising twist, startup valuations have quietly rebounded to all-time highs, signaling what some investors believe is the end of the market slump. What does this mean for founders and investors? ✅ Optimism in Startup Market: Investor confidence is returning, paving the way for innovative ideas and disruptive technologies to flourish. ✅ Increased Funding Opportunities: As valuations rise, securing venture capital might become more accessible, enabling startups to scale faster and smarter. ✅ Economic Resilience: This rebound showcases the resilience and adaptability of the startup ecosystem even amidst challenging times. Key Takeaway: Now is the perfect moment for entrepreneurs to seize opportunities, pivot strategically, and drive their vision forward. 💡 #startups #leanstartups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #leadership

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Insightful breakdown from my great Partner Omri Amirav-Drory on the simple factors that really separate the top 1% of investors from the rest, and how more operators should become investors! https://lnkd.in/gEiZdT2h

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Starting a new fun project with Victor Lee - an AMA series with early stage founders. There are many podcast shows featuring successful, famous entrepreneurs. But what about those who are still relatively early in their journey, perhaps just one step ahead? The zero-to-one founders who have recently cracked the product-market fit and raised Seed or Series A capital. They may not have figured out everything yet, but they have fresh, relatable tips and advice to share. We’ll invite early-stage founders for a one-hour AMA session. Afterwards, we’ll create a public webpage featuring each Q&A session with media clips and transcriptions. This will be 100% free and open to the public. Our first AMA (June 11 1pm PST) will feature Will Drewery, whose company (Diagon) recently raised $5.1 million in Seed funding. We’ll get to know Will better and cover topics such as tips on raising funding in this tough environment. It will be a fun AMA, and you can register for free using the link below. RSVP now!

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In a previous post, I mentioned that #VentureStudios enable their #founders to focus on testing their hypothesis and building and iterating on their product. But how do they do it? Through their #Platform, a game-changing function for ventures that includes: 🖨 Back-Office consists of HR for building talent pipelines, taking care of payroll, and administering benefits; IT to support critical tech infrastructure, including cybersecurity and collaboration tools; Legal helps form entities, navigate complex regulations and compliance issues, and optimize tax position for founders and investors; and Accounting maintains accurate reporting and empowers the ventures with insights into their financial status 💻 Shared Vendors. Bundling services provides ventures access to bulk pricing and cost-effective options for things like computers, cloud storage, and even outsourced professional services (like Legal or Accounting) 🏢 Facilities. Co-working spaces enable convenient collaboration and grant easy access to essential Studio resources, both of which help to foster an exciting culture of innovation 🚀 By providing these services across a portfolio of ventures (and to the Studio itself!), allows the costs to be amortized and avails top-notch support and favorable pricing to startups who would not otherwise have access to so much support so early in their journey.

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Here's the comprehensive list of 28 US AI startups that have each raised over $100M in 2024. These trailblazers are at the forefront of AI innovation, driving transformation across various industries. A testament to the thriving AI startup ecosystem! Read the full article here: https://buff.ly/46aZfLd #AI #Startups #Innovation #TechFunding #AIStartups #IndustryTransformation

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Team San Diego! I though you may find this as surprising as I did...we are not alone. Read this quick article from Jon Prentice's (Silicon Valley Bank) interview with with James Newell (Voyager Capital), published in GeekWire on Seattle's innovation ecosystem....they lament the SAME issues as we do in San Diego: * Lack of angel investors, (Especially, it calls out, given the local giant tech co's) * "We need low-conviction check writers." * Lack of "cachet associated with being an angel investor" - We have similar efforts (as described in the article) to drum up angel activity: NuFund Venture Group and, Interlock Capital (read the article and you'll see why the Interlock effort is tops as relates to "paying back into the ecosystem") Connect.org strives to 'connect' innovative companies with investors of all types (angel, VC, PE...) - just see "Innovation Day". Their Springboard program provides another great way for experienced entrepreneurs to give back through mentorship...as for the companies going through Springboard: "Ask for advice, and you often get $$" Your thoughts on the article or San Diego innovation ecosystem? https://lnkd.in/gfwq6mfq

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Chat with Miles Clements about building Linear For me companies are like design problems: you have context, constraints & goals unique to you. Then you look for a solution that has a good fit to your unique problems. The company problem also evolve over times the solution Directly applying what others have done doesn’t work that well, yet there is lot emphasis on playbooks, pattern matching and playing copying what other companies are doing in industry. https://lnkd.in/ghxjJwYU

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💼 Ready to take your startup to the next level? Explore our extensive list of 220 #VCfirms in New York! Get all the details you need to connect with potential investors. Dive in: https://lnkd.in/d_mb-2n9 #startup #startups #venturecapital #funding #vc #managementconsulting

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Is Founder Mode Grit Killing Startups? Survival of your startup depends on finding the essential balance between grit and practicality. Even though Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen highlight the value of grit, too much grit can run your startup into the ground. The solution? Inject some practicality into the mix. #StartupSuccess #SamAltman #GritAndPracticality #Entrepreneurship #StartupLife #BusinessInsights #Resilience #Founders #MegaWealth #StartupTips

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This answer from Sajith really resonates! This is something you regularly ponder over early into VC. I wish I could go back and give more value add to every founder I spoke with :) Catch up on the AMA here: https://lnkd.in/gdeZ4_88

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Starting to feel that the Series A/B markets are warming up. Over the past year+, most founders preferred to avoid a distracting and lengthy Series A process in a slow market. Instead, they often raised a quick seed+ round, and focused on building and growing past the usual Series A metrics. Recently, we've seen some startups close quick/oversubscribed Series A/B rounds, and more founders are considering raising now. It's still closer to anecdotal than robust data, but we'd be among the first to notice at Pioneer Fund, with our large portfolio of strong YC startups. I plan to post here again if the trend continues or not.

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Instacart is a market leader when it comes to leveraging AI tools to boost productivity at work. I had an amazing conversation with JJ Zhuang, Instacart’s Chief Architect, who has shepherded over 50 AI-driven initiatives to market across the org. We explored what catapulted Instacart to the forefront of AI integration, supporting radically diverse use cases across various functional areas. One striking insight (echoed by Ethan Mollick and others elsewhere) is that you often don't need specialized tools for specialized work. Frontier models like GPT-4 can seamlessly adapt to a wide range of functions and use cases. They're not just for engineers; they're incredibly versatile tools used by marketing, comms, and legal teams. From generating code to proofreading and ideation, GPT-4 empowers every department to leverage AI for enhanced productivity and innovation. By integrating LLM’s like GPT-4 into their workflows, teams can streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and unlock bandwidth for new creative possibilities. How can you harness the power of AI in your own work to boost productivity? Share your thoughts below 👇 Want to hear more insights from JJ? Check out the full podcast episode by clicking the link in the comments.

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