Steven Lin

Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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Check out our Mangusta Capital Vertical AI breakdown below!

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Sometimes it's hard to get a balanced opinion on the current state of the AI/ML tooling landscape, which is why I was excited to have YK Sugi on  the Modern Web Podcast to talk about his experience watching the ecosystem evolve over these past years. Join me Danny Thompson, Rob Ocel, & Adam Rackis for this episode! Link in comments!

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Ever wondered where the perfect balance between tranquility and innovation lies? For me, it’s Seattle. Unlike the Bay, Seattle has a more serene environment that’s perfect for focusing on building products and businesses. The city’s vibe encourages deep work and creative thinking, free from the overwhelming hustle. But let’s be honest, Seattle’s founder and investor communities aren’t as vibrant as those in SF. Yet, this city holds a special place in my heart – a blend of my love for startups and the charm of Seattle. I believe in Seattle’s potential and I’m on a mission to help ignite its startup community. From connecting with fellow founders to engaging investors, let’s come together to build something extraordinary here. Seattle has all the ingredients to be a startup hub – talent, innovation, and a supportive ecosystem. What it needs is a spark. Let’s be that spark.

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Our story began with a simple idea: to help developers grow. Over the years, this idea evolved into something bigger. We believe location shouldn't be a barrier. Back in 2014, we built Codementor to give developers 1:1 mentorship. We moved from Taiwan to Seattle to join Techstars and bring our vision to life. This was just the beginning. Here's what happened next: → 2017: Codementor grew into a marketplace for freelance developers. → 2019: We created Arc to help developers land full-time remote jobs. → 2023: We introduced HireAI to make hiring developers easier. → 2024: We added designers and marketers to Arc by popular demand. Helping people build careers from anywhere drives us. From a small mentorship platform for developers to a big marketplace now supporting other tech roles, our journey shows what can happen when you care deeply about something. Changing people's lives. We're excited to keep going and see what's next.

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Excited to host a 30-minute panel at Andreessen Horowitz Tech Week in SF on Wednesday, October 9. If you're a founder or sales leader at a high-growth startup who predominantly sells into the enterprise, you won't want to miss this discussion. Our expert panelists will share invaluable insights on: - Breaking through to key decision-makers - Structuring an efficient sales process - Proven techniques for closing high-value deals

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The Stoke Space team in Seattle has built a rocket company faster than many people can build software. Morgan Beller breaks down how this is helping them capture a huge opportunity: https://lnkd.in/gc5jv2-c 

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In October, we announced our $1.8 billion Series C financing and take-private of SP+ (SP Plus). Today, I couldn’t be prouder to share that we have officially closed our transformational acquisition of SP+. This acquisition and Growth Buyout (GBO) is creating a paradigm shift in how technology companies scale and represents the largest venture-backed M&A deal and the third largest AI fundraise (just behind OpenAI) in the past year. We’ve created a once-in-a-generation opportunity -- allowing us to deploy our proprietary, artificial intelligence technology to more than 50 million consumers, across 4,000+ locations, and processing over $4 billion in payments a year -- enabling checkout-free experiences with a speed, ease, and convenience that is unparalleled, even online. While re-envisioning parking is our focus and priority today, the opportunities for growth beyond parking are limitless. In the future, we’ll use our artificial intelligence platform to power checkout-free transactions in new verticals – making the everyday experience of living, working and playing remarkable – giving us back our most valuable asset, time. From the outside, an entrepreneur’s journey can seem linear and academic – identify a problem, develop solutions, raise capital, deploy, scale – and repeat. In reality, it’s entropic and riddled with roadblocks. We’ve been repeatedly told our ambitions are impossible. But – our team comes back each day with strength, tenacity, determination and conviction. We’ve learned from every failure, every denial, every slammed door, and we’ve gotten stronger, smarter and faster. Today we closed our $1.8B financing and take-private of SP+ – creating a company that’s stronger together. The last six years have been a remarkable journey. I couldn’t be more thankful for our investors, advisors and most importantly, the entire Metropolis Technologies team that helped get us here. Special thanks to my co-founders and executive team Peter Fisher, Travis Kell, Courtney Fukuda, Ryan Hunt, Eddie Thomas and John-Paul Sukkar. I’d also like to thank the newest members of our executive team Chris Sherman, Ritu Vig, Kris Roy and Wenyu Blanchard. Our Series C was comprised of a best-in-class syndicate, led by Eldridge Industries with significant investment from BDT & MSD Partners’ affiliated credit funds, Vista Equity Partners, and Temasek as well as strong support from Metropolis’ existing shareholder group led by 3L. Thank you to all our exceptional partners, investors and advisors who thought outside the box and believed in our vision, every step of the way -- including Tony Minella, Todd Boehly and Lisa Ohlmeyer at Eldridge, Anton Zietsman and Dave Leyrer at 3L, Goldman Sachs and BDT & MSD Partners. We’ll celebrate today but know, we’re just getting started.

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In this week's episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I speak with notable X personality Trung Phan about the evolving social media landscape, and how to tame the mayhem and pandemonium of X. https://lnkd.in/dVHMzbui

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#SanFrancisco VC Contact Database. Over 275 venture capital firms, more than 2,100 VC professionals (including partners and principals), and 1,600 email addresses available. https://payhip.com/b/idx8b #startup #startups #vc #venturecapital #investmentbanking #privateequity #managementconsulting #b2b #founders #entrepreneurs

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🧑‍🍳 Work with Cathy Guo (and me!) on Iterative We're hiring a Senior Associate to help evaluate the startups that apply to Iterative. We receive 1K+ applications roughly every 3 months and invest in roughly 1.8% of those applications. Maybe somewhat counter-intuitively, we want to increase that % and take more risk. The trick is figuring out what areas (founder, market, country, etc.) that we should be taking more risk in. You'll be an active participant in how we evaluate companies. See the job description for the typical stuff but here's 2 things we DON'T do as part of our investment process. 🤔 Invest Based on Who Else Is Investing We don't care who else is in the round. Most of the time, we make our decision before everyone else does. That means you'll have to do the work of building your own conviction. 🤓 Invest on School, Previous Work Experience, etc. We don't have any filters around what school a founder went to, what company they used to work at, etc. We evaluate all founders based on our interactions with them. Why settle for a proxy of whether someone is good (that's what all of these are) when you can talk to them directly? If you can't tell whether a founder is good by talking to them.. well.. Instead.. you'll have to think for yourself and argue from first principles. Mostly with me :). If that's how you want to invest or want to learn how we do that, you should apply. For more details about the role, look for the 📌 in the comments.

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Join Us for an Exclusive Partnership Leaders Meetup in San Jose 🚀 Calling all partnership leaders! Let’s tackle two of the hottest topics on your mind: budgeting and headcount planning for 2025. This meetup is the perfect chance to: - Share strategies on securing budget approvals - Discuss headcount needs and justification in a lean economy - Connect with fellow leaders facing similar challenges See you tonight, bring a friend!

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A few insights into the startup fundraising process from last week's talk with Chelsea Zhang (Equal Ventures) and Michelle Liao (DayZero) When you’re starting to fundraise Assign one founder to lead the process - Designating one founder to spearhead the process not only ensures a cohesive narrative and pitch but also effectively divides the demanding tasks of running the company and securing funds. Do your research - Tap into your network to glean insights from those who have raised money before. You can learn a lot from their experience. Thoroughly research potential VC funds to pitch, find the ones that are aligned with the vision and stage of your company. Don’t waste your time reaching out to investors that invest outside of your scope. Gaining momentum VCs move fast - VCs often operate with a clear investment thesis, having extensively researched the sectors they specialize in. As a result, they have a precise idea of what they're seeking and can swiftly recognize it. For example, before Chelsea came across DayZero - she had already seen 40+ variations of the same model. When VCs identify an opportunity that aligns with their criteria, they move fast. The investment process between Equal Ventures and DayZero took ~2 weeks. Gaining momentum during the process is important - Its important to end your VC conversations around the same time so you can round up all interested investors. Generating momentum involves prompting VCs to take action, which might entail instilling a sense of urgency or fostering a bit of FOMO to encourage swift decision-making. Closing the deal Be ready to negotiate quickly - Understanding which deal terms are important to you you as a Founder is crucial to research in advance. The process can unfold rapidly, making it overwhelming to decipher your priorities afterward. Dealing with rejection - Receiving a "no" from an investor doesn't invalidate your startup. Investors operate based on specific investment criteria, so it's important not to take rejection personally. There’s an investor out there that is probably a better fit; the key is to keep searching until you find them.

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This year, Nuclavis has helped organizations achieve 88% more fundraising success with the Nucleus mobile app platform 🚀. Our mission is to meet users where they are—on mobile—and we’re thrilled to share some milestones and upcoming innovations: 🎉 2024 Highlights: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✅ Split Check Deposits: Allocate a single check to multiple recipients. ✅ Multilingual Support: Now supporting English, Spanish, and Canadian French. ✅ Multi-Platform Functionality: Seamlessly support diverse needs in one app. ✅ AAA Accessibility Compliance: Enhancing inclusivity. ✅ Expanded Integrations: Added OneCause, Neon One, DonorDrive , and Funraisin to bring our total to 7 supported platforms. 💡 Looking Ahead to 2025: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1️⃣ In-app fundraising challenges. 2️⃣ Matching gift integration with Double the Donation. 3️⃣ Social sharing with TikTok and Instagram. 4️⃣ In-app notification center for better communication. 5️⃣ Actionable fundraising checklists to streamline efforts. We’ve listened closely to our customers through our product think tank, prioritizing features that will continue raising the bar for mobile fundraising. Together, we’re making a real impact. Thank you for your trust, support, and partnership. Wishing you and your families a wonderful holiday season! 🎄✨ Let’s make 2025 extraordinary! 💪 #Fundraising #Innovation #MobileSolutions #NonProfitTech #2025Goals

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第3弾は、Y CombinatorのWebサイトで「Healthcare」で分類されている、メンタルヘルス×モニタリング（1社）、企業の医療費削減（1社）、在宅介護支援（1社）、カップル向けAI恋愛アプリ（1社）について、スタートアップについてそれぞれまとめました。ぜひnoteをご覧ください。 ブログ記事はこちら（Here is the blog post）↓ https://lnkd.in/gT-RcVVJ *Although the articles are in Japanese, please feel free to contact me in English if you are interested in the content. I would like to introduce companies from the Y Combinator Winter 2024 Batch. Part 3 summarizes each of the startups categorized under "Healthcare": One in Mental health x monitoring, One in Reducing corporate healthcare costs, one in Home care support, and one in AI relationship app for couples.

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🚀 Excited to share my latest project – Beatnik! 🕶️ website: https://lnkd.in/gyQh7ezn An e-commerce platform for stylish and sustainable eyewear 🌱. 🔧 Tech Stack: Frontend: Next.js (with Tailwind CSS and TypeScript) Backend: Next.js API Routes, Mongoose & MongoDB Validation: Zod Beatnik brings together style, performance, and clean code, ensuring a seamless user experience. From product listings to secure transactions, everything is built with scalability and modern development standards in mind. #nextjs #tailwindcss #typescript #mongodb #ecommerce #webdevelopment #developerjourney #nextjs #react #tailwindcss #latest #company Jay Prakash ADITYA MISHRA Aryan Singh OrionixTech HCLTech HCLSoftware HCL Enterprise Tata Consultancy Services TCS DHL eCommerce Hawk Ecommerce eCommerce Tech eCommerce Ecommerce News Europe Ecommerce Marketing

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𝟭𝟬 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁-𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱 👇 1. How Harvard’s Startup Guide Turns Ideas into Game-Changing Impact—https://lnkd.in/gcTPfxUr 2. Top Fundraising Resources— https://lnkd.in/gUAK5x5y 3. Startup Fundraising Opportunities in 2025 You Can’t Afford to Miss—https://lnkd.in/ggzKjVrX 4. The One Key to Fundraising Success Your Startup Might Be Overlooking—https://lnkd.in/g94HU-v2 5. 12 Must-Ask Questions For Founders In VC Meetings—https://lnkd.in/g83Epq-8 6. Which promising sectors does Y Combinator wish startups to work on?—https://lnkd.in/gki_E8Ub 7. These Key Questions Every Startup Founder Should Be Ready to Answer During an Introductory Call with a VC—https://lnkd.in/gFusGB8V 8. What Is One 'Small, Intense Fire' Paul Graham Identifies That Can Fuel Startup Success?— https://lnkd.in/gY2gff5Q 9. What Sam Altman Wants Every Startup Founder to Know—https://lnkd.in/g-mE8SF3 10. Venture Math Demystified: How VCs Determine a Startup's Worth—https://lnkd.in/gU6yFCm4 📩 Don’t miss to subscribe our Newsletter— https://lnkd.in/gUVpxTCj

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"Monetization must be a first-class citizen in your product from Day 1 & if you're not thinking about entitlements early on, you're not setting yourself up for success." -- Justin Gagnon Justin leads growth engineering at Calendly, which means he's built & evolved monetization in the context of both hyper-growth & scale. We sat down last week for a conversation about feature management, monetization, and the services needed to deliver flexible pricing & packaging at scale. Some of the topics we covered: 1️⃣ Why monetization is so complex in B2B SaaS 2️⃣ The role of entitlements 3️⃣ Paying down bad product decisions vs. bad monetization decisions 4️⃣ How Justin & team built monetization infrastructure at Calendly 5️⃣ The tech & commercial debt that comes when monetization is a last-class citizen If you're a product & engineering leader, I highly recommend this episode with Justin. Schematic has learned much from him over the last year and so very excited to share the full episode (link in the comments).

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