Zach H.

We gathered dozens of operators from the MGMT Boston Operators Club and local founders alongside the 186 Ventures team this October to discuss the evolution of our dear software markets, the status of some predictions for 2024 (all looking good!), and what’s on deck for next year. General Partner Giuseppe Stuto led us through the following predictions for 2025 to share with you all.. ↕ We will see more vertical AI applications manifest themselves within the Enterprise in a similar ways that SaaS moved from horizontal to vertical use cases 🔔 We will see services business models more common and software budget purchasing models less common - SaaS may even be given away for cheap/free as a “way in” ⚖ Capital efficiency, on a relative basis, will almost be required to create enduring & compounding defensible enterprise value. Details like procurement cycle lengths and creativity with non-dilutive financing, like leveraging revenue based financing tools for example, will all matter 💡 Specific to AI, premiums will be placed on applications that can actually get “reasoning” right. All purpose LLMs still have a ways to go and there are multiple approaches with the “jury still out” on how to get context and reasoning right. Infrastructure solutions that use general purpose or customizable knowledge graphs to help application developers get to 100% (enterprise acceptable accuracy) will emerge OR savvy application developers will fill the gaps themselves. We will likely see both, depending upon the specific case! Thank you Giuseppe, Julian, and Sophie for a great discussion and evening!

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🚀 How do you get a pre-seed or seed round done *quickly* in NYC? ✅ Assemble a list of over 80 of the earliest-stage fund and angel investors in town ✅ Curate a dozen or so of them based on relevancy ✅ Break bread together. That's what nextNYC is doing with Checkwriters--and applications are OPEN. We're looking for pre-seed and seed NYC founders to pitch at our dinner next Wednesday night. The only criteria is that you have to have at least one *professional* investor committed to a currently open round--be it a fund, angel, scout, etc. 🗓 Applications are due *this Thursday*: https://lnkd.in/epJjny4P 🤝 Shoutout to the folks at Orrick Tech and Rho for helping to make this happen: Orrick is a tech-focused law firm passionate about helping entrepreneurs, innovators and investors push boundaries. Through our extensive client portfolio, deal volume, and relationships in the ecosystem, we provide commercial insight to each client’s strategy. From financing to protecting IP to retaining talent to advocating for innovation-friendly public policy, we offer a holistic solution across the tech & venture lifecycle. Rho is the business banking platform with everything founders need to manage their company cash and grow their business. See how they are supporting founders in NYC (https://lnkd.in/ef7uzDQv) – and earn rewards for switching your operating account to Rho.

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🚗 Jeremy A. is an engineer and early stage startup operator who fulfilled his childhood goal of living & working in Boston, building his career where the rubber meets the road, friction and all 🚗 It's W1 / Q1 / 2025 and this week in our MGMT Boston up & coming operator series we’ve got Jeremy,  the Head of Enablement at Seed stage consumer marketplace & shop management platform TireTutor. In this role he owns technical partnerships and is responsible for setting the strategy for how they go to market as a team. He helps set the operating budgets, working closely with Founder & CEO Jason Abrahams and their investors. Jeremy also owns operations & enablement in terms of how their GTM team sells, packages their offerings, and how they deliver their service for customers from strategy to content to better achieve their goals. Heading into 2025, the TireTutor team is highly focused on operations after launching the first true all-in-one POS at the end of 2024, focusing on the key metrics that drive their business. 🗺️ 🧭 Navigating Tough Situations Drives Strategic Success 🧭🗺️ Navigating tough situations is a fundamental part of life in early stage startups. Jeremy’s hard won recipe for success? Get really close to customers, stay close to them, and live in your function. When TireTutor set their early GTM strategy, it was critical for them to be able to “talk the talk” of their customer base. More generally known as “domain expertise”. It was Jeremy’s experience, both by inexperience and logging all of those hours, that having a consistent “ground game” is what drives strategy. Not the other way around. Strategy comes from talking to 100s of customers and properly segmenting your market successfully because not all prospects and customers are created equal. TireTutor found that there were specific tire focused shops that fit their early platform really well. Then, over time, they also grew to serve shops who sold tires in addition to repair work. Each has a unique way of being prospected, closed, and serviced. 3 Career Insights / Learnings 🚪 Leave Ego at the Door - “Leaving your ego at the door and being open to what it means to be good at something and not so good at something is an important first step to succeeding in a startup environment. It took me time to embrace that!” 😤 Having Thick Skin - “Startups aren’t easy. You might get yelled at by your customers some days! Having thick skin is about being able to work through those challenges and around them each day to achieve your long term goals” 😅 All Problems Aren’t Problems - “We all have problems that we deal with. But just because there are challenges, doesn’t mean it's the end of the world. Not all problems need to be or can be solved. But being honest about where things stand is really important to making progress” Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter to see the operator learnings we bring you in the weeks ahead!

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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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What is Paxful anyway? Read this article from coinmarketcap.com.

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Honored to have moderated a panel on the “Future of TV: The Great Unbundling + Rebundling” at PrivTech Invest NYC, hosted by our firm, Grit Capital Partners! Joined by industry leaders Peter Naylor, Jonathan Carson (Antenna, the leading analytics provider), + Jason Cohen (MyBundle), we explored the rapidly changing streaming landscape. Key insights: Consumer Shift: Over 50M U.S. households have cut the cord, putting consumers in control, driving demand for simpler, more tailored streaming options. Retention & Churn: With churn rates averaging 37% annually, streaming platforms are focusing on personalization, ad tiers, + exclusive content to retain viewers. Broadband & Bundling: Broadband providers are moving from TV to fiber (Fiber adoption is up 10% YoY), creating new ways to bundle streaming + broadband services to reduce churn + simplify billing  AI & Personalization: 75% of streamers say AI-powered recommendations improve their viewing experience. Thank you to our panelists for joining us to discuss these trends + the opportunities ahead. New era for TV 🚀 #Streaming #Partnerships #Innovation #CustomerExperience #Customerfirst #bundling #ai

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Some thoughts after spending some time with a handful of builders and investors in NYC this past week! 1. New York City is quietly fostering one of the most vibrant and underrated consumer founder communities in the country. This ecosystem is bursting with innovative energy, driven by founders who are deeply embedded in culture and consumer behavior. For those who haven’t tapped in yet, I strongly recommend paying attention—it’s a hotbed of potential that’s primed for growth. 2. Understanding and valuing consumer products demands more than just financial acumen; it requires a deep understanding of culture, trends, and human behavior. Many investors are stepping away, not because the space isn’t viable, but because they lack the nuanced taste and cultural insight necessary to identify and nurture truly impactful consumer products. This gap presents a massive opportunity for those who “get it” to dominate the market with culturally relevant investments. 3. In today’s world, a product or service that lacks a strong community component is missing the mark. Community isn’t just an add-on; it’s the foundation upon which modern consumer brands are built. Doubling down on building and nurturing a community around your product can create a powerful network effect, driving organic growth and fostering long-term loyalty. 4. The next wave of consumer social platforms won’t look like the traditional social networks we’ve become accustomed to. Instead, we’ll see social experiences seamlessly integrated into other aspects of daily life, such as fashion, education, and real-world interactions. This evolution will redefine how we connect, share, and engage, creating new opportunities for innovation at the intersection of technology and everyday life. 5. Simplicity wins — In a world overflowing with options and information, simplicity is the ultimate competitive advantage. Products and services that cut through the noise with straightforward, intuitive designs and clear value propositions will stand out. Complexity might seem impressive, but simplicity is what drives adoption and sustained success in the consumer market.

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Sarah Clarkson is a FinTech product leader who has cultivated a rigorous research process throughout her career. It's W4 / Q4 / 2024 and this week in our MGMT Boston up & coming operator series we’ve got Sarah, the Staff Innovation Product Manager at FinTech growth company Vestmark, who has validated her learnings & choices through research along her professional journey. An MIT Sloan glad, Sarah started her career in tech at EverQuote, where she discovered her interest in product development and accepted a return offer for after graduation. From there, Sarah joined Cogo Labs, a Cambridge-based incubator, where she worked on the launch of a FinTech product and led an early-stage team developing a blockchain product. Sarah then transitioned, with a team of colleagues from Cogo, to join Vestmark. Sarah is responsible for launching new products for Vestmark, a well established late stage growth financial technology company. Her team works on incubating new products to diversify Vestmark’s product portfolio and increase market share. 🤔🚪Research = Door Knocking🚪🤔 Throughout her career, Sarah has learned that knocking on doors and connecting with different people allows for an informed decision making process for her future. With each ‘coffee chat’ Sarah learned that to make the connection stress-free the key was to focus on the questions she would like to better understand as the target outcome. At every career junction, she spoke with people in the industry about their experiences - doctors before medical school, alums from graduate school programs, and folks at potential companies. Using a consistent format, she tweaked her questions, took notes, and built on each conversation. For research and relationship building, she’s built a diligent process. And if you’re out there thinking about the next step in your career, Sarah is always happy to pay it forward when someone reaches out! 3 Career Insights / Learnings 🏃‍♀️ Learning Drives Momentum - “Learning is a big driver for me, both personally and professionally. Always staying curious and not being afraid to ask questions to help follow that curiosity has helped career transitions and professional growth.” 🤝 Team Trust - “I’ve learned to value strong relationships with mutual respect over the course of my career. Whether it’s comfort sharing feedback on ideas, or knowing each member is accountable, a team that has established trust produces amazing results.” 🗺 Navigating Ambiguity - “Being comfortable in ambiguous situations but also being able to eliminate ambiguity for members of your team is an important balance. You have to balance ambiguity for team agility with creating a shared reality for target execution.” Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter to see the operator learnings we bring you in the weeks ahead!

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🚀Big news! The official calendar of events for NY Tech Week is now LIVE, and we are so excited to announce that this is officially our largest TECH WEEK by a16z EVER! - 500+ events hosted by VCs & startups 🤯 - June 3-9 2024 - register at tech-week.com We ran our first NY Tech Week last October, and tens of thousands of founders, investors and operators participated. We heard so many stories of cofounders meeting at Tech Week, GPs meeting LPs, startups meeting their lead Seed investors, and leveraging Tech Week as part of their GTM motion. We're pumped to run it back even bigger this year! We are also so excited to have some incredible sponsors on board this year to make Tech Week happen. Big thank you to Andreessen Horowitz, Fenwick & West, HSBC Innovation Banking, Stripe, PwC, Atlassian, Dialpad & Nasdaq! Here's a sneak peek of some of the exciting highlights you can expect: 💎AI Perspectives with a16z and HSBC with Zane Lackey (a16z, GP), Monique Shivanandan (Chief Data & Analytics Officer, HSBC) & David Sabow (Head of Innovation Banking, HSBC) 💎State of AI: What’s Next? Conversation about the Future of AI with a16z GP Andrew Chen, and Ian Goldstein, Partner at Fenwick  💎Building your GTM motion with Stripe with Jennifer Li (GP, a16z) & Robert Clarkson, (CRO, Americas, Stripe), Colin Kennedy (CBO, Ramp) & Sasha Orloff, (Co-founder & CEO, Puzzle) 💎GenAI Talks with Nasdaq x AWS feat. Kate Jensen (Head of Partnerships, Anthropic), Jon Jones (AWS Vice President), Amit Jain (Cofounder, Luma AI) 💎American Dynamism in NYC with a16z feat. David Ulevitch & Michelle V. 💎 Founder Fireside with the CEO of Notion, Ivan Zhao and Darian Shirazi, GP at Gradient Ventures Variety is at the core of this NY Tech Week. Over 20% of events are focused on AI, and we’re excited to see content on the evolution of finance, health, gaming and more as part of the AI revolution. We are also seeing everything from demo days and pitch competitions to morning yoga, scavenger hunts and golf tournaments… And of course, NY Tech wouldn't be possible without our community of hosts including Google, YouTube, Amazon, Dropbox, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Tableau, Salesforce, Microsoft, MongoDB, Accenture, Dell, Hugging Face, WeWork, Bloomberg, Visa, Union Square Ventures, BoxGroup, 500 Global, Techstars, Lux Capital, Soma Capital, M13, Left Lane, Susa Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Decisive Point, Mucker Capital, NEA, Hearst Ventures, Flybridge, Struck Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Gradient Ventures, Gold House Ventures, Baseten, B Capital, HOF Capital, Hustle Fund, ElevenLabs, Codi, Arc, Navan, Current, Tech:NYC, NYCEDC, South Park Commons, Lenny's Newsletter & Match Group and 100s more! 🗽 Want the complete list of events? Register here for access: tech-week.com

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Not exactly bullish on crypto but Stripe's latest acquisition has me humming this tune... Lyrics (ironically, it has a great Bridge (IYKYK)): (Verse 1) Sippin' sweet tea, browsin' on my phone Saw a headline, made me spit and moan Stripe done spent a billion, more'n a king's ransom On a crypto firm, ain't that somethin'? (Chorus) Bridge, oh Bridge, whatcha got that's worth that price? More'n a fancy car, more'n a house of ice Stripe done gone and bet the farm, on digital gold Hope it don't turn out to be a story told (Verse 2) Stablecoins they call 'em, steady as a rock But this ol' gal, she's seen that kinda talk Remember dot coms, tulips in the spring? Sometimes these bubbles, they don't mean a thing (Chorus) Bridge, oh Bridge, whatcha got that's worth that price? More'n a fancy car, more'n a house of ice Stripe done gone and bet the farm, on digital gold Hope it don't turn out to be a story told (Bridge) Now I ain't no expert, in finance and such But a billion dollars, honey, that's a whole lotta clutch Maybe they know somethin', we simple folk don't see Or maybe they just gamblers, wild and free (Chorus) Bridge, oh Bridge, whatcha got that's worth that price? More'n a fancy car, more'n a house of ice Stripe done gone and bet the farm, on digital gold Hope it don't turn out to be a story told (Outro) Yeah, hope it don't turn out to be a story told 'Bout the time Stripe gambled, and lost all their gold On a crypto dream, that faded in the mist Leavin' 'em with nothin', but a billion dollar kiss. Listen: https://lnkd.in/dKm-rh3p Story: https://lnkd.in/dqx5xbwv

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨 This past Monday, I had the incredible opportunity to demo and pitch Jammy to over 100 investors at NY #TechWeek AI Demo Day. Two weeks ago, thanks to Cindy Berman, I found out about the event and hesitated to sign up, doubting our product’s readiness. However, I saw it as a chance to push our limits. After a screening with Shriya Nevatia we were one of eight companies chosen, and I had to figure out how to demo our work-in-progress app and deliver an eight-minute pitch. I prepared thoroughly and felt confident. On the day, Dorothy Chang informed me I’d be the first presenter, which made me both nervous and excited. The pitch went well until the live demo. When showcasing Jammy’s ability to recommend post-session music, the integration failed despite my preparation. I still finished the presentation, landing the vision for Jammy and with congratulations and consolation from my peers: “live demos always break,” they said. It helped. Though I didn’t win the $50K prize, I secured a check from an angel investor, generated interest from several others, and met amazing founders in AI. The winning pitch went to the highly deserving CAPSULE, who is set to revolutionize contextual visual shopping search (like Shazam for shopping). Very cool. This experience highlighted the value of taking risks and the importance of failing forward. It also reminded me of the supportive NY Tech and entrepreneurial community. The journey can be lonely, and many dismiss community events and networking as distractions from the "real work." While that might sometimes be true, Monday night was a reminder that we’re not alone in this journey. We all want to see each other succeed in building the - extremely AI-infused - future we envision. On to the next challenge! And definitely check out these amazing companies & founders: Glist, Gülin Yilmaz (Posokhow), Path, Soar.com, Abood Hannoon, DeepLeads.ai, pre.dev, and In The Loop

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Secondaries are becoming a super attractive asset class. Just this month, StepStone announced a new $3B+ fund dedicated to secondaries. Late-stage private companies are still trading at a discount relative to their 2021-2022 highs. But the venture capital advisor exemption requires firms to keep their secondary positions less than 20% of total investments. I think this will encourage fund managers to get creative with registration/legal structures in order to unlock greater exposure to secondaries as attractive deals come through. https://lnkd.in/e_3_xitM

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We spent $75,000 on a logo that we accidentally (maybe?) stole from Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2022, we spent months working with one of the top design agencies in NYC. We went well above our budget because we loved the agency, and believed they could craft the perfect logo for our company rebrand. The whole team was pumped. We had everything ready to go. - New website - Business cards - Branded swag - Launch emails drafted ... All of this scheduled for a regular Monday morning Then, on Sunday night, I got a call from a co-worker who saw that Leo had just launched a new Climate Tech VC fund.... WITH OUR EXACT LOGO I am talking about the same exact logo. Not similar. Not inspired by... IDENTICAL. Every curve, color, and detail was a replica of our $75k design. This was statistically impossible to happen. Two teams, independently creating the exact same unique logo, and planning to launch one day apart? We investigated how this was possible and we never found a connection or any way this could have happened. The agency was stunned. We even called Leo's fund and they couldn't find a connection or how this was possible. I don't actually think Leo or his team stole our logo. I also don't think our agency stole it from him. The timing makes it virtually impossible. But try explaining that to our design team who spent months on this. 🤯 We had to scramble to create a new logo at the last minute. It was pure chaos. There is a silver lining though - the new logo ended up being even better. 👉 I guess sometimes the craziest setbacks lead to better outcomes. This is just one of the crazy stories we had to overcome at Broadlume.

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🎨 📺 Sharon Roth is a Product & Design leader who’s built her career in the lab, across different modalities, to bring more creative product experiences to life 📺 🎨 It's W3 / Q3 / 2024 and this week in our MGMT Boston up & coming operator series we’ve got Sharon who serves as the Senior Director of Product Management at Quantified.ai, the AI-driven flight simulator for sellers. The app feels as real as your next video call, scales across teams, programs, and companies, and ramps reps 42% faster. Sharon is leading Quantified AI’s Product & Design team after previous roles in Product leadership at Tamr & Honor Education. She’s excited to be back working in an Enterprise focused company, leading Design alongside Product, focused on strategic & execution based discipline. ❓Questions Are Your Roadmap ❓ It’s popular to encourage new hires to ask a lot of questions. But it’s always a good time to ask questions! When a member of your team comes to you and says “we really need to build X feature”, they’re coming to you for good reason. Dig into the why to understand how often the issue comes up, when it happens in a customer conversation, and why they’re asking for it in the first place. Is there an even better way to build a solution? Also, people are always excited about getting to a solution. By delaying the solution discussion to first get everyone to agree on the problem, you can coordinate a better response. Sharon has been in rooms where stakeholders can’t agree on the problem they’re trying to solve, which can sometimes be even more painful! By asking better questions and articulating the underlying issues thoroughly, they can work together as an organization to chart a better path forward. 3 Career Insights / Learnings 🙋‍♀️ Seek New Challenges - “Trying new things is how you learn and grow. At a startup, there are so many opportunities to try new things. As startups evolve, you need to embrace all that’s going to happen and make it a positive thing. Otherwise don’t go to a startup!” 🤝 Act with Integrity - “Do your best, show your work. But also treat others with respect and kindness while doing it. How you treat people and how you show up every day will impact your work environment. You’re responsible for the energy you bring to the room, so be authentic and try to inject some positivity. It will help you build the type of network you want to have too” 🗣 Invest in Communication Skills - “It helps you ask questions well, advocate for yourself, have your ideas be heard. It also helps others understand your impact. It takes continuous practice to do well.” If you’d like to learn more about Sharon’s career, the full post is linked in the comments. Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter to see the operator learnings we bring you in the weeks ahead too, will ya? #bostontech #operators

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🤬 SUNDAY RANT: Do we REALLY need flash-in-the pan internet 'celebrities' to boost Web3 adoption? I hope not... 🎁 This week's rant was inspired by a post from Matt Sorg (VP of Tech at Solana) who invited his following to rush to Solana's showcase Breakpoint event because Iggy Azalea and 'Hawk Tuah Girl' will be in attendance! 🤷🏽‍♂️ Now, granted, Matt's post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but at the same there is clearly some mileage to be gained in promoting Solana's 'technology' with the help of 'culturally relevant personalities'. 👆🏽 And this is where the rage comes in (followed by a pause for rational thought)... Do we really have to rely on the last most famous Aussie dancer before RayGun and an American lady best known for exuberant tips for spicing up foreplay to advance adoption of decentralised technology??? 🤦🏽‍♂️ At first glance, this sounds ridiculous. This can't be the path to 'mass adoption'... No large company or serious entity would consider adopting software or infrastructure from an organisation leading out with jiggling posteriors or fellatio memes. 🧠 But then you have to remember that Solana is the chain 'of the people'. Or as some call it a 'memechain'. In the decentralised, degenerate, Dapp user market the rules are different. Humour, culture, memes and sex DO sell... We just need to recalibrate the idea of what it is we're selling. 🎯 There is absolutely a part of the e-commerce and apps market where capital will flow to whoever brings the most hype and fun. This is not solving the world's major problems, and that's OK... Then there are others where more 'corporate' values are seen as critical, and where more time is spent espousing technical superiority or business case benefits. 🐴 And so I shall get off my high horse for a moment... I love a meme as much as the next person. And if the memecoin armies are being satisfied (however that may be), then more power to them. It's far from the most deplorable industry segment in the world, and new tech will always need early adopters. I salute them for that. 🚡 Just don't expect to jump the chasm into 'mainstream' the same way. Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll do not sell software... Or do they?... 🚀🌔 #blockchain #technology #management #innovation  

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Thanks Chinenye. I couldn't agree with you more. However while we work on this, we also have to be mindful of the fact that bias isn't just the problem in this data rather a combination of poor economy and bias. Of all these regions mentioned, Africa is the least performing market. therefore Davidson, naturally you would expect investors to do less there. They are not charity organisations but a venture set up for outsized returns.Therefore the major issue we should be discussing is, which sectors are receiving this funding in Africa? Are the investments coming to sectors that will lift the other sectors up fundamentally or to sectors that will window dress the issues? or Worst still the ones that will reap-off on the people and distort rather than disrupt the system. (eg Nigeria POS fintech and the real banking system. a discussion for another day). Until strong investments are made in the technology sectors powering manufacturing strong job growth in Africa be it REAL B2B eCommerce not repeating what is already being done, or B2C eCommerce that is truly efficient and cost effective. Equally important is the improvement in the purchasing power of the consumers via credit card system. in as much as Sub-Sahara Africa lacks good credit system that captures the average citizens and residents, B2C will continue to struggle. in as much as our logistics investments are predominantly in the last mile delivery rather than efficient crosborder logistics, both B2B abd B2C eCommerce will struggle to scale efficiently and profitability. So, it's time for the investors to do away with the low hanging fruits and start tackling the real issues that will empower and propel Africa economies. That's where the main bias lies.

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The Rise of SPVs in AI Startup Investments Special Purpose Vehicles (#SPVs) are increasingly popular among small investors, allowing them to pool their money to invest in coveted #startups like Anthropic, Groq, OpenAI, Perplexity, and #ElonMusk's x.AI. SPVs are formed by #investors with direct access to shares of these startups, who then sell a portion of their allocation to external investors, often charging significant fees and retaining a profit share. Early backers in sought-after #AI #startups exercise their pro-rata rights, creating opportunities for SPVs to acquire shares. VCs may offer access to SPVs to existing #limitedpartner investors or use brokers to reach a broader pool of potential investors. Some SPVs are formed on top of others, leading to complex layers of investment. Shares in certain startups, like Anthropic, became available due to events like FTX's bankruptcy auction, flooding the market with shares. SPVs can be formed alongside primary fundraising rounds, allowing small investors to participate simultaneously with major investors. While SPVs provide access to otherwise inaccessible investments, they come with high risks, as backers do not receive direct information about the companies. For more information https://lnkd.in/dqxCtget #AIInvesting #StartupFinance #SPVStrategy #VentureCapital #InvestmentTrends #TechInvesting #Entrepreneurship

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Whenever I try and explain the crypto/web3 industry to friends who don’t get it (and frankly don’t want to due to the still kinda ugly brand perception of the industry) I often describe it as a microcosm of what is going to happen in all industries. Consumers will be ultra nuanced, tribal, segmented, speculative and expect incentives either in the form of cultural affirmation or financial rewards. The decade plus long obsession with performance and growth marketing has diluted some of the greatest brands as they farmed out their audience acquisition to big tech in order to pump up internal metrics and now have no idea who their audience even is. Crypto is an attention game and on a macro marketing level we are beginning to see the move to back quality brand marketing, obsessing over your audience and delivering them meaningful products and experiences. The key to winning will be hyper serving large niche groups that ultimately influence the mainstream.

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