Alex McNaughten’s Post

SLS Client Precursor Ventures Leads Grw AI’s $2.4M Pre-Seed Round Silicon Legal’s Precursor Ventures client team includes (Purva) Charu Satia, Andre Gharakhanian, Ian Peck, Michael Perez, and Steve James.

Run a sales team? Not leveraging generative AI yet? You need to check out what Grw AI is building! #genai #ai #sales

I’m excited to share a significant milestone for Grw AI - we have raised a NZ $2.4 million pre-seed round - a record for New Zealand! The round was led by Charles Hudson at Precursor Ventures in San Francisco, with participation from Incisive Ventures in Seattle (led by legendary serial entrepreneur Martin Tobias), and Investible in Australia. The round also included an incredible group of US-based angel investors, including: Lauren Vaccarello - CMO at WEKA, former CMO at Salesloft David Brock - Founder & CEO at Partners In EXCELLENCE Shari Levitin - Founder & CEO at Shari Levitin Group Woodson Martin - Former EVP at Salesforce AppExchange David Schellhase - Former General Counsel at Salesforce, Slack, Groupon Colin Wiel - Co-founded & built multiple unicorns, including Invitation Homes Peter Kazanjy - Founder & CEO of Atrium and Modern Sales Pros Scott Persinger - Multi-exit founder including Heroku Connect At Grw AI we're on a mission to help millions of sales teams to exceed their goals with hyper-personalized AI coaching. We're really passionate about coaching and the impact it can have on career and life outcomes. Coaching not only helps salespeople tactically in their day-to-day, but is also develops their long-term sales nous and critical thinking skills, ultimately making them stronger and better sellers. This deep belief in the power of coaching, and the ability for it to be scaled to millions of salespeople around the world with AI, is what drove us to start Grw AI last year. And it's been paying off so far! With over 20 companies in the US and APAC seeing huge uplifts in sales performance from Grw AI — as high as a 400% increase in revenue in the first quarter after onboarding. Our customers range from growth startups in NZ like Relab all the way to large public companies in the US like IDEXX. The funds we've raised will enable us to set up an HQ in San Francisco, and to expand our engineering team here in New Zealand. While we're primarily focused on serving the US market, I'm really excited and proud to also continue building our team in NZ where there's so much world-class talent. Finally, a huge shoutout to those who have supported us on our journey so far. From our incredible advisors - Linda Jenkinson, David Brock, Lauren Vaccarello, 🇦🇺 Manik Surtani, 🏄♂️ Scott Leese, Shari Levitin, to our very first customer Glen Jones, and the countless others who have and helped us (special shoutout to Margaret Francis and Denise (Laguens) Leleux here!!). There are countless others who have supported us along the way — far too many to list — but thank you to all of you! Alex McNaughten, Dan Ash, Scotty Freeman and I couldn't be more excited for what lies ahead. Bring on the next chapter. We're only just getting started... 🚀

From Idea to Impact... Execution is key! Thanks for sharing Ethan Hilton!🙌 Your post resonates deeply and the quote from Aravind Srinivas is spot on! 🚀 It's not just about what users ask for—it’s about deeply understanding their challenges and designing solutions that create real, lasting impact. True innovation lies in identifying the root problems users face—not just delivering the features they think they want. At RegASK, we embrace this mindset by going beyond simply digitizing existing workflows. Instead, we collaborate with our clients to revisit and rethink their entire processes, uncovering the root problems to deliver true efficiency. ⚡Velocity, intensity, 🤝customer-centricity, and 🎯flawless execution are key. Beyond that, 💪persistence and resilience drive meaningful, long-term success. 💬 What’s your approach to ensuring execution aligns with uncovering and solving the most impactful problems? Let’s exchange ideas! 🌟 #Innovation #Execution #Leadership #CustomerCentricity #Startup #RegASK Amenallah Reghimi Ravinder Singh JD Deleon Colin O'Shea Fabienne JAUTARD Remie Abdel Latif

🌟 Meet the Next GTM Startup Founders 🌟   Today, we’re excited to introduce Next GTM founders who should be on your radar! You can check out our Next Lists featuring emerging creators and startups right here. ➡ https://lnkd.in/dzbE-WsD Rush Shahani - Co-Founder of Persana AI Persana AI is an all-in-one AI prospecting platform combining AI with over 75 data sources and generative AI messaging. It helps your GTM team focus on revenue-generating opportunities like never before. Christina Brady - CEO of Luster Luster uses AI to create realistic sales practice simulations. Perfect your sales skills with high-fidelity experiences that mimic real-world interactions. Jennifer Smith - CEO of Scribe Scribe is an AI-powered tool that automatically creates step-by-step guides for any process. Save time with automatic screenshots, text, and links. Janet Gehrmann - Co-Founder of Scoop Analytics Scoop lets teams manage every stage of the data lifecycle. Automate data processes and present information seamlessly in filterable slides. Madhu Puranik - Founder and CEO of Revlitix Revlitix uses pattern recognition and diagnostics to find money-making opportunities and fix revenue leaks. Boost your GTM efforts by leveraging AI signals and cross-platform insights.

The current workforce wakes up to manual tasks that they hate every single day. While automation software has been quietly reshaping our work landscape, the explosion of AI onto the scene means a radical redefinition of human roles in the professional world. There are many jobs that consist of manual tasks that can be replaced entirely – SDRs, copywriters, customer support specialists. Enter Artisan. They’re one of the fastest growing early-stage startups in the GTM ecosystem. Founded in 2023, they’ve participated in Y Combinator and raised over $7.5M in seed funding from investors including Y Combinator, BOND Capital and Soma Capital. They’re fast on the heels of existing incumbents in the sales SaaS space, including Apollo and Outreach, as Artisan aims to replace every single outbound sales tool you need. Check out this week's Notorious for a special writeup by CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack. Congrats to PLG + AI companies on your recent fundraises: All Hands AI, Fastn, Safe Superintelligence Inc., Brellium, Mintlify, Sakana AI, You.com, Mangomint and Oyster®! https://lnkd.in/g5SdWuD5

📣 Leadbay joined the Founders Program 2.0 at STATION F. 📣 About Leadbay Leadbay develops AI models to predict B2B Sales next customer. Lead Gen, Scoring & Ideal Customer Profile refinement for Sales Teams targeting the mid-market (50-500 employees). We multiply by 3 the time a B2B Sales Reps spend on “ready-to-buy” leads. Best fit with B2B Sales leaders expecting sustainable growth by exploring new mid-market segments. Ludovic Granger (CEO) is the former Head of Ventures at Inovexus (Euro-US acceleration fund). Milan Stankovic, PhD (CTO) holds a PhD in AI/ML/Semantic web and brings a unique practice with Recommender Systems, having authored over 60 papers & member of the Research Council of Sorbonne. Former CTO at Blindnet (VC-backed), and exited from SEPAGE (Travel tech). About Founders Program 2.0 I STATION F Ludo recently described it as the most stimulating place to be in Paris as an early-stage founder. The Founders Program lasts for 3 months, provides offices, and brings the best tech leaders around a table for private founders' Q&A sessions. In this edition, we met with Xavier Niel, Alexandre Prot (Qonto), Lucas (Hyperline), and many more. Best of all is the quality of the founders accepted into the program. Only 20 startups are selected, all of which are pre-seed and aim to tackle the biggest market opportunities of the decade.

VCs love investing in the commercial/technical co-founder duo. But not everyone has a Robin to their Batman. Lone technical founders who have groundbreaking ideas often struggle to effectively communicate their innovations to potential buyers. This communication gap often prevents their brilliant concepts from gaining the traction they deserve. I want to share the experiences of one of our newest beta users at Bella (AI BDR), which has me really excited about the possibilities of augmenting technical founders with AI-driven sales expertise to help them create opportunities that turn their bold visions into reality. He's an ex-military guy turned founder. Who found himself with the daunting task of having to do outbound sales for the first time. Unsure of where to start with his sales outreach, he joined Bella beta... Picked up the workflow intuitively. Enrolled 25 contacts into his AI research-driven outreach and 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐲! Not just any appointment, but he was also referred on to the decision makers. This just made my day. On demand sales expertise enabled by AI was never possible before, this changes everything... If you're struggling on where to start with your B2B sales outreach, then... ➡️ Follow Bella (AI BDR) for more. 🦾 𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐚: https://lnkd.in/gyvctDdY #sales #saas #artificialintelligence #ai #generativeai #genai #openai #anthropic #gemini #llms #llm #largelanguagemodel #founder #founders #startup #venturecapital #fundraising

Last Friday was an important day, as we had the pleasure of showcasing Cap’s latest product developments and giving a sneak peek into what’s coming next. Here are some highlights from our demo: ✅ We demoed Cap’s intuitive deal management system, which streamlines the process and makes it a breeze to navigate investment deals. 🤖 Our AI Analyst took center stage, demonstrating its ability to instantly provide answers to any questions about deals or startup companies. It acts as a co-pilot, helping users review, assess, and prioritize deals while offering valuable insights into the startup and its market. Speed, accessibility, and privacy are at the forefront of our design. 🌟 Our Deal UI provides users with a clear indication of a deal’s relevance and key details at a glance. 🖥️ We unveiled an early alpha version of our Portfolio Management feature, which leverages AI to digest complex data and provide a simple overview of portfolio companies’ health, funding status, runway, action points, and deeper insights. 📈 We discussed our expectations for 2024 and the immense potential and opportunity we see ahead. The interest in our product has significantly validated our vision and even surpassed our own initial anticipations. 🤝 Our team has doubled in size recently, bringing in fresh talent and expertise to drive our mission forward. 🎉 In May, we are onboarding our first pilot customers and closing a funding round. The interest from potential investors has been overwhelming. If you’re interested, let me know! 🧠 We have a solid plan for our core AI infrastructure, and we’re working tirelessly to ensure it exceeds everyone’s expectations, is scalable, and delivers an unparalleled experience. 🙌 If you haven’t already, make sure to sign up for our waitlist. We’ll be sending out regular product updates to everyone on the list. Link in the comments! 🔜 We anticipate opening up access to everyone on the waitlist in the coming months, following our pilot phase. It was a pleasure doing the demo with our Head of Product, Peter. We were a bit anxious because (in true startup spirit) we decided to implement last-minute changes: Improving the response time of our AI Analyst. 😬 The demo went so well that the audience asked if we faked it, but we didn't. Even I was blown away by how fast it was and I'm working with this every - single - day. Massive congratulations and kudos to the team! Henrik Jørgensen, René Hansen, Ida-Maria Aastrup. 👏 Stay tuned for more exciting updates as we revolutionize the venture ecosystem with the power of AI! 🚀 #AI #DealManagement #PortfolioManagement #Startup #Innovation

Just wrapped up breakfast with 8 founders ($50M+ combined funding, $10M+ ARR) where we uncovered a fascinating arbitrage play: Old-school industries are ripe for AI transformation. The playbook? 1. Acquire distressed traditional assets at rock-bottom multiples 2. Layer AI capabilities 3. Exit at SaaS/AI multiples The value gap? Staggering. Traditional businesses trade at 1-3x. AI companies command 15-50x+. The biggest question asked: "How do you find these unique arbitrage opportunities?" Their unanimous answer: Network. It's why I host these founder breakfasts. Real opportunities aren't found in pitch decks or data rooms. They're uncovered in conversations between founders building great companies. The real insights: • Legacy systems = data goldmines • Existing customers = AI testbeds • Industry expertise + AI = unbeatable moat Most fascinating? While everyone fights over pure SaaS/AI plays, these opportunities sit untouched. • The opportunity? Massive. • The window? Closing fast. • The network? Everything. Who's seeing similar patterns? Share your insights 👇 Comment 1-4 if you want to join our next curated roundtable for the following groups. 1. Seed & Series A Stage Founders ($3M+ Raised/Revenue) 2. Series A - D Stage Founders ($20M+ Raised/Revenue) 3. 7 & 8 Figure Agency Owners ($3M+ Revenue) 4. GTM Executives (CEOs, CROs, CMOs, VPs of Sales & Marketing) Thanks for joining us: Jamie Marcellus RN, MBA Daniel Grechko Chris Porteous Chanddeep Madaan Shen Sivananthan Jason Zoltak Mark Provost Wish I had a better photo with everyone 😅 Virio Toronto Tech Fest Aceocial Max Woo 👋 #startups #venturecapital #AI #privateequity