Adam Epstein

We've seen this so many times. Your brand/customers/product is unique, but that doesn't mean you should reinvent the wheel with your commerce/marketing stack experience. When brands choose heavily-customized tech stacks, it usually leads to high implementation & maintenance costs. But more importantly, it makes it difficult to iterate down the line. You'll be stuck with your "custom" ecom site, loyalty program, unique UX for years - while your competitors will blow past you with "out of the box" tools.

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Are you ready to unlock the full potential of Product Operations? 🔍 Only 2 weeks left until Product Ops: 101 - Getting Started with Product Operations on October 30, 2024, led by Denise Tilles! With only 2 spots left, this hands-on workshop will give you practical tools to implement and scale Product Ops strategies. By the end, you'll have a clear roadmap to drive better outcomes within your organization. Secure your spot now: https://lnkd.in/exBcs2V5 🎟️ #productops101 #productoperations #productmanagement #workshop

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🚀 Just had an incredible experience meeting Keily Blair, CEO of OnlyFans in Toronto! Here's a mind-blowing stat: OnlyFans has paid out $15 billion to creators since 2016. Yes, billion with a B. 💸 The company takes 1/5th of the payments generated. With over 3 million content creators on the platform, it was fascinating to discuss the future direction of the business - which really has a ripple effect... OnlyFans has already shifted culture and how we think about creators. But their next big wave goes beyond content and culture—it’s about challenging traditional banking norms. With its massive financial footprint, OnlyFans is pretty well poised to reshape the financial landscape for lawful, profitable businesses often marginalized due to stigma. (👋 Shoutout to Sextech School founders, Women of SexTech, and other businesses that struggle to transact or even open business bank accounts.) Keily’s background as a partner at a law firm specializing in cyber, privacy, and security makes her the fit to take on the big banks. I love learning about how people found their ways into these sorts of spaces - for her, OF was a former client (and a fav client). I learned so much in our meeting. One last nugget that stood out: OFTV (their safe-for-work streamer) just licensed their first reality show to Netflix! At this point, the mainstream influence of OF, whether it's in entertainment or financial sector, is undeniably having a hand in what our future looks like.

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Collision Conf is one of the biggest tech+AI events in North America and I am looking forward to learning more in this exploding space. If anyone is heading that way, feel free to ping and we can connect! #AI #generativeAI #digitaltransformation

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I was listening to this episode of Lenny Rachitsky's Podcast (https://apple.co/3YIIyDI) when the guest, Archie Abrams, referenced Shopify's 100-year perspective. I love this, which is a large part of why Shopify has succeeded. Shopify's 100-year perspective got me thinking about what if more of us had a 100-year perspective? How might we live our lives and conduct our businesses differently if we played a longer game? Would we take more risks, invest in longer-term value, be less stressed about next week, and more? The pushback would be that most people don't live to be 100 (the life expectancy worldwide in 2022 was 72 years), and most organizations don't make it a few years, let alone a century. But even if it is unlikely that you or an organization you lead will be around for 100 years, what's the harm in conducting yourself like you and it will be? The answer, I believe, is there isn't any. Having a long-term perspective, longer than what most people or organizations would think of as long-term, only has upside. It gets us out of reactionary, impulsive thinking and action. FOMO becomes irrelevant. Fads and trends fade into the background and get chased by others as you stay focused on building something long-lasting. A 100-year perspective would change a lot of our societal, political, and economic planning, policy, and discord, too. We're all driven by KPIs, OKRs, and other metrics that define our short-term success or failure. Make no mistake: You have to succeed in the short term to have a chance at a 100-year run, but there is probably a lot of opportunity for most of us to reverse our perspective from being short-term driven to long-term, which would benefit us and our organizations. Since they are outliers, we marvel at centurions' longevity and secrets to living a long life. Organizations celebrate anniversaries and longevity with parties, commemorative items, and honorary logos. We're turning 30 in 2025 at Transform Labs and will indeed celebrate the milestone. Still, we're still far from a finish line when you think about it compared to 100 or another 100. In many respects, we're just getting started and building on a legacy that will continue for another 70+ years. We all have an opportunity to live and lead with a 100-year perspective. If we or our organizations don't make it that long, so be it, but what if we do or can facilitate it?

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My 7-year journey via Maple VC with Clay. Thanks Josh Scott at BetaKit for covering the story. I was first introduced to Kareem Amin through a fellow Canadian expat and now Maple founder, Michael Hershfield of Accrue Savings. They first met working at Sailthru in NYC where Kareem sold his first company. In 2016, Kareem started to tinker on new ideas with his cofounder Nicolae Rusan and I was fortunate to meet them at this time. This happened to align with me establishing Maple 1 in November 2016 on the simple thesis of backing Canadians building in America. We noticed that Canadian expats, who graduate from Canadian universities, go on to build some of the biggest companies in tech – Uber, Slack, Instacart, Notion, Faire, Databricks, Cloudflare, Roblox and most recently, OpenAI. Kareem and Nicolae seemed to match this pattern as two graduates from McGill University building in the US. In 2017, they landed on a very clear mission to make programming accessible to all. They painted a picture of replacing the black terminal that developers use, with a spreadsheet that is connected to the internet which could allow non-developers to automate work. What we saw immediately that gave us conviction was a very big ambition (making programming accessible to all) with a unique insight (using a spreadsheet) via a new method of no-code tooling. This reminded us of the early days at Uber: The promise to deliver you anything (big ambition) by starting with a black car that takes you from point A to point B (unique insight) via your phone (new method). We first committed to investing in Clay in Jan 2017 before the company had a lead. In June 2017, we were thrilled to learn that First Round Capital was going to lead their Seed. Sequoia Capital led the Series A in June 2019, which was surprising, since we had no revenue and were still figuring things out. However, the low-code no-code category was starting to take off. Then, they spent the next 3 years figuring out where to focus. During this phase it was fascinating to witness the many disbelievers. We had folks tell us that we should mark this investment to $0. In late 2021, they decided to narrowly focus on automating sales and this turned out to be the big unlock. Varun Anand joined as a cofounder leading their GTM efforts. The timing played out beautifully with new LLMs that we could use to automate growth in a way that hadn’t been done before. Clay relaunched in Feb 2022 with $0 in revenue and has not looked back since. We 10x’d two years in a row, all organically, achieving 100k users, 2500+ customers, and 11k people exchanging ideas in our Slack community. Maple has tripled down since the Seed through the Series B which was just led by Meritech Capital. We have a strong feeling that Clay has a real shot at realizing that vision they first shared with us 7 years ago.

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This is a really good post by Ghassan Halazon. It's easy for armchair quarterbacks to say "Canadians sell our companies out too early", or "we don't think big and therefore sell out early", but it's never that simple. I don't agree with Ghassan that first-time founders should always take the offer (eg. Google could have sold to Yahoo in 1998, and I'm sure Shopify had multiple interested suitors on their path to an IPO), but he's probably right in most situations. The first exit I had as a VC was a 5x return over about 4 years. I recall the negative comments I received from people in the ecosystem that we sold out too early to the Americans (Microsoft was the acquirer), and that we weren't thinking big enough. But none of those critics saw the slowing sales pipeline, or the increasingly competitive sales cycles, or the churn rates, or the difficult fundraising. No matter how good things are, there are always risks to the business. Most companies plateau long before they achieve a market dominating position, and distinguishing between approaching that final plateau vs. just a slowing blip before the next growth wave is difficult for entrepreneurs that are usually 'half-glass-full' people. And, on a related point, despite what many say, it is never that companies sell out early because they lack the access to capital needed to scale. They may lack capital at a valuation they desire, but that's different, and in fact a datapoint on where a business is on its path to plateauing or market domination.

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Over the weekend, Tobi, the founder and CEO of Shopify, discussed the major reason investors passed on Shopify in the early days : market size. I remember that financing round, & I remember having the same concern, & making the same mistake. Living in the valley & driving on 101, the billboards & logo-adorned headquarters of successful companies provide a daily infusion of all the mistakes in I’ve made in guessing how a company or a market might evolve. Years later, I listened as Bill Gurley shared his thoughts about market size. He asked himself a question : whether the startup was increasing, decreasing, or maintaining the market size? (I can’t seem to find the link - but I have it in my notes!) I added that question to my diligence list when meeting startups. Now much later, having seen many companies create categories or reinvigorate aging ones, the question I ask myself has evolved. It’s not as the market size large enough? Instead, it the question is : do we believe this company can create the market? Market size is the output of all the players marketing, selling, building. Their efforts alter, distort, & juice the supply/demand curves of macroeconomics. It’s not a given - not an output or a steady-state CAGR. Often it’s the startups that engender the demand, change the market dynamics, & make markets massive by taking risks with products. When done right, these founders create category-defining businesses like Shopify (now worth $90b)!

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Deep Pockets Over Party Rounds It's YC demo day in 2 weeks and fundraising around the Summer 24 batch is already at fever pitch. Many founders are experiencing a lot of demand and it's tempting to raise a bunch of money from lots of small checks. I'm biased but if you are lucky enough to have plenty of interest, I suggest you engage those with deep pockets. 1. Most Companies Need More Money. Regardless of your momentum now, most companies end up needing a little more capital to reach the next round. If you've only raised from angel investors, they most likely won't be able to add much more to their position. 2. Term Sheet Minimums. Plenty of lead investors will ask for a minimum amount to be raised for the next round to close and for them to wire the funds. If your cap table has funds who can participate at the later stages, this relieves a lot of the pressure to fundraise beyond securing the term sheet. 3. Investor Network. Most funds are measured by who invests in their companies after they do and at what price. So your fund investors are heavily incentivized to help you fundraise your next round, if they've invested a large enough check. #startups #fundraising

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CaseMark Secures $1.7 Million Seed Funding Led by Gradient Ventures to Revolutionize Legal Workflows with Generative AI CaseMark AI, a pioneer in legal generative AI workflows, today announced the closing of a $1.7 million seed funding round led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused seed fund. Additional participation came from Rex Salisbury‘s Cambrian, Ride Home AI Fund and Alumni Ventures. The funding will drive the company’s mission to help legal professionals benefit from the efficiency and productivity of generative AI. CaseMark’s AI-powered legal workflows address automating time-consuming tasks like document summarization, research, and legal analysis. This frees up valuable time for legal professionals to focus on high-value activities such as client strategy and casework. https://lnkd.in/e4JF8Mim #litigationfinance #litigationfunding #legalfinance #legalfunding #legaltech #AI

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Toronto Startup Guide for Founders. Thank you Yoran Beisher and Michael Liu for pulling this map together and for keeping it up to date 🙌 #CommunityBuilders Now, who can do this and update the old Montreal Startup Guide for Founders?

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Next one up, Flagler Health! In an attempt to demystify some of the non-obvious elements we found when we first met the founders of our fastest growing portfolio companies at 186 Ventures, here is the third edition of the "idiosyncratic phenomenon". This highlight will be on Albert Katz, Leon Anijar, and Will Hu and their journey building Flagler Health to bring unprecedented AI enabled patient care to the world of musculoskeletal (MsK) providers. As the healthcare industry shifts to a value based care paradigm, there will be increased pressure on the entire industry to ensure patient outcomes improve, all the while helping providers generate more revenue / become more cost efficient. Since we co-led their March, 2024 seed round with Streamlined, the company has rolled out some of their newest remote therapeutic and chronic condition management features to many patients and providers alike, experiencing high revenue growth in such a short period of time. The company continues to face unmet customer demand as it continues to scale its expansion into 2025. https://lnkd.in/exesTcmC

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Just had to share this gem from Collision Conf in #Toronto. Among the #startups and VCs, I spotted a guy with a shirt saying, "Ask me about my CAC." Naturally, I asked. Sebastian Fallenbüchl, BASc., the wearer, shot back, "My CAC is getting lower as you just approached me." Genius. Seb’s witty remark was more than just a laugh — it was a reminder that business is about people. Metrics like CAC are crucial, but so are the connections and conversations that drive them down. Takeaway? Be #approachable. Humor and humanity can make all the difference. Thanks for the insight and the laugh, Seb. Here’s to more moments like these! #Networking #BusinessInsights

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Even wonder what the top brand on Shopify is doing that you're not? Lululemon sells $736,297,000 annually. Thats close a billion dollars of person-shaped cloths. What's their secret? I spent several hours analyzing and collecting as much info as I can. I found their most recent Olympics based campaign to be brilliant. You can do the same, if you study from their success. In this DTC breakdown, I will be showing you 50+ resources including: - Creatives - Top of Funnel (ToF) Meta Ads - Home Page - Olympics Campaign - Email Flows - Reengagement Campaigns - Landing Pages - Collection Page - Product Page (PDP) - Pyschological Conversion Tactics - and more... I will be giving this breakdown away for FREE for the next 24 hours. All you need to do is like this post, and comment "Lemon" or the 🍋 emoji - if you repost in your feed you will get priority.  (make sure you are connected so I can send you a message)

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Are you a B2B software startup founder at the very start? Then you have to meet this early-stage investor! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Dominic Lau from Ripple Ventures. He: 🇨🇦 Is Vancouver and Toronto based 🎣 Loves to fish 🎶 Founded the RippleX Fellowship - a platform to help underrepresented founders access mentorship, intros, and the tools to get from idea to revenue to funding Amongst founders, Dominic and his team at Ripple Ventures, including Matt Cohen, are known for being hands-on partners who open valuable networks, navigate challenges together, and assist in closing crucial revenue and funding deals. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at [email protected] 👀 Look into the RippleX Fellowship - they take 10 companies 2x a year through the Founder Fellowship program and also back companies through the Fellow Fund For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Ripple Ventures' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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Excited to announce the upcoming release of “The Venture Mindset” by Ilya Strebulaev and Alex Dang! It’s been a privilege to contribute. 📖 Ilya and Alex have spent decades studying top VCs, uncovering the true drivers of their success. Their advice is not the typical advice you might expect; they dive into the details of how VCs make decisions, why they're not afraid to fail, and how to spot the next big thing. I spent some time re-reading an advanced copy over the weekend, and what stood out to me was the book's practical advice on applying VC principles to everyday business challenges. Ilya and Alex provide clear, actionable steps that you can put to work no matter what you’re building. If you want to give it a flip for yourself, head over to https://lnkd.in/gJGmKiTg and grab a copy.

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Sidewalk Labs (Part of Google), another showcase of Canadian politicians bending over for a big US corp, with ZERO tangible results 💩 Roxana and I attended a "private investor demo" session in 2019. A block of wood was passed among the audience, supposedly the NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH in urban development! Demo concluded, by observing a piece of wood! Building blocks of future skyscrapers! The promise? With this, Google will build a "Smart City" for us, the peasants of Toronto, in Queens Quay 🏖️🏢 Sidewalk Labs' website now points to a newer Google scam, it reads: "Build Sustainably with Google Earth"! Bait and switch, but let enough time pass so no one remembers 🤢 https://lnkd.in/gd3B-a6m Guess now the investors and Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario have shit loads of these wooden blocks, ready to shove up somewhere, to find a use for! All because the name "Bloomberg" sounds authoritative enough to our ears? Surely that's capital well spent, instead of investing in local talent! 🤔 Will Canada's tech ecosystem ever crawl out of Silicon Valley's shadow, and stand on its own? ⌚👀⛔

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Some interesting thoughts in the inexorable march forward of each AI generation, but also the limits to where AI really shines. In terms of repurposing exisitng content, there seem to be some real value adds here - but exactly how useful this 'professional' podcast really is remains to be seen.

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Come join the Future of Frontier Technologies AI & blockchain event panel in Santa Monica! ✨ We are hosting an event on Friday, May 3rd during @Farcaster's FarCon weekend. Which will bring many blockchain experts & builders to LA! Emerging LA is collaborating with Lightspeed's Faction VC as a co-host, with Partner Timothy K. moderating a panel. The panel will discuss the questions that you are probably wondering about these technologies: • How can AI and blockchain work together? • How will these frontier technologies impact industries today? • What are the real-world use cases that these technologies solve? • What are the current dynamics between innovation and regulation? ​One on hand, AI offers the promise of abundance, democratizing content creation but will open the door to (deep)fakes and mistrust. On the other hand, ​Blockchain offers digital scarcity, authentication, and trust in a world inundated with digital replicas. --- The audience will be filled with founders, technical builders, investors, and industry executives in sectors that are most relevant to these trends: Gaming, media, content, finance, social. The early bird ticket sold out quickly last week and the general admission tickets expire on Wednesday, so don't miss out and grab yours soon! Partners for this event include Sunset Ventures and AI LA as well as others in town: • LA schools & clubs: Wharton Club of Southern California, Wharton Digital Assets Club, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Blockchain , and Blockchain at USC • CPG startups & Brands: Studio TBD, doorsa, Red Bull --- PROMO CODE DISCOUNTS! If you are a student or alum from Penn/Wharton, Harvard, USC, reach out and ask for code!! 😉 See you on Friday! (Link to event in comments) #ai #blockchain #farcon #web3 #LA

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