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I really enjoyed breaking in our new studio to sit down with Temporal Technologies Co-Founders Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev for the latest episode of Founded & Funded. Temporal was founded in 2019 based on an open-source microservices orchestration engine project but is the result of a more than decade-long partnership between the two co-founders that spanned their time working on different iterations of the same thing at AWS, Microsoft, and Uber. In this episode, Samar, Maxim, and I dive into the challenges of building an open-source ecosystem while also working on a commercial offering and scaling a successful company, how to navigate and adjust a product roadmap in an ever-changing world of AI and large language models, and how to successfully build an early startup team, navigate through a CEO transition, and bring on a startups first independent board member. It's a very compelling conversation and a must-listen for every builder out there. Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gymf9sES Find other platforms and the transcript on our website: https://lnkd.in/ggRtnKtM Be sure to subscribe to our channel for more deep dives into cutting-edge technologies and the minds behind them. Don't forget to like, comment, and share this conversation if you found it valuable!

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💜 Hue. has been awarded a $150K equity-free grant from the Google for Startups Founders Fund! 🎉 Funding Black founders is crucial, here’s why ⬇ I recently spoke with a founder—let’s call him David—who needed fundraising advice. David’s startup is gaining traction, and he’s been advised to raise a #friendsandfamilyround to boost product development. Sadly, he feels discouraged. David is the first in his family to graduate college, and at 21, he earned more than anyone else in his family in his entry-level job. Now in their late twenties, him and his friends are still in their growth era and don’t have extra cash to invest. David feels stuck. 🚫 His network can’t fund his venture, and he has too little traction to raise a formal round. This is a common experience for many underrepresented founders—Black, Latino, low-income, women, and more. ✨ Grant programs like the Google for Startups Founders Fund provide essential capital to level the playing field. ✨ The Hue team is incredibly grateful for Google’s support for underrepresented founders and its commitment to uplifting startups pushing boundaries in AI. ❓ Does David’s experience resonate with you? Have you raised a friends and family round? What advice would you give other founders? ❓ Comment below ⬇ Check out to the other Black & Latino founders in my Google for Founders cohort! Sherisse Hawkins Nana Wilberforce Ph.D Seke Ballard Megan Nunes Manny S. Kene Anoliefo Tiffany Ricks George Holmes, PhD Rocio Frej Vitalle Rocio Frej Vitalle Florian Pestoni Darren Riley Eitan Winer Darryl Keeton Constanza Gomez Sergio Suarez Jr. Gerald Kierce Iturrioz #GoogleForStartups #FoundersFund #poweredbyhue #beautymarketing #huecommunity #hiring #fundraising

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Ep. 007 of The Feedback Loop is here! It's the first half of startup pitches from New York Tech Week, and from an almost-all-AI batch of companies. Joining me on this episode: returning fan-favorite, Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures! For those not familiar, every week, a guest venture investor joins me to give granular and unfiltered feedback to founders on their storytelling and their concept. It's all about helping founders construct a better narrative for their move-forward -- because across fundraising, sales, recruiting, and company-building, it's the core narrative and pitch that can often hold startups back. And Jenny currently holds the tenure jacket as my guest co-host, with this being her 4th time on stage delivering quick insights and context you just can't find anywhere else. Massive shout-out to the founders featured: Matt Shenker building MatterMore, Karl White building Wroom, Trista V. building Nunchi, and Jeremy Da building Acrylic! Relevant links below.

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More Harbor Behind the Scenes. Working on the first draft and notes of "What is Wrong with VC" based on all the feedback I've gotten and how many people have asked me to write it... Shoutout Andrew (AJ) Tjaden, CCXP, PMP who is now fully on board as our Director of Support!

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Just shipped this week's Diaspora.nz podcast with Paul Copplestone, founder & CEO at Supabase. We talk about: ⚡️why open source is an unfair advantage — as a product development strategy, supercharging recruiting, and helping build customer community. ⚡️how they are building the end-to-end tech stack for AI startups — seeing many customers grow into the millions of users in just weeks, growing to be one of the most tagged products by makers on Product Hunt + most redeemed Y Combinator “perks.” ⚡️raising $116M, and scaling to ~80 people in 30+ countries over the past 4.5 years, operating as a distributed + asynchronous team. ⚡️building three startups over nearly a decade living in South East Asia. Subscribe + listen links in comments below👇 Subscribe at diaspora.nz for weekly episodes 🎧👈

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📈 Curious about the startup scene in Massachusetts? Explore our detailed funding list featuring startup names, HQ locations, and investor info. Perfect for investors and entrepreneurs alike! Check it out: https://lnkd.in/dAp3xj-Q #startup #startups #venturecapital #funding #vc #managementconsulting

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Have we met? My name is Sera. 👋 This year I started heavily working towards a mission in alignment with the world I want to create and leave behind. 🌎 ⚡️ I work with climate tech startups. ⚡️ I invest in seed climate tech startups. 💸 ⚡️ I created a blueprint for designers to change the industry. I’m helping people tap into their power as a technologist. I’m inspiring people to consciously design and use technology. I’m teaching people that design is not about end-users, it’s about ecosystems. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous when I started. 🫢 I had no roadmap to follow. I’m creating it as I go. It feels like going against the grain. When I started I didn’t know a single designer spotlighting sustainability. I especially did not know anyone questioning common practices at tech companies. But my goal far outweighs the risks.⭐️ I know my north star, do you? I’d like you to join me in this planetary shift and become a part of the solution, not the problem. I'm launching my first Maven cohort. I'll teach you my unique approach to responsible growth hacking. I have a 50% off code for you: [INNOVATORS] for the 1st 5 people to sign up. https://lnkd.in/gKbJYzDX We’ve already had 2 cohorts and this is what Gen AI Designer, Tara, said: “Holy shit such an amazing class in growth. I learned so much. Sera is super good at teaching. People talk about growth hacking… people talk about sustainability… but NO ONE talks about Sustainable (responsible) Growth. Given the field I’m in, this is direly needed because everyone wants more compute. Sera’s framework is chefs kiss!” Every action you take matters. Will you join the conscious design movement? Sign up on Maven. ➕

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Quick story of how a headstarter fellow got hired: Few weeks ago Nabeel Alamgir🦄 (CEO Lunchbox, raised $100M in funding) reached out that he had this new idea and was looking for a CTO. I asked him "are you sure you want a CTO and not an intern?" He said "yes, and I'll give him co-founder equity." I was blown. I looked thru our rolodex of fellows and quickly made an internal job posting for our fellows on discord. I shared Shadman's profile with Nabeel. Shadman's experience working in food-tech before in Provecho seemed like a good match. Shadman is also a Junior in CUNY Hunter College. Fast forward a few weeks. They just launched publically. Shadman's name is mentioned in this article. https://lnkd.in/eKzraAbx Please join me in congratulating Shadman for his offer, his quick ship to production and public press. ---> If you want to be cracked, be hired by cracked founders or be lethal when comes to FAANG interviews and offers chk out our hiring profile and accelerator application here: https://lnkd.in/e5bAPuuX

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Hi everyone! I don’t share too often on here, but we’re at a very exciting moment at AptDeco, and I wanted to let you all in on it. AptDeco opened a community investment round and the response has been incredible. We’ve raised over $2M so far from institutional investors, customers and supporters. Nothing is more validating than customers doubling down with their own capital. And now, I’m inviting you, my network, to be part of our journey. When we started AptDeco, we set out to make buying and selling furniture easier. Over the years, many of our competitors have come and gone, but AptDeco continues to thrive. Why? Our technology, logistics and branding continues to set us apart and that's why major retailers including West Elm, Pottery Barn, La-Z-Boy, Article and 30+ more have partnered with us. The beauty with this investment round is that anyone can be an investor. Learn more and invest directly at wefunder.com/AptDeco.

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🌱 User-led growth is the heartbeat of Intersect. 🌱 As founders, we sometimes dive so deeply into the details that we miss the big picture—or as they say, "we can’t see the forest for the trees." But our Intersect Connect users are a constant reminder of where we’re headed and the value we're building together. I was perfectly content with our previous Client Portfolio page, but Rozann van Mieghem & Derik Combrink both highlighted the importance of not only being able to see the CIPC Annual Return status for each client. Instead, they wanted the functionality to plan their workflow with the CIPC due dates in mind. What a "duh" moment for me as the founder! 🤦‍♂️ Of course, it makes perfect sense, and I would want the same in my practice! So, we implemented the changes... 📹 This feature update is a testament to the incredible impact our users have on Intersect’s evolution and now helps Accounting By Nature & Tru Accounting stay on top of their CIPC workflows more proactively. ✅ It’s a reminder that building a product isn't just about the vision at the top — it’s about listening and adapting to those who use it daily.💡 #UserLedGrowth #CustomerFeedback #IntersectConnect #Innovation

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“Do things that don’t scale” is advice that sticks with many Y Combinator founders, but it means more than simply rolling up your sleeves. Early on at Simplifine (YC S24), we chose to work directly with researchers—getting on calls, testing workflows, and uncovering their specific challenges. Those hours spent in detailed conversations and hands-on support weren’t efficient, but they gave us insights data alone couldn’t provide. This approach may seem counterintuitive, yet it’s helped us understand the deeper, often overlooked needs that drive our product direction. Taking this non-scalable route has led to surprising breakthroughs. By focusing on direct feedback and support, we’ve identified critical patterns and quickly adapted our platform based on real-world use, rather than assumptions. This clarity in direction means we aren’t investing in features or workflows that don’t have real impact. Instead, we’re building exactly what researchers need, helping us keep Simplifine focused and practical. Ultimately, our commitment to “doing things that don’t scale” is more than just a startup tactic; it’s our way of staying aligned with our users. The temptation to grow fast is real, but by choosing to engage personally with researchers, we’ve grounded Simplifine in what truly matters. These early, authentic connections have shaped our product and guide us as we scale—ensuring that Simplifine continues to serve the research community in ways that are both meaningful and impactful. #dothingsthatdontscale

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Exciting News: Schematic is publicly available and we’ve raised $4.8M in seed funding! 🚀 I’m pumped to share that Schematic is now publicly available! We've also raised $4.8M in seed funding, led by MHS Capital with participation from NextView Ventures, Active Capital, Atlanta Ventures, and Ritual Capital—along with support from incredible founders of companies like CrowdStrike, LaunchDarkly, and Salesloft. A big thank you to our investors for believing in us, to our customers for guiding us, and to Benjamin Papillon, Jasdeep Garcha, Giovanni Hobbins, Vladyslav Len, Youssef Salah, Christopher Brady, Joseph Chrzan, Mohammed Almusaddar, and Markiian Simkiv for the opportunity to build this together. ➡️ Solving the last mile of pricing & packaging At every startup, one thing is certain: pricing and packaging will always change. Product and engineering teams shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time this happens. Most companies hard-code pricing and packaging into their applications, making it slow and painful to evolve as market demands shift. ➡️ What We’re Building We're building Schematic to transform pricing and packaging for B2B SaaS companies by getting product and engineering teams out of billing projects. With Schematic, B2B SaaS companies can change pricing & packaging without code changes or billing refactors. ➡️ How It Works With just a few lines of code, businesses can implement pricing and packaging into any application—end-to-end—from feature delivery through billing and customer experience. Quickly roll out new features and tie them to your pricing plans. Target specific plans to customers and adjust them without engineering support. Experiment, scale, and manage pricing & packaging operations: trials, plans, limits, entitlements, metering usage, handling exceptions, provisioning customers, & embedding front-end purchasing components —all without code changes. ➡️ Who we’re building for We’re building Schematic for B2B SaaS companies who want their pricing & packaging roadmaps to move in sync with their product roadmaps, without slowing down their engineering teams. Some key use cases our customers are already benefiting from: 🔹Outsourcing homegrown & hard-coded entitlement services. 🔹Programmatically managing feature access based on subscription plans. 🔹Metering usage and actually enforcing limits. 🔹Updating and managing plans, add-ons, bundling, and customer exceptions 🔹Delivering embeddable purchasing experiences (pricing tables, customer portals, upgrade/downgrade flows, etc). We’re still in the early innings, but the foundation is strong—we're already handling 500K entitlement flag evaluations every month. If you’re a founder or a product leader looking to avoid building what should be out-of-the-box (feature flags, entitlements, admin dashboards, customer portals), check out Schematic and let us know what you think.

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How to pitch: The company has zero traction —> “We’re early” You only have 2 customers —> “We’re working with design partners” You currently have no revenue but hoping some pipeline finally closes —> “we’re on track to exit this year at $3M ARR” You’re in the natural kill zone of a FAANG —> “We view them as partners rather than competitors” There’s no way the tech can actually work —>“We’re manifesting the future” And of course: One of your developers uses Co-Pilot to write some front end code —> “We’re an AI company”

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My last post led to DMs with questions about how the Ember model works. I thought it might be helpful to answer these questions in public for others to read, and transparency (we are big on this). Is Ember true ownership? Yes. We form an LLC for each house. Owners can purchase 1/8th to 1/2 of a home. When you buy your portion of the house, you own part of the LLC and thus part of the house. True ownership that is yours and that you can sell later. How does scheduling work? 1/8th ownership gives you 6.5 weeks of use. All scheduling is done through our mobile app, making scheduling fair, equitable, and super convenient. Owners never have to interact and stay anonymous from each other. Our app makes it all possible right from your own phone. Are all Ember homes nightly rental approved? We offer two types of homes, Ember Limited and Ember Flex. Ember Limited homes are for owners and their guests, but cannot be rented out. Ember Flex homes are for owners, guests, and can also be rented out. How does renting out my home/nights work? If you have a property that can be rented (Ember Flex Home), then you have the flexibility to either use your time in the home or rent out your nights. If you decide to rent we handle all the heavy lifting from marketing, checking guests in/out, concierge, etc. (our prop management company has a 4.99-star rating on Airbnb!). Renting out nights is super easy. Owners just indicate which nights they want rented in the app and push “rent these nights.” Within minutes, the indicated nights are on all major rental sites (Airbnb, VRBO, etc), as well as our website. We then cut you a check for your rented nights. Super simple, and without any human interaction by the owner, just a push of a button in our app. What ongoing costs are there? Standard Operational costs (taxes, insurance, utilities, etc.) as well as property management fees are all split evenly amongst the owners based on their ownership stake. We post all expected monthly costs for each property on our website under each listing (go look). You only pay for the portion and time you own. Does the home come furnished? All of our properties come completely turnkey and professionally designed. Think parade home quality down to the detail in each Ember property. Prices on our site are inclusive of a fully turnkey home. Ember is changing the game when it comes to vacation home ownership and experience. Check out more 👇 👇 www.emberhome.com What questions do you have about Ember?

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“You can’t solve climate with SaaS.” 🌎 Going from science project to profitable business model is hard for most deep tech startups. It’s the valley of death. But some—like the ones that need hundreds of millions in capex to prove their tech at scale—have it harder. Here’s to the climate tech startups that are literally saving the world for us when there are much easier ways to make money. And shout out to the investors large and small who have the patience and vision to back them. Founders, you can do it! You’ll need more focus than most, and your capital stack will be different. But we’re running out of time to get this right, and we need you to succeed. Lisbeth Kaufman Stephen Blalock Shaima Sharif Jason C. Alex Anderson Khaled Al Huraimel Fares Almazrooei Laura Bowen #climatetech #deeptech

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When beginning as a founder one of my biggest challenges that I never considered was... Loneliness! 💬 After speaking with several founders, it turns out this actually isn't uncommon. For the first eight months of founding Remy, I had no dedicated workspace and was either working from my bedroom or in cafes. 🛌 The problem? I didn't have a community of familiar faces around me. In cafes, I’d either feel guilty for overstaying my welcome or order a coffee every hour to offset the guilt and feel like a worthwhile customer (I quickly learnt that more coffee doesn’t = more productivity)! ☕️ The loneliness was really difficult. Consider not having regular in-person social interaction Mon-Fri for 8 months... It felt like my own version of COVID lockdown. That's why I'm thrilled to have been accepted into the bursary program Camden Collective. I'm now surrounded by a vibrant community of climate-tech founders who understand the unique challenges I face. And I now have that much-needed in-person social interaction! 🙌🏻 I never thought loneliness would be one of my biggest battles when starting this journey. But I will no longer take for granted the importance of having a community around you. P.s. I feel this photo is probably not the best when talking about all the new people I work around. 👀 #entrepreneurship #founder #community

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Prime Coalition has long taken a different tack to climate finance compared to its for-profit brethren. It makes the usual venture-style investments in startups through Azolla Ventures and also helps philanthropists direct their money to climate-related projects that it deems high impact. Trellis Climate follows the latter model with a focus on middle stages, where capital has grown scarce. #climatetech #climateVC #climatefinance

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