Benjamin Lapidus

The Information is out with breaking news about Bolt finalizing a $450M round at a whopping $14B valuation for their Series F. This is complete with Ryan Breslow returning as the CEO. While this fundraising is obviously impressive, the ultimatum is that existing investors "Have to buy at twice their existing positions at the higher valuation." Most egregious is their written threat of forcing the existing Preferred Shares into $0.01 common shares if they do not." It will be interesting to see how BlackRock and General Atlantic respond to this direct threat. #management #venturecapital #privateequity #fintech #capitalmarkets https://lnkd.in/eZZec5kT

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It's a fascinating look into the common pitfalls that entrepreneurs face when building their startups. The article dives deep into the importance of focus, perseverance, and the ability to pivot when necessary. It's a reminder that success doesn't come overnight and that resilience is key in the face of challenges. Have you faced similar challenges in your entrepreneurial journey? What lessons have you learned along the way? #Entrepreneurship #Startup #FounderAdvice

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The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

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In 2013, Lori Torres felt an undeniable spark when she conceived the idea for Parcel Pending, a smart locker solution designed to tackle the package crisis in apartment buildings. Despite being the primary breadwinner in her family with a thriving real estate career, she took a monumental risk. She left her secure job, sold the family’s cherished home, and even persuaded her mother to risk her property for a loan. Within a year of these sacrifices, Lori had developed her first smart lockers. Her innovation soon caught on, with her lockers becoming a key solution for property management companies and residents. By the end of 2014, Lori’s commitment had not only secured her first major order but also attracted investors, setting the stage for tremendous growth. Within six years, Parcel Pending was sold for $100 million, turning her mother’s loan into a $1 million return and ensuring her family's future. Lori’s story highlights a key lesson for anyone seeking investors: truly committing to your vision can make a world of difference. By investing your own resources and security, you show investors just how dedicated you are to your idea. When you put everything on the line, it not only proves your commitment but also makes a strong case to potential backers. If you’re all in, it’s far easier to convince others to believe in your dream, and it could be the turning point in making it a reality. Are you prepared to go all in on your entrepreneurial dreams? Grab a copy of my book, “Thinking Bigger”, at the link below to read my personal experience chasing my dream and the advice I would share to anyone starting today. https://lnkd.in/dZpQYX6D #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #Startups #Investment #ThinkBigger

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Net Energy Optimizer (NEO) - A Commercial Energy Modeling Tool for architects, engineers, product manufacturers utilities, and building owners: https://j.mp/3zlzFCt In this video, Eric Flower walks Green Builder Matt Hoots through an HVAC system comparison for a 150,000 sf office as well as a ratings analysis for both a new and existing building. One interesting output is the ability to see how buildings are using energy dollars by use. A decision maker seeking to electrify can see the effect of each competitive system from and electrical and gas perspective. The tool will also analyze whether or not the planned design meets certain certifications or standards. For existing buildings, NEO will help building owners and managers compare real outcomes with planned outcomes as part of evaluating operations and making key retrofit decisions. NEO is primarily for primarily for commercial, mixed used and multifamily buildings, as small as 5000 square feet and with no real upper limit to building size. #NEO #NetnergyOptimizer #energymodeling #architects #engineers #manufacturers #building #buildings #construction #greenbuilding #architecture #engineering #energy #software #embodiedenergy #LCA #energyefficiency

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We know property management is evolving, but how fast? Looking ahead, what would it take to completely change the property management landscape as we know it? If you work in tech, real estate, VC, or just have opinions, we want to hear from YOU on this topic. As part of Alpaca VC’s ongoing focus on disruptive technologies shaping the future of real estate, we’re running our first Futurecasting Survey to crowdsource a wide range of industry insights. We will publish the findings before the end of the year. Why this question and why now: it’s often said that real estate takes a decade to truly embrace new technologies, but we’ve seen digital platforms, smart home technologies, and automation reshape many aspects of real estate. Especially in the age of AI, will property management be noticeably different in 2026? Or will it look largely the same as today?   As a team, our conversations often ask, what could be the next wave of innovation? Not just incremental improvements on what we have now—but the completely new ideas that could disrupt the industry in just a few years. We’re excited to aim these questions at property management and unpack insights alongside our industry peers.    To share your thoughts with us and be a part of our first Futurecasting Survey, fill out our single-question survey: https://lnkd.in/ewgMAmdC #venturecapital #proptech

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Half of renters now spend 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities. 22.4 million households are severely rent-burdened, spending 50% or more of their income on housing. Rent prices have increased by 33.7% since the pandemic began. Multifamily rental prices have grown by 2.5% over the past year, while single-family rentals have increased by 4.3% These staggering figures underscore the urgent need for action. Policymakers, housing providers, and community organizations must work together to address this crisis. I have a few ideas for solutions: 1️⃣ Increased affordable housing development — Proptech companies can utilize AI-powered analytics to identify optimal locations for affordable housing projects, streamline the development process, and optimize resource allocation. 2️⃣ Proptech platforms can implement automated rent calculation and adjustment systems to ensure compliance with rent control regulations and provide transparency to tenants. 3️⃣ Proptech solutions can facilitate secure and transparent lease agreements, automated rent payments, and efficient dispute resolution processes, empowering tenants and protecting their rights. 4️⃣ A more big-picture prospect, Proptech can indirectly support wage increases by improving operational efficiency and reducing costs for property owners and managers, potentially freeing up resources for increased wages. #MyLighthouse #Inflation #Rent #PropTech #Tenants

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As a VC, there are times when you have to choose between prioritizing returns and supporting the founders you work with. It’s not easy because we have a fiduciary duty to our LPs, which, in our case, are primarily non-profits, to maximize returns. At Eniac, we play the long game: if we do what’s best for our founders, it will ultimately benefit our brand, reputation, and relationships, which will be best for our LPs in the long run.

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If you're a SaaS, CPG, or e-commerce business collecting revenue in every state you need to worry about sales taxes now 😫 . Every state has slightly different rules too! I just made an investment in the space to solve this problem, read below 👇 I'm excited to announce a new investment that's targeting that problem. Zamp is announcing it's series A, they work with over 400 companies already (a mix of CPG, SaaS and E-commerce). If you're looking for a solution to the complicated situation of collecting sales taxes for your business, look no further.

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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Tired of spending hours using Excel to underwrite multifamily deals? What if an AI tool could do it in minutes? Come join the session (Aug 6, 5pm - 6pm), and Perry Zheng (CEO of Cash Flow Portal & Pallas Investing) will show you how! RSVP: https://lnkd.in/g5MG-SF6 #AI #multifamily #underwriting #AsianInvestors #RealEstateInvesting

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I'm very interested by what HappyCo is doing in real estate technology right now with its open API marketplace. Speaks to the need for an all-in-one platform for property managers. Tech fatigue with real estate technology is real, especially at the property management level. People don't want to use another app for an app's sake. It needs to provide ease, purpose, and ROI. Need to have, not nice to have. And certainly not using a million different systems. That's exhausting and annoying. HappyCo is a primary maintenance platform, and a lot of Fifth Wall portfolio companies (Wreno and Propexo to name a few) have been teaming up with their "marketplace" -- a cloud-based platform for property operations and management. Their tool streamlines inspections, maintenance, and asset management, which enhances efficiency and compliance for property managers and owners. Great example of real estate technology from Jindou Lee and team on how centralization can improve real estate operations. #proptech

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For project developers building everything from solar infrastructure to data centers, getting and staying compliant with the ever-changing world of tax credits, incentives, carbon market standards, and EPA regulations is confusing, opaque, and incredibly manual. Offstream utilizes LLMs to help those same project developers get and stay compliant via a simple software platform. By helping project developers start with dynamic life cycle assessments (LCAs) - the universally needed building block for most reporting - they bring clarity, transparency and automation to carbon compliance. I sat down with Shared Future Fund portfolio co-founders Varsha Ramesh Walsh and Zach Janicki to get into the weeds about how carbon compliance is being managed today, and how Offstream seeks to disrupt the status quo. CC: Collaborative Fund https://lnkd.in/dxXbNb57

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Who doesn't love a good top 50 list?! Very excited to launch Congruent Ventures and SVB's inaugural 50 by 2050, focused on identifying the companies with the highest potential to drive carbon reduction over the next 25 years. I'm 100% certain that we've missed some amazing companies. I'm also 100% certain the companies on the list are awesome. Sadly, by our own methodology many or our incredible companies at Congruent didn't make the list (but suppose that is as it should be). Check out the report below. Live / interactive list here: https://lnkd.in/dYgCfEv8 Tim De Chant TechCrunch coverage here: https://lnkd.in/dkUJm_Sn The Congruent/SVB team collaboration was awesome Dan Baldi Eliza Cushman Marianne Wu Joshua Posamentier!

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Great analysis of recent #vc trends. Thank you Kaela Roeder and Technical.ly for including my thoughts in the piece. My "expanded" two cents below for anyone curious... It is easy to get excited by what is happening in venture capital these days given the advent of AI. However, for early-stage startups, the numbers tell a more nuanced story. Early-stage deal volume in Q4-2023 was down 66% from the peak (Q4-2021) and a quarter of the deals were down rounds. In 2024, volumes stayed fairly flat relative to 2023 levels (signalizing a normalization to pre-pandemic VC activity) and 32% of deals were down rounds in Q1 (a worsening since year end). Early-stage valuations have spiked back up this year – a pleasant boon for some founders. But, this inflation is largely driven by the excitement around AI and strong demand for capital-efficient, high-growth companies. Many startups have tried to become “dot AI” businesses overnight; however, such tactics are not the “silver bullet” to fundraising challenges and growth. With limited time and capital, funds are on the hunt for companies with bulletproof fundamentals or those with exponential growth potential. If you don’t check one of these two boxes, the VC world looks fundamentally different for you. Locally, there are some positive tailwinds. The D.C. area has outpaced other metro areas in adding AI jobs due in large part to the defense industry and an increasing number of tech companies opening-up federal outposts. Over the long-term, this will be very positive for D.C. startup growth and talent.

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This week Mikal Ventures brings you a 4-week breakdown of the non-US capital market with an emphasis on the Mikal verticals. Over the 4-week period ending May 29, a total of 1,545 new companies were added, with 101,688 companies included in the non-US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. The non-US AI Tech saw the greatest percentage growth in new companies for the period, weighing in at a notable 27%, nearly two times the overall vertical average of 15%. The non-US Heath Tech vertical led the group in transactions. Non-US Med Tech vertical lead in both SEC Filings and news articles. Mikal Ventures publishes these stats on a rolling 4-week basis to provide a perspective on how the verticals and new startups move through time. We hope you find them informative and thought-provoking. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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