Colleen Konetzke

Thanks so much, Ty Findley, for having me as a guest on Heavy Hitters: The Digital Industrial Podcast! It was great to chat about: 🏭 Our launch of the Industrial Renaissance practice at Bain Capital Ventures that builds upon our investments in scaled companies like Kiva, ShipBob, FourKites, Inc., Vention and MaintainX and many emerging seed and Series A companies. ✨ The tailwinds that are converging and creating a perfect ecosystem for innovation including unprecedented technological advancements, compounding geopolitical and environmental pressures, public and private alignment, and the new wave of talent entering the space. 🤠 Core insights from 20 years of investing in founders transforming the physical world - namely that the key is still software! https://lnkd.in/eJGR9TkB

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio + Health Roundup highlights significant data trends, my stance on covering funding announcements, new partnerships, and action across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💰 Funding: The Way I Plan to Cover Funding Announcements You may have seen reports of a local Bio & Health startup’s funding round through an SEC report filing. While some outlets have covered this, my position is not to. I prefer to support our builders directly rather than trolling the filings for scoops. There is plenty of real investigative journalism that our city would be well served by if that is where they focused. Remember I am not a journalist and I am not the media. When the company is ready to announce their round officially, I’ll gladly shout it to the rooftops. 📊 Data Peter Walker at Carta reports that in 2017, Biopharma and Medical Devices captured just under 10% of all VC dollars. By 2023, this figure rose to 17.7%, and in Q1 2024, it reached 24%. The overarching tailwinds favor our sector and region with trends towards Bio & Health and the physical & digital intersection. Energy and hardware, two other sector blossoming in Central Texas, also saw similar share gains. 🤝 M&A and Partnerships Sensi.AI, a 24/7 senior care intelligence agent, is partnering with Caring Senior Service to deploy SensiAI’s platform in Caring’s 50 locations across the US. This partnership allows seniors a better opportunity to age gracefully in their homes. 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle BioMedSA is hosting an event called Women in Bioscience, Thursday June 20th. It’s designed to connect and empower women in the bioscience industry across Central Texas, and features Randi Brosterman Hutchens discussing "Building your Personal Board." Find the link to the event in the comments. Houston-based Lokum, a staffing solution to connect clinicians and clinical staff to health care facilities, has raised a $700K pre-seed round. Congrats Ayoade (Joy) Ademuyewo on the raise. What’s Next? #AustinNext #LifeSciences #Healthcare #Biotechnology

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Summary: A settlement agreement has been reached between Venture capital firm Fearless Fund and the American Alliance for Equal Rights, resulting in the shutting down of Fearless Fund's Strivers Grant program. The program was initially developed to provide funding for small businesses owned by Black women, but faced a lawsuit for alleged discrimination against non-Black founders. Key takeaways: The Fearless Fund's program has been shut down due to a lawsuit from AAER claiming it discriminated against non-Black founders. The fear of legal repercussions has resulted in the Fearless Fund losing partnerships and shifting focus away from initiatives benefiting minorities. Despite the settlement, Fearless Fund remains committed to helping under-resourced entrepreneurs. Counter arguments: Some argue that using the Civil Rights Act of 1866, intended to help the formerly enslaved, against a program benefitting Black entrepreneurs is ironic and counterproductive. The shutting down of the program is a blow to the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement, as companies continue to struggle with addressing disparities in funding and opportunities for minority groups.

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BLOWN AWAY to have been interviewed alongside such trailblazers for this Fortune piece by Allie Garfinkle that details the state of Venture Capital as it relates to DEI. The piece highlights Primary Venture Partners recent launch of Factor Fellowship, a new nonprofit connecting untapped, exceptional talent in New York City to careers in venture-backed startups, spearheaded by Lisa Lewin, Tom Ogletree and Benjamin Sun. In the piece, I chat about the impact we hope to make for underrepresented founders with Peerless - our $1M pitch competition. TOP QUOTES from the piece... When asked about the growing conservative backlash against DEI, as some states ban DEI initiatives - “We’re not going to let you shut us up,” said Almodovar. “We’re not going to let you say this isn’t important, and we’re going to double down on saying this is really important.” When asked, "Why $1M for Peerless?" - “We wanted to really empower these founders to say, ‘take this risk,’” said Desiree Almodovar, AlleyCorp operator-in-residence and who is leading Peerless, which will hold its first competition on June 20. And most importantly, Allie writes, "We don’t talk about DEI as much as we used to. But if something was important on principle before, isn’t it always important? Yes, but it’s only possible to do something about it if people keep talking about it, and acting." JUST ONE MORE WEEK LEFT TO APPLY FOR PEERLESS!

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Check out my recent post on why President Trump is the forcing function for us to solve the “Missing Middle” and catch the industrial Tsunami of onshoring coming to the US!

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Excited to join Blackout Tuesday # 18 at LocalGlobe this coming Tuesday centered around the theme: 'Increasing Venture-backed Black Founders: Journey from Seed to Series A and Beyond'. This event will focus on the challenges Black founders face when scaling startups and provide insights on navigating growth stages from Pre-seed to Series A. After a panel of founders sharing their experiences, the breakout session will dive into practical strategies for scaling. ✏ Register here: https://lnkd.in/eHZpMDN2 Launched in 2020, Blackout Tuesday aims to: 1. Increase Black representation in VCs 2. Boost venture funding for Black founders 3. Elevate Black employees in venture-backed companies 4. Support Black GPs 5. Increase Black or Black-aligned LP representation Balderton Capital Phoenix Court Blackout Tuesday

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One month left to apply!!!! Apply to NETI's Climate Tech Bootcamp Cohort 3.0, a pre-accelerator program powered by Riffle Ventures, Climate Tech Bootcamp, OHUB and Greater New Orleans, Inc. – GNO, Inc. part of H2TheFuture, a Build Back Better Regional Challenge of The Economic Development Administration. This bootcamp is a 10-week pre-accelerator program for climate tech and new energy entrepreneurs in the United States that have an interest in building in or expanding to South Louisiana. ‍ Five (5) founders from the program will pitch for a $100,000 (US) investment on the terms of their current round. Application is in the comments and here's a quick overview as well: - 📆 When: September 3 - October 31, 2024 - ⏰ Deadline to Apply: August 27, 2024 - 💻 Location: Virtual - 🆓 Cost: Free. The $5,000 per person fee is waived thanks to GNO, Inc. and The Economic Development Administration's Build Back Better Regional Challenge. - 💰 Funding: Up to $100,000 US (equity investment) in current round to the top startup selected at the end of the cohort. - 🈺 Cohort Size: 25-30 entrepreneurs - 🌍 Cohort Geography: United States - 📈 Stage: We welcome applicants from multiple stages, though having a minimum viable product is ideal.

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Practice your #voting skills and help us highlight #regenerativefinance at SXSW!

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Such an excellent conversation this week. For those in venture capital, this is a must listen. https://lnkd.in/gQUgM8q9

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I’ve aggregated a list of 50+ VC roles in one spreadsheet. It’s updated weekly and can be filtered by location, position, firm, etc. Check out the latest list here (as of June 24th) 👇 https://lnkd.in/dRC3XtjS Tag someone who needs this in the comments 💭 — Want a quick snapshot? Here are a few of my favorite postings: Associate, M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund Link: https://lnkd.in/eNFaaSBy Associate & Principal, Wischoff Ventures Link: https://lnkd.in/gu6Mun7p Consumer Investor, Stripes Link: https://lnkd.in/eZdRk6jV Venture Lead, Struck Studio Link: https://lnkd.in/exGcNHJ5 New Ventures Associate, Live Nation Entertainment Link: https://lnkd.in/e3mBYGCt — I’m creating more tools, guides, and other free resources for Junior VCs to (1) 2x their network and (2) carve their path to partner. If you found this helpful, check out the Venture House website for more 👇 https://venturehouse.xyz/ #venturecapital #startup #recruiting #hiring

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Patrick Sieb and I spoke with Jared Lynch from The Australian about how a potential Trump administration may impact the momentum of climate tech investments.  Despite the headline-grabbing rhetoric around ending the "green new scam," many of the factors supporting climate tech resilience appear highly robust, driven by market forces, state-level policies, corporate commitments and private investment. Here are some key takeaways: 1️⃣ Policy Resilience: Not all policies can be easily unwound. Initiatives like production tax credits for renewables have bipartisan support and deep roots in the economy. 330,000 new jobs created by the Inflation Reduction Act - mainly in red and purple state which many republicans won't want to see unwound 2️⃣ Market Forces: Renewables are now cost-competitive with fossil fuels. This shift is driven by market dynamics rather than policy alone. 3️⃣ Corporate Commitment: Leading companies, including Fortescue, Amazon, and Apple, are setting ambitious decarbonization targets and investing heavily to achieve them. This signals a strong commitment to climate tech, regardless (or in spite of) political leadership. "Corporates are leaning in and taking action, irrespective of the policies... It’s about making them more profitable, de-risking their business, de-risking their supply chains.” Climate tech is about more than emissions reduction—it’s a competitive edge in today’s market. If you want to learn more about Climate Tech Partners and the wholesale VC fund we are raising, go to https://lnkd.in/gDGah2Vr #climateaction #corporateinnovation #VentureCapital https://lnkd.in/g84TPQAA

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✨ Breaking: BFM Fund Announces New Fund.- BFM Fund A seed-stage fund focusing on founders who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, promoting diversity in venture capital. https://www.bfm.fund Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups#Venturecapital

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Participating in Cohort 14 of the VC Lab has been an energizing experience so far. I am learning so much about the ins and outs of being an emerging fund manager and how to succeed in this space. Today they hosted a panel for Women in VC that provided some real world advice from some fantastic panelists. The curriculum is rigorous for sure, but rewarding. If you are curious about why this is such an exciting area check out this article. #venturecapital #vc #investing https://lnkd.in/gMMM_mwp

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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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RVP Mythbuster: A common misconception is that Revelry Venture Partners only invests in New Orleans & Louisiana. Wrong! We hang our hat in New Orleans proudly, and LOVE supporting our local ecosystem, but our mandate is to invest in and with our national network of excellent founders and VC partners. Fund I deal breakdown below (as of Q2'24). This mix will be updated as we continue to deploy this and subsequent funds.

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Divestment requirements have a very real cost. This reduces the ability of endowments and foundations to support their mission driven enterprises. As the list of divestment demands grow, at what point do the consequences outweigh the perceived benefits? Hiding at the end of this article is the below quote: Golden admitted the divestment had undermined Princo’s returns, saying the endowment “would have been better off” otherwise. But he pointed to a bigger concern: the pressure to “keep adding things to divest from”. “Fossil fuels are necessarily part of getting to where the overall economy needs to be [and] it would be impossible for the world to not use fossil fuels tomorrow,” he said. “Divestment is a pretty weak tool to change the economy.” https://lnkd.in/g3SeC8rg #energy #investing #vc

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Cost-effective geothermal energy has the ability to fully transition and decarbonize our grids and industrial systems - in the near term! We believe the team and technology at XGS Energy will realize this vision and we couldn't be happier to be working with them on a geothermal-powered reality.

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Well-written and sourced article describing what's going in seed-stage venture market. At 9point8 Collective we tend to orbit the seed-stage (both ideating and developing companies to reach seed and helping post-seed companies refactor and scale in anticipation of A) and for many companies it's a critical inflection point which determines their long term success or failure. The main takeaways I was able to gather: 1️⃣ Many startups that raised seed rounds in 2021-2022 are struggling to secure Series A funding due to tighter market conditions and increased investor expectations. 2️⃣ Seed investors are becoming more cautious, leading to longer diligence processes and a preference for startups with strong traction or experienced founders. As a result, valuations have stayed relatively high even as deal flow reduces. 3️⃣ Startups are adopting various strategies to navigate this challenging environment, including cutting costs, raising bridge rounds or convertible notes, and M&A/acqui-hires. 4️⃣ Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for both startups and investors in this new landscape, particularly for those who can adapt to the changing market conditions. Investors are accumulating dry powder -- and with rates on the decline -- will be looking to deploy into companies with stronger fundamentals than their 2021-2022 counterparts.

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We took the pulse of emerging fund managers about what it's been like for them during these post-ZERP, venture-capital-winter years. #venturecapital #veteranventures

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