Connie Wu

Great session James Newell and thanks for hosting Jon Prentice and SVB! In terms of the answers and perspective shared from Voyager Capital and James…. The Good (for Seattle investing and VCs) —— * the opportunity in Seattle (and the wider PNW / Cascadia region) that Voyager is still capitalizing on, is that there is a ton of potential in Seed to Series A investing that isn’t as accessible elsewhere. * SF and other markets are saturated and less engaged as investors at this stage. * talent pool here is massive, especially on the engineering and product side. What would be a “Game Changer” for Seattle —— * there is a talent shortage especially in terms of sales and marketers locally. * Few sales and marketers want to do $0 - $1M journey again if prior successful. * Angels are more private here, and may not feel the need to give back to the start up community if that isn’t how they made their wealth Outside of Seattle specific feedback: —— * Founders need to be doers, not “leaders of leaders” (an issue with those coming from big tech); talent need to meet the stage and act accordingly. * AI as a tool and business foundation is only important in terms of delivering business value. * AI powered firms need to show they have an ability to access proprietary data or be linked intimately to workflows or both to be a sound investment [this is established consensus among investors] * Investing, especially very early stage, should be run as a process. Be your own best BDR for fundraising. And finally …. The top 2 pieces of advice most often given to founders…. 1) Try to avoid VC capital to the degree you can [which means you have a capital efficient business]. 2) find a co-founder to complement your skills vs doing it all on your own.

7

Ascend just released this new interview about why I love investing in Seattle/Pacific Northwest (PNW) startups at Ubiquity Ventures. Ascend is the most active pre-seed investor in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Portland, and more) and is run by Kirby Winfield. Thanks to Ascend's Nate Bek for the interview! Check it out the full interview: https://lnkd.in/giU2Wy3V A few snippets of what I said: ⭐️ On investing in Seattle (vs the Bay Area) "Companies like Auth0, Esper, Remitly, and others have demonstrated that they can start, grow, and thrive in Seattle. This is thanks to the continuous growth of hometown giants like Amazon and Microsoft, whose employees might outgrow the cultures at those companies." ⭐️ Why I fell in love with VC "First is about following new trends, nerding out on technologies, and getting inspired by new ideas .. resonates with the nerd engineer and the 5-year-old in me that used to love reading about new technologies ... [Next is] the innards of how companies are run, being in those pivotal meetings and discussions that change the direction of a company. These hard conversations about pivots, understanding metrics, and trying to separate the storytelling around startups from internal operations. That was the meat of building an exciting startup, which is quite different from just nerding out on cool new technologies. " And thank you to all the Pacific Northwest startups I've been privileged to invest in and work with: Eugenio P. and Jon Gelsey at Auth0 by Okta, Yadhu Gopalan at Esper, Fredrik Rydén at Olis Robotics, Claire Watts at ThruWave Inc., Adam Schoenfeld & Aviel Ginzburg at Simply Measured, Milkana Brace at Jargon, Yuriy Bulygin & Alex Bazhaniuk at Eclypsium, Inc. #seattle #seattletech #pacificnorthwest #pnwtech #portland

62

6 Comments

Triangle startup ecosystem - first thanks for the incredible generosity that you showed over the last 2wks to help folks impacted by Helene. Here's a last update on our Hurricane Helene relief efforts with a final 'how can you help' ask. The TL;DR - our nascent effort has matured and morphed into the WCEN. The most urgent need has moved from supplies to funding the teams out on the ground that need specialty items like gas, oxygen tanks, starlinks, etc. There's a gofundme, this is a certified 501(c)(3) here-> https://lnkd.in/e4NdxuW8 What is the WCEN you ask?!.... o There were several operating groups that were able to grassroots consolidate efforts under the Western Carolina Emergency Network (WCEN) umbrella and they have a website up that is improving every day: https://lnkd.in/ePYP6_JJ o WCEN's goal is to provide services to survivors until temporary infrastructure can be re-built. There are over 1m people in Western NC without shelter and basic necessities. o WCEN is providing: -> Reconnaissance -> Search + Rescue ( + Recovery) -> Rapid Supply Response / Air Support -> Medical Care o WCEN has these network partners: -> Operation Airdrop Inc- Air support including planes and helicopters -> Carolina Calvary - Coordinator for Operation Airdrop -> Razor Nation - ATV support -> Restoration Church @restoration church - Josh Brown and Ryan Honeycutt- supply collection sites and delivery -> Apex Defense - Search and Rescue, Security -> Lincoln County Airport - Pilot coordinator -> AJ - Heavy Lift Drone support -> GSDF team - C&C logistics, Special Forces team coordinator -> Reagan Madison Inc. team- Back office, infrastructure, and fundraising,FOB coordination (Crystal Suazo, CPA - who looped this together and we connected with here on LI!) -> WRTE, Inc - Legal, tax, fiduciary support -> Christina Marie Noel - Christina Noel + volunteers - Strategic marketing & communications -> United National Weather Team - Medical support with ATV abilities if anyone, especially corps would like to donate $, volunteers, trucks, etc. please contact William McGuire (on the ground items), Rebecca Ross / Jess Porta (Triangle-based corp donations/logistics). We're getting the last truck of items at Raleigh Founded out and future donations should be made at: Electric Supply Co 207 Bickett Blvd Raleigh NC, 27608 Want more ideas on how to have an impact? https://lnkd.in/euNxS8kd Thanks again everyone!

87

5 Comments

Many people have asked that I share the keynote presentation from Coatue’s East Meets West conference from this past June. This gives a great perspective on both public and private markets and how we see the impact on investing. #coatue #venturecapital

87

4 Comments

Have you updated your custom instructions? “They’re the secret power up that make everything you do with ChatGPT better!” Henrik Werdelin and I love learning from the best, and this conversation is certainly no exception. We sat down with Dan Shipper—prolific writer, technologist, and co-founder and CEO of Every Inc. — who insisted on the existence of a “secret power up” to supercharge interactions with ChatGPT! Dan walked us through his playbook of writing an AI-playbook: custom instructions provide a “user manual” for every chat interaction. That means faster output, unexpected connections, and even better, no more starting from scratch each time. Dan revealed how carefully honing your custom instructions can transform your AI interactions, making them smoother, more personalized, more creative, and insanely efficient. Here's a sneak peek of how to level up: • Custom Instructions: Tailor AI responses by providing background on who you are, what you care about, and how it should respond. • Save Time: Let AI do the thinking for you by preloading it with the right information. • Maximize Creativity: Watch as AI makes connections you never knew you needed, streamlining your workflow effortlessly. • Get ChatGPT to help: If you’re not sure what your custom instructions should include, ask ChatGPT to interview you and give you a draft to refine to unlock super powers you never knew you were missing. This episode is filled with ways to hone and maximize your leverage with ChatGPT—listen to the full thing by clicking the link in the comments.

39

5 Comments

If you missed key insights from Matt McIlwain(Madrona) at Seattle Venture Day I took some time to summarize a few of the key points! How should small startups or emerging companies think about partnering with enterprises? Enterprises are very motivated to have better solutions, Early stage startups have to think differently and think outside the existing structure silos that the current SaaS applications represent, think outside the generally structured data that lives in databases. Think more about data lakes and unstructured data and crossflows, flows that live across current Saas and structure application. Matt thinks its in the crossflows with the differently structured data that’s where some of the big breakthroughs are going to come with breaking into working with big enterprises at the agentic layer. Overlaps between the current AI boom and the .com boom in Seattle? Less GTM talent than Engineering talent here in Seattle. A lot of corporate capital here, Microsoft and Amazon market cap is over 5T today so a lot of the experts that helped build these companies and worked on cloud technologies, applied AI, Robotics, etc.. have helped grow the startup ecosystem here in Seattle. What is Matts framework for selection companies that are investable in this AI boom? The chip layer is saturated with capital from big cloud and harder to return capital. Matt thinks the agentic and enabling layer there will be a lot more winners. Functional and domain specific solutions are great – Gradial is an example on the marketing side. Madrona wants to see founders who infatuated with the problem they see and are better suited to solve that problem than anyone else. Matts thoughts on the M&A and IPO markets? IPO markets have pretty much stayed soft this year, but M&A is going to pick up a good bit.  There is pressure on the Mag 7 and larger companies from the FTC but a lot more happening in the middle market like Atlassian and Docusign, etcc. Companies that are between 20b and 100b in market cap have to figure out how to increase their market position/AI talent through acquisitions. PE is also hungry to put their capital to work and very aggressive at putting their capital to work. Matt believes he will see VC groups getting bought up by PE groups in different forms. They may allow VCs and founders to keep some of their capital and to re-up in some of those deals. What should founders look for from investors? Matt believes having a consortium of investors is largely a good thing and having great early investors are important in helping you grow. It’s also valuable to have someone who is your lead champion and will roll up their sleeves with you every week. Madrona loves founders who are coachable but not too coachable – If the investor has all the best ideas something is not right. The founder should be leading the way! Pablo Casilimas Justis Mendez OneSixOne Ventures

113

9 Comments

I moved to San Francisco while most of my The Wharton School peers went into NYC’s banking and consulting scene. Why? Because the corporate grind wasn’t for me — I felt I would be more at home in the world of tech and startups. So, I optimized for my happiness as I usually do when faced with a fork in the road - I consciously make choices that will bring me joy. In life and business, most people chase stability, status, or higher paychecks. I’ve always chosen a different path not once but time and again: 1/ I chose to embrace the unknown and build something new at Titan Capital rather than take up a cushy gig at a so-called big-name firm. Why? Because it's about being with people who push you and make the challenges worthwhile. You’ll spend thousands of hours with them in high-pressure situations - you better like being around them! 2/ I embraced intermittent fasting which gives me plenty of leeway to enjoy my favorite dark chocolate ice cream, ignoring all the noise around restrictive diets. Why? Because health isn’t punishment—it’s about finding a system that brings joy and balance. I could cut out my chilled treats (and also be grumpy) but to what end? 3/ Sometimes people in my age group pride themselves on being productivity maestros. It’s almost a competition to see who can cram in the most podcasts, side projects and networking events on top of 80+ hour work weeks. For me Sundays are about chilling with my doggo and watching old Hollywood movies. Why? Because I know a physically and mentally rejuvenated Shiv is a more productive Shiv in the long term. When you optimize for happiness, you can push harder, stay focused longer, and keep going when others burn out.✨ I say this to all the newcomers also — take happiness as a strategy to drive long-term growth and you’ll never hate Mondays 🤗😂 #people #happiness #life #growth

272

43 Comments

Very impressed with the Wevo Energy story and I share those feelings. It is never easy facing all challenges and complexities. #Podcast #StartupJourney #SolarEnergy #Entrepreneurship #WEVO #SolarEdge #Acquisition

7

Urgency is the heartbeat of high-performing teams and companies. Without it, even the most talented teams risk falling into a plateau of low-level productivity. Leaders must consistently drive tempo and intensity to avoid this trap—aligning everyone towards ambitious goals and maintaining focus on what matters most. At the No Priors podcast, Frank Slootman of Snowflake says it best: urgency isn’t just about speed. It’s about setting higher standards, fostering alignment, and ensuring the team thrives under a shared mission. It’s the fuel that powers extraordinary outcomes and defines a company’s culture. At Magento, this mindset wasn’t just a guiding principle—it was an expectation. We fostered momentum and drive—setting ambitious milestones and encouraging the team to move fast and deliver results. Complacency wasn’t an option, and we worked hard to avoid it. The result? A team that consistently delivered exceptional outcomes by staying focused. Each milestone wasn’t just a win—it reinforced our culture of high performance and collaboration. For leaders, the plateau is a choice. ➡️ What strategies do you use to avoid the productivity plateau? https://lnkd.in/gmEFnWCw

16

2 Comments

Meka Asonye of First Round Capital joined me to share this really valuable insight for founders (when choosing a VC partner): “Choose the person who is going to help you make your company worth 10x.” In our conversation with Meka, we talk about this and get into how the VC ecosystem and modern GTM engines are more similar than you’d expect. Here are some of the highlights that stood out to me from the conversation: There's more money and more venture capitalists now than ever before. Now, there are 100s of seed round players and even angel investors who can write seed checks.  He talks about how First Round Capital has an edge in this game to stand out from the noise: “We think of ourselves as a professional services company. We are in service of founders. We will do anything, at any hour, to help give you a slight advantage.” But the game is still about fighting for those inches every single day. “A lot of people forget that those advantages are made in the moments when no one is watching.” Our conversation led us discussing correlations between VC and the modern GTM engine. We talked about how combining 1st and 3rd party data for a GTM team will give them the edge needed to win deals.  The power of turning this data into insights to create that slight advantage is how we’re thinking about it at ZoomInfo.  One of my favorite takeaways from Meka when talking about this: “When you’re sitting side by side with your customers, they give you the raw and real feedback that you don’t get in any other way. You see it, feel it, and understand what you need to build when you’re building alongside your customers.” This perfectly captures our approach at ZoomInfo Labs. We're in the trenches with our customers, building the future of GTM together. Finding that slight edge is the path to victory, It’s a great conversation. Listen to the full episode – link in the comments.

42

4 Comments

🚀 Excited to share my recent Leader Spotlight interview, where I dive into my journey in product management, scaling teams, and driving innovation across industries. We covered everything from the challenges of leading cross-functional teams to balancing strategy and execution in high-growth environments. Check out the full interview to learn about my experiences at EnergySage, TripAdvisor, and more, along with some insights on building products that truly matter. 👇 Read it here: https://lnkd.in/e43Y5Fbe Would love to hear your thoughts and connect with fellow product leaders and enthusiasts! #ProductManagement #Leadership #ScalingTeams #Innovation #GrowthMindset

54

Three lessons from building and launching a P2P payments app without doing the proper customer validation first (despite knowing better): 1) Building something you need is a great starting point - but not enough to validate an idea. As someone drawn to building solutions, I’m an early tech adopter. This led me to overestimate consumers’ willingness to onboard, especially with a P2P payments app that requires KYC/KYB compliance and relies on a network effect to be useful. 2) Manual solutions are often best to start with It’s good business to be in business - transitioning from ideating to operating as early as possible is the BEST way to learn effectively. While the move fast and break things mindset has attracted well-deserved skepticism, getting stuck in a multi-year build trap distracted me from critical real-world validation. 3) Consumer appetite shifts quickly In my case, the proliferation of free and instant P2P payment options like Zelle added additional pricing pressure that I couldn’t compete with. This disincentivized the consumer event/payment collection market, turning my bottom-up go-to-market strategy upside down. Pitch (https://www.pitch.fun) is currently on the back burner as I’ve begun building custom solutions in various industries to sharpen my skills, solve specific problems, gain a hands-on understanding of operations, pain points, and workflows, and build a network of experts to lean on as I keep my eyes peeled for high-impact opportunities.

11

Being a founder means being 100% in it, all the time, especially through the lows. It was fun to run down memory lane with Sequoia and discuss how DoorDash navigated moments of uncertainty to empower local commerce on a global scale. Check out the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gxmx2nhy

849

5 Comments

The best entrepreneurs and most accomplished are humble and grounded. I am truly inspired by the panel discussion at the conference hosted by TiE Silicon Valley with Jensen Huang and Navin Chaddha . Interesting takeaways: Co-creating with the application developers and using their inputs to develop from an application perspective. Culture: Non-hierarchial structure at Nvidia (70 direct reports!). Founder traits: Unassuming and grounded personality. #Resilience was highlighted as one of the most important traits of a founder.

26

Starting a company is one of the boldest moves anyone can make, and after a decade of working with early-stage founders from Google to Sequoia, I’ve learned the hardest part is often taking that first leap. It’s terrifying to share your idea and face the question, “Is this worth working on?” But that initial feedback is what transforms uncertainty into action, and every great company began with someone brave enough to ask for it. That’s why I’ve teamed up with Afore Capital (the folks who originally popularized the "pre-Seed" category) to launch a Rapid-Fire Idea Pitch Session—a chance for tech builders to get quick, actionable feedback and build the confidence to move forward or pivot. If you’re tinkering on an idea, waiting for the right moment to share it—this is it. Apply here: https://lu.ma/3bt43xi5

47

3 Comments

Thinking about expanding your startup internationally? Join me and Grant Evans at Stripe for our online event on October 10, 9:00 a.m.–9:30 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m.–12:30 p.m. ET to hear how Rippling and other startups are navigating global growth! Topics to include (1) signals that could indicate timing is now, (2) the Rippling "second mover advantage" in SaaS markets and how that impacted the global strategy, (3) R&D spend and when to pursue the really hard/complex international product roadmap, and (4) what NOT to do when launching an international office! Here's a peak at my answer for #4: A. Isolate the international office, in terms of strategy, hiring and connectivity back to the mothership.  B. Tell the office to do things on their own: hire your own leader to run things and figure out that market basically alone, don’t bother us (at HQ) with too many requests/questions. C. If you want you can copy/paste our playbooks for your market. Just know we want fast results with little room for flexibility. D. Oh yeah, lastly, we aren't going to seed your office with any culture carriers, you are going to build culture all on your own. ^^^ We did the opposite of all these things. 😊 🚀 🌍 Register here: https://lnkd.in/gX-QSgDY

84

6 Comments

🤔 It may be an unpopular opinion, but I think it's always best to be first to the party 🥳 Innovation is the engine of growth, and the partnership between MikMak and DoorDash is a testament to this principle. This first-of-its-kind integration is a game-changer, revolutionizing how consumers shop and brands sell. Imagine this: you're scrolling through your favorite social media platform, see an ad for a product you love, and within moments, you can have it delivered to your doorstep via DoorDash. This is the power of MikMak's integration with DoorDash, a seamless fusion of social commerce and on-demand delivery. But this partnership isn't just about convenience; it's about empowering brands with valuable data and insights. MikMak's closed-loop attribution provides a granular understanding of consumer behavior, enabling brands to optimize their marketing strategies and drive sales. 🚀 This is the future of omnichannel shopping, a world where every interaction is a potential purchase, and every purchase is a data point. MikMak and DoorDash are leading the charge, and I'm excited to see where this journey takes us. 🗞️ Read the Press Release here: https://lnkd.in/e-VqFtSb? #MikMak #DoorDash #Omnichannel #ecommerce #innovation #marketing #attribution #data #insights #partnership #futureofretail

69

6 Comments

Innovative technology and AI have the potential to create a lasting, positive impact on all aspects of society. Meta's Llama 3.1 is already enabling companies and developers worldwide to leverage its new capabilities to address critical global challenges, with a focus on education, the environment, and open innovation. We’re excited to begin accepting applications for the Llama 3.1 Impact Grants, the next iteration of a larger portfolio of work we’ve invested in over the past year to support organisations as they pursue their ideas for how open-source AI can be used to address social challenges in their communities. #Llama3 #LlamaImpactGrants

7

What prompted it all: “Could we electrify the cold chain? What would it look like to do battery-powered shipping?” What they made: The device is a white plastic cube, small enough that it can be held with one hand. Pop the lid, and inside up to four vials can be stored. On the outside, there’s a USB-C port to charge a lithium-ion battery that powers a solid-state heat pump, which provides cooling or heating depending on outside conditions. The cube can keep samples at 3 degrees C (37.4 degrees F) for at least 56 hours. Thermometers, accelerometers and GPS keep track of the package, and a cellular connection lets customers keep tabs on its precious cargo. Who made it: Hannah Sieber and the Artyc team use battery-powered refrigeration to create sustainable and reliable shipping solutions for temperature-sensitive items -- starting off with pharmaceuticals; with a total addressable market down the road including perishable foods, chemicals/materials to name a few. So proud to be an investor and supporter.

15

1 Comment