Ed Barker

Often taken for granted, this subject carries so much weight. especially in times when startup culture world over is on the run. if the fund seeker knows the requirement and chemistry of the fund provider, they may chose the right time and path. so simply explained below.

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Scaling Investor Outreach: How We're Using AI to Personalize VC Fundraising at Scale As a General Partner at Vibe Capital, I'm always looking for innovative ways to connect with potential investors and grow our fund. Recently, I developed an AI-driven system that's revolutionizing our approach to investor outreach. (Tentative name: Vibey) I'd like to share how we're using cutting-edge technology to build stronger relationships in the VC world. Our challenge was clear: how do we personalize communication with hundreds of potential Limited Partners (LPs) while maintaining efficiency? The solution came in the form of a three-part automated pipeline: 1. Smart Contact Categorization: First, I created a script that taps into the power of AI (specifically, the Claude model) to analyze our vast network of contacts. It combs through our email history, categorizing each contact as a potential LP, a referral source, or other. This crucial step allows us to focus our efforts where they matter most. 2. AI-Powered Personalized Emails: Next, I developed a system that generates highly personalized emails for each potential LP. These aren't your typical templated messages. Our AI crafts unique emails that reference recent interactions, highlight Vibe Capital's latest portfolio successes, and even extend invitations to exclusive events in San Francisco. It's personalization at a scale that would be impossible to achieve manually. 3. Streamlined Email Delivery: Finally, I automated the sending process. This script handles the technical aspects of delivering emails via Gmail's API, carefully managing rate limits and potential errors. It ensures our personalized messages reach investors' inboxes efficiently and reliably. The results are...TBD. We just sent out the emails today! That said, we're now able to reach out to a much larger pool of potential investors with messages that feel personal and relevant. It's allowing us to build and maintain investor relationships more effectively than ever before, which is crucial as we approach our next fund close in Q3 2024. But beyond the immediate benefits, this project represents something bigger. It's about embracing technology to enhance the human touch in our relationships. We're using AI to create more meaningful connections, to start real conversations. As we continue to refine this system, I'm excited about its potential to reshape how we approach investor relations in the VC world. It's a perfect example of how AI can be a powerful tool in building the relationships that drive our industry forward. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this approach. How do you see AI shaping the future of VC and investor relations? #VentureCapital #AI #InvestorRelations #Innovation #TechInnovation #Fundraising #AIinVC #InvestmentStrategy #DigitalTransformation #VCInsights #FutureOfInvesting #PersonalizedOutreach #InvestorEngagement #AIApplications # #ScalableSolutions #InvestmentTech #NextGenVC #Vibecap

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Battery Ventures released their State of Open Cloud report last week. Really cool (and humbling!) to see Ravenna featured in the report alongside industry innovators ... including my other favorite Seattle startup Clarify - I see you Patrick Thompson Austin Hay Ondrej Hrebicek ;). The report analyzes the current AI market "supercycle," and projects a whopping $4 trillion in market value up for grabs 🤯. The point that caught my attention in the report - the emphasis on product design as a "critical force driving fast adoption and accelerating time to value" in AI-powered solutions. I couldn't agree more with this point. At Ravenna, we place a ridiculous emphasis on great product and user experience design as we believe they are essential to driving AI product adoption. Huge 🙏 to the Battery Ventures team for including Ravenna in the report! Link to the report in the comments below.   #Cloud #AI #Innovation #Enterprise #Tech #ITSM #ESM

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Here’s a question investors are often asked: When evaluating early stage companies, how much time do you spend on due diligence around future exits? It’s not surprising we hear this question a lot. Also not surprising: it’s got a wide range of answers depending on the firm. Some don’t spend much time here at all. Others make it a point to put meaningful time in as part of their process. Our current thinking: take the time to do the work on public market comps. At Alpaca VC, we spend significant time understanding how public market investors will  realistically value a business based on margin profile, product, business model & TAM. In short, we want to know: how will this company be valued at scale when we get taken out? Yes, we can acknowledge that the journey toward exit is a windy road and that there may be pivots along the way, but there are still public market companies that have a business model similar to the early stage company you're evaluating. And you can always look at gross profit multiples if you think the margin profile will change over time. So we still do the work on the comps. Quantitative metrics we look at when making the comparison to public market comps include EBITDA multiple, revenue multiple, Gross Profit multiple or all of the above. As part of this process, it’s also important to factor in the public market company’s year-over-year revenue growth as this will also significantly impact the multiple it trades at. Simple example: if you have two public market companies with similar business models and similar margin profiles, but one's growing 100% year over year, and one's growing 50% year over year, then obviously the DCF (discounted cash flow) analysis is going to spit out a very different valuation for the one that's growing faster. Why this matters: When you take all of that information into account as you evaluate an early stage business, you can begin to create a realistic picture of how this company will be valued in the public markets at exit - or how an acquirer will value the company for an acquisition. Strategic acquirers may, of course, pay a premium, but we won’t underwrite for that. This allows us, for example, to form conviction around valuation based on revenue and gross profit predictions. If we think they can do $100M of revenue five years from now, we use this diligence process to form a thesis about whether the characteristics above (product, margin, business model, etc.) will cause the company to be valued at $200M vs. $500M vs. $1B at exit. Curious how other early stage investors think about underwriting an exit and how much time they’re spending on public market comps even though these companies are in their infancy.

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Interesting new surrvey about the VC industry by PitchBook: 13% of VC firms are not planning to raise a new fund and 27% of VC firms have been pushed further thier plans to raise a new fund. That means a 40% decline. No wonder that startups are haveing tough time to raise funds. See article below. https://lnkd.in/exYYyCPu

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Can poop save the planet? 🤔 Well, in Silicon Valley, it's not just a punchline—it's a multimillion-dollar climate solution. Big players are teaming up with startup Vaulted Deep, paying $58.3 million, to pump organic waste underground. The deal was brokered by Frontier Climate, a coalition launched in 2022 by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability. But why are tech giants getting their hands dirty with sewage and manure? Vaulted Deep's technology, rooted in decades-old methods used for oil and gas fracking cleanup, gives them an edge. But instead of sludge, they're tackling carbon-rich waste, aiming to sequester CO2 underground. They plan to sequester 152,480 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027 as part of the deal (That equates to 36,000 gas cars off the road for a year). Is this greenwashing, or a silver bullet? Critics warn of cost, the need for rigorous carbon accounting, and potential environmental trade-offs - i.e. emission prevention versus carbon removal. #decarbonization

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The good folks at Nasdaq put together a great summary of some highlights of Kline Hill Partners Secondary Day morning panel. Some of the main points: 🎃 Retail capital is in its early days and not impacting secondary pricing en masse yet (though it seems to be over-paying when present). Personally I would hope retail investors should get the same (high) net returns as institutional investors which would imply long term convergence of pricing. 🎃 Increasing investments by family offices and other traditional LPs into GP-led continuation vehicles 🎃 For LP deals, a "perfect storm" combination of LP desire to sell and get liquidity combined with high buyer demand with solid pricing is driving very large volume for 2024. 🎃 The most compelling deal focus for secondary funds today is for GP-led deals (especially middle market sized deals) where there there is a very large supply demand imbalance of sponsors and companies to run CVs on. You can read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/e4QfmghW

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INVESTING IN CLIMATE TECH IS SOOO SIMPLE: PART I After a spectacular closing session to #ClimateWeekSF at 9Zero, I thought I'd share a few morsels from our sustainable VC session (organized by Niki Gastinel & moderated by Ron Erd w/ fellow panelists Joshua Posamentier Nare Janvelyan, PhD & Shaun Chaudhuri). Top 3 DD questions I seek to answer: I         Would I work for this person? I've been a founder 5x (3 startups, 2 VC funds) & always seeking to grow. When I'm being pitched by a founder, I imagine what it would be like to work for them, because, while team is important, the CEO is everything. The CEOs I back have: ·     Command of the Market: They are intimate with & drive discourse on distro channels, market players/dynamics, the competitive landscape & where the ball is going. All about founder-market fit! ·     Evangelical Sales Ability: They’re always selling, intelligently, whether it’s for recruiting, fund-raising, distribution... ·     EQ IQ: I back intelligent founders but I want that paired with street savvy & deep understanding of what to prioritize & when, not just how to do it. I look for emotional intelligence & how they read the room & adjust comms. I look for CEOs that have done the hard work on their own personal growth & have the right lens to make big decisions. ·     Battle-tested: I look for founders that are resilient & risk-tolerant. They have been tested in some aspect of their lives: personal challenges (athletics, hardship, military) and/or professional challenges. II        Is there a Big Accessible Market (BAM)? ·     Big TAM: I invest in companies seeking unicorn performance (financial & impact). Matters less where the TAM is today but more importantly where it's going. ·     Clear and Present Sales Channel: I want to see a beefy sales channel(s) with a clear decision maker; tangible, massive pain for this painkiller solution (not a vitamin); and an accretive path for the customer. Know who your actual buyer is. Hint: It’s not the sustainability exec! ·     Weighted Average Pipeline: I want to see a well thought out, organized sales pipeline that is dynamically linked to your financial forecasts & produces a justifiable exciting ARR forecast. ·     Product Market Fit: Because we do seed, we only see the beginnings of traction & sometimes focusing too much on fit can lead to a false negative. This is the time for risk-taking & iteration so you can learn. It’s more about DDing the product as an extension of how the team thinks & executes. III      Is There Big Accessible Impact? ·     Paul Hawken: We have Paul & he is unabashed about rooting out pretenders when it comes to impact. If he doesn’t buy your impact, we won’t invest. It’s that simple. ·     Qualitative: Because we are software first & seed stage investors, we don’t do hard core quant on your impact. We do our best to gauge the potential decarbonization impact of your company at scale. You know it when you see it. What questions do you ask?

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VC Market Update: Riding Out the Post-Boom Bumps. 2021's high-flying valuations and growth have given way to a more complex reality. With longer private timelines, tough exit markets, and capital tightness, startups face unique challenges—but also fresh opportunities. For those navigating today’s VC landscape, strategic planning is key. Whether it's balancing growth with capital efficiency or exploring secondaries smartly, there’s a path forward. And with boosts from AI and future rate cuts, brighter days could be ahead!

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For all emerging managers out there who are trying to understand the world of LPs: This 10X Capital episode on "How to Pick Top Decile Venture GP’s" is awesome. Albert Azout of Level Ventures candidly shares some amazing insights on how LPs evaluate emerging managers, what separates the best GPs from the rest, common pitching pitfalls etc. Thanks David Weisburd for hosting this. Link in comments!

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Coming soon on Aug 1: "Transformation to a Fresh Tomorrow." This is theme of our 3rd Annual Web3 Investor Day, as we welcome the innovators and investors convening in Chicago for these discussions around the next generation Internet. Our theme reflects the optimism, determination and commitment investors and innovators have solidified off the depths of the bear markets to drive success in the bull markets. Broader investor optimism suggests that fresh institutional funds into Web3 across both tokens and equity may endure.  Across adoption metrics, customer interest and developer activity, Web3 seems to have normalized. It’s refreshing to see the transformation and next evolution of Web3 and it’s refreshing to meet many of you on August 1.  And yet, even with the improved optimism from last year, there still remain open questions in the development and adoption of our next generation Internet:  1. the balance of speculative versus productive investor capital in this current cycle 2. the productive role of liquid trading capital in fostering Web3 innovation 3. the attractiveness of venture investments in follow on financings 4. the role of policy and regulation that may enhance innovation 5. the continued developer activity to improve the underlying infrastructure 6. other Web3 recovery characteristics in target customer use cases. We remain committed to navigating regulatory shifts, fostering investor optimism, and building the customer use cases for Web3.  Physical spaces enhance our innovation conversations.  In person relationships foster our collaboration.  Relationships drive breakthrough innovations.  Reach out to Rizza Torres at Decasonic if you would like to join us! #web3investorday #web3 #venturecapital

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As we dive into 2024, the Series A fundraising landscape is becoming increasingly daunting. Investment standards are soaring, and fewer startups are making the cut. Series A investors are finding many seed stage companies too premature. The median valuation jump from seed to Series A skyrocketed from $19.5 million in Q1 2022 to $28.7 million in Q1 2024. Investors now demand stronger revenue performance, targeting $2 million to $3 million in ARR, up from $1 million to $2 million. Alarmingly, only 12% of Q1 2022 seed startups secured Series A funding within two years, down from 31.8% in Q1 2020. #venture #earlystage #seedtoseriesa #seed #seriesa #inspireglobalventures https://lnkd.in/gW4bkcNy

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I'm happy to announce our investment in OnSight Technology! OnSight’s robotics platform helps solar operators scale without additional headcount; improves operations, maintenance and safety; and stops fires before they happen! Feedback from their customers is among the best I’ve ever heard 🤖☀️ Some of the macro tailwinds that make this timely:  🔋 Utility-Scale Solar: Large-scale projects, often spanning hundreds of acres, are becoming a cornerstone of renewable energy strategies worldwide. In the US, utility-scale solar grew by over 20% in 2023, and there is a massive backlog of new projects planned or waiting for grid connection. 🏠 Commercial/Rooftop Solar: On the smaller scale, businesses are increasingly adopting solar panels. This reduces energy bills and contributes to a greener planet. The dirty secret is that many business turn off their rooftop solar because of the threat of fire and business interruption. OnSight’s OWL fixes this. ⚠️ Growth in Thermal Events: With the rapid expansion of solar farms, there has also been an uptick in "thermal events," or fires. These incidents destroy infrastructure and threaten nearby communities. 👷‍♂️ Labor Challenges: Like so many other industries, the solar industry is facing labor challenges. The availability and quality of skilled workers is crucial to maintaining and expanding solar infrastructure. Additionally, workers often have to operate in extremely hot environments, which can impact productivity and safety (hi, OSHA). Derek Chase Doug Matlack John Shepard, PhD Graham Ryland Jeff Struhm Jeff Olyniec Rick Spencer Bill Clerico Aiden Cathcart 

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Since early 2021, VC quarterly exit values have plummeted to $50B or below, a stark contrast to the six consecutive quarters of $100B+ exits before then. With IPOs dwindling and M&A activity slow, the future of venture industry exits appears uncertain. Will we see a surge in private venture-backed company acquisitions? This could be a crucial and innovative strategy to boost VC exits. Increased private acquisitions might offer a much-needed lifeline, providing a creative solution to the current exit drought in the venture capital market. #venturecapital #inspireglobalventures

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Pitched to 60+ VC partners & principals Key Takeaways 👇 - At pre-seed stage the team is critical. This means you 100% need a stellar CTO. Don’t even think of raising without a CTO - If you don’t fit a certain bias, your expectations have just doubled. So having more is always better. More customers, more traction, more validation! - ALWAYS get warm intros to investors. Rely on your network. Go build one bcz cold pitching never works! - Lastly be prepared to fail. Markets are brutal right now. Have a backup plan! #startups #founders #fundraising

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I've long been an advocate of getting more people to invest in startups, but aware that uneducated investors are not good for the ecosystem. 🤔 That's why I love the current efforts to educate and activate a new population of investors! In particular, I'm a huge fan of Hustle Fund 's Angel Squad 😍 , that are committed to developing an ecosystem of informed investors and evangelizing angel investing! 💸 Early stage investing can be a true win/win when done right and should be available and understandable to more folks! https://lnkd.in/gXsbsN_i #angelinvesting #venturecapital #startups #founders #TheFoundersForge

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As a lover of "Think:Act Magazine" and longtime admirer of Roland Berger (shout out to Neelima Mahajan! Rita McGrath!), you can't imagine how cool it felt to get to share some insights from Ideaflow. For folks who haven't dug into the book, this exceptional piece is a great introduction. I welcome your feedback. Hats off to the team for crafting the piece. *** "Breakthrough innovation is the lifeblood of progress, the driving force behind some of the world's most transformative technologies and companies. But how does one come up with the next big thing? How does one come up with the first kernel of an idea? How does one break out of the creativity rut? A mistake a lot of us make is assuming that for breakthrough innovation, we need to find that one good idea. But if Jeremy Utley is to be believed, more ideas lead to better outcomes. Utley, Director of Executive Education at the Stanford d.school and co-author with Perry Klebahn of Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters, challenges the common perception that one good idea is the key to success. He explains why. RB: You define the idea as a “connection”. Why? JU: My study of the underlying neuroscience has led me to realize that an idea is a bridge between two things already in your mind. The conventional view of ideas as coming from nowhere or being built from nothing lacks practicality and is not helpful. When you hold onto such thinking, you're essentially searching for something to materialize from nothing – this is not beneficial in terms of operating... RB: How can we successfully manage the inputs we receive from outside to maximize the impact we achieve? Inputs are important. Many people who aspire to lead a creative life or fail to recognize the value of that tend to focus solely on problem-solving. When you think about that, you're often concerned with the output. But what's the answer? The brain's just like anything else. When we consider the outputs of our thinking, we realize that they depend on the inputs we receive. Therefore, we call this kind of thoughtfulness about a deliberate pursuit of input inspiration. Unlike those of us from corporate environments, that is a design word that means something. To me, it is necessary to create space for looking even when you don't know what you're looking for..." Much more at the link below.

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Big announcement below! 👇 Let's talk about the current state of GP-LP affairs: 🤯Emerging VC managers have absolutely exploded over the past 5 years. 📈 At the same time, more and more data has surfaced that shows that emerging VC firms tend to outperform larger, established firms. 🤔 All of this has made it intriguing but tough for LPs to know where to direct their attention. 🛍 GPs frequently meet LPs at conferences who are window shopping but not committed to the asset class or emerging managers. 🧾 And both crews get overwhelmed by transactional convos. So Sydney Paige Thomas and I created Abundance. Abundance is a private, nomination-based retreat for active LPs and top emerging GPs to form new experiences together and build lasting relationships. Why Abundance? Abundance is knowing that there is more than enough for more than one to succeed. And a single win within a community is a win for the community itself. The journey of an emerging VC manager from 1st close to final close or Fund 1 to Fund 2 is (1) communal and (2) requires an abundant mindset. LPs look for structure and confidence to feel comfortable investing in early VC firms. Yet many of the feeds we scroll and conferences we attend reinforce inherent power dynamics and transactional thinking, which allows scarcity mindset to creep in for emerging GPs. Some of the best events I’ve attended have been intentionally non-transactional, e.g. Camp Hustle, Recast Summit, and other GPs’ AGMs. The fundraising success stories we see usually involve a community (usually of other GPs & LPs) coming together to support and open doors for the emerging GP. We designed Abundance to be an immersive gathering that fosters these connections. Starting tonight, ~100 GPs and LPs are descending upon Seattle for the inaugural Abundance retreat. This has been under wraps for months and I can’t wait to see it come to life! Thanks in advance to our awesome sponsors who were the earliest believers in this vision: Sydecar, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Gunderson Dettmer, & Zelda Ventures. And shoutout to my dad Ed Illig for logo design & Halle Kaplan-Allen being the first sponsor to say yes 🤩 Presented by The Council Capital & Symphonic Capital.

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