Fidji Simo

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.

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Aurora Goes Live on #GoogleforStartups DemoDay! 🌟 ✨ Meet your family’s Chief of Staff, Aurora, designed to bring families closer by offering advice and care, organizing schedules, managing shopping, and creating fun activities. Harnessing the power of AI, Aurora features smart family collaboration and web research, email monitoring, remembering all the family docs and more. Our goal is to connect loved ones worldwide! ❤️ This journey is deeply personal to me. As a mother managing a busy household and a repeat founder, I know firsthand the challenges families face daily and the mental load burden of overwhelmed parents. Aurora is my way of using technology to give families more time for what truly matters — spending quality moments together. I believe we are building an "accessibility feature" for the modern world with its rising demand for our attention. 💡 We are leading the family management market with cutting-edge technology and building a unique, data-based understanding of how households are managed. Graduated from Google for Startups Accelerator, received grants, and raised $2M in funding. Privacy matters to us - a dedicated Data Protection Officer ensures your family's data security from the very first days of our journey. 🙏 And kudos to the incredible team who made Aurora happen: talented AI specialists with experience at Google, Snap, TikTok and Yandex and our investors! Jag Singh Alexander Pavlov Galina Chifina Nick Davidov Marina Davidova Andrey Chernyshov Evgenia Plotnikova 🌍 Download the Aurora for iOS - https://lnkd.in/e6gQss_T Stay tuned for the Google Play version — coming in a few days! 💪 Help us improve - share your feedback and ideas! Your support means the world to us. Drop us a line here - https://aurorafirst.ai/ 🤝 Invest in the future with Aurora! If you share our vision, please reach out! #GoogleforStartupsAccelerator #FamilyTech #AIassistant #WomenInAI #aiappreciationday

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Looking forward to discussing how changing demographics and culture norms are affecting investment opportunities in longevity, health and well-being at The Care Summit today Alongside Cake Ventures' Monique Woodard, Ziegler's Dan Hermann, Oak HC/FT's Billy Deitch and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jennifer Edwards, we’ll dive into the trends shaping how we are investing in the space: - Last year marked one of the most significant social and economic moments in modern times: The number of older adults—those aged 50 and over- surpassed the number of children under the age of 15 for the first time. - In 2020 the 50 plus population contributed $45 trillion to global GDP, or 34% of the total. That equates to about 3x the revenue of the world’s 100 highest- earning companies in 2020. - The U.S. population grew by 24.5 million from 2010 to 2022, and Hispanics accounted for 53% of this increase – a greater share than any other racial or ethnic group. - Women around the world and across all ages drive 64% of consumer spending

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Marissa was involved in the development of more than 100 products and features for Google. Beyond Google Earth, she played a part in shaping Street View, Google News, and Gmail 👇 I'm starting a new series of posts. Dedicated to first product managers 🥇 Or what I call 'first PMs' 😉 And who better than Marissa Mayer to start this series? Marissa's role evolved from managing specific products. To oversee entire product lines 🔛 She eventually became Vice President of Google’s Search Products. A holy grail in the tech world! Let's dive in! _____ Marissa Mayer was one of Google’s first-ever employees. Employee number 20, to be precise. She joined Google in 1999 as the company’s first female engineer. You might remember when search engines filled their home pages with ads. News, weather reports, and other features. Marissa had other ideas... She decided to keep Google’s homepage as clean as possible 🧼 An approach that prioritized speed and ease of use. Marissa understood that people came to Google primarily to search 🔍 So she insisted that Google pare down the homepage. To make it as easy as possible for users to do just that:  This is how Google stood apart from its competitors 🏆 This minimalism established Google as the go-to search engine for millions. The stripped-back design allowed for faster loading times. While ensuring users could immediately understand exactly what Google was. If you’re looking for an underlying cause of Google’s rapid growth in popularity in the late 90s and early 00s, here it is. By 2005, Google had around 5,000 employees... And Marissa was overseeing the launch of Google Maps 🗺️ At the time, mapping services provided basic map views difficult to read 😣 She & her team decided to push for satellite imagery into Google Maps. Which would turn out to be a game-changer! Marissa understood satellite imagery provides a more detailed view. Yet more intuitive 👍 And that this would be much easier for users to understand. This decision meant investing significant resources. But it all paid off! It resulted in a visually engaging tool for navigation. Which helped set Google Maps apart from its competitors.  Insisting on simplicity in search 🔍 Each of these examples demonstrates Marissa’s commitment. Her commitment to user-centric design. And her willingness to take on immense technical challenges For the sake of improving the user experience. These are all qualities that Marissa had developed at Google. Which she retained even after spending years in the company 🔥 ____ This is the first PM mindset! And it’s a mindset that Google as a whole has embraced. Which has put the company at the forefront of technological innovation. Hope this story sparks a few ideas 😃 Enzo #firstpm #marissamayer

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KOY 2.0 just announced KOY Advance, an ambitious initiative aimed at expanding the KOY 2.0 ecosystem. Building on their success of the Testnet and Mainnet launches, the deployment of staking contracts, and the near completion of the KOY Privacy layer integration, KOY Advance represents a significant leap forward in the platform's development and its role in the decentralized tech space. The primary objectives of KOY Advance include platform development, $KOYN economy deployment, DAO activation, enhanced community engagement, and strategic dApp acquisitions. The platform development efforts will continue with the deployment of the KOY Privacy layer, issuance of test national currencies, the launch of a Developer's portal, token bridges, and a refreshed Whitepaper. These advancements aim to provide a robust and secure environment for users and developers alike. The $KOYN economy will see significant growth through exchange listings, early access to $KOYN via swaps, and deployment across various dApps and enterprise solutions. This expansion will facilitate greater adoption and utility of $KOYN within the ecosystem, driving tangible value for all stakeholders. Community engagement is a critical component of KOY Advance. The initiative will involve heightened awareness campaigns, wallet integrations, and the activation of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). This will empower the community to participate more actively in the decision-making process and contribute to the ecosystem's growth. The roadmap for KOY Advance includes circulating $KOYN Launchpool to kickstart ecosystem growth, implementing a comprehensive operational plan with localized business centers, robust marketing initiatives, and accelerated business development efforts. KOY 2.0 aims to secure partnerships, regulatory approvals, and expand its presence in strategic regions such as London, East Africa, UAE, and Francophone Africa. KOY 2.0 invites everyone to join this exciting journey and be part of the future of decentralized technology. Together, we can elevate the KOY Network into a dynamic and thriving ecosystem. Stay tuned for more updates as KOY Advance unfolds. Join the KOYmunity to stay updated & to get a quick channel for any questions about new developments. Follow KOY Jumuiya DAO to learn more. #KOYv2 #KOYJumuiyaDAO #KOYJumuiya $KOYN

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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

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Join me and Oren Etzioni for an insightful discussion on deepfakes on 09/26. Oren Etzioni is the founder of TrueMedia.org, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that detects deepfakes and the former CEO of Allen Institute for AI. Here are the topics we plan to riff on ✅ Learnings from TrueMedia.org coverage of the different elections across the world ✅ Learnings from Pindrop Pulse - the industry's biggest scale deployment of deepfake detections in enterprises ✅ Reveal of Pulse Inspect's industry-first capability for .... you have to join to find out 🤔

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Insightful look into bioplatform strategy, and what it takes to raise a Series A from my partner, Omri Amirav-Drory: https://lnkd.in/dFv7GbF6

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Explore our extensive #consumer VC contact list, featuring over 500 #VC firms, 3,500 #VC professionals (including Partners and Principals), and 3,000 email addresses. https://payhip.com/b/vQZSN #startup #startups #vc #venturecapital #investmentbanking #privateequity #managementconsulting #b2b #founders #entrepreneurs

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Hiring alert! One of our newest MKT1 portfolio companies is hiring a founding marketer. nodaFi is vertical SaaS that understands a wedge-in strategy. The team is scrappy and values marketing--and really understands their ICP - facilities managers. If you're based in the Bay Area and interested in helping bring a tech-first approach to an industry that operates with pen & paper, take a look. The founders are awesome (cc Jacob Pandl & Michael Loyda) JD link in the comments.

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Today, we’re sharing an inside look at ro.OS – the Ro Operating System. To understand this technology, it helps to understand why we built it. https://ro.co/os/ The most inconvenient truth in healthcare is that there are too many people who need care and too few to provide it. As a result, today, high-quality care is a hand-made luxury good. The only way to change that, so that tens of millions not tens of thousands get high-quality care, is through technology. From the printing press to the automobile to the iPhone, technology is how we’ve turned luxuries into commodities. The healthcare system is obsessed with quality but is not equally obsessed with how to scale that quality. Scaling high-quality care, especially to the extent required, makes some uncomfortable. Doing so, while meeting or exceeding the bar for quality and for provider satisfaction, seems impossible. It is possible. We must believe that to be the case. It will take innovation. This possibility is what Ro’s team has spent years laser focused on. We challenged ourselves to build technology that makes it easier for patients to get the most effective healthcare. That technology is ro.OS – which has already helped millions of patients achieve their goals and we’re just getting started. Learn more about ro.OS from my co-founder Saman Rahmanian. https://lnkd.in/eUSzAqBQ 

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From branding to remote work, discover how a $18B founder navigates growth, culture, and operations for sustained success 👇 Logan Bartlett (Managing Director at Redpoint) interviews Vlad Tenev (Co-Founder at Robinhood) to provide valuable insights on branding, culture, operations, and maintaining a long-term perspective in “Ep 105: Vlad Tenev (CEO, Robinhood): The Meme Stock Crisis, The Future of Crypto, and AI Opportunities in Finance”. Check out the key insights in the attached presentation 👇 ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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Content creators have always relied heavily on advertising, which often meant catering more to platform algorithms than to their own audience’s needs. But, with powerful tools like Mighty Networks, the game is changing. Creators and community hosts can now monetize directly by charging for access, memberships, or courses – without relying on the traditional ad-based model. The result? More meaningful connections, deeper engagement, and a sustainable business model where creators are truly in control. Tune in to this episode of The Expertise Economy with Gina Bianchini, CEO and founder of Mighty Networks to learn exactly how you as a creator can harness the power of successful community building to build a powerhouse business. #CreatorEconomy #DigitalCommunities #Entrepreneurship #MightyNetworks #ContentCreation #Monetization #Podcast

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Our Kids & Tech Guidebook launched today! If you have a kid in elementary school this book is for you. It lays out 10 practical steps to help you navigate tech choices for your kids. You can download the FREE guidebook at the link below in my comments. Super easy. Check it out!

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One thing that's been fun about the startup life is learning how to be scrappy. Our CEO Vijaye R. is the king of scrappiness. Kicking off the first company performance review cycle? He'll build a perf tool the weekend before. Ramping up recruiting and tracking candidates slowing you down? He'll code up a bare-bones ATS on the plane ride home from vacation. Nothing is scrappier than building in-house tools (vs. paying for an external, off-the-shelf solution), but it's important to be honest that there's a time and a place for building vs. buying. One of our founding engineers Tore wrote up a great piece reflecting back on our build vs. buy policy and where it's been successful vs. broken down historically. Check out his piece here- https://lnkd.in/gHixBb84 (bonus easter egg- if you're ex-FB and missing FB's internal tools we include a mapping of internal tools: external off-the-shelf solutions at the end of the article!) #startups #scrappiness #buildvsbuy

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🎙️ Coming Soon on "The Human Founder" Podcast! 🎙️ Alon Leibovich, Managing Director at Intel Ignite, will be joining me on an upcoming episode. Together we'll discuss his journey, insights from dealing with crisis as a founder himself and the human aspects of real leadership. Stay tuned for our fun yet deep convo! Alon Leibovich, Intel Ignite, The Human Founder, Google for Startups Israel #TheHumanFounder #Podcast #IntelIgnite #StartupEcosystem #Leadership #Entrepreneurship

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How do you build for Gen Z? 🏃‍♂️ Immediacy 🎨 Flexibility 👀 Authenticity These are the principles you need to ground your product in. Gen Z are the first digitally native generation. They've grown up in a world of hyper-connectivity, hyper-stimulation, and hyper-personalization. One where everything not only auto-saves and auto-updates, but auto-optimizes too. And while they trust in technology to anticipate their needs, they're much less trusting of the platforms where they spend their time. So what does this mean for how you build, hire, and market? Excited to share my #Config2024 talk, where I explored exactly this 👇 Grateful to the folks whose stories added to these insights: Yuhki Yamashita, Dabney Dayes, Adam Polselli, Peter Yang, Helena Jaramillo, Ceci Mourkogiannis, David Hoang, Colin Dunn, Andy Chung Figma 🙌 Most of all, thanks to my Gen Z co-creator, Maddie Johnston, for pairing with me to bring this to life 🙏 https://lnkd.in/gx833AuF

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tl;dr: Finding external advocates for your product is one of the most foolproof ways to build developer trust. If you’re generous enough with your incentives, loyal customers don’t just become endorsers — they become revenue-generating machines. Your biggest fans could be generating 10% of your revenue. At ScraperAPI, our affiliate program did just that by converting loyal users into top salespeople. Here’s how we spotted the opportunity: We realized that a lot of our customers would outsource web scraping tasks to freelance software engineers who would use the same tool over and over again for different companies. That left us with a great opportunity to build relationships with those freelancers who had the potential to bring us more and more new customers over time. Here’s how we did it in practice: It’s super simple. We offered killer incentives to everyone involved: -25% recurring commissions for affiliates -10% first-month discount for the new customers they referred Because our product was well-designed and easy to use, freelancers were happy to recommend us over and over again.

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