Fred Stemmelin

🚀 Attending SaaStr Annual in San Mateo this week? Let's connect and elevate your networking strategy! I'm excited to host 1-on-1 Braindates to discuss how Leads Caddy is improving lead information collection at in-person networking events. 🔍 Discover how our AI powered assistant can: - Streamline your networking process - Boost your conversion rates - Maximize your ROI from events - Save tons of time during and post event 👉 Click the link and grab a slot, or simply DM me! See you soon at SaaStr Annual! #SaaStrAnnual #LeadsCaddy #Networking #LeadGeneration #StartupLife

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We're thrilled to introduce Real-Time Integrations with top CRMs like Affinity.co, Attio, Salesforce, HubSpot, Airtable, and many more! 🎉 These integrations will transform your workflow by: 🔄 Syncing Companies and Contacts in Real-Time 🎛️ Offering Fully Customizable Settings 🧠 Automating Data Updates And, with our Push and Pull features, you can enrich your CRM data with Specter's unique growth signals and insights, making your decision-making process faster and more efficient ⚡ Read more in the first comment below 👇

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Industry Insider – California hosted a fantastic event with CDPH and their IT leadership. If you are not a member, you should join. Not only do you get access to a broad cross section of the tech community, but you also get to hear directly from agencies. Here are four take aways I shared with our team. IT decision making involves policy and program people not simply IT leadership. They participate and inform the process, but they are not the sole decision-makers. They have a very pro-Microsoft disposition. Their history of AD Hoc, program driven technology spend means their technology stack is very complicated. They view building on a Microsoft platform as a major driver of efficiency and cost savings. Their technology budgeting process is changing which offers opportunities to capture larger sales across program areas in the future. CDPH has massive privacy and security concerns they need help addressing.

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AI leaders have a crucial chance to address risks now and strengthen governance practices before playing catch-up to regulations, notes Kjell Carlsson, Ph.D. of Domino Data Lab. In a recent VentureBeat article, he shares his perspective on California's AI bill veto and why proactive governance is key to the future of AI innovation. Learn more about this addressing this opportunity: https://gag.gl/4WCTkP #AI #AIGovernance #AIInnovation #DataScience

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The Forbes 2024 Cloud 100 List is live ☁ Congrats to all the honorees – the world's top 100 private cloud companies –including the 3 healthcare and life sciences companies featured this year: • Benchling - biotech R&D platform • Komodo Health - healthcare data analytics • Abridge - AI for clinical documentation For more on how AI is colliding with cloud computing, check out Bessemer Venture Partners's 2024 Cloud 100 report. Personally I'm focused on advancements in multi-modal AI, as applied to biomedical applications (Trend 3!): https://lnkd.in/euzurvQV

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California's biggest risk of the next 20 years - running off two of the primary economic drivers. California policy makers need to think hard about it’s long term economic prospects because policies are having a negative impact on two key groups – founders that start companies and the leaders that scale them. Without them, it's hard for economies of any size to find growth. Let's start with Silicon Valley, which was built by founders and builders in PC chips with Intel, networking with Cisco, enterprise databases with Oracle, search with Google, social networking with Facebook, and consumer devices with Apple. So how do things look in 2024? AI is the new Bay Area tech segment, especially with $50B in venture capital last year. But other key segments have moved elsewhere. Arizona leads in autonomous driving. Crypto-currency is largely outside of California because of cheaper energy elsewhere. Virginia put the most data center square footage in in 2023. Joby, a leader in drone taxis, chose to relocate from Monterey to Dayton to build out 2 million square feet of high-end avionics manufacturing. High-profile founders like Elon Musk have relocated Tesla and Twitter to Texas. All told, 352 companies with over 100 employees have left California in the last decade and the move out rate is accelerating and none of the same size companies have relocated into California. Over half relocated to Texas. California’s next generation of builders and founders is leaving California in real time. So how does it look in ag and food? In 2023 California ag gdp was $59.4 billion and the top 10 commodities were all over $1 billion. Because of California’s lead in specialty crop production, many AgTech companies chose to locate all or big parts of their team here. Our ability to keep them here depends on our ability to keep the acreage here. California lost over 60,000 acres of asparagus production in 40 years and the production facilities and AgTech in fields and facilities all left the state thanks largely to NAFTA and labor policy cost increases. How bad is the acreage exodus? From 1997 to 2022, USDA Census data show that California lost 4.6 M ag acres (16% of the total) and 24,857 farms (28% of the total). Straight line these numbers for another 30 years and the numbers go to 9 M acres lost and 45,300 farms lost for 55 years – 32% of acreage and 52% of farms. These numbers could get worse because of a few key policy factors: (1) lack of investment in water storage and maintenance; (2) net zero policies that decrease reliability and increase power costs; and (3) labor policies that increase minimum wage and AEWR and class action friendly PAGA rules. (Continued in first comment) Damian Mason Todd Thurman Rhishi P. Sachi Desai Rob Trice Danny Bernstein Ben Palone

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🚨 California Employers 🚨 The California Civil Rights Department is actively enforcing its pay transparency and pay data reporting law (SB 1162). Non-compliance can mean hefty fines for your business. Learn more from Maxfield Marquardt >>>  #California #PayDataReporting #PayTransparency Trusaic

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Hot Take… RIP #PLG, Long Live #SLG But before you throw shade, let me explain… 🔹 There are undoubtedly exceptions, I’m sure many will highlight monday.com, Freshworks, etc. 🔹 PLG works well for low ACV deals with low CAC… think SMB and mid-market customers. Target CAC payback <12 months 🔹 PLG is a fantastic top of funnel marketing channel for enterprise sales ⭐ But for 6-figure enterprise sales, you need enterprise salespeople pressing the flesh with customers

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DevRev’s “Effortless 2024” conference will focus on #AI and #Design coming together to strip away complexity, streamline enterprise workflows, and give you back time for what truly matters. In this conference, DevRev will reveal what’s needed to modernize the fractured enterprise and explain why AI begins with those on the front lines—end users and customer support SecureKloud Infosolutions is proud to be part of Effortless 2024 and eager to understand how AI and Design are reshaping #SaaS to be simpler, smarter, and more powerful than ever. We wish to drive this futuristic vision with our customers. If you’re around, let’s catch up at Effortless 2024 👋 #Effortless2024 #AIandDesign #BayArea #Events #AIinHeart #SecureKloudInfosolutions

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AI leaders have a crucial chance to address risks now and strengthen governance practices before playing catch-up to regulations, notes Kjell Carlsson, Ph.D. of Domino Data Lab. In a recent VentureBeat article, he shares his perspective on California's AI bill veto and why proactive governance is key to the future of AI innovation. Learn more about this addressing this opportunity: https://gag.gl/4WCTkP #AI #AIGovernance #AIInnovation #DataScience

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It's great to see Governor Newsom and his team appreciating the nuances of regulating Generative AI and veto-ing S.B. 1047. We need AI regulation for sure, but it needs to be grounded in how GenAI models and applications actually work. I'm looking forward to seeing more efforts in (1) better understanding of what safety means for GenAI and what guardrails effective guardrails even look like, (2) funding to academic research, think tanks, and labs to address (1); and (3) more partnerships between government, academia and industry on AI. https://lnkd.in/gVc7_7va #generativeai #airegulation #sb1047

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THIS... is why we started Summit Venture Studio... These are 27 software development projects Spencer Walker and I worked on while inside the University of Utah. The Y-axis is Millions of dollars (valuation). The X-axis are value inflection points. The two companies that had the highest value at exit/raise in this chart were actually valued much higher but it skewed the graph so I am just showing how much they raised. The GREEN all exited or raised money, the BLUE were all licensed to established companies so a real value was never set after that and the RED were shut down. An interesting point to think about is that these projects were "assigned to us" and were not "chosen" as good business opportunities. Now we are screening the deals we work on for commercial viability. I am super excited for the future. Who wants to come and play with us and start a company with us? We have 8 in the pipeline and I just finished a meeting where we agreed to launch our next company hopefully in the next few weeks.

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It was a great time talking with Ken about three topics that seem to be associated to one another... → Project Cost → Estimates → Timelines All production related initiatives have to deal with these three categories. We share the pain, some stories and insights as to how to manage teams and set the right expectations. We hope the discussion adds value and provides some perspective for your current and future digital product initiatives. #innovation #product #entrepreneurialsm #venturedesign #digitalproducts #the5club

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Here’s the secret to how I closed deals with top executives like Walmart’s CEO and The Coca-Cola Company’s President. The secret? It’s not about selling—it’s about consulting! Here’s the essence of consultative selling: 🔹 Act as a trusted advisor, not just a salesperson. 🔹 Focus on understanding your customer’s challenges. 🔹 Add value at every step of their journey. This approach has been a game-changer for me and for RAINMAKERS’ founders. 👇🏻 We’ve refined it into a simple 3-step process: 👇🏻 1️⃣ Analyze Dive deep to understand and document the customer’s needs. Without this, everything else is guesswork. 2️⃣ Build Develop a clear set of business requirements. Focus on the customer’s goals—not just your product. 3️⃣ Educate Once aligned on needs and timelines, introduce your product as the solution—only if it’s the right fit. 👉🏻 Why does it work? 👈🏻 By positioning yourself as an advisor, you build trust and credibility. Even if your solution isn’t the leading choice, customers feel confident choosing you. #GTM #FounderLedSales #ConsultativeSelling Trendemon Avishai Sharon

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If you are in manufacturing, the stakes are high when it comes to choosing a customer platform that can make or break business success. Antiquated systems and integration issues have stifled innovation forcing businesses into a continuous loop of operational inefficiencies. In this on-demand webinar, experts from DealHub.io, Wendt Partners and HubSpot share their insights and expertise on driving greater efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Check it out > https://lnkd.in/d-iYC_sw

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Learn the importance of AI Security and the role of LLMs … understand the inherent risks of AI and more!

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AI leaders have a crucial chance to address risks now and strengthen governance practices before playing catch-up to regulations, notes Kjell Carlsson, Ph.D. of Domino Data Lab. In a recent VentureBeat article, he shares his perspective on California's AI bill veto and why proactive governance is key to the future of AI innovation. Learn more about this addressing this opportunity: https://gag.gl/4WCTkP #AI #AIGovernance #AIInnovation #DataScience

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Tech companies are feeling the heat in the post-ZIRP era, as high-interest rates push investors to prioritize profitability over speculative growth. Gone are the days of 'growth at all costs'—now, the focus is on reducing spend, cutting high-cost acquisition tactics, and doubling down on existing customers. But with SaaS markets increasingly commoditized and transactional, is customer loyalty a thing of the past? Explore why getting closer to your customers could be your company’s best path forward. Check the comments for link to full article for insights into navigating this new reality. 👇 #customersuccess #nrr #saas #postzirp #gtmstrategy

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