Jake Medwell

Great time on the Embracing Erosion podcast w/Devon O'Rourke! We talked about: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups and much more!

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👋 Calling all early-stage investors and startup founders in Austin! NuFund Venture Group has been shaping the investment landscape since 1997, starting as San Diego Angels and evolving into Tech Coast Angels San Diego. Since 2018, we've pioneered the Venture Group model, combining the strategic depth of venture capital with the agility and founder-fair mentality of angel investing. Unlike traditional Angel Networks or VC Firms, we are a group of angel investors who form a proper VC Fund, funded by our members, to source and deploy capital to early-stage, high-growth companies. 🚀Why NuFund? For Founders💡: We provide not just capital but also strategic direction, mentorship, and resources, helping startups overcome growth challenges and achieve sustainable success. For Investors💼: Our collaborative and diversified approach includes a rigorous due diligence process conducted by industry experts, mitigating risk and enhancing decision-making. Our Annual Fund enables investors to diversify their portfolios while retaining the flexibility to make direct investments in promising companies. Our model has consistently proven effective, allowing us to grow our member base by double digits annually and invest in over 100 portfolio companies, even during challenging times like the 2020 COVID pandemic and the early-stage macroeconomic environment of 2022-2023. 📍 Why Austin? 🌟 Thriving Startup Ecosystem: Home to vibrant organizations like Central Texas Angel Network, TiE Global Angels Austin , Capital Factory, ATX Venture Partners, Antler Austin, Silverton Partners, GTMfund, etc. 🎉 Home of SXSW 💡 Diverse Investment Opportunities: 🏢 Supportive Business Environment 🤝 Active Angel Investor Community 🚀 Successful Track Record of Exits 🗺️ Active NuFund Members: Thank you James Burkett for leading the efforts ⏰ Why Now? While we've been growing nationwide, it's time to be more strategic and proactive in expanding our member base and footprint. We've chosen a few top-priority cities, and Austin is the first target priority ecosystem cluster. We are excited to announce the inaugural Austin Cluster Pitch Event on August 15th at 9 am PST. This event (Sponsored by Dealum Deal Management Software) connects NuFund Venture Group members with pre-selected Austin startups and introduces local angel investors to NuFund. Featuring pitches from five innovative startups, each followed by investor Q&A and discussions. 🌟 Have a promising Austin-based startup? Comment below or DM for details on how to apply. If you have ideas on who we should connect with in Austin to grow our network, please comment or connect us. This is a win-win for NuFund and the Austin startup ecosystem, especially fostering better synergy between Southern California and Austin. 🗓️ Event Details and Registeration Below Link #NuFund #AustinStartups #VentureCapital #AngelInvesting #PitchEvent #AustinAngelInvestors

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A Must-Read For Every Entrepreneur 📚 Lucas J. Pols, Managing Partner at Pegasus Angel Accelerator, highly recommends every entrepreneur to read "The Founder's Dilemmas" by Noam Wasserman. Lucas praises Wasserman's work as a seminal piece that delves into the often-overlooked nuances of founding a company, offering invaluable insights even seasoned VCs might miss. A must-read for any aspiring founder. #founder #startup #entrepreneur

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Ron Miller from TechCrunch has hit it out of the park in his latest article covering Loft, vCluster, and our $24M Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures. "Investors have traditionally liked startups built on top of popular open source projects because they provide a ready top-of-sales funnel. But such startups must come up with a way to monetize that popularity. Loft Labs has done both." Since we released the open source version of the product, #vCluster, in 2021, it has surpassed 40 million image pulls which suggests that a lot of people are interested in this concept and we released vCluster Pro to monetize the idea in a novel way. Link to the full article in the comment below. #kubernetes #platformengineering #Growth #Innovation #SeriesAFunding #DevPod #gpu #gpus #ai #genai

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Namit Chugh of W Health Ventures breaks down the distinctions between accelerators and venture capital model. If you are a founder starting your journey, learn how the two models shape up startup growth strategies and investment avenues. Catch the full episode on our Youtube channel, if you haven’t already https://lnkd.in/gB2q_iWp #venturestudio #vc #healthcare #accelerators #founder #YouTube #episode #podcast

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Loved getting the chance to sit down and catch up with Katherine D'Zmura Friedman, CEO of Thumbprint Furniture. They’re creating a design tool for the commercial furniture industry that engages interior design teams and furniture manufacturers. Time to augment some more clunky processes with technology (and by default, yes, AI). 🕰️🛋️🪑🏭🏢 Watch the video and learn more below!

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As a startup founder, scaling your business is hard enough without the added pressure of a high-interest rate environment. While the challenges are significant, there is an upside. 🔺 Burkland Fractional CFO Daniel Rosenbaum outlines the strategies founders can use to turn high interest rates into an advantage, earning returns that extend your runway and support sustainable growth. https://lnkd.in/g5WmcaNw #TreasuryManagement #startups #CashRunway #StartupFinance

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio + Health Roundup brings exciting funding announcements, important community events, accolades, partnerships, and milestones from across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💰 Funding Humanaut Health has secured an $8.7M seed round to bring access to health optimization and longevity to the general population. It's Austin funding Austin, as Midnight Venture Partners joined the round. Don't miss my short interview with Co-founder and CEO Jim Donnelly below! Optmycare, an AI platform in healthcare & risk management, raised a $3 million in Series A funding, led by Austin's own LiveOak Ventures, to accelerate its growth and build out its technology. 🏙️ Community Mark your calendars for the Nucleate Texas Final Pitch Showcase on May 17th. Catch the final pitches from 1pm to 5pm at Highpoint 2222, and discover what's next in platform discoveries, diagnostics, and therapeutics. 🏆 Recognition BrainCheck, a brain health diagnostic and tools company, received the Care Management Innovation Award at the 8th annual MedTech Breakthrough Awards. Congratulations Kim Rodriguez and the entire team for the well-deserved recognition of your work.   🤝 M&A and Partnerships Babson Diagnostics has announced a new partnership with Cynergy Wellness LLC, to provide clinician oversight for Babson’s customer-initiated BetterWay blood tests. One more step in providing access to this novel technology. Congrats David Stein, Eric Olson and the rest of the Babson team. 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle San Antonio-based Hera Biotech has released promising interim results for their groundbreaking endometriosis treatment. The data showed 92% sensitivity, 95% specificity, and 94% overall accuracy compared to histopathology. Congrats Somer Baburek, MBA on this important step in the development of a greatly needed diagnostic. This week underscores breadth and depth of sector. Let's keep the momentum going! What’s Next? #AustinNext #LifeSciences #Healthcare #Biotechnology

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If you are a climate tech company and would like to learn more about the fundraise process and how to navigatec this tough market, let's schedule a time to talk! Comment on this thread or send an email to [email protected] and we will DM you back to schedule a quick meetup.

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🎙️ On the latest episode of Embracing Erosion, Devon was joined by Alex Pattis, General Partner at Riverside Ventures and founding team member of Hampton. Alex is also the co-founder of Last Money In Media, a leading VC newsletter that explores Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) within the Venture Capital ecosystem. As a prominent advocate for the SPV investment format over the traditional VC fund model, Alex brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. This episode dives deep into: 🌟 How to scale a company from concept to a 9-figure exit 🔄 Breaking away from the traditional consulting model and applying product approaches ⏩ The importance of iterating quickly and often with messaging 💸📈 Key signals to watch when investing in startups Don't miss this insightful conversation. Listen now 👉 https://lnkd.in/gEKv5ghE #VentureCapital #SPVs #StartupInvesting #ProductMarketing

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🎙️Episode 2 of the Value of a Valuation Podcast is LIVE! In this episode, discuss startups and the fundraising process with guest Theresa Mazzullo Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gcwRjX5u Stay tuned for more episodes! #LakeletAdvisoryGroup #Podcast #Startups

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I recently saw this metric from Carta’s 1Q24 VC Fund Report, which is very concerning. DPI... is nowhere to be found in earlier vintages that probably should start showing DPI. Funding early-stage projects is great, but ultimately, these venture dollars need to exit their investments and pay back their limited partners. That’s where the metric Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI) comes in. While managing a fund, we get interim measures during the life of the fund (e.g. IRR, MOIC), but ultimately, “you can’t eat IRR.” If you want to build a lasting venture capital organization, you need to start showing DPI for your fund. Keep in mind that this is traditional VC data from Carta, and is not strictly crypto venture. Crypto venture tends to get liquidity earlier (tokens) and things tend to go parabolic sooner (faster, more unicorns) - but I’d wager that the data here is somewhat similar for Crypto VCs… Not as much DPI as there should be from these earlier vintages. Read the full article, as well as a recap of all the crypto fundraising rounds for August, here: https://lnkd.in/g3eVJ-iF

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After the first deep dive discussion w/ founders I often hear a comment "I wish I had heard about this alternative [to all-in must-become-a-unicorn] way to build a startup earlier as I have wasted years in pursuing the wrong thing". Our mission is that no founder would ever need to say that again as it is such a waste. Us preaching the gospel 1:1 just doesn't scale, hence we use mass media to multiply our efforts - that's how Gorillacast came to be. The 1st episode is out, featuring yours truly. "How can you know what food you like unless you taste everything" said a chef. How can founders make informed choices about the best strategy for them to follow unless they know of all alternatives? This might not be of interest to you but pls spread the word so that the founders who should hear it can find it. I have a dream!

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Are you ready to level up your financial game and avoid the common pitfalls that trip up so many founders? We are teaming up with Fuelfinance to bring you an unmissable webinar designed for founders 🎉 ​Why You Can't-Miss This: ​👉 Mistakes Founders Make with Finances: Learn from the best to avoid the worst. ​👉 How to Build a Financial Model: Get the blueprint for success. ​👉 Understanding Unit Economics: Decode the metrics that matter. ​👉 And Much More: Dive deep into actionable insights and expert advice. Meet Your Host: ​Fuelfinance Finance - The all-in-one financial solution tailor-made for growing SMEs. No more headaches with finance and planning. Spend only an hour per week monitoring your KPIs on a dashboard. And a dedicated CFO will help you make all the right decisions. Alyona Mysko ​This isn't just another corporate webinar – it's a startup finance boot camp! 🚀 ​🗓️ Date: Wednesday, 12th June 🕒 Time: 5:00 PM GMT | 12:00 PM EST 💻 Hosted on: Zoom https://lu.ma/7zaqce6d

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It takes a village. Collaboration and teamwork solves problems more effectively. That's why BizCrunch works closely with partners across the SMB M&A ecosystem, to achieve more exits for more business owners, and power Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. Start exploring your exit options now, with a free valuation from BizCrunch. Then work with a dedicated team of "exiteers" drawn from the and The Grafter communities, to achieve your own 8-Figure Exit. Every journey starts with that first step. If the time is right for you to pass the baton on, take that stride today.

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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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Catch another episode of This Week in Startups where Upfront Managing Partner Mark Suster interviews Max Altman and Ben Braverman, two of the three co-founders of Saga Ventures. With Saga’s new $125 million fund, the trio talk about: ➡ Fundraising challenges the co-founders faced as a first-time fund and the playbook of how referrals can be the best leads for increasing the chances of success ➡ Nuances of determining a fund size to maintain competitive advantages in deal strategies ➡ Ben’s learnings from working with Ryan Peterson at Flexport as well as Max’s experience and unique advantages working with his brothers Jack and Sam Here's a short clip below about the attributes of successful founders that they look for, including those willing to take unconventional risks 👇

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