Jayastu Bhattacharya

Founders I work with will hear me beat this drum over and over again - don't rely on LTV:CAC, it's not actually helpful in practice because it shows a point in time. Instead, we must orient our thinking around tracking performance over time - hence using a CCAC analysis instead (Cohort CAC). Best learning cycles don't come from a point in time but looking at what happens over time ie. analyze your monthly cohorts (that's 12 learning cycles a year!). Longer article about this in the comments #metrics #metrics #metrics

32

3 Comments

Not all of the investments that Kindred Capital VC makes can be a 13 year sourcing process.... but... this is one of those very fortunate moments in which a relationship that started over a decade ago in the Bay Area where the brilliant A-H. Hleileh and I overlapped has now turned into an incredibly exciting opportunity for Kindred to lead his and Ron Holifield's first institutional round at Civic Marketplace. We believe: 1. Local government procurement is one of the most underserved areas in technology today, and has failed to keep pace with the private sector. They deserve better. 2. This is a huge opportunity, with US local governments spending alone amounting to over $1.5 trillion in annual spend, which is only going in one direction... 3. As the brilliant Kip Harkness shared with me in our diligence phase, "this industry moves at the speed of trust." And this is a unique founding team with A-H. Hleileh and Ron Holifield at the helm who bring together two critical ingredients: 1) decades of trust-building within this domain, and 2) a team who can build beautiful and scalable technology platforms. Onwards!! 🚀

54

3 Comments

Over the years, we at GFR Fund have solidified our investment thesis, which is that we invest in "emerging digitally native communities." These communities can be built around games, social media, and any consumer applications. Now, founders have many easy-to-use tools to build user communities, such as Discord, X/twitter, Instagram, etc, and we believe the founders should start building communities even before they launch a product. The communities can help founders: - reach PMF faster - acquire users cheaper - retain and engage users longer - build better UX/UI, and - hire early employees Below, you can see how RTFKT and Omeda Studios built the community and then worked with them to create a product the users really wanted. We would love to talk to the founders who think the community is essential in building a product!

47

There’s a whole world of small farms and small businesses being powered by offgrid renewable energy. Understanding the business models that make it possible is critical for this bold new world. At the #GlobalSouthSouthSummit, innovators from across Africa and Asia will learn from each other to advance a sustainable world free of poverty.

15

What do you do when a radical new technology puts your main product right in the crosshairs of disruption? Listen to David Okuniev — co-founder of Typeform | Ask awesomely — discuss the challenges of innovation within existing structures. David shared a game-changing insight: Radical innovation is really, really difficult to do inside your own product. He emphasized the need to break free from the constraints of familiarity and embrace change from outside the box. Henrik Werdelin and I have both seen our fair share of this in our respective careers. What struck us most was how David leveraged structure to overcome the innovator’s dilemma. By creating a culture of experimentation and providing space for bold ideas, he propelled Typeform beyond incremental improvements. What other hacks have you seen or employed to help your organization overcome the innovator’s dilemma? Share your stories below! 👇 And if you want to dive deeper into our conversation, click the link in the comments to catch the full podcast episode!

4

2 Comments

The bankruptcy of Synapse, where $100 million of customer funds is missing, raises serious concerns about bank-fintech partnerships and the need for rigorous due diligence. This situation underscores the immediate need for banks to reassess their partnerships and prioritize consumer protection. Stricter regulations and enhanced oversight could become the norm, ensuring only fintechs that can withstand scrutiny will thrive in the financial ecosystem. #Fintech #AI

1

Welcome Daloopa to Touring Capital portfolio! While there is ton of hype around pure LLM based approaches operating on structured and tabular data, the reality of where this stands today doesn’t match up to the accuracy and traceability required by rigorous financial operators at scale and in time sensitive scenarios. Daloopa’a approach to curating a massive financial performance and filings dataset with domain expert humans + AI allows them to make unparalleled data quality guarantees in their modeling copilot for analysts across both structured and unstructured data.

19

Embracing a New Era for Swaap Labs We’ve made a strategic decision to sunset our consumer-facing products, Swaap Maker and Swaap Earn, to focus on what we do best: on-chain market-making technology. This shift aligns with our mission to build efficient, capital-optimized trading infrastructure that will drive the future of DeFi. Since our launch, we’ve achieved key milestones: - 3 protocol versions - 0 security incident - >$1 billion in trading volume. However, scaling TVL and broader adoption of consumer products proved challenging. After careful consideration, we’re focusing on our core strengths to make a more substantial impact. We know many users were looking forward to our token launch. While those plans are on hold for now, we’re committed to acknowledging our loyal supporters if we revisit a token-based model in the future. In appreciation of our community, we will also return all fees earned by Swaap Labs directly to vault users. In the meantime, we’re excited to announce partnerships with two platforms that offer new ways for our users to engage with Swaap’s technology: 1️⃣ Euler Labs: Euler is a permissionless lending protocol that specializes in capital-efficient lending on Ethereum L1. Users can lend assets like ETH and USDC on Euler, enjoying a similar experience to what Swaap Earn provided while benefiting from Euler’s secure, innovative collateral systems. 2️⃣ PWN: PWN is a decentralized, peer-to-peer lending marketplace available on multiple chains, including Base, BSC, Polygon, and Arbitrum. This partnership provides secure lending opportunities with the high-yield strategies users have come to expect from Swaap. This pivot wasn’t an easy decision, and we deeply appreciate our community’s trust and patience as we adapt. We look forward to this new chapter and to continuing to shape the future of DeFi. For the full announcement and more details: https://lnkd.in/ecXn-hdS

106

7 Comments

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

19

 Gain insights into how #FinTechCompanies thrive by mastering regulatory compliance, ensuring their innovations can be effectively and safely integrated into the financial services market.

1

I've participated in 100+ conversations with venture fund LPs this year. The most frequently discussed topics include: Team dynamics Sourcing differentiation Decision-making and selection process Portfolio support Sector thesis Track record Model and deployment strategy Network Long-term vision Timing (why now) References Fund infrastructure and reporting

23

2 Comments

Honored to have moderated a panel on the “Future of TV: The Great Unbundling + Rebundling” at PrivTech Invest NYC, hosted by our firm, Grit Capital Partners! Joined by industry leaders Peter Naylor, Jonathan Carson (Antenna, the leading analytics provider), + Jason Cohen (MyBundle), we explored the rapidly changing streaming landscape. Key insights: Consumer Shift: Over 50M U.S. households have cut the cord, putting consumers in control, driving demand for simpler, more tailored streaming options. Retention & Churn: With churn rates averaging 37% annually, streaming platforms are focusing on personalization, ad tiers, + exclusive content to retain viewers. Broadband & Bundling: Broadband providers are moving from TV to fiber (Fiber adoption is up 10% YoY), creating new ways to bundle streaming + broadband services to reduce churn + simplify billing  AI & Personalization: 75% of streamers say AI-powered recommendations improve their viewing experience. Thank you to our panelists for joining us to discuss these trends + the opportunities ahead. New era for TV 🚀 #Streaming #Partnerships #Innovation #CustomerExperience #Customerfirst #bundling #ai

56

3 Comments

Pleased to share that Fin Capital’s Fintech CEO Pulse Report is out! Fin Capital surveyed over 50 CEOs and C-suite leaders of private companies from our portfolio and the broader fintech industry during June and July 2024 to get a quick pulse on what’s top of mind for fintech’s leaders. Here are some key takeaways: - Optimism in the Air: More than 60% of CEOs reported being bullish or highly bullish on the fintech industry for the second half of 2024. - Regulatory Changes on the Horizon: CEOs identified Cryptocurrency, Open Banking, and Buy Now Pay Later as the top three sectors likely to see increased regulation by the end of 2024. - Headwinds persist. Despite overall bullishness on fintech, CEOs report a weak IPO environment and flag that macroeconomic volatility, regulation, and high interest rates remain top challenges for their companies. However, with abating inflation, CEO’s believe we could see rate cuts begin in September, which could positively affect asset values and market buoyancy, including the IPO window. For more insights, including comments from Logan Allin, Christian Ostberg, Matthew D. Mann, CFA, and Stephanie Perez, check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gK6usfwM

31

1 Comment

When I first read Jevgenijs Kazanins's very excellent fintech take on why Cash App Pay could be the next major driver of Block’s growth, I was floored by his initially compelling case that if Cash App can incentivize more payments payments volume to go through Cash App Pay, they can drive massive gross profit uplift, because Cash App Pay’s take rate is substantially higher than Cash Card’s take rate on purchase volume (2-3x). But if it were true, why hasn’t Cash App taken advantage? Whereas Jevgenijs is more optimistic about the ~$2.5bn in GPV that Cash App Pay has generated in its first ~2.5 years of existence, I find it downright embarrassing. That’s less than 1% of Square’s GPV after two years in the wild? And that’s despite it being essentially pre-installed on every terminal with no change in hardware required. I started to have a sinking feeling that maybe something was missing in the calculus. And as I dove deeper, it became clear that the “magic” take rate uptick we thought we’d found was more of a magic trick, relying on some deception. The seeming increase in take rate comes about like this. Normally, when a Cash App user makes a purchase, Cash App acts as the Issuer which means there are several intermediaries between what the merchant is charged and what Block earns on the transaction, meaning its ultimate take rate is relatively low. But in the case of Cash App Pay, there’s potentially a few magic tricks at work. The first is that in this case, Block is facilitating the Square merchant’s acquiring POS AND it’s issuing the Cash App user’s debit card, thereby cutting the intermediaries down in the typical payments flow and seemingly increasing Cash App take rates by 35-50% (instead of just interchange, you’re now getting interchange and markup). But then gets even better with the second trick, because if you’re both the acquirer and the issuer, *you don’t even need the payment network at all*. You can simply move money by book transfer between your merchant’s bank account and your user’s bank account in a perfectly closed loop payment network. Suddenly, Cash App Pay has a magical 2.9% take rate with no money movement costs at all. The problem with these magic tricks, like the ones in life, is that they are actually using some deception to hide what’s truly happening. Let’s play it out. In the status quo, without Cash App Pay, Square would earn ~1.85% in acquirer markup and Cash App would earn 0.90% in interchange for a total of 2.75% in take rate. In the Cash App Pay case, Square and Cash App would split the 2.90% Merchant Discount rate they artfully charged without having any money movement. So instead of the 2-3x markup, the uptick is more like +15bps (+5%). So maybe there isn’t a massive take rate arbitrage, but Block should still be focusing on its closed loop payment network because it represents huge opportunity for other reasons. Read the full post at https://lnkd.in/d93nkn29.

38

1 Comment

"Small funds may have more incentive to produce higher returns The alignment of incentives between GP and LP varies drastically based on fund size. Managers of smaller funds who have invested substantial personal capital demonstrate an unwavering commitment to lucrative returns, while managers at the helm of colossal funds, buoyed by significant management fees, may exhibit a diminishing drive. This constitutes an almost incontrovertible structural benefit of managing a small VC fund. Furthermore, fund managers of established funds may, over time, raise larger subsequent funds and grow more risk averse. This can present a sub-optimal outcome for their LPs and, by virtue, manifests a bad omen for VC investing." https://lnkd.in/gHKgea4e

150

15 Comments

Regulatory clarity for responsible crypto innovation is emerging in the US and stands to catalyze the market adoption of such innovations. When regulations are clear, consumers and innovators all benefit. Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (#FIT21) is expected to pass with bipartisan support in Congress. FIT21 would redefine how securities issuers have to comply with existing federal law and Supreme Court precedent. The bill would create a new definition specific to digital assets, to identify when they're digital securities or digital commodities and whether the SEC or CFTC should be the primary spot market regulator. This collaborative approach signals a shift away from the current unclear, antiquated and antagonistic processes in some of the US regulatory agencies.

24

4 Comments

Huge thanks to Paayal Zaveri for covering the launch of Patron Fund II in Bloomberg and to Edward Ludlow and Caroline Hyde for having me on to chat about our new fund on Bloomberg Television this morning. Re-posting the note shared by my co-founder Brian Cho this morning: We’re excited to announce Patron Fund II, a $100M seed-stage fund dedicated to supporting founders building for the next generation of consumers. This new fund is shaped by our experience as early builders and investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Riot Games, and Discord, along with insights from the past three years since launching our first fund. Our journey has made it clear that tomorrow’s most transformative companies will serve the hundreds of millions growing up on platforms like Roblox and Discord. Games have always been at the forefront of consumer tech adoption, and we’re dedicated to supporting visionary founders who use this gaming lens to build venture-scale businesses across all verticals. The name "Patron" reflects the kind of firm we strive to be—one that offers unwavering support to founders. With our experience scaling category-defining companies, we bring unique expertise in designing products that engage people for thousands of hours, while guiding founders through every step of their journey. We exclusively lead seed rounds to stay deeply involved from the start through to scale. As patrons, we empower builders to create something lasting. If you’re a founder who shares this vision, we’d love to connect. Amber Atherton, Brian Cho & Jason Yeh

306

36 Comments

I had a lot of fun recording a podcast episode with Shiva Singh Sangwan. We discussed the evolution of Humba Ventures & Susa Ventures; tips for raising and building a fund; how to improve investment sourcing & picking; the role of luck in investing, and so on. https://lnkd.in/eiqsStej

32

3 Comments

💰Sharing a List of 80 Black-led VC funds (US based): About this list: I realized that I couldn’t find a current list of Black-led funds as of 2024 when a lot of new funds have launched over the last couple of years including GPs Sydney Paige Thomas, Terri Burns and more. I have been gathering a list of these funds in my network, and that I could find publicly over time so wanted to share with the ecosystem. Only 2% of VC funds are Black-led: I found 80 funds (maybe there’s more!). There are 3,417 VC firms in the US (according to NVCA). Founders - These funds invest from pre-seed through growth, some with a focus on diverse founders, others more broadly. ⅔ of them have OPEN funding applications that I’ve linked in the sheet. LPs - As mentioned, a number of these funds might not be in the databases used for tracking, so hope to get some more Black-led funds on your radar! VCs - maybe there are some funds you should get to know for deal sharing, etc 👉🏾Link to full list here: https://lnkd.in/gktBhY-W

936

118 Comments