Jeanie Fang

To help bridge the information gap between founders & investors, Nick Khormaei & I built a comprehensive map of the Seattle venture ecosystem. Check out the slide deck below for a breakdown and reach out to us if you'd like to see our full data-set!

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Good food for thought as we try to better understand the need for change and have a simple yet lock step planned approach to manage the process of change as we continue to build for the longer term! #backtobasics #processproduceschange #buildforlongerterm

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The more I talk to Fortune 500 leaders and AI startups, the more I realize how necessary the AI consulting / services ecosystem is in actually making adoption happen. From the Fortune 500 (legacy firms, not big tech) we hear: -- There's pressure from the board and from the front lines to use genAI... but there are few good ideas on where to use it, and few leaders can think beyond immediate / incremental applications. From AI startups we hear: -- Fortune 500 leadership doesn't know what AI can do, and their motives for adopting AI are often myopic and limited, preventing them from really building new capabilities - and restricting ROI to small, sequestered pocket areas that easily become technical debt. ... For the most part, this problem is solved by services firms who: 1. Have a higher degree of AI fluency than most of their legacy clients 2. Can help to ideate, and open up the art of the possible in a way that feels like "co-creation", not "education" (C-suite egos would never stand to be "educated", they need to learn a LOT but it has to feel like a peer-to-peer experience and not a lecture) Consultants are incentivized to open up broader opportunities in order to sell more - but in the process - they force clients to think about the future beyond just next quarter. This is only becoming more and more necessary as #AI becomes more accessible in the enterprise. AI consulting is literally JUST getting started.

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Insightful .. the Framework would be the center of the wheel and the balance 5 focus points on the rim of the wheel with many lines connecting each point to all the others.. its moving the wheel of focus to specific targeted activity that can e stand alone or interlinked to the other areas

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🌏 📊 Erica Kangas is an engineering leader, voracious learner, and feminist builder who seeks out the biggest levers to move the world. 📊🌏 It's W6 / Q2 / 2024 and this week in our MGMT Boston up & coming operator series we’ve got Annie Erica, part of a small but mighty team as the Head of Engineering at hyper curated investment connection & fundraising guidance platform Scroobious. Erica joined Scroobious as their Head of Engineering to help lead the technical efforts of this very early stage team shaping up capital markets culture for underrepresented founders. Erica is responsible for the entirety of their technical infrastructure. She is working every day to build out their marketplace product, making sure Scroobious Founders are having a smooth experience so they can effectively onboard their pitches onto the marketplace and connect with investors. Erica continues to spend time answering tough questions about the business and communicating effectively to equip founders with the resources they need to be successful. Scroobious’ founder community grew 75% in 2023 and is made up of 63% female founders. ✍ Cataloging Skills & Connecting the Dots 🔄 From nonprofits to startups, Erica has always cataloged her experiences. She keeps references & resources on hand from prior experiences to keep memorable frameworks from the earliest days of her career. Every time she embarks on a meaty project, the first question she asks is “what are our goals”? Then, what are we looking to accomplish? By having something to ground herself in, she can begin to move forward. That work has paid off in building a portfolio of experiences and an archive of resources. At Scroobious, she wants to understand the different attributes of founders and successful pitches to effectively connect founders with angels. For example, investors look for coachability as an attribute & trait, so she has thought back to her nonprofit days when they measured grit and growth in students and volunteers. It’s obviously a bit different but there are always overlapping threads to pull on. Problems Not Yet Solved Erica offered up three unsolved problems that drive her work as an invitation to think about and join in tackling these issues. Because learning never ends and we have a lot more to do in these areas! 🤖 How do we build AI that won’t just repeat the mistakes and mirror the worst facets of our past? 🤝 How do we continue to develop the field of software engineering such that it is sustainable, equitable, and accessible? 🤲 How do we effectively combat exclusionary systems when many of our institutions no longer have the appetite or have their hands tied from doing so? If you’d like to learn more about Erica’s career, the full post is linked in the comments. Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter to see the operator learnings we bring you in the weeks ahead too, will ya? #bostontech #operators #engineering

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The widening fallout from Synapse’s collapse and subsequent bankruptcy—and every bank and fintech partner swept up in it—continues to raise serious operational questions, cause lingering angst for customers still unable to access their money, and yet is utterly devoid of soul searching on the part of executives responsible for what transpired. Synapse, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider backed by prominent venture capitalists, worked with as many as 100 bank and fintech partners—including Evolve Bank & Trust, Lineage Bank, Mercury, Dave, Yotta, Juno and Yieldstreet—serving as the intermediary between bank partners providing deposit accounts, loans and payment products and the fintechs that embed them into their customer apps. As the enormity of U.S. bankruptcy trustee Jelena McWilliams’ findings became public, what was also glaringly obvious: Some of the companies involved were so busy pointing fingers at each other that they failed to acknowledge that customers—all of whom were unwittingly tied to Synapse and its bank partners through their usage of fintech apps—have become collateral damage. That must change. Given the pace of financial innovation and the size of most BaaS banks—60% of BaaS banks have assets under $5 billion, while about 30% have assets under $1 billion, according to CCG Catalyst —the principles-based interagency guidance from the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency seems inadequate to prevent another Synapse-like event. The resolution of the Synapse bankruptcy will likely be precedent-setting, potentially dictating changes to the BaaS model to ensure greater stability and reliability, sharpening enforcement of existing bank regulations and forcing new and deeper straight-line federal regulatory oversight—perhaps via national charters—of BaaS providers and fintechs. My latest for FIN: The Fast Forward on Fintech.

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Last night's Technology Association of Oregon panel discussion on raising capital for AI ventures was full of interesting takeaways. The event brought together leading PNW VCs, CEOs, and funders to share their perspectives and best practices. Here's what you need to know: ➡ The AI/ML space is rapidly evolving, presenting huge opportunities for startups tackling real business problems. VCs are actively seeking out the most ambitious and disruptive companies in this domain. ➡ Having an "unfair advantage" is key - whether that's proprietary data sets, unique domain expertise, or unparalleled access to customers. AI ventures need strong differentiation to stand out. ➡ Build relationships early with VCs, even before you're ready to raise. Their insights and connections can accelerate your journey. The PNW venture ecosystem is highly collaborative and accessible. ➡ Don't be deterred by the perceived lack of local funding. Great companies with compelling visions will get funded, period. Leverage the PNW's strengths in developer/engineering talent. ➡ Recognize and proactively address the potential downsides of AI - from data privacy to model bias. Building responsibly is both an obligation and an opportunity. ➡ Move fast, be bold. Raising capital is always hard, but fortune favors the brave in this space. With the right team, tech and traction, you can build a world-changing business here in the PNW. Thanks to the fantastic panelists Diane Fraiman (Voyager Capital), Geoff Harris (Flying Fish), Jon Maroney (OVF), Chris Sestito (Hidden Layer), Jon Turow (Madrona) for sharing their insights, and to Kristy Edwards for moderating!

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In 2015, Wired proclaimed a revolution in digital assistants—a prophecy that would shape the next wave of AI innovation. As we journey from the AI hype of Amazon's Alexa to today's sophisticated LLMs, certain truths remain unchanged. This narrative that we’re publishing today delves into five foundational lessons learned over the years, revealing how our interactions with AI have evolved. By examining real-world examples of our work across healthcare, travel, music and more, we uncover the nuanced relationship between humans and machines, offering our perspective on designing AI products that resonate deeply with users. If you want to know more about the Grounded AI approach we've developed at Stripe Partners do get in touch with Tom Hoy or me. https://lnkd.in/drYH-svh

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Nothing better than "real time" case studies for leaders to learn from. Take a look... and thanks Jennifer George for sharing how there can be similar work challenges in very different industries, and even more interesting, the steps they are taking to fix them. #CEO #Leadership #challenge https://lnkd.in/ekp3BT7u

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Want to talk GTM? Join us on October 2nd at Gasworks Brewing for another round of Seattle Founders GTM. #founders #entrepreneurs #startups #gtm Sign up with the link below.

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I need some help - Anyone in payments has likely ran into the "what do you do" question from friends and family, and some of the time just saying "Oh - I am in Payments" is good enough. For when it isn't good enough, we may go into CX, auth rate optimization, Fraud prevention, etc etc. I had a conversation with 3 family members this month and we somehow ended up on the topic of account updater... To me, account updater is a solid solution solving an interesting problem. To them, their first responses were "That doesn't seem fair", "Is that even Legal?" and "What if I got a new card because I didn't want to get charged anymore?" They're looking at it from the buyer's perspective, not the supplier / merchant side. Anyone else run in to this before? And does anyone actually have an answer I can bring back to them for our 4th of July get together? #payments #accountupdater #tokenization

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Since last post we’ve seen 1 acquisition, 5 fundraising rounds, 20 people moves & promotions, 2 roles, 2 articles, and 1 newly added event. Link in comments. Be sure to subscribe for email delivery (it's free). Climavision acquired Intersphere (AI-powered weather prediction). Arbol (climate risk management) raised $60M in a Series B led by Giant Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures. CARV (modular data layer for gaming and AI) raised $10M in a Series A led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. Fano Labs (language AI) raised a Series B led by Openspace Ventures. NeuBird.ai (AI ITOps engineering) raised $22M in a Seed round led by Mayfield. Peregrine (public safety data management platform) raised $30M in a Series B led by Friends & Family Capital and Fifth Down Capital. "Why It’s The Year Of Proprietary Data, Not AI" by Lauren Cascio of Gulp Data in Forbes. "Commentary: Misconceptions about using AI and data science in private markets investing" by Drew Conway of Two Sigma in Pensions & Investments. Kyle Armbrester joined Datavant as CEO. Regent Armstrong joined FiscalNote as Director of Data-Led Advisory. W. Brennan Carley joined Raido Capital Partners as an Operating Partner. Adele C. joined Hudson Bay Capital Management as Head of Data Integration. Meg Culp joined Cox Communications as Director, Data Analysis. Sean Evers joined Cimba.ai as Director of Sales. Seamus Gibson was promoted to Head of Data Partnerships at Huq Industries. David Hannibal joined Squirro as Chief Product Officer & Head of Corporate Development. Frances Holmes was promoted to VP, Generative AI Strategy at FactSet. Jesse Krieger joined AlphaSense as Senior Growth Account Executive, Financial Services. Andrew Lehrman joined Crisp as VP, Corporate Development. Rachael Moreland joined S&P Global as VP of Global Energy Software & Innovation Lead. Dr. Chakradhara Panda joined Adani AI Labs as Head of Data and AI. Om Patri was promoted to Director, Data at Polar Asset Management. James Ryan, Ph.D. was promoted to Head of AI, ML, and Data Practice EMEA at Riviera Partners. Christopher SanFilippo joined Tradeweb as Director, Head of Data Management. R. Andrew Sprague was promoted to Head of Investor Vertical at Sensor Tower. Mike Sussman joined SageBuyer as Head of Revenue. Bracken Wilde joined Portage Partners as VP, Data Analytics. Chris Young was promoted to SVP, Global Head of Sales at InnovateMR.

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Here's a good one.. "How impolite chatbot behavior can impact a company's customer service reputation." We're not talking Don Rickles rude, but take a listen to this week's "What the Dev?" podcast from SD Times to find out what it means. WillowTree

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A Canary in the Mine A Shift in VC Behavior I have worked in the venture capital ecosystem for over 25 years, both as a founder and as a VC, and I loved every day of it. For the last several years, I’ve also been working as an advisor to startups and as an angel investor. From this new perspective, I’ve begun to see a troubling shift in some parts of the venture capital community. It may be that many VCs have always acted this way and that I was just fortunate enough to be treated well because I was at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) launching ventures. But I don’t think so. I’ve known many VCs and seen them in hundreds of interactions. Almost all were respectful, helpful people whose coaching and support were fundamental to their ventures' success. What is the shift? The VCs I worked with didn’t always take a meeting, but they always responded to requests in a timely fashion. Today, emails and messages to them frequently go unanswered. After a pitch meeting, founders often leave with a sense of hope, only to encounter an unsettling silence in subsequent days and weeks. A few VCs, overloaded with pitches, even resort to disappearing acts, leaving founders without feedback or closure. “Ghosting,” as this is called, fosters an environment of discouragement and alienation. Meeting conduct among some VCs has deteriorated. Founders, passionate about their concepts and willing to endure significant risks and hardships, deserve respect. Far too often now, they experience unimportant interruptions. I’ve heard of a VC taking a Zoom meeting that was scheduled to review a venture deck while driving his car. He did not even call back after coverage was lost. Please click on the image to read the rest of the post. And please sign up! My posts are always free. Your Venture Coach, Norman

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Big news, Friends! 🎉🎉 I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Chapter Two Consulting, along with my longtime friends and partners Ray Zambroski, Phillip Grove, and Don Fleming.  These guys are Seattle tech veterans, with long track records of helping numerous Seattle startups and fast scalers build business-critical software and great engineering teams. Chapter Two Consulting is a culmination of decades of building trusted relationships, hard-won experience (and a few hard lessons), and great admiration for those who get up every morning and enter the arena. I’ve worked with some of you for many, many years.  Some measured in decades!  It’s been my absolute pleasure and honor; I look forward to many more. Ready to write the next chapter in your story?  Don’t go it alone; we’re here to help! Dan Sr. Partner and Co-founder, Chapter Two Consulting https://chapter2team.com ------------------- Announcing the Launch of Chapter Two Consulting: Your Engineering Powerhouse. At Chapter Two, we believe engineers are the architects of innovation—building the products, technologies, and infrastructures that shape our future. With roots in the Pacific Northwest’s hub of creativity, and deep technical prowess, we’re here to connect bold thinkers with the resources, talent, and strategy they need to make a lasting impact. Seattle’s engineering community is our home. From early-stage startups to scaling enterprises, we recognize the challenges engineering leaders face when assembling teams, launching breakthrough technologies, and scaling with purpose. We’ve built Chapter Two to empower innovators with a tailored recruitment and consulting service designed specifically to address these kinds of problems. Our team brings deep expertise across technical disciplines and industries, enabling us to align your organization’s vision with the right talent and strategies. Whether you’re solving critical technical challenges, refining your product roadmap or scaling an R&D team, we’re your partner every step of the way. We work flexibly and collaboratively to support your growth, offering: - Consulting engagements that tackle immediate challenges while building frameworks for long-term success. - - Engineering recruitment to match you with exceptional talent across software, hardware, and interdisciplinary domains - - Long term partnership for emerging technical leaders navigating complex and changing team growth requirements. At Chapter Two, we’re not just recruiters or consultants—we’re a part of your team. We’re inspired by the builders and innovators who call Seattle home, and we’re dedicated to helping you engineer your vision into reality. Let’s connect and explore how we can drive your success together.

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Looks like the job market may be on the upswing (based on anecdotal info I'm getting from my product leader network). 🤞 Yesterday, one of the VP product leaders in my network shared with me that he had 2 competing job offers and accepted the offer with a PE-backed company that had better business fundamentals (stronger margins, customer retention, unit economics) but less sexy on the surface than the unicorn VC-backed company with an all-star team (based on unicorn logos) that raised a bunch during peak-ZIRP but had to go through rounds of layoffs with eroding morale. Would you have made the same decision that my friend did choosing the less sexy business with stronger business fundamentals? (Why or why not? Discuss!) I also shared with him the blog post that I had written about Unit Economics when I was in venture capital and he encouraged me to share this more broadly. The link to the post which is now on Substack is in the comments. 👇 ----------------------------------------- Also, this is a good time to share that I've moved all my past writing (previously on Medium, etc) to my new "Beyond Leadership" Substack. I'll be sharing more long-form blog posts here from time to time. I'll be writing about leadership and what's beyond leadership, culture-building, startup life, fractional life, building a dream career, networking & community building and more. Please do subscribe if interested: https://lnkd.in/geApUfD2

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Re: Yelp's Disability Pride Month alt text update last week.  First, Happy #DisabilityPrideMonth, everyone! Second, we need to talk about corporate announcements like this one. ICYMI Yelp introduced an initiative to use #generativeAI to add alt text to images on their platform (press release below caption). At first glance, this sounds like an exciting win for accessibility and the disability community, with big companies taking a step forward in inclusivity. Scribely took a closer look and, unfortunately, the reality is much different. First, we can't find the generative AI alt text anywhere. The alt text we did find on Yelp's platform was auto generated and formulaic, which isn't exactly the same thing as "generative" AI. What we did find was that Yelp seems to be using the formula: Photo of + Account + Location + Caption (if provided). Has anyone found gen AI alt text on Yelp since this announcement? If so, please send it to me because we're perplexed about where exactly users can find this. Yelp didn't provide any instructions or examples about how to access this new feature in their press release. Regardless, auto-generated alt text often lacks the thoughtful detail needed to be truly effective. In Scribely's latest video, we break down why Yelp's approach and formulaic alt text misses the mark. Spoiler alert: it's not just about adding alt text to check a box; it's about adding meaningful at text that enhances the user experience. At Scribely, we recommend human-centered or at the very least human-triggered alt text workflows that empowers users to compose thoughtful descriptions of their images, rather than relying on an automated, better-than-nothing approach. Before we start posting about and clapping for vague corporate announcements on social media, we really need to look into exactly what they've built and what it means for users. Let's do our research. The press release doesn't show anything in action, which made it difficult to evaluate and leaves us all wondering... who is this Disability Pride Month initiative for exactly? Yelp press release: https://lnkd.in/gyQTCVye #DisabilityInclusion #DisabilityPride #Accessibility #DEI

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Excited to now “officially” announce the first-ever Honolulu Tech Week from September 16-22nd. Will be sharing more in the coming days, but I wanted to start with the question: Why start Honolulu Tech Week? Honolulu (and Hawai’i) is at an inflection point as an emerging technology hub across startups, major industries, and our institutions. We have had multiple technology startups born here and exited (both IPO and M&A) to the tune of $100Ms+, with multiple more in the pipeline that are building from Hawaii. Early pioneers like Steve Case hail from here. Accelerators like Blue Startups are sought by entrepreneurs from around the world, and Elemental Excelerator is the global leader in climate. VCs like Builders, Alpaca VC, Vectr Fintech Partners, Startup Capital Ventures are based or have team here and actively funding HI startups. ThriveHI ensures we have monthly programming! Tech giants like Amazon are establishing a major presence, and Google, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce and many others are filled with kama'aina plus those who call our islands home. Many industry leaders from travel to real estate and defense are have significant operations or are headquartered here. These industries are in the midst of deep technological transformation, but self-admittedly are behind the curve. Hawaii has demonstrated leadership in renewable energy and ocean tech plus a number of deep tech and climate companies like Privateer Space and Yishan Wong's Terraformation are emerging here in part to our inherent geographical characteristics. Honolulu and Hawaii is not only a world-class place to live if you're building from the cloud, we have the physical elements to build first-in-class technology and companies. Legislators like Glenn Wakai and Kanani Souza are bringing awareness to this. But... We need to pull together this ecosystem. We need a more networked community, including those who aren't always here physically. Talent and capital has to thrive and be excited. We need to think bigger. We need to build massive and enduring companies. There are missing connections and nodes that can accelerate our success, often hiding in plain sight. The end-to-end ecosystem, from startup to Hawaii corporates, isn't as aligned as it should be. Hawaii talent living on the mainland, and those connected to Hawaii, need to be tied tighter into the community. Honolulu Tech Week will concentrate and bring together our broader tech community once per year for a week in an 'unconference' format, to make new connections irl, hear success stories and challenges, and learn from the best while having a great time across our beautiful city. For those living here, for those returning home, and for those who want to join us. Sign Up Here —> https://lnkd.in/gEx4y6Tz Host An Event —> https://lnkd.in/gQ7irJJZ Partner / Sponsor —> DM or email to [email protected]

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Are we helping or hurting? That is a question many residents of San Francisco ask ourselves in the midst of a stark and increasing equity gap. As a parent, community member, and incoming board member of the Horizons at San Francisco Friends School, I’m keenly aware of the potential learning loss our public school students in the Mission District experience in the summer months without our support. Our city is undergoing another crisis - looming budget cuts threaten vital programs like Horizons at SFFS that provide equitable learning for Mission youth. We urgently need your support to secure bridge funding and ensure our summer enrichment continues. Our scholars and families are relying on Horizons' high-quality academics and social-emotional growth.  Horizons has been successfully leveraging the months when students are out of school to stem summer learning loss for children in San Francisco for ~10 years. The program has also intentionally increased impact by supporting their scholars through their educational journey during the school year and into High School. Last year, Horizons impacted 150+ scholars with targeted small classroom instruction, confidence-building, and joyful community enrichment experiences- thanks to our dedicated summer education workforce. But we can't continue without you. Please join me in supporting Horizons at SFFS today to expand partnerships, engage more crisis-impacted families, and grow our supportive community stronger. In past years, the SF Department of Children, Youth and Families has been a partner to increase access to education for our students. This summer, as we face a potential 40% loss to our summer program due to DCYF funding cuts that have impacted so many vital programs in our city, we’ve decided to celebrate Horizons Giving Day, the whole month of May. Please join me in our movement - your gift saves the summer for San Francisco scholars and helps bridge the educational equity gap in our city. Let’s help together. In gratitude, friendship and community, Aneesha #GiveTheGiftofSummer #SparkPassions #HorizonsGivingDay https://lnkd.in/gJAYnibC Links for reference: Horizons at SFFS: https://lnkd.in/gfsdugDX Impact Report: https://lnkd.in/gZc2jn85 Press Release on DCYF Loss of Funding: https://lnkd.in/gNprpSyB

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