Jeremy Doochin

Wing Venture Capital's Founder Docs project is a unique collection of startup wisdom, by founders, for founders. The authors of the docs are talented founders themselves, sharing their experience on the topics they are most passionate about. I'd like to highlight the contributions of Edo Liberty, founder / CEO of Pinecone. Edo writes about the special opportunities for the scientist / founder (and he is one of the best of this breed!), as well as some of the risks and challenges they face. I got a lot out of reading Edo's stuff and I suspect you will too! https://lnkd.in/g_wyRMiE

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🚀 AlleyCorp Closes $250M Fund to Fuel Tech Innovation in NYC and Beyond🗽 🌟 Founded by NYC internet entrepreneur Kevin Ryan, AlleyCorp incubates and invests in transformative companies across diverse verticals including Diversified Technology, Healthcare, Robotics, and Impact. 💡💰 🤝 The fund, backed by a select group of LPs, supports AlleyCorp's mission to originate ideas, hire teams, provide initial funding, and maintain integral leadership throughout the company’s lifecycle. 🌱🔍 💼 With about 20–30 new investments and 5–8 incubations per year, AlleyCorp has a track record of nurturing early-stage tech pioneers. 📈🌐 🦄 Notable investments include MongoDB (NASDAQ: MDB), Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, Zola, and Nomad Health, shaping the landscape of tech innovation in NYC. 🌆🌟 🔬 AlleyCorp also announces the incubation of Radical AI, pioneering AI-driven materials design, and Conduce Health, revolutionizing access to personalized healthcare specialists. 💻🏥 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VentureCapital #TechInnovation #NYCTech #StartupInvestment #Incubation #AlleyCorp #ImpactInvesting #HealthTech #AI #Robotics #DiversifiedTechnology #InvestmentStrategy

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Create Health Ventures Launches Inaugural $21M Fund for Early-Stage Digital Health Startups  Create Health Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage digital health companies, has closed its debut fund, raising $21 million, surpassing its initial target. Launched in 2024, Create Health Ventures is based in Austin, TX, and Chicago, IL. The firm focuses on technologies that enhance healthcare access, improve patient experiences, and deliver value across payers, providers, and pharmaceutical companies. *Its primary focus includes:   1. Payer-Facing Technologies: Solutions that improve member experiences, enable seamless data and workflow integration, and scale technology across geographies.   2. Clinical Trial Enablement: Tools to help pharmaceutical companies recruit and retain participants for late-stage clinical trials as demand increases. *Founders and Approach:   Create Health Ventures was co-founded by Emma Cartmell and Amit Aysola, healthcare veterans with over 45 years of combined experience. They bring operational expertise, regulatory insight, and an extensive network to portfolio companies. The firm exclusively invests in startups led by healthcare industry founders, leveraging its unique value-added platform for scaling businesses.  *The platform includes: - Business development support   - Access to executive coaches   - Connections to healthcare leaders   - Cross-selling opportunities among portfolio companies  *Key Quotes by GPs:  - Emma Cartmell: “Founders from the healthcare industry understand the challenges and opportunities to improve patient outcomes. Supporting them is the most impactful way we can positively transform healthcare.”   - Amit Aysola: “Payers and pharmaceutical companies are driving demand for connected, scalable solutions, and we are investing in companies to meet these needs.”  *Investments and Impact:  The firm has made five investments so far and partners with foundations, impact investors, and strategic healthcare veterans to mentor portfolio companies.  *Portfolio CEO Feedback:   - Dr. Chip Grant (Watershed Health): “Create Health Ventures has been invaluable in scaling operations and fundraising.”   - Shara Cohen (Carallel): “They are the most collaborative and active investor team I’ve worked with.”   - Neil Batlivala (Pair Team): “They’ve helped us manage growth and reach underserved communities.” If you are experiencing difficulties in raising fresh capital and would require warm introductions to new LPs, contact G+QUANT     ▶ Please use G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks, or send your inquiry directly to [email protected] #VentureCapital #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #Startups #ClinicalTrials #PatientCare #HealthTech #HealthEquity #CreateHealthVentures

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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🚀 The latest cheat sheet for hacking your Techstars Miami application for fall 2024 just dropped! In the comments, I put the link to Google Docs that you can duplicate and share with your co-founders and mentors before you submit it on May 22! #techstars #givefirst #miamitechmonth #miamitech

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The entrepreneurial journey is one of grit, passion, and unwavering belief. I'm truly excited about what Raj Shekhar Singh, Jyotika Gupta , and Sudarshan Ravi Jha are building with z21 Ventures. Their vision resonates deeply with me. As a founder, I know firsthand the rollercoaster of highs and lows that come with building something from the ground up. It's a path that tests you in ways you never imagined, but it's also incredibly rewarding. We've been fortunate to have exceptional investors like Sumir Chadha and WestBridge Capital in our corner. Their support went beyond just capital - they've stood by us through our triumphs and, more importantly, our setbacks. That kind of belief in your vision is invaluable. I'm hopeful and confident that Raj, Jyotika, and Sudarshan will create similar transformative experiences for a new generation of purposeful founders. They understand that true innovation often comes from those daring to challenge the status quo, those driven by a desire to make a real impact. To all the founders out there: Your journey may be hard, but it's worth it. Stay true to your purpose, embrace the challenges, and remember that your ideas have the power to make meaningful change in the world. With supporters like z21 Ventures backing you, there's no limit to what you can achieve. Let's build a future where innovation thrives and where purposeful entrepreneurship creates lasting positive change. The road ahead may be tough, but with determination and the right support, anything is possible.

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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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At EMNLP2024 Miami next week? Join me on November 14, 2024, from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM (Miami Time) for a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session focusing on embeddings, rerankers, and small LMs for better search. This 1.5-hour in-person session will bring together researchers in embeddings, rerankers & information retrieval; offering an excellent opportunity to explore recent advances in search foundation models, share your work with a specialized audience, and discuss emerging trends in search models in 2024. All EMNLP on-site participants are welcome to attend. Topics of interest: - Multimodal, multilingual, cross-lingual, and cross-modal embeddings and rerankers - Late-interaction models (e.g., ColBERT, ColPali) and late chunking - Long-context embedding models - Instruction-tuning for embedding and reranker models - LLM-based embedding and reranker models - Small language models for document reading - Efficient and lightweight embedding architectures, attention mechanisms - Zero/few-shot retrieval and adaptation methods - Contrastive learning approaches for retriever - Matryoshka representation learning, embedding compression and quantization - Hybrid sparse-dense retrieval systems - Task-LoRA, domain adaptation, OOD, fine-tuning for embedding models - MTEB, LongMTEB, RAG evaluation metrics and benchmarks - Embedding models for code and structured data - Privacy-preserving embedding techniques Registration link in the comment below:

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Listen to Ricardo Regalado, tell us his story of startup success. He decided to follow his passion for technology even though he initially started in a different industry. It all started when he took a leap of faith in himself and won a pitch competition. "I did it, and we are here today". His motto is "Just do it, man. What do you have to lose?". 👉The full episode https://bit.ly/4aKLRPl

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When people join the team at Valley, I share a Startup Guidebook I created with them. It’s a list of the best resources I’ve found on building a startup over the last several years. Check out the issue and subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/eTqV8fYy

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In a startup's early days, founders often skip detailed compensation planning, instead choosing round numbers and moving on. This is an admirable sentiment. But over the long term, founder compensation design can matter a lot to the company, so it's worth taking some time to think this through. Here are some benchmarks and suggestions for founder compensation across: 1. Salary 2. Equity Split 3. Vesting https://lnkd.in/gcDXehXx

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🌟 Navigating Venture Capital: Valar Ventures' Evolution and Successes 🌟 In the dynamic world of venture capital, even seasoned players like Valar Ventures LLC face the winds of change. Founded by the visionary Peter Thiel in 2010, Valar Ventures, under the stewardship of Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald has navigated the complexities of fundraising with both resilience and adaptation. 💼 💰 **Fundraising Dynamics**: Valar's recent $300 million Fund IX marks a strategic pivot amidst a shifting fundraising landscape. With valuations in flux and LP sentiment evolving, the fund size represents a deliberate recalibration, reflecting the firm's commitment to prudent growth and strategic alignment. 💡 🚀 **Investment Strategy**: Beyond the numbers, Valar's investment ethos remains rooted in foresight and agility. From pioneering ventures in cryptolending with BlockFi to transformative successes like Wise, Valar's portfolio mirrors a blend of strategic foresight and calculated risk-taking. 💼 🔍 **Performance and Challenges**: Like all ventures, Valar has faced its share of challenges. Despite notable successes, such as Wise's monumental IPO, setbacks like BlockFi's Chapter 11 filing underscore the inherent volatility of the startup ecosystem. Nonetheless, Valar remains undeterred, forging ahead with conviction and resilience. 📉 🌱 **Evolving Focus**: From its origins in New Zealand to its current specialization in fintech worldwide, Valar's journey reflects a constant evolution driven by market dynamics and strategic imperatives. Adaptation and expansion have been hallmarks of Valar's trajectory, positioning it as a global player in the fintech landscape. 🌍 💬 **LP Perspectives**: While LP sentiment may vary, Valar's commitment to delivering value remains unwavering. Despite critiques from some LPs regarding returns, Valar's track record speaks to a blend of perseverance, innovation, and strategic acumen. 💼 🌟 **The Journey Ahead**: As Valar Ventures charts its course amidst an ever-changing landscape, one thing remains certain: the spirit of innovation and the quest for transformative impact continue to drive its endeavors. With each investment, Valar reaffirms its commitment to shaping the future of fintech and beyond. 🌟 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #VCfund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments (Series A/Series B)?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VentureCapital #Fintech #Innovation #StartupSuccess #ValarVentures #PeterThiel #InvestmentJourney #investments #vc

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#TechConSocal2024 #BuildingOutsideSiliconValley Spark Growth Ventures is committed to helping support top-tier founders from across the nation as well as internationally. Out of the 25 portfolio companies that we have partnered with in the last ~3.5 yrs, the pre-dominant majority are neither in SV nor in NYC (the top two hubs for startup funding in the US), but are in emerging hubs such as Nashville, Columbus, Cleveland and Sacramento: • 6 are HQ-/Co-HQ-ed across San Diego, Sacramento and LA metros • 4 in the Midwest • 4 with HQs/co-HQs in Europe and Asia • 2 in the DC Metro area • 2 in Pacific Northwest • 1 in the South • 1 in the Mountain West Even though there're significant ecosystem benefits from being in large hubs (SV/ NYC/ Boston etc), we think that top-tier innovation and teams with proper distributed support, especially in the post-COVID era, can be successful from most places – there are some additional hurdles but nothing that’s insurmountable. In addition, several benefits of being in the emerging/small hubs vs. the traditional centers. On the personal side also, I grew up in tier-2/3 cities and towns of India (Kota, Ratlam, Jallandhar, Kapurthala, Meerut, NE States etc.) and similarly, built my early foundation in the US in small MidWestern towns/cities, and finally made a conscious decision to create a life out of a mid-sized city in the US. So, I can personally relate to & in fact, support pursuing one’s dreams from just about anywhere, not just large obvious places. Therefore, given our mindset and philosophy, I am really excited to be part of the "Challenges and Opportunities of Creating a Prosperous Venture Outside of Silicon Valley" panel being moderated by Zamir Shukho, MBA (General Partner at Vibranium Venture Capital), alongside my dear friend and classmate Paul Yeh (Founding Partner at Conductive Ventures), Brad Greenwald (Managing Partner at Hilltop Venture Partners) and Howard Ko (Partner at Morpheus Ventures). We will most likely start around 2 pm PST in case you would like to hear our combined perspectives. Lastly, #TechConSoCal is shaping to be one of the largest innovation conferences in #SanDiego, with hundreds of VCs, founders, startup professionals and innovation enthusiasts attending. If you are able to make it to San Diego for a day or even swing by for a few hours, it will definitely be worth the price of admission. Thanks Faisal Mushtaq, Serhat Pala, Neal Bloom and many others for helping organize this invaluable event right here in San Diego and for making a huge contribution to the local ecosystem.   Spark Growth Ventures, Safa Mahzari, Alessio Sanfilippo, Gaurav Bhatia, Jaikaran Sawhny, Jeffrey Haux, Kimberly Davis King, Marcos Rivera, Pooja Skogstad, Raj Pudipeddi, Rohit Gulati, Vittal Kadapakkam, TIE San Diego, Orange County OC Startup Council, The Brink SBDC, EvoNexus, UC San Diego, SDSU College of Sciences, Wharton Alumni Angels, NuFund Venture Group, Jonah Peake, Fred Grier, Pankaj Kedia

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💰 Women-Led VC Funds: Navigating 2024 Fundraising Landscape 💰 According to Venture Capital Journal, despite a strong start, women-led VC funds are feeling the impact of the industry-wide fundraising slowdown. As of November 30, 2024, women-led VC funds have raised $2.54 billion, which represents a 25% decrease from 2023's total of $3.43 billion. In comparison, global venture fundraising is down 13% YoY. While the numbers reflect challenges, there's still potential for growth: • Several funds typically file updates in December • These late submissions could help narrow the gap Let's continue supporting diversity in VC and monitor these trends as we approach year-end. #VentureCapital #WomenInVC #FundingTrends2024 La Creme de la STEM ™ - female founders support system Noshin Ahmed Lori Rodriguez Emilie Vallauri Craig Zapatka

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Of the 89 companies in the Summer 2024 cohort on @YC’s website, just 5 have Black founders. Here are three things YC can do to lead the way in supporting Black founders: Y Combinator is the Harvard of accelerators for startup founders. But not for all of them. 1. Give clear explanations to rejected applicants. Nothing drives a founder forward like clear, actionable feedback. It helps them identify their company’s weaknesses and, thus, what to work on to improve. This type of transparency would build trust with Black founders and ultimately encourage more to apply. Even doing this for the top 10% of rejected applicants could make a big difference. 2. Partner with other organizations that already do an excellent job of supporting Black founders. There are many out there (my favorite being @goodienation),). Not only can these organizations offer diverse and innovative ideas, but collaborating with them would widen the pool of Black applicants. 3. Leverage the (albeit relatively small) network of YC-backed Black founders. Mentorship is a critical part of YC’s model, and I’d argue that the value of that mentorship increases when the mentor understands the additional challenges associated with being Black in that space. Black YC alumni can support new Black applicants on their journeys, and their referrals can help build a steady stream of Black applicants for future cohorts. I believe Y Combinator can uplift Black and underrepresented founders more broadly, but these three steps are a good start. Any other ideas? Let me know in the comments. Also, shout out to the five companies representing this year’s cohort! Rastro (YC S24) Zimi (YC S24) &AI Conductor Quantum AnswerGrid

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Episode #9: Jim Kolchin, Founder of iWallet 🎙️ Hi friends, this is Victor from R136 Ventures! In episode #9 of our "Ventures from Valley" podcast series, I was joined by Jim Kolchin (https://lnkd.in/dsqaxJyA), founder of iWallet (https://iwallet.com/). https://lnkd.in/ddmQxhZ5 From a Soviet childhood to Silicon Valley, Jim’s entrepreneurial journey is as fascinating as it is informative. He shares his path from building hardware, scaling a bootstrapped SaaS empire, and pivoting toward sustainable business growth – all without outside funding. Listen on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts In this episode, they discussed: - Building on a Budget: The path to bootstrapping iWallet to multimillion-dollar revenue - The Power of Pivoting: Why Jim moved away from hardware and what he learned about scalability and margins. - Staying Default Alive: Jim’s thoughts on scaling sustainably and keeping options open - Attracting the Right Investors: Tips on selecting investors who bring more than just capital - If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe. For more relevant VC content from "the Valley", follow us on X and LinkedIn. Stay tuned!

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I 💯agree with Oz Merchant on this topic. Some folks advise founders to pitch very selectively and 'pick your pitch' - you get one shot, choose it wisely? I'm 180 degrees opposite of that - be a promiscuous pitcher! - ABP - ALWAYS BE PITCHING. Because your pitch gets better with every no, take that feedback, learn, iterate. Right now it's taking 50-100 no's for Triangle co's to get funding, it's still tough out there, so get through the no's fast to get to a yes. Check out the event - also go see others pitch, it all helps you get better - pitching is like PMF - lots of iteration, tons of grinding to get through to the other side.

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I enjoyed going on Nick Telson-Sillett’s podcast, Pitch Deck by Forward Pursuit. Nick is a serial founder and investor (founded and exited DesignMyNight) so knows both sides of the table which always makes for an enriching chat. Some things we discussed: - The perceived power dynamic between VCs and founders can hinder productive conversations. - A compelling product demo can significantly influence investor interest. - Founders must focus on solving real customer problems to succeed. - Hiring standards are crucial for building a successful startup team. - Behavioural roadblocks can prevent the adoption of new solutions. - Validation from potential customers is key for pre-revenue startups. - The early-stage funding landscape has become more efficient and selective. - Pace of execution is a critical factor in attracting investment.

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One of our main goals at Novel is to help tech founders access the capital they need to scale their businesses sustainably.    That’s why we’re excited to be teaming up with Husch Blackwell to co-host Venture Connect, an exclusive part of Startland News’s Startup Crawl that brings together VC investors and founders for a night of networking, connections, and drinks on the house!    It’ll all be going down right here in Kansas City on June 14, so RVSP today.    Just click the link in the comments below. Can’t wait!   #VentureConnect #StartupCrawl #Startland #StartlandStartupCrawl #TechFounders #VC #VentureCapital #networking #startups #entrepreneurship #tech #KCTech #KansasCity 

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