Jin Stedge

As we witness the current dock strikes, I can’t help but reflect on the profound implications these events have on our global supply chain—from Maine to Texas and beyond. The fear surrounding automation and robots taking over dock worker jobs is palpable, and rightly so. We’re talking about potential disruptions that could cost us trillions of dollars! While I’m no expert in the dock industry, it’s clear that there’s a delicate balance to strike between innovation and workforce stability. Yes, automation can streamline processes and boost efficiency, but we still need skilled hands on deck to manage these advancements effectively. What excites me, however, is the potential for AI and technology to create NEW jobs in the logistics and shipping sectors. Instead of viewing robots as a threat, we can leverage them to enhance the roles of dock workers, pushing more goods and keeping our supply chains moving smoothly. Let’s embrace the conversation about how we can integrate technology to support our workforce rather than diminish it. Our docks and our economy depend on it. #dockstrikes #robotics

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#ObsessivelyEnthusiasticInvestor #UnreasonablyEnthusiasticInvestor #IrrationallyEnthusiasticInvestor at REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund. We look for the people we believe are doing the best work in Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology; Attempting the impossible. Then we go all-in on them. With obsessive, unreasonable, and irrational enthusiasm. We back them with evangelical zeal. Join us. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital #DemandTheImpossible #UnreasonableEnthusiasm #ObsessiveEnthusiasm #IrrationalEnthusiasm  

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WE DID IT! After 2 years of pushing through the biggest downturn in VC in decades, Matthew Stotts 🌐 and I made it to the finish line with Fund I! We couldn't have done this without One Small Planet (Will Peterffy and Jack Wielebinski 🙏), Regen Network and Regen Foundation (Austin Wade Smith Gregory Landua and Will Szal), and a dozen other family offices and angels who believed that we can build a nature-positive economy utilizing our eye for software and our history as founders from day 1 A shout out goes to all of our founders (only four announced today, but watch this space - there are multitudes!) who trusted us enough to give us a spot on their cap table for this 10-15 year journey. This is the best job in the world, and it's because we get to work with people like you who have weird ideas in the best possible way. Using Bitcoin as anchor base load to decarbonize residential housing in America's most expensive energy market? Make every complex supply chain legible to machines so we can find and eliminate deforestation in commodity supply chains? Build deeply liquid environmental asset markets to price ecosystem services, on a blockchain, that no one needs to know is a blockchain? I'm so excited to get to work on this stuff for the next 10-15 years minimum, and to see what we can accelerate with our tiny fund in the next 5-6 years as we approach 2030 Onward! https://lnkd.in/gy3B-DFe

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Meet MobilityVC. Back when we started this organization, the transportation landscape looked a tad bit different. But as we grew, and got to better know our LPs, portfolio companies, and the ecosystem at large, we saw they kept coming back for advice on growth, or market analysis, or access to new forms of capital. And so we’ve spent the past few years building out a truly tremendous team that can solve complex problems in the worlds of mobility, automotive and energy. That’s why I’m pleased to reintroduce this amazing organization as MobilityVC, which better captures our expanded capabilities and commitments to our partners. We offer advisory services to private and publicly traded companies – providing targeted transaction support for direct investments, acquisitions, technology licensing and product commercialization. This includes sourcing, due diligence, negotiation, integration and fundraising support. We’ve been successfully running a corporate venture capital program – sources startups, performs diligence and runs POCs on behalf of major OEMs. We have grown our funding capabilities to include SPVs & growth stage capital –  supporting companies as they scale, by establishing dedicated investment vehicles, allowing our LPs additional choice and transparency in their investments. And of course we still proudly invest in early stage investments – MobilityFund II is actively deploying capital into disruptive, seed and pre-seed investments across the mobility and automotive landscape, having just reached its second close milestone thanks to new partners like Jæger Group. I’ve got much more to share on this in the coming weeks and months, but I’m also eager to speak with you on a one-to-one basis. If you’ve got a thorny problem in the world of mobility, we’d love to explore how we can solve it together and accelerate your growth.

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Interesting article on last mile delivery. This is one of those areas where the high level theory is super exciting, but low-level delivery network design and ruthless execution are *everything*. This led to a recent generation of failed attempts to build last mile delivery as startups. I don't hold out much hope that Shein and Temu will change that balance, only delay more failures. Is this an impossible area to build a startup in? No. But it's a problem where domain expertise has to meet capital, and a team has to be brilliant from a network design standpoint, combined with day-to-day operations chops. Those teams are super rare. https://lnkd.in/dgQjYZ_2

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I’m thrilled to be announcing that Notion Capital is leading the $15m Series A investment in Cogna today. In the industry, we like to think that software has been eating the world. But when you look at the data a better description would be more of a nibble. Depending on what source you look at the software industry represents between 5-8% of global GDP. Contrast that with the services industry that represents between 60-70% of GDP and worth around $25 trillion on a global basis. Most services have been out of reach for the software industry. They have either been too complex or too specialized for off the shelf software to access in any economically viable way. But that’s beginnning to change with GenAI leading to the emergence of ‘service as a software.’ Cogna is at the forefront of this opportunity - building precision software at scale and delivering huge productivity gains for traditional industries. We know Ben Peters & Lars Mennen well having backed their previous company Five AI that was acquired by Bosch in 2022. And we’re very excited to be backing them again together with Hoxton Ventures & Chalfen Ventures Read my full blog post on why we invested here. Radu Bozga Ben Peters Lars Mennen Bryan G. Mike Chalfen Hussein Kanji Kirsten Connell https://lnkd.in/eh8mhcJb

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ONE MORE TIME FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK  Ed Zimmerman, Co-Founder of First Close Partners, and direct & indirect investor in 1,000+ startups shares his feedback in what to optimize for — as a founder — getting from launch to liquidity.  If you need a TLDR: optimize for someone who understands you and or your sector where they’re going to be reasonable and predictable to deal with… as opposed to optimizing for brand equity.” AKA Don’t shop purely for resume; shop for relationship!

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The autonomous trucking industry has faced significant challenges in recent years. In 2023, Embark was acquired by Applied Intuition for $71M, a mere fraction of its $4.5B valuation when going public via SPAC in 2021. Waymo Via, the commercial trucking unit of Google's autonomous vehicle division, shifted its focus from trucking to ride-hailing. TuSimple, once a leader in US autonomous trucking, wound down its US operations to concentrate on China and Japan. Despite this backdrop, Harpoon portfolio company Kodiak has continued to make waves in autonomy for trucking and defense, reflecting its resiliency as a leader in the space, and setting the stage for widespread industry adoption in the coming years. The US trucking industry, a massive $940B market, faces critical challenges that Kodiak aims to address: a severe driver shortage expected to double in the next decade, increasing freight demands driven by e-commerce, and stringent government regulations on driver working hours that impact delivery efficiency and truck utilization. Kodiak's market leading approach tackles these industry challenges with its modular system, the Kodiak Driver, which seamlessly retrofits any driving platform with autonomous capabilities. The company has achieved significant milestones to-date, including disengage-free commercial deliveries, 24/7 operations, delivery of over 4,500 loads, and partnerships with some of the world’s top logistics companies. Kodiak leverages a world-class team from leading self-driving programs, positioning itself uniquely in the market. Its incremental deployment strategy and partnerships with existing fleets for rapid technology scaling demonstrate a pragmatic and efficient path for growth. With the increasing demand for freight and the urgent need to address the driver shortage, Kodiak is poised to transform the trucking industry as it progresses towards fully autonomous capabilities.

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Reindustrialization isn't just about supply chain resilience and flexibility—it's about creating and retaining skilled jobs, regaining competitive edge, and meeting our climate targets. Amidst global geopolitical tensions, this is especially critical. A few topics we discussed recently at Latitude59 with Kädi, Martina, and Minna 💡Startups, scaleups, and incumbents must be audacious and creative to demonstrate high-velocity learning cycles, systems thinking, and commercial savvy 💸 Strengthen climate capital stack beyond venture capital and infrastructure financing to support the development and distribution of innovative technologies, enabling them to reach economies of scale and drive commercial impact 🌍 Stakeholders across governments, large corporations, and different investor groups work towards supporting founders to attain their top speed by designing and building better "racetracks" Despite the challenges, the opportunity to rewrite the legacy of extractive industries through low-carbon energy transition is clear. Reach out if you're building something new 🌱 #Reindustrialization #ClimateTech #Startups 

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At Outlander VC, we’re committed to backing the bold. As one of the key funding partners of LvlUp Ventures, Outlander VC focuses on visionary game-changers and industry disruptors who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo. - Led by former founders: Our team has built and scaled companies to thousands of people and hundreds of millions in revenue. We understand the journey and are ready to get hands-on. - $150M Fund III: Outlander VC is deploying $150M over the next three years to fuel early-stage startups. Focus: - Industries: Agnostic (we back disruptors across all sectors). - Stage: Pre-Seed and Seed. - Geography: United States-based startups. If you're ready to disrupt your industry and scale, let's connect. We're here to help build something truly transformational. #VentureCapital #OutlanderVC #LvlUpVentures #Startups #PreSeed #Seed #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Disruption #Scaling

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#ObsessivelyEnthusiasticInvestor #UnreasonablyEnthusiasticInvestor #IrrationallyEnthusiasticInvestor at REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund. We look for the people we believe are doing the best work in Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology; Attempting the impossible. Then we go all-in on them. With obsessive and unreasonable enthusiasm. Join us. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital #DemandTheImpossible #UnreasonableEnthusiasm #ObsessiveEnthusiasm #IrrationalEnthusiasm

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An incredible deep dive from Nathan M. into the cultural and structural issues that are plaguing Boeing and how they got to where they are today. This article should be turned into a business school case study it's that good. And many of these issues aren't unique to Boeing. The focus on financial engineering over actual engineering is an issue at play in many scaled aerospace and defense companies. A definite must-read! https://lnkd.in/gkdpF2tM

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Hey everyone! Andrew Lambrecht & I have just started a podcast together where we chat about EVs & what's happening in the world of charging as we've experienced it. Please check it out on Spotify (https://lnkd.in/etgegd83) or Youtube (https://lnkd.in/eVauGsgf) and let us know your thoughts as well!

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I've seen as many founder breakups as failures to reach product market fit. We’ve talked a lot on First Funders about product-market fit. Still, in my conversation with Julie Lein and Clara Brenner of the Urban Innovation Fund, they reminded me of the importance of a cohesive team. Is there a fit between the co-founders? I've started calling this cofounder-to-cofounder fit. As early-stage investors, we often only meet the CEO Founder during our process and not the rest of the team. It's a delicate balance not to take too much of a team's time, but it's also critical to understand working dynamics. Think about the last time you evaluated visit cofounders of a company together. How did they interact? Did they agree on the big things? Did they seem to actually … like each other?! These are all key observations investors need to make so they can choose founders with rock-solid relationships – not just ones who have opposite skills. I've hosted founder dinners to allow me to get to know teams. Julie and Clara take the time to go to the startups' offices, which is a great option! What else are investors doing to understand team dynamics better while respecting the team's time? #founders #cofounders #investors #vc

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Today, GTMfund’s is excited to announce to launch of Operator, its first incubated company. Max Altschuler (founder of GTMfund) teamed up with co-founder Adam M. (design engineer and 0-1 builder) and co-founder Mark Kosoglow (Outreach employee #1 and former SVP of Global Sales) to create Operator.ai alongside an insanely talented team Pleasant Middelhof, Jeremy Jonas, Carl Gunderson. We've entered a period called “The Great Ignore”. Spam and irrelevant, poorly-automated outbound campaigns are running rampant.   Operator gives you an easy-to-use Growth Engineer that allows you to build and enrich lists with accurate data, and run experiments and queries using AI to generate highly targeted outreach.    Check out their website to get updates, early access, and see how they are taking the world back to 2 touches meant to attract buyers into conversations that convert, instead of 20 touches meant to make sure you hit your activity number: https://www.operator.ai/

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Smarter collaboration will unlock exciting opportunities in supply-chain. I've shared my thoughts on how innovators like Squint, Enable, and Parade are leveraging advanced AI models to drive efficiencies and transparency and how consumers around the world will benefit https://lnkd.in/gmYn3J5g

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Can poop save the planet? 🤔 Well, in Silicon Valley, it's not just a punchline—it's a multimillion-dollar climate solution. Big players are teaming up with startup Vaulted Deep, paying $58.3 million, to pump organic waste underground. The deal was brokered by Frontier Climate, a coalition launched in 2022 by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability. But why are tech giants getting their hands dirty with sewage and manure? Vaulted Deep's technology, rooted in decades-old methods used for oil and gas fracking cleanup, gives them an edge. But instead of sludge, they're tackling carbon-rich waste, aiming to sequester CO2 underground. They plan to sequester 152,480 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027 as part of the deal (That equates to 36,000 gas cars off the road for a year). Is this greenwashing, or a silver bullet? Critics warn of cost, the need for rigorous carbon accounting, and potential environmental trade-offs - i.e. emission prevention versus carbon removal. #decarbonization

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👀 Looking at our recent investments at Draper Associates, here’s what standout founders nailed, making our decision to invest much easier (and faster): 💥 Visionary Tech with a Bold Vision – These founders are not here for incremental wins; they’re reimagining what’s possible in across tech - biotech, robotics, aerospace, and beyond. Their vision is big and audacious, tackling complex problems that demand breakthrough solutions, others have not been willing to try. 👊 Clear Passion & Purpose – The drive in these founders is undeniable. They’re committed to their mission with a depth of purpose that shapes every choice. One founder, for example, took two years completely off to learn and meet everyone in longevity biotech. This level of grit and dedication is rare but essential for the most impactful founders. 🌟 Assembling All-Star Teams – They bring together top-tier talent from diverse disciplines: experienced business leaders with successful exits or industry experience at top companies, technical co-founders with deep expertise, often PhDs or industry pioneers, and even published authors. It’s a complementary team, unified by a shared vision. They make the: "Why this team?" obvious - at a glance. 💻 Data-Driven to the Core – These founders present data insights that show why their approach is unique, especially against a competitive field of companies. This data is delivered with clarity and they make the complex simple. Many are published in top journals, adding depth and credibility to their approach, and reinforcing that they know their tech inside out. ⚡️ Memorable, Clear Vision – They don’t just pitch; they make the future feel tangible, with a vision that’s both compelling and concise. If I can relay their pitch in under 30 seconds to my team, they’ve killed it. 📣 Transparent & Proactive Communication – The best founders don’t wait for questions. They come prepared, often with a comprehensive FAQ doc, give timely updates to our questions, and are candid about challenges. This level of openness builds trust and strengthens our partnership. 💸 Milestone-Driven Funding Strategy – Each funding stage aligns clearly with already achieved or upcoming achievable milestones. They’ve mapped out a roadmap that minimizes risk at every step, giving us confidence in their journey. 💰 Revenue Milestones Along the Way – Even if it'll take a decade to hit revenue on their big vision, these founders find revenue generation stops along the way to profitability. They share a trajectory that connects early wins to revenue, showing how every step is a building block toward their bigger vision. Overall, the best founders are incredibly thoughtful, prepared, and fantastic verbal / written communicators. #founders #startups #fundraising #VC

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