Kirsti Chou

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

DayOne cohort #6 is shaping up. 5 teams already committed to participate 🚀 From agriculture to biotech to platform build outs. The founders look 👍🏼&💪🏽 We have interviews scheduled for this week, so if you are thinking of applying, act quickly! Anyone out there that knows of founders that are starting their journey, please also reach out to #genesisventures 👊🏼 It's never too late and the application is simple. 💡Revamping the structure to have even more hands-on and face to face. Applications Close-October 6th,2024. 6th Cohort Begins-November 4th,2024 #dayone #startup #greektech #founders

119

1 Comment

Indoor farming has attracted over $6 billion in investments since 2019: It's a year-round method of crop production that optimizes space through its use of vertically stacked layers. It’s projected to grow (10% by 2032, reaching $96 billion*), yet many are struggling to deliver returns. Notably, AppHarvest recently filed for bankruptcy after reporting a net loss of $177 million, highlighting the challenges in achieving profitability in this sector. ⬆️On the up - Plenty® is one to watch - they are flush with funding from SoftBank and have formed a JV with Abu Dhabi-based Mawarid Holding Investment .They are building a network of indoor farms, likely starting with an indoor strawberry farm in Abu Dhabi. If successful, it would help elevate indoor farming as a more marketable proposition - particularly in locations that are too dry for traditional farms. Indoor farming has appeal for sure..but they an infrastructure-heavy, pricey endeavor that has proven incompatible with venture exit time frames. This begs the question around the sustainability of funding models in industries focused on longer-term growth. #VentureCapital #IndoorFarming #Investment #Sustainability #Agriculture *Statista

14

Let's normalize talking about the emotional resilience required as a startup founder. At Treeo VC we do believe that the best operational synergies are derived from diverse co founding teams. We love seeing business, tech and subject matter experts coming together because that's where the innovation magic happens. And just as important as the unique insight that this trifecta delivers is the extra emotional juice to support each other and the organization. Here's an easy read below: Treeo VC Arzu Tekir Cigdem Toraman https://lnkd.in/drzRpyyK

14

I’m excited to publicly share something that has been in the works for a few months at the 9point8 Collective. We’ve launched our Virtual Studio! This is a program for early-stage companies that provides the coaching, development and venture-building tools they need to find traction and scale. The program is modeled off of the venture-building processes found inside #VentureStudios, which have delivered 2X IRR and exit 45% faster than traditional #VC-backed #startups over the last 10 years. Some of the secret sauce to this is that studios have found a way to validate strategies early on, de-risk execution, preserve and extend limited runway, and create efficient business models very fast. We at 9point8 are seasoned studio builders and are on a mission to bring this value to founding teams as they navigate their startup journeys. What we’ve done with the Virtual Studio is distill these key processes and techniques, add in our own expertise and best practices, and package them into a program which meets start-ups where they are. We are now opening up our Summer 2024 Cohort, slated to begin in July. Space is limited, so I’m sharing the opportunity with my network before we fill the cohort. Here are the details: -It’s a 3-month program which takes the founder through the key phases of venture-building and de-risking (refining target market, product-market fit, economics and financials, planning, and fundraising). -Founders can expect to achieve greater focus, improved operations and increased marketability to customers and investors. -The end results include collaboratively-drafted operational plans, commercial / investment pitch decks, and elevated management practices within the founding team. These draft off frameworks from 9point8's proprietary venture-building process: Targets Over Everything. -It’s built for founders facing (or approaching) a critical inflection point, where fresh perspectives and strategic management levers are critical. These might include fundraising preparation, new product launch, market expansion, and post-MVP scaling efforts. Why did we build this program? Because building a new company is really hard. 90(!) percent of startups fail, and even moderate risk reduction can create a huge lift to survival rate and eventual returns. The studio model is proven to drive greater venture success; our virtual program is extending that success to more and more teams. The program is highly collaborative and hands-on, so we only take on a few companies at a time. This is a great opportunity for founders who are looking to level-up their abilities when it comes to unlocking traction, growth, and an express lane to superior returns. If interested, please reach out immediately as we expect the program to be fully enrolled very soon! Blair Merlino Evan Allen Neal Ghosh

55

17 Comments

Check out my recent post on why President Trump is the forcing function for us to solve the “Missing Middle” and catch the industrial Tsunami of onshoring coming to the US!

83

9 Comments

I'm excited to announce that Canapi Ventures has led OpenYield's seed round. OpenYield is redefining how bonds are traded and who gets to trade them. Despite being one of the largest global asset classes, fixed income has long lagged behind equities in terms of innovation. Outdated systems, fragmented liquidity, and barriers to access have made bond trading inefficient, opaque, and inaccessible to many, particularly retail investors.   OpenYield is changing that. By delivering an equity-like trading experience for bonds, the platform transforms the fixed income market into a space defined by transparency, efficiency, and access. With real-time pricing, seamless execution, and intuitive workflows, OpenYield is making bond trading easier and more effective for institutional players, market makers, and retail investors alike. This progress wouldn’t be possible without the exceptional leadership of Jonathan Birnbaum and Hilton Lipschitz, whose decades of experience in capital markets and fintech have earned them the right to build a category leader in this market. Also hard to believe that meeting Jonathan over 20 years ago led to this partnership today!   For Canapi’s network of financial institution LPs, OpenYield represents an exciting opportunity to enhance wealth platforms, attract new client assets, and deepen advisor relationships. As the competition for wealth clients intensifies, access to efficient fixed income trading will be a critical differentiator, delivering real value for customers and strengthening client loyalty. Thrilled to be partnering with Ben Savage and Ned Daoro at Clocktower Ventures. Shoutout to Harrison Kioko. More thoughts on our investment thesis here:

169

6 Comments

INVESTING IN CLIMATE TECH IS SOOO SIMPLE: PART I After a spectacular closing session to #ClimateWeekSF at 9Zero, I thought I'd share a few morsels from our sustainable VC session (organized by Niki Gastinel & moderated by Ron Erd w/ fellow panelists Joshua Posamentier Nare Janvelyan, PhD & Shaun Chaudhuri). Top 3 DD questions I seek to answer: I         Would I work for this person? I've been a founder 5x (3 startups, 2 VC funds) & always seeking to grow. When I'm being pitched by a founder, I imagine what it would be like to work for them, because, while team is important, the CEO is everything. The CEOs I back have: ·     Command of the Market: They are intimate with & drive discourse on distro channels, market players/dynamics, the competitive landscape & where the ball is going. All about founder-market fit! ·     Evangelical Sales Ability: They’re always selling, intelligently, whether it’s for recruiting, fund-raising, distribution... ·     EQ IQ: I back intelligent founders but I want that paired with street savvy & deep understanding of what to prioritize & when, not just how to do it. I look for emotional intelligence & how they read the room & adjust comms. I look for CEOs that have done the hard work on their own personal growth & have the right lens to make big decisions. ·     Battle-tested: I look for founders that are resilient & risk-tolerant. They have been tested in some aspect of their lives: personal challenges (athletics, hardship, military) and/or professional challenges. II        Is there a Big Accessible Market (BAM)? ·     Big TAM: I invest in companies seeking unicorn performance (financial & impact). Matters less where the TAM is today but more importantly where it's going. ·     Clear and Present Sales Channel: I want to see a beefy sales channel(s) with a clear decision maker; tangible, massive pain for this painkiller solution (not a vitamin); and an accretive path for the customer. Know who your actual buyer is. Hint: It’s not the sustainability exec! ·     Weighted Average Pipeline: I want to see a well thought out, organized sales pipeline that is dynamically linked to your financial forecasts & produces a justifiable exciting ARR forecast. ·     Product Market Fit: Because we do seed, we only see the beginnings of traction & sometimes focusing too much on fit can lead to a false negative. This is the time for risk-taking & iteration so you can learn. It’s more about DDing the product as an extension of how the team thinks & executes. III      Is There Big Accessible Impact? ·     Paul Hawken: We have Paul & he is unabashed about rooting out pretenders when it comes to impact. If he doesn’t buy your impact, we won’t invest. It’s that simple. ·     Qualitative: Because we are software first & seed stage investors, we don’t do hard core quant on your impact. We do our best to gauge the potential decarbonization impact of your company at scale. You know it when you see it. What questions do you ask?

47

13 Comments

Amazing fundraising opportunity being organized by our friend Desiree Almodovar at AlleyCorp | Deep Tech for the founders who receive only 23% of all venture financing! Be sure to see the description below and apply! -------- Attention early-stage founders raising – excited to announce open applications for PEERLESS 2025! Led by AlleyCorp and Management Leadership for Tomorrow, curated programming will culminate in 5 founders pitching at Google's NYC headquarters in April, where one winner will receive a $1M investment from AlleyCorp. This isn't only about creating a more equitable tech ecosystem, it's about backing the next generation of exceptional founders who are uniquely positioned to shape the future. Applications opened on October 15th and close on December 6th 2024. While they welcome all early-stage founders with exceptional ideas, AlleyCorp is encouraging applications from startups that: 💰 Have raised less than $2M 🤓 Are technologically innovative 💼 Have a strong go-to-market advantage 🌎 Have identified a large market opportunity 💪 Are led by Black, Latine, Native American, or female founders All applicants will be invited to various ecosystem events with top founders and VCs. Learn more and start your application at peerlesspitch.com. #venturecapital #vc #fundraising #founders #startups https://lnkd.in/eNpi69QU

23

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

https://lnkd.in/d8Fh2HXR FOAK (and my quote) has made it to the WSJ. Thanks Ed Ballard and Amrith Ramkumar. Yet the WSJ missed the “why” behind first of-a-kind. It is about catalyzing audacious climate solutions - the next generation of Teslas. We all know that FOAK is very very hard. And not every FOAK company will succeed. But the ones that do have a potential to transform their sector. A shout out to all the future climate giants who embrace the daily grind of FOAK and are succeeding. Solugen, Antora Energy, Fervo Energy, Boston Metal, Electric Hydrogen, LanzaTech, CO280, Carbon Upcycling Technologies, NET Power Climeworks, Heirloom, Arbor, Panthalassa, H2 Green Steel, Northvolt, Koloma, Syzygy Plasmonics to just name a few… #FOAK As JFK said, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

122

9 Comments

We are excited to announce the release of our 2024 Crop Robotics Landscape. This initiative revisits the developments since the publication of Crop Robotics 2022, Beyond The Valley Of Death. Over the past two years, the factors driving opportunities in agricultural robotics have not only persisted but intensified. Challenges such as labor shortages, climate change, rising production costs, and consumer concerns about food health and sustainability continue to drive the industry. In response, crop robotics companies are advancing their product development and accelerating commercialization efforts. This year’s Landscape features over 330 commercial crop robotics developers, with nearly 100 new companies joining the ranks. While investment in the broader agtech sector has slowed from its peak, crop robotics companies with robust products and strong market fit still attract funding. Numerous companies have successfully raised funding rounds, from Seed to Series D over the last two years -deals are getting done. You can explore our comprehensive sector analysis and download a high-resolution version of the graphic at https://lnkd.in/gbqPh2G7 Special thanks to our Partner, Chris Taylor for leading this effort and to Walt Duflock and Western Growers for supporting the project. #agtech Rob Trice #innovation The Mixing Bowl #robotics Better Food Ventures #farming Seana Day #agriculture #Sustainability Jeff Frick #automation

22

1 Comment

Despite the headwinds many software companies (even public ones) are facing today, there are still those that are delivering great results. Check out how the top decile companies in our Beyond Benchmarks survey are performing. And don't forget to review the full report for many more insights on the state of private software businesses.

22

Prime Coalition has long taken a different tack to climate finance compared to its for-profit brethren. It makes the usual venture-style investments in startups through Azolla Ventures and also helps philanthropists direct their money to climate-related projects that it deems high impact. Trellis Climate follows the latter model with a focus on middle stages, where capital has grown scarce. #climatetech #climateVC #climatefinance

14

We are so excited to announce our investment in Raechel Lambert, Bernard Kobos, and Ryan Lambert and their company, River Platform Company. River is a platform that empowers brands and influencers to build large-scale, in-person communities. To date, the platform has hosted over 2,000 events with 3,000 crowdsourced hosts and 55,000 attendees across more than 15 cities worldwide. We like to think of it as the operating system for community management. If the Catholic Church were founded today, it would use River to coordinate its global activities. No kidding. Jason Calacanis, the American internet entrepreneur and investor known for his All-In podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya, David O. Sacks, and David Friedberg, saw their potential early on. So did Balaji Srinivasan, Bryan Johnson, Tim Ferriss, and many others. We met the River team six months ago and have been incredibly impressed by their big-picture thinking, relentless hustle to connect with the right people and flawless execution. And as if that wasn’t enough, working with them is an absolute pleasure. These guys are a source of renewable energy. We’re proud to be part of this journey alongside wonderful co-investors like Blue Wire Capital, Blockwall, Solana Foundation, very early Ventures, and LAUNCH. Congratulations to the entire River team on this exciting milestone! We know firsthand that when things seem effortless, it’s because a tremendous amount of hard work went into making it happen. Want to join or host an IRL community event? Head over to getriver.io. #getriver #community #blockchainfounderscapital #startup #venturecapital #creatoreconomy

52

6 Comments

Agriculture is at the crux of both risk from and remediation for anthropogenic climate change. There's nothing more scalable than leveraging what nature does best to mitigate climate change. Applied Carbon is a win-win: great for the farm, great for permanently fixing carbon and keeping it out of the atmosphere, and even good at restoring spent land.

26

Pitched to 60+ VC partners & principals Key Takeaways 👇 - At pre-seed stage the team is critical. This means you 100% need a stellar CTO. Don’t even think of raising without a CTO - If you don’t fit a certain bias, your expectations have just doubled. So having more is always better. More customers, more traction, more validation! - ALWAYS get warm intros to investors. Rely on your network. Go build one bcz cold pitching never works! - Lastly be prepared to fail. Markets are brutal right now. Have a backup plan! #startups #founders #fundraising

18

4 Comments

Fundraising in agrifoodtech? I know it's not easy. It's challenging in regular times and is especially hard in today's tricky economic market. That's why I was glad to share my two cents in FoodHack Weekly on how startups can thrive through: 📋Having a solid plan 🎯Focusing on customers ✨Showcasing your unique value 🌿Being ready to adapt While all these tips are essential, I want to emphasize the importance of nailing your pitch by demonstrating how your solution solves real, pressing problems for your target market. This will allow you to frame your solution as a "must-have" for future clients. And combined with a business plan that screams, "I'm scalable and sustainable," it will attract any investor's attention. What other tips would you recommend a fellow entrepreneur that should have been mentioned? https://lnkd.in/eWZaSEHH #AgrifoodTech #InvestorInsights #Startup #Fundraising #Agritech #Foodtech

54

3 Comments