Liām Shalon

Breaking down our latest newsletter section by section, starting with our expanded focus in Deep Tech: --- We have built expertise in the robotics sector, and will continue to double (and triple) down on investing in this category, but we have been increasingly finding that robotics is naturally steering us into two exploding adjacent areas: Aerospace, and Advanced Manufacturing (which we define as industrials, semiconductors, materials science, and energy production). Stepping back, this expansion makes perfect sense. Robotics is an inherently horizontal platform - meaning it can be applied productively across multiple industries. This quality, paired with the fact that robotics has long shown the highest TRLs of any deep tech technology, makes it a kind of “gateway” to other sectors in the hard sciences. Now with the recent breakthroughs in AI for robotics, growing semiconductor demand, and the resurgence of aerospace and defense tech, we are seeing a dramatic uptake of robotics and relevant technologies in both advanced manufacturing and aerospace. As an added bonus of the expansion, many of the founder (and funder) networks across these landscapes have natural overlaps and linkages. For AlleyCorp Deep Tech this means that we can be extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and engaged across all three sectors right away, and continue to be the best-in-class investing team across these categories.  --- More in our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ewiTuYq6

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🚨Episode 49 of the Startup Field Guide is live with Kareem Amin, CEO and co-founder of Clay, which just announced its $50M Series B round - congrats to the team! Kareem’s one of the most thoughtful product thinkers I have interviewed and his 7-year journey with Clay was fascinating to dig into! Listen/watch here 👇 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gkMahuAs Spotify: https://spoti.fi/45O5Nzo Apple: https://apple.co/4eLuS1J Clay is an AI-powered platform for sales prospecting that gathers data from over 75 sources to build lists and help growth teams at companies like Ramp, Notion and Vanta send personalized outreach messages. 1️⃣ Clay was originally built as an extremely flexible connected database without a specific use case in mind. The team stayed extremely lean for the first 4+ years exploring use cases that aligned the best possible market opportunity to their mission. 2️⃣ As they experimented with an outreach oriented workflow, their earliest traction came from a particular type of customer — small agencies providing outbound lead generation and B2B growth marketing services. 3️⃣ Every startup success story comes down to timing. From the beginning, Clay was built to aggregate data sources and tools, making it easy to integrate AI models like GPT-3 as another data source in 2021. They were able to quickly ship data extraction, summarization, and writing personalized messages - tasks that previously required years of NLP investment. 4️⃣ While Clay began monetizing their product in late 2021, it took several months for them to feel the holy grail of startups - “momentum”. The key was extreme product focus (limiting use cases) and alignment. Kareem was very intentional about aligning their GTM motion and pricing model with their product strategy and mission around flexibility. They chose usage-based over seat-based pricing, optimized for the "recurring use case" of sales prospecting, while aiming to provide maximum customer-friendliness to early adopters brought together in a single slack community.

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Looking beyond #VC funding for your #startup? Aakash Shah of Wyndly (YC W21) reveals how he built a multi-million dollar #healthtech company using creative capital strategies. Learn how he leveraged Y Combinator's network and alternative funding methods to revolutionize allergy treatment. In case you missed it, you can watch the #FundraisingDemystified #podcast here: https://lnkd.in/eZT63YS4

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Congratulations to the Gentrace team on their Series A! I have now worked with Doug Safreno, Vivek Nair and Daniel C. Liem for a while through our pre-seed investment at K9 Ventures and they're an amazing team. Also excited to partner with Jett Fein at Headline and Kojo Osei at Matrix! With each new technology shift comes the need for new tools to build with that technology. We saw this with the Internet, with mobile, and now we're seeing it with AI. If you're using #AI and #LLMs at any level of scale you need tooling to be able to evaluate the performance and cost across different language models. Gentrace has built incredible tools to help large companies manage, evaluate, and improve their AI usage. If you're using AI models without this, you're operating in the dark 🕳️. Let gentrace turn the lights on for you!💡🚀

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Ilya Sutskever has raised $1 billion from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital for his 3-month-old startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI). The valuation lands at $5 billion according to sources. SSI, which currently has 10 employees, plans to use the funds to acquire computing power and hire top talent. It will focus on building a small highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto, California and Tel Aviv, Israel. According to SSI, they've raised the money to help develop safe artificial intelligence systems that far surpass human capabilities. $1B raise at a $5B valuation. For a company that is a couple of months old and doesn't seem to have a product or even a single line of code in production. Wild. In this case, everyone knows it takes hundreds of millions to train models. So investors are essentially rolling the dice on an extremely well-regarded team. And if it takes about a billion just to get off the ground, the valuation would need to be at least in the couple billion range to make it worth it for employees to work there. US dream 🦅 #artificialintelligence #startups #venturecapital

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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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Automate Startup Scouting With AI: Identify, Enrich, Classify & Reach Out https://buff.ly/4dyC0h4 by @AndreRetterath AI-enabled startup scouting workflow: how to scrape more than 2500 startup founders in seconds! #rafAIgual #AI #GenAI #vc #scouting #dealflow #automation

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last train to nyc, all aboard! if you are a founder struggling with your first tech startup, this is ideal for you! join a group of 10 founders co-working for 10 days alongside our team in workshops and mentoring sessions you'll get to talk in private sessions with great founders and investors to get feedback and insights on how to tackle the obstacles ahead

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I rarely write about one particular token, but given the volume of requests for our thesis on Stacks STX, especially after the recent announcement https://lnkd.in/gWpkm-iu, I’m consolidating my thoughts here in one place. Hope this is helpful to those seeking to understand the STX ecosystem and the reasons behind our conviction. Full thesis here: https://lnkd.in/g2JGahpZ TLDR 1. It's the OG blue-chip crypto project. 2. It's the first compliant token: a key driver for institutional adoption is to use STX as the de facto BTC staking provider. 3. The most optimal return on risk for real “whales” to generate yield on BTC with peace of mind. 4. The undisputed forerunner in bitcoin L2 with 10 years of first-mover advantage. 5. It has a rare token standard moat. 6. Its ecosystem moat: 155 monthly actively developers + 60+ projects adopting its token standard 7. It's vastly being undervalued at the moment based on comparables in ethereum. 8. Tokenomics and token maturity: 100% vested. 9. Upcoming catalysts

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All about YC demoday ASAP tommorow!) now few words about conditions))) "When you're the equity round watching founders and YC SAFE enjoy all the hugs... 🐾💔 #Startups #FounderLife #EquityRound #VentureCapital #YC #DMTech #dataminingtech

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I started Early Stage Labs because I kept seeing the problem over and over again - seed and series A startups need support in certain functions but don't have the budget/need to bring on somebody full time. We signed our first customer (Modicus Prime) 48 hours after meeting them on what was supposed to be a customer discovery call. Rebuilding their model and getting better visibility into the financial health of the company was a "top 3 problem" for them as they prepared to raise their seed round and as circumstances were demanding they become more disciplined operators. I'm incredibly thankful to Taylor - a brilliant founder (check her out!) - for trusting in a new (or at that time nonexistent!) company. That was a real lightbulb moment for me. We could really delight customers and be super valuable to them in their early days, probably up through their Series B. I kind of stumbled into building this business earlier this year, and I've slow played it a bit as I've wanted to stay very close to customers. "Do things that don't scale." We have learned so much. I'm so thankful. We have a legit chance (~30%) to close this year at $100k in MRR. It's a pure services business, so margins are much lower than the technology companies I've built before. But it would be really damn hard to build a technology business to $100k in MRR just 10 months from your first customer discovery call. I'm incredibly proud that that $100k MRR will represent the fact that we're making several startups better versions of themselves. The thing I'm most excited about on this business is that our customers are some of the people I admire most - founders of early stage companies. You have to be a little bit twisted to go start a company, and that's exactly the people I love spending my time with and serving. If you're on that winding journey and you feel like you need support around finance or growth, we're here for you. Cheers to founders. And cheers to boring services businesses.

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

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My last post highlighting resonance between physics and entrepreneurship was well-received, prompting me to dig more such similarities. (Adding the link to the previous post in the comments section) At PeerCapital, we’ve noticed how early-stage startups sometimes carry a negative connotation of chaos. But chaos is what defines the long-term play of a new idea. Chaos Theory highlights that certain ‘small changes’ in initial conditions can lead to ‘vastly different outcomes’ than expected. So to say, chaos can either become a catalyst of innovation or a cause for confusion. Here are the facts — an early-stage startup has several uncontrollable systems that are constantly interacting and these result in several chaotic decisions to be made. How to leverage random chaos to your benefit as a founder? And once its job is done how to ensure scalability by mastering chaos to an extent that seems like it’s *planned* to fuel growth? The answers are simple: 1) See chaos as a luck-surface area factor. Embrace the uncertainty, work within tight boundaries, experiment and build feedback loops. 2) Once you start realizing the controllable variables, become meticulous with planning, mapping outcomes, and embedding flexibility into your systems. The Excalibur to chaos isn’t to become an arm-chair thinking warrior, but in seeing it as an opportunity. If you’re a founder neck deep in balancing scalability and transformation, write to me at [email protected] — I’d love to chat about what you’re building. Karthik Prabhakar Rohit M A

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👀 HOW DO WE GET DIGITAL HEALTH TO REFOCUS ON PREVENTATIVE CARE?👀 Enter Inbal Tirosh co-founder and CEO of the incredible Livez on this week's episode!! My favorite question to ask founders is what is your founding story? Tune in to hear Inbal explain her founding story, and how they are impacting patients lives and futures! Livez is built to make preventative care easy, convenient, and reduce claims. The Livez screening solution detect 85% of preventable diseases!! Reduces a whopping 75% of healthcare claims. How do they do this? Inbal jumps into it all with me, explaining, "All together if you take every person and they get a plan of what they need to get screened for, based on their individual profile, and their specific data, you can do that with fusion of big data, and you take them on a journey to prevent their predicted risks, based on family history and their own history and so on..." Then you automatically book them with follow up appointments. This is backed by health authorities, and by large insurers! Key Points 🗝 🌐 Livez screening solution covers more than 50 clinical domains and 120 screenings and vaccines, impacting 75% of healthcare claims. Livez is a preventive health platform that focuses on holistic screening and interventions to prevent chronic diseases. 🏥 The platform helps employers and health plans prioritize the health of their population by identifying health risks and guiding individuals towards appropriate interventions. This is an absolutely fascinating conversation about the new frontier of preventative care. Get on board, and tune in to this week's episode of the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast Also- major teaser that their pricing is FULLY at risk. Why NOT? Learn more about preventative care, and how Digital Health is continuing to evolve!

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Siren's goals and progress on contactout and athena.vc 23rd July 2024 Last week goal(s) & what did I do: Athena VC: - Deeptech founders Outreach - Meetings ran - 1 - Meetings booked for this week - 1 - Stats - last week (Switching the approach to get on a podcast/interview) - Total connection requests sent: 101 (Founders in sustainable energy) - Connection request accepted: 17 (17%) - Replied to LI message: 2 (12%) - Question answered: 0 (0%) “Expert opinion” article Asking for review and permission to post on YouTube - Sent to 19 founders - 2 agreed to post on YouTube - 6 replied to keep their insights to community members only - Finished editing “Expert opinion” article, created 2 versions - Share to public - Share within the community Curated and sorted into a list of programs for deep tech startups ---------- This week: Athena VC - Continue to schedule more calls with founders in the sustainable energy industry - Follow up for review and permission to post on youtube - Pick a topic to work on (Energy creation) - Study 10 top companies - Read top 20 research journal articles in the field - Write about what road blocks I come across and what is confusing and strategies for figuring it out (Chatgpt or wikipedia, etc.) ---------- Misc 🤰 EDD - Jul 29th Might start taking my maternity leave anytime this week During my leave: Read Sam Altman blog - https://lnkd.in/gAAXZcBC Read startup playbook - https://lnkd.in/g9Uka7Da Read PG’s essays - https://lnkd.in/geHZYnip Read zero to one, paper trail on fire, founders at work #AthenaVC #BuildInPublic

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Day 85: Rethinking Venture – LvlUp Ventures’ Hands-On Approach to Startup Growth The Next Generation of Venture Capital is Here! TL;DR: LvlUp Ventures is redefining venture capital with a hands-on approach that supports founders at every stage. At LvlUp Ventures, we don’t just invest; we build lasting relationships. This multi-stage venture firm and ecosystem back the brightest founders from around the globe, helping them reach new heights. Rethinking Venture, One Startup at a Time: LvlUp Ventures is challenging the outdated, one-size-fits-all fund model by offering custom-tailored support from pre-seed to Series A and beyond. From strategic investments to bespoke accelerator programs, LvlUp Ventures is committed to adding value every step of the way. Investing Beyond Dollars: When they back a company, founders gain access to a powerful network, hands-on expertise, and deep partnerships with industry leaders like Google and Pipedrive. It’s about creating real value and scaling faster. Learn more: www.lvlup.vc What do you think the future of venture capital looks like? Let’s make the next days of our journey count, filled with more stories, inspiration, and community impact! P.S. Want to get involved? If this resonates, repost, to share with your network ♻️ and follow Javy Martinez for more in the future.

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Launching a new feature without knowing its break-even point is like flinging cash into a void. One of the chief regrets I’ve heard from founders was the excessive amount of resources devoted to product development. In particular, developing features without adequate financial planning. Let’s talk about how to avoid this headache (and possibly a financial black hole). You’ve got a shiny new feature idea, and you’re ready to launch it. But wait—have you calculated the break-even point? 🚨 Don’t Launch That New Feature Without This Step! Imagine this: Your team spends months working on a new feature. You’ve poured time, money, and energy into its development. But months after launch, you still don’t see the expected return. What went wrong? Too often, SaaS companies dive headfirst into developing new features without figuring out the break-even point. The break-even point is the moment when your investment in a feature starts to generate profit. If you don’t know where that line is, you’re throwing darts in the dark, hoping to hit a bullseye. 🎯 The Cost of Not Calculating Your Break-Even Point 💸 Skipping this step could mean pouring valuable resources into a feature that never pays off. We’re talking about wasted developer hours, marketing budgets, and opportunity costs that could have been better spent on more viable projects. What’s worse? The financial loss could affect your cash flow, stress your team, and ultimately hinder your growth. What Exactly is the Break-Even Point? 🤔 The break-even point is when your total revenue from a new feature covers the costs of developing and launching it. This includes everything—developer salaries, marketing costs, customer support, and even the less obvious overheads like server costs or software tools. Knowing this point helps you make informed decisions about whether to proceed, pivot, or pull the plug on a new feature. How to Calculate It 🧮List All Associated Costs: Direct costs (like salaries, marketing, etc.) and indirect costs (like software and infrastructure). 🧮Estimate Potential Revenue: Have you received feedback from customers asking for this feature? Are they willing to pay to use this feature? What’s the pricing strategy? Will it be an upsell or bundled with existing plans? 🧮Run the Numbers: Calculate how many units (or subscriptions) you need to sell to cover your costs. This is your break-even point! 🧮Consider Time and Scale: How long will it take to hit that point? Does it align with your cash flow needs and growth targets? Be Prepared, Not Surprised 🎯 Before diving into your next big feature, ask yourself: “Have we calculated the break-even point?” Preparation is key to navigating the chaotic seas of growth. Knowing when a feature will start generating profit isn’t just a smart move—it’s essential. Make every feature launch a calculated, data-driven decision.

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In addition to building our own VC practice at AAF Management Ltd., we’ve invested in 37 VCs since 2017. Here is what, I believe, it takes to build a multi-vintage, early-stage, venture franchise: 𝟭- 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀: hyper-focused GPs build longevity and consistency in their businesses. If you pitch LPs saying you will invest in early stage consumer but end up doing late stage consumer that’s a massive red flag. Stay germane to your mandate and strategy. 𝟮- 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: the market is crowded with venture firms, articulate your differentiated value proposition to LPs and founders. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Focus on 1-2 value propositions to your stakeholders and execute them with excellence and defensibility. 𝟯- 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆-𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: we tell stories everyday. Raising capital for a fund and building your venture firm requires that same story-telling skillset. Tell consistent narratives to the market to help build your own brand as well as your firm’s brand. 𝟰- 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁-𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲: if you possess subject-matter expertise in a certain vertical, domain or industry, you already own a defensible moat. Accentuate that to your advantage when building your firm, raising capital from LPs and winning deals from founders. 𝟱- 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: early stage venture is a highly collaborate asset class. Keep your ego at the door, you will never be able to do everything it takes to build a firm alone. Leverage LPs, partners and founders for deal flow sourcing, diligence and overall industry best practices. 𝟲- 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁-𝗙𝗶𝘁: in quintessential startup vernacular, ideally find your product-market-fit by the time you launch your second fund. You need product-market-fit before you scale your AUM, grow your team and carry more fiduciary responsibility. 𝟳- 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: early stage VC investing is a marathon. Patience will reward you personally, professionally and financially. Build mental, physical and psychological stamina to endure the inherent ebbs and flows of your entrepreneurial journey. 𝟴- 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗺: early stage VC investing is the archetypal long-term financial asset. Think in 10 year increments for your firm’s grand vision, think in 4 years for a given fund’s investment period and think in quarters when reporting material updates on your portfolio to your LPs. 𝟵- 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻: if instant gratification, short feedback loops and a constant need for reaffirmation is what you are looking for in a career then early stage VC investing will not fulfill you. Have fun building, and as Naval Ravikant once said: "𝙗𝙚 𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙥𝙩𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣." Finally, and most importantly, be authentic and true to yourself. #firmbuilding #entrepreneurs #VC

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