Matt Powell

And my second investment at defy is in 🐶 zeroETL puppies 🐶... I mean PuppyGraph, which is all the beauty of a graph database, none of the data migration or continuous upkeep of a graph database. Sounds like magic? So are puppies 🐶 . Puppygraph is NOT a graph or a database. It is graph analytics engine that answers graph questions on your existing data warehouses, whether that is a Databricks datalake, Google BigQuery or postgres. Compared to SQL, it's faster, handles way more complexity, scales and has almost no upkeep. How did I get to conviction? 1. Tailwinds - 🌊 Lakehouses 🌊 have helped enterprises put all their data in one place, enabling Puppygraph to unlock insights previously unavailable. - 📚 LLMs! 📚AI and RAG cannot easily traverse fragmented data. Puppygraph's Graph RAG unlocks insights with their Knowledge Graph and spoonfeeds to the LLMs. 2. 👯 Team 👯 We have graph experts from Google, LinkedIn, Databricks, Tigergraph, and Instacart who are uniquely able to build this solution. 3. 💸 Customers 💸 . My alma mater Coinbase is a proud user. The feedback from my former colleagues was off the charts! A blockchain is very much a graph database and Puppygraph tracks down fraudulent transactions that go through mixers and helps identify patterns. Huge congrats to Weimo Liu Danfeng Xu Lei Huang Zhenni Wu Gary Hagmueller, defy.vc is proud to be an investor!!

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Ep. 007 of The Feedback Loop is here! It's the first half of startup pitches from New York Tech Week, and from an almost-all-AI batch of companies. Joining me on this episode: returning fan-favorite, Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures! For those not familiar, every week, a guest venture investor joins me to give granular and unfiltered feedback to founders on their storytelling and their concept. It's all about helping founders construct a better narrative for their move-forward -- because across fundraising, sales, recruiting, and company-building, it's the core narrative and pitch that can often hold startups back. And Jenny currently holds the tenure jacket as my guest co-host, with this being her 4th time on stage delivering quick insights and context you just can't find anywhere else. Massive shout-out to the founders featured: Matt Shenker building MatterMore, Karl White building Wroom, Trista V. building Nunchi, and Jeremy Da building Acrylic! Relevant links below.

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📈 Curious about the startup scene in Massachusetts? Explore our detailed funding list featuring startup names, HQ locations, and investor info. Perfect for investors and entrepreneurs alike! Check it out: https://lnkd.in/dAp3xj-Q #startup #startups #venturecapital #funding #vc #managementconsulting

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At Effectv Product, we tackle the biggest unsolved industry problems. We don’t care about the credit, we care about the customer. We’re owners, not renters which means we play the long game. If deep user discovery, collaboration with business stakeholders + data/ML/software engineers to determine value prioritization of the following items sound interesting to you, then check out the Data Platform and Digital Execution roles in the comments: - Introducing live linear programmatic ad serving - Managing a 500TB & growing cloud data platform - Developing AI-driven creative review tools - Developing new techniques for addressable ad insertion - Implementing MLOps and data-lineage pipelines for obserability and event-driven self healing #product #hiring #effectv #comcast #comcastadvertising #advertising

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I am looking forward to joining the folks on Techstrong TV today to talk about how companies can successfully implement AI into business processes without heavy developer lift or long development cycles. Plus, why you'd want to and how to do it safely and securely. Pop on over and watch if you're curious about making AI work smoothly for your whole team. https://lnkd.in/ehP_XC8K #AI #CIO #DigitalTransformation

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How to pitch: The company has zero traction —> “We’re early” You only have 2 customers —> “We’re working with design partners” You currently have no revenue but hoping some pipeline finally closes —> “we’re on track to exit this year at $3M ARR” You’re in the natural kill zone of a FAANG —> “We view them as partners rather than competitors” There’s no way the tech can actually work —>“We’re manifesting the future” And of course: One of your developers uses Co-Pilot to write some front end code —> “We’re an AI company”

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Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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Congrats to the Revive team for the latest fundraise led by Equal Ventures, as well as the new brand! I’ve had the honor of working with Allison Lee (Founder/CEO) and team for almost six years as their first institutional investor. My gosh, it’s been an incredible–and at times harrowing–journey… ‘Revive’ is such an appropriate name for this company, on multiple fronts. First, it describes the core business well, where this platform helps large retail apparel brands to upcycle garments and deadstock into new products, thereby substantially reducing apparel waste. But it also accurately describes Allison Lee herself. Allison is one of the most resilient humans I’ve ever met, and she’s gone through hell and back to create this outstanding company. When we were first introduced to Allison in 2018 (thanks Bebe Kim for that intro!), Allison was a solo founder experimenting with mall kiosks that provided on-demand hemming services for retail apparel consumers. Over the years, Hemster (the name of the co back then) scaled up to become a substantial business, with her own warehouses and staff to handle hemming for top apparel brands throughout the US. But then the pandemic happened. Brand clients budgets collapsed, along with her business model, and Allison had to reduce her team down to just one person. Herself. This was a dark time. I remember reaching out and attempting to check in with her during a six-month period where she was at her loneliest as a founder. She pretty much locked herself in her apartment, mulling new directions for her company by herself. But she figured it out. In 2021, she saw that the consumer retail market was shifting as Gen Z was strengthening their purchasing power. This new generation of shoppers were more climate and sustainability conscious, and wanted to hold big brands’ feet to the fire for products that conformed to their values. Allison saw an opportunity to retool Hemster into a top platform to help facilitate upcycled products for apparel companies. And it worked! Allison breathed new life into her company and business has been growing quickly ever since. Her business’ thesis is even stronger and bigger than the one she initially launched with. Beyond her being a skilled founder and operator, Allison is also a fantastic human being. She is relentless and un-killable as a founder. And also so warm, kind, and present as a friend. I’m grateful to call her a friend today, as well as a role model. Allison’s journey is still in the early days with Revive, and no doubt she is going to build something that has a huge impact on this world. Hustle Fund is nothing but grateful that she said YES to us, and allowed us to be part of this amazing and inspiring journey. Congrats again, Allison and team!

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At most networking events… Business owners shake hands, exchange business cards, and go home. HumanX has a different approach. You’ll be paired together in 1:1 conversations with investors & AI startups. You’re not just adding people to your rolodex. Deals will be made.

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨 This past Monday, I had the incredible opportunity to demo and pitch Jammy to over 100 investors at NY #TechWeek AI Demo Day. Two weeks ago, thanks to Cindy Berman, I found out about the event and hesitated to sign up, doubting our product’s readiness. However, I saw it as a chance to push our limits. After a screening with Shriya Nevatia we were one of eight companies chosen, and I had to figure out how to demo our work-in-progress app and deliver an eight-minute pitch. I prepared thoroughly and felt confident. On the day, Dorothy Chang informed me I’d be the first presenter, which made me both nervous and excited. The pitch went well until the live demo. When showcasing Jammy’s ability to recommend post-session music, the integration failed despite my preparation. I still finished the presentation, landing the vision for Jammy and with congratulations and consolation from my peers: “live demos always break,” they said. It helped. Though I didn’t win the $50K prize, I secured a check from an angel investor, generated interest from several others, and met amazing founders in AI. The winning pitch went to the highly deserving CAPSULE, who is set to revolutionize contextual visual shopping search (like Shazam for shopping). Very cool. This experience highlighted the value of taking risks and the importance of failing forward. It also reminded me of the supportive NY Tech and entrepreneurial community. The journey can be lonely, and many dismiss community events and networking as distractions from the "real work." While that might sometimes be true, Monday night was a reminder that we’re not alone in this journey. We all want to see each other succeed in building the - extremely AI-infused - future we envision. On to the next challenge! And definitely check out these amazing companies & founders: Glist, Gülin Yilmaz (Posokhow), Path, Soar.com, Abood Hannoon, DeepLeads.ai, pre.dev, and In The Loop

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Have you heard of #CapVC? It’s an application platform designed specifically for the use of #VC firms. Essentially, it’s a robust #AI-powered tool made to simplify the daily operations of managing a #fund. Isn’t that something, a VC funded start-up designed to help improve the productivity of VC funding! According to this article from TechCrunch, Cap VC is looking to become much more than just an ‘operating system’ — the company aims to be a simplified and extremely efficient way to run a VC firm: reducing digital clutter by turning PDF files, income statements and balance sheets into readable data, automating company suggestions based on the context of a VC’s portfolio, and more. Cap VC is currently developing native apps on Mac and Windows, alongside releasing an API so that developers can build on top of their foundations. So, are any of my fellow VCs interested in using this software? If not Cap VC, is there any interest for similar software to be created down the line? Are there downsides to using a third-party application like this? I want to know what you all think.

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Three lessons from building and launching a P2P payments app without doing the proper customer validation first (despite knowing better): 1) Building something you need is a great starting point - but not enough to validate an idea. As someone drawn to building solutions, I’m an early tech adopter. This led me to overestimate consumers’ willingness to onboard, especially with a P2P payments app that requires KYC/KYB compliance and relies on a network effect to be useful. 2) Manual solutions are often best to start with It’s good business to be in business - transitioning from ideating to operating as early as possible is the BEST way to learn effectively. While the move fast and break things mindset has attracted well-deserved skepticism, getting stuck in a multi-year build trap distracted me from critical real-world validation. 3) Consumer appetite shifts quickly In my case, the proliferation of free and instant P2P payment options like Zelle added additional pricing pressure that I couldn’t compete with. This disincentivized the consumer event/payment collection market, turning my bottom-up go-to-market strategy upside down. Pitch (https://www.pitch.fun) is currently on the back burner as I’ve begun building custom solutions in various industries to sharpen my skills, solve specific problems, gain a hands-on understanding of operations, pain points, and workflows, and build a network of experts to lean on as I keep my eyes peeled for high-impact opportunities.

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🚀 Venture debt covenants might sound like a small part of the deal, but they carry huge implications for your startup’s future. 📈 You need to be strategic in your negotiations to avoid any pitfalls down the road. It’s all about setting yourself up for success, not stress. Dive into more details in the original Kruze Consulting post. The link is in the 1st comment. 👇

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AUM up over 400% this year. This $5 billion isn't our money, of course. It's our clients. Amidst so many options, we're grateful to investors choosing to entrust us to manage it and work every day to earn that trust — and have for seven years. Bitwise is 85 people now. It's an incredible group. Why do we all chose to work in this space, vs somewhere else [that's easier]? We believe Bitcoin & public blockchains are one of the most important contributions to humanity underway now. New apolitical monetary assets. Incorruptible applications. Permissionless platforms. We think these things are important — on a historic scale — and will make the 21st century better than the last. We're motivated to help more people understand, to help clients safely participate in the opportunity, and to be a good actor supporting the ecosystem developing into its potential. We're proud and grateful for the trust this $5 billion milestone represents. It enables us to contribute more. We've never been more focused and excited about the work ahead. Thank you again to our clients, partners, and friends. Cheers to what's to come —

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I couldn't be more excited to have Luis Berruga — Managing Partner at LBS Capital & former CEO of Global X — joining Bitwise as an advisor. Very few have accomplished what Luis has. Luis helped build a large firm from scratch in the 21st century. At Global X, Luis served as CEO for several years, scaling from $8B to over $40B AUM. They pioneered a new category of investment opportunities: thematic. And they had to do the work of helping investors build understanding that new category. At Bitwise, we're attempting to do much of the same, now with Bitcoin & crypto. We want Bitwise to be a firm investors can rely on for decades. As we cross $5B in AUM, grateful to have him advising us.

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A recent chat with a portco founder reminded me that #B2Bsales 101 says you can’t sell your product to anyone - the customer has to buy it. Which means, the product you think you are selling is not necessarily what they are buying. A classic example would be a kitchen knife. Who buys a kitchen knife just to put it in a drawer? No one. People buy a way to chop vegetables. If it’s a knife, a sword or a lightsaber - doesn’t matter. They want their vegetables chopped. What are you really selling? A way to chop vegetables. That means your first task in a B2B sale is to find out: what does the customer think they are buying? What do they actually need? If it’s chopped vegetables, show them how neatly you can cut them; don’t spend time showing how amazingly long the knife is or how well the sun reflects off the blade. Or in the B2B context: hey Mr. Customer, what is the problem you’re trying to solve? Great, let me show you how my product solves it for you. Extra points: give your customer credit that they’ve tried other products. It’s perfectly valid to ask: “what have you tried so far? What is it you did not like about the other solutions? (=this is the unmet need. Focus on that and you increase the changes to close the deal)

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Are you looking to break into VC / PE / being a CEO? Are you frustrated at job applying process? Do you want to surround yourself with the best and brightest and build a network that includes investors, 10x founders, and other hellbent on changing the world? Do you run a start up that needs some hypergrowth? The job market has changed, applying for jobs is dead, its all about creating jobs via entrepreneurship or possessing executive skills to create a job at a company. Come join us at IOTA Labs MBA bootcamp; a donation based month long part time, program that puts infront of VC/PE deal flow with the intention that if you can follow the program, you will be contributing to large deals and getting paid for the work. The point of this program is to rapidly convert highly motivated individuals to high performing executives by surrounding them with the training, network, and skills they need to be successful @ IOTA or beyond. With training from tenured product manager @ Google, VC Fund managers, investors, 10x founders, CxOs (15+ at GM, Salesforce, Accenture), legal experts, and other subject matter experts https://lnkd.in/eSgHkB9u Seats will fill up fast just as an FYI , do please repost this so we can help as many people as possible.

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🏛 PredictAP, Inc. is an AI-powered invoice capture platform to codify tribal knowledge and modernize software tooling in a traditionally “offline” real estate industry 🏛 It's W5 / Q4 / 2024 & this week in our MGMT Boston startup series we’ve got PredictAP, a team building the product they wished they had reconciling invoices, tax IDs, and payment flows to help real estate managers better allocate resources and capture efficiencies. Founder & CEO David Stifter worked for Colony Capital for almost 20 years and is an accountant by background (having studied locally at BU). He became an in house real estate technology leader and led a major ERP integration to Yardi, the industry standard real estate accounting software. His career was advancing. The migration went smoothly. Then Chrissa, who was a key player in Colony Capital’s AP process, retired (with her institutional knowledge). Colony ($43B in assets) moved a lot of money around and had an internal system that helped them reconcile payments, approvals, and invoicing through a complex ownership structure. Accounting rules vary depending on whether a property in their portfolio was a multi-family asset or an industrial asset. AP isn’t glamorous, but you can imagine the complexity as it relates to cash flows, invoicing, tracking, etc. So when Chrissa retired, poof! A lot of context went missing. David & his team built an internal “invoice coding system” tool and, a couple years later, David bought out the rights to the internal tool with his partner Russell Franks to build a proper technical infrastructure and see if this tool could help real estate managers more broadly. A year later the product was ready, and PredictAP hit the market running in 2021 to solve a very specific pain point: properly coding multi-line real estate invoices. So real estate teams can spend more time in the facility and less time manually updating spreadsheets and reconciling data. Today they have 80+ customers and can show clear 4-5x ROI on the time savings, let alone the resiliency they are building. The platform processes nearly 3M invoices annually, demonstrating its scalability. In November of 2023 they closed their $8M Series A and are on track to grow from six figures to mid seven figures of ARR in 2024. They expect to close the year at over 100% revenue growth and have seen existing customer revenue growth grow by 25%. With a team of ~20 employees, PredictAP is positioned at the intersection of real estate, accounting, and AI technology as a crucial player in the real estate accounting technology stack. Operators to Know (Locally): -Greg Achenbach, VP of Product -Kristina D., Software Engineer -Ethan Neidhart, Software Engineer -Ali Noel, Director of GTM Enablement -Tony Scalese, VP of Customer Success -Emma D Whitman, MPH, Product Manager If you're interested in learning more, the full post is linked in the comments And sign up for the newsletter to see who we bring you in the weeks ahead!

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