Maya Dhir

Next week is NY Tech Week, and I look forward speaking at the Fintech Is Femme Founder Summit on 6/3, hosted by the incredible Nicole Casperson! 💜 I will be joining fellow panelists Frances Zelazny and Fay Vlahu Scott as we talk about developing and executing effective go-to-market strategies, including identifying target markets and optimizing distribution and storytelling channels for a successful product launch. ⚙️ You could have the best product in the universe - the PERFECT product - but if you get GTM wrong, your company will die (thanks James Cho for being my accountability buddy here every day). We'll be covering the hard lessons learned as marketers and founders and sharing some best practices as part of the summit, which is focused around "Building a Resilient Future". As always, we'll be real and bring the hot takes 🌶️. I'm also super excited to hear from fellow Center for Accelerating Financial Equity (CAFE) cohort mate Laura Kornhauser on fundraising strategies - important for everyone, crucial right now in this challenging market. Laura's an amazing leader and I'll be taking lots of notes. 📝 If you haven't got your tickets yet, JOIN US and sign up before it sells out like it did last time! (link in comments ⬇ ) When: Monday, June 3 at 12pm Where: Rise, created by Barclays, NYC See you there! #nytechweek #fintech #womeninfintech #fintechisfemme #femaleCEO #startup #femalefounder #marketing #gotomarket #resilientfuture

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🎉 Honored to have our founders, Guy Leibovitz and Golan Kopichinsky, featured in Primary Venture Partners' roundup of NYC's most exciting fintech companies! (https://lnkd.in/eVNCYD2g) At Nominal, we're revolutionizing financial operations with Generative AI. Our platform automates complex processes like financial close, multi-entity consolidation, automated journal entries, and customized reports - transforming finance teams from spreadsheet dependence to a platform that provides better data accuracy and transparency. It's inspiring to see NYC's fintech ecosystem tackling challenges across verticals, consumer finance, and AI innovation. The new era of finance is here, and we're proud to be part of this transformation! Thank you, Primary Venture Partners, for highlighting our work. We're just getting started! 💪 #Fintech #GenerativeAI #AccountingTech #NYCTech #Innovation

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🚨 I'm beyond excited to welcome Aniruddh Bharadwaj to the Centralize (YC W24) team as our founding engineer & newest relationship gardener! 🌱 Ani has a history of shipping 0 → 1 features FAST at Convoy Inc, Clumio, and Modern Treasury. At Modern Treasury, he was the first engineer focused on reconciliation, and the tech lead who prototyped and drove the launch of their Reconciliation product, directly leading to enterprise deals and $XM in ARR. Since joining us a couple months ago, Ani’s already shipped thousands of lines of code and built numerous foundational features across the stack. He doesn’t stop there — you’ve already seen him with us, dressed up as a gardener (link in comments) at conferences, pitching customers, and building pipeline as an engineer! Truly one-of-a-kind 💎 Here’s the best part: Rachit Kataria 👨🏽‍🌾, Ani, and I have known each other for over a decade. Rachit & Ani were freshman year roommates at University of Southern California! It’s crazy that the world has brought us back together on this rocketship, and we couldn’t be more excited 🚀 P.S. We're growing the engineering team at Centralize! Ani has set the bar very high — if you’re a cracked, full-stack, product-focused engineer who wants to join the next GTM unicorn 🦄, please reach out with the most impressive thing you’ve built & a picture of you doing your favorite hobby!

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When I first read Jevgenijs Kazanins's very excellent fintech take on why Cash App Pay could be the next major driver of Block’s growth, I was floored by his initially compelling case that if Cash App can incentivize more payments payments volume to go through Cash App Pay, they can drive massive gross profit uplift, because Cash App Pay’s take rate is substantially higher than Cash Card’s take rate on purchase volume (2-3x). But if it were true, why hasn’t Cash App taken advantage? Whereas Jevgenijs is more optimistic about the ~$2.5bn in GPV that Cash App Pay has generated in its first ~2.5 years of existence, I find it downright embarrassing. That’s less than 1% of Square’s GPV after two years in the wild? And that’s despite it being essentially pre-installed on every terminal with no change in hardware required. I started to have a sinking feeling that maybe something was missing in the calculus. And as I dove deeper, it became clear that the “magic” take rate uptick we thought we’d found was more of a magic trick, relying on some deception. The seeming increase in take rate comes about like this. Normally, when a Cash App user makes a purchase, Cash App acts as the Issuer which means there are several intermediaries between what the merchant is charged and what Block earns on the transaction, meaning its ultimate take rate is relatively low. But in the case of Cash App Pay, there’s potentially a few magic tricks at work. The first is that in this case, Block is facilitating the Square merchant’s acquiring POS AND it’s issuing the Cash App user’s debit card, thereby cutting the intermediaries down in the typical payments flow and seemingly increasing Cash App take rates by 35-50% (instead of just interchange, you’re now getting interchange and markup). But then gets even better with the second trick, because if you’re both the acquirer and the issuer, *you don’t even need the payment network at all*. You can simply move money by book transfer between your merchant’s bank account and your user’s bank account in a perfectly closed loop payment network. Suddenly, Cash App Pay has a magical 2.9% take rate with no money movement costs at all. The problem with these magic tricks, like the ones in life, is that they are actually using some deception to hide what’s truly happening. Let’s play it out. In the status quo, without Cash App Pay, Square would earn ~1.85% in acquirer markup and Cash App would earn 0.90% in interchange for a total of 2.75% in take rate. In the Cash App Pay case, Square and Cash App would split the 2.90% Merchant Discount rate they artfully charged without having any money movement. So instead of the 2-3x markup, the uptick is more like +15bps (+5%). So maybe there isn’t a massive take rate arbitrage, but Block should still be focusing on its closed loop payment network because it represents huge opportunity for other reasons. Read the full post at https://lnkd.in/d93nkn29.

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Wendy Xiao, Molly Alter, Aaron Liu, and I recently hosted a dinner with CMIO / CIOs from top NY health systems and execs from startups who are building solutions across the care delivery and back-office billing stack. A few takeaways: - Delivering value-based care at scale changes the incentives for health systems in such a way that they require unique point solutions that can help them triage and manage at-risk patients. - While scribing platforms are certainly powerful in the administrative burden they can take off of doctors, their full value may not be unleashed until they can convert notes into the appropriate fields / codes for billing. - More attention needs to be paid to social determinants of health. For example, certain types of new addiction treatment, like gambling, may soon be covered by insurance if data continues to show that there are serious negative health implications for people affected. Treatments like Ozempic are also showing promise in the field of addiction. In the coming years there will an increasing acknowledgment of how interconnected social factors and medical health are across all patient populations. If you’re a healthcare exec looking to learn more about what the next generation of healthcare IT startups are building, or a healthcare startup looking to get involved, please reach out. cc Northzone

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Access to scaling/ working capital for small to midsize businesses is difficult to come by. Pipe is changing that by embedding their financial solution into the current workflow of small/ midsize businesses. This is literally a game changer. See Luke Voiles' post and the Fintech Nexus article to learn more.

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I’m thrilled to share a significant milestone in Klickl's journey! Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to be featured on FINTECH.TV at the New York Stock Exchange. This moment was not only fun and informative but also a major acknowledgment from the mainstream financial market and media outlets for Klickl's story. During the interview, I shared Klickl's vision of creating seamless financial accounts that support both traditional finance and the digital economy in a fully regulated and compliant way. Our mission is to make it effortless for individuals and businesses to store and transact different formats of money, both regionally and globally. We focus on serving the web3 industry and the crypto market by providing a crypto-friendly banking solution. Klickl’s unique selling point is its destination-agnostic approach, fundamentally changing how individuals interact with financial institutions. The interview was an amazing experience, giving us the chance to explain Klickl's vision with clear examples and provide Wall Street with a fresh outlook on the UAE and the Middle East. It was also a privilege to witness the history and excitement of the NYSE firsthand. Key messages included Klickl's potential to become the next big thing in Web 3.0, transforming how people interact with both traditional finance and web3. Our goal is to bring financial equality to everyone, urging all industry and ecosystem partners to join us in building this future together. We also discussed the market’s readiness and the need for regulators to catch up. Partnering with reliable players and thanking our global ecosystem partners for their support was also a key highlight. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Vincent, the founder of FINTECH.TV, and the incredible team behind Klickl. Our pivots over the past two market cycles, support from regulators, ecosystem partners, and investors have been crucial. Since its inception, Klickl has executed a smart approach by obtaining licenses and building the best global regulatory framework to support hyper-growth. We have pinpointed key client segments, delivered solid revenue growth, and onboarded strong investors for our next stage towards unicorn status. Klickl is revolutionizing the connection between traditional finance and the digital economy by switching to a client-centric approach and building a decentralized network of global banking partners. Our work makes crypto and virtual assets more accessible, providing a foundation for transparency and sustainability in the long run. Looking ahead, our aspiration is to build a UAE brand that scales from regional to global, positioning Klickl as a leading unicorn company in the Web 3.0 space. #Klickl #Web3 #Fintech #DigitalEconomy #Innovation #NYSE #Crypto #Blockchain #FinancialInclusion #GlobalGrowth https://lnkd.in/dhVgBDWc

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This San Franciscan has landed in the Big Apple for #NYTechWeek! Here’s why it was important to me to be out here this week and I view NYC as a sister city. ((scroll down for 2 events The Council is hosting today!)) 🏭🏥 Reminder: The Council Fund invests at Pre-seed in Software’s Third Act, the transformation of the essential economy. Our investments span healthcare and industrial sectors like manufacturing, logistics, construction. 🐂 I’m eternally bullish on NY & SF and hate how many pit the two cities against each other. The reality is that a lot of capital and talent flow back and forth between the cities. They need each other to thrive! 🗽🌁 Cities like NY & SF attract young and mid-career talent because of their population density, transient nature, beauty, and reputations as cities where someone new on the scene can make a name for themselves. For the areas we invest in, I’m *specifically* excited about NY because of: 🏗️ Closer proximity to industrial hubs which are scattered across the Midwest / Rust Belt 🏛️ Closer proximity to DC where a lot of regulation around VC, startups, healthcare, onshoring initiatives, and industrial sectors takes place 💰 Many of the large financial institutions that are backing hard tech focused funds and major healthcare initiatives are also headquartered here in NYC 🎯 We’ve got several startups here who are hitting it out of the park, like Dirac and Siena. This has further validated my belief in this ecosystem to support young companies! Today we are kicking off with 2 events on Day 1 of #NYTechWeek 👉 AI Demo Day: The Council, Next Wave NYC, Lynx Collective, Flybridge will host 8 founders and 200+ investors and founders for a pitch competition this evening! Luma: https://lnkd.in/gbdYiJMw 🔜 Can still join the waitlist! Small & Big VCs in Hard Tech: The Council joined General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Iron Prairie Ventures, AlleyCorp, House Of Ventures, Steel Atlas for 2 back to back panels on industrial innovation & collaboration across the capital stack Luma: https://lnkd.in/gj6D4-Au ⏰ Event has passed

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NYSHEX has exciting news to share - we've raised our first close of Series C with amazing investors - ICE, Collate Capital, Goldman Sachs, Blumberg Capital, NewRoad Capital Partners and others - powering our mission to bring unprecedented price transparency and risk management to ocean logistics and global container shipping. In addition to our suite of Proactive Performance Management (PPM) SaaS offerings, we are working towards launching freight rate indices in 2025 !!! #NYSHEX #freightindices #oceanperformance #containershipping #supplychaintechnology #proactiveperformancemanagement #oceanSaaS

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Surojit Chatterjee is one of the top product executives in Silicon Valley, most recently leading product at Coinbase as CPO between 2020-23. In 2023, he founded Ema Unlimited, which has raised $75 million to date. Will Summerlin had the chance the speak with Surojit to discuss how companies can start employing "AI workers" to automate mundane work tasks. Check out the episode below!

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Apply now to get a coveted spot for the Venture Lane B2B Pitch Night Event! 🚀 🥇 On November 19th, Venture Lane | Startup Hub is hosting our exclusive Pitch Night 👉 - a rare opportunity for Boston's B2B tech founders to tune their pitch and get in front of awesome mentors, investors, and industry leaders. ⏰ Apply by November 1st to secure your spot! 📲 Find the application link in the comments below. #B2BTech #Startups #Fundraising #BostonStartups #PitchNight #VentureLaneStudio

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We are excited to announce our investment in Sankari Nair, Paul Richards, Igor Gligorevic, and their company, Recall. Recall, an AI-powered knowledge management platform, aligns perfectly with our mission of investing in category-defining founders. In a crowded landscape of knowledge management tools, Recall stands out by tackling the challenge of information overload really well. But most importantly, we were drawn to a captivating founder story that embodies our investment ethos: migrants, women founders, and a relentless obsession with customers and product. Including burning bridges by giving up well-paid jobs at prestigious companies like Uber to pursue a vision these founders deeply believe in. This is our second deal with Jason Calacanis, the American internet entrepreneur and investor known for his All-In Podcast. We’re proud to be part of this journey alongside wonderful co-investors like LAUNCH, Splash Capital, Rocket Capital, and Digital Virtues. On a personal note: After just a few months, Recall has become one of my most-used apps on both desktop and mobile. As knowledge workers, we read and watch countless articles, PDFs, and videos daily. Recall has proven to be a massive time-saver and productivity enhancer. Frankly, I’d rather give up Microsoft Word than Recall. Congratulations to the Recall team on this exciting milestone! Curious to try Recall for yourself? Visit getrecall.ai. #getrecall #productivity #knowledgemanagement #blockchainfounderscapital #startup

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Our fireside chat with investor and creator Sahil Bloom is almost at capacity. Thanks to your demand and feedback, we're going to open it up to everyone. Previously, we had reserved spots for founders and future founders, but it turns out a lot of people in NYC read Sahil's Curiosity Chronicle newsletter. If you want to come, RSVP link is in the comments. We'll discuss how Sahil reached >800,000 subscribers for his quickly growing newsletter, The Curiosity Chronicle. Here's what else we'll talk about: - How to transform your voice into a business asset - How to build systems to build an online audience - How to execute your strategy over long periods of time - The Pillar Method: How, when, and what to post - How to write a compelling hook - What kind of content to create - Best newsletter strategies - The future of the creator economy

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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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As deep tech companies face long commercialization timelines and complex deployments, early financial planning becomes crucial. I’ve seen firsthand how debt can play a pivotal role in helping startups bridge the gap between capital needs and growth opportunities. In Part One of the “Debt Financing for Deep Tech” series, I explore the strategies that deep tech founders should consider when optimizing their capital stack. In collaboration with 🌁 Zachary Kimball of Hardfin. We start with early stage venture debt but subsequent posts with cover debt financing for scaling companies as well. Read on to explore how non-dilutive financing can support your journey from concept to commercialization: https://lnkd.in/gQdg_rwN #DeepTech #Founders #VentureBanking

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As disgraced FTX founder #Sam Bankman-Fried and #PDiddy languish in the same NY prison, we are all reminded of the power of strong values and authenticity. Strong values and authenticity are essential for long-term success because they build trust, foster loyalty, and create meaningful relationships with customers, employees, and partners. When a business or individual operates with integrity, it establishes a reputation for reliability and ethical conduct, which attracts sustainable support and opportunities. Authenticity ensures that actions align with promises, promoting consistency and transparency. Over time, these qualities create a resilient foundation that can weather challenges, allowing for growth and success driven by genuine commitment rather than short-term gains.

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Fin Capital’s Fintech CEO Pulse Report is out! We surveyed over 50 CEOs and C-suite leaders of private companies from our portfolio and the broader fintech industry during June and July 2024 to get a quick pulse on what’s top of mind for fintech’s leaders. Here are some key takeaways: Optimism in the Air: More than 60% of CEOs reported being bullish or highly bullish on the fintech industry for the second half of 2024. Regulatory Changes on the Horizon: CEOs identified Cryptocurrency, Open Banking, and Buy Now Pay Later as the top three sectors likely to see increased regulation by the end of 2024. CEOs Want Business Development Support: Beyond capital and fundraising, business development support emerged as the top area where CEOs seek investor assistance.For more insights, including comments from my colleagues Ren Riley, Logan Allin, Matthew D. Mann, CFA, and Stephanie Perez, check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/euHK8-9B

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🗞 A recent opinion piece in CoinDesk where I dive into the aspects of EigenLayer which aren't currently well suited to institutional needs. "Is EigenLayer Ready For Institutional Adoption? Restaking leader EigenLayer is a hit with more risk-accepting retail investors, but it doesn’t currently meet institutional needs, says Tara Annison, Head of Product at Twinstake, a non-custodial staking provider for institutional clients." https://lnkd.in/euuhusqr #crypto #blockchain #eigenlayer #restaking #ethereum #eth

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Our team at BankTech Ventures has been spending a lot of time recently discussing the future of Open Banking With the final proposal for Section 1033 expected to published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau later this year, it's hard not to draw parallels to world of electronic medical record (EMR) interoperability 🏥 👉 🏦 I spent some time diving deeper into the topic and exploring the EMR analog in greater detail - read more here: https://lnkd.in/ewqexg_x I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments! #openbanking #1033 #interoperability

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