Michael Katz

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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💰Sharing a List of 80 Black-led VC funds (US based): About this list: I realized that I couldn’t find a current list of Black-led funds as of 2024 when a lot of new funds have launched over the last couple of years including GPs Sydney Paige Thomas, Terri Burns and more. I have been gathering a list of these funds in my network, and that I could find publicly over time so wanted to share with the ecosystem. Only 2% of VC funds are Black-led: I found 80 funds (maybe there’s more!). There are 3,417 VC firms in the US (according to NVCA). Founders - These funds invest from pre-seed through growth, some with a focus on diverse founders, others more broadly. ⅔ of them have OPEN funding applications that I’ve linked in the sheet. LPs - As mentioned, a number of these funds might not be in the databases used for tracking, so hope to get some more Black-led funds on your radar! VCs - maybe there are some funds you should get to know for deal sharing, etc 👉🏾Link to full list here: https://lnkd.in/gktBhY-W

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Today, Two Chairs announces $72M of new funding to continue building a world where everyone has access to exceptional mental health care. Since late 2017, when Maveron led the Two Chairs Series A, the need for mental health services has grown considerably as our society has become lonelier and more isolated than ever. At the same time, our culture’s willingness to openly acknowledge these challenges is greater than ever. Sadly, the rapid growth of Two Chairs affirms the fact that our society is in desperate need of better mental health support. Two Chairs has built a business that believes clinical quality is the defining characteristic of success. Alex Katz has always emphasized the paramountcy of measurement-based clinical outcomes, which the team works tirelessly to achieve. In the process, Two Chairs has illustrated that embracing the ‘move fast and break things’ mentality doesn’t always work. Instead, Two Chairs opted for a different approach: they went slow to go fast. They built a proprietary algorithm that matches patients with the perfect therapist at the onset and hired a team of W2 clinicians oriented toward providing the highest quality care available. Even as the Two Chairs team has grown, their culture has remained small. This has enabled more intimate relationships within the team and between clients and clinicians. Reflecting on this milestone brings me back to the founding of Maveron and the values we hold dear. In 1998, my friend Howard Schultz and I founded Maveron to help entrepreneurs build companies that improve the lives of everyday people—their employees and their customers. There is perhaps no better example of this than Two Chairs. *** Thank you to TechCrunch's Marina Temkin, CFA for the great write-up. https://tcrn.ch/4aMt7yG

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Consumer VC Landscape 2024: Your Ultimate Playbook Even with a market cooldown, consumer VCs are investing. They’re fueling the next wave of tech, marketplaces, and D2C startups at seed and pre-seed stages. Here's the kicker: Zehra Naqvi at Headline has mapped most of the power players in this space. Making it easier for founders to cut through the noise and find the right partners. Whether you're building in consumer tech, prosumer tools, marketplaces, or D2C, these firms are actively writing checks and supporting visionary founders. The Heavyweights in Consumer VC 1. FJ Labs: → Focus: Marketplaces and consumer-facing startups. → Investment Stage: Seed to Series A. → Ticket Size: $50k–$5M. → Highlighted investments: Coupang, Momos, Flexport. 2. True Ventures: → Focus: Early-stage technology startups, with +$3.8 B under management. → Investment Stage: Pre-seed to Series A. → Ticket Size: $500K –$3M. → Highlighted investments: Peloton, The Way, Fitbit. 3. Forerunner: → Focus: Consumer-first startups, especially in the D2C and lifestyle sectors. → Investment Stage: Seed to Series A. → Ticket Size: $1M–$10M. → Highlighted investments: Glossier, Daydream, MindTrip 4. Pear VC:  → Focus: Software, AI, healthcare, IT, and SaaS startups, with additional focus on consumer tools. → Ticket Size: $100K –$3M. → Highlighted investments: Heap, OnRamp, Orby AI. Why This Matters - Founders: If you’re building something bold in the consumer space, these are your go-to doors to knock on. - Investors: This map helps you spot trends and future opportunities in the sector. < Save this post. Share it. Bookmark it.> Navigating the consumer VC landscape in 2025 starts here. Big thanks to Zehra Naqvi for creating a resource that helps founders find funding and the right partners. 🐼 Follow Suad Fakih for more insights! 👻 Repost for others interested in the space!

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Amongst the most successful VCs in consumer in the past decade has been Kirsten Green at Forerunner So I asked her all about how startups can navigate the 70% reduction in consumer investing & why now might be the best time for VCs to look harder at the category. I loved this discussion. I always learn something from Kirsten. Click below to watch / listen https://lnkd.in/g3kiMPD5

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Have you ever wondered why giants like PepsiCo, Google, Microsoft, and Apple are constantly collaborating with or acquiring startups? As part of my role as GM of PepsiCo Labs,a big part of my job is to identify the needs and challenges in the business that can be solved with emerging tech and take action to address them. It is safe to say that enterprises have a lot of resources. However, they often lack the agility that startups inherently possess. Startups, on the other hand, are innovation powerhouses, unburdened by legacy systems or hierarchical decision-making. They move fast, pivot quickly, and bring disruptive ideas to the table. Enterprises that crack the code on successfully embracing startups infuse this dynamic spirit of innovation throughout their expansive, established business operations, leading to leapfrogging ahead. Startups and enterprises complement one another with their unique strengths while solving each other’s problems. After reviewing thousands of startups and collaborating with hundreds of them successfully, the magic is real. A real-life example of this magic is Bringoz Bringoz is a last-mile orchestration and optimization platform. They bring visibility and effectiveness to our frontline. They have cutting-edge technology, we have the scale. Together, we are improving the daily operations of thousands of associates. #InnovationPartnership #Startups #EnterpriseCollaboration

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Great article from PitchBook on why domain expertise amongst VCs matters. TL;DR -- in verticals like healthcare, having investors with high amount of domain expertise can result in up to 40% higher odds of achieving an IPO, 20% higher chance of being acquired and 30% higher chance of an overall successful exit. Importantly, the marginal value of having investors with domain expertise varies by sector and stage, and is not uniform, so your mileage may vary, and generalist investors still have a very important role to play in the venture ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/dXpi8gzm Curious to hear from founders: Do you have examples of seeing specialist investors be helpful in unique ways that you can share? Or alternatively, do you have an experience with a generalist investor who has been more helpful than the specialists?

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I enjoyed going on Nick Telson-Sillett’s podcast, Pitch Deck by Forward Pursuit. Nick is a serial founder and investor (founded and exited DesignMyNight) so knows both sides of the table which always makes for an enriching chat. Some things we discussed: - The perceived power dynamic between VCs and founders can hinder productive conversations. - A compelling product demo can significantly influence investor interest. - Founders must focus on solving real customer problems to succeed. - Hiring standards are crucial for building a successful startup team. - Behavioural roadblocks can prevent the adoption of new solutions. - Validation from potential customers is key for pre-revenue startups. - The early-stage funding landscape has become more efficient and selective. - Pace of execution is a critical factor in attracting investment.

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Great time on the Embracing Erosion podcast w/Devon O'Rourke! We talked about: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups and much more!

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Impactful Biz, Ops & Investment Roles at Early Startups & VCs: • Chief of Staff to Ex. Head of Product at Google • Founding GTM at the most YC product used by other YC companies in the past four years • Chief of Staff to a Partner at a Top-Tier VC Fund • Head of Platform of a NY State Backed Accelerator • Investment Associate at a Seed Stage Fund Investing in Category-Defining Companies • Partner at a Defense-Focused VC Fund • Chief Revenue Officer of a New Space Company in El Segundo • Venture Capital Analyst at a fund investing in overlooked geographies • Investment Associate at a Spirit-Focused Fund • Strategy & Ops Lead at a Company Focused on Helping Improve Autism • Senior Product Manager at a Company Focused on Building Shopify for Content Creators • Program Manager for a Space Security Company • Open-ended Investment Position at a Top-Tier Accelerator • Biz & Ops Lead for One of the Most Loved Digital Consumer Products 💸 All companies are well-funded and backed by top-tier investors. ⬇ You can find links to the roles above, plus many more, in the comments.

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As a VC, there are times when you have to choose between prioritizing returns and supporting the founders you work with. It’s not easy because we have a fiduciary duty to our LPs, which, in our case, are primarily non-profits, to maximize returns. At Eniac, we play the long game: if we do what’s best for our founders, it will ultimately benefit our brand, reputation, and relationships, which will be best for our LPs in the long run.

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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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After the first deep dive discussion w/ founders I often hear a comment "I wish I had heard about this alternative [to all-in must-become-a-unicorn] way to build a startup earlier as I have wasted years in pursuing the wrong thing". Our mission is that no founder would ever need to say that again as it is such a waste. Us preaching the gospel 1:1 just doesn't scale, hence we use mass media to multiply our efforts - that's how Gorillacast came to be. The 1st episode is out, featuring yours truly. "How can you know what food you like unless you taste everything" said a chef. How can founders make informed choices about the best strategy for them to follow unless they know of all alternatives? This might not be of interest to you but pls spread the word so that the founders who should hear it can find it. I have a dream!

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At Forum we look at thousands of deals each year across our Accelerator and Pre-Seed funds but only end up investing in a little over 1% of those startups.  As an early stage VC, I am in the business of saying no to nearly every startup I meet, and while there is nuanced rationale for many of the startups I pass on, a vast majority of businesses that don’t meet the qualification to get funded typically fall into one of two buckets. ▪ First time founders have a tendency to go out to market too early to raise pre-seed capital ▪   I’m sure most founders have heard some iteration of this from VCs that ultimately pass on their business.  In some cases it's a blanket excuse covering up for other pass reasons- perhaps a VC doesn’t believe in a team or isn’t bullish on the market opportunity - but in many cases founders simply haven't proven enough to the market to warrant an investment. I meet many teams with an articulate vision for the product that they want to build, but they either haven't performed enough customer discovery to prove demand for their initial wedge product, or need to raise pre-seed capital to build out an MVP.  In those cases, pre-seed investors are unwilling to underwrite those risks.  To be default fundable, teams need to be able to keep costs low, perform extensive customer discovery, and ship some version of an early product - pilots and early paid customers are key. A huge piece of this is having founding engineering talent on the team. ▪Not every startup is a venture opportunity ▪ By definition, a venture backed business is solving a problem within a market opportunity so massive and so desperately needed, that its growth rate is off the charts.   It spreads like a weed, absorbing almost unlimited amounts of capital to fulfill demand within its customer base.   Each year there are maybe 20 companies launched that ultimately have venture scale outcomes. The bar to reach this rarified air is unfathomably high and the reality is the vast majority of founders simply aren’t building for opportunities that have the potential to be one of these generational companies. Many startup founders view VC as the only viable option for capitalizing their business, but not every great business is a venture business, and most successful founders never take VC dollars.  In order to reach an IPO/acquisition large enough to generate venture returns, a startup needs a credible path to $100s of millions in revenue. This is the standard by which early stage opportunities are evaluated. The flip side to this, and I share this feedback often with founders I meet that are building interesting business in non venture markets, if you are able to scale to $10- $20M in revenue that can be a massively successful outcome for a founder.  There are investors who focus on these type outcomes, namely lower middle market PE shops, and the typical path to those deals is a bootstrapped business or a friends/family capital raise.

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I recently had an enlightening conversation with Alex Pattis, general partner of Riverside Ventures and author of the #1 VC syndicate newsletter, "Last Money In." Alex's journey from sales director to launching a syndicate that has completed over 300 deals is truly remarkable. He's deployed over $70 million in capital and built a network of thousands of LPs along the way. During our chat, Alex clarified the intricacies of syndicates, explaining how they differ from traditional venture funds and the unique value they bring to both founders and investors. Syndicates offer a flexible, deal-by-deal approach for LPs, allowing them to cherry-pick investments. Alex highlighted that having a tier-one VC co-investor can significantly boost LP interest in a syndicate deal. Transparency and managing expectations are crucial when working with founders, according to Alex. He also shared insights on how Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) can be a strategic tool for founders to consolidate smaller investors. These structures offer a way to simplify cap tables while still accessing a broader investor base. Alex offered his perspective on the current syndicate market, noting the increasing interest in growth-stage and pre-IPO deals due to shorter paths to liquidity. This trend reflects a shift in investor priorities and the evolving landscape of venture capital. Whether you're a founder looking to understand syndicates or an aspiring investor curious about this unique approach to venture capital, Alex's insights are invaluable. Check out Episode 48 of Fundraising Demystified to learn from Alex's experience and gain a deeper understanding of the syndicate ecosystem!

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Insightful breakdown from my great Partner Omri Amirav-Drory on the simple factors that really separate the top 1% of investors from the rest, and how more operators should become investors! https://lnkd.in/gEiZdT2h

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🚀 Demystifying Venture: Pathways to More Money and Power 🚀 Last week, I had the honor to be invited to the Lesbians Who Tech & Allies Summit, gathering 4000+ tech, business and media leaders from all over the country. One of the highlights of the conference was a fireside chat about the VC industry featuring Candice Morgan, Partner at GV (Google Ventures) and Jana Rich Founder at Rich Talent Group. They shared some invaluable insights on how to break into venture capital and investing. Here are the highlights: 💡 Diversity in Venture: There are multiple ways to participate—angel investing, working at a VC firm, or making smarter decisions about your equity. The key? Access to information is power. 💸 True Wealth = Equity: The biggest driver of wealth in venture is through equity. Understand the risks, follow the founder’s journey, and get excited about areas you care about. 🔑 Investment Pathways: Platforms like Republic and Portfolia are making crowdfunding accessible to more diverse investors. These are great tools for those new to venture. 🎓 Educational Resources: organizations like All Raise and BLCK VC are excellent resources for anyone wanting to dive deeper into venture and investing. Thanks Gemma Allen and Anni Lundy for the invitation! #entrepreneurship #VC

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Hyped to share a new pod with my good friend Ellis Fried - VP @ Vanterra Capital. 🎉   He's one of the sharpest emerging investors in New York - and has partnered with an incredible roster of startups like Superfiliate, Journey, and Mixlab, among others. Critically - he brings a unique operator-turned-VC lens to every deal. His story didn’t start in venture capital. He began his entrepreneurial journey in college, founding Smpl, a health-focused snack brand that landed in major retailers like Urban Outfitters and Bloomingdale’s. When the pandemic forced him to close the business, he used that experience to forge a new path, applying what he learned to help other founders navigate similar challenges. In the latest episode of Turning Pro Podcast, Ellis dives into his journey and the lessons he’s picked up along the way. He talks about: - How he transitioned from founder to investor by tapping into his startup network. - Why operational experience makes investors better partners for founders. - The biggest mistakes founders make when fundraising—and how to avoid them. - How startups can thrive in today’s cautious funding environment by focusing on efficiency. Key takeaways: Empathy is an Edge: Ellis’s time as a founder gave him an inside look at how tough building a business can be. That perspective now drives how he supports other entrepreneurs. Stay Flexible When Fundraising: In today’s market, rigid expectations around valuations and timelines can sink a round before it starts. Running a Business is Complex: It’s more than partnerships and BD—it’s about mastering timelines, solving problems, and adapting to constant change. Listen to the episode here: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eetkAZTg Spotify: https://lnkd.in/edCDrJPW Apple: https://lnkd.in/e68wmUin Don’t forget to subscribe to the pod to get notified when a new episode drops!

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