Momchil Kyurkchiev

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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As a B2B SaaS VC 👩‍💻 and a huge data nerd 🤓, fewer things bring me more joy than a truly statistically significant analysis (600+ companies surveyed) of B2B SaaS metrics across early stage companies. Great work by our team at Emergence Capital! See comments for full report, and please let us know how we can make this better in the future!

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Vishal Sachdev highlights the strategic integration of open source and proprietary tech in architecting tech stacks, developer ecosystems and resulting business models. The world class companies effectively balance value commoditization in open source and value capture in proprietary tech. This is the strategic challenge for companies operating in #blockchain and #AI. I believe those who operate at the intersection of blockchain *and* AI stand to win this strategic battle...

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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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We've mapped the 250 most relevant early-stage startups within the European data ecosystem! 🚀 Our coverage spans categories like Data Collection, Storage, Integration, Security & Privacy, and Platform. Discover how these startups are leveraging AI 🧠, the most active sectors 👩‍💻👨‍💻, and key funding trends 🏦. Don't miss the simple table listing all the companies! 😀 #AI #Europeanstartups #MMCresearch #vcfunding Advika Jalan

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Engineers are experiencing a seismic shift driven by market volatility, the rise of GenAI, and new approaches to quantifying engineering impact. But there's a disconnect between business leaders and the engineers building their products. 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆 𝗯𝘆 Jellyfish 🔗 https://bit.ly/3Vt3lcO 📉 71% of execs at large enterprises believe productivity decreased, while only 40% of engineers agree. 🤷‍♂️ 43% of engineers feel that leadership at their company is out of the loop regarding engineering challenges, compared to 92% of executives 😩 46% of engineers report their teams are experiencing burnout, compared to 34% of executives. This chasm between perception and reality can breed mistrust, misalignment, and missed opportunities. 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹, 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻: ✨ Foster psychological safety for open dialogue 🤝 Build trust through active listening and empathy 💡 Inspire teams by painting a compelling vision 🧭 Provide clarity amidst ambiguity and change By complementing hard metrics with soft skills, leaders can create an environment where engineers thrive and innovation flourishes. 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? #Leadership #EmotionalIntelligence #Engineering

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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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💼 Ready to take your startup to the next level? Explore our extensive list of 220 #VCfirms in New York! Get all the details you need to connect with potential investors. Dive in: https://lnkd.in/d_mb-2n9 #startup #startups #venturecapital #funding #vc #managementconsulting

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💥 Finnt is now publicly available! 🌎 Building an AI-native software is a whole new beast - actually that’s why there’s so many great demos but so few amazing experiences in production. The nature of Generative AI makes it difficult to reproduce identical, deterministic outcomes. Where a traditional feature would have two statuses “functional” vs. “bugged”; in the GenAI world, a slightly different prompt or setup can drastically change the output. But this is also what makes AI so powerful and why we are so excited to be building in this space. 🧠 As a reminder, Finnt specializes in extracting crucial data from large, unstructured, and complex documents — including OMs, PPMs, 10-Q/10-K, as well as prospectuses, reports, leases, loans, etc. It then integrates these findings into AI-generated and templated memos, enriching them with real-time market data. 🔑 Key facts: - Ingest any large, complex, and unstructured files - Design custom frameworks tailored towards your specific use cases - Select your preferred LLMs, from closed to open-source options - Customize the goals, structures, and formats of your output reports - Augment your reports with third-party sources and live market data - Ask anything to your files and transform responses into insights - Seamlessly integrate Finnt into your existing workflows 👉 Check the comments to get the link to signup. PS: you might need to get a custom onboarding but we are nice people 😅

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One of the biggest challenges for improving performance on Meta is teams beeing held accountable for daily (and sometimes hourly) results. This isn't enough time to try new strategies or products. So by optimizing towards a daily ROAS goal in the short term, might hurt performance in the long run as you could be missing out on new solutions.

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Many assumed that the industry would be well on its way to AGI or superintelligence before AI model builders’ efforts to take advantage of scaling laws might hit a wall. Recent headlines are chipping away at that assumption. One question I've been getting in my inbox: is this the era of diminishing returns for AI? We don't think so. Even if an avalanche of new clusters and synthetic data fail to deliver significantly better model performance, there are good reasons to believe that AI is still going to become orders of magnitude more powerful in the coming years — powering a new generation of startups and ultimately productivity growth and positive benefits for mankind. In fact, with agents and reasoning just beginning to scale and thousands of industry-specific models coming online, it's about to get really exciting. Read our latest blog post on the topic: https://lnkd.in/gFhniNX8

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If anyone is in North County San Diego, on Thursday May 2nd, we will be hosting a tech entrepreneur and investor meet up at 5:30pm. We’ll have a couple speakers, one of which is a fin-tech start-up raising a round, followed up by a presentation on the state of the stock & crypto market. We host these events quarterly and usually get a lot of founders and investors to attend. If anyone is interested, please message me and I can send you the details. LaunchPad San Diego #startups #startupincubator #entrepreneur #investing #crypto #meetup

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Congrats to the Datadog engineering team for releasing the private beta of their on-call product today. We know first hand how difficult it is to build! I guess I need to update this blog post now? https://lnkd.in/edct4mgA

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I love YC Demo Day season. It’s an insane concentration of driven founders building something they deeply believe in at the frontier of tech. I know it's more trendy for VCs to complain about YC. But I believe Garry Tan when he says 5-10% of companies become worth a billion dollars. Maven’s hit rate from YC is even higher: 16% have had $B+ exits, and we’re trending toward a 40% graduation rate from Seed to Unicorn with investments we’ve made alongside YC. Since Maven’s founding in 2013, we’ve funded 12 YC startups out of the 66 companies we’ve invested in. Here are a few: Cruise: acquired by GM for $1B+ Embark: $4B SPAC, acquired by Applied Intuition Chariot: acquired by Ford before Series A May Mobility: raised $300M+ in follow on funding, including from Toyota Carrot Fertility: raised $100M+ in follow on funding, including from CRV and USVP Daybreak Health: Series A from Lightspeed, Series B from USV Moment Robotics: acquired by Cruise founder Kyle Vogt’s new company, The Bot Co (Maven is an investor) Our strategy differs from other YC investors. Many funds build a YC “index fund”, investing in many startups per batch. It’s not a bad move. But we focus on concentration, meeting all the companies in our thesis area and investing in one or two. Gratefully, I think every company from the list above can point to Maven as one of their most trusted partners that made a difference: intros to customers, closing follow-on funding from top VCs, connecting key hires, and offering genuine care and advice in both the best and toughest of moments. What are we looking for in a YC investment? 1) Team - a technical product team with startup DNA and hustle that can achieve a bold vision. Brilliant, determined founders no one would bet against who are ambitious enough to build an iconic company. 2) Vision worth fighting for - what are you bringing into the world that is worth all the time, effort and money required for success? Why aren’t existing solutions good enough? Are we proud to help bring this idea to the world? 3) Massive market - because of the valuation premium YC demands, even a $B outcome may not return today’s average Seed fund. Honestly, that math sucks. In order to pay the premium, we have to believe that if we’re right, we’ll be wildly successful. 4) Consumer trend - Maven invests in tech companies addressing emerging consumer trends. Even if some investments are B2B or B2B2C, they are always grounded in a consumer insight: autonomous vehicles in 2014, fertility care in 2017, mental health in 2020. Today, we’re looking at consumer applications of AI and frontier consumer health. Many successful companies we fund are outside of YC as well – like Zoom, Hello Heart, Epic!, Class, Wildtype. So we match YC’s Unicorn % across the rest of our portfolio, too 💪 YC founders in consumer tech and digital health: if you want to build an iconic company that delivers a positive impact for millions of consumers - I can’t wait to talk to you!

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Valuable guidance here. TY Peter Walker

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In the era of tech stack consolidation, getting the most out of your current user base is more important than ever. That’s why I’m excited to share Amplitude’s Mastering Monetization Strategy playbook! From land and expand strategies to pricing and packaging, this resource equips you with everything you need to know on how to monetize the people already closest to your products: your users. #PLG #Monetization #DigitalAnalytics

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Nice overview of how we're using data to inform how we invest in early-stage founders. We'll be announcing more this summer but we're seeing some really interesting early data. https://lnkd.in/exU_Juf5

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Scaling Investor Outreach: How We're Using AI to Personalize VC Fundraising at Scale As a General Partner at Vibe Capital, I'm always looking for innovative ways to connect with potential investors and grow our fund. Recently, I developed an AI-driven system that's revolutionizing our approach to investor outreach. (Tentative name: Vibey) I'd like to share how we're using cutting-edge technology to build stronger relationships in the VC world. Our challenge was clear: how do we personalize communication with hundreds of potential Limited Partners (LPs) while maintaining efficiency? The solution came in the form of a three-part automated pipeline: 1. Smart Contact Categorization: First, I created a script that taps into the power of AI (specifically, the Claude model) to analyze our vast network of contacts. It combs through our email history, categorizing each contact as a potential LP, a referral source, or other. This crucial step allows us to focus our efforts where they matter most. 2. AI-Powered Personalized Emails: Next, I developed a system that generates highly personalized emails for each potential LP. These aren't your typical templated messages. Our AI crafts unique emails that reference recent interactions, highlight Vibe Capital's latest portfolio successes, and even extend invitations to exclusive events in San Francisco. It's personalization at a scale that would be impossible to achieve manually. 3. Streamlined Email Delivery: Finally, I automated the sending process. This script handles the technical aspects of delivering emails via Gmail's API, carefully managing rate limits and potential errors. It ensures our personalized messages reach investors' inboxes efficiently and reliably. The results are...TBD. We just sent out the emails today! That said, we're now able to reach out to a much larger pool of potential investors with messages that feel personal and relevant. It's allowing us to build and maintain investor relationships more effectively than ever before, which is crucial as we approach our next fund close in Q3 2024. But beyond the immediate benefits, this project represents something bigger. It's about embracing technology to enhance the human touch in our relationships. We're using AI to create more meaningful connections, to start real conversations. As we continue to refine this system, I'm excited about its potential to reshape how we approach investor relations in the VC world. It's a perfect example of how AI can be a powerful tool in building the relationships that drive our industry forward. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this approach. How do you see AI shaping the future of VC and investor relations? #VentureCapital #AI #InvestorRelations #Innovation #TechInnovation #Fundraising #AIinVC #InvestmentStrategy #DigitalTransformation #VCInsights #FutureOfInvesting #PersonalizedOutreach #InvestorEngagement #AIApplications # #ScalableSolutions #InvestmentTech #NextGenVC #Vibecap

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