Orlando Saez

Excited to announce Lagrange Labs' $13.2M seed round, led by Founders Fund, with support from Archetype, 1kx, Maven 11, Fenbushi Capital, Volt Capital, CMT Digital, Mantle Network Ecosystem Fund, and various angels. Read More: https://lnkd.in/gvxFPH_B Lagrange was founded almost two years ago with the vision of using zero-knowledge proofs to expand the design space of applications that could be built onchain. We saw a simple problem: Developers could not securely use historical or cross-chain state. The name “Lagrange” was inspired by mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who discovered Lagrange Points, positions of equilibrium in space between two celestial body systems. These points of equilibrium were the perfect analogy for trustless interoperability in crypto. While Lagrange has moved away from being a purely cross-chain focused company, the name remains, as does our goal of bringing equilibrium and stability to onchain applications. The original vision of secure interoperability still lives on within our State Committee protocol. As we’ve progressed, we have crystallized our mission: to unlock new types of data-intensive and cross-chain applications by enabling verifiable computation over blockchain data at a ‘big data’ scale. The way we achieve this is through our hyper-parallel ZK Coprocessor. Over the past few months we’ve hit a number of major milestones as a company: • Launching Lagrange State Committees as the first ZK AVS on @eigenlayer mainnet. Hitting over $5 billion in restaked ETH after only 3 weeks. • The Lagrange State Committees have generated over 30,000 state proofs and have finalized 2,000,000 blocks. • Launching our first ZK Coprocessor testnet, ‘Euclid’. We’ve currently generated over 400,000 proofs at a growing rate of 127,000 proofs per week. • Launching our infrastructure as a decentralized network with 40+ node operators. • Our first paper, Reckle Trees, authored by Charalampos Papamanthou, Shravan Srinivasan, Nicolas Gailly and Andrus S. from our team was accepted into both CCS’2024 and SBC’2023. More to come soon 🤫 None of our progress would be possible if it wasn’t for the team behind Lagrange. A special thank you to the whole Lagrange family whose tireless work brought us to this point. Thank you to all of our friends, partners and investors who have supported Lagrange in getting here. We have an ambitious roadmap ahead of us this year and we look forward to achieving it all of you on our team.

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I am looking for a CRO with roots in the hardware space, but specific to Agriculture/farming, EV's etc. The Chief Revenue Officer is responsible for leading every team that interacts with customers and ensuring that the team is working together as a unified experience to maximize effectiveness, impact, and of course, revenue. Based in Bay Area with travel (open to hybrid) You will analyze market trends, develop competitive strategies, and collaborate across the business to optimize every phase of a customer’s life. You’ll know you’ve nailed it when they have hit their revenue goals, and you have a deep understanding of the levers you can pull to affect growth. Who are you? A seasoned operator who can command a vast and diverse addressable market and execute a clear strategy. Specifically, you are: ● a go-to-market veteran, equally comfortable speaking the language of marketing, sales, and customer success. ●    see the entirety of a customer's journey and will build an optimal experience that maximizes revenue. ●    are eager to dive into the weeds to diagnose go-to-market challenges ●    understand the nuances of enterprise and channel/dealer sales and can execute a strategy to manage both. ●    are comfortable with the ambiguity and constant change of a high-growth company. ●    can develop and manage clear metrics and comfortable diving into the data to diagnose a go-to-market challenge or coach a frontline manager. ●    are a bridge-builder, able to work cross-functionally with your fellow executives to craft the best outcomes for our customers and our company. What you’ll do: ●      Drive Revenue Growth ●      Market Expansion ●     Ensure Tactical and Operational Excellence ●      Sales Team Leadership ●      Customer Satisfaction ●      Data-Driven Decision Making You need: ●    An extensive background as a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) or senior go-to-market executive in technology or transformative hardware sectors, known for achieving significant revenue growth. ●    Proven ability to develop and execute successful revenue growth strategies encompassing sales, marketing, and customer success initiatives. ●    Exceptional leadership and management capabilities, with a track record of building and guiding high-performing organizations. Principals only.

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I'm honored to appear on this week's Impact AI podcast with Heather Couture! Heather and I had a great conversation about AI in agriculture, the challenges of working with image data, and how CIBO is using Machine Learning and AI to drive sustainability in agriculture. https://lnkd.in/e_Ki_VHJ

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165. Software is Feeding the World 1. Leaf Agriculture led by G. Bailey Stockdaler raised a Series A round led by Spero Ventures, and includes S2G Ventures, SP Ventures, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, Radicle Growth etc. Leaf is offering to take on more of the data management workflow for agribusinesses and food companies, and going after use cases in crop insurance. Which other directions can Leaf go in? Are they truly creating lego blocks for digital ag infrastructure? 2. The pace of LLM agents in agribusiness continues with Agrisearch Assistant for mostly public datasets from Stratovation Group and Goose from AgVend Most agents fall in the category of "help me learn" or "automate a boring task", but depending on where they are being used, they might be used for product placement by input companies and retailers. How should input companies engage with all these different agents? 3. One of the key problems in AgTech has been the challenge to attribute value to your solution, which has made value capture difficult. I use Farmblox and Nathan Rosenberg as an example of a company which makes attribution very clear. In maple syrup farming lines get damaged which kills the vacuum which reduces sap flow, and increases energy consumption. Maple syrup producers spend huge labor to find those leaks. With a simple IoT based solution, Farmblox is able to reduce yield risk, and save on labor. Link in the first comment #agtech #digital #infrastructure #agriculture

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DayOne cohort #6 is shaping up. 5 teams already committed to participate 🚀 From agriculture to biotech to platform build outs. The founders look 👍🏼&💪🏽 We have interviews scheduled for this week, so if you are thinking of applying, act quickly! Anyone out there that knows of founders that are starting their journey, please also reach out to #genesisventures 👊🏼 It's never too late and the application is simple. 💡Revamping the structure to have even more hands-on and face to face. Applications Close-October 6th,2024. 6th Cohort Begins-November 4th,2024 #dayone #startup #greektech #founders

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DUAL USE. Proud of this. Farmers are inundated with data, but it often lack the insights needed for effective decision-making. Tesseract Ventures has developed an integrated platform that synthesizes data from a multitude of sources, including robots, in-field sensors, data sources, drones, imagery, and more. This comprehensive approach provides farmers with unprecedented insights into increasing profitability and efficiency of their operations, enabling them to optimize every aspect of their farms. We call it Tesseract Synthesis. We are learning, listening, testing and working carefully + methodically to create something very timely as well as a vision of a Future State. #Farmers #Synthesis #FarmTech #Sustainability #invention #Agriculture #drones #robotics #military #sbir Landus LANDWERX Kansas Department of Agriculture Kansas Department of Commerce #veterans #ussocom

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Helicone 🧊 is teaming up with PostHog 🦔 to bring your product analytics and LLM observability to one place... and our integration is now publicly available today! 🚀🚀 In classic Helicone style, integrating is as simple as adding one line of code, and all of your Helicone traffic will be sent to PostHog instantaneously. 1. Set your key... `Helicone-Posthog-Key: ph_...` 2. Set your region... (optional) `Helicone-Posthog-Host: ...` 3. Easily bring the following into PostHog... - LLM Cost, Time to first token, Latency - Session and Traces - Feedback + Scoring for evaluations - Properties to segment your data - Prompt versions + Experiment data As a bonus, we also made a fully enriched dashboard so you never have to start with a blank canvas. 📈 This is just the beginning. We’re super excited to be working with PostHog on this, and we can’t wait to see what comes next. Thank you Tim Glaser and Lior Neu-ner for helping us and making this possible! If you’re using this integration, we’d love to know how you’re using it and how we can improve it.

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ISP Strategic Leadership, Engineering, and Operations As an organization scales, there is often a need to separate strategic technology leadership under the CTO from internal execution under engineering and operations management. This allows the CTO to focus on outward-facing duties while enabling streamlined operational efficiency. However, it's crucial to recognize the differing motivations and needs of these distinct technical roles. On one hand, engineers thrive on tackling interesting, challenging projects that push their abilities and knowledge. They value working alongside capable peers, genuine recognition of technical accomplishments, and contributing to products/services that reach the market. In contrast, operations teams should strive for repeatable processes, continual improvement, and driving efficiency at scale. Their priorities revolve around standardizing workflows, minimizing disruptions, and incrementally optimizing existing systems and procedures to maintain consistent service delivery as the company grows. An effective organizational structure acknowledges this dichotomy, fostering an environment that fuels engineering innovation while providing operations with the stability and process-orientation they require. Striking this balance enables the company to stay agile and innovative through its engineering efforts, while simultaneously scaling operational execution in a reliable and repeatable manner. Competitive compensation remains an important motivator across both domains. By properly aligning structural elements, motivational factors, and leadership priorities, a rapidly growing ISP can position itself to attract and retain top talent across engineering and operations, driving sustainable growth and success in the dynamic technology landscape.

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Congrats to Christopher Robson, Kurtis Broda and Kristen Cote at Wyvern on bringing on fantastic new investors Guy Filippelli, Dan Madden and Isaac Carp, CFA at Squadra Ventures. I'm a broken record at this point, but we're in the early innings of the Earth Observation market, and as we're seeing with Wyvern there is more demand for hyperspectral data than supply. As we will see in the coming years, there will be all kinds of problems that can be addressed by understanding our world beyond what our eyes can see. https://lnkd.in/gEzTjYks

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We are excited to announce the release of our 2024 Crop Robotics Landscape. This initiative revisits the developments since the publication of Crop Robotics 2022, Beyond The Valley Of Death. Over the past two years, the factors driving opportunities in agricultural robotics have not only persisted but intensified. Challenges such as labor shortages, climate change, rising production costs, and consumer concerns about food health and sustainability continue to drive the industry. In response, crop robotics companies are advancing their product development and accelerating commercialization efforts. This year’s Landscape features over 330 commercial crop robotics developers, with nearly 100 new companies joining the ranks. While investment in the broader agtech sector has slowed from its peak, crop robotics companies with robust products and strong market fit still attract funding. Numerous companies have successfully raised funding rounds, from Seed to Series D over the last two years -deals are getting done. You can explore our comprehensive sector analysis and download a high-resolution version of the graphic at https://lnkd.in/gbqPh2G7 Special thanks to our Partner, Chris Taylor for leading this effort and to Walt Duflock and Western Growers for supporting the project. #agtech Rob Trice #innovation The Mixing Bowl #robotics Better Food Ventures #farming Seana Day #agriculture #Sustainability Jeff Frick #automation

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NFX is amazing. I love this pre-seed and seed funding team because they are the rare VC firm that provides innovative thought leadership in addition to financing. "NfX" stands for network effects, and they are particularly interested in partnering with startups and visionary teams that understand and center network effects in their products and services. The latest thought leadership article by NfX is titled "Why Great Bioplatforms Will Always Win." The key insight is that "a platform built on stellar IP and backed by a sharp business strategy is always “cool” because great platforms should make great assets. Full stop. It’s about balancing platform and asset development strategically. One should fuel the other and vice versa." You can find a link to the article in the comments. * the image below is from the NfX site

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I recently had the pleasure of speaking with and learning from several software execs from our portfolio companies and industry experts during Thoma Bravo's AI Summit in Miami. It was great to share our insights into trends and practices we see in our portfolio and how we manage opportunities and risks. At TB, we have a long history of guiding enterprise software companies through digital transformation, and we’re already navigating the transition driven by generative AI. Our focus is on managing this new innovation by absorbing the technology to bring meaningful benefits to our portfolio companies and indirectly to their customers. And it’s evolving fast! We see our portfolio companies today using gen AI in generally three ways: first, to create new products and provide customers with incremental use cases. Second, to defend against cyber attacks that have become much more sophisticated by bad actors. And third, as an enabler of talent to make business operations run more efficient and productive. In our view, AI presents a significant growth opportunity, but we also believe that to really maximize that potential, companies should carefully evaluate the risks and be thoughtful about governance, trust, security and data privacy. AI is poised to accelerate innovation and it’s hard to predict the full, transformative potential of AI, but we are confident that some of the advantages of incumbent knowledge and data will be key to unlocking its value.

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I’m often asked about the most exciting and potentially transformative investment thesis in agtech globally. My answer consistently points to what G. Bailey Stockdale is building at Leaf Agriculture. Leaf is unique in its vertical, with a clear and direct appeal to the "big tech" giants like Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) & Alphabet Inc.. It’s constructing a multilateral B2B network that spans the entire agribusiness value chain—from financial services and trading conglomerates to input suppliers, farm equipment manufacturers, and food CPGs. Leaf has clear parallels with companies in other sectors, such as Plaid, which were acquired at multibillion-dollar valuations. What’s even more compelling is the critical role Leaf Agriculture plays in the technological evolution of agribusiness. Leaf’s core infrastructure is the key enabler of digital adoption in agriculture, unlocking the full potential of data and AI in one of the most complex and science-intensive industries on the planet. At SP Ventures, we’re incredibly honored to have supported Bailey and Leaf since their Seed round. The fact that Spero Ventures, one of the most respected tech venture firms, is leading Leaf’s Series A is further validation that this isn’t just another agtech opportunity. Leaf is where industries and technologies converge, shaping the future of global agriculture.

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Indoor farming has attracted over $6 billion in investments since 2019: It's a year-round method of crop production that optimizes space through its use of vertically stacked layers. It’s projected to grow (10% by 2032, reaching $96 billion*), yet many are struggling to deliver returns. Notably, AppHarvest recently filed for bankruptcy after reporting a net loss of $177 million, highlighting the challenges in achieving profitability in this sector. ⬆️On the up - Plenty® is one to watch - they are flush with funding from SoftBank and have formed a JV with Abu Dhabi-based Mawarid Holding Investment .They are building a network of indoor farms, likely starting with an indoor strawberry farm in Abu Dhabi. If successful, it would help elevate indoor farming as a more marketable proposition - particularly in locations that are too dry for traditional farms. Indoor farming has appeal for sure..but they an infrastructure-heavy, pricey endeavor that has proven incompatible with venture exit time frames. This begs the question around the sustainability of funding models in industries focused on longer-term growth. #VentureCapital #IndoorFarming #Investment #Sustainability #Agriculture *Statista

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I'm excited to share that Antalpha Ventures has invested in the $17M funding rounds of Renzo Protocol, a Liquid Restaking Token (LRT) and Strategy Manager for Eigen Labs. The funding rounds were led by industry-leading funds Galaxy and Brevan Howard Digital, with participation from Maven 11, Figment Capital, Protagonist, SevenX Ventures, Karatage, Bankless Ventures, 280 Capital, hermeneutic Investments, Consensys, and L2 Iterative Venture (L2IV). Renzo Protocol is a liquid derivative platform built on Eigen Labs that serves as an interface to the EigenLayer ecosystem. It secures Actively Validated Services (AVSs) and offers higher yields than traditional ETH staking. The platform is designed to simplify the process of Ethereum restaking, making it more accessible and potentially more profitable for users while navigating the complexities of multiple AVS combinations. For more information about the fundraiser and vision, including quotes from Lucas Kozinski, Co-Founder of Renzo Protocol, please refer to Margaux Nijkerk's CoinDesk article below. #Renzo #Restaking #Staking #Ethereum #Fundraising

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https://lnkd.in/dn_CRSwH "Generative AI is having far reaching impacts on datacenters and new data shedding light on the nature and extent of the impacts. Analysts Melissa Incera and Dan Thompson return to the podcast to dig into the data and discuss the ramifications for enterprises, datacenter builders and operators and those putting AI to work with host Eric Hanselman. The computational requirements of generative AI are unique, taking demands similar to high performance computing or cryptomining and spreading them across a vast new community of users. The demands for GPU-based capacity are consuming more power, sometimes with order of magnitude increases. It’s also driving retrofitting of existing datacenters. The need for higher capacity and innovations like liquid cooling are causing a new surge. We’re at the beginning of the shift from a focus on model training to greater amounts of inferencing, changing where capacity is needed.  Looking at money flows in this market offers additional nuance. Investments in AI startups have been massive. Capital investments from hyperscalers in their own infrastructure is also massive, but it remains to be seen if they’ll pay off in equivalent amounts of revenue. Is all of this sustainable? It’s an complicated question in the many aspects of the word."

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🔥 Thrilled to see Hydrolix crushing it with a $35M Series B! 🔥 Data is the new oil, but too much gets discarded due to prohibitive storage costs. Hydrolix cracks this with its streaming #datalake platform that leverages object storage, decoupled compute, indexing, & compression. As Marty Kagan puts it: 'We’re cheaper than cold storage and faster than hot storage' Hydrolix’s streaming data lake platform is a game-changer for #AI, #observability, & #security workloads. 💥 Real-time query performance at terabyte scale 💰75%+ savings on log mgmt & 4x more data retained  ☁️ Stateless & containerized for seamless scaling with Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3, Google Cloud GCS, Microsoft Azure Blob 💡 Had the early conviction (first investor) that data is key to unlocking AI & enterprise workloads. It's proving right. Huge thanks to Marty Kagan Hasan Alayli for letting me early on their journey to build an impessive company 🙏 Super pumped to have awesome Aaron Perman at S3 Ventures leading this round along with other strong existing investors - Nava Ventures (Manish Patel) Wing Venture Capital (Peter Wagner) Oregon Venture Fund (Matt Compton Scott Grout) and others 💪 Onwards! 🚀🚀🚀 #cloud #data #ai #ml #llm #largelanguagemodels #analytics #security #loganalytics #datalake #datawarehouse https://lnkd.in/g5i6afP5

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Congratulations to Resolve AI on thier $35M seed round to build their AI Production Engineer! As production operations often become bottlenecks to software velocity and innovation, Resolve AI’s efforts are crucial in accelerating progress and driving efficiency. The team’s expertise and execution in this area are unmatched, positioning them at the forefront of this transformative shift in software engineering. Resolve AI is revolutionizing the software engineering landscape by shifting the burden of on-call duties from humans to machines. By automating the investigation and resolution of production issues, Resolve AI enhances quality of life for engineers, allowing them to focus on building rather than troubleshooting. This innovative approach combines deep knowledge of code and production systems with advanced AI to address operational challenges, making it one of the most exciting applications in the field today. https://lnkd.in/gHpVvmu5

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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