Spencer Rascoff

Ron Miller from TechCrunch has hit it out of the park in his latest article covering Loft, vCluster, and our $24M Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures. "Investors have traditionally liked startups built on top of popular open source projects because they provide a ready top-of-sales funnel. But such startups must come up with a way to monetize that popularity. Loft Labs has done both." Since we released the open source version of the product, #vCluster, in 2021, it has surpassed 40 million image pulls which suggests that a lot of people are interested in this concept and we released vCluster Pro to monetize the idea in a novel way. Link to the full article in the comment below. #kubernetes #platformengineering #Growth #Innovation #SeriesAFunding #DevPod #gpu #gpus #ai #genai

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Team San Diego! I though you may find this as surprising as I did...we are not alone. Read this quick article from Jon Prentice's (Silicon Valley Bank) interview with with James Newell (Voyager Capital), published in GeekWire on Seattle's innovation ecosystem....they lament the SAME issues as we do in San Diego: * Lack of angel investors, (Especially, it calls out, given the local giant tech co's) * "We need low-conviction check writers." * Lack of "cachet associated with being an angel investor" - We have similar efforts (as described in the article) to drum up angel activity: NuFund Venture Group and, Interlock Capital (read the article and you'll see why the Interlock effort is tops as relates to "paying back into the ecosystem") Connect.org strives to 'connect' innovative companies with investors of all types (angel, VC, PE...) - just see "Innovation Day". Their Springboard program provides another great way for experienced entrepreneurs to give back through mentorship...as for the companies going through Springboard: "Ask for advice, and you often get $$" Your thoughts on the article or San Diego innovation ecosystem? https://lnkd.in/gfwq6mfq

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It takes a village. Collaboration and teamwork solves problems more effectively. That's why BizCrunch works closely with partners across the SMB M&A ecosystem, to achieve more exits for more business owners, and power Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. Start exploring your exit options now, with a free valuation from BizCrunch. Then work with a dedicated team of "exiteers" drawn from the and The Grafter communities, to achieve your own 8-Figure Exit. Every journey starts with that first step. If the time is right for you to pass the baton on, take that stride today.

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Excited to host a 30-minute panel at Andreessen Horowitz Tech Week in SF on Wednesday, October 9. If you're a founder or sales leader at a high-growth startup who predominantly sells into the enterprise, you won't want to miss this discussion. Our expert panelists will share invaluable insights on: - Breaking through to key decision-makers - Structuring an efficient sales process - Proven techniques for closing high-value deals

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Every Monday, the team here at Bearhug Recruiting aggregates, researches, and publishes a recap of the prior week's fundraising activity within the early and growth-stage Environmental Technology & Enterprise Software startup ecosystem. Here’s the startup funding recap for 7/29/24: 1. Cowboy Clean Fuels, led by Ryan Waddington, has raised approximately $13 million in Series B funding round. 2. Star Catcher, led by Andrew Rush, has raised a $12.25 million Seed funding round. 3. Mytra, led by Chris Walti, has raised a $78 million Series B funding round. 4. Micropep Technologies, led by Thomas LAURENT, has raised a $29 million Series B funding round. 5. Sojo Industries, led by Barak Bar-Cohen, has raised a $10 million Series A funding round. 6. Code Metal, led by Peter Morales, has raised a $16.5 million Seed funding round. 7. TigerBeetle, led by Joran Greef, has raised a $24 million Series A funding round. 8. DocketAI, led by Arjun Pillai, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round. 9. Lakera, led by David Haber, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round. 10. Splight, led by Thomas Vadora, has raised a $12 million Seed funding round. 11. SirenOpt, led by Jared O'Leary, has raised a $6.6 million Seed funding round. 12. Uplimit, led by Julia Stiglitz, has raised an $11 million Series A funding round. 13. Momentum.io, led by Santiago Suarez Ordoñez, has raised a $13 million Series A funding round. 14. rift, led by Fil Twarowski, has raised a $5 million seed funding round. Watch our Google NotebookLM podcast summary on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/eE-pDcCr To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://lnkd.in/eg2Sk8aA #startups #startuplife #startupstory #startupfunding #startuptips #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurlife #marketing #sales #technology #tech #fundraising #venturecapital #venturecapitalist #investors #founder #recruiting #hiring #career #jobhunt #jobsearch #kraigward #bearhugrecruiting #cowboycleanfuels #starcatcher #mytra #micropep #sojoindustries #codemetal #tigerbeetle #docketai #lakera #splight #sirenopt #uplimit #momentum #rift

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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Every Monday, the team here at Bearhug Recruiting aggregates, researches, and publishes a recap of the prior week's fundraising activity within the early and growth-stage Environmental Technology & Enterprise Software startup ecosystem. Here’s the startup funding recap for 11/4/24: 1. LuxWall, Inc., led by Scott Thomsen, has raised a $51 million Series B funding round. 2. Third Wave Automation, led by Arshan Poursohi, has raised a $27 million Series C funding round. 3. Matter Intelligence, led by Vishnu Sridhar, has raised a $12 million Seed funding round. 4. Bifrost AI, led by Charles Wong, has raised an $8 million Series A funding round. 5. CREW Carbon, led by Joachim Katchinoff, has raised a $5.3 million Seed funding round. 6. Avina (YC S22), led by Ron Fisher, has raised a $3.2 million Seed funding round. 7. Latii, led by Santiago Bueno, has raised a $5 million Seed funding round. 8. Andium, led by Jory S., has raised a $21.7 million Series B funding round. 9. Spot AI, led by Rish Gupta, has raised $31 million in equity funding. 10. Decart, led by Dean Leitersdorf, has raised a $21 million Seed funding round. Watch our Google NotebookLM podcast summary on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/e-sfe44R To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://lnkd.in/eg2Sk8aA #startups #startuplife #startupstory #startupfunding #startuptips #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurlife #marketing #sales #technology #tech #fundraising #venturecapital #venturecapitalist #investors #founder #recruiting #hiring #career #jobhunt #jobsearch #kraigward #bearhugrecruiting #luxwall #thirdwave #matter #bitfrost #crewcarbon #avina #latii #andium #spotai #decart

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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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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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OpenSky Ventures isn't your typical venture capital fund. We are a strategic partnership that combines the expertise of Josh Resnick, founder of Sugarfina USA LLC, and Josh Payne, founder of StackCommerce and Onward. Our $10 million fund is strategically focused on two verticals: 1. E-commerce Infrastructure (⅔ of our current portfolio) 2. Consumer Brands (⅓ of our current portfolio) What differentiates us in the VC landscape? We are not just investors; we're active operators in the industries we invest in. We understand the challenges you face because we have encountered them ourselves. Partnering with OpenSky grants you and your startup access to a robust network of connections, resources, and guidance that can move your business to new heights. As an OpenSky portfolio company, we will connect you with the most suitable SaaS solutions, provide data-driven strategic guidance, and offer unmatched growth support that can only come from fellow entrepreneurs who have walked in your shoes. If you are a founder ready to take your brand to the next level, it's time to connect with us. Let's build something incredible together.

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TechCrunch's founder summit empowers early-stage entrepreneurs, from pre-seed to growth stages, on their journey to success. Whether you're just starting out or aiming to take your venture to new heights, this one-day event is your essential guide to success and growth. Learn more and grab passes here 👇

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TechCrunch's founder summit empowers early-stage entrepreneurs, from pre-seed to growth stages, on their journey to success. Whether you're just starting out or aiming to take your venture to new heights, this one-day event is your essential guide to success and growth. Learn more and grab passes here 👇

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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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Get ready to unlock the secrets of successful fundraising in the upcoming year at #TechCrunchDisrupt2024

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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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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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