Stacy Brown-Philpot

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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🌟Innovative VC Firm Overcomes Exits Drought with Secondary Sales🌟 ⛵Navigating a challenging landscape where exits are scarce, Santa Barbara Venture Partners (SBVP) has pioneered a novel approach to sustain its growth and attract investors for its second fund: secondary sales. Instead of waiting for traditional exits like IPOs or acquisitions, SBVP opted to sell shares of its portfolio companies, demonstrating its ability to generate returns for investors and stand out in a competitive market. 🎤According to Dan Engel, founder and managing partner of SBVP, these secondary transactions have been a game-changer, sparking investor interest and bolstering the firm's credibility. By leveraging its recent successes, including a lucrative stake in sports-betting company DraftKings Inc.' acquisition of digital lottery app Jackpocket, SBVP seized the opportunity to return profits to its limited partners (LPs) and pave the way for its second fund. 💡Engel highlighted the challenges faced by young VC firms in raising subsequent funds, particularly amid a downturn in exit activity and heightened investor scrutiny. With traditional exit routes becoming increasingly elusive, the pressure is on for firms to demonstrate tangible returns and establish a track record of success. ✨"For us, secondary sales have been a game-changer. They've helped us return profits to our LPs and attract investors for our second fund," said Dan Engel. 💰For SBVP, the decision to pursue secondary sales was driven by the need to provide liquidity to LPs and validate its investment thesis in the eyes of prospective investors. By strategically offloading portions of its holdings in high-performing portfolio companies like Bark Technologies and Rad AI, SBVP not only generated substantial returns but also bolstered investor confidence in its ability to deliver results. ⚠Despite the complexities and potential stigma associated with early share sales, Engel emphasized the importance of prioritizing investor returns and seizing opportunities to unlock value for stakeholders. With a focus on profitability and transparency, SBVP remains committed to its mission of delivering sustainable growth and maximizing returns for its LPs. 🔍 "Returning profits to our investors is our top priority. By strategically selling shares, we're proving our commitment to delivering results and driving value for our stakeholders," added Engel. As SBVP continues to explore secondary transactions and expand its investor base, the firm stands as a testament to innovation and resilience in the face of market challenges. 🚀 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VCInnovation #SecondarySalesSuccess #InvestorReturns #ValueCreation 

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Looking forward to discussing how changing demographics and culture norms are affecting investment opportunities in longevity, health and well-being at The Care Summit today Alongside Cake Ventures' Monique Woodard, Ziegler's Dan Hermann, Oak HC/FT's Billy Deitch and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jennifer Edwards, we’ll dive into the trends shaping how we are investing in the space: - Last year marked one of the most significant social and economic moments in modern times: The number of older adults—those aged 50 and over- surpassed the number of children under the age of 15 for the first time. - In 2020 the 50 plus population contributed $45 trillion to global GDP, or 34% of the total. That equates to about 3x the revenue of the world’s 100 highest- earning companies in 2020. - The U.S. population grew by 24.5 million from 2010 to 2022, and Hispanics accounted for 53% of this increase – a greater share than any other racial or ethnic group. - Women around the world and across all ages drive 64% of consumer spending

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Very impressed with the Wevo Energy story and I share those feelings. It is never easy facing all challenges and complexities. #Podcast #StartupJourney #SolarEnergy #Entrepreneurship #WEVO #SolarEdge #Acquisition

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❤️ I’ll never forget when I first met John Majeski. ThrowbackThursday 🛗 John was a judge at the Long Beach Accelerator Joy Fairbanks Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) Octane OC. 💥 Like a lot of startups over the past four years, fund raising has been difficult. 😷 I founded facil.ai April 2020. Right at the start of the COVID pandemic. 🦄 😎 🎼 🛡️💥😤🦄 I’m a seven time, serial entrepreneur, startup founder. This is the (backwards) startup playbook: FUND💰BUILD🛠️ GROW📈EXIT🦄 This works sometimes, but the reality is that you give up something for the ease afforded by raising millions of dollars of VC funding: 🪓You give up CONTROL. The reality is most startup founders are not at all in control of their own destiny.⛓️ It’s happened to me. 🔪 2x 💥😤 I learned that if you’re NOT: 1) The founding CEO AND 2) The majority shareholder 😬 “You’re just another person with an opinion!” 🤬 🌪️ So I came into facil.ai with a completely different mindset. 💣💥DISRUPTION #FMRebel 🗿🕹️And firmly in CONTROL of my own destiny! 😘Initially we were focused on a market which (I thought) I knew extremely well: 🛍️ Retailers With 200-2,000+ sites. But our solution wasn’t resonating with these customers. 👿 Now retailers don’t get MAD at me? I LOVE YA! ❤️ But reality only a few of you really seem interested in autonomous AI optimization! ✅💰Even though we’re saving retailers like you $250K+ a month! With enhanced comfort. 😬 So we started focusing on, and there’s really no other way to put this, “Everything BUT retail”. 😱 🎓 University 🖥️ Data Center 🩺 Hospitals 🛒 Grocery 🍔 Fast food QSR 🕋 Commercial/PropTech ⚡️ County/Municipal 😀 And it paid off. 👺 Some predicted we’d run out of money. 🤑 Happy to disappoint you! 😴💤🥱 Sorry. 🙏🏼 I digress. Back to my story about how I met John‼️ 🫣 With this pivot I’m worried because I’m thinking we’ve got to open up a pre-seed round of VC financing. 🆒 We had raised about $1.5M via family and friends. Now here I am pitching for $6M VC investment w/ a pre money valuation of $18M. 🦄➕💰💰🤑 🟰 😫 Doing the math, any experienced startup founder knows what this could mean?! 🥵😳 👥 John comes up and says "Hi Keith. Let's take a picture together.” 🚀 “Keith, you have a great company, and I’d write you a check, but I'd have to TAKE more of your company than you’d probably like. And that’s not a great outcome. For either of us! 👎🏼 So I’m going to pass! 🌈 But I encourage you to keep doing what you're doing. And let's connect in about a year from now.” 🦄 John Majeski was right ❤️ Our customers love us! He has joined our team as interim CTO and we’re thrilled to be in conversations with several large infrastructure companies as partners or acquirers. 🙏🏼 Thank you my friend! 🚀 facil.ai is proud to be a Portola Valley Partners portfolio company. BUILD🛠️GROW📈FUND💰EXIT🦄 [email protected] #venturecapital #innovation #future #technology #leadership

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🙋🏽‍♀️ 𝙄'𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩. 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙. Networking as a concept still causes my introverted spirit to shrivel up just a little bit inside. Cultivation is much easier but leveraging my amazing web of folx remains 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱.  I contrast my job seeking experiences during two pivotal moments in my career: 🎣 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗝𝗼𝗯 When I was first trying to gain an entry point into tech, I had no network (and no connections in the tech industry) and applied to nearly 100 jobs before getting the first interview that changed the trajectory of my career. 💥 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗩𝗖 Years later when I was again at a career inflection point and felt in my bones a need for change, I resigned myself to the application slog once again. I had a network but I didn't know how to use it and I wouldn't have even considered VC. I couldn't imagine what I had no exposure to. Jerry Nemorin, my manager & CEO at the time, planted the VC seed for me. And then he went one further and recommended me to his investor. 💥 Thank you, Jerry 🙏🏽 . 👀 𝗠𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗼 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲 A series of chances. Yes, I worked my butt off, too. Timing played a big role. I committed to my growth and left roles that were no longer aligned and pursued roles that were. But I would not be here in VC collaborating on programming for startup job seekers without that referral and that is a privilege and a gift. 𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙆𝙣𝙤𝙬 & 𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 💗 Whether you are: 🤜🏽 trying to break into a new role or industry with a limited network 🤝  looking to nurture and grow your professional connections in meaningful ways 🕸 wondering how to call upon your web of connections to support you in your next career move 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙨 💪🏽   Join me on 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟱 at Initialized Capital's 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 for some tactical advice on networking and so much more. 💫 In her talk, "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙀𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩: 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨," Eleanor Morgan, founder & ceo, of a stealth social platform for job and talent matchmaking, will share insights for how to 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵.  🏋🏽‍♀️ 𝙒𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙪𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙗 🧗🏽‍♀️ This 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 is open to all SF Bay Area talent looking for their next job opportunity at an early stage startup. Sign up here 👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/g_nDPjWi Space is limited. #StartupJobs #JobSupport #StartupReadiness

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Employee terminations: they're a topic no one wants to discuss but that every company has to navigate. Thankfully, Melanie Naranjo and wonderful Ethena advisor (& Gusto's former People Leader) Jess Yuen are tackling this tricky topic for the next Ethena webinar. Register if you want to learn more about these topics: How to pressure test whether or not termination is the right course of action Best practices for communicating termination decisions How to minimize risk and choose the best course of action when things get tricky Critical pitfalls to avoid

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As a VC, I recognize how hard it is to build companies in the environment we’re in now. We need to acknowledge that. In the past few months, I’ve been talking to a lot of investors to put together some thoughts for you on how to navigate today's market & landscape. Hope it's helpful! And happy to answer any fundraising-related questions, as always. Drop me a comment or DM me. https://lnkd.in/gxhpyUgm

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“Be quick, but don’t hurry.” John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach coined that phrase, and this week will offer interesting opportunities to watch pros applying it: the NBA Playoffs, yes, but also SF Climate Week. I’ve been thinking about how to apply the proper balance of patience and urgency to the climate fight. First, what does Wooden’s advice mean? Prolific basketball scorers will often talk about the need to “let the game come to you.” In other words be aggressive, move with purpose, probe for openings… but not to the point where you are hurrying into the teeth of the defense and in so doing making careless mistakes or missing the right play. The notion of patience also applies over time. Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers famously talked a few seasons ago (in a very impatient sports town) about trusting “The Process” in turning the league’s worst team into one of its enduring best. Back to climate. While hundreds of functional technologies/approaches are being deployed in thousands of ways across all industries to draw down emissions, it will take time we don’t really have — maybe a generation — to scale up these new methods enough to keep us under the warming levels above which really bad things happen. It can be depressing, and I’m certainly not alone in wanting to push harder. But it occurs to me that some of that urgency could qualify as hurrying in Coach Wooden’s sense. This (possibly contrarian?) perspective comes in part from an executive coach who once reflected that I sometimes struck him as having “both the gas and brake pushed down all the way.” He—and my team it turned out—experienced a grinding between my inner drive to quickly usher everything from decisions to workstreams through to conclusion and a desire to gather more information and make the perfect set of moves. Both “pedals” represented an exertion of control; and the solution to this inner tension was actually to practice patience by easing up with *both* feet. Point being this: amidst our ever-increasing incentives to ramp up velocity with decreasing margins for error, I wonder if being a bit more methodical each day could significantly improve the end result. In a realm as complex and fraught as climate, with so many entrenched defenses, could daily 1% improvements to our patience compound our effectiveness over time? Taking the extra breath to be more present in a conversation and learn more about another perspective. Sitting with the discomfort of ambiguity while waiting on more information. Trusting in the flow of things, the skills of colleagues, the angles that will appear and allow us to make outsized impact with more leverage than if we hadn’t allowed the game come to us. Think about it this week. As a hoops fans or climate warrior, a connector or caretaker — where and how could a little more patience help improve your part of the game? #ClimateChange #Sustainability #EarthDay #Improvement https://lnkd.in/gmyV3DYt

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"Finding community is so much harder than founding a company 🚀" That's what a friend said the other day, who just moved to SF. I wished I could have pointed him to something like a magic list of all the SF-based communities directed at new founders. Before moving to SF myself to build my current startup, I wanted such list as well. In fact, I spent a good amount of days googling and googling "top hackerhouses in SF" and "founders community SF", only to find few results, things I already knew and outdated blogposts. Thankfully, On Deck's SEO was solid, so I applied and got accepted and that was my lucky baptism in SF's founder communities. Some folks like Garry Tan, say that SF's uniqueness is not its taxes, but its people. It's the builders, the hustlers, the AI startuppers, even -maybe- the VCs. That's definitely true, as long as you're able to find them! If you can't find them in the first place, there's no point in paying the SF rent, nor a reason to move there. You may as well live in Treasure Island! (fun fact, I do) So, for those like my friend, like myself, and for you, here's *our* imperfect list. Shoutout to the tons of friends who invited me to, hosted me at and co-infiltrated different communities and events over these past few months. Did I miss any other communities/accelerators/hackerhouses? Definitely comment below or DM me and I'll edit ASAP. On Deck Julian Weisser Noémie Federico South Park CommonsZ Fellows Inception Studio Entrepreneur First Founders, Inc. A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN Y Combinator Techstars Unshackled Ventures Sequoia Capital Pear VC Alchemist Accelerator 500 Global Race Capital HF0 AGI House Rocky Yu SHACK15 Ventures SHACK15 Studio 45 Nate Padgett The Battery The Commons The Long Now Foundation Commonwealth Club World Affairs

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Wondering what Regenerstive Design is and how to implement it? Excited to lead this important conversation. Please join me! Grateful for Portland Design Thinkers for hosting this series. #innovation #planetpositive #naturebasedsolutions #regenerativearchitecture #regenerstivedesign #impactinvesting

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When Steve 🍵 O'Dell founded Tenzo in 2016, he had (in his words) “zero financial know-how.” 🤷🏼‍♂️ Fast-forward to today and Tenzo has become an omnichannel sensation, sold in thousands of stores and cafés across the U.S. So, how’d he achieve such monumental growth with no financial background? Here are Steve’s 5 insider tips on how he leveraged strategic finance to turn Tenzo into a household name: 1️⃣ Start by understanding the largest line items on your P&L, including net revenue, cost of goods sold, and marketing spend. 2️⃣ Get your hands dirty and take ownership of the brand’s financials rather than passing the responsibility to a firm or a CFO. 3️⃣ Focus on small daily wins. It will lead to significant changes over time. 4️⃣ Assess whether your brand truly needs to raise capital. If yes, know precisely how that fundraising will be used and how it will impact your financials. 5️⃣ Use Drivepoint to centralize your financial and operational data, forecast long-term finances accurately, and uncover hidden growth opportunities. Get Tenzo’s full playbook here: https://lnkd.in/g9CJEC58

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It was wonderful to be in conversation with Madison Mills of Yahoo Finance at their annual Invest conference earlier this week. We covered everything from the venture outlook for 2025, impact of elections on women's health investing and innovation, and more. Full clip and summary below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gS67sc2Y

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I just wrapped up a panel with the Marketing Leadership affinity group within the How Women Invest community with my hero Auntie Nancy Hayes, aka the Yoda of board membership, angel investing, and general badassery. We talked about different ways to serve on boards, a role in which experienced Marketers seem to be often underrepresented. Why? If I had to guess, I'd say: 1 - Most heads of marketing are women 2 - marketing is undervalued, especially under sales/revenue experience 3—Compound the first two with the messages you tell yourself about your own worthiness, and suddenly, you're a great marketer for everyone else but yourself. ___________ For those who are interested in getting closer or into the board room, there are so many ways to start/get experience: 1—Board Observer (one of my current board roles)—you represent the investor but have no votes. It is unpaid, but/and hugely essential to act as a bridge of visibility and communication between the fund you've invested with and the company in which the fund has invested. My role brings value to both sides with much less bias than the other VC board seats. 2—Corporate board director—There is much governance but not much influence on the product, as the company usually has big enough teams for that. There is a lot of hiring/firing CEOs (read: drama), which can still be fun, especially for those fresh-popcorn-in-my-bag swag kinda folks (both grossly generalizing and way understating this role's fiduciary importance, but you get the idea). 3—Independent board director—this is another of my favorite places to sit. It is much like the Board observer role but with voting rights and equity (although not always, as these terms are negotiated and influenced by the shareholding board seats). You are NOT representing a VC fund (typically), but you might have subject matter expertise in the product or are a generalist boss gal like myself and bring a sense of neutrality and balance to the board. 4—Advisor. Advisors are similar to IBD in terms of influence and type of advice but are not part of the board or its meetings. This role is usually paid in some combination of equity and cash. It's another of my faves. (Are you seeing the trend here?) We have not even touched non-profit boards (where I got my start and am currently sitting on my sixth), but we will save it for next time as it's a whole 'nother Oprah. If you want to learn more, How Women Lead is hosting its 5th annual #getonboard week, starting October 21. Hybrid virtual and in-person. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/diizwv8j #womeninleadership #boardofdirectors #howwomenlead #governance #boarddiversity #corporategovernance #boardservice #businessleadership #leadership Julie Candelon Susan Greenwood Schroeder Mikayla Ludwig

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Earlier this year, we surveyed our fellow Los Angeles-based GPs to get a pulse check on the LA venture ecosystem. Here’s what we found: 💗 Deal flow is healthy, and most LA venture investors (68%) are seeing the same or more deal flow YoY. ✈ LA investors are spending time in a variety of markets, with NYC, Austin, and SF following closely on LA’s heels. 🔍 Innovation is concentrated in AI and machine learning, space, and commerce. 💸 Funding is happening, but it’s barbell-shaped, with deals concentrated at the early and late stages. Funding post-Series A has been challenging. 🚩 LA is differentiated, but not without its challenges. Key difficulties include not attracting enough AI talent (despite having the largest number of engineers graduating from our region over any other in the United States); talent relocated to more tax-friendly or less expensive locations; and the great SoCal / NoCal divide 🙏 Thank you to all our many respondents! I’m so glad to be part of a venture ecosystem that includes great minds like Anna Barber, Brent Murri, W. Christine Choi, Sarah Tomolonius, Rob Smith, Win Chevapravatdumrong, John Tabis, Jill Royster, Jesse Draper, Ashley Balla, Britt Danneman, Tram Lai, Carmen Palafox, Elaine Russell, Deborah Benton Amanda Schutzbank, Brian Lee, Petra Griffith, Minnie Ingersoll, Shamin Walsh, Gabe Greenbaum...wow, this list could go on forever...plus too many other exceptional humans to name. You know who you are! Explore our findings more deeply with our survey dashboard: https://bit.ly/3JsaLaB

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We recently had a conversation with Devin Kelley at Spreedly. He discussed some fascinating insights about our partnership that I wanted to share. Devin highlighted the flexibility of our approach at RevBoss. We're not just sending emails -- we're finding creative opportunities to tell the right stories to the right people at the right time. That means thinking beyond industry verticals and  looking for the people who are ready to engage with the stories and content we share. In most cases, it's all about experimentation. When we have a new customer story to tell, we don’t just settle for surface-level outreach. We dig deeper. Who are the people interested in similar stories or content? Who attended the same events as our customers? We want the right audience, not just any audience. And you know what? That kind of flexibility and willingness to experiment is what makes us stand out. It's something we're truly proud of here at RevBoss. So, here's to more creative insights, more experimentation, and more unique stories to share.

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Big announcement below! 👇 Let's talk about the current state of GP-LP affairs: 🤯Emerging VC managers have absolutely exploded over the past 5 years. 📈 At the same time, more and more data has surfaced that shows that emerging VC firms tend to outperform larger, established firms. 🤔 All of this has made it intriguing but tough for LPs to know where to direct their attention. 🛍 GPs frequently meet LPs at conferences who are window shopping but not committed to the asset class or emerging managers. 🧾 And both crews get overwhelmed by transactional convos. So Sydney Paige Thomas and I created Abundance. Abundance is a private, nomination-based retreat for active LPs and top emerging GPs to form new experiences together and build lasting relationships. Why Abundance? Abundance is knowing that there is more than enough for more than one to succeed. And a single win within a community is a win for the community itself. The journey of an emerging VC manager from 1st close to final close or Fund 1 to Fund 2 is (1) communal and (2) requires an abundant mindset. LPs look for structure and confidence to feel comfortable investing in early VC firms. Yet many of the feeds we scroll and conferences we attend reinforce inherent power dynamics and transactional thinking, which allows scarcity mindset to creep in for emerging GPs. Some of the best events I’ve attended have been intentionally non-transactional, e.g. Camp Hustle, Recast Summit, and other GPs’ AGMs. The fundraising success stories we see usually involve a community (usually of other GPs & LPs) coming together to support and open doors for the emerging GP. We designed Abundance to be an immersive gathering that fosters these connections. Starting tonight, ~100 GPs and LPs are descending upon Seattle for the inaugural Abundance retreat. This has been under wraps for months and I can’t wait to see it come to life! Thanks in advance to our awesome sponsors who were the earliest believers in this vision: Sydecar, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Gunderson Dettmer, & Zelda Ventures. And shoutout to my dad Ed Illig for logo design & Halle Kaplan-Allen being the first sponsor to say yes 🤩 Presented by The Council Capital & Symphonic Capital.

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🪩 Finding My Network in the Startup Ecosystem I love making new connections in the startup world, though it can often feel daunting. Here are my go-to resources for meeting like-minded founders and tech enthusiasts in the Bay Area: Luma Gary's Guide: https://lnkd.in/gN2fTzvP Meetup Eventbrite 🔗 If you’re eager to broaden your professional circle through in-person events, these sites are a fantastic start! They're often free and full of opportunity. What are your go-to platforms for finding events in the Bay Area? I'm always looking to expand my knowledge and network! #Networking #StartupLife #Entrepreneurship

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The opioid crisis was a sad hallmark of my years working for the Baker Administration. In a time of extreme partisanship at the federal level, this was one area where public policy, civil discourse, and private enterprise seemed aligned and sufficiently motivated to find a solution. What we learned, however, is that dollars and access only go so far in combatting a disease that knows no so specific demographic. Instead, it's apparent that a battery of tools is needed to combat and prevent addiction--ranging from strong safety nets, to novel non-addictive pain therapies, and better technology. Introducing Marigold Health. Shrenik Jain, Ravi Shah, Tracey Cohen, MD, FASAM and team have built a proprietary NLP-based platform that--most significantly--improves the lives of those suffering from SUD/SMI. One customer we spoke with noted, "We needed a unique treatment intervention that had supportive research, fit into a CMS established model with a recognized service code, and that would provide positive clinical outcomes in an efficacious and fiscally responsible manner”. Another plainly said: "Marigold is our best hope to reach into the lives and help those who many have already given up on." Honored to join Bill Evans, Sean Day, and the entire syndicate in doing our part to scale a tool we believe will become essential in the fight against addiction. Marigold Health Innospark Ventures Rock Health KdT Ventures Matt Fates Lily Zarrella Venkat Srinivasan

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