Sunny Dhillon
Partner at Kyber Knight Capital
San Francisco, California, United States
53K followers
500+ connections
About
I am a partner at an early stage venture fund named Kyber Knight Capital, where I'm focused on seed & series A investments in consumer & enterprise software. My background is a mix of tech investment banking, business development at a VC-backed media startup, and co-founding one of the 1st mobile dating startups on iOS.
Twitter: @SunDhillon
Articles by Sunny
Activity
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Merry Christmas from Iceland, situated right between the U.S. and mainland Europe. Definitely feels like 2025 will be a precipice of a year. Startups…
Merry Christmas from Iceland, situated right between the U.S. and mainland Europe. Definitely feels like 2025 will be a precipice of a year. Startups…
Liked by Sunny Dhillon
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Honored to be helping ensure American leadership in AI and working closely with David O. Sacks Thank you President Trump for this opportunity.
Honored to be helping ensure American leadership in AI and working closely with David O. Sacks Thank you President Trump for this opportunity.
Liked by Sunny Dhillon
Experience
Education
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The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Master's degree International Relations & History First class; Graduation w/distinction
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Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
MBA Marketing
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Lee Hague Scholar, Dean's distinguished service award, President of Media & Entertainment Club, Editor in Chief of student newspaper 'The Merger'
Skills
Publications
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Hollywood writers, actors should not fear AI
Fox Business Television
Discussion regarding revenue sharing models from AI between studios, creators, and AI companies on Fox Business' Claman Countdown (most watched business TV show in the US)
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How AI Will Augment Human Creativity in Film Production
Variety
AI's impact to augment editing and storyboarding in the film/TV green light process
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AI as a Democratizing Force in Creative Jobs
Bloomberg TV
BloombergTV interview with anchors Caroline Hyde & Ed Ludlow about the impact of AI on Hollywood
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Delivery 2.0: How on-demand meal services will become something far bigger
Fast Company
Last mile logistics giants have the potential to go after Amazon, big grocery, and pharmacies as they build trust w/the end customer and supply chain sophistication of their own.
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Shopping Reimagined: The Tech Powering Today's Commerce
Variety
Looking to China as an indicator of what live-streaming commerce and frictionless order fulfillment looks like through messaging and media apps.
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Video Commerce: Past, Present & Future
Variety
What does the future of shopping on 'TV' look like? What are the next gen forms of QVC / Home Shopping Network? Hint: look to TikTok and Pinduoduo as examples.
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IoT & Data Science Will Boost FoodTech in the post-Pandemic Era
Techcrunch
Grocery tech innovation re: smart sensors, vegetable / fruit bio-casings to prevent spoilage, and computer vision to guard against on-shelf item stock outs.
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From Farm to Phone: A Paradigm Shift in Grocery
Techcrunch
Rising e-commerce purchases in grocery mean rising levels of automation, intelligent logistics, and order fulfillment in order to get perishable products to customers on time, and within margin constraint requirements for retailers.
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An Optimistic View of DeepFakes
Techcrunch
Bringing beloved Disney characters and Amazon Alexa virtual assistants to life using new forms of video and voice synthesis artificial intelligence tools.
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Digital Influencers and the Dollars that Follow Them
Techcrunch
Animated characters living on Instagram and Snap are becoming big business. We talk about why in this article.
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Security Tokens Coming To An Exchange Near You
Techcrunch
Security tokens offer increased liquidity to investors and open up access to a wider pool of capital than traditional equity. Asset backed securitized tokens are a particularly interesting application of blockchain technology - far more efficient (time/cost) for REIT issuances, for example.
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3 Ways Early-Stage VCs Add Value to Portfolio Companies
Forbes
Money is a commodity; Investors must differentiate themselves by the value they add to their portfolio companies. Entrepreneurs must demand more from their seed stage investors. This article talks about how they may do so.
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How to Hire the Right VC
Forbes
As new venture funds continue to emerge and as each one's dollars appear increasingly interchangeable, I think it's important to differentiate between who you're taking money from as an entrepreneur. 'Hiring' the right VC investor is just as important as hiring the right teammates to ensure your company hits escape velocity. I shared some thoughts on Forbes about how a founder should think through which investor is the best fit.
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How Instagram Is Eating the World
Forbes
Instagram is leveraging its exploding user base and deepening usage to take on YouTube at long-form video content and make its walled garden an Eden that influencers never have to leave.
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Amazon's Next Conquest Will Be Apparel
Techcrunch
Amazon is using the enormous data moat gathered from its online everything store and platform dominance through Alexa and Prime membership to take over apparel.
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The Rise of Experiential Commerce
Techcrunch
As direct to consumer digital brands rise, so too will use cases for pop up retail physical spaces that act more as brand engagement locations than transactional structures judged on sales per square foot.
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How The Blockchain Can Solve Social Media's Biggest Problems
Forbes
Identifying and rewarding contributions to social networks by their users; monetizing certain behaviors with tokens; protecting against censorship on the social network due to decentralization; addressing 'fake news' using the blockchain
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How Blockchain Can Transform The Future Of Entertainment
Forbes
Music digital rights management, automated smart contracts for paying artists for their work, authenticity of concert tickets and artist / tour merchandise, and swaps of rare crypto items in gaming.
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The Best Applications of Artificial Intelligence within Media
Variety
Celebrity voice mimicry, autonomous robotics within theme parks, vastly improved user targeting / content advertising; the list goes on and on
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Approaching e-commerce investments in the age of Amazon
Techcrunch
How I invest in direct to consumer digital brands
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Mixed reality arcades are the next big market opportunity — but not for VCs
TechCrunch
VRcades are going to be big, but they're not an asset class befitting VC investment
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Startups: Here's How To Get The Most Out Of Your Strategic Investment
Forbes
Discussion of the pro's of corporate venture capital investment
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Following Snapchat's Road to IPO
Bloomberg TV
Snap Inc's new revenue streams, prepping for new avenues of growth after Q1 2017 IPO
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Why Strategic Investment Isn't Always A Good Strategy For Startups
Forbes
Corporate VC investing is on the rise. Important for startups to know how corporate investors are different from financial VC's.
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Off & Running: Super Mario Goes Mobile
Bloomberg TV
Mobile gaming, media and IP, mobile content monetization
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Webrazzi: Turkey
Webrazzi
Keynote speaker, alongside Facebook co-founder, Divya Narendra, at Turkey's Webrazzi tech conference in Oct '16
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What a venture capitalist sees in the virtual and augmented reality market
Re/code
A discussion AR/VR in media and entertainment
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Virtual Reality in Japan is about to go Super Saiyan
TechCrunch
Early days of VR in Japan look promising
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Stop Calling Pokemon Go 'Augmented Reality'
VentureBeat
A discussion of augmented reality and virtual reality gaming
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Mr JK, Mr NWA, Mr Comin' Straight Outta Justin TV, Y'all Better Make Way
Re/code
An interview with Twitch TV co-founder and YC partner, Justin Kan, on how to be an effective VC
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Murmurs of the Red Dragon: Chinese VR Takes Flight
UploadVR
Discussion about the Chinese VR market
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Mobile Virtual Reality is the Ghost of Christmas Past
TechCrunch
Thoughts on smartphone enabled VR vs. PC-tethered VR
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The King is Dead! All Hail the King!
Re/Code
Perspective on Activision's $5.9B acquisition of King.com
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Mobile is Mordor — it’s time to sail West
VentureBeat
Rationale for why it no longer makes sense for VC's to invest in mobile gaming
Honors & Awards
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Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Rising Star
Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rising-star-sunny-dhillon-takes-on-nexus-of-media-and-tech-at-signia-venture-partners-1485959595
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The 31 Venture Capitalists Who Secretly Decide Our Future
Inc Magazine
http://www.inc.com/ben-parr/the-31-venture-capitalist-who-secretly-decide-our-future.html
Languages
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French, Punjabi, Hindi
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Organizations
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MIT Play Labs
Mentor
- PresentMIT Media Lab's entertainment tech incubator https://www.playlabs.tv/team/
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Kellogg School of Management
Guest lecturer
- PresentFuture of Digital Media & Content class with Professor Dan Gruber
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Cents of Relief
Board Member, Head of Strategic Growth Initiatives
- PresentCharity based in Connecticut focused on eliminating human trafficking in Calcutta, India http://www.centsofrelief.org/about-us.php
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NextGen Partners
Board Member
-NextGen Partners' mission is to facilitate professional development, knowledge sharing and network strengthening of emerging Venture Capital investors as they build their careers. Founded in 2001, NextGen Partners has a membership base of over 500 pre-partner professionals representing over 200 firms in California.
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Join Edelman and SAP on Tuesday, January 14 from 4:30 – 6:00pm in Hudson Yards for an exclusive, off-the-record conversation following the National…
Join Edelman and SAP on Tuesday, January 14 from 4:30 – 6:00pm in Hudson Yards for an exclusive, off-the-record conversation following the National…
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Oxford Christmas trees under the stars ✨ These fantastic photos were taken by DPhil Physics student Shubham Kulkarni (Ox_Stars on Instagram) and…
Oxford Christmas trees under the stars ✨ These fantastic photos were taken by DPhil Physics student Shubham Kulkarni (Ox_Stars on Instagram) and…
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Happy #WinterSolstice ❄️ Today is the first day of winter, according to the astronomical calendar. 📷 | Madam_Scientist (Instagram)…
Happy #WinterSolstice ❄️ Today is the first day of winter, according to the astronomical calendar. 📷 | Madam_Scientist (Instagram)…
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TOP 100! Neuro Gum 6 packs are now ranking #95 (EDIT: now 80) in all Health & Household product across the entire Amazon platform, hanging with the…
TOP 100! Neuro Gum 6 packs are now ranking #95 (EDIT: now 80) in all Health & Household product across the entire Amazon platform, hanging with the…
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It's fun to reflect back on the journey of the last 6 years. In 2018, people thought we were crazy for starting a construction tech company. We had…
It's fun to reflect back on the journey of the last 6 years. In 2018, people thought we were crazy for starting a construction tech company. We had…
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Every VC claims they have an edge, but from where I sit as an LP, it’s clear: the next generation of fund managers will need stronger arguments than…
Every VC claims they have an edge, but from where I sit as an LP, it’s clear: the next generation of fund managers will need stronger arguments than…
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We'd like to welcome André D. Anderson to the DSTLRY Family as the new Head of Sales! Congratulations André! Read more about how he'll be working…
We'd like to welcome André D. Anderson to the DSTLRY Family as the new Head of Sales! Congratulations André! Read more about how he'll be working…
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Conventional wisdom assumes the bigger the VC fund, the bigger the returns. But does the data agree? On the contrary, investing in smaller…
Conventional wisdom assumes the bigger the VC fund, the bigger the returns. But does the data agree? On the contrary, investing in smaller…
Posted by Sunny Dhillon
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https://lnkd.in/esiDAgT4 Please check out the article below for more info on The NATO Innovation Fund’s approach to fund of fund investments and…
https://lnkd.in/esiDAgT4 Please check out the article below for more info on The NATO Innovation Fund’s approach to fund of fund investments and…
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After more than 11 years building Snap, it was time for a new adventure!
After more than 11 years building Snap, it was time for a new adventure!
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Use of funds is crucial in the early days of a startup. Here are some tell-tale signs founders take managing their precious cash seriously. 🔎…
Use of funds is crucial in the early days of a startup. Here are some tell-tale signs founders take managing their precious cash seriously. 🔎…
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