Tan Huynh

I’m thrilled to be announcing that Notion Capital is leading the $15m Series A investment in Cogna today. In the industry, we like to think that software has been eating the world. But when you look at the data a better description would be more of a nibble. Depending on what source you look at the software industry represents between 5-8% of global GDP. Contrast that with the services industry that represents between 60-70% of GDP and worth around $25 trillion on a global basis. Most services have been out of reach for the software industry. They have either been too complex or too specialized for off the shelf software to access in any economically viable way. But that’s beginnning to change with GenAI leading to the emergence of ‘service as a software.’ Cogna is at the forefront of this opportunity - building precision software at scale and delivering huge productivity gains for traditional industries. We know Ben Peters & Lars Mennen well having backed their previous company Five AI that was acquired by Bosch in 2022. And we’re very excited to be backing them again together with Hoxton Ventures & Chalfen Ventures Read my full blog post on why we invested here. Radu Bozga Ben Peters Lars Mennen Bryan G. Mike Chalfen Hussein Kanji Kirsten Connell https://lnkd.in/eh8mhcJb

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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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Interesting concept to rename rounds by milestones. But "Series Client Expansion Extension" just doesn't have the same ring to it 😋 . Maybe we can start incorporating it into a descriptor to add context, "Series Seed Extension: client expansion." #startups #venturecapital

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ANNOUNCEMENT- I’m delighted to share that Asset Class has partnered with Palantir Technologies to bring AI to the Alternatives and Private Capital Markets. At Asset Class we will integrate the AIP platform and Foundry capabilities of Palantir with our Fund Operating System (Fund OS). We will work with the AIP Platform and Palantir's Foundry Ontology to support highly complex tasks / co-pilot features that will allow us to leverage the FULL dataset that comes with the Asset Class Platform. By linking EVERY step of the Investor and Fund journey on a SINGLE platform, we have a uniquely complete dataset that can inform our AI actions. Over time we will integrate this as part of our Asset Class Network. This will continue to ensure Asset Class is a far more powerful system than any other in the market. We are a platform - not just an app. In the near future, we will be an AI Enabled, Networked Platform I cannot wait to bring the power of AI to our platform to enable our clients to super-charge their investment in our platform. See announcement here: https://lnkd.in/eCSy5Tnu

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ANNOUNCEMENT- I’m delighted to share that Asset Class has partnered with Palantir Technologies to bring AI to the Alternatives and Private Capital Markets. At Asset Class we will integrate the AIP platform and Foundry capabilities of Palantir with our Fund Operating System (Fund OS). We will work with the AIP Platform and Palantir's Foundry Ontology to support highly complex tasks / co-pilot features that will allow us to leverage the FULL dataset that comes with the Asset Class Platform. By linking EVERY step of the Investor and Fund journey on a SINGLE platform, we have a uniquely complete dataset that can inform our AI actions. Over time we will integrate this as part of our Asset Class Network. This will continue to ensure Asset Class is a far more powerful system than any other in the market. We are a platform - not just an app. In the near future, we will be an AI Enabled, Networked Platform I cannot wait to bring the power of AI to our platform to enable our clients to super-charge their investment in our platform. See the announcement here: https://lnkd.in/eCSy5Tnu

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This is quite interesting advice and also quite a non-consensus view in the B2B software world. Cross-border founders who are considering the US vs International incorporation question should consider this as valuable input.

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Thanks to Kavitha N. and DealStreetAsia for featuring Collyer Capital in this interesting piece about secondaries. Glad to have contributed to the discussion as the secondary toolkit, if used right and in full transparency, can really benefit all parties involved, particularly in #ASEAN. #CollyerCapital #CCPL #ASEAN #secondaries #liquidity #transparency

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"Platform" in VCs often feels undefined, and different at every firm. But one thing is clear: firms with dedicated platform teams are seeing higher investment returns. What is 'Platform' in VC? Think of it as a support engine for portfolio companies. Platform teams accelerate growth by providing: 1) Strategy & Growth 2) Talent Partner 3) Marketing & Brand Partner 4) Business Development & Partnerships Lead 5) Community Manager 6) Operations & Scaling Partner 7) Fundraising & Capital Advisor Platform in Venture Studios vs. VC Funds: The big difference? Timeframe. Venture Studio Platform: Involved from concept to exit, guiding startups from the very first spark of an idea. VC Platform: Steps in after the startup is funded, focusing on scaling and growth but not the initial concept phase. Both play critical roles—but understanding these distinctions helps founders and investors make the most of their platform relationships.

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When change is the only the constant, the ability to be "in" the turbulence without letting it overtake you is vital for success. This guide from Wharton offers some excellent advice for navigating uncertainty by strategically managing workloads and priorities. It stresses the importance of maintaining a sustainable pace, making for breaks in the action and rest. Most notably, it suggests creating a list of "anti-goals" that encourages you identify what you can reasonably accomplish and avoid stretching yourself beyond your limits. #Leadership #ChangeManagement #Wellbeing

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Here’s a question investors are often asked: When evaluating early stage companies, how much time do you spend on due diligence around future exits? It’s not surprising we hear this question a lot. Also not surprising: it’s got a wide range of answers depending on the firm. Some don’t spend much time here at all. Others make it a point to put meaningful time in as part of their process. Our current thinking: take the time to do the work on public market comps. At Alpaca VC, we spend significant time understanding how public market investors will  realistically value a business based on margin profile, product, business model & TAM. In short, we want to know: how will this company be valued at scale when we get taken out? Yes, we can acknowledge that the journey toward exit is a windy road and that there may be pivots along the way, but there are still public market companies that have a business model similar to the early stage company you're evaluating. And you can always look at gross profit multiples if you think the margin profile will change over time. So we still do the work on the comps. Quantitative metrics we look at when making the comparison to public market comps include EBITDA multiple, revenue multiple, Gross Profit multiple or all of the above. As part of this process, it’s also important to factor in the public market company’s year-over-year revenue growth as this will also significantly impact the multiple it trades at. Simple example: if you have two public market companies with similar business models and similar margin profiles, but one's growing 100% year over year, and one's growing 50% year over year, then obviously the DCF (discounted cash flow) analysis is going to spit out a very different valuation for the one that's growing faster. Why this matters: When you take all of that information into account as you evaluate an early stage business, you can begin to create a realistic picture of how this company will be valued in the public markets at exit - or how an acquirer will value the company for an acquisition. Strategic acquirers may, of course, pay a premium, but we won’t underwrite for that. This allows us, for example, to form conviction around valuation based on revenue and gross profit predictions. If we think they can do $100M of revenue five years from now, we use this diligence process to form a thesis about whether the characteristics above (product, margin, business model, etc.) will cause the company to be valued at $200M vs. $500M vs. $1B at exit. Curious how other early stage investors think about underwriting an exit and how much time they’re spending on public market comps even though these companies are in their infancy.

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BSV Ventures is the newest addition to the NIF Fund of Funds portfolio! 🎉 Coming back from their LP day in Vilnius, we’re ready to find unicorns together 🦄 The true alpha of a fund is often felt before it is seen. Intangible at first — it is a capability that often precedes visible results. Having gone through several months of DD with BSV, I can confidently say BSV embodies their alpha through their unique insights, and complementary dynamics of the GPs. This is combined with an unwavering commitment and track record in transforming the Baltics into a leading hub for deep tech and dual-use innovation, critical to European sovereignty.

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My recent conversation with DeepaSwamy, Global Head of Data, AIML & Analytics at Forge and Roey Dor, Founder and CEO at Obligo, highlighted many ways AI is creating tangible impact in financial services: Deep insights into previously opaque data, fast and accurate predictions, precise risk assessment, individualized pricing, increased transparency and trust. These advances are enabling more informed decisions and new financial options and opportunities. All great examples of how AI and ML innovations are driving positive changes in financial services.  #AI #ML #FinancialServices #Innovation

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We are excited to announce our investment in Sankari Nair, Paul Richards, Igor Gligorevic, and their company, Recall. Recall, an AI-powered knowledge management platform, aligns perfectly with our mission of investing in category-defining founders. In a crowded landscape of knowledge management tools, Recall stands out by tackling the challenge of information overload really well. But most importantly, we were drawn to a captivating founder story that embodies our investment ethos: migrants, women founders, and a relentless obsession with customers and product. Including burning bridges by giving up well-paid jobs at prestigious companies like Uber to pursue a vision these founders deeply believe in. This is our second deal with Jason Calacanis, the American internet entrepreneur and investor known for his All-In Podcast. We’re proud to be part of this journey alongside wonderful co-investors like LAUNCH, Splash Capital, Rocket Capital, and Digital Virtues. On a personal note: After just a few months, Recall has become one of my most-used apps on both desktop and mobile. As knowledge workers, we read and watch countless articles, PDFs, and videos daily. Recall has proven to be a massive time-saver and productivity enhancer. Frankly, I’d rather give up Microsoft Word than Recall. Congratulations to the Recall team on this exciting milestone! Curious to try Recall for yourself? Visit getrecall.ai. #getrecall #productivity #knowledgemanagement #blockchainfounderscapital #startup

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On the back of the article from The Guardian “Banks, airlines and media outlets hit by global outage linked to Windows PCs,” it got me thinking… What would happen if AI services like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc., went down? Why can’t we use these offline instead of being connected to the Internet? Many organisations are becoming dependent on AI, raising concerns around security and privacy. We would witness significant disruptions across various sectors. Customer service, healthcare, finance, and logistics heavily rely on AI to optimise operations, provide insights, and enhance user experiences. The absence of AI would slow decision-making processes, reduce efficiency, and potentially lead to increased errors. This scenario underscores the critical importance of AI in our modern infrastructure and the need for robust contingency plans to mitigate such risks. https://lnkd.in/e8KFV6QK #AI #Technology #BusinessContinuity #RiskManagement Whitespace

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LP Tip #4 of 50: Be strategic on how you share on-book references with LPs A few things to know when you read this  ➡️ Opinions as always are my own.  ➡️ Every time I re-up on an investment I re-underwrite and expect to re-reference the GP/s. Why? Because things change in partnerships so I cannot rely on past references to do my job. Also, I know more about a manager so I will have more granular questions on what I have learned about the manager over time that I want to validate or invalidate.  ➡️ Testimonials on a website or deck are nice to have but because they are not customized to the reference questions I have they unfortunately do not help me get the information I need to assess or reassess a manager. References are important to get right. There are two types of references LPs conduct. I do both on-book and off-book. The off-book is where most LPs will spend their time. We want to do both to get a very well-rounded view of the manager/s. There are many ways to present references so below are a few approaches. Pick what works best for you. 1️⃣ Consider including a mix of references which may include the following:  ➡️ Founder  ➡️ Co-investor  ➡️ Downstream investor ➡️ LP 2️⃣ Include the on-book references in your dataroom but if you do this please, flag that you want the LP to contact you before they do any outreach. It is important to control your process. Alternatively, put in a reference folder in the dataroom w/ a PDF doc that simply says "contact GPs for references." 3️⃣ Put your best foot forward by picking quality references. ▶️ Are these individuals that will really go to bat for you? ▶️ Are these people that will take a call if they are on holiday to rave about you because you have added value? ▶️ Do they understand your investment lens? ▶️ Do they actually know you and your firm well enough to talk about what you excel in? 4️⃣ In demand fund managers or managers who are great at fundraising could offer a workaround for smaller and/or strategic LPs. How does one do this without overwhelming references? There are two light lift ways to solve this issue. And, I feel that both would also help you build even more goodwill with these smaller LPs. ➡️ If you had an institutional LP who ran a detailed process ask them if you can share their reference notes with these smaller LPs or better yet put the notes in the dataroom.  ➡️ Conduct a group reference call where one or a few references are on it and small LPs can ask questions. The GP will open the call and then drop off for LPs to ask questions. LPs are looking to build partnerships with GPs they want to invest in so think about this every time you interact with an LP. I guarantee there is always a workaround to get an LP the info they need to underwrite without taxing your founders or other potential references.

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Pear VC Startup Equity Calculator for Early Hires Pear VC head of talent Matt Birnbaum created this calculator to determine the equity for early hires. You can read more here How to structure startup equity for early hires https://lnkd.in/ggmpT5-Y https://lnkd.in/gjsvths6

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Dan Primack had some pointed criticism for #VC yesterday in his Axios Pro Rata newsletter (a daily must read IMO 😤). In short, the model doesn't work if it can't produce exits for LPs. Don't blame public markets (which are at all-time highs) for the lack of liquidity either. 📈 💸 Instead, this is a "liquidity drought of your making" where "...swinging for the fences on every pitch, rather than taking the single or double that's available" is the only way out when you invest at "sky high valuations." 😰 "A whopping 37% of "unicorns" are being held for at least nine years by VC funds, including 13% that are past the 12-year mark." 😳 ⌛ Is he right? Is VC at a dire inflection point? Or is Primack prematurely hitting the panic button? 🚨 https://lnkd.in/dts92pXr

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So thrilled to announce that we Andreessen Horowitz are leading Pantheon AI's latest round and that they are officially launching! Pantheon is an AI-enabled architectural firm that delivers what you would expect from a traditional firm, but with a level of speed and service that was not possible prior to recent breakthroughs in AI. Architects are currently limited in how much time they can spend on creative work due to the repetitive tasks involved in their day-to-day (e.g., drawing walls and lines in industry software tools). Pantheon accelerates this and can generate editable 3D building models – complete with walls, room elements (e.g., cabinets), building materials, etc. This means that much of the repetitive work that used to take architects days or weeks can now be done far more efficiently, and Pantheon can then sell these deliverables directly to property developers & owners, instead of selling software to architects. I've known the co-founders David Mace and Tiger S. for years. They are both distinctly technical, driven, and passionate about solving problems for customers in the physical world. David is a successful second-time founder, and Tiger was one of the strongest engineers from Scale. Most of the discussion in generative AI has been focused on the world of bits, but there is just as much potential in the world of atoms. If you’re interested in working on the future of the built world, they’re hiring at [email protected]. Read more about our investment below! https://lnkd.in/gaJ3XWS5

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Just a quick note on Term Sheets… A founder has just reached out to me asking for advice on some ‘interesting’ clauses in a TS they had just received from a VC… As a reminder you can download the Playfair standard TS here: https://lnkd.in/exM25Ugf If any entrepreneur has a question around term sheets - I know they can sometimes be a bit daunting - then please feel free to reach out and I will do my best to help! #termsheets #investing

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