Ted Rebholz

What I learned this week…. As the economy works to eliminate the healthcare cost of poor nutrition, there is no simple set of instructions to follow. There is an abundance of AgTech, FoodTech and HealthTech innovations touching a piece of the bigger equation. But each is driven by divergent signals (GLP-1 vs. sustainable fuels). If this were a large corporation, its R&D group would coordinate the various parts to fit a broader objective. But there is no Bell Labs of longevity or nutrition. The master architect is 350k years of human evolution encrypted in our DNA. Without a large R&D lab or a master plan, it comes down to early adopter customers as our guide. And up to capital providers to see the knowledge arbitrage and invest. We are assembling Food is Health from a pile of Lego blocks. 1) The most legitimate startup investor is a customer. Why don’t we have a tool like PitchBook to find early adopter customers? 2) Nutrient test assays, and many assays, measure a proxy attribute to estimate the target nutrient (i.e. protein). NIR and other spectroscopy are non-destruction and measure a wider array of orthogonal attributes. With the addition of AI, increasing correlations expect an acceleration of valuable insights linking soil, crop genetics, bioavailability, nutrients, health, and longevity. And ultimately, affordable nutrition. 3) Intermittent fasting plus protein pacing (consuming protein at consistent intervals), may boost weight loss and gut health. Perhaps important to GLP-1 treatment and boost to Fairlife Core Power Elite. 4) If we can monitor crops for expression of nutritional qualities (Macro and Micro) during the growing season, we could dynamically modify inputs to modulate nutritional density in season or as a training set for the next season. (John Kempf) 5) Architectural Innovation: Vogue wasn’t replaced by a fashion media company, it was replaced by 10,000 influencers. Salesforce will not be replaced by another CRM. Clayton Christensen and Rebecca Henderson are both right. 6) Taylor Swift’s tour in the US generated $5 billion in consumer spending over 6 months. Who is the Taylor Swift of nutrition? 7) The net demand from the addition of New York to California’s Renewable Diesel standards, by some estimates, would consume the entire US production of soybeans. 8) United Airlines is using the 100k seat back video screens to micro-target consumers with advertising. 9) A plane uses 15%-20% of its fuel during takeoff 10) People who majored in Journalism in the 90’s have seen social media decimate their industry. What college majors will disappear with the Creative Destruction of AI? 11) When playing with Legos, some people follow the instructions precisely, and some do not. I never did. H/T: Erin Martin Ellen Brown Brad Fruth Katie Stebbins More commentary on Creative Destruction: https://lnkd.in/g-vQpF9d

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The consolidation play by Private Equity has both pros and cons, and it cannot be denied that sometimes the consumer may suffer, but the quality of the provision may become higher. It's a trade-off that needs to be managed well in order for it not to become "vampire economics" #PrivateEquity #VentureCapital #ImpactInvesting #Economy #USEconomy #Investing https://lnkd.in/gtdk6d5v

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Holy sh*t! David has done it again! As someone who has inspired many founders and capital into Agtech in the past decade, his latest technology has huge implications for food security, quality, and climate change mitigation. If you're interested in learning more, check out the 10-minute video at the end of the article . Its worth the watch! #Agtech #FoodSecurity #ClimateChangeMitigation https://lnkd.in/eh-xynSD

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This is a very good article on the GLP 1 impacts to big food. We have talked a lot at Manna Tree about the positive impacts these drugs will have on the growth of the nutrient dense foods that we invest in at MT, but big food will feel the opposite impact, especially those peddling junk food. #bigfood #GLP1 #CPG #healthyfood

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Nearly a year ago I wrote this post on seed extensions - why they are so prevalent and some best practices in raising one. Reflecting on the present, this still rings so true. While the start to 2024 has been more promising, the clouds haven't fully parted yet. We're seeing the bar for Series A metrics continue to be higher still (for example, revenue targets north of $2M ARR). Here are my tips for raising a strong seed extension from my learnings at Bread and Butter Ventures: https://lnkd.in/g4vEd-Pe #earlystage #venturecapital #seedextension

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Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

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🍷 Big shoutout to Archer Roose Wines, one of our SoGal Ventures portfolio companies, for their groundbreaking collab with Cornell University! They released a research with the Food Science Department on sulfite formation in canned wines and is getting serious attention in the media! 🥂 🔬 This is more than just a win for Archer Roose—it’s a huge moment for the whole canned wine industry. As Co-Founder & CEO Marian Leitner-Waldman puts it, “This study isn’t just about showing how Archer Roose ensures premium quality, it’s about pushing the entire industry forward. We’re breaking old perceptions and driving innovation.” This is how change happens—raising standards, sharing knowledge, and inspiring a whole category to evolve. 🍇🎉 Check out the research here: https://shorturl.re/7frkq #innovation #cannedwine  #foodscience #womeninbusiness #industrydisruption

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Commercial growers: imagine cultivating $700 extra per pound. What could be better? $700 extra per pound—AND 25% more of it per harvest. International cannabis brand Tikun Olam did just that. Plus, boosted their terpene production and #bagappeal on those high yields so significantly, they added over $35M/yr to their bottom line. How did they do it? After switching to Advanced Nutrients science-backed #nutrients and #biostimulants, Tikun Olam raised the bar on their flower value with a lean and effective commercial feeding program. We continued to optimize with the science weekly, conducting sample analysis and #growersupport consultations with our cultivation experts. There can never be too much #science in cannabis. Check out the piece below that highlights how Advanced Nutrients unlocks higher profits with your full crop potential at scale.  #AdvancedNutrients #cannabiscultivation #commercialcannabis #grownwithAN Tikun Olam California

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Exciting update from HealthX Ventures! Amulet is a game-changer for food safety, providing crucial insights with portable technology. Kudos to Abigail Barnes and the team for their groundbreaking work. This is a perfect example of how smart hardware and software solutions can make a real difference in healthcare and beyond. 💡👏 #HealthcareInnovation #FoodSafety #InvestmentImpact

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One thing that has really changed about seed investing in the last three or four years is what it means to have coverage on seed opportunities. A few years ago, good seed firms saw the vast majority of interesting companies raising seed rounds. The persistent presence of multi-stage firms at seed had changed the game (again). There are many categories where seed firms see great companies raising $2-4 million seed rounds and multi-stage funds see most (but not all) of those companies *and* see teams raising $5-7 million (or more) seed rounds from scratch. I have seen many seed companies surprised to learn that there are stealthy companies in their categories who have raised a lot more money to pursue the same ideas and their investors never saw the company. Doesn’t mean the better-funded company will win, but it does change the calculus around perceived competition.

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Two weeks ago, Canix made the difficult decision to part with 10 employees as part of a Reduction-In-Force. Our mission at Canix is to provide transformative software for the cannabis industry, and that mission requires us to have the strong financial position to outlast this industry’s unique capital constraints. The cannabis industry has struggled over the past several years. The simultaneous combination of 1) product oversupply and 2) lack of regulatory movement has led to an industry with an effective tax rate of 60-70%, delinquent payments exceeding $3.8B, and a cost of capital of 20%. Many companies are struggling financially or going out of business entirely. Canix has not been immune to this struggle. Our company started with small, cultivation customers, and many of these customers were hit hardest during the crunch. Our home state of California was deeply impacted. And AR collection issues, a problem I've only seen in cannabis, have continued to worsen. Despite these challenges, Canix has grown signifciantly. We’ve expanded our platform from Metrc compliance alone to a full-scale ERP with inventory management, costing, and yield optimization. We’ve moved upstream, and are now serving the largest public companies in the U.S. We’ve integrated with BioTrack, CCA, and OMMA in addition to Metrc. And we’ve worked closely with hundreds of operators in the New York market to support them during a turbulent rollout. To stay true to our mission, we were forced to make an incredibly difficult decision. Our goal was twofold: to reduce our operating costs, and to re-align our vision. From inception, Canix has been a product-focused company. “Product Comes First” was one of our initial Company values. This move re-oriented us so we could continue to provide agile, robust, and high quality development. I write this message on LinkedIn because: 1. I believe transparency is inherently positive. Unfortunately, it isn’t common in these situations, but we aim to be the exception. We know what a critical platform we provide to our customers, and the value of our work. We are honored to have this responsibility, and we take it seriously. 2. The people that we let go are talented, thoughtful, and driven. Our re-alignment does not offset the incredible skillsets offered by these individuals. Any organization would be lucky to have them. If you’re hiring, in the cannabis industry or out, and would like to connect with any of our alumni, please reach out to me for a list. The resilience of the #cannabis industry, despite the many challenges it faces, never ceases to amaze me. I believe that Canix embodies that same spirit and tenacity. Whether you are a customer, partner, investor, or supporter - my goal when I wake up each morning is to look you in the eye and tell you - honestly, authentically, and comprehensively - how Canix will work to achieve our mission. Thanks for joining us on our journey. 🌿

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I'm so excited to continue supporting Prolific Machines, Inc., and the incredible Deniz Kent, PhD ,Max Huisman, and Declan Jones. Today's cellular biology processes are incredibly expensive, inefficient, imprecise, and sometimes purely ineffective. These processes are used from everything from making antibodies to treat diseases, to fermentation used to make high-value nutritional proteins in baby formula, to whole cuts of cultured meat. Prolific has developed a biology platform that leverages light to guide cell behavior and optimize performance over time using AI. By combining light, bioengineering, hardware, and AI in fundamentally new ways, Prolific can help pharmaceutical, nutritional, and therapeutics companies get to market faster, less expensively, and more efficiently — ultimately in hopes of helping improve outcomes — a mission any of us can get behind. Mark Cuban Peter T. Frederick Blackford Cooper Rinzler David Adelman Darco Capital Breakthrough Energy Michael Schulson Kevin Love Tobias Harris Breyer Capital Charles Besser Brennan Besser Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants https://lnkd.in/ea2TqdQk

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How do we erase the $1.9T of healthcare cost from poor nutrition in the United States? 14T globally. Slowly. Then all at once. How will pressure from Ozempic change CPG, fresh, meat, retail, food science, ingredients, crops, processors, trucking, farmer profitability...... iSelect's 70 portfolio companies have been working on the core technology for nearly 10 years. Slowly. Knowing this moment would arrive. Each of the 60k Sku's in retail will move from cheap carbs to affordable nutrition. And consumers will internalize health cost into price elasticity in purchase decisions. Slowly, then all at once. Katie Stebbins Ellen Brown Sherry Frey

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This week Mikal Ventures brings you a 4-week breakdown of the US capital market with an emphasis on the Mikal verticals. Over the 4-week period ending September 16, 1,245 new companies were added, resulting in just under 98,450 companies included in the US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. US AI Tech again saw the greatest percentage growth in new companies at 30%, vs. the vertical average of 13% for the period. AI Tech also led the group in transactions and news articles. US Med Tech led in SEC Filings. Mikal Ventures publishes these stats on a rolling 4-week basis to provide a perspective on how the verticals and new startups move through time. We hope you find them informative and thought-provoking. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Want to end the week strong? 💪🏻 Thought so! Then take a close look at this kick-ass team with @Josef Bromovsky, Seyfihan Usarer and @Kyle MertensMeyer who are the founders of Algoma. Algoma is on a mission to tackle three of the most pressing challenges in the construction industry: sustainability, productivity, and housing shortages. The built environment accounts for a staggering 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and Algoma is determined to change that. With the construction sector seeing just a 1% productivity improvement over the last decade, the global housing crisis continues to worsen. That’s where Algoma steps in. 🌳💻 As a digital architect and engineer, Algoma provides real estate developers with faster, lower-cost, and more sustainable solutions. When developers approach Algoma with empty sites, their technology delivers designs in days, not months!⏱️ In just a few months, Algoma has secured over $600K in contracted revenue and is disrupting the residential construction market with its groundbreaking approach. 💸 Algoma is currently raising a seed round, so reach out if you’re interested. To learn more about their product, visit their website and schedule a demo at: https://www.algoma.co 🏗️ 

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This week Mikal Ventures brings you a 4-week breakdown of the US capital market with an emphasis on the Mikal verticals. Over the 4-week period ending April 15, just over 900 new companies were added, with 94,109 companies included in the US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. AI Tech again saw the greatest percentage of growth in new companies and transactions, weighing in at over double the vertical averages for the period. The US Fin Tech vertical again led the way in SEC Filings and news articles. Mikal Ventures publishes these stats on a rolling 4-week basis to provide a perspective on how the verticals and new startups move through time. We hope you find them informative and thought-provoking. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Welcome Andrew Condon Co-Founder, Head of Design & Marketing at BlueTrace on this episode of 🔥 The Lantern 🔥 BlueTrace’s mission is to simplify the seafood supply chain. First, that meant helping shellfish farmers print compliant shellfish tags by creating digital receiving and shipping logs to help them comply with state & federal regulations. Now, they’re helping 500+ small and medium sized seafood businesses, producers and distributors, with inventory management (plus sales & purchasing). They just crossed 8M tags printed...that will stretch to South Carolina and back..we think. 🔍 What’s going on inside BlueTrace this fall? 🔎 The team is continuing to bring to market their end to end inventory management platform. Creating sales orders, pushing invoices to Quickbooks, and more. A lot of seafood businesses do their software purchasing toward the end of the year when business is quieter so it is BlueTrace's busy season. The team at BlueTrace is also looking to hire a seasoned Sales Leader to build out their GTM strategy. Take note! 🤔 What has Drew learned from building BlueTrace? 🤔 Drew’s background has been in product & user experience design. His well worn advice? Know your customer! BlueTrace is co-located with a customer on the Boston Fish Pier, moving fish in and out of the building all day long. If they need something, they go downstairs. If their customer needs something, they go upstairs. That level of “always on” field study is incredible. Feedback cycles move quickly! Empathy grows too. 🤝 How can we help? 🤝 BlueTrace’s new Sales Leader will be integral to inflecting their growth. They’re looking for someone who’s passionate about doing these under appreciated, underserved jobs. Reach out if you know anyone! The Lantern is brought to you by MGMT Boston

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This week Mikal Ventures brings you a 4-week breakdown of the US capital market with an emphasis on the Mikal verticals. Over the 4-week period ending August 19, about 960 new companies were added, resulting in just under 97,702 companies included in the US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. AI Tech maintained its most active status, seeing the greatest percentage of growth in both new companies and transactions. The US Fin Tech vertical led the way in SEC Filings and US Med Tech led in news articles. Mikal Ventures publishes these stats to provide a perspective on how the verticals and new startups move through time. We hope you find them informative and thought-provoking. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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