Julie Nguyen

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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🎩 The VC platform role wears a lot of hats in the world of private capital—from business development to community-building to recruiting and marketing—and perhaps the most critical one today is portfolio value creation. Our co-founder, Ray Zhou, explained why the platform role is so important (and how to excel in it). Read the article in Forbes Technology Council. 👉 https://buff.ly/45OlLcA

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Worth reading: Situationsl Awareness by Leopold Aschenbrenner PDF : https://lnkd.in/gkxQ3yMD Web site: https://lnkd.in/gyJUCBhb Interesting perspective, time of course will tell.

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🚀 Share to help get #BIPOC hired at startups 🚀 📅 Only two weeks until this IRL event. ICYMI: We’re partnering with Initialized Capital for their Startup Talent Summit on May 15th in San Francisco. The Summit is for startup-ready or startup-curious job seekers looking for their next role in an early stage startup. REASONS TO PARTICIPATE 👉🏿 Learn why it’s a great time to join an early-stage startup 👉🏾 Demystify the landscape and understand the upsides (and downsides) of startup life 👉🏽 It’s an opportunity to connect with hiring companies looking for talent like you Apply to attend here: https://bit.ly/4aSdlma #WeAreHue

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Mental health company Spring Health, cofounded by CEO April Koh and Adam Chekroud, is now valued at $3.3 billion after raising a $100 million Series E round. The round was led by growth-stage firm Generation Investment Management, with participation from some existing investors including Kinnevik, the William K. Warren Foundation, RRE, and Northzone. Spring Health was last valued at $2.5 billion during a 2023 Series D round. The AI-powered mental health startup matches patients with care providers, selling to both health plans and employers. What the company calls “personalized mental health” separates Spring from competitors in the digital mental health space, it says; its founding eight years ago was predicated on a research paper that found that machine learning could match people with the best care for their needs. “We’re really excited that this is another big growth round in a world where that seems kind of rare,” Koh says. Read more: https://lnkd.in/d-fPU-4Q

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Origins is a good podcast series for us venture nerds to dig into. This one featuring Wesley Chan in convo with Elizabeth "Beezer" Clarkson + Nicholas Chirls had the following 3 takeaways for me: 1/ For the great founders, Steve Jobs, Page + Brin etc., it is not a as much about priving someone wrong so much as proving you are right! "Larry and Sergey never felt they had to go fight the man, even though a lot of people doubted them at the beginning. They felt they had to go change the world, right? And like prove themselves that there was something better if Google existed than if it didn't, right?" 2/ Timing / why now is an important aspect to their evaluation process. Wesley: “we ask the question, why now? Or why does this make sense now? Why not start it at 10 years from now? And usually, the founders who understand why now, they thought about their whole lives or like, no, this is the one moment in time. They have a really wonderful answer for it, which is these are the things, these are the tailwinds that are blowing." This resonated with me, because in my writings on PMF, the first part of PMF is getting 'the pick' or problem space right, and one of the three elements of 'the pick' is why now (others are founder problem fit or why you) and large attackable market). Increasingly I am incorporating 'why now' into my evaluation process of startup pitches as well. 3/ Doesnt believe in platform; says the best founders dont need recruiting help. Wesley: “A lot of people mistake Venture Capital for being some sort of tuition check for like training and helping founder learn on the job, and while we're willing to help them learn, in fact, we provide a lot of help with coaching, especially through our coach and founders network, but the best founders don't need their VCs to do the work for them.”

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More Seattle tech insights coming from Carta Head of Insights Peter Walker and GeekWire Seattle is # 5 overall in venture funding and #3 in SaaS, #6 for biotech funding; #10 for healthtech; and #10 for fintech over the past 12 months. https://lnkd.in/gjja9xJe SignalFire shared Seattle has 23% of AI Engineers, second only to San Francisco. Seattle has a little more than 10% of Big Tech engineers. “This data shows an opportunity for Seattle to attract more venture capital firms who often look to NYC when opening a second office after SF…help Seattle round-out the startup ecosystem flywheel to complement its high-quality engineering and AI talent, and tech giants that serve as acquirers as well as management training hubs that spin out founders.” https://lnkd.in/gBgqGMaM

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Great article at TechCrunch on our new SparkLabs AIM AI Fund by Kate Park! This is an early-stage fund focused on AI startups across the globe, and part of this will be to invest in participants in our AIM-X accelerator in Riyadh. Our team greatly appreciates Ibrahim Neyaz, Abdullah M. Alhaqbani, Meshal Alkabeer, Aeshah F. Almutairi, and others at National Technology Development Program for selecting SparkLabs Saudi Arabia to run their AIM-X accelerator program and supporting us in the launch of this new AI fund. The 14 AI startups on our first batch are all excellent companies led by world-class founders. Our ever-expanding global network continues to find and attract top founders from Mumbai to Milan to Berlin to Hong Kong to Silicon Valley. The first accelerator batch in Riyadh continues to build upon the types of startups SparkLabs Group attracts, which is a range from strong bootstrapped to series B startups: - A few 1st batch companies will hit $3M, $5M and $10M in revenue for 2024. - 9 companies have raised $1.5M or more before entering our program, and 5 who have raised more than $3M prior to joining. - Great traction from hitting $1M in profit for 2024 (40% net profit) to signing 350+ enterprise clients and on track to hit $7M in revenues for 2024 to becoming cashflow positive and growing 4X in the last 12 Months ($4M+ in revenues for 2024). #startups #AI #GenAI #venturecapital #NTDP #accelerator #Riyadh #SaudiArabia #founders #entrepreneurs #chatGPT William Chu Ivan Grlic Bodin Scepanovic Sohail Alangari Scott Sorochak Rob DeMillo Lucidya | لوسيديا viAct Swirl® Contents ORKO askLAYLA Arctech Innovation OptimHire WideBot Orbo.ai Vyrill Stack Tech Farm Ahya Ideas Lab

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When is the right time for startups to consider going public? In this clip, Yassaman Salas, Partner, Global head of Medical Device at Goldman Sachs, explores the appropriate stage for companies to consider an IPO. She highlights how this decision should shape strategic planning early on and emphasizes the importance of revenue predictability in demonstrating readiness for an IPO. This discussion from #LSIEurope23, ‘Behind the Buyout: Navigating Strategic Partnerships & M&As From Both Sides of the Table’, gives a behind-the-scenes look at M&As and partnerships, explores strategies from both buyer and seller viewpoints, and shares real-world experiences to demystify the complexities of M&As. The full video recording of this panel featuring Ken Nelson, Nate Harrington, Kevin Rocco, Yassaman Salas, and Biren Mehta is available on our website and YouTube channel. Want to see more content like this? Registration and applications to present are open for LSI Europe ‘24 this September 16th - 20th at the Penha Longa Resort, in Portugal. Secure your spot today to ensure you get the best rate and secure a hotel room onsite.

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Navigating the VC landscape in San Diego? Discover firms that not only invest but also mentor and guide startups to success. Here's a snapshot: - Salesforce Ventures - Specializing in enterprise software. Founded by Halsey Minor, Marc Benioff, & Parker Harris. 🌐 - Versant Ventures - A beacon for biotech, founded by Barbara Lubash & co. 🧬 Healthcare & Biotech focus. 📈 - QED Investors - Fintech frontrunners, by Caribou Honig, Frank Rotman, & Nigel Morris. 💳 - HERCULES TECHNOLOGY GROWTH Capital - Supports startups to growth-stage companies across sectors. Founded by Manuel A. Henriquez & team. 📈 - Correlation Ventures - Co-investing champions in the US, initiated by Trevor Kienzle & David Coats. 🔍 - JMI Equity - Growth-stage software investment specialists. Established by Charles Noell & Harry Gruner. 💻 - Anzu Partners - Life science, manufacturing, and materials innovators, started by Michael David & co. 🔬 - Saltagen Ventures - Early-stage biotech focus, founded by Joseph F.. 🌏 NA and Asia. 📈 🌟 Whether you're seeking capital, mentorship, or operational expertise, these VC firms offer diverse opportunities for startups in various stages and industries. Full article here: https://lnkd.in/gpgkRHU3 👉 Looking to raise funding? Explore more about these firms and find your perfect match. #VCs #Startups #SanDiego #Innovation #Tech #SoCal

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Navigating the VC landscape in San Diego? Discover firms that not only invest but also mentor and guide startups to success. Here's a snapshot: - Salesforce Ventures - Specializing in enterprise software. Founded by Halsey Minor, Marc Benioff, & Parker Harris. 🌐 - Versant Ventures - A beacon for biotech, founded by Barbara Lubash & co. 🧬 Healthcare & Biotech focus. 📈 - QED Investors - Fintech frontrunners, by Caribou Honig, Frank Rotman, & Nigel Morris. 💳 - HERCULES TECHNOLOGY GROWTH Capital - Supports startups to growth-stage companies across sectors. Founded by Manuel A. Henriquez & team. 📈 - Correlation Ventures - Co-investing champions in the US, initiated by Trevor Kienzle & David Coats. 🔍 - JMI Equity - Growth-stage software investment specialists. Established by Charles Noell & Harry Gruner. 💻 - Anzu Partners - Life science, manufacturing, and materials innovators, started by Michael David & co. 🔬 - Saltagen Ventures - Early-stage biotech focus, founded by Joseph F.. 🌏 NA and Asia. 📈 🌟 Whether you're seeking capital, mentorship, or operational expertise, these VC firms offer diverse opportunities for startups in various stages and industries. Full article here: https://lnkd.in/gpgkRHU3 👉 Looking to raise funding? Explore more about these firms and find your perfect match. #VCs #Startups #SanDiego #Innovation #Tech #SoCal

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I love YC Demo Day season. It’s an insane concentration of driven founders building something they deeply believe in at the frontier of tech. I know it's more trendy for VCs to complain about YC. But I believe Garry Tan when he says 5-10% of companies become worth a billion dollars. Maven’s hit rate from YC is even higher: 16% have had $B+ exits, and we’re trending toward a 40% graduation rate from Seed to Unicorn with investments we’ve made alongside YC. Since Maven’s founding in 2013, we’ve funded 12 YC startups out of the 66 companies we’ve invested in. Here are a few: Cruise: acquired by GM for $1B+ Embark: $4B SPAC, acquired by Applied Intuition Chariot: acquired by Ford before Series A May Mobility: raised $300M+ in follow on funding, including from Toyota Carrot Fertility: raised $100M+ in follow on funding, including from CRV and USVP Daybreak Health: Series A from Lightspeed, Series B from USV Moment Robotics: acquired by Cruise founder Kyle Vogt’s new company, The Bot Co (Maven is an investor) Our strategy differs from other YC investors. Many funds build a YC “index fund”, investing in many startups per batch. It’s not a bad move. But we focus on concentration, meeting all the companies in our thesis area and investing in one or two. Gratefully, I think every company from the list above can point to Maven as one of their most trusted partners that made a difference: intros to customers, closing follow-on funding from top VCs, connecting key hires, and offering genuine care and advice in both the best and toughest of moments. What are we looking for in a YC investment? 1) Team - a technical product team with startup DNA and hustle that can achieve a bold vision. Brilliant, determined founders no one would bet against who are ambitious enough to build an iconic company. 2) Vision worth fighting for - what are you bringing into the world that is worth all the time, effort and money required for success? Why aren’t existing solutions good enough? Are we proud to help bring this idea to the world? 3) Massive market - because of the valuation premium YC demands, even a $B outcome may not return today’s average Seed fund. Honestly, that math sucks. In order to pay the premium, we have to believe that if we’re right, we’ll be wildly successful. 4) Consumer trend - Maven invests in tech companies addressing emerging consumer trends. Even if some investments are B2B or B2B2C, they are always grounded in a consumer insight: autonomous vehicles in 2014, fertility care in 2017, mental health in 2020. Today, we’re looking at consumer applications of AI and frontier consumer health. Many successful companies we fund are outside of YC as well – like Zoom, Hello Heart, Epic!, Class, Wildtype. So we match YC’s Unicorn % across the rest of our portfolio, too 💪 YC founders in consumer tech and digital health: if you want to build an iconic company that delivers a positive impact for millions of consumers - I can’t wait to talk to you!

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今回のnote記事も引き続き、９月末にY Combinator Summer 2024（YC S24） Batchに採択されたスタートアップ紹介しています。今回の記事では、医療教育の効率化、保険請求業務の自動化など、AIを活用した革新的な医療ソリューションを提供するSoma Lab, Vera Health, Guardian AI, Taxo, Tivaraの5社を取り上げました。 ぜひご一読ください！(Check out the article, YC S24 Healthcare-3) https://lnkd.in/gqps2PhX *Although the article is in Japanese, please feel free to contact me in English if you are interested in the content. In Y Combinator’s S24 Batch, several startups have emerged under the Healthcare category. This article spotlights five innovative companies—Soma Lab, Vera Health, Guardian AI, Taxo, and Tivara—that utilize AI to enhance medical education, streamline insurance claims, and more. 

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Seattle's startup scene is growing, but it’s clear we have some work to do. That was a main takeaway from our panel discussion last week featuring venture capitalists from top-tier firms including Brentt Baltimore of Greycroft, Victoria Treyger of Felicis, and Sunil Nagaraj of Ubiquity Ventures, moderated by Kirby Winfield. Their goal: analyze Seattle's startup landscape from an outsider’s perspective with active Seattle investments. They see a city rich in technical talent but with several missing pieces. Go-to-market strategies often lag behind technical capabilities; capital is available, but frequently from outside the region; and stronger community cohesion is needed to bridge incumbent tech leaders with founder types. I transcribed and edited our panel last week "Valley VCs 💗 Seattle Startups." https://lnkd.in/ggchXW4B

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🚀 The Launch of JD Labs 🚀 As a partner at Quest Ventures, I’m thrilled to announce our strategic support for the launch of JD Labs, a premier one-stop Web3 incubation platform. Over the years, Quest Ventures has consistently championed disruptive technologies and the teams that drive them forward. 🌟 Supporting JD Labs is a natural extension of this mission as we continue to empower early-stage Web3 startups on their journey to success. JD Labs has quickly established itself as a critical partner for emerging Web3 projects, offering more than just guidance. Their comprehensive approach—spanning industry insights, operational expertise, and strategic partnerships—has made them a trusted partner for startups navigating the competitive and evolving Web3 landscape. The team at JD Labs is committed to ensuring these startups not only survive but thrive, accelerating their growth on a global scale. 🌐 This partnership allows us to combine our resources and experience with JD Labs’ deep Web3 knowledge to build a more robust ecosystem for decentralized technologies. We’re confident that JD Labs will help inject fresh energy into the blockchain and Web3 industries, facilitating the success of even more innovative projects worldwide. It’s an exciting time to be part of this space, and I’m personally looking forward to collaborating closely with JD Labs as they continue to drive real impact and foster innovation. 💡 Here’s to the continued growth and success of JD Labs! We’re excited for what the future holds and look forward to partnering with more like-minded innovators to shape the future of Web3. 🚀 For more information about JD Labs and their mission, feel free to visit their website or reach out directly: 🌐 Website: https://jd-labs.com ✖ X: https://lnkd.in/gwfvjt6u 💼 LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gPECjbsb #Web3 #Blockchain #Startups #Innovation #QuestVentures #JDLabs #DecentralizedTech #Partnership #VentureCapital

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#fundingalert 💼Company: Lamini 💰Funding: $25Million ⚡Round: Seed and Series A 👥Investors: AMD VENTURES, LLC, Andrew Ng, Andrej Karpathy, Bernard Arnault, Pierre Lamond, Sarah Guo, Dylan Field, Lip-Bu Tan, Drew Houston, and Amplify Partners, Lamini, the Enterprise AI platform, makes it possible for software teams within enterprises to develop new LLM capabilities that reduce hallucinations on proprietary data, run their LLMs securely from cloud VPCs to on premise, and scale their infrastructure with model evaluatioins that prioritize ROI and business outcomes over hype. With the additional investment, the team will grow faster and pursue deeper technological optimisations, providing corporations with the large-scale strategic assistance they require. Sharon Zhou, PhD, Gregory Diamos, Saksham Consul, Tamir Kedmi, Sharon Zhou, PhD, Collin Weitzman, James W., Nina W. Read more - https://lnkd.in/gVsR3dRi To share your startup story write us on - [email protected] #Lamini #AI #hallucinations #infrastructure #corporations #optimisations #technological #funding #fundingnews #news #startupnews #startuprise

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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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Founders often end up as their startup's first salesperson. In a new video with Chase Roberts, Evisort CEO and co-founder Jerry Ting, JD gives a crash course on what founders need to know about building and scaling their sales engine from their earliest days. You can watch the video and read the highlights on our blog, linked below. But here are some key takeaways: 1) Selling starts with listening: Instead of pitching a bag of features, listen to what problems prospective buyers are trying to solve. Then, match your bag of features to those problems in a way that creates value for these potential customers. 2) Identify the key stakeholders: The budget holder, executive decision maker, technical gatekeeper, and influencer/champion. Identifying these folks and their perspectives reveals if you have “happy ears” or if your prospective customer is actually engaged in a buying motion. 3) Selling should be hard: If you’re not running into significant friction, it suggests you haven’t had hard conversations about change management, TCO, and build vs. buy. It’s possible that you haven’t revealed the dissenter or the person who doesn’t want you to succeed. These kinds of people are common! 4) Founders are a secret sales weapon: Don’t count on a newly hired sales leader to figure out the repeatable sales playbook. You, as a founder, have the maximum context: why this product exists, what makes it exceptional, competitive positioning, industry trends, knowledge of the underlying technology, product roadmap sequencing, and so forth. 5) Hire salespeople before sales leaders: Start with frontline “player coaches” before hiring sales leadership. The latter will be more focused on implementing Salesforce, building dashboards, doing one-on-ones with their reps, designing systems, or whatever — when you actually need someone closing deals. #startup #startupsales #startupadvice #sales #startupadvice https://lnkd.in/e3sVSsDs Read more:

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