Ming S. Zhao

At Inspired Capital, we love entrepreneurs who are deeply and personally infected by a problem. "Infected" is the right word because they can't stop thinking about it. They live, dream it, and breathe it every day. They exist in a future we cannot yet see and are immensely confident in their vision. This certainty in their solution gives them the conviction to will their vision into existence—no matter what it takes. To learn more about the founders we back and the businesses we help build at Inspired Capital, tune in to my recent conversation with Nick Moran on The Full Ratchet podcast:

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Had fun conversation with Sean Li 🎙about entrepreneurship and building products.

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Revolutionizing SoCal’s Real Estate Landscape: Primior is not just developing properties;  we're designing tomorrow’s living spaces. At Primior, our approach to real estate development  in Southern California uniquely combines sustainability,  innovation, and community focus. We're not just building; we're enhancing lifestyles and  boosting local economies. Each Primior project starts with deep community  engagement—understanding what residents need  and what makes each location special. We then integrate architectural innovations to  create mixed-use developments that are not  just livable but life-enhancing. Our commitment to sustainability means each  development is built with the future in mind,  utilizing eco-friendly materials and processes  that set new industry standards. Our developments across Southern California  are more than just buildings; they are vibrant communities that offer a new way  of living and a better way of interacting  with our environment. ____ #investing #realestateinvestment #business #realestate

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What do you do when a radical new technology puts your main product right in the crosshairs of disruption? Listen to David Okuniev — co-founder of Typeform | Ask awesomely — discuss the challenges of innovation within existing structures. David shared a game-changing insight: Radical innovation is really, really difficult to do inside your own product. He emphasized the need to break free from the constraints of familiarity and embrace change from outside the box. Henrik Werdelin and I have both seen our fair share of this in our respective careers. What struck us most was how David leveraged structure to overcome the innovator’s dilemma. By creating a culture of experimentation and providing space for bold ideas, he propelled Typeform beyond incremental improvements. What other hacks have you seen or employed to help your organization overcome the innovator’s dilemma? Share your stories below! 👇 And if you want to dive deeper into our conversation, click the link in the comments to catch the full podcast episode!

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#NYTechWeek was 💥! With over 700 events hosted by VCs and startups, the week was jam-packed with panels, happy hours, and networking. So many incredible founders, VCs, operators, and innovators from diverse industries around the world gathered to share their experiences and insights. A few (back of napkin) highlights, just from the public calendar: 🤖 215 AI-related events, including 8 concentrating on women, 7 on health, 2 on biotech, and 1 on climate 👩 48 events centered on female investors and founders 🩺 35 healthtech or biotech events 🌍 10 climatetech events 💰 123 events targeting investors 💡 179 events targeting founders 💼 5 events featuring emerging managers 💡📈 41 pitch events - 18 of which included an afterparty/happy hour 🏀🏃‍♂️🧘‍♂️ 9 events were sports, exercise, or wellness-themed Top 3 neighborhoods for events: 🌆 Soho 🏙️ Midtown 🏢 Flatiron Why NYC? It is emerging as a powerhouse for startups, with a rare combination of industries, prestigious academic institutions, and a strong VC community. Here are some insights from a recent Fenwick & West report: 1️⃣ NYC has over 100 unicorns, with at least 112 startups now worth over $1 billion. 2️⃣ Since the 1990s, NYC's Flatiron District, known as "Silicon Alley," has been a major tech hub, second only to Silicon Valley. 3️⃣ Notable NYC tech IPOs include Etsy, Vimeo, Peloton, MongoDB, Oscar Health, and Compass. 4️⃣ NYC's tech job market is booming, with 13,000 new jobs in 2023, bringing the total to over 369,000 and still rising. 5️⃣ Since 2019, over 1,000 AI companies in NYC have raised $27 billion in funding. 6️⃣ NYC tech startups span sectors like fintech, healthtech, cybersecurity, edtech, climatetech, and ecommerce. From AI to healthtech, the pulse of innovation in NYC is stronger than ever. Bring on 25! Thank you to wonderful hosts and builders for making my own week rich, and with meaningful connection. Naseem Sayani (she/her) Crystelle Desnoyer Tiya Gordon Brooke Emery Mark Nguyen Theron McCollough Matthew Hooper Tara Comonte Ariel Serber Theodore Kee Elizabeth Landau Azin Radsan van Alebeek Julie Ruvolo John Gannon Maja Andjelkovic Juan Manuel Barrero Mirella Santome Chaeyeon Kim #techweek #Startups #Founders #VentureCapital

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It's been a whirlwind of learning since we started digging into the Venture Studio model. First when we started our previous company, Roam, it was "do some consulting so we can launch games & products" and in fact we did launch a couple of products and even released a couple of games. But it was always a constant tension between the siren call of instant revenue with consulting vs the long term return of equity. We sometimes joke that Ryft is the outcome of 10+ years of bootstrapping to get to a place where we can focus as a pure-play Venture Studio. Learn more below.

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NY friends! Please come see me at Tech Day on my panel discussing the future of the NY tech ecosystem and what I hope to bring to it!

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I am pleased to share my recent interview with The Peak, where we discussed the often-overlooked issue of return management and how our AI-driven solution can reduce costs while promoting sustainability in the returns process. #ThePeak #Sustainability #AI #Returnhelper #Recommerce

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We updated our LinkedIn company page! You can read how Rapid Ventures partners with #startups, #marketadopters, #investors and other #stakeholders in the #climatetech #ecosystem to accelerate #decarbonization and catalyze economic and #workforcedevelopment.

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What Laurel Mintz and Fabric VC are doing to change the current and long-standing suboptimal standards of venture capital is truly inspiring. The VC industry has historically been dominated by a narrow demographic, often overlooking the incredible potential that diverse founders bring to the table. Laurel's work is a breath of fresh air, showing that by supporting a wider range of voices and perspectives, we can achieve more innovative and successful outcomes. Her dedication to fostering an inclusive environment where all entrepreneurs have the opportunity to thrive is not just admirable, but necessary for the future of business. As a woman entrepreneur myself, I understand the challenges that come with navigating a landscape that hasn't always been welcoming or equitable. That's why I am so grateful for leaders like Laurel, who are not just talking about change but actively making it happen! #DEI #Entrepreneurship

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A little late, even though this process started in July.... Excited to share our latest investment in Heads Together Health!! We met Steve DeVrieze in October last year, and we think they are poised for impressive growth! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ecYcqqkn #earlystagestartup #earlystageinvesting #VCinvestment #ncstartups #nctechstartups

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The Care Summit was an incredible conference, made up of world class speakers, mission driven founders and top tier VC’s. To top it off- it was hosted in San Francisco (don’t bet against SF!). I feel really fortunate I was invited to attend. Most people don’t realize the care economy is now a 6 trillion dollar industry, and only growing. Every opportunistic industry gets a lot of attention when capitalist are at work, but oddly Care- something that will impact every human- gets a fraction of the attention it deserves. Why is this? Why at a conference that’s focused on caregiving, longevity, child care and human health was there only a handful of men? On one discussion, one of the moderators asked the panelist in 5 words what they want to see happen between now and next year. If I was given the opportunity to answer, I would have said, “more male participation”. I think it’s critical more women lead, enter venture, build companies and hold executive roles- we need more voices not few- but I am baffled by the absence of men, and the lack of effort on the huge problems at home, at work and in our policies. We must participate and create positive impact, and not sit silent because you feel you are not impacted (news flash: you are). I am leaving San Francisco inspired by conversations I had. I am eager to dig in deeper at Maple as a founder in this space, and at home as a husband, brother, son and father. A big thank you to FamTech.org , Magnify Ventures , Pivotal Ventures , The Holding Co. And every person involved. I look forward to attending next year, and hope more men join in.

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At AV, we are harnessing the power of female founders with our Women's Fund. <br /> <br /> As VCs, it's our mission to seek out and invest in promising startups that embrace unique ideas and innovative solutions. Read about the staggering size of the Sheconomy, the benefits of investing in women, and explore some of the amazing startups women are creating. https://buff.ly/4cxHmZQ

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Over the years, we at GFR Fund have solidified our investment thesis, which is that we invest in "emerging digitally native communities." These communities can be built around games, social media, and any consumer applications. Now, founders have many easy-to-use tools to build user communities, such as Discord, X/twitter, Instagram, etc, and we believe the founders should start building communities even before they launch a product. The communities can help founders: - reach PMF faster - acquire users cheaper - retain and engage users longer - build better UX/UI, and - hire early employees Below, you can see how RTFKT and Omeda Studios built the community and then worked with them to create a product the users really wanted. We would love to talk to the founders who think the community is essential in building a product!

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How do you find Limited Partners and get them over the line? Find out in this webinar next week!

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Super fun product leaders forum hosted by Workato, a Norwest Venture Partners portfolio company. Alex Hood, CPO of Asana was our special guest speaker. Since joining Asana six years ago, the company has grown from 225 to 1800 employees.  Some insights from Alex include: 1) If everyone is jointly accountable for something no one is accountable. 2) A task has a name, face, and due date. This makes you accountable unlike email where a ball can be dropped.   3) Compute costs will eventually be greater than payroll costs as everything and everyone will have a bot. 4) ChatGPT proves that #AI can produce more content, more tasks, and more to-dos. But more is not better. The magic of AI is actually when it takes away work. Scott Beechuk, Gautham Viswanathan, Bhaskar Roy, Harish Shetty, Vijay Tella, Rishi Mallik, Nam Le, Rajeev Bansal, Markus Zirn, Thomas Ream, Carter Busse, Cody Guymon, Jayesh Shah, Amlan Debnath, Natalie Fini, Monica Peotter

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This week marks the first anniversary of ESH. While many of you already heard about it earlier, the first “official” ESH check was written on June 27, 2023. A total of 14 investments were sourced so far by the great ESHer community. The last year wasn’t short of challenges on almost every front, but early-stage deals backed by repeat founders have demonstrated surprising resilience. Maybe it isn’t really surprising: the combination of talent density, market expertise, and platform shifts has historically provided new opportunities to shine in product and GTM, yielding abnormal returns. We saw it in the past with mobile, cloud, and microservices, and we are experiencing it again with AI. As the enabling platform becomes a “tech commodity,” founder and investor experience becomes a key differentiator. An anniversary is just a number, but it is also an opportunity to thank the repeat founders and industry experts in the ESH network, and the founders they backed, for allowing us to work together - and all the great women and men who helped me refine the ESH model since the get-go. Thanks Adi, Dan, Ron, Ron, Pramod, Noa, Eynat, Ziv, Gil, Shuly, Nadav, Roni, Idan, Guy, Mani, Omer, Alon, Michal, Tal, Sergey, Dov and everyone else who supported ESH along this first year.

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I echo and a firm believer of Laurel Mintz take on Diversity - "Diversity in thought, diversity in boards, diversity in public companies, diversity in all of this is what creates a better culture. It's what creates better outcomes, both financially and emotionally. Ultimately, it's just a better approach to creating a more well-rounded society.” #ImpactInvesting #VentureCapital #PurposeDrivenInvestors

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