Ronnie M.

The Council's first SPV of 2024 is down in the books and oversubscribed. Running SPVs where we have pro rata or extra allocation in fund deals is a muscle we are building pretty late in the game as a firm. As a solo GP with a tiny team, it's crippling to think of the extra work required and risk of not meeting platform minimums to run an SPV. But 7 of our port co's have recently raised follow on funding where we had pro rata. These are awesome deals for our LPs, angel members, and syndicate community. We simply can't afford to let them slip through the cracks. These allocations are only becoming more valuable as our firm grows, so we must start NOW! Proud to say this one went off without a hitch and our syndicate community is small but THRIVING. Wish us luck as we keep building. Note our SPVs are now on Sydecar. The best way to get access is to know someone on The Council Fund team and be on our SPV email list. **What's an SPV?** An SPV is a Special Purpose Vehicle. It allows multiple angel investors to pool together into one larger investment into a company. This helps the founder keep paperwork and investor relations to a minimum (less names on the cap table = simplicity!). When people say they're investing with a "syndicate" or they are "syndicating a deal," SPV is the entity and process by which they do that. A "syndicate" is like a community of people that invest via SPVs together.

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I am looking to help early startups that need Product help but are not ready for a full-time Head of Product or Director of Product. Companies that are in my sweet spot: 1) Have some funding & initial customers/revenue 2) Looking to implement a cohesive Product strategy and internal infrastructure to support it. 3) Good founding team with a shared purpose/goal, even if you're still unsure what that means. Why me: 1) Experienced Product and Operations founder 2) Strong understanding of difference between initial product development, systematic product development and how to balance the two. 3) My stupid pet trick is simplifying complex systems and tasks into easy-to-understand bites. If your team loses the context of what they are building, your customers have no shot. If you are interested or know of a team that could use help, please reach out either in comments or DM. If you cold DM, please start by telling me your favorite animal and why.

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🤝 Iterative Cofounder Matching - What to look for in a co-founder? In the 2 weeks since we launched the co-founder matching platform, we've matched 40 people. After seeing what people are looking for in their co-founders, I have 3 observations. 💡You Don’t Need An Idea to Meet Co-Founders I noticed 90% of users on the platform already have some sort of start up idea. This made me wonder whether aspiring founders without an idea are hesitant to meet co-founders. I think this could be because many people attach too much importance to the idea. In my opinion, you should meet potential co-founders even if you don't have any ideas because 1) You'll meet other people with ideas. (90% of our user base, for example) 2) The idea will change, almost always. The problem and co-founder fit, are more important. 💪 Value Compatibility As Much As Skills 70% of first time founders were looking for specific expertise or skills in their co-founder. On the other hand, 100% of second time founders equally prioritised motivations (and a sense of humour). As an ex-founder, I understand why. More often than not, co-founder breakups happen because of motivation misalignment, lack of communication or misaligned working styles. It’s easier to stay resilient with a co-founder who has a sense of humour - and laugh through the extremely tough times. 👨‍🔧 Non-Technical vs Technical Co-founders 85% of the non-technical folks prefer a technical founder. More interestingly, 30% of technical founders also prefer a technical cofounder. I think people might be placing too much value on technical experience at the idea stage. For non-technical people, my suggestion is to build a basic MVP to validate your idea first. Learn no-code tools like Bubble/Flutterflow if you have to. Once you validate - you’ll also have a clearer, more convincing pitch to your potential co-founder. For technical people, my advise is to prioritise co-founders who are obsessed about the problem, rather than the solution. Want to learn more about how to choose co-founders? We’re hosting an event tomorrow, where Hsu Ken Ooi will talk about what to look for in a co-founder (and what to avoid). 📅 Date: Tuesday 14 May 2024 🕒 Time: 6:30-9:00pm 📍 Singapore – Register for location details. Look for the 📌 in the comments to register

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Did a fund raising workshop with a group of founders last week. Some of my messages were: 1/ Your job in that first mtg is to get the VC *emotionally* excited about you and your startup. It’s not enough to get them rationally excited. VCs are meeting 2-6 founders every day. Most of those founders are smart and driven. You’re competing for attention against all of them by the end of that day/week. Whoever creates emotional excitement won that first mtg. 2/ Be ready to sell the larger than life vision. Don't be shy about your ambition. Show the passion behind the vision and mission statement. Let the ambition come through. They're betting on you! 3/ Two things drive investor excitement in most early stage fundraises: “Why Me?” or “Why Now?” 4/ Be intentional about the entire process: pipeline of intros, which partner at which firm, who’s making the intros, the scheduling… everything. It’s an enterprise sales process. Don't be casual about any aspect of it. 5/ Be ready to manage your psyche thru the process: The No's come before the Yesses. The best No's can be an input to your thinking. But there are some people who will be dismissive of you or your idea - let those No's become fuel to your fire. 6/ Don't underestimate the importance of quality of partner. Will matter a lot in the end. Do backchannel references and ask pointed questions. 7/ Fund raising is hard. Company building is harder. BUT... people like you and me have done it before and will do it after us. Just remind yourself: "If not you, then who?"

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第3弾は、Y CombinatorのWebサイトで「Healthcare」で分類されている、メンタルヘルス×モニタリング（1社）、企業の医療費削減（1社）、在宅介護支援（1社）、カップル向けAI恋愛アプリ（1社）について、スタートアップについてそれぞれまとめました。ぜひnoteをご覧ください。 ブログ記事はこちら（Here is the blog post）↓ https://lnkd.in/gT-RcVVJ *Although the articles are in Japanese, please feel free to contact me in English if you are interested in the content. I would like to introduce companies from the Y Combinator Winter 2024 Batch. Part 3 summarizes each of the startups categorized under "Healthcare": One in Mental health x monitoring, One in Reducing corporate healthcare costs, one in Home care support, and one in AI relationship app for couples.

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Pleased to share that Fin Capital’s Fintech CEO Pulse Report is out! Fin Capital surveyed over 50 CEOs and C-suite leaders of private companies from our portfolio and the broader fintech industry during June and July 2024 to get a quick pulse on what’s top of mind for fintech’s leaders. Here are some key takeaways: - Optimism in the Air: More than 60% of CEOs reported being bullish or highly bullish on the fintech industry for the second half of 2024. - Regulatory Changes on the Horizon: CEOs identified Cryptocurrency, Open Banking, and Buy Now Pay Later as the top three sectors likely to see increased regulation by the end of 2024. - Headwinds persist. Despite overall bullishness on fintech, CEOs report a weak IPO environment and flag that macroeconomic volatility, regulation, and high interest rates remain top challenges for their companies. However, with abating inflation, CEO’s believe we could see rate cuts begin in September, which could positively affect asset values and market buoyancy, including the IPO window. For more insights, including comments from Logan Allin, Christian Ostberg, Matthew D. Mann, CFA, and Stephanie Perez, check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gK6usfwM

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🚨 Startup friends - If you bank with Evolve through one of their fintech partners (such as Mercury or Stripe Treasury), take some steps now to try to protect your identity. If you aren't sure if you bank with Evolve, you can confirm by looking at your wire details in your account. I recommend: 1. Setting up credit freezes with each of the major bureaus 2. Signing up for an identity protection and credit monitoring service, such as Lifelock (especially if you aren't able or willing to do #1) 3. Be hyper vigilant for phishing attacks 4. Change your passwords with the fintech partners (while allegedly credentials were not leaked, I say better safe than sorry) Lastly, consider diversifying your financial stack (happy to chat about this with folks, just DM me). From SVB last spring, to Synapse's collapse, to this - there's always something.

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Three years ago, Stage Venture Partners backed Ariyan Kabir, Brual Shah , and Satyandra K. (SK) Gupta's startup, GrayMatter Robotics. Today, GrayMatter revealed their $45 million Series B, led by Wellington. In the past three years, GrayMatter's robots have handled 7.5 million square feet of products, streamlining tasks such as sanding, grinding, and finishing high-performance surfaces. This innovative automation addresses urgent labor shortages, enabling U.S. manufacturers to meet demand efficiently. Technology like GrayMatter's is crucial for American factories, and the company is just scratching the surface in revolutionizing high-tech production processes. https://lnkd.in/gJaUfDZq

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Just received a compelling chart from Carta, and it’s fascinating how a single visual can encapsulate an entire narrative. A big thanks to Carta for the insights! Q1 of 2024 hasn’t kickstarted venture investment growth as hoped. U.S. startups on Carta raised $13.6 billion in primary rounds this quarter, mirroring the end of 2023. If we project this quarterly rate across 2024, we're looking at investment volumes akin to those in 2018 and 2023 (the latter is noted for its relatively low funding activity). While we navigate these challenging waters, marked by numerous bridge and down rounds, the current landscape underscores the critical need for robust preparation before seeking funding. This is precisely where I can add value, particularly for startups gearing up for pre-A and pre-B rounds. Strategic preparation isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential in today’s investment climate. Stay tuned for more insights, and let’s keep those funding ambitions prepared and resilient. #VentureCapital #Startups #InvestmentTrends #Funding ##StartupFunding #FinancialPreparation

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I'm excited to be leading my third YC demo day fund for the S24 batch! I've been involved with YC since 2015, first going through YC myself, staying closely involved with the community for 7+ years, and culminating in working there as a Visiting Partner, where I invested in over 120 companies and helped them raise over $200M in capital. Over all this time, one thing is clear to me: YC founders are only getting better and better, and YC companies remain the cream of the crop for early stage founders. And it's not because companies come out of YC "fully baked" -- many of the best companies went through Demo Day with no revenue, or even pivoting just a few months afterwards. Yet, over 5% of this batch will likely become unicorns. This batch is appears to be the biggest one since 2021, which will make for the most interesting (and more competitive) cycle in a long time. I have opened this fund up to friends and connections who would like to join me. If you are interested in participating, click the link below for special friends-only terms! https://lnkd.in/eSKEbqQJ

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Since early 2021, VC quarterly exit values have plummeted to $50B or below, a stark contrast to the six consecutive quarters of $100B+ exits before then. With IPOs dwindling and M&A activity slow, the future of venture industry exits appears uncertain. Will we see a surge in private venture-backed company acquisitions? This could be a crucial and innovative strategy to boost VC exits. Increased private acquisitions might offer a much-needed lifeline, providing a creative solution to the current exit drought in the venture capital market. #venturecapital #inspireglobalventures

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Founder <> founder convos are the biggest unlock for company building. I spent the last 2+ weeks in SF. Besides meeting with customers, I spent a ton of time with founders / early stage builders that I deeply respect (shoutout to Abhinav Asthana, Christina Cacioppo, Kevin Van Gundy, Akshay Kothari, Yuhki Yamashita, Tara Viswanathan, Celine Halioua, & Michelle Valentine). I’m extremely grateful to have the chance to spend time with these folks. Some reflections from these brilliant people. 1/ People > everything. A company is a collection of people. Company success comes down to hiring the best people. 2/ Startup problems aren’t *that* unique. Startups are HARD and even if you think your challenges are specific to your company, they’re likely not. Someone else has faced the same thing, and you likely don’t need to reinvent the wheel. 3/ Let some fires burn. Focus > trying to do everything. As a startup, you can’t fix everything at once with limited resources (even if you want to). You need to focus on the stuff that will move the needle the most. Pick the top 1 or 2 problems, fix them, then move onto the next. It’s okay if some fires need to burn for a little in the meantime. 4/ Company operating cadences are key. We’re redoing our cadences now, so it was super interesting to learn how others run their board meetings, leadership meetings, all hands, etc. A consistent theme for board & leadership meetings is to have everyone complete a prompt in written doc, share with each other, then use the time to have meatier discussions. 5/ Be competitor aware, customer obsessed. Competitors cause unnecessary noise. Build products and make decisions based on customer / market need and founder intuition, never based on competition. Are these learnings helpful? If so, can share more founder learning posts in the future!

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Fin Capital’s Fintech CEO Pulse Report is out! We surveyed over 50 CEOs and C-suite leaders of private companies from our portfolio and the broader fintech industry during June and July 2024 to get a quick pulse on what’s top of mind for fintech’s leaders. Here are some key takeaways: Optimism in the Air: More than 60% of CEOs reported being bullish or highly bullish on the fintech industry for the second half of 2024. Regulatory Changes on the Horizon: CEOs identified Cryptocurrency, Open Banking, and Buy Now Pay Later as the top three sectors likely to see increased regulation by the end of 2024. CEOs Want Business Development Support: Beyond capital and fundraising, business development support emerged as the top area where CEOs seek investor assistance.For more insights, including comments from my colleagues Ren Riley, Logan Allin, Matthew D. Mann, CFA, and Stephanie Perez, check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/euHK8-9B

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Thrilled to announce the launch of our inaugural edition of Beyond Benchmarks at Emergence Capital. This comprehensive report dives deep into the metrics and trends shaping the early-stage enterprise cloud market. A huge thank you to our VC partners and contributors for making this possible! Here's a sneak peek of our findings: --> 60% of companies have already integrated GenAI into their service offerings, with another 20% planning to do so this year. --> While most companies use OpenAI as their primary LLM, many are experimenting with multiple models. We’re seeing a trend toward intelligently routing GenAI inference requests based on cost, performance, and security. --> Companies that have implemented GenAI are showing promising results, with a 7% higher NDR compared to those that haven’t. Beyond Benchmarks goes further with more GenAI trends, insights on the current fundraising environment, and key performance metrics. Our goal is to provide founders and their teams with valuable benchmarks to help them make better-informed decisions. At Emergence Capital, we're committed to helping founders build iconic companies. Dive into the full report here: https://lnkd.in/g6bnvAZM

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Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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We love seeing founders be able to keep their equity and take advantage of non-dilutive funding sources⚒️. We're excited to collaborate with Stacy Chin, PhD leader of KeepYourEquity.co, who has secured over $15M in SBIR/STTR grants for startups across various sectors. She's written a guest blog post sharing her insights on navigating the competitive landscape of grant funding 💰. Some highlights: ❇️ Understanding SBIR/STTR: A lifeline for startups, offering up to $2 million in non-dilutive funding! ⏺️ Learning how to overcome hurdles and capitalize on the golden opportunity. ❇️ Gaining essential tips on outlining your go-to-market strategy, choosing the right program, and preparing thoroughly. ⏺️ Benefiting from Stacy Chin's 10+ years of grant writing experience and her extensive track record in securing funding for startups. Read More in the blog post linked in the comment below 👇🏾 #SBIR #STTR #GrantFunding #StartupSuccess #SmallBusiness #KeepYourEquityCo #ShayCPA #cpafirm #techaccountants #startupaccountants #techstartup #techcompany #nondilutivefunding

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Congratulations to Surojit Chatterjee, Souvik Sen and Ema Unlimited team on a successful fundraising! SCB 10X is thrilled to announce our investment in Ema as part of the $36M Series A extension funding round, which brings their total raise since inception to $61M. This round, led by Accel and S32, included participation from other notable investors such as Prosus Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Wipro Ventures, COLLE CAPITAL and Frontier Ventures B.V. Ema's innovative approach to enterprise workflow automation through Generative AI strongly aligns with our investment thesis in the Deep Tech space. Their platform, which combines a proprietary Generative Workflow Engine™, Knowledge Graph, and EmaFusion™ Model, addresses critical challenges in enterprise AI adoption while ensuring the highest levels of security and compliance. Founded in 2023, EMA has shown impressive rapid tractions within their first year. Their ability to create customizable "AI employees" or "Personas" for specific business functions promises to revolutionize enterprise productivity across multiple industries. The founding team's exceptional track record in scaling products and technologies at companies like Google, Flipkart, Coinbase and Okta, gives us confidence in Ema's ability to capitalize on the fast-growing autonomous AI and agents market, projected to reach $41 billion by 2029. As SCBX Group aims to increase our AI-enabled revenue to 75% by 2028, we believe this partnership will provide valuable insights into deploying efficient, reliable, and compliant AI solutions. We're excited to support Ema's vision of transforming the future of work with Universal AI Employees and look forward to the innovations that lie ahead. Press release of Ema’s fundraising: https://lnkd.in/gpe-FV26 #artificialintelligence #generativeai #ai #startups #venturecapital

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My first startup story: 🙋🏽‍♀️ I answered a Craigslist ad, had an onsite interview 1 week later, and was working at my first startup 2 weeks later. 📈 With the ambiguous title of Operations Associate, I was onboarding customers in my first week ,and gradually became unofficial people ops as the team doubled in size over that first year. 🥵 Over the course of nearly 4 years, the team would 5x in size, I would have 5 different managers, & would learn what “sweat equity” really meant. 🤪 It was the best. It was the worst. I had to learn everything as I went. I cried a lot. I cared too much. I (like to think) I got a lot of people their first experience in tech. I fast tracked my startup career. It was addictive. I spent the next 8 years attempting to replicate the highs of that experience in other roles. Join me for more startup journey stories at Initialized Capital’s May 15th Startup Talent Summit. 👉🏽 Register here: https://lnkd.in/g_nDPjWi (Space is limited)

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