Andres Blank

I'm excited to reshare this timeless episode of #Supermanagers featuring David O. Sacks, a member of the PayPal Mafia, founder of Yammer, Inc., and General Partner at Craft Ventures. David offers invaluable advice for CEOs, managers, founders, and anyone looking to elevate their organization. In this episode, David dives into:  - Introverted leadership - Managing hyper-growth - Knowing when to throw out processes  - And so much more. Don't miss out on his unique perspective and leadership journey. Tune in to learn from one of the best in the business! 🎧 Link in comments 👇

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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I believe two of the big winners over the next 10 years in the SMB category will be PE who are rolling up the businesses and GenAI powered software that makes running these businesses significantly more turnkey and/or profitable. Thanks for having me on Jay Kapoor. If you want spicy takes fast forward to 25 min mark. If you want to get deep in market analysis buckle in for the whole thing. https://lnkd.in/d8M7Jyrx

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Congrats to Mairon Sandoval, Manuel Cangas & Team OCN (onecarnow.com) on the successful $86M round of funding (debt and equity), Co-Led by Great North Ventures! OCN, provides a car subscription (rental) service for gig workers in Mexico that provides the strongest financing coupled with a myriad of other services to benefit the driver and their riders. They raised $86 million in equity and debt to fund growth in Mexico as well expand internationally. The Series A round for the company was led by Brazil’s Caravela Capital, Collide Capital, and Great North Ventures on the equity side. New York-based i80 Group led the debt portion of the raise. The proceeds of the round will be used to grow the company’s tech infrastructure, hire numerous positions including bolstering executive team, and of course to finance quite a few more cars. Great North Ventures invested in the earlier Seed round and has watched the company grow very quickly over the past 12 mos. See link for more details about OCN and this round including a link to the coverage from Bloomberg. Nate Pierotti Nick Moran J.R. Moran Brian Hollins Edward Goldstein Rodrigo Basil Andersen Brunna Zogbi Ivan Montoya https://lnkd.in/gg28Cssg

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🔥 Founders, don't make the mistake of pursuing VC funding if your startup isn't the right fit! 🔥 In this podcast clip, I sit down with David Forsberg, CFA from Ascent Energy Ventures to explore the truth about raising venture capital. 💸 As a startup founder, former VC, and advisor to companies that have raised over $1 billion, I know how crucial it is to target the right investors. 🎯 Check out the full podcast for more expert advice on navigating the world of venture capital. Link in the original Kruze Consulting post. 🎧 #startups #venturecapital

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A recruiting agency made $82k in their first month of recruiting on Paraform - that's $1M in equivalent annual billing! John Keenan and his brilliant team at Continuity Partners (shoutout Brianda Reyes Castro and Lona H.) are making a placement every week on Paraform at some of the most exciting companies. John was one of the early recruiters at Palantir Technologies, and joined Continuity Partners in 2007 - he claims (and hiring managers on Paraform seem to agree) working with him will be the most fun you can have talking to a recruiter. How was his team so successful? He broke it down for us: “Recruiters make money by doing the same search over and over. Not by placing one-offs. The best way to grow your business is to find a lot of people, find a lot of jobs, and build a pipeline...and Paraform makes that much easier, it's awesome.” Want to read the full story on how he does it? Check out John's article in comments 👇 Congrats John and team — we’re looking forward to seeing your continued success!

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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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Wei D. (Founder and CEO of unicorn Clipboard Health) dropped some major 💎 gems of wisdom during her fireside chat with PearX founders at Pear VC SF Studio yesterday. These really resonated: 💎 PMF isn't something you achieve once - staying relevant to your market is an ongoing pursuit 💯 (Wei shared that to date she still LOVES talking with customers and - even at 1000+ employees and with all the success already achieved - she continues to chase unlocks for the business and recently obtained her nursing assistant certification in order to stay close to users and unlock new insights with them 🥇) 💎 If you're scared of sales, don't think of it as sales -- you're just talking to someone who you're trying to help. Approach your customers with care and listen to them as you would a friend. The moment it's an actual conversation with a friend, that's probably where you're going to get your first sale. If it feels "salesy" you're probably not doing it the right way. 🤝 💎 Do whatever it takes to get in front of your customers! (For Wei this meant driving around at 8 months pregnant and walking up to DMs at nursing homes!) 🚗 💎 The users you speak with in your market will give you the key jargon you need to use to speak back to your market. Listen intently and adopt their language! 🗣 💎 There is little you decide that can't be undone. Be smart, make calculated decisions, but don't overthink things --- err on the side of action and quick decision making. 🏃‍♀️ 💎 Iterate until your users feel passionately about what you're doing (ie. they get angry when the product is down or doesn't work). You want your users to care A LOT about the problem you're solving. 😡 Wei's resilience, grit and work ethic are off the charts. What an inspiration! 👏 #femalefounders #inspiration #techfounder #unicornfounder #hero

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💼 Learn more about effective cash management strategies for your startup! Will rates come down soon? We don't have a crystal ball. 🔮 But we do have insights on what to do if they come down. Learn from our expert insights on navigating potentially lower interest rates. 📊 Link to the article in the original post. #StartupFinance #CashManagement #VentureCapital

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We believe in extreme vetting of our founders. You can't build a unicorn if you spend time on silly stuff, like seeing family and friends. Grow up, and focus on investor returns. #vc #startups #investment

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All #entrepreneurs hit a fundraising plateau. It's the founders who push through that plateau that see fundraising spikes at the end of their #RegCF campaigns. Here are 3 tips to help you break through and keep the momentum going: 1. Engage Your Community: Keep your current and potential investors excited and informed. Regular updates, behind-the-scenes content, and interactive Q&A sessions can reignite interest and drive further investment. Authentic engagement builds trust and encourages your supporters to spread the word. 2. Leverage Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with influencers, industry experts, or complementary businesses to expand your reach. A strategic partner can introduce your campaign to a new, engaged audience, providing the boost you need to overcome a plateau. 3. Optimize Your Marketing Efforts: Reevaluate and refine your marketing strategy. Analyze what’s working and what’s not. Use targeted ads, compelling storytelling, and strong calls-to-action to attract new investors. Sometimes, a fresh approach can make all the difference. Breaking through a plateau requires persistence, so don't give up! Stay proactive and keep pushing forward!

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Excellent data to have when raising capital. #Automotiveindustry #electriccar #electricvehicles #automotive #electricvehicle #emobility #futureofmobility #EV #electric #electriccars #fleets #fleet #electricvehicle #emobility #futureofmobility #fleetmanagement #startup #impactinvesting #VC #angelinvesting #venturecapital #Entrepreneurs #privateequity #familyoffices

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According to Morning Brew, $12.2 billion in venture capital went into AI-related startups in the first three months of the year. According to SomosVC, Latina/os accounted for only 2% of all venture capital funding. Based on last year's numbers, that's roughly $3.4 billion. In other words, in the first three months of the year, AI has received almost four times as much capital as the entire Latina/o entrepreneurship demographic did in a whole year. Let that sink in.

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Love seeing the diversity of PE operator applicants to our Ascend leadership accelerator, across both role: → CEO → CRO → CPO → VP Ops → Head of Corp Dev → PE investor turned COO → More ..and sector: → Edu → SaaS → Franchise → E-commerce → Industrial svcs → Manufacturing → Healthcare svcs → Residential svcs → Managed IT svcs → (More) Makes me think of of something I've learned elsewhere in my career: oftentimes, the most impactful ideas and learnings come from other domains. Reminds me of this story (from the book "Benchmarking for Best Practices") ⤵️ “In 1912, a curious Henry Ford watched men cut meat during a tour of a Chicago slaughterhouse. The carcasses were hanging on hooks mounted on a monorail. After each man performed his job, he would push the carcass to the next station. When the tour was over, the guide said, ‘Well, sir, what do you think?’ Mr. Ford turned to the man and said, ‘Thanks, son, I think you may have given me a real good idea.’ Less than six months later, the world’s first assembly line started producing magnetos in the Ford Highland Park Plant.” * * * Still enrolling for our first 2 cohorts for the Ascend PE leadership accelerator. Learn from other leaders. Check out the link in the comments

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This is fascinating. My two portfolio companies on the fastest path to Series A have kept the leanest teams. Both of them are lingering around cash flow positive on a monthly basis. One is growing gangbusters, one is growing nicely. Good data below to show that these activities are being rewarded. We're still in cockroach times. Also fwiw, I'm constantly amazed by and learning from Peter Walker. If you're interested in the data of venture funding (AND IF YOU'RE A FOUNDER, YOU SHOULD BE), then follow Peter.

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Very impressed with the Wevo Energy story and I share those feelings. It is never easy facing all challenges and complexities. #Podcast #StartupJourney #SolarEnergy #Entrepreneurship #WEVO #SolarEdge #Acquisition

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Sometimes I encourage founders to socialize their company to prospective investors before actually starting an official fundraise process. We've seen this work in a variety of ways: (1) preemptive term sheets; (2) founders pick up on investor sentiment towards their business; (3) opportunity to form more organic relationship with an investor; and (4) get a sense of what investors want to see for a subsequent fundraise. Some founders are reluctant to socialize their business until it appears more solid and there's obvious traction. While this makes sense, the reality is that early-stage is inherently messy and investors know the plane is being built and flown simultaneously. The art of conveying the narrative of, "this is what I've already accomplished and here's where the business will be in next 3-6-9-12 months" can be the most effect fundraising tool in the game. What do others in the VC community think of this strategy?

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Charles Hudson is hands-down one of the sharpest minds in early-stage investing. As the Founder and Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, Charles has backed over 375 companies and supported more than 400 founders. → His portfolio includes hits like Clearco, Juniper Square, and Carrot → He's helped founders raise over $175 million across four funds → He's an active leader in the VC community, serving as the 2023-2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors But even with all of his successes and accolades, what really sets Charles apart is his founder-first philosophy. He's not looking for "coachable" founders who hang on his every word. He wants founders who are decisive, independent thinkers. He believes his job is to give founders what they need, not impose his own agenda. Charles is the kind of investor every founder wants in their corner. One who shows up, follows through, and builds genuine relationships over time. And on this week’s episode of Minimum Viable Podcast, he's sharing his insights on what makes for a truly productive founder-investor partnership. Founders, this is a conversation you’ll want to hear. — What's the #1 quality you look for in an investor? Tune in to the full episode when it drops this Wednesday to hear much more from Charles and learn how to make the most of your investor relationships.

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For those a bit interested in Startups, and more specifically building ones that will succeed, @madelynblair and I hope you will tune it. Detail on the pic. #startups #arrangr https://lnkd.in/eHMbgHV7

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