Brett Bullington

Should we prioritize people, or tech innovation in our large-scale development projects? The strategy's slowly shifting to people. And that’s exactly how California Forever CEO Jan Sramek wins over skeptics like Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. Not bad. “There’s a lot of baggage that tech has created in building new cities that, unfortunately, we are at the receiving end of”, explains Sramek. So smart cities and tech libertarian network states aren't the focus here. Quite the contrary. He calls the project (in this context) “really, really boring.” The focus: ∙ More housing ∙ Walkable cities ∙ Affordable by design* ∙ Improving the country for residents *(housing prices to start at $400k) I recently covered California Forever, dubbing it a future ‘Tech Utopia’ given its massive Silicon Valley backing. So it’s exciting to see Sramek's positioning and skillful handling of the grilling. Is the era of the smart city over due to its 'baggage'? Time will tell. More on California Forever and other visionaries designing new cities from scratch here: https://lnkd.in/e9-i386q Full interview: https://lnkd.in/eMnT8QhU #futureofcities #urbandevelopment

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Are you looking to break into VC / PE / being a CEO? Are you frustrated at job applying process? Do you want to surround yourself with the best and brightest and build a network that includes investors, 10x founders, and other hellbent on changing the world? Do you run a start up that needs some hypergrowth? The job market has changed, applying for jobs is dead, its all about creating jobs via entrepreneurship or possessing executive skills to create a job at a company. Come join us at IOTA Labs MBA bootcamp; a donation based month long part time, program that puts infront of VC/PE deal flow with the intention that if you can follow the program, you will be contributing to large deals and getting paid for the work. The point of this program is to rapidly convert highly motivated individuals to high performing executives by surrounding them with the training, network, and skills they need to be successful @ IOTA or beyond. With training from tenured product manager @ Google, VC Fund managers, investors, 10x founders, CxOs (15+ at GM, Salesforce, Accenture), legal experts, and other subject matter experts https://lnkd.in/eSgHkB9u Seats will fill up fast just as an FYI , do please repost this so we can help as many people as possible.

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If anyone is in North County San Diego, on Thursday May 2nd, we will be hosting a tech entrepreneur and investor meet up at 5:30pm. We’ll have a couple speakers, one of which is a fin-tech start-up raising a round, followed up by a presentation on the state of the stock & crypto market. We host these events quarterly and usually get a lot of founders and investors to attend. If anyone is interested, please message me and I can send you the details. LaunchPad San Diego #startups #startupincubator #entrepreneur #investing #crypto #meetup

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Despite the headwinds many software companies (even public ones) are facing today, there are still those that are delivering great results. Check out how the top decile companies in our Beyond Benchmarks survey are performing. And don't forget to review the full report for many more insights on the state of private software businesses.

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Many people have asked that I share the keynote presentation from Coatue’s East Meets West conference from this past June. This gives a great perspective on both public and private markets and how we see the impact on investing. #coatue #venturecapital

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There's a new breed of CEO in town. The AI-Native CEO. These people are either rebuilding archaic companies or building in "adjacent possibilities," they're creating truly durable businesses with real customer value, and importantly, they're building their companies in an AI-native way; more efficient than ever, stitching together technologies that once required high-overhead, and focusing their hiring on people who are autodidacts, the ones who are inhaling knowledge on how to improve their own functions leveraging the newest tooling for the future of their jobs. A few of my favorite examples... Valley, backed by General Catalyst, getting 30-50% response rates for salespeople using conversational selling instead of archaic and annoying drip campaigns. AminoChain, backed by a16z, turning biobanks into to shoppable specimen centers so that healthcare institutions and researchers can purchase biomaterial like blood an stem cells and so donors can earn and track their participation in science. HIFI, backed by Blockchain Founders Fund, using stablecoin for B2B payments, creating instant settlement times and eliminating fee extortion. Dune Security, backed by Craft, using AI to test, identify, and train employees on their own risky actions, automatically reducing the biggest risk any business has--the behavior of its own employees. https://lnkd.in/eJUnuM4z #venturecapital #ai #artificialintelligence Antler

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An interesting article below, that demonstrates out how San Diego is punching above its weight.  And how Connect's strategy and execution over time, contintues to be central to that success. The article describes the current state of the market in Seattle.  (And i love Seattle.) It's a market that we tend to track with relative to venture fundings.  They used to kick our butts, we outraised them each of the last three years.  This despite the fact they have 3x as many funds there, and 9x the amount of resident capital there. (per pitchbook) Some key takeaways:  * They continue to compare themselves to SIlicon Valley. Instead, we leverage our proximity. *They whine there's not enough local investors (see note above - they have more than us). We bring over 200 VCs to SD annually! * They say founders are not connected with one another. We bring CEOs together regularly, in a variety of ways - private dinners and through our Springboard program. * They say they need to elevate their image on a national & international stage. Why we created and continue to build Five.Ten.Thirty (aka Inno Day).  * And the last paragraph - they need to concentrate on making their region a great place to live. Our mantra: "It's about Better, not Bigger." (See XEO, TL Fund). THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT. WE ARE ON A MISSION TOGETHER!!!  (Comments, whining, suggestions on SD always welcome.) https://lnkd.in/g6Rq_f2Y

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DeepCast shipped a number of really cool new features recently in advance of a broad outreach push to podcast listeners. One new feature is our new Daily DeepDigest tool that sends you a concise daily email including any new episodes from the trailing 24 hours from any podcasts you Subscribe to (on DeepCast). Think daily podcast cliff notes or podcast news ticker tape, with a hint of Morning Brew various brews or PitchBook News—it's increasing information throughput when you're pressed for time. And this feature is rapidly evolving to distill other key extractions from shows you're already interested in, but also exposing you to other shows you might be unfamiliar with that also have nuggets to share—and thus increasing your aperture yet still conscious of your time. Want to go deeper on any given episode? Click the episode detail and you're off to an episode on DeepCast, where you can subsequently read a longer form distillation of that episode or go straight to the source and listen to the episode. (And podcaster friends, these pages are definitely increasing indexing and thus Google entry points to your shows!) I'm loving this feature as a user, personally. Can't wait to see what others think! #BuildingInPublic #Podcasts #AllTheWorldsInformation #HowYouWantIt

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Have you heard of #CapVC? It’s an application platform designed specifically for the use of #VC firms. Essentially, it’s a robust #AI-powered tool made to simplify the daily operations of managing a #fund. Isn’t that something, a VC funded start-up designed to help improve the productivity of VC funding! According to this article from TechCrunch, Cap VC is looking to become much more than just an ‘operating system’ — the company aims to be a simplified and extremely efficient way to run a VC firm: reducing digital clutter by turning PDF files, income statements and balance sheets into readable data, automating company suggestions based on the context of a VC’s portfolio, and more. Cap VC is currently developing native apps on Mac and Windows, alongside releasing an API so that developers can build on top of their foundations. So, are any of my fellow VCs interested in using this software? If not Cap VC, is there any interest for similar software to be created down the line? Are there downsides to using a third-party application like this? I want to know what you all think.

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As we dive into 2024, the Series A fundraising landscape is becoming increasingly daunting. Investment standards are soaring, and fewer startups are making the cut. Series A investors are finding many seed stage companies too premature. The median valuation jump from seed to Series A skyrocketed from $19.5 million in Q1 2022 to $28.7 million in Q1 2024. Investors now demand stronger revenue performance, targeting $2 million to $3 million in ARR, up from $1 million to $2 million. Alarmingly, only 12% of Q1 2022 seed startups secured Series A funding within two years, down from 31.8% in Q1 2020. #venture #earlystage #seedtoseriesa #seed #seriesa #inspireglobalventures https://lnkd.in/gW4bkcNy

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Interesting concept to rename rounds by milestones. But "Series Client Expansion Extension" just doesn't have the same ring to it 😋 . Maybe we can start incorporating it into a descriptor to add context, "Series Seed Extension: client expansion." #startups #venturecapital

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Some midweek wisdom from Y Combinator founder, Paul Graham, on why startups shouldn't stress over competitors. According to Graham, based on Y Combinator's extensive data set, few of their startups are actually killed by competitors. He compares the protection a startup has against competitors to the vastness of space, emphasising that the market is large enough for multiple players to thrive. Graham's analogy likens encountering a competitor to suddenly finding another runner in your race lane - the best course of action? “It’s sort of like if you’re running the hundred meters and suddenly a lane appears with another runner in it. What should you do? Run as fast as you can, just like you presumably were.” #Startups #Competition #Entrepreneurship #wearehiring

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Consumer founders in SF come check out our event next week and register below

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Congratulations to Roland Reynolds and the team at Industry Ventures on the raise of its latest $900M hybrid fund (split three ways, 40% backing VC funds, 40% directly investing in promising Series B startups from their existing partnerships, and 20% acquiring stakes in emerging investment firms from other LPs looking to exit). Read more from Marina Temkin, CFA at TechCrunch below. #VC #venturecapital #fundraising #startups #investing #news #technews #startupnews

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VENTURE STUDIO’S BUILD AND LAUNCH COMPANIES, DEMANDING A DYNAMIC STAFFING MODEL, AND RIGOROUS PLANNING CYCLE. The Nobody Studios venture studio operates in a way no one’s had the guts to try before. We solve problems creatively, accept risk, and experiment incessantly to drive progress. Our culture is built around testing, learning, and continually evolving in connection with the crowd. This is our engine for creating impactful companies with unprecedented speed and efficiency. The studio consists of a team of proven and experienced entrepreneurs who together drive progress at speed and with conviction. This is where true innovation shines. And the way we scale is to integrate category experts and leaders to carry the torch, always supported by the studio team. Interested in becoming a Nobody? Let's chat! #venturestudio #hiring

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Thrilled to share our first acquisition! Blockworks has acquired The Breakdown Network. Michael and I first met Nathaniel in 2018. We had just launched Blockworks, and he had just launched one of the early crypto newsletters. In 2020, when we started building our editorial department, we had countless calls discussing how to build a proper crypto native media brand. Over the years, we've seen Nathaniel elevate The Breakdown into the most trusted daily podcast in the industry. What sets The Breakdown apart is not just its frequency (6x/week) but its depth. It delves into macro, geopolitics, and major power shifts, always framing these discussions within their implications for the crypto world. This acquisition marks a big expansion of our podcast network, enhances our advertising capabilities, and broadens our distribution channels. It also strengthens our ability to cross-promote our events and research, furthering our commitment to delivering top-tier information to crypto professionals and investors. Looking ahead, our plan is to establish The Breakdown as the flagship daily podcast of Blockworks. NLW will continue to lead The Breakdown podcast as its host, and we'll add others from our editorial team over the next couple of months. We'll also do something with the Bitcoin Builders podcast – more on that soon. Feels like a dream come true to be able to work so closely with NLW. This is a big step forward for Blockworks, I'm excited about all the opportunities that will come from this. Onwards! https://lnkd.in/gKq9uszp

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Must be a slow news week in tech for so many people to get upset at an ad, but Apple tends to generate VERY strong reactions. 🍏 Here's that ad "fixed" by Reza Sixo Safai. https://lnkd.in/ezKknmYq #tech #technology #innovation #deeptech #apple #ipad #marketing #money #business #future #startups #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship

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Let's finally get rid off the "VC alphabet song" and redo the system to become more founder friendly. "The benchmarks set by funding stages are often arbitrary and not necessarily aligned with the actual development needs of individual startups." #vc #venturecapital #founder #fundraising #startups #fundingstages #funding #fundingrounds #pitchbook

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