Vincent Nallatamby

Learn from OpenAI’s playbook: Prioritizing key projects and empowering a mission-oriented team are essential for startups aiming to make a significant impact 👇 ➡ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗲: Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI and Brad Lightcap, COO at OpenAI 🔌 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿: Harry Stebbings, Founder at 20VC ✏ “20VC: OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap on The Future of Foundation Models” ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲: "There are two strategies to build on AI right now: [...] (1) to assume the model is not going to get better and then you kind of build all these little things on top of it; [...] (2) to build assuming that OpenAI is going to stay on the same rate of trajectory and the models are going to keep getting better at the same pace." ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: "At any given point in a company's life, there's only one to three things that really matter. And that spills over into how we run the team because [...] if we can align on what those things are, [...] then it helps me to translate down to the teams that I'm building." ⭐ 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: "I think people criminally underrate how important it is and how much return you really get on just giving people access to the technology. [...] Someone who used to spend two days doing something now spends two minutes doing it and is freed up to do 85 other things in their daily life." ⭐ 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶��𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆'𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: "I watched what has happened to other tech companies when they just become the place you want to work because it's a good resume item. [...] I think companies that lose their mission orientation and get taken over by mercenaries usually come to regret that." ⭐ 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀: "Find a way to make sure that there's this very flat and even playing field when it comes to how you look to the team for perspective, decision-making, judgment, and creativity." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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For those seeking investors and for those making investments - a great thread by Nicole DeTommaso with important advice: Choose your key points but not all of them are available. Read 👇👇👇 #vc #investing #founders #startups

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📰 Solo VCs are rising in popularity once again. This means only one General Partner is leading the firm, versus multiples. 💔 Why? There are GP breakups going on all around us after partnerships have been tested by the market for years now. The bar to co-found a venture firm with a partner is very high. Those GPs that thought they might graft another one on in the short term to share the load are stopping in their tracks to deeply consider those implications. 🌱 Many are opting to bring in more junior talent and grow them into Partner roles instead. It’ll take time and capital to be able to do that as the firm grows. Talked to 3 diff GPs about this at dinner last night and we’re all leaning toward that approach in our short and long term planning. 💡 FYI - this is just an observation of the moment we’re in. There are plenty of firms thriving with full partnerships as well as solo GPs. But it’s worth calling out that new partnerships are particularly risky right now, especially if the partners haven’t worked with each other for a long time.

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Weekly VC deals done: Sixfold / USA (NYC) / $15M / Generative AI for risk analysis / Salesforce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Crystal Venture Partners Hoop / USA (NYC) / $5M / AI-powered task management / Index Ventures, Origin Ventures, Divergent Capital, Chingona Ventures Liminal / USA (Denver, CO) / $5M / Generative AI for data security / Fin Capital, High Alpha, Matchstick Ventures, Craft Ventures Scout Fund Signapse / UK (Guildford) / £2M / AI Sign Language translation software / Soulmates Ventures, Deeptech Seed Fund, Royal Association for Deaf people, Empirical Ventures, CEAS Investments, The FSE Group Tobiko Data / USA (San Mateo, CA) / $21.8M / Data infrastructure / Unusual Ventures, Theory Ventures, 20Sales, Fivetran CEO, Census CEO, MotherDuck CEO Taloflow / USA (San Francisco) / $1.3M / AI technology / Wonder Ventures, First Check Ventures SiTration / USA (Boston, MA) / $11.8M / Materials recovery / 2150, BHP Ventures, Extantia, Orion Industrial Ventures, Azolla Ventures, MIT E14 Fund Kanastra / Brazil (São Paulo) / $21M / Tech-driven back office for finance / Kaszek, Atlantico, Valor Capital, Quona Capital, QED Investors, Actyus HyperSpectral / USA (Alexandria, VA) / $8.5M / AI-powered spectral intelligence / RRE Ventures, Kibo Ventures, Correlation Ventures, GC&H Investments Advanced Medicine Partners / USA (Durham, NC) / $32M / Advanced medicines / Deerfield Management, ARCH Venture Partners Understory / USA (Madison, WI) / $15M / Insurance for climate-vulnerable industries / True Ventures, Prelude Ventures M0 / Switzerland (Zug) / $35M / Decentralized financial infrastructure / Bain Capital Crypto, Galaxy Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, GSR, Caladan, SCB 10X Wevr / USA (Los Angeles, CA) / $3.5M / Creative development and production / HTC Corp., Epic Games Dive Engineering Software / Germany (Berlin) / $10M / Simulation software / D. E. Shaw group, First Momentum Ventures, Segenia Capital, Senovo Capital Envisagenics / USA (NYC) / Undisclosed / RNA splicing therapeutics / Third Kind Venture Capital, Empire State Development, Red Cell Partners, Bristol Myers Squibb Testsigma / USA (San Francisco, CA) / $8.2M / AI-powered test automation platform / MassMutual Ventures, Accel, STRIVE, BoldCap Inventive / USA (San Francisco, CA) / $6.5M / Embedded AI for SaaS / Wing VC, Tokyo Black, angel investors group XREX / Taiwan (Taipei) / $18.75M / Blockchain-enabled financial service / Tether iCOMAT / UK (Bristol) / $22.5M / Advanced composite manufacturing / 8VC, NATO Innovation Fund, Solvay Ventures, Velocity Partners VC restor3d / USA (Durham, NC) / $70M / 3D printed orthopedic implants / Summers Value Partners, Trinity Capital Eko Health / USA (San Francisco, CA) / $41M / AI for early detection of diseases / ARTIS Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, NTTVC, Questa Capital, Double Point Ventures, EDBI, LG Technology Ventures Alinia / Spain (Barcelona) / $2.4M / Corporate alignment platform / Speedinvest, Precurs

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💰💻 $100 Million AI Fund Launched by Anthropic and Menlo Ventures 💻💰 In a bold move to support early-stage startups, Anthropic and Menlo Ventures have launched the $100 million Anthology Fund, echoing Apple's successful iFund strategy. This fund aims to back startups that leverage Anthropic's AI technology, offering founders credits worth $25,000 to access its extensive language models. 🤝 The partnership not only provides financial support but also valuable resources like coaching, meetups, and direct access to Anthropic. This symbiotic approach fosters innovation and lowers barriers to entry in the AI ecosystem. 🔥 With this move, Anthropic is positioning itself in competition with OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT. The AI landscape is evolving rapidly, and this fund is a strategic step towards driving groundbreaking advancements. What do you think about this new fund? Share your thoughts in the comments below 👇 #AI #Startups #Anthropic #MenloVentures #Innovation

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SenseNova 5o is China's first real-time multimodal AI model to rival GPT-4o. It can process audio, text, image and video data, allowing users to interact with the model simply by talking to it. https://lnkd.in/dXJM39s6

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🛠 💻 Software Defined Automation is building an industrial DevOps platform so that manufacturers and capitalism can move faster. They might even help save industrial engineering 💻🛠 It's W4 / Q2 / 2024 & this week in our MGMT Boston startup series we’ve got SDA, a Seed stage startup bringing manufacturing floors and their PLC (programmable logic controllers) further online, better connecting them to the control systems and cloud environments above. Founder Josef Waltl started Software Defined Automation alongside Axel Scheurer in 2021 after building his career in industrial technology at Siemens & AWS. At Siemens he has led product management initiatives for Factory Automation Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) for Asia, as well as helped build-up their strongly US based Industrial Software Business. Soon after starting at Amazon he hired himself into a global role out of Munich building their industrial software partner ecosystem after authoring one of their infamous 6 page memos. PLCs have not historically had their own DevOps platform to help manage updates, share insights, or even handle user access. Wouldn’t that be nice to bring online? If you were to visualize the problem, imagine a manufacturing center that produces adhesives, like SDA’s customer Henkel. At one of Henkel’s manufacturing plants they have a fully connected second floor overlooking machines. Those machines are run by PLCs that speak a different language and must be serviced by external machine builders when updates or servicing is needed. That can take weeks! Leading to lost productivity and revenue. Josef is committed to help solve a major challenge of our society. We need to produce more, especially domestically as the onshoring of manufacturing continues for cost, defense, and conveniency reasons. We lack 80M manufacturing workers globally and the average age of an automation engineer is 43. Less than 10% of these workers are in their 20s. This slower moving, lower paying engineering tech stack isn’t appealing to up & coming developers. We need the best & brightest to build the future of industrial tech. SDA has grown to a team of more than 20 employees and is focused on expanding in the U.S. in 2024 with Marketing & Sales based in Boston. The company grew revenue more than 200% in 2023 and works with a growing number of Enterprise customers. The U.S. is their focus market for the year and they chose Boston to complement their Munich beginnings, the home of PTC, Aspen Technology, and other top industrial tech companies & educational institutions. They’re out to get the best people..and believe they are in Boston. Operators to Know: -Hilary Ives, Marketing -Leo Kilfoy, VP Product -Jason Silva, Principal Sales Manager If you're interested in learning more, including the key roles SDA is hiring for, the full post is linked in the comments! And sign up for the newsletter to see who we bring you next week, will you?? #bostontech #startups #manufacturing

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RCS is the advancement on SMS that’s now the default protocol on Google Messages—Android’s iMessage equivalent. That’s won’t be the case on iPhone, and instead we expect RCS to run in parallel. Put simply, green bubbles will remain green, albeit they’ll be RCS and not just SMS, which means the functionality will improve.

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Tell your story from the customers point of view

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How far will Tesla shares drop? They just published Q1 results. Not good, to say the least. On the other hand from user perspective Tesla Model 3, especially with subsidies, represents remarkable value for money! It is priced at €40,000 in Poland🇵🇱 (subsidised) Tesla Company market overview: Pros: - The Model 3 and Y still outperform competitors. Cons: - A 13% year-over-year revenue drop indicates potential market saturation or lost market share. - Net income tumbles 55% - Tesla’s engagement in a price war with China. Honestly? Price war vs China? 🇨🇳 - Intensifying competition from both budget and luxury segments, particularly from Chinese manufacturers. - Criticism over halo products and marketing strategies build up. - Uncertainty surrounds the future product lineup. - Customer feedback suggests dissatisfaction with some design choices, like indicators built into the steering wheel and gearbox integrated on the screen? - quite foggy AI, digital, robot outlook to be honest. Can Elon Musk refocus on core business and client needs? Can he just follow Mark Zuckerberg’s recent strategic shifts? #tesla #elon

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I’m sure you have all heard of the #AI video generator #Sora by now, but have you heard about its direct rival, #Kling? Kling is a Chinese AI video generator product that is in its public trial stage, and can generate about 2 minutes of video in 1080p, 30fps quality from pure text prompts along with optional configurations. The AI model was developed by Kuaishou Technology, who also currently own #Kuaishou, the #2 most popular video sharing app behind Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Unfortunately right now, you do need an official Chinese phone number to use the app right now, but the fact that the tech is #publicly accessible means plenty of small artists are already playing around with the tool and are already finding unique ways to use the tech for their own benefits. Are you excited to see what AI generated video can do, or what up and coming creatives can do with the tool? Do you have any ethical/moral concerns about video generation? Is this the start of a new era for #filmmaking?

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Unaligned #17: Making humans better with new AI The Rabbit AI device took the Consumer Electronics Show by storm in January, which inspired Killian Lucas, founder of Open Interpreter,  to build a team that would build an open-source competitor, which, when first released in March, 2024, also sold out nearly instantly. Here Killian takes us through what this new kind of device can do and covers the ethical and social problems that a device that can watch everything you do, and listen to everything you say, can bring to people. Learn more at ⁠https://lnkd.in/g5fiEBtv⁠

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First and foremost, congratulations to the Allset team! It's been almost 9 years since we launched Allset in San Francisco (September 2015). During this period, we have hired close to 300 team members, each of whom has contributed tremendously to making this a success story. I am deeply grateful to every single person who has ever worked at the company; we couldn't have achieved this milestone without you. You are truly champions and exceptional human beings! Today, each Allsetter has a significant milestone to celebrate. We all wear a real victory badge deep in our hearts. This deal proves that our work is recognized and signifies immense appreciation for all the hard work we have done together. I am incredibly excited for Allset to join SoundHound AI, a global leader in voice artificial intelligence. Today, we start a new chapter for Allset, bringing around 20 team members including Anna Polishchuk and myself to join one of the most innovative companies in the AI space. Our team is challenged with creating a new kind of marketplace platform focused on voice commerce and its monetization. At SoundHound AI, our work will bring voice commerce capabilities to untapped markets around smart devices like cars, empowering drivers with effortless shopping opportunities, including food ordering via voice. I am honored to join SoundHound AI as Vice President, Voice AI Monetization and have huge beliefs for SoundHound's vision led by Keyvan Mohajer. These are truly exciting times and SoundHound AI is positioned to play a significant role in the future of AI. I also want to mention Allset investors whose support and guidance helped us to come that far. Andreessen Horowitz - Jeff Jordan Peter Blackwood Greycroft - Bo Peabody EBRD - Bruno Lusic, CFA Flashpoint Venture Capital - Lukas Harustiak Rainfall - Ron Rofe SMRK VC Fund - Andriy Dovzhenko Flyer One Ventures - Vital Laptenok Inovo.vc - 🚀Michal Rokosz Gaingels - Paul Grossinger FJ Labs -Jeff Weinstein The Garage Syndicate - Igor Shoifot VNV Global AB - Björn von Sivers Mathias Eklof Elysium Venture Capital - Nikolai Oreshkin Compound Runway Venture Partners - Marc Michel Daniel Curran Alexandr Chernyak Even though we have launched Allset in San Francisco, it is no secret that Allset was actually built out of an office in Kyiv by exceptional Ukrainians. I believe this is a big victory for Ukraine and its IT sector. Such news will continue empowering and motivating Ukrainian entrepreneurs to build things with a global reach. Never give up! 🇺🇦

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5 Habits of Visionary Leaders Eric Lam I am a venture innovator who helps entrepreneurs scale for exit. I wrote the book 📘📙The Fast Founder: from Startup to Exit in 36 Months 📕📗, that made AmazonSG’s #1 Bestseller (Small Business) in 2 weeks and Kinokuniya Bestseller in 5 weeks. #visonaries #leadership #leaders #innovation #breakthroughs #habits

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I see hundreds of pitches each month as a VC. So many fail to do justice to very good startups. That’s why I’m pretty excited to share that we managed to get Eugene Cheng 🪄 to run a masterclass in pitching for Tin Men Founder’s School in partnership with AppWorks and Aspire. You might have seen him on CNA’s ‘The Big Spark’ mentoring contestants. + He’s the quiet advisor behind many of the fundraising success stories of companies like Growthwell, Glints. + His startup clients have raised more than $300M (and counting) to date. + A trusted mentor to many accelerators like GROW, FINLab, Startupbootcamp, Longhash and more. For a couple of hours, he’ll be sharing: ✅The biggest mistake early-stage founders make in structuring their pitch (and how to avoid it) ✅The ‘Golden’ pitch formula that startups use to successfully raise eight-figures ✅How to turn flaws in your business into powerful stories that bolster your case ✅How to build urgency in your pitch so investors don’t drag their feet ✅Answers to your burning questions about what to exclude/include We’ve also carved aside time for Q&A where you can ask specific contextual questions to improve your own pitch. I highly encourage founders to attend if currently in fundraising mode or plan to raise in future. When: Tuesday May 21st, 2024 Time: 2PM-4PM Where: (RSVP to see venue) What questions would you ask? P.S. Link in the comments to sign up

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Let the wave begin! Pioneer Fund company Recall.ai *grew their revenue 10x* in the past year, has 300 enterprise customers, and just raised a $10M Series A led by Ridge Ventures. David Gu and Amanda Zhu dropped out of college at age 19 to start the company. They've grown it exponentially with a tiny team. They make it easy to build meeting bots that are cross-platform. They're aggregating all these different APIs into one unified API, the way Twilio did with cell phones. At first it "sounds" easy to build a meeting bot -- just integrate with the Zoom API. But in fact there's a huge long tail of things you need to build, security and privacy pitfalls, automations, transcription complexities, integrations, the calendar invites where someone is using Google Meet or Teams, staying up-to-date with the libraries, etc etc. Recall takes care of all of that. It's WAY easier to build on top of Recall.ai and focus on the features that make you unique. Congratulations to the Recall team!

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Launching a hardware product (and product development in general) isn't a "one size fits all" type of venture. Important decisions or directions, will impact the success of your company. One of these questions will be: should I hire a full, multi-disciplinary team in-house... or partner with outsourced engineering/product development firms? My (biased) take: Outsourcing offers more scalability and typically more flexibility compared to hiring which can be lengthy, cumbersome and more expensive in "hidden structural costs" (you have to take into account sourcing/hiring/onboarding time, benefits, cost of terminating if needed). As you all know: the clock is ticking when it comes to launching a hardware product. Outsourced engineering can yield great results in "flexing muscles where needed" to meet aggressive timelines and to "do it right the first time" as you're (supposedly) taping into a pool of experts who have brought many different products to market. The real beauty, though... is that You can do BOTH! You don't actually have to pick one vs the other. Not everything has to be done internally. Focus on the core IP/differentiator while some of the more traditional, detailed design is handed off to a team of capable folks who will gladly be helping in sprint mode (and fade away when the product hits the shelves). #Outsourcing #ProductDevelopment #ProductLaunch

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SF maintains its throne as the startup hub. Check out the t𝗼𝗽 𝟭𝟬 startup hotspots in the US¹: - San Francisco - NYC - LA - Austin - Seattle - Boston - Chicago - Atlanta - San Diego - Denver. Curious for more? Use Harmonic to discover this and many more startup trends shaping the VC landscape: https://lnkd.in/g8ZGmMBm #startups #venturecapital #founders #investors #vcs #ai ¹ Total number of startups founded in the last year.

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The visual AI landscape is advancing at a remarkable pace, with recent data showing VC funding for AI visual media increasing nearly 90% in Q1 2024 to $402.7 million. As CEO of Meero, I've been at the forefront of this transformation, and I wanted to share some insights on how we're navigating this dynamic field. At Meero, we're not simply following the generative AI trend. We're thoughtfully integrating these technologies into our core products to solve real business challenges. Our approach focuses on leveraging specific models tailored to particular industries, rather than building or relying solely on general-purpose models like DALL-E or Midjourney 🤖 We're fine-tuning large visual models on large industry-specific datasets. This allows our real estate app, ProperShot, to perform virtual staging and generate multiple interior design variations with a level of realism that general models struggle to achieve. Our AutoRetouch product, powered by custom diffusion models, generates high-quality, realistic photo visuals with nuanced elements like model variations and shadows for the fashion industry. The power of these technologies doesn’t just lie in the models themselves, but in how seamlessly they integrate into existing workflows. We've found that the most successful implementations are those that augment and empower human creativity rather than those attempting to replace it entirely. For instance, our AI can generate multiple design variations, but it's the human eye that selects and refines the best option for the final output, whether it's for a real estate listing, a car merchandising, or a fashion campaign. As we continue to pioneer advancements in visual AI, I'm increasingly convinced that the future belongs to companies that can strike the right balance between cutting-edge technology and deep industry expertise. It's not about having the most advanced AI models, it's about having the most relevant products and seamlessly integrate within each sector we serve. At Meero, we're committed to leading this technological evolution. By refining our AI models and deepening our understanding of client needs, we're shaping the future of visual content creation. Our goal is to empower businesses across real estate, automotive, fashion, and beyond to harness the full potential of AI, driving innovation and delivering tangible results 📈 Fanny Kauffer Maxence Bernard François Pallier Galyna Tymoshenko Ilyes Kacher Steven Petitpas-Polselli guillaume bourhis #AI #generativeAI #innovation #LLMs #finetuning

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