Pascal Finette

Open-source models can be a strong lever for increasing gross margins at AI companies, especially those that have hefty cost structures (e.g., enterprise sales orgs that require significant customer success or implementation resources, as well forward-deployed AI services models common in healthcare and life sciences). One of many reasons to maintain a modular and flexible stack with minimal dependencies when building an AI company. More on the importance of flexibility in the AI stack: https://lnkd.in/eA2XATRk h/t Delip Rao #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #healthcare

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Someone broke down the estimated costs of a $15 Sweetgreen salad. We need these cost graphics for digital health to help future founders. Especially for tech enabled cos, the greatest cost is labor. Much of the "value created" is in curation and matching, which means the gross margins are reliant on labor arbitrage. Pay someone $X, but get paid $X+Y% per visit. The challenge with healthcare is that you often have to pick one of two business models: 1. specialized, low volume, high cost, low gross margin % 2. generalized, high volume, low cost, high gross margin % I'd argue founders should focus on gross dollars over the lifetime of the customer (like Jeff Bezos said) instead of gross margin %'s, but we'll leave that for another time. The challenge is that many tech enabled digital health cos have high cost of goods sold (labor) and moderately high product, design, and engineering budgets. We must build differentiated solutions for patients, clinicians, and clients to be out incumbents, however, we're realizing that companies are ultimately valued on the discounted value of future cash flows. And the high SG&A costs at most organizations might be inbalanced to the unit economics of the business. I'm not sure the math pencils out for everyone unfortunately. But I'm just a guy on the internet, would love to hear the thoughts from those smarter than I (you!). Comment below. --- p.s. I have no idea the accuracy of the graphic and not an investor in Sweetgreen. Cheers. Credit: David Crowther

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In the following HBR post, articulates four roles of a Chief of Staff: 1. Integrator: connecting work streams that would otherwise remain siloed 2. Communicator: linking the leadership team and the broader organization 3. Honest Broker and Truth Teller: when the leader needs a wide-ranging view without turf considerations 4. Confidant:  without an organizational agenda Personally, as a process person, the first two come naturally however it's the last two (I have found) that identify the top tier Chief of Staff. The role truly is about making the leader more effective and ensuring there are no gaps to fill. https://lnkd.in/g6M9jhAV

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The emergence of a large number of small venture funds may indicate that the venture industry is transitioning to a new stage of development. I believe this is an encouraging signal for micro-startups: they are more likely to catch the attention of these micro-funds, increasing their chances of securing early-stage funding and support.

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Exciting news from Monica Chopra, Jeffrey De Flavio, MD, Samantha Adelberg, and the rest of the Auxa Health team as they officially announce their $5.2M Seed round. The team's deep industry expertise and drive for change have led them to solve critical infrastructural friction to providing quality healthcare and adoption of value-based care. Auxa's AI benefit navigation platform is simplifying the complexities of healthcare by streamlining all of the fragmented and siloed data and information to make it actionable in real-time for healthcare organizations. For the 70% of Americans who aren't getting access to the health and social care benefits they deserve, Auxa's solution will be pivotal in enabling equitable care. We're thrilled to partner with co-investors Zeal Capital Partners, AlleyCorp, Laconia, and Chaac Ventures on this journey and look to share many more milestones ahead. Cc K50 Ventures, Ryan Bloomer, Daniel Vásquez, Nick Talwar, Stefanie Ng https://lnkd.in/dPDY7-Db

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Today marks a groundbreaking moment for BLCK VC and our fellow collaborators—Diversity VC, All Raise, 2Gether-International, SomosVC, StartOut, and VetsinTech—as we proudly announce the launch of the Diversity Data Alliance. This important alliance underscores our unwavering commitment to nurturing a venture capital and entrepreneurial ecosystem abundant in equity and inclusiveness. By standardizing and linking our data, we empower ourselves with the essential tools to track deeper trends that have, until now, eluded us to identify and fill funding gaps for historically excluded investors, founders, and operators. We can’t change what we do not measure, and now with the Diversity Data Alliance, we're now equipped to do both. Join us in this mission. Learn more and get involved: https://lnkd.in/eEZKdrac #DiversityDataAlliance #BLCKVC #VentureCapital #MeasureToChange

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According to the latest report from Rock Health, digital health funding in Q1 2024 totaled $2.7B across 133 deals, with an average deal size of $20.6M. It doesn’t break out device-related investments, but most medtech founders I meet these days are being forced to chase tiny rounds made up of endless little checks, consuming valuable energy and slowing their progress. The benign neglect of this next generation of diagnostic and therapeutic devices is counterproductive and surprising. Given the crowded virtual care market, for example, I’d expect more such companies would be exploring medtech partnerships, investments or acquisitions that'd enable them to back integrate into delivering sharper, and more differentiated, care and treatment. This is exactly what Maverix Medical is doing from the other direction: Reshaping the entire spectrum of lung cancer care by integrating more advanced + effective approaches to screening and diagnosis, treatment and therapeutics, and even palliative care…And putting it all to work through an innovative provider network. One notable investor exception is Y Combinator partner Surbhi Sarna who’s been backing great teams like Selera Medical (YC W24) doing foundational work on ambitious medical devices. Without more support from investors like her, we’re going to increasingly find ourselves stuck with the incremental portfolio improvements from the incumbents, and that’s just not nearly enough.

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I recently sat down with Michael Batko, CEO at Startmate and Founder of Puddle Pod for Episode 11 of Insane Ambition. Startmate has invested in 230+ startups, much of it under Michael's leadership, and now has $3.5b in value across its portfolio companies. In this episode, we discussed: - Michael's journey from consulting, then living in the Amazon rainforest, to leading Australia's biggest startup accelerator - The future of Australia's startup ecosystem - The labour government's very stupid plan to make it harder for people to qualify as sophisticated investors (now thankfully shelved) - Startmate City! Startmate's plan to build Australia's first startup city. Probably the most ambitious idea I've ever heard from a startup accelerator. - The balance between visionary thinking and traditional startup advice (think Elon Musk's plan to colonise Mars, vs Y Combinator's problem/customer obsession) - "The Courage to Be Disliked", and its influence on Michael's approach to life and business. Links in the description below 👇

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In #VirtualSpace, many of the physical interactions that restrain antisocial behavior vanish. Delusions of grandeur, narcissism, viciousness, impulsivity, and infantile behavior for some individuals rise to the surface. https://lnkd.in/gdrCxrrH #VirtualReality #metaverse

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The power of three! There are three YC companies that have absolute dream teams consisting of three founders each who happened to announce their existence to the world on the same day. They are working on some of the biggest issues impacting humanity: the creation and education of healthcare providers, agtech/climate, and women’s health. I honestly could not have dreamed up better teams to tackle these massive problems. Synaptiq (YC 23) was started by three friends who have known one another since elementary school: a UCSF-trained physician, an engineer from Square, and an all-star designer. The physician dropped out of Stanford neurosurgery, the hardest residency program to get into in the country, after scoring in the 100th percentile on the board exam and realizing he could use AI to bring his studying methods to other physicians and healthcare workers. Now they have growing revenue and are on track to launch at almost every medical school in the country. Feanix Biotech (YC 23) was initially started by two geneticists who grew up on dairy farms. They came up with new genetic tests for cows and had skyrocketing revenue but realized that the farmers they were working with could make even better breeding decisions. That’s when they met their third co-founder, an MIT/Google ML engineer who was already working on agtech software of her own. Together, they’re now developing the world’s first software + diagnostic platform for agriculture. Simbie Health (YC 23) was started by a Fulbright fellow physician out of uChicago, an operations leader from Carrot Fertility, and a software engineer from Princeton. They’re working on women’s health, creating software that enables women’s health practitioners to start their own, virtual-first practices. Yes, more women’s health, please! Congratulations on your launch! Ryan Phelps, MD, Jacob Caccamo, Kevin Bastoul; Mitchell Angove, Tom Bishop, Meia Alsup;  Natalia Neha Khosla, MD, Rachel O'Driscoll, and Natalia Perina.

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In this essay, we analyze this history of vSaaS exit performance to begin answering a critical question the macro numbers gloss over: using outcomes as a guidepost, what factors drive vertical startup success? As we share below, there is a strong quantitive case that the answer lies in the makeup of founding teams. At Euclid, we have found repeated success with a founder type we call the “Industry Insider.” These are domain experts with deep connectivity to their field, usually from industry roles or sector-specific experience from past startups. While many early-stage VC funds highlight the importance of founder-market fit, we saw little to no data-driven exploration of ideal founder profiles in vertical software. This led us to dive into the numbers to stress test our thesis—anecdotally informed to date—that founders with an Industry Insiders profile have a measurable advantage in achieving winning vertical software outcomes.

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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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In last week’s radical Briefing, Jeffrey made a strong argument that we explore (and embrace) the “messy middle” in our endeavors to shape the future. His remarks hit a nerve with our community—we had lots of good conversations both on Substack and in our WhatsApp channel. Building on Jeffrey’s insight, I believe for organizations of all kinds to successfully navigate the ambiguity (and thus “messiness”) of our world, it is paramount to have clarity on their North Star. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once observed that “if you know the why, you can live any how.” And, of course, American author Simon Sinek, in his famous TED talk, urged leaders to “start with why.” If this sounds familiar, and you count yourself lucky to work for (or run) an organization that has done the work of creating and communicating a good mission statement, consider this wrinkle: Is your mission statement, your North Star, your why clear, concise, and memorable? Can your people recite it by heart and do they truly understand your organization’s direction? Does it work not only as an aspirational tagline but as the ultimate clarifying device it ought to be? All too often, when I look up a company’s mission statement, it reads something like this: …blah blah blah blah innovation blah blah blah culture blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah market leader blah blah blah blah blah blah honesty blah blah blah blah excellence blah blah integrity blah blah blah blah strategies blah blah blah blah… To make sure your mission statement is not just a fancy marketing slogan but truly operates as your organization’s North Star, Kevin Starr, CEO of the Mulago Foundation, created the Eight-Word-Mission-Statement: Formulate your mission statement in the form of Verb – Target – Outcome—using eight words or less. In more detail: What are you doing (verb), for whose benefit (target), to what end (outcome). It is a powerful method to clarify and create a yardstick to measure whether any activity is inside or outside your scope. Want an example? Be radical’s mission statement is “Enable leaders and learners to seize the future.” We enable by teaching tools and frameworks, focusing on leaders inside organizations, not frontline employees, to build the future, which means we don’t work on day-to-day strategy. Your Eight-Word-Mission-Statement might not be suitable for marketing materials, but it will become the guiding star for you and your team, helping you clearly understand your activities (and, equally as important, what you don’t do). It is the sentence your people can recite even at 2am if asked: What does your company (and you) do? And it provides the clarity you and your organization need to navigate the messy middle, ambiguity, and uncertainty. Lastly, you can create Eight-Word-Mission-Statements not only for the company but also for business or organizational units, teams, and even for yourself. Give it a try—and if you like, share it here. #strategy #missionstatement

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I'm leaving Techstars. Techstars is an incredible organization. Both are true. The last decade has been an amazing immersion into the world of venture and I've been able to work with some of the smartest people on the planet. 11 years ago, I sat in front of David Cohen, one of the 4 founders of Techstars, as he talked about building the largest, most effective entrepreneurial network in the world. His vision drew me away from an incredible role at LinkedIn. In the course of the initial conversation, he laid out an emotional connection to a historically transactional experience - venture capital. He didn't have the words for it then, but later it would become the idea of #givefirst, the ethos that drives the organization and the connectivity of the founders within it. I’ve tried to live that. David recently returning, assures that concept will continue. When I signed on to join Techstars in 2014, I thought I'd stay for 3 or 4 years, a decade later I'm writing this note. What a ride it's been. And now it ends, but not before a few "thank you's": - David (David Brown and Brad Feld)...thanks for starting Techstars, you have done so much good in the world - Ari N. (and Brent Grinna)...thanks for the introduction into Techstars (which led to me getting hired). Glad we are still friends today. - Daniel Feld and Sabrina Kelly...thanks for getting me through the hiring process all those years ago - Thanks Jenny Lawton for taking a risk on me for VP of Network - Brian Daly, Dennis List, Jenny Fielding, Jenny Lawton, Eamonn Carey, Max Kelly, Jason Seats, Blake Yeager, Jens Lapinski, Natty Zola, Nicole Glaros, Jag Singh, 👋 Clement Cazalot, Aaron O'Hearn, Amos Schwartzfarb, Frank Alfano, Amy Smith, Don Loeb and so many more for being friends and colleagues - Kara Kennedy, Kristi DeLozier, Andrea Perdomo, Gregg Cochran, Paul Kaiser, Ramzy Ismail, Christina L. Christian, Courtney Gras, Sonya Hausafus, Louis Huynh, Dave Folk, Ellie Wood for working on my respective teams - Thanks to all the current MDs for your trust, friendships and connection - Thanks to everyone I worked with through the years, you have been phenomenal colleagues - Thanks to the mentors, investors, community leaders and corporate partners who made this all work - And, most importantly, thank you to the founders who fed my soul and gave me the energy to travel the planet to help more of you...you were worth every minute...its been an honor to serve you and I'd do it all again Alas, I'm moving on to something else, but that's for another post late next month. Until then, I'm taking time off to decompress before my #nextplay Now I drop the microphone and exit stage left with nothing but love for you all. (curtain closes)

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Drop In Venture Funding To Black-Founded Startups Greatly Outpaces Market Decline Chris MetinkoGené Teare February 27, 2024 Venture funding to Black-founded U.S. startups last year totaled only $705 million — marking the first time since 2016 that the figure failed to even reach $1 billion, Crunchbase data shows. The decline in capital to Black-founded companies greatly outpaces the overall decline in startup funding. While total venture dollars in the U.S. fell 37% last year, funding to Black-founded startups dropped a staggering 71%, according to Crunchbase data. Last year’s total investment in Black-founded startups in the U.S. marks the lowest amount since such startups raised only $582 million in 2016. The drop in total dollars also meant Black-founded startups received their lowest share in the venture market since at least 2016, per Crunchbase. Black-founded startups received less than 0.5% of the $140.4 billion in venture funding all U.S.-based startups received last year. In 2021, Black-founded startups received 1.4% of all U.S. venture funding. In 2022, it was 1.1%.

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How does AI Changes Your Workforce? A great video from MIT Sloan School of Management, where they share insights on how AI is reshaping work, workers, and talent ecosystems.. 👀⤵️ If your a founder (or investor) in this space of AI, I would suggest you to have a look. All credits to Elizabeth Altman, David Kiron and M. Shawn Read. 👏🏽 #firstdegree #founders #investors 
#changethewaywework #whyrelationshipsmatter https://lnkd.in/e36qzpHr

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What gets funded gets built. So, if you’re a community leader who is curious about investment strategies, such as venture capital and other innovative funding tools, that can stimulate local #entrepreneurship (and how to stimulate a thriving local #ecosystem for #startups and #investors), I encourage you to join this webinar from the International Economic Development Council on June 26th, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST. You'll hear from us (Builders + Backers) gener8tor and Plug and Play Tech Center, who each serve different stages of the entrerpeneurial lifecycle. Will be a great discussion! #IEDC #EconDev #VentureCapital #EconomicDevelopment #Innovation #Webinar

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🙌 Great evening and discussion with leaders from the venture ecosystem in Colorado. No surprise, #GenerativeAI took center stage, as we traded notes on commercial adoption, pace of development, and debated the hype vs. substance. A few insights emerged: 🕰️ The bigger the enterprise, the longer the AI wishlist - and the slower they are to adopt, experiment, and deploy. The tech is evolving quickly and best practices change by the week - a recipe that causes analysis paralysis within orgs. 👩‍💻 Founders are feeling real pressure to incorporate AI into their value proposition - not from their customers, but from their investors. 💰 Outside of the AI bubble - Given the pullback in M&A activity, there are many price advantaged opportunities at the later stage - but the best assets still command a premium, and investors are paying up for access. 🤘 And, most surprisingly, former management consultants and former touring musicians have more in common than expected!! A big thank you to the founders and investors who joined Frontier Venture Capital and contributed to a great conversation. And a special thanks to our co-sponsors Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley LLP 🙏🙏 Garrett Marsilio Fred Kneip PJ O'Neil Kevin DePopas Clay Gordon Ryan C. Larson Mike Platt #venture #capital #VC #AI

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