Sarah Wu

Congratulations to Bem on their $3.7M seed round! Bem’s API transforms any input, structured or unstructured, into any data shape, revolutionizing how companies handle data. Here's to supporting innovative solutions that drive efficiency and growth! #AI #DataIntegration #Startup #UncorkCapital

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In October, we announced our $1.8 billion Series C financing and take-private of SP+ (SP Plus). Today, I couldn’t be prouder to share that we have officially closed our transformational acquisition of SP+. This acquisition and Growth Buyout (GBO) is creating a paradigm shift in how technology companies scale and represents the largest venture-backed M&A deal and the third largest AI fundraise (just behind OpenAI) in the past year. We’ve created a once-in-a-generation opportunity -- allowing us to deploy our proprietary, artificial intelligence technology to more than 50 million consumers, across 4,000+ locations, and processing over $4 billion in payments a year -- enabling checkout-free experiences with a speed, ease, and convenience that is unparalleled, even online. While re-envisioning parking is our focus and priority today, the opportunities for growth beyond parking are limitless. In the future, we’ll use our artificial intelligence platform to power checkout-free transactions in new verticals – making the everyday experience of living, working and playing remarkable – giving us back our most valuable asset, time. From the outside, an entrepreneur’s journey can seem linear and academic – identify a problem, develop solutions, raise capital, deploy, scale – and repeat. In reality, it’s entropic and riddled with roadblocks. We’ve been repeatedly told our ambitions are impossible. But – our team comes back each day with strength, tenacity, determination and conviction. We’ve learned from every failure, every denial, every slammed door, and we’ve gotten stronger, smarter and faster. Today we closed our $1.8B financing and take-private of SP+ – creating a company that’s stronger together. The last six years have been a remarkable journey. I couldn’t be more thankful for our investors, advisors and most importantly, the entire Metropolis Technologies team that helped get us here. Special thanks to my co-founders and executive team Peter Fisher, Travis Kell, Courtney Fukuda, Ryan Hunt, Eddie Thomas and John-Paul Sukkar. I’d also like to thank the newest members of our executive team Chris Sherman, Ritu Vig, Kris Roy and Wenyu Blanchard. Our Series C was comprised of a best-in-class syndicate, led by Eldridge Industries with significant investment from BDT & MSD Partners’ affiliated credit funds, Vista Equity Partners, and Temasek as well as strong support from Metropolis’ existing shareholder group led by 3L. Thank you to all our exceptional partners, investors and advisors who thought outside the box and believed in our vision, every step of the way -- including Tony Minella, Todd Boehly and Lisa Ohlmeyer at Eldridge, Anton Zietsman and Dave Leyrer at 3L, Goldman Sachs and BDT & MSD Partners. We’ll celebrate today but know, we’re just getting started.

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Great presentation about something that I work with a lot—founders’ disputes and breakups. A founder relationship is a lot like a marriage. Things won’t always be sunshine and rainbows and it’s important to have an understanding of what to do when there’s a disagreement before an actual disagreement arises.

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I echo and a firm believer of Laurel Mintz take on Diversity - "Diversity in thought, diversity in boards, diversity in public companies, diversity in all of this is what creates a better culture. It's what creates better outcomes, both financially and emotionally. Ultimately, it's just a better approach to creating a more well-rounded society.” #ImpactInvesting #VentureCapital #PurposeDrivenInvestors

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Next week, our 2024 Summer Analyst class starts. It’s always a special time for me as I joined Insight as a Summer Analyst over two decades ago. It’s a good moment to resurface the outstanding work of Allie Garfinkle that was published recently. I also had the chance to share these career learnings with Insight’s investment analysts at our recent Sourcing Summit, a day of workshops and hands-on learning sessions specially curated to help our analysts (aka our Sourcing Engine) build relationships inside and outside the firm. Here’s a quick overview of what I shared: 1. Prioritize people to enjoy the work: Focus on finding a workplace where you genuinely enjoy the people and connecting with colleagues. 2. Find your passion: We can equip you with everything you need reach out and connect with founders, but it’s up to the individual to find what drives them. 3. Be able (and willing) to be adaptable: Success in VC isn’t about following a prescribed path or list of to-dos. It’s about navigating unpredictable situations with grace and maximum impact. 4. Embrace rejection through passion: Whether your phone call goes unreturned and/or you lose a deal narrowly that you thought you had won, you will face rejection. And you’ll face it often. This is why it’s critical to find your passion for the work, to help you persevere through the not-so-great times. 5. Leverage your unique strengths: Find what you uniquely bring to the table and embrace it. The importance of diverse skillsets cannot be overstated in today’s ever-evolving tech ecosystem. Allie Garfinkle at Fortune—she captured these well and painted a picture of our firm’s culture that I am especially proud of. My biggest piece of advice no matter where you are is to find a workplace where you like the people and can make an impact. At Insight, the bonds you will form manifest themselves in a variety of ways: the ability to persevere through hard-fought wins and tough losses, getting asked to work on another team’s deal because you are more familiar with the market, participating in book clubs (Team Hinkle just read Everyday Business Storytelling)...and these are just a few examples. Interpersonal bonds are the cornerstone of Insight’s culture, and they make possible all of the other qualities you need to be successful in VC. Welcome Insight Summer Analyst Class of 2024. I look forward to watching you thrive.

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People often talk about how magical it was to take Uber (or now, Waymo) for the first time. If you extend this to fintech, the comparable that comes to my mind is doing an x-border transfer on WISE. Going from the tedious, opaque, expensive SWIFT payment to cheap, fast WISE payments. The magic behind WISE: Local Processing. Over the past few years, we have seen a few renditions of Local Processing across building global teams, remittances and payments among others. In the second edition of A Prepared Mind, I talk about Local Processing as a service, its various avatars and how it unlocks savings for customers while building interesting businesses! If you are building or thinking about building in the space, I'd love to jam with you, and exchange insights. I am always available at satvik@quona.com https://lnkd.in/gen2mVEz

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Silas Mähner 🔍🌎 🔍🌎 and the team on CleanTechies have spoken to a lot of carbon accounting platforms. Here are the main reasons they think Gravity is different: - We offer something to every key stakeholder: Execs love the ROI focus, Procurement Love the Marketplace, ESG teams get their wishes - Our product is super simple and easy to use: We've focused on genuinely serving customers. Many companies would have to hire a Proper ESG Team before adopting GHG software, Gravity makes it easy to upskill and empower anyone to manage the carbon measurement process. - Focus on Return-On-Investment: Investing in decarbonization presents a unique opportunity to reduce business risk and drive savings. We firmly believe that if a customer spends $1 on our platform, it needs to return $5 in energy savings. - More than just a GHG Accounting platform: We firmly see a need to go beyond carbon accounting. That's why we're building out a marketplace of providers to help customers reduce their energy costs – at a discount.

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A new era of deep tech has emerged. First time funds will raise “unheard of” amounts of capital to fuel next gen deep tech startups - producing outsized, superior returns for LP’s compared to the rest. Prudent investors will act on this data and shift investment strategy as LP’s or risk being left behind savvy wealth managers and CIO’s / FO’s who saw this trend begin 4 years ago.

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🌟 Venture Insight: Harnessing AI to Supercharge LP Targeting 🌟 Sourcing sucks. It has always been a tedious but necessary task in my previous business development roles and my future venture capital career, but there is good news. The AI calvary is on its way. Since starting the Venture Institute program, I've discovered AI's incredible potential in targeting and researching potential limited partners (LPs) for our venture fund. AI tools can efficiently analyze vast datasets to pinpoint LPs whose investment preferences align perfectly with our focus. While AI is a powerful tool in identifying different LP archetypes—institutional investors, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals—it's important to remember that ethical use and not over-reliance on it is crucial. AI can quickly create a framework for searches and provide ideas on how to network more effectively, but it's your personal insights and relationship-building that truly drive success. On a personal note, I was shocked to find over 26,000 first and second LinkedIn connections based on a suggested search inquiry for "Principal family office workforce" for a hypothetical fund I was working on in the Austin, Texas, area. This revelation underscored the power of AI combined with personal networks. The combination of AI capabilities with my personal network has proven to be a transformative strategy, revolutionizing our outreach, elevating the quality of connections, and opening doors to more fruitful partnerships. This is a testament to the immense potential of AI when used in tandem with personal networks. #VentureCapital #AI #Investment #Networking #LPs #Innovation #TechTransformation

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Calling all #Founders: Venture Capital Association of Alberta (VCAA)’s Deal Flow Calls represent a great opportunity for #PreSeed to #SeriesA companies to gain exposure to some of the countries most active Venture Capital #investors. If your company is raising equity capital, I strongly encourage you to check out the link below!

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Had an amazing conversation with Yohei Nakajima, General Partner at Untapped Capital, and asked him about other "builders-in-public" that he admires. He didn't hesitate to highlight the fantastic work of Miles T. Bird and StoryHouse Ventures. In this episode, we also discuss Yohei's own journey of building in public, from pioneering no-code solutions to launching his own NFT collection, and how this approach has has shaped him as an investor. Watch Yohei's full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gE2N9Ehf

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On this week's Andreessen Horowitz Raising Health podcast, Vijay Pande, PhD and I interviewed Tom Hale, CEO of ŌURA. Our conversation spans lots of fun topics, including: -- Our love for our Oura rings, despite them being literal “buzz kills” in revealing the ruinous effect of alcohol on sleep  -- How the worlds of consumer and healthcare are merging, as consumers essentially now have access to clinical-grade wearable devices  -- How AI algorithms are deployed in wearable devices & what wearables might look like 20 years from now (implanted into our bodies and clothes)  -- How the sexiest people sleep in earplugs and eye masks Check it out! https://lnkd.in/eTAsX_sY

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In other news: Meta launched Llama 3 last night. 16 hours later, Simplismart has come up with this update. Finest real-time example of what you need in early-stage teams: bias towards action. My guess is this team managed to work all night and come up with this in less than 15 hours. Fastest inference engine in ≤15hrs? Crazy! Simplismart ❌ Simpli-FAST ✅ Amritanshu Jain Devansh Ghatak

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From Investor, MBA Associate, and Platform Manager, I am excited to highlight many of the interesting venture capital roles that members of the NYU Stern Private Equity & Venture Capital Club have been engaged in over the past year in our recent blog post! Check it out 👇

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Neat view of M&A volume trends (YoY% by period) across time and interest rate environments by PwC. The broader article has another key call out: "Business imperatives don’t suddenly disappear because interest rates remain higher than the market would like." Current conditions don't eliminate the need to do deals, but they can shape how teams approach deal-making and competing. Stand out as a preferred deal partner and win opportunities. Pearl IO gets to key deal insights FAST and efficiently. Let's connect! https://lnkd.in/ectAQqrY

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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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Thank you Female Founders Fund and Lerer Hippeau for hosting an #AI panel with three powerhouse female founders - Sheila Lirio Marcelo (Ohai.ai), Emilie Poteat (Advocate), Kat Garcia (Ground). The conversation was honest, candid, and thought provoking! Three things I’m taking away: 💡 There is a symbiotic relationship between humans and AI and it is our responsibility to shape what it looks like 💡 In a world where incumbents are investing heavily in AI, speed is our competitive advantage 💡 Even in a world transformed by AI, we need to remain #authentic, #human, and #bold

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Participating in Cohort 14 of the VC Lab has been an energizing experience so far. I am learning so much about the ins and outs of being an emerging fund manager and how to succeed in this space. Today they hosted a panel for Women in VC that provided some real world advice from some fantastic panelists. The curriculum is rigorous for sure, but rewarding. If you are curious about why this is such an exciting area check out this article. #venturecapital #vc #investing https://lnkd.in/gMMM_mwp

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#MobilityMonday: Angering many and impeding public transit funding, NYC congestion pricing scheme axed at the last minute Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about NYC getting federal approval for the congestion pricing plan (see https://bit.ly/3Xi9xqu). Eleven months later, New York State Executive Chamber Governor Kathy Hochul unexpectedly announced the indefinite suspension of the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ), which was planned to go into on June 30. Suddenly, the title of the first American city to implement congestion pricing remains up for grabs. Proponents of the CRZ hailed its potential for tackling air pollution and carbon emissions, relieving traffic, and providing a significant revenue stream for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city’s undercapitalized and beleaguered public transit system. The MTA had already earmarked $15B from expected CRZ funds and now has left dozens of rail and bus projects across all five boroughs without any financial backing (see https://lnkd.in/dmZaUvmh). With over 700k vehicles entering the Manhattan Central Business District each day, the economic ramifications of the CRZ — and, now, the lack thereof — are massive (see https://lnkd.in/dNf5v5dp). Despite championing the scheme herself, Hochul now argues that the plan would harm the city’s post-pandemic economic recovery and unfairly burden low-income residents. However, critics have argued that the decision was political in nature: “an election year ploy to help Democrats in suburban districts where congestion pricing is notably unpopular” (see https://bit.ly/45fSN5h). At a time when Hochul is polling at her lowest favorability rating since taking office in 2021, it’s hard not to wonder the extent to which this decision was politically motivated. Admittedly, the same polling indicates that a majority of NYC-area residents oppose the CRZ (see https://bit.ly/4b4ygC4). Though Hochul isn’t up for election until 2026, national politics is still top-of-mind, as no less than 7 NY seats in the 2024 House elections are considered “competitive races” (see https://bit.ly/3KyCs25). Now, the city’s underfunded public transit woes are set to continue. One analysis by the Regional Plan Association notes that 56% of outer-borough NYC residents rely on public transportation to get into Manhattan for work — 14x more than the 4% who drive. Despite Hochul’s assertions, only 2% of those classified as working poor would potentially pay the congestion charge (see https://bit.ly/4aR9u8l). All this symbolizes a more troubling trend: how net-positive mobility schemes are being hijacked for political purposes. The EV transition, micromobility incentives, curb space reallocation, and yes, congestion pricing, will each produce winners and losers in the market. But in the end, most would agree that the long-term environmental, societal, and economic benefits are worth it. #congestionpricing #NYC #NewYork #Hochul #MTA #publictransit

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