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Explore more posts
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Jeffrey Paine
What does it take to raise capital for SaaS companies now according to Jason Lemkin (SaaStr) Key Takeaway 1: The current venture capital landscape is experiencing significant changes, particularly driven by the rise of AI. Investors are increasingly focused on finding "decacorns" (companies valued at over $10 billion) in the AI space, as traditional software companies are no longer seen as sufficient for generating massive returns. > Agree, its a generational new sector that will change the world in the short to medium term Key Takeaway 2: There's a growing trend of large investments in AI companies, even those without established revenue or customers. This is exemplified by Elon Musk's new AI company raising $6 billion and OpenAI's rapid growth. Investors are making high-risk bets on potential AI breakthroughs, driven by the need for outsized returns. Key Takeaway 3: Established venture capital firms and investors are pivoting their focus towards AI. SoftBank is raising a $9 billion fund solely for AI investments, while prominent hedge fund manager Steve Cohen has restructured his venture fund to concentrate exclusively on AI opportunities. > This signals huge momentum of capital, a good but wary signal. Overall a very good signal. Key Takeaway 4: The AI investment trend is not without skepticism. There's recognition that some companies may be falsely claiming AI capabilities to attract funding. However, real-world applications and significant deals, such as Palantir's $480 million AI contract with the US Army, demonstrate the tangible potential of AI technologies. > As with any new exploding trend, be wary always. Key Takeaway 5: The venture capital industry is under pressure to find and invest in potential decacorns, as traditional software companies, even successful ones, are no longer considered sufficient for generating the massive returns required by large VC funds. This shift is causing stress and driving the focus towards high-potential AI startups. > Power law distribution and math doesn't lie (that much). https://lnkd.in/gHe8tW2E
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Jonathan Hakakian
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
242 Comments -
Pablo Castro
In the latest episode of the New Light Ventures podcast, I had an insightful conversation with Charles Hudson, Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, a pioneering early-stage VC firm. Under Charles' leadership, Precursor has raised four funds totaling over $200M and invested in 400+ companies. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways: 1. Invest Before Product-Market Fit - Precursor focuses on the pre-seed stage, writing $250-500K checks into companies before they have traction. Charles believes this is where he makes the best investment decisions. 2. Founders Don't Need Pedigree - Precursor looks for promising founders even if they lack brand-name credentials. "If you weren't somebody with these known pedigree signals and you didn't have traction, I felt like there wasn't really anybody looking out for you." 3. Picking Well Solves Problems - Charles emphasizes the importance of selection in VC. "If you're good at picking, it solves a lot of problems...when you choose well, you get to work with great people who are very capable and they will problem solve well on their own." "I hope that when I'm done investing many years from now, people look back and say, wow, Precursor, it's in its own lane. They did something different." For aspiring VC managers, founders, and anyone curious about the evolving VC landscape, this episode provides valuable wisdom from a pioneering investor carving his own path. 🎧 Listen to the full episode now - link in comments!
216 Comments -
Aurel Pasztor
Interesting piece from Marc Andreessen on how startups are not getting the regulatory support they need to sustain America's technological leadership. "Regulatory agencies have been green lit to use brute force investigations, prosecutions, intimidation, and threats to hobble new industries, such as Blockchain. Regulatory agencies are being green lit in real time to do the same to Artificial Intelligence." While many investors themselves (both in the US and Europe) are worried how AI will change our lives, our jobs and social interactions, the top VC opinion leader thinks regulation is already too restrictive. #techstartups #techleadership #strategicgrowth
91 Comment -
Underscore VC
Yesterday, Underscore Partner Lily Lyman joined TechCrunch Early Stage to share tactical advice on how founders can effectively build relationships with the right investors. Importantly, she shares the nuance between the "nurture phase" and the "actively raising phase" of fundraising. Turns out fundraising has a lot of parallels to the 2000s romcom "He's Just Not That Into You" - So we were sure to have some fun drawing out the similarities! Explore the deck here by swiping right *pun intended*:
593 Comments -
Caitlin Panasci
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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Erik Bruckner
The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick
608 Comments -
LD Talent
We are thrilled to announce that LD Talent has been featured as a resource for the portfolio companies of 1517! This is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of our team in providing exceptional tech talent to growing businesses. A special shout-out goes to Danielle at 1517, who played an instrumental role in facilitating the listing of LD Talent as a recommended resource for 1517 companies. Our network has significantly expanded since the inception of this deal, and we continue to strive towards offering top-tier engineering skills to entrepreneurs and startups. As we celebrate this achievement, we want to thank our clients, whose valuable feedback continues to drive our growth and success. Here's what some of our clients have to say about our services: Our experience with LD Talent has been second to none. The level of expertise and professionalism within their network of engineers has been a game-changer for our business. Partnering with LD Talent has allowed us to scale our development efforts efficiently and with confidence. For more insight into our journey with 1517 and other notable funds, visit our blog post detailing how LD Talent became a go-to resource for portfolio companies: https://lnkd.in/dmiadKDg #LDTalent #TechTalent #EngineeringExcellence #StartupGrowth #1517Fund #ClientTestimonials #ProfessionalNetwork #StartupResources #TechIndustry #Innovation #PartnershipSuccess
181 Comment -
Daniel Ingevaldson
Ross Haleliuk posted the fantastic article below. This is the world where I live day-to-day. At TechOperators, we invest mostly in early-stage cyber, but we do things a little differently, and we believe there are ways to invest successfully outside of pure Power Law math. The article argues that many security problems are too small for VC. I agree. I often try to convince bootstrapped founders not to raise venture because doing so can turn a successful, slow-growing bootstrapped company into a failed venture-backed company because, despite a large infusion of capital, it couldn't double every year. VC is not monolithic--not by stage, strategy, or style. Venture is often equated with "Tier 1 Venture". Ross argues that VC is not always great for early-stage cyber--and he is right. Bootstrapping AND VC work when incentives are aligned. Does it work for an early-stage VC with a <$200M fund to invest in several early companies at reasonable valuations, setting up the conditions for reasonable exits that pay off for both investors and founders? Yes. Does it work for $800M funds investing in seed stage at $100M+ valuations? Well, that depends! Power law says it does (for VC), but the unfortunate externality is that these rounds destroy companies and founder equity more often than not. There is a role for patient capital in this ecosystem to fuel successful companies that retain exit optionality as they scale--driving exit value for both founders and investors.
342 Comments -
Danny Bernstein
Friends, Q2 was a quarter of progress and learning for us at HawkTower, where we invest in early-stage startups applying breakthrough computing technologies to maximize California's natural resource markets. Our focus is on technology-enabled interventions (e.g., AI-enabled geospatial radars for lithium-ion batteries in the waste stream) for critical, market-level imperatives (e.g., disaster prevention) that can drive rapid commercial adoption (e.g., placed on every recycling truck in the world). Our current investment priorities are: - Agricultural productivity and efficiency - Biomanufacturing - Labor and mobility automation - Waste stream optimization and decarbonization - Disaster prevention and management Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to: Milestones and Investments: - In late April, we officially launched our fund, filing with the SEC. Yay. - By June, we completed our first fund close ahead of schedule, with backing from family offices, foundations, high-net-worth individuals, and organizations aligned with California's future. - Our portfolio now includes three early-stage investments (Farm-ng, Agriful Software, and Nexstera Tech). Strategic Partnerships: - We believe that startups operating closer to their customers and resources, especially in agriculture and biomanufacturing, have a strategic advantage. For instance, the Salinas Valley, a major agricultural hub, is less than an hour from Silicon Valley and serves as a center of thought leadership in the convergence of agriculture and AI (from Western Growers, Taylor Farms, and others). - Similarly, the North San Joaquin Valley is emerging as a biotech and agtech innovation hub, and we are proud to support BEAM Circular, a startup hub for the circular bioeconomy. Key Relationships: - Karen Warner, CEO of BEAM Circular, joined HawkTower as a strategic advisor. - Jackie Cruz, Ed. D. Cruz, Hartnell College’s VP of Advancement, advises on Salinas Valley and workforce development. - Ben Palone from Western Growers, with his technical background in agriculture, became a trusted advisor. - Matthew Hoffman from Driscoll's Global R&D team provides insights on global agriculture, product positioning, and investment strategy. - We collaborated with Monterey Bay DART for workforce development and automation in agtech. - Dominic Milano and the Milano Technical Group from Merced collaborated on key initiatives and advised us on investments. - HawkTower is participating in Santa Cruz Works's accelerator cohort as a mentor and advisor. Thank you Doug Erickson. - We published an overview of entrepreneurship across the UC system with input from across the University of California system. Moving into the fall, we remain deeply committed to supporting founders shaping California's future natural resource markets. Stay tuned and be in touch! : ) Db
875 Comments -
Akshay Shrimanker, CPA
We love seeing founders be able to keep their equity and take advantage of non-dilutive funding sources⚒️. We're excited to collaborate with Stacy Chin, PhD leader of KeepYourEquity.co, who has secured over $15M in SBIR/STTR grants for startups across various sectors. She's written a guest blog post sharing her insights on navigating the competitive landscape of grant funding 💰. Some highlights: ❇️ Understanding SBIR/STTR: A lifeline for startups, offering up to $2 million in non-dilutive funding! ⏺️ Learning how to overcome hurdles and capitalize on the golden opportunity. ❇️ Gaining essential tips on outlining your go-to-market strategy, choosing the right program, and preparing thoroughly. ⏺️ Benefiting from Stacy Chin's 10+ years of grant writing experience and her extensive track record in securing funding for startups. Read More in the blog post linked in the comment below 👇🏾 #SBIR #STTR #GrantFunding #StartupSuccess #SmallBusiness #KeepYourEquityCo #ShayCPA #cpafirm #techaccountants #startupaccountants #techstartup #techcompany #nondilutivefunding
121 Comment -
JT Benton
🔥 🔥 🙌 🙌 🎆 🎆 I'm *fired up* to share this. #VentureIQ by the 9point8 Collective is officially live. We've heard from investors of every size and type that it takes too long and costs too much to evaluate deal flow; this limits the scale and speed at which these capital allocators can operate. To address this problem, we've created an innovative solution which delivers high fidelity diligence information near instantaneously. From a time and cost perspective, VentureIQ immediately creates leverage to look at more deals - and creates space to focus deeply on the most meaningful opportunities. To learn more, you can reach out to me directly or visit VentureIQ.ai. I'll close with some thoughts on my team, to whom I'm so grateful. Blair Merlino, Neal Ghosh and Evan Allen don't just talk about interesting concepts, point out problems or pontificate on what could be. Instead, they identify a problem, frame and validate the solution, and do the work to bring it to reality. VentureIQ is the best example I've seen of this, to date. #VentureCapital, #FamilyOffice, #PrivateEquity #CorporateDevelopment #Startups
72 Comments -
Chris Moore
It's been a whirlwind of learning since we started digging into the Venture Studio model. First when we started our previous company, Roam, it was "do some consulting so we can launch games & products" and in fact we did launch a couple of products and even released a couple of games. But it was always a constant tension between the siren call of instant revenue with consulting vs the long term return of equity. We sometimes joke that Ryft is the outcome of 10+ years of bootstrapping to get to a place where we can focus as a pure-play Venture Studio. Learn more below.
593 Comments -
Tim Suzman
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!
867 Comments -
Jimmy Frischling
Reporting live with your weekly VC update... In the second quarter of 2024, U.S. venture capital investment soared to $55.6 billion, marking a substantial increase from $35.4 billion the previous year. Despite a slight decrease in the number of deals, this period saw a significant uptick in average deal sizes, indicating a strong focus on supporting high-performing companies with promising growth trajectories. Sectors such as software and biotech experienced notable increases in investment activity, reflecting confidence in innovative technologies and healthcare advancements. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/e8mEJiYt Inc. Magazine Brian Contreras #business #VentureCapital #AI #startups Branded Hospitality Ventures Hospitality Headline Newsletter Chuck Clarvit James Bernard Matthew Goldberg
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Caitlin Panasci
Since early 2021, VC quarterly exit values have plummeted to $50B or below, a stark contrast to the six consecutive quarters of $100B+ exits before then. With IPOs dwindling and M&A activity slow, the future of venture industry exits appears uncertain. Will we see a surge in private venture-backed company acquisitions? This could be a crucial and innovative strategy to boost VC exits. Increased private acquisitions might offer a much-needed lifeline, providing a creative solution to the current exit drought in the venture capital market. #venturecapital #inspireglobalventures
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Jeff Becker
The hidden years of inception stage. Founders & LP’s rarely understand that the journey of building a great company can involve up to three years of work before an early stage VC will get involved. h/t Peter Walker for the years from incorporation data from Carta https://lnkd.in/e5fFkvDt #vc #founders #investing Antler
8312 Comments -
Suman Singh
UNLOCKING THE SECREATS OF THE GLOBAL VC ECOSYSTEM : A SUMMIT FOR LIMITED PARTNERS AND VENTURE CAPITALISTS TO THE GLOBAL VC's ECOSYSTEM SUMMIT -------------- 💰💵 Check 1st post in features section in my profile 💵💰 -------------- #VCEcosystemSummit #VentureCapital #LimitedPartners #Investment #PortfolioManagement #GrowthStrategy #IndustryLeaders #Networking #Collaboration #Innovation #Startup #Entrepreneurship #Funding #Investor #LP #GP #VC #PrivateEquity #HedgeFund #AssetManagement #WealthManagement #FinancialServices #InvestmentBanking #CapitalMarkets #BusinessGrowth #Scaling #Expansion #Disruption #Volatility #RiskManagement #Resilience #Sustainability #ESG #ImpactInvesting #Diversity #Inclusion #Equity #Equality #WomenInVC #WomenInFinance #MenInVC #MenInFinance #VentureCapitalist #InvestmentBanker #FinancialAnalyst #PortfolioManager #InvestmentManager #AssetManager #WealthManager #FinancialPlanner #InvestmentAdvisor #VCFirm #StartupAccelerator #Incubator #CoworkingSpace #EntrepreneurialEcosystem #InnovationHub #BusinessNetworking #ProfessionalDevelopment #Leadership #Mentorship #CareerGrowth #IndustryTrends #MarketInsights #FinancialRegulations #InvestmentStrategy #RiskAssessment #DueDiligence #DealMaking #MandA #IPO #PrivatePlacement #HedgeFundManager #AssetAllocator #FamilyOffice #SovereignWealthFund #PensionFund #EndowmentFund #VentureCapitalInvesting #StartupFunding #GrowthCapital #ExpansionCapital #Buyout #Recapitalization #Restructuring #Turnaround #DistressedInvesting #SpecialSituations #EventDriven #CreditInvesting #DebtFinancing #EquityInvesting #MezzanineFinancing #GrowthEquity #VentureDebt #SeedFunding #SeriesA #SeriesB #SeriesC #IPOPrep #PreIPO #PostIPO #PrivateCompany #PublicCompany #MicroVC #NanoVC #SeedStage #EarlyStage #GrowthStage #LateStage #PrivateEquityFund #HedgeFundManager #InvestmentPortfolio #RiskManagementStrategy #InvestmentResearch #FinancialPlanning #WealthCreation #CapitalGrowth #InvestmentOpportunities #BusinessExpansion #MarketTrends #IndustryInsights #FinancialInnovation #InvestmentInnovation #VCDeals #StartupSuccess #InvestmentStrategy #PortfolioDiversification #InvestmentRisk #InvestmentReturn #InvestmentGrowth #InvestmentIncome #InvestmentManagement #InvestmentConsulting #PrivateEquityInvesting #HedgeFundInvesting #VentureCapitalInvesting #AngelInvesting #ImpactInvesting #SustainableInvesting #ESGInvesting #ResponsibleInvesting #InvestmentFirms #InvestmentCompanies #InvestmentPartners #InvestmentNetwork #InvestmentCommunity #InvestmentEvents #InvestmentConferences #InvestmentSummit #InvestmentForum #InvestmentRoundtable #StartupInvesting #EarlyStageInvesting #GrowthStageInvesting #LateStageInvesting #PrivateEquityFirms #HedgeFundManagers #VentureCapitalFirms #AngelGroups #ImpactInvestors
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Hadley Harris
As a VC, there are times when you have to choose between prioritizing returns and supporting the founders you work with. It’s not easy because we have a fiduciary duty to our LPs, which, in our case, are primarily non-profits, to maximize returns. At Eniac, we play the long game: if we do what’s best for our founders, it will ultimately benefit our brand, reputation, and relationships, which will be best for our LPs in the long run.
441 Comment -
Steven Highfill, CPC
LawFi, Inc. is pleased to be highlighted as a start-up customer in Plaid's announcement of their new Plaid Check Consumer Report services. Today, Plaid announced its new Plaid Check FCRA-compliant Consumer Report. We've been working with Plaid to integrate their solution into our legal fee lending platform. LawFi is building the first-of-its-kind Legal Fee Loan decision engine capable of underwriting and making customized legal fee loans at the point of need to close the pervasive Access-to-Justice and Credit Gaps. LawFi will help more than 160 million Americans living paycheck to paycheck, and 30 million small business owners to access the legal services they need by offering meaningful financing options that do not exist today. To bring more financial inclusion to the legal system, we want to develop a credit decision engine that casts a wider and deeper net. We want to make credit decisions based on the true financial health of potential customers, not just a credit score! We want to analyze real-time alternative data sources, not only historic reported credit data. When conducting a personalized assessment, we want to look at employment, income, and alternative non-reported credit and cash flow data, such as how someone pays their rent, cell phone bill, and utilities. The best way to accomplish these goals is to perform a cash flow analysis of the borrower's bank data to help us make decisions. Plaid Check and Prism Data were building the perfect solution to enable the type of reliable and compliant cash flow underwriting we wanted to build into our decision trees and workflows. The solution provides powerful permission-based access to a consumer's bank transaction data without the need for the customer to gather or upload any documents. Data can be accessed, analyzed, and scored in seconds, not days. The service returns more than raw data. It categorizes the transactions and returns valuable insights into employment, sources of income, non-reported payments, and a CashScore to consider in our internal decision models. It will help us make better credit decisions and give potential borrowers the credit they deserve. We are excited to be partnered with Plaid CRA and Prism as we prepare to launch LawFi in the coming months. Please see the Plaid announcement at the links below. https://lnkd.in/eqx_sDFn https://lnkd.in/eQCTm-8r
594 Comments
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