Sandra Oh Lin - Los Altos, California, United States | Professional Profile | LinkedIn (original) (raw)
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- Julian Pscheid Last night's Technology Association of Oregon panel discussion on raising capital for AI ventures was full of interesting takeaways. The event brought together leading PNW VCs, CEOs, and funders to share their perspectives and best practices. Here's what you need to know: ➡ The AI/ML space is rapidly evolving, presenting huge opportunities for startups tackling real business problems. VCs are actively seeking out the most ambitious and disruptive companies in this domain. ➡ Having an "unfair advantage" is key - whether that's proprietary data sets, unique domain expertise, or unparalleled access to customers. AI ventures need strong differentiation to stand out. ➡ Build relationships early with VCs, even before you're ready to raise. Their insights and connections can accelerate your journey. The PNW venture ecosystem is highly collaborative and accessible. ➡ Don't be deterred by the perceived lack of local funding. Great companies with compelling visions will get funded, period. Leverage the PNW's strengths in developer/engineering talent. ➡ Recognize and proactively address the potential downsides of AI - from data privacy to model bias. Building responsibly is both an obligation and an opportunity. ➡ Move fast, be bold. Raising capital is always hard, but fortune favors the brave in this space. With the right team, tech and traction, you can build a world-changing business here in the PNW. Thanks to the fantastic panelists Diane Fraiman (Voyager Capital), Geoff Harris (Flying Fish), Jon Maroney (OVF), Chris Sestito (Hidden Layer), Jon Turow (Madrona) for sharing their insights, and to Kristy Edwards for moderating!
- Mike Krenn 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
- Susan Lyne RETHINKING RETIREMENT We've been investing in the Future of Work since we launched BBG Ventures, targeting underserved segments like deskless workers (Anthill, OX) and solopreneurs (Topline Pro). Over the summer we spent time digging into another deeply underserved segment of the workforce: Boomers. By the end of this decade, the entire generation will have hit retirement age and, for the first time, Americans 65+ will outnumber those under 18. This has huge implications for every aspect of society, and it mandates that we start thinking differently about retirement. The question for all of us is this: Can we re-focus healthy Americans 60+ on a new phase of productivity, a “third act” that enables them to keep learning, keep earning, keep socially-engaged and contributing to the nation’s economic growth? And what role can AI play in helping every senior identify their unique skill set and personal priorities — and connect them with the right opportunities? We have some thoughts on how to make this happen, and we'd love you to give it a read, add your feedback, forward it to a founder who's working in this arena (or who you think might be intrigued), and share it! AgeTech has been too focused on death and decay; it's time we embrace longevity and give older Americans a way to keep working -- on their terms. cc: Carol Magalhães Isaacs, CFA Nisha Dua, Claire Biernacki, Drew Silverman Fennessy
- Dan Levitan Today, Two Chairs announces $72M of new funding to continue building a world where everyone has access to exceptional mental health care. Since late 2017, when Maveron led the Two Chairs Series A, the need for mental health services has grown considerably as our society has become lonelier and more isolated than ever. At the same time, our culture’s willingness to openly acknowledge these challenges is greater than ever. Sadly, the rapid growth of Two Chairs affirms the fact that our society is in desperate need of better mental health support. Two Chairs has built a business that believes clinical quality is the defining characteristic of success. Alex Katz has always emphasized the paramountcy of measurement-based clinical outcomes, which the team works tirelessly to achieve. In the process, Two Chairs has illustrated that embracing the ‘move fast and break things’ mentality doesn’t always work. Instead, Two Chairs opted for a different approach: they went slow to go fast. They built a proprietary algorithm that matches patients with the perfect therapist at the onset and hired a team of W2 clinicians oriented toward providing the highest quality care available. Even as the Two Chairs team has grown, their culture has remained small. This has enabled more intimate relationships within the team and between clients and clinicians. Reflecting on this milestone brings me back to the founding of Maveron and the values we hold dear. In 1998, my friend Howard Schultz and I founded Maveron to help entrepreneurs build companies that improve the lives of everyday people—their employees and their customers. There is perhaps no better example of this than Two Chairs. *** Thank you to TechCrunch's Marina Temkin, CFA for the great write-up. https://tcrn.ch/4aMt7yG
- Brent H. “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach coined that phrase, and this week will offer interesting opportunities to watch pros applying it: the NBA Playoffs, yes, but also SF Climate Week. I’ve been thinking about how to apply the proper balance of patience and urgency to the climate fight. First, what does Wooden’s advice mean? Prolific basketball scorers will often talk about the need to “let the game come to you.” In other words be aggressive, move with purpose, probe for openings… but not to the point where you are hurrying into the teeth of the defense and in so doing making careless mistakes or missing the right play. The notion of patience also applies over time. Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers famously talked a few seasons ago (in a very impatient sports town) about trusting “The Process” in turning the league’s worst team into one of its enduring best. Back to climate. While hundreds of functional technologies/approaches are being deployed in thousands of ways across all industries to draw down emissions, it will take time we don’t really have — maybe a generation — to scale up these new methods enough to keep us under the warming levels above which really bad things happen. It can be depressing, and I’m certainly not alone in wanting to push harder. But it occurs to me that some of that urgency could qualify as hurrying in Coach Wooden’s sense. This (possibly contrarian?) perspective comes in part from an executive coach who once reflected that I sometimes struck him as having “both the gas and brake pushed down all the way.” He—and my team it turned out—experienced a grinding between my inner drive to quickly usher everything from decisions to workstreams through to conclusion and a desire to gather more information and make the perfect set of moves. Both “pedals” represented an exertion of control; and the solution to this inner tension was actually to practice patience by easing up with *both* feet. Point being this: amidst our ever-increasing incentives to ramp up velocity with decreasing margins for error, I wonder if being a bit more methodical each day could significantly improve the end result. In a realm as complex and fraught as climate, with so many entrenched defenses, could daily 1% improvements to our patience compound our effectiveness over time? Taking the extra breath to be more present in a conversation and learn more about another perspective. Sitting with the discomfort of ambiguity while waiting on more information. Trusting in the flow of things, the skills of colleagues, the angles that will appear and allow us to make outsized impact with more leverage than if we hadn’t allowed the game come to us. Think about it this week. As a hoops fans or climate warrior, a connector or caretaker — where and how could a little more patience help improve your part of the game? #ClimateChange #Sustainability #EarthDay #Improvement https://lnkd.in/gmyV3DYt
- 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
- Michael Tolo Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas
- Justin Gordon I’m so excited to announce the new name of the vetted community for startup founders I'm building: Village Lane Village Lane connects ambitious early-stage startup founders, both in-person and online, who have at least 100kinARRor100k in ARR or 100kinARRor250k in funding. The name Village Lane is deeply personal to me... It's the street I lived on after business school, in an apartment with my friend Andrew - the kindest, most welcoming, supportive person I’ve ever met, who sadly passed away suddenly a few weeks ago at only 31 years old. It’s also the place where I went full-time on Just Go Grind for the first time when it was a daily podcast and then joined VITALIZE Venture Capital. It was a special time and place and where I took a giant leap in my career. I envision Village Lane (the community) being similar - a special place filled with kind, supportive members looking to take a giant step forward with their businesses. Several experiences have led to the creation of Village Lane: - A transformative MBA experience at USC - Working at VITALIZE Venture Capital for 2.5 years - Growing my social media audience to 40,000+ followers - Building this newsletter to 21,000+ subscribers - Hosting 400+ podcast interviews with founders & investors - Creating an angel investing community with hundreds of members Now I'm focused on helping founders connect, build their personal brand, and create more successful businesses. Village Lane's in-person events will include things like: - Co-working - Social activities - AMAs - Retreats The online component of Village Lane will include: - A member directory - Slack group - Vendor suggestions - Tech stacks - An investor database - Media exposure and amplification - Personal branding assistance We'll also phase in monthly digital peer groups as membership grows. This will all be built around our members and their needs. I’ll share more details as this evolves. Interested in joining? Learn more and apply below.
- Garnet S. Heraman One of my proudest moments as an investor occurred today as Alaffia Health announced its series A because it shows how the Aperture® Venture Capital vision of multi-level, multi-generational #impactinvesting is succeeding in the marketplace. Here’s the model in its most basic form : ✅As diverse fund managers with meaningful capital to allocate, we are changing the VC landscape every day just by doing our day jobs. ✅As Black/Brown investors with ~40 years experience collectively, Aperture GPs have access to talent /excellence that others do not, so our portfolio *organically* is more inclusive by race, gender and geography even while optimizing for financial outcomes (all about the alpha). ✅Our most successful portco’s are using financial #innovation to solve market problems that impact underrepresented demographics and underserved communities. Alaffia Health is a shining example of the impact portion of our overall fund thesis, and we couldn’t be prouder of TJ Ademiluyi and Adun Akanni, MPH, PMP - the dynamic brother-sister founder duo whose vision we have steadfastly supported on their journey. Congratulations to TJ and Adun from William Crowder and myself, as well as the whole Aperture team- Marjorie King Philip McKenzie Yves Louis-Jacques Tanvi Lal Michelle Dhansinghani Lisha Bell Katie Kelly Amy Chung Cindy Chong, CFA Brian Fernandes-Halloran Monroe France Jayden Pantel Darren Herman Evan Wladis Neal Triplett Thomas Scriven Peter Ammon Irina Bit-Babik Tim Milanich Rob Rahbari
- Sara Thomas Deshpande I love YC Demo Day season. It’s an insane concentration of driven founders building something they deeply believe in at the frontier of tech. I know it's more trendy for VCs to complain about YC. But I believe Garry Tan when he says 5-10% of companies become worth a billion dollars. Maven’s hit rate from YC is even higher: 16% have had B+exits,andwe’retrendingtowarda40B+ exits, and we’re trending toward a 40% graduation rate from Seed to Unicorn with investments we’ve made alongside YC. Since Maven’s founding in 2013, we’ve funded 12 YC startups out of the 66 companies we’ve invested in. Here are a few: Cruise: acquired by GM for B+exits,andwe’retrendingtowarda401B+ Embark: 4BSPAC,acquiredbyAppliedIntuitionChariot:acquiredbyFordbeforeSeriesAMayMobility:raised4B SPAC, acquired by Applied Intuition Chariot: acquired by Ford before Series A May Mobility: raised 4BSPAC,acquiredbyAppliedIntuitionChariot:acquiredbyFordbeforeSeriesAMayMobility:raised300M+ in follow on funding, including from Toyota Carrot Fertility: raised 100M+infollowonfunding,includingfromCRVandUSVPDaybreakHealth:SeriesAfromLightspeed,SeriesBfromUSVMomentRobotics:acquiredbyCruisefounderKyleVogt’snewcompany,TheBotCo(Mavenisaninvestor)OurstrategydiffersfromotherYCinvestors.ManyfundsbuildaYC“indexfund”,investinginmanystartupsperbatch.It’snotabadmove.Butwefocusonconcentration,meetingallthecompaniesinourthesisareaandinvestinginoneortwo.Gratefully,IthinkeverycompanyfromthelistabovecanpointtoMavenasoneoftheirmosttrustedpartnersthatmadeadifference:introstocustomers,closingfollow−onfundingfromtopVCs,connectingkeyhires,andofferinggenuinecareandadviceinboththebestandtoughestofmoments.WhatarewelookingforinaYCinvestment?1)Team−atechnicalproductteamwithstartupDNAandhustlethatcanachieveaboldvision.Brilliant,determinedfoundersnoonewouldbetagainstwhoareambitiousenoughtobuildaniconiccompany.2)Visionworthfightingfor−whatareyoubringingintotheworldthatisworthallthetime,effortandmoneyrequiredforsuccess?Whyaren’texistingsolutionsgoodenough?Areweproudtohelpbringthisideatotheworld?3)Massivemarket−becauseofthevaluationpremiumYCdemands,evena100M+ in follow on funding, including from CRV and USVP Daybreak Health: Series A from Lightspeed, Series B from USV Moment Robotics: acquired by Cruise founder Kyle Vogt’s new company, The Bot Co (Maven is an investor) Our strategy differs from other YC investors. Many funds build a YC “index fund”, investing in many startups per batch. It’s not a bad move. But we focus on concentration, meeting all the companies in our thesis area and investing in one or two. Gratefully, I think every company from the list above can point to Maven as one of their most trusted partners that made a difference: intros to customers, closing follow-on funding from top VCs, connecting key hires, and offering genuine care and advice in both the best and toughest of moments. What are we looking for in a YC investment? 1) Team - a technical product team with startup DNA and hustle that can achieve a bold vision. Brilliant, determined founders no one would bet against who are ambitious enough to build an iconic company. 2) Vision worth fighting for - what are you bringing into the world that is worth all the time, effort and money required for success? Why aren’t existing solutions good enough? Are we proud to help bring this idea to the world? 3) Massive market - because of the valuation premium YC demands, even a 100M+infollowonfunding,includingfromCRVandUSVPDaybreakHealth:SeriesAfromLightspeed,SeriesBfromUSVMomentRobotics:acquiredbyCruisefounderKyleVogt’snewcompany,TheBotCo(Mavenisaninvestor)OurstrategydiffersfromotherYCinvestors.ManyfundsbuildaYC“indexfund”,investinginmanystartupsperbatch.It’snotabadmove.Butwefocusonconcentration,meetingallthecompaniesinourthesisareaandinvestinginoneortwo.Gratefully,IthinkeverycompanyfromthelistabovecanpointtoMavenasoneoftheirmosttrustedpartnersthatmadeadifference:introstocustomers,closingfollow−onfundingfromtopVCs,connectingkeyhires,andofferinggenuinecareandadviceinboththebestandtoughestofmoments.WhatarewelookingforinaYCinvestment?1)Team−atechnicalproductteamwithstartupDNAandhustlethatcanachieveaboldvision.Brilliant,determinedfoundersnoonewouldbetagainstwhoareambitiousenoughtobuildaniconiccompany.2)Visionworthfightingfor−whatareyoubringingintotheworldthatisworthallthetime,effortandmoneyrequiredforsuccess?Whyaren’texistingsolutionsgoodenough?Areweproudtohelpbringthisideatotheworld?3)Massivemarket−becauseofthevaluationpremiumYCdemands,evenaB outcome may not return today’s average Seed fund. Honestly, that math sucks. In order to pay the premium, we have to believe that if we’re right, we’ll be wildly successful. 4) Consumer trend - Maven invests in tech companies addressing emerging consumer trends. Even if some investments are B2B or B2B2C, they are always grounded in a consumer insight: autonomous vehicles in 2014, fertility care in 2017, mental health in 2020. Today, we’re looking at consumer applications of AI and frontier consumer health. Many successful companies we fund are outside of YC as well – like Zoom, Hello Heart, Epic!, Class, Wildtype. So we match YC’s Unicorn % across the rest of our portfolio, too 💪 YC founders in consumer tech and digital health: if you want to build an iconic company that delivers a positive impact for millions of consumers - I can’t wait to talk to you!
- Geri Kirilova Given we've already received hundreds of applications, it's probably irrational for me to post that the Cohort 7 application deadline is approaching - but transparency and accessibility are so important to our work at Laconia and the Venture Cooperative that I have to! ICYMI, Jeffrey Silverman, David Arcara, Mirit Lugassi and I have been running a fellowship program called the Venture Cooperative for the past few years. It is a deep dive into how we operate at Laconia, covering our investment strategy, sourcing channels, approach to due diligence, portfolio support style, fund operations, fundraising approach, and everything in between. We tell you everything we know, answer your burning questions, bring in the most interesting experts we can find, connect you with each other, and then mostly get out of your way. We've had fellows make LP investments without prohibitively high investment minimums, participate in hundreds of pitch meetings and diligence sessions, earn upside in our fund after sourcing new investments, and lead sector deep dives. We are happiest when we see fellows start funds, launch venture studios, run syndicates, found companies, and meet lifelong collaborators and friends in the community. The application cutoff for Cohort 7 is September 22. If you're interested in VC, you don't want to miss it 💗 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/eWug-bpv
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