Podcasts about Menlo Ventures

"Sometimes you don't know what you don't know. And frankly, this is a journey that's long, and you'll learn a lot of things along the way. A lot of things, it's the first time you'll be doing that thing. Your job as an entrepreneur is to ultimately listen, then decide, and own that decision.” In this episode, Johnny Hu, Principle at Menlo Ventures, takes us inside his journey from scientist to venture capitalist, revealing how adapting to new mindsets, operational discipline, and calculated risk-taking are crucial in biotech. He breaks down the differences between the lab and the investment world, shares lessons from mentors at Omega Funds, and explains how founder-first investing and clear communication drive his approach at Menlo Ventures. Johnny also explores the challenges of fundraising, the realities of board dynamics, and how AI is reshaping biotech, all while emphasizing the value of curiosity and adaptability in a field defined by complexity and constant change.

"Every technology has a shelf life. It's just true, right? And, so, is that shelf life years? Is it months? Is it weeks? Is it days? You know, has it actually already been surpassed? That's just progress, right? That's great” In this episode, Johnny Hu, Principal at Menlo Ventures, unpacks his journey through neuroscience research at Genentech and Cambridge, the electrifying early days of CRISPR, and the fast-moving Boston biotech scene, revealing how academic culture, tool-building, and intentional company culture fuel breakthrough innovation. He offers a candid look at bridging academia and industry, the realities of risk and execution in biotech startups, and the collaborative and competitive dynamics of venture investing—showing what it really takes to thrive where science, startups, and investment meet.

If you had to write your one paragraph, what would your paragraph say?In this episode, Jeff and Brent discuss: The structure and benefits of having a B Corp.Why you may want to run a B Corp business.The legal requirement of filing and displaying your public benefit.Finding growth in the process of writing and identifying your purpose.  Key Takeaways: The public benefit of a B Corp can be educational, social, environmental, or religious.One of the benefits of knowing you have a religious public benefit, you know what your purpose and products must all point back to, without question.The world is not shy about pushing its views on people. Don't be shy about showing the world what you believe.Wake up to the situations of the world, and stand up for what you believe.  "The least you can do is state your values and try to live them out." —  Brent Dusing About Brent Dusing: Brent Dusing is the CEO and founder of TruPlay, a gaming platform created to bring high-quality, fun, and biblically sound entertainment to audiences worldwide. An entrepreneur at heart, Dusing pioneered game creation with Christian content through Lightside Games, a Christian gaming studio reaching more than 7 million game players worldwide and resulting in 25,000 decisions for Christ. As the founder and CEO of Cellfire, Dusing created the nation's leading mobile coupon company, used today at grocers like Safeway and Kroger, and led Catalina Marketing to acquire Cellfire for $108 million. He began his career as a venture capitalist at Menlo Ventures, where he sourced multiple nine-figure exits and generated top-quartile returns. Over his career, Dusing has been featured on CNN, Fox News, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and other news media. Dusing has a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University.About TruPlay: TruPlay is reaching families around the world with high-quality entertainment products that encompass God's Truth. TruPlay is building games, digital comics, video content, and Web 3.0 content to bring light to a world in need of God's love, hope, and truth. TruPlay's platform launches in 2023. TruPlay is a team of dozens of industry veterans with deep expertise in games, storytelling, animation, entertainment, and technology, who are committed to seeing the betterment of children around the world. For more information, visit truplaygames.com. Connect with TruPlay and Brent Dusing:Website: https://www.truplaygames.com/Discord: https://discord.com/invite/truplayYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCutwcoaalmdoIoxaZ2coQhALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truplay/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentdusing/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TruplayGamesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truplaygames/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/truplaygames/  Connect with Jeff Thomas: Website: https://www.arkosglobal.com/Podcast: https://www.generousbusinessowner.com/Book: https://www.arkosglobal.com/trading-upEmail: jeff.thomas@arkosglobal.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/ArkosGlobalAdvFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/arkosglobal/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arkosglobaladvisorsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkosglobaladvisors/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLUYpPwkHH7JrP6PrbHeBxw

“Every startup starts the journey at zero, and you're just building from scratch. Day by day, you do a little bit better, and eventually, you look back and realize how far you've come.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we dive into the formative journey of Johnny Hu, Principal at Menlo Ventures, tracing his path from a childhood spent on a UK university campus to the heart of biotech investing. Johnny shares how early exposure to academia, a move to Alabama near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and a deep curiosity for science and business shaped his worldview. He reflects on pivotal moments—from hands-on research in structural biology at Harvard and a summer at Genentech, to witnessing the evolution of biotech tools and infrastructure. Throughout, Johnny offers candid insights on the power of mentorship, the non-linear nature of discovery, and the incremental progress that fuels both scientific breakthroughs and startup success.

Our Social Media Pages, follow us and engage with the Pill-grim community!InstagramTwitter YouTubeTikTokLinkedIn And now for this week's prescription:On this week's dose, we start (1:59) with Alma, an AI-powered nutrition app using natural language processing to simplify meal tracking, fresh off a $2.9M pre-seed round led by Menlo Ventures' Anthology Fund in partnership with Anthropic. Next (14:27), we pop open a deep dive on Olipop, the gut-friendly soda brand shaking up the functional beverage space, following a $50M Series C that brings its valuation to a bubbly $1.85 billion. Finally (24:01), we slice into Via 313 Pizzeria, the fast-growing Detroit-style pizza chain that just secured $32.5M in growth capital to fuel expansion across the U.S.Sources:https://www.alma.food/ https://menlovc.com/anthology-fund/ https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/05/former-whoop-execs-new-app-alma-uses-ai-for-all-things-nutrition/ https://drinkolipop.com/https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4771906/functional-beverage-market-share-analysis?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/27693-olipop-valued-at-185-billion-following-latest-funding-roundhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/olipop-valued-1-85bn-following-125054362.htmlhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-12/olipop-valued-at-1-85-billion-in-50-million-funding-round?embedded-checkout=truehttps://www.via313.com/https://www.utahbusiness.com/press-releases/2025/02/05/via-313-raises-32-million-double-footprint/https://www.nrn.com/restaurant-finance/via-313-pizzeria-raises-32-5m-in-growth-capitalMusic Credit: Chapter One by Cole Bauer and Dean Keetonhttps://www.instagram.com/deankeeton/?hl=en

Alvaro Morales is the cofounder and CEO of Orb, a usage-based billing product for modern software companies. They've raised $44M to date from amazing investors such as Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, and Greylock. Alvaro's favorite book: Conversation in the Cathedral (Author: Mario Vargas Llosa)(00:01) Introduction (00:35) What is Usage-Based Billing?(02:27) Challenges in Metering Usage(04:14) Examples of Consumption-Based Products(05:49) Tools for Usage Metering and Billing(09:08) Founding Story and Validation of Orb(12:11) Building the MVP for a Billing System(14:48) Acquiring the First 10 Customers(18:33) Scaling Sales & Marketing After Initial Traction(21:09) Building the Team & Ideal Candidate Profile(23:26) Technology Stack Behind Orb(25:55) Real-Time Analytics vs Streaming for Billing(27:18) Other Key Components of Orb's Solution(28:38) Why Incumbents Haven't Solved This Problem(31:09) How Orb Uses AI Internally(32:53) Most Exciting AI Advancements for the Future(34:30) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Alvaro Morales: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvaro-morales/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-infinite X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Jay Madheswaran is the cofounder and CEO of Eve, a legal AI platform for plaintiff law firms. They recently raised their $47M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and Menlo Ventures. He was previously a partner at Lightspeed and the first engineer at Rubrik.Jay's favorite book: The Truth Detector (Author: Jack Schafer)(00:01) Introduction(00:44) Overview of Legal AI and Industry Impact(03:53) Daily Operations in Plaintiff Law Firms(05:49) Identifying and Launching Eve's MVP(08:58) Framework for Building an Effective MVP(12:02) Acquiring Early Customers (Zero to Ten)(14:20) Scaling Beyond Early Customers: Growth Strategies(16:08) Encouraging Word-of-Mouth and Inbound Growth(18:21) Product Development and Customer Feedback Loops(20:27) Eve's Technology Stack and Internal AI Usage(22:16) Team Structure and Leadership Development(24:20) Role and Impact of Designers in Early Startups(27:15) Future Trends in Legal AI: Consolidation vs. Specialization(30:29) Exciting AI Advancements Relevant to Eve(31:58) Rapid Fire Questions--------Where to find Jay Madheswaran: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayanth1/--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 X: https://x.com/prateekvjoshi 

Molham Aref's journey as an entrepreneur is nothing short of fascinating. With multiple successful ventures, big exits, and a deep history in AI, his story offers insights into the trials, triumphs, and evolution of the tech world, especially around the rise of AI. Molham's latest venture, RelationalAI, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Madrona Venture Group, Addition, Tiger Global Management, and Menlo Ventures.

Hirezon , a in cloud-based HR technology for higher education, announced the launch of an enhanced version of MyReferred™, a new referral platform. Refined based on customer feedback, MyReferred™ helps employee referral programs by shifting from a reactive process to a proactive, strategic hiring approach. The platform enables higher education institutions to leverage internal networks—including employees, students and alumni —to build a sustainable talent pipeline. https://hrtechfeed.com/hirezon-launches-referral-platform-for-higher-education/ CHICAGO — Professional Diversity Network, Inc., a developer and operator of online and in-person networks that provide access to networking, training, educational, and employment opportunities for diverse individuals, today announced a strategic $1.3 million investment in AI Geometric Ltd., securing a 13% equity stake as of January 27, 2025. https://hrtechfeed.com/talentally-invests-1-3-million-in-ai-to-power-its-recruitment-platform/ Employ Inc., a leading provider of people-first recruiting and talent acquisition solutions, including JazzHR, Lever and Jobvite, today announced the details of its Winter 2025 product release.  https://hrtechfeed.com/employ-announces-winter-2025-product-release/ SEATTLE — ConverzAI, the leading innovator in AI-driven recruitment solutions, announced a $16M Series A funding round to accelerate product innovation and expand go-to-market strategy. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, and joined by Left Lane Capital.   https://hrtechfeed.com/virtual-ai-recruiter-tech-lands-16m-series-a/ Appcast, the leading recruitment marketing platform powered by programmatic, is proud to announce the release of its ninth annual Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report. This comprehensive annual report offers critical insights into the current state of the labor market and recruitment marketing trends, helping employers navigate the ever-changing hiring landscape. https://recruitingheadlines.com/the-2025-recruitment-marketing-benchmark-report-is-here/  

Deedy Das invests at Menlo Ventures in Seed and Series A companies in AI / SaaS / Infra and helps run the $100M Anthology Fund with Anthropic. He was on the founding team of the $4.6B enterprise search and AI company Glean, where he built and led Glean Assistant to $15M+ ARR. Deedy also writes frequently about tech, AI, startups, and immigration on X which have received 400M+ views and been featured frequently in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and more. Discover how Deedy's experience with founding an AI company sparked his passion for supporting budding startups. Gain insights into his work with the $100 million Anthology Fund with Anthropic, which offers a refreshing flexibility compared to traditional venture capital frameworks. Deedy also opens up about his immigration journey from India to the U.S., shedding light on the complex H1B visa process and its impact on talented individuals striving to establish themselves in the U.S. In this episode, you'll hear about: Deedy Das's transition from engineering to venture capital and his role at Menlo Ventures and Glean. Challenges and strategies for navigating the H1B and EB1A visa processes as an immigrant entrepreneur. Insights into the flexibility and structure of the $100 million Anthology Fund with Anthropic. The need for reform in green card pathways and exploring international models for immigration. Strategies for non-citizen entrepreneurs in the U.S., focusing on visa eligibility and fundraising. The importance of customer feedback over investor opinions for startup success. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debarghyadas/ Website - https://debarghyadas.com/ https://x.com/AravSrinivas/status/1851700699756925059?lang=en  https://menlovc.com/anthology-fund/  Alcorn Immigration Law: Subscribe to the monthly Alcorn newsletter Sophie Alcorn Podcast: Episode 16: E-2 Visa for Founders and Employees Episode 19: Australian Visas Including E-3 Episode 20: TN Visas and Status for Canadian and Mexican Citizens Immigration Options for Talent, Investors, and Founders Immigration Law for Tech Startups eBook

The tools that enable companies to build, operate and manage enterprise applications and infrastructure are evolving, and AI's advancements could reset the technology, business and M&A landscape. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Tim Tully, a partner at Menlo Ventures, joins Sunil Rajgopal, senior software analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, to discuss the broad technology shift, with a particular focus on databases, observability, large language models and front-end development tools. They also talk about the shift in developer roles, productivity gains from AI, tech-industry policies and M&A prospects in the space. Menlo is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies in areas including consumer, enterprise and health-care technologies.

Cybersecurity venture funding has increased recently. Semgrep, an application security startup, secured $100 million in Series D funding, led by Menlo Ventures and including investments from multiple firms. Since 2017, Semgrep has raised a total of $204 million. The company focuses on providing an autonomous code security platform that helps developers and security engineers create safeguards for application development. In 2024, investments in cybersecurity ventures rose by 43% year-over-year, totaling nearly $11.6 billion. Despite a flat funding quarter in the last quarter of 2024, investment momentum continued into 2025, with Semgrep's funding round being the only one exceeding nine figures.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Todays show: In this episode, we discuss Hailey Welch and the viral Hawk coin, then discuss David Sachs' new White House role and recent job data's economic impact. We address the United Healthcare CEO's murder, debate cancel culture, and a viral tweet on software engineers' habits. Deedy Das offers insights on tech inefficiencies and the shift to in-person work. Coffeezilla joins to explore crypto scams, influencer marketing ethics, and regulation. We wrap up with David Sachs' Czar role in AI and crypto for the US government, market dynamics, and a new addition to the Twist 500. * Timestamps: (0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show (1:53) Economic outlook and recent job data (5:12) Reaction to United Healthcare CEO murder (9:19) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (10:48) Cancel culture debate and public statements (16:00) Viral tweet about software engineers' work habits (19:02) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (20:08) DeeDee Doss interview on software engineer productivity (23:17) Management incentives and tech company inefficiencies (25:16) Shift to in-person work in tech startups (29:37) Ramp - Get $250 when you join Ramp today at https://www.ramp.com/twist (31:20) Remote work psychology and potential abuse (37:35) Strategies to prevent remote work abuse (39:24) Hayley Welch interview on viral meme coin (41:00) Coffeezilla's investigations into scams and frauds (47:42) Cryptocurrency red flags and influencer consequences (52:50) Crypto regulation and influencer marketing ethics (59:03) Influencer credibility and responsibility (1:03:21) Coffeezilla's assignment and Rabbit AI device insights (1:04:01) David Sachs announcement and AI/crypto in government (1:07:25) Regulatory capture and Silicon Valley dynamics (1:09:15) Market perspectives and government influence * Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Apply for the Launch CloudKitchens Incubator here: https://ck.launch.co Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Mentioned on the show: Check on Menlo Ventures: https://menlovc.com/ Check out Coffeezilla: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFQMnBA3CS502aghlcr0_aw * Follow Coffeezilla: X: https://x.com/coffeebreak_YT * Follow Deedy: X: https://x.com/deedydas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debarghyadas/ * Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (9:19) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (19:02) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (29:37) Ramp - Get $250 when you join Ramp today at https://www.ramp.com/twist * Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

AI investment is massive, but AI profits are not — and yet investors seem confident massive AI fundraising will one day translate into sizable AI profits. To break it down, Verge Deputy Editor Alex Heath guest hosts this episode of Decoder featuring Menlo Ventures partner Tim Tilly and AirStreet Capital founder Nathan Benaich.  Links:  2024: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise | Menlo Ventures State of AI Report | Nathan Benaich AI Index Report 2024 | Stanford HAL How companies are spending on AI right now | Tech Brew OpenAI Is growing fast and burning through piles of money | NYT Amazon to invest another $4 billion in OpenAI rival Anthropic | The Verge Agents are the future AI companies promise — and desperately need | The Verge Anthropic's latest AI update can use a computer on its own | The Verge OpenAI reportedly plans to launch an AI agent early next year | The Verge Is AI hitting a wall? | Command Line Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Highlights from their conversation include:Steve's journey into supply chain investment (1:27)The Intersection of AI and Supply Chain (3:28)Applicability of Generative AI in Supply Chain (11:23)Capital efficiency and scaling challenges (12:36)AI's role in improving efficiency (14:02)Use of generative AI for internal operations (15:57)AI's application for SaaS and other mediums (18:48)Final thoughts and takeaways (21:01)Dynamo is a VC firm led by supply chain and mobility specialists that focus on seed-stage, enterprise startups.Find out more at: https://www.dynamo.vc/

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… LinkedIn Ads. To redeem a $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign, go to http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups Zendesk. A service-first CRM company with support, sales, and customer engagement products designed to improve customer relationships. Qualifying startups can join the Zendesk for Startups Program and get six free months of Zendesk products. Visit https://zendesk.com/startups today to get started. Beehiiv. Power your newsletters with AI tools, referral programs, and ad network features—all in one platform. Get 30 days free and 20% off your first 3 months at https://www.beehiiv.com/twist * Todays show: Alex is joined by Joff Redfern and Derek Xiao of Menlo Ventures to discuss the significant role AI plays in modern workflows. We look behind the numbers of their recent report: “2024: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise” while exploring AI spending trends in enterprises, with a focus on its impact on the healthcare and legal sectors. The conversation highlights popular AI use cases, the role of large language models in content creation, and workflow automation. We delve into advances in generative AI applications, enterprise spending, strategies for AI startups, training AI for market verticals, and the future of artificial general intelligence. * Timestamps: (0:00) Joff Redfern and Derek Xiao join Alex (4:08) Yahoo's evolution and Anthropic's recent funding (6:23) AI spending trends in enterprises (10:14) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (12:20) AI's impact on healthcare and legal sectors and its rapid adoption (19:25) Popular AI use cases in enterprises (20:56) Zendesk - Get six months free at https://www.zendesk.com/startups (23:17) The role of LLMs in content creation and workflow automation (27:04) Advances in generative AI applications and agentic systems (30:43) Beehiiv - Get 30 days free and 20% off your first 3 months at https://www.beehiiv.com/twist (32:14) Enterprise generative AI spend, ROI, and budget expansion (38:45) Selecting generative AI tools and AI-first startup opportunities (47:43) Competition and strategies for AI startups (50:10) Training AI for market verticals and the future of AGI (53:03) Recap of enterprise AI spend and trends * Want to host or join the next Founder Fridays? Check out https://www.founderfridays.tech Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Links from the show: Check out Menlo Ventures: https://menlovc.com/ Menlo's report “2024: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise”: https://menlovc.com/2024-the-state-of-generative-ai-in-the-enterprise/ * Follow Joff: X: https://x.com/mejoff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mejoff/ * Follow Derek: X: https://x.com/derekgxiao LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekgxiao/ * Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm * Thank you to our partners: (10:14) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (20:56) Zendesk - Get six months free at https://www.zendesk.com/startups (30:43) Beehiiv - Get 30 days free and 20% off your first 3 months at https://www.beehiiv.com/twist * Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Menlo Ventures' 2024 State of Enterprise AI Report reveals key insights into AI's transformative impact on businesses. From a 600% spending increase to a shift from pilots to production, this deep dive highlights enterprise adoption trends, the rise of in-house solutions, and the evolving role of AI agents. Discover how generative AI is reshaping every department, from IT to HR, and what this means for the future of business innovation. Brought to you by: Vanta - Simplify compliance - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://vanta.com/nlw The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://aidailybrief.beehiiv.com/ Join our Discord: https://bit.ly/aibreakdown

On this episode of Redefining Work, I'm joined by J.P. Sanday, partner at Menlo Ventures. Throughout his career in private equity and venture capital, J.P. has gained a sharp understanding of market dynamics and early-stage growth. In this episode, we dive into his philosophy on scaling startups, assembling powerful teams and making the most of AI opportunities.

Christian Back is the founder of Netlify, a software platform that allows developers to build highly-performant and dynamic websites, e-commerce stores, and applications. The company has now raised close to $200 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, EQT Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Mango Capital, and Menlo Ventures.The company boasts more than 5 million developers using the platform, although many are using the free tier. It took the company five years to reach 1 million users and just a year to double that, so things are moving quickly.Where to find Christian Bach:• Website: Scale & Ship Faster with a Composable Web Architecture | Netlify• LinkedIn (8) Christian (Chris) Bach | LinkedInWhere to find Hadi Radwan:• Newsletter: Principles Friday | Hadi Radwan | Substack• LinkedIn: Hadi Radwan | LinkedInIf you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

From a humble beginning in South Africa to becoming a serial entrepreneur in the United States, Wayne Slavin's story is one of perseverance, adaptability, and relentless pursuit of innovation. As a young immigrant in Southern California during the late 80s, Wayne experienced a world where possibilities seemed endless despite the initial challenges his family faced. Wayne's latest company is Sure that has attracted funding from top-tier investors like BluePointe Ventures, FTAC Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Cohen Circle.

In this episode, Amir welcomes Sandeep Bhadra, General Partner at Vertex US, to discuss early-stage founders' challenges and the critical support they need. The conversation covers the loneliness of the founder's journey, the importance of coaching and mentoring, and the dynamics of candid discussions between investors and founders. Sandeep emphasizes the significance of understanding distribution and managing teams with different expertise. The episode also delves into the art of pivoting, testing ideas, and the necessity of being patient while finding the right market fit. Highlights: 01:44 Challenges and Psychology of Founders 04:35 Importance of Coaching and Mentorship 06:28 Balancing Vision and Reality 12:24 Skills and Gaps in First-Time Founders 16:18 The Art of Pivoting and Lean Experimentation Guest: Sandeep Bhadra is a General Partner at Vertex Ventures US, where he focuses on early-stage investments in enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity. With a strong background in venture capital and a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford, Sandeep brings deep technical expertise and business acumen to his role. Before Vertex, he held roles at Menlo Ventures and helped lead investments in several successful tech startups. Sandeep is passionate about partnering with visionary founders to help them scale and grow their companies. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeepbhadra/ ---- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek. We would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode of The Tech Optimist, Meera Oak, a Partner at Alumni Ventures, interviews Kareem Aly, co-founder and CEO of Kabata, about their innovative AI-powered dumbbells designed to enhance strength training by tracking workout metrics and providing real-time coaching. Highlighting the product's compact design and versatility, Aly explains how Kabata caters to both fitness enthusiasts and those with limited space. He also shares insights into their recent $5 million seed funding round led by Menlo Ventures, aimed at scaling production and marketing efforts ahead of their upcoming pre-order launch.To Learn More:Alumni Ventures (AV)AV LinkedInAV Healthtech FundTech OptimistKabataSpeakers:Meera Oak - GuestKareem Aly - GuestChapters:(00:00) - Intro (02:03) - Interview (14:55) - Ask to the Community (18:21) - Closing Legal Disclosure:https://av-funds.com/tech-optimist-disclosures

Our 175th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news! With hosts Andrey Kurenkov (https://twitter.com/andrey_kurenkov) and Jeremie Harris (https://twitter.com/jeremiecharris) In this episode of Last Week in AI, hosts Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremy Harris explore recent AI advancements including OpenAI's release of GPT 4.0 Mini and Mistral's open-source models, covering their impacts on affordability and performance. They delve into enterprise tools for compliance, text-to-video models like Hyper 1.5, and YouTube Music enhancements. The conversation further addresses AI research topics such as the benefits of numerous small expert models, novel benchmarking techniques, and advanced AI reasoning. Policy issues including U.S. export controls on AI technology to China and internal controversies at OpenAI are also discussed, alongside Elon Musk's supercomputer ambitions and OpenAI's Prover-Verify Games initiative.   Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/ If you would like to become a sponsor for the newsletter, podcast, or both, please fill out this form. Email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai   Timestamps + links: (00:00:00) AI Song Intro (00:00:40) Intro / Banter Tools & Apps(00:03:57) OpenAI unveils GPT-4o mini, a small AI model powering ChatGPT (00:11:38) Meet Haiper 1.5, the new AI video generation model challenging Sora, Runway (00:16:32) Anthropic releases Claude app for Android (00:18:59) Google Vids is available to test out Gemini AI-created video presentations (00:20:27) YouTube Music sound search rolling out, AI ‘conversational radio' in testing  Applications & Business(00:23:30) OpenAI working on new reasoning technology under code name ‘Strawberry' (00:30:45) Inside Elon Musk's Mad Dash To Build A Giant xAI Supercomputer In Memphis (00:37:15) Apple, NVIDIA and Anthropic reportedly used YouTube transcripts without permission to train AI models (00:41:05) After Tesla and OpenAI, Andrej Karpathy's startup aims to apply AI assistants to education (00:43:40) Menlo Ventures and Anthropic team up on a $100M AI fund Projects & Open Source(00:46:27) Mistral releases Codestral Mamba for faster, longer code generation (00:50:36) Mistral AI and NVIDIA Unveil Mistral NeMo 12B, a Cutting-Edge Enterprise AI Model (00:52:51) Hugging Face Releases SmoLLM, a Series of Small Language Models, Beats Qwen2 and Phi 1.5 (00:56:11) Stable Diffusion 3 License Revamped Amid Blowback, Promising Better Model Research & Advancements(01:01:49) FlashAttention-3 unleashes the power of H100 GPUs for LLMs (01:06:38) Mixture of A Million Experts (01:12:51) AutoBencher: Creating Salient, Novel, Difficult Datasets for Language Models (01:18:23) SpreadsheetLLM: Encoding Spreadsheets for Large Language >Models Policy & Safety(01:20:50) Prover-Verifier Games improve legibility of language model outputs (01:28:05) Trump allies draft AI order to launch ‘Manhattan Projects' for defense (01:34:40) On scalable oversight with weak LLMs judging strong LLMs (01:36:24) Google, Microsoft offer Nvidia chips to Chinese companies, the Information reports (01:38:26) U.S. planning 'draconian' sanctions against China's semiconductor industry: Report (01:48:47) OpenAI illegally barred staff from airing safety risks, whistleblowers say (01:44:59) Outro + AI Song

Tim Tully is a partner at Menlo Ventures, a VC firm that has invested in companies like Uber, Anthropic, Pinecone, Benchling, Chime, Carta, Recursion, and more. He was previously the CTO of Splunk, a publicly traded company that was acquired by Cisco for $28 billion. Prior to that, he was the VP of Engineering at Yahoo for 14 years. Tim's favorite book: Infinite Jest (Author: David Foster Wallace)(00:01) Introduction(00:07) Evolution of Databases(03:17) Enduring Business Models in Data Management(04:41) Challenges and Trade-offs in Database Choices(06:20) Modern Database Architecture(09:06) Separation of Storage and Compute(10:35) Role of Indexing in LLM Applications(13:20) Handling Different Types of Data in Databases(14:50) Distributed Databases Explained(16:20) Real-time Data Handling and Requirements(18:53) Architecting Data Infrastructure for AI(21:29) ETL in Modern Data Infrastructure(24:53) AI's Role in Database Optimization(27:17) Network Architecture(30:13) Hardware Improvements and Database Performance(33:35) Technological Breakthroughs and Investment Opportunities(35:11) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

NLW covers reporting about a draft Republican AI executive order. Also, Menlo Ventures and Anthropic partner on a $100m fund. Concerned about being spied on? Tired of censored responses? Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Venice.ai⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for private, uncensored AI alternative. Learn how to use AI with the world's biggest library of fun and useful tutorials: https://besuper.ai/ Use code 'podcast' for 50% off your first month. The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://aidailybrief.beehiiv.com/ Join our Discord: https://bit.ly/aibreakdown

In this episode of Discover Daily, we explore the groundbreaking sale of "Apex," a nearly complete stegosaurus skeleton that shattered auction records by fetching $44.6 million at Sotheby's New York. Discover the fascinating details of this Late Jurassic herbivore and learn about the ongoing debate surrounding the ethics of auctioning scientifically significant fossils to private collectors.Next, we'll explore the United Kingdom's historic decision to approve lab-grown meat for pet consumption, as startup Meatly receives the green light to produce cultivated chicken for cats and dogs. Explore the potential environmental and ethical benefits of this innovative pet food solution, as well as the challenges it faces in terms of sustainability, cost, and market adoption.We also cover the launch of the Anthology Fund, a $100 million initiative by Anthropic and Menlo Ventures aimed at accelerating AI innovation. Find out how this strategic partnership plans to support early-stage startups developing AI applications and infrastructure solutions, and learn about the role Anthropic's AI assistant Claude will play in the investment process. Finally, we discuss recent studies published in Nature that shed light on the mind-bending effects of psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, and its potential therapeutic benefits for mental health conditions like depression.Perplexity is the fastest and most powerful way to search the web. Perplexity crawls the web and curates the most relevant and up-to-date sources (from academic papers to Reddit threads) to create the perfect response to any question or topic you're interested in. Take the world's knowledge with you anywhere. Available on iOS and Android Join our growing Discord community for the latest updates and exclusive content. Follow us on: Instagram Threads X (Twitter) YouTube Linkedin

En el episodio de hoy de "10 Minutos con Sami", exploramos tres noticias fascinantes que están dando forma al futuro. Comenzamos con la asombrosa venta de "Apex", un esqueleto de estegosaurio que ha batido récords en Sotheby's al venderse por 44,6 millones de dólares. Luego, nos adentramos en el mundo de la alimentación del futuro, con la aprobación en el Reino Unido de la primera carne cultivada en laboratorio para alimentos de mascotas. Finalmente, analizamos la creación del Fondo Anthology, una iniciativa de 100 millones de dólares lanzada por Anthropic y Menlo Ventures para impulsar la innovación en inteligencia artificial. Estas noticias nos muestran cómo la ciencia, la tecnología y la inversión están convergiendo para crear un futuro lleno de posibilidades emocionantes. Fuentes: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stegosaurus-apex-sale-auction-record-45-million-sothebys-buyer/ , https://www.yahoo.com/news/lab-grown-meat-set-sold-165453252.html , https://observer.com/2024/07/anthropic-menlo-venture-ai-fund/ Redes: Puedes buscarme por redes sociales como Threads, Twitter e Instagram con @olivernabani, y puedes encontrarme habitualmente en Twitch: http://twitch.tv/olivernabani Puedes encontrar tanto este Podcast como otro contenido original en YouTube: https://youtube.com/olivernabani Además si quieres participar en la comunidad mashain, tenemos un server de Discord donde compartimos nuestras inquietudes: https://discord.gg/7M2SEfbF Un canal de Telegram donde os aviso de novedades y contenidos: https://t.me/sedicemashain Y un canal de Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCSKOzFCCoavMoLwX43 Y por supuesto lo más importante, recuerda: No se dice Machine, se dice Mashain

Hey Strangers, #crypto #jdvance #tech MILWAUKEE, July 16 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's choice of J.D. Vance for a running mate raised the hopes of Silicon Valley conservatives on Tuesday that they stand to gain having a fellow "tech bro" within reach of the White House for the first time. "WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE. GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY," Delian Asparouhov, a partner at billionaire investor Peter Thiel's venture capital firm Founders Fund, wrote on social media site X. Author of the bestselling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," a graduate of Yale Law School and later a venture capitalist in San Francisco, Vance has had a rapid ascent for American politics. At 39, he has served but two years in the U.S. Senate representing the state of Ohio. The Republican National Convention on Monday formally nominated Trump and Vance as their ticket in the Nov. 5 election to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Some right-leaning investors began re-circulating old tweets of Vance's and set their sights on friendlier regulations ranging from artificial intelligence to cryptocurrency. "He has a direct line to some important influencers as he's evaluating or thinking through some of the policy around tech," said Matt Murphy, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, noting the traditional gap between Washington and Silicon Valley. ======================================= My other podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKpvBEElSl1dD72Y5gtepkw ************************************************** Something Strange https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRjVc2TZqN4&t=4s ************************************************** article links: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/with-trump-vp-pick-jd-vance-silicon-valley-conservatives-land-tech-bro-ticket-2024-07-17/ ====================================== Today is for push-ups and Programming and I am all done doing push-ups Discord https://discord.gg/MYvNgYYFxq TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@strangestcoder Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@codingwithstrangers Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/CodingWithStrangers Twitter https://twitter.com/strangestcoder merch Support CodingWithStrangers IRL by purchasing some merch. All merch purchases include an alert: https://streamlabs.com/codingwithstrangers/merch Github Follow my works of chaos https://github.com/codingwithstrangers Tips https://streamlabs.com/codingwithstrangers/tip Patreon patreon.com/TheStrangers Timeline 00:00 intro 00:28 What Talking We Talking About 02:59 Article 12:29 My Thoughts 16:00 outro anything else? Take Care --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coding-with-strangers/message

Parker Gilbert, Co founder and CEO of Numeric, joins the show to talk about- How going through a challenging financial audit led to the insight of founding Numeric.- The character traits that Parker looked for in his co founders for Numeric.- Parker's experience closing is $10M Series A and what it took to close a round from Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures and how he iterated to build a pitch that ultimately landed.- Signing customers that can help Numeric accelerate partner growth, and the "why now" answered for Numeric.

Menlo Ventures es uno de los fondos de venture capital más legendarios de Silicon Valley con casi 50 años en el mercado y 5 mil millones de dólares invertidos en cientos de compañías, incluyendo a Uber, Roku, Carta y Anthropic.Y conversé con uno de sus socios, Jean-Paul (JP) Sanday que se especializa en invertir en software para grandes empresas como CodeSignal, Sana Labs y Photomath. Antes de Menlo, Jean Paul fue Vicepresidente en Summit Partners y gerente de producto y crecimiento en compañías como Amazon, y Kiwi.-Este episodio es presentado por Rindegastos, el software de gestión de gastos empresariales que te ahorra 75% de tiempo y dinero en el manejo de gastos de tu startup. Como beneficio exclusivo por escuchar Startupueable, obtén 40% de descuento en la implementación de sus planes accediendo a: https://rebrand.ly/RGLDSP-Por favor ayúdame dejando una reseña en Spotify o Apple Podcasts: https://ratethispodcast.com/startupeable-JP y yo hablamos de:Por qué las startups exitosas recrean las reglas del juego en lugar de competir por funcionalidadesPor qué no es suficiente que un mercado sea grande para atraer venture capitalLos rituales que incrementan la velocidad de las startupsCómo evaluar a tu empleado más importante, tus inversionistasY de cómo la inteligencia artificial está influenciando sus decisiones de inversiónEsta entrevista está llena de las lecciones y patrones que Menlo Ventures ha recolectado al invertir en decenas de compañías multimillonarias y, por eso, es una gran forma de entender cómo un inversor de Silicon Valley evalúa una startup.Notas del episodio: https://startupeable.com/menlo-ventures/Para más contenido síguenos en:YouTube  | Sitio Web -Este episodio es presentado por Rindegastos, el software de gestión de gastos empresariales que te ahorra 75% de tiempo y dinero en el manejo de gastos de tu startup. Como beneficio exclusivo por escuchar Startupueable, obtén 40% de descuento en la implementación de sus planes accediendo a: https://rebrand.ly/RGLDSP-Distribuido por Genuina Media

In this episode of the Product Podcast, we dive into the fascinating career journey of Joff Redfern, who made a big move from Chief Product Officer at Atlassian to partner at Menlo Ventures. If you're navigating career changes or want to master business innovation, this episode is a must-listen.Join us as Joff shares his insights on the dynamic roles of VP and CPO, the importance of managing talent, and building strong executive relationships. He also talks about his "less is more" philosophy, which extends to his sustainable living on a farm in Santa Barbara, where he's all about being food, water, and energy independent.You'll learn about Joff's innovative "Rolling Four Plans" strategy, which he introduced at Atlassian. This game-changing approach to traditional annual planning promotes flexibility with quarterly updates, helping organizations stay ahead in a competitive market.We also explore how AI is transforming venture capital and product tech industries. Joff discusses investments in pioneering companies, shedding light on how AI is reshaping software development and product management. Plus, he highlights the importance of effective communication in rallying teams around groundbreaking visions.Don't miss this compelling episode filled with actionable insights and strategies to excel in the evolving tech landscape. Hit that subscribe button and join us for an exciting journey into the world of products!

A reminder for new readers. That Was The Week includes a collection of my selected readings on critical issues in tech, startups, and venture capital. I selected the articles because they are of interest to me. The selections often include things I entirely disagree with. But they express common opinions, or they provoke me to think. The articles are snippets sized to convey why they are of interest. Click on the headline, contents link, or the ‘More' link at the bottom of each piece to go to the original. I express my point of view in the editorial and the weekly video below.Hat Tip to this week's creators: @reidhoffman, @dougleone, , @credistick, @rex_woodbury, @NathanLands, @ItsUrBoyEvan, @berber_jin1, @cityofthetown, @keachhagey, @pmarca, @bhorowitz, , @signalrank, @steph_palazzolo, @julipuli, @MTemkin, @geneteare, @lorakolodny, @jasminewsun, @JBFlint, @asharma, @thesimonetti, @lessinContents* Editorial: * Essays of the Week* Crossing The Series A Chasm* The Consumer Renaissance* The Creator Economy on AI Steroids* AI Is Transforming the Nature of the Firm* The Opaque Investment Empire Making OpenAI's Sam Altman Rich* Video of the Week* The American Dream - Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz* AI of the Week* SignalRank Version 3 Improves Performance Again* How Long Can OpenAI's First-Mover Advantage Last?* OpenAI Employees Warn of Advanced AI Dangers* A Right to Warn about Advanced Artificial Intelligence* Nvidia hits $3tn and surpasses Apple as world's second-most valuable company* VCs are selling shares of hot AI companies like Anthropic and xAI to small investors in a wild SPV market* News Of the Week* Crunchbase Monthly Recap May 2024: AI Leads Alongside An Uptick In Billion-Dollar Rounds* Elon Musk ordered Nvidia to ship thousands of AI chips reserved for Tesla to X and xAI* Introducing video to Substack Chat* Instagram's Testing Video Ads That Stop You From Scrolling Further* Startup of the Week* NBA Nears $76 Billion TV Deal, a Defining Moment for Media and Sports* X of the Week* Doug Leone - I am supporting Trump. * Reid Hoffman - I am supporting BidenEditorialI woke on Tuesday to Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital on X saying:I have become increasingly concerned about the general direction of our country, the state of our broken immigration system, the ballooning deficit, and the foreign policy missteps, among other issues. Therefore, I am supporting former President Trump in this coming election.Doug has the right to support Trump. It is also clear that the immigration system is broken, the deficit is ballooning, many things are wrong with foreign policy, and there are “other issues.” Trump as the solution is less obvious. But there it is—hot on the tails of Chamath Palihipitaya and David Sacks announcing a fund-raiser for Trump on the All-In podcast (they said they would do the same for Biden).Reid Hoffman followed up a day later with:On one level, this is a straightforward choice, but any literate attempt to analyze Leone's issues might arrive at the following conclusions:* Like many Western nations, the USA is aging rapidly and has a shrinking working-age population across all skill sets. Immigrants are needed, and pro-immigration leadership is needed, creating a path to entry for large numbers of skilled and unskilled workers to fill empty jobs as we get close to full employment.* The deficit is large, and there are many palliatives available. Selling more to China would help, but both party leaders are protectionist. Taxes to reduce the divide between the 1% and the rest would help a bit. However, what would help the most is economic growth, which requires investment in technology and productivity. Neither leader seems too focused on innovation and investment.* Foreign Policy - well, sheesh, it's a big issue. However, saber-rattling about Taiwan and provoking China seems to be a hobby shared by both parties and does not seem smart. Ukraine and the future of Europe are better in Biden's hands, but not by a lot. Europe looks very shaky. The US is increasingly isolationist. The appetite for world leadership is on the decline. Again, the solution would focus on economic growth, which seems absent.Voting for Trump is a big no-no for me. But voting for Biden is, at best, a lesser evil instinct, not a belief system. The election will not be where the future is built, but it is important. Politicians are collectively disappointing.This week's video of the week from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz is called “The American Dream” and champions their view about American Dynamism. And I must confess that this comes closer to a vision of the future than either political outfit. Their vision requires political support, massive government financial commitment, and private capital investment. I see no evidence of those happening.The real winning effort seems to be happening on the ground. This week, Nvidia hit $3 trillion, eclipsing Apple as the world's second-most valuable company. This is even though Apple has 7 times the revenue of Nvidia.This week's first essays also focus on prospects for boom time. Rex Woodbury's ‘The Consumer Renaissance' examines the impact of consumer spending on our lives. In ‘The Creator Economy on AI Steroids, ' Nathan Lands focuses on how emerging tools will transform creativity. But in ‘AI Is Transforming the Nature of the Firm, ' Evan Armstrong gets closest to a future vision.”AI is the first universally flexible technology. It can interact with our digital environments in similar ways to humans, so it can have all the flexibility that we do. In that way, it may be the last technology we ever need.This seems to be the crux of hope in a world where dreams and nightmares are strangely devoid of detail. What the world needs (not only America) is hope. And hope is born from optimism. Optimism is born from success. The most likely success of the next decades will result from specific uses of AI that improve human life.I know and like Doug Leone. I know and like Reid Hoffman. Doug's bar for success needs to be higher. Voting for Trump is not right, and even if it were, it would not be sufficient.Reid also needs a higher bar. Voting for Biden will not be sufficient even if it is right.Let's focus on where success can be found, grow optimism, and breed hope. There is a need for a broad technical revolution and the social rebirth it enables. Silicon Valley and its friends globally need to invent the next version of human existence to the benefit of all. The social rebirth requires a conscious effort; technology will not magically bring it about. More in this week's video.Essays of the WeekCrossing The Series A ChasmDan GrayDan Gray, a frequent guest author for Crunchbase News, is the head of insights at Equidam, a startup valuation platform, and a venture partner at Social Impact Capital.June 5, 2024As we get deeper into 2024, there is increasing concern about the state of Series A fundraising. The bar for investment appears much higher, and fewer startups are reaching it.This is a problem for founders, and investors like Jenny Fielding, managing partner of Everywhere Ventures, who said, “Every Seed investor's dilemma: All my Series A buddies want to meet my companies early! All my companies are too early for my Series A buddies.”To attach some data to this, we can see that the median step-up in valuation from seed to Series A has gone from $19.5 million in Q1 2022 to $28.7 million in Q1 2024. Series A firms seem to be looking for much stronger revenue performance, with targets of $2 million to $3 million in ARR, compared to $1 million to $2 million just a few years ago.The outcome is that while 31.8% of Q1 2020 seed startups closed their Series A within two years, that fell to just 12% for Q1 2022 — which should worry everyone.Why are Series A investors so much more demanding?Today's Series A investors are looking at startups that raised their seed between 2021 and 2023, which identifies the root of the problem: it spans the Q2 2022 high-tide mark for venture capital.For example, there were 1,695 seed rounds of more than $5 million in 2021, rising to 2,248 in 2022, then falling to 1,521 in 2023. As a comparison, there have been just 137 so far in 2024.The result is two categories of startups that are looking to raise their Series A today:* Pre-crunch startups that raised generous seed rounds and stretched the capital out as far as they could, to grow into inflated valuations.* Post-crunch startups that raised modest seed rounds on more reasonable terms, with shorter runways and less demonstrable growth.Strictly speaking, neither is more appealing than the other; the first group has less risk, the second offers more upside, and both are adapted to current market realities. It shouldn't cause a problem for investors, provided they can distinguish between the two.The cost of market inefficiencyVenture investors have a market-based lens on investment decisions, which means looking fairly broadly at trends in revenue performance and round pricing to determine terms, e.g. a typical Series A is within certain bounds of revenue performance and valuation. While that approach may be serviceable and efficient under ideal conditions, the past few years have been far from ideal.Without distinguishing between the two cohorts, investors are now looking at the performance of Series A candidates that spent more than $5 million on a war chest for two to three years of growth alongside the valuations of candidates that raised around $2 million to prove scalability. It just doesn't work as an average, and thus the unreasonable expectations...MoreThe Consumer RenaissanceFrom Predicting Consumer AI Applications to Analyzing Consumer SpendREX WOODBURY, JUN 05, 2024“Consumer” has become something of a bad word in venture capital circles.We see this reflected in the early-stage markets: recent data from Carta showed that just 7.1% of Seed capital raised last year went to consumer startups. That's less than half the share from 2019 (14.3%).But I think consumer is actually a great place to be building and investing. Whenever something is out of favor, that's a sign it's probably a good place to spend time: this is an industry built on being contrarian, not built on following the herd. We're entering a compelling few years for consumer entrepreneurship.First, I'd argue that consumer is too narrowly defined. When people think consumer, they often think consumer social (a tough category) or consumer brands (a tough fit for venture compared to internet and software businesses, with typically lower return profiles). But consumer is broader. Consumer encompasses businesses that sell to consumers and those that rely on consumer spending. This means the obvious names—apps on our phones like Uber, Instacart, Spotify—and the enablers: Shopify, for instance, powers online retail; Faire powers offline retail; Unity powers game development. Each of the latter three is B2B2C, in its own way, but I would categorize each is also a consumer technology business.The wins in consumer can be massive. The biggest technology businesses in history began as consumer businesses—Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon. The original companies comprising FAANG—with Microsoft conspicuously absent—were allconsumer.And some of the best returns of the last five years have stemmed from consumer tech IPOs. At Daybreak, we invest ~$1M at Pre-Seed and Seed. Here's how much a $1M investment in the Seed round of five recent consumer IPOs would yield:Big consumer wins compare favorably to big enterprise wins—relative to Snowflake's market cap, Uber is ~3x in size, Airbnb is ~2x in size, and DoorDash is roughly equal. (Snowflake is the biggest enterprise IPO of the last decade.) The last few years produced a windfall of consumer outcomes, yet investors today almost write off the category.At Daybreak, we don't focus exclusively on consumer; my view is that you need to balance more binary consumer outcomes with B2B SaaS and B2B marketplaces. But we do approach investing through the lens of the consumer—how people make decisions. The buyers of products like Figma and Ramp, after all, are people, and software companies are increasingly selling bottom-up into organizations. The line between consumer and enterprise has been blurring for years.This week's Digital Native makes the argument that consumer tech is a compelling place to build and invest. We'll look at the data to back up this argument, then delve into three categories of consumer that I'm particularly interested in right now:* Checking in on Consumer Spend* Consumer Tech: The Data Doesn't Lie* What to Watch: AI Applications* What to Watch: Shopping* What to Watch: Consumer Health* Rule of Thumb: Follow the SpendThis week we'll cover #1-3, and next week in Part II we'll tackle #4-6.Let's dive in

In this Podcast episode, "Shaping the Future of AI Investments," join us for an insightful discussion with Debarghya (Deedy) Das from Menlo Ventures. We'll explore transformative technologies and sectors, including Generative AI, Enterprise SaaS, Cloud Infrastructure, and AI/ML investing. Discover the opportunities, risks, and ethical considerations of large language models and generative AI systems that can create text, code, and images. Learn about the trends and innovations powering the modern enterprise tech stack, and what's next for SaaS, data infrastructure, and development tools.Dive into the world of VC investment, with an inside look at theses, diligence, and working with AI/ML startups from idea to scale. Hear stories from the trenches about building stellar product and engineering teams, finding product-market fit, and scaling startups sustainably. Whether you're a founder, investor, developer, or just passionate about emerging tech, this is a discussion you can't miss!

Brian Raymond is Founder & CEO of Unstructured, the platform to extract and transform complex data for use with every major vector database and LLM framework. Their open source project has 7K stars on GitHub and includes libraries and APIs that let users build custom preprocessing pipelines for labeling, training, and production machine learning pipelines. Today, they have over 6M downloads and 50K companies using their tools. Unstructured has raised $65M from investors including Bain, Essence VC, and Menlo Ventures. In this episode, we dig into Brian's process of talking to 100 data scientists before launching Unstructured, why the long tail of data matters for LLMs, competing with their own open source, why being a "boring company" is valuable for today's LLM stack, why they liked having government design partners, why world-class design & marketing are huge differentiators for open source companies & more!

Karl Mehta highlights the critical role of trustworthy tech supply chains and the necessity for international collaboration among partner nations. Mehta examines the potential of India's national AI mission and the growing space tech ecosystem, including opportunities for lower-cost payload launches and downstream activities. This episode provides an overview of the strategic integration of advanced technologies in India's growth and development framework. Karl Mehta explains the critical role of patient capital in promoting deep tech innovations and discusses the Indian government's recent initiatives to stimulate technological advancements through policies focused on deep tech and domestic manufacturing. What is the significance of patient capital in the development of deep technology? How do current Indian government policies support the innovation ecosystem, particularly in deep tech? In what ways can trustworthy tech supply chains bolster India's position in the global tech landscape?Episode contributors  Karl Mehta is a serial entrepreneur, author, investor, engineer, and civil servant with over thirty years of experience in founding, building, and funding high-tech companies in the United States and international markets. Prior to leading the Quad Investors Network, Karl was the founder and CEO of an artificial intelligence-powered knowledge cloud platform EdCast Inc., which was backed by Stanford University and acquired by Cornerstone Inc. He was also a former venture partner at Menlo Ventures, a leading Silicon Valley firm.  Karl is also the founder of several non-profit organizations, including Code For India, and the author of Financial Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid. His new book, AI for Digital Public Infrastructure, is slated to be released in Fall 2023. Konark Bhandari is a fellow with Carnegie India. He is a lawyer who has researched certain areas in the digital economy, focusing primarily on approaches to antitrust regulation of companies in the digital realm. He had earlier worked at India's antitrust regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), where he worked closely with senior officials on a variety of matters. He is also an avid follower of the regulation of the space technology ecosystem and is keen to contribute to that discipline. Additional readings:   Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Naomi Ionita and Derek Xiao are investors at Menlo Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's most successful and storied venture capital funds. Menlo has backed over 80 public companies, manages over $5 billion in assets, and has been a pillar of the VC community for an astonishing 47 years. You likely know many of Menlo's recent high-profile investments in companies like Anthropic, Chime, and Harness and historical investments such as 3Com, Hotmail, and Roku. Naomi and Derek recently led the firm's publication of a 3,500-word report chronicling the state of generative AI in the enterprise.In this episode, we discussHow they decide what to invest in The tripling of budgets for AI projects by 2025, according to a report from ISG and GleanEnterprise leaders face challenges in proving ROI and building trust in AI solutions.The top use cases for AI investment include customer service and enterprise searchMenlo Ventures' perspective on the current state of VC and the opportunities in AI investing.Insights from Menlo Ventures' report on generative AI in the enterprise, including barriers to adoption and the potential for transformationThe broader societal impacts and considerations of AI adoption in business and technology.ResourcesThe Menlo Ventures Enterprise AI reportMenlo Ventures websiteFun fact article 

Today's guest is Larry Gadea, founder and CEO of Envoy. Envoy is a workplace platform that helps companies welcome visitors, keep employees safe, book desks and conference rooms, and manage deliveries in over 16,000 locations around the globe. To date, Larry has raised over $170 million for Envoy from a16z, Menlo Ventures, Brookfield Growth, Marc Benioff, Elad Gil to name a few. Prior to Envoy, Larry started his career as a software engineer at 17, having been recruited by Google out of high school. He later joined X (formerly Twitter) as one of the early people driving its ability to scale. In today's episode, we talk about Larry experiences at Google and Twitter and to better understand what pain points Envoy was trying to solve. We also talk about Larry on leadership lessons scaling Envoy to a billion-dollar company, what it takes to manage the board effectively, and so much more.

Thejo Kote discussed the challenges and solutions in expense management for small and medium-sized companies. Thejo Kote, founder and CEO of Airbase, a spend management platform, explained the difficulties of bringing together disparate systems to properly understand expense management. He highlighted the benefits of consolidating all non-payroll expenses into one platform, which Airbase offers, and the positive impact this can have on various stakeholders such as employees, managers, budget owners, and finance and accounting professionals. Thejo Kote also shared an example of how Airbase has helped a public company, Proximity, streamline its expense management processes. Thejo Kote shared his personal hero, his grandfather, who despite facing significant challenges and poverty, became a leading scholar and author in India. He admired his grandfather's hard work and persistence, which have influenced his own life and career path. Thejo Kote also mentioned that he can be easily contacted through LinkedIn, and encouraged potential customers to explore the integration between Airbase and Sage. Thejo Kote is the Founder and CEO of Airbase, the leading spend management platform for small and midsize companies. Founded in 2017, Airbase is a venture backed company and has raised over $100M from Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and First Round Capital. Thejo's first company, Automatic, was acquired by SiriusXM.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Wayne Slavin, CEO & Founder of Sure, a leading insurtech SaaS and infrastructure company powering embedded products for some of the world's most recognized brands and carriers. They've raised over $120m from Menlo Ventures, IA Capital, David Rubenstein's Declaration Partners, Plug and Play, and many more.We discuss:How Sure pivoted from a direct-to-consumer model to a B2B embedded insurance providerWhy embedded insurance has the potential to revolutionize the industrySeeking mentors strategically and learning from both good and bad managersWhy you cannot outcompete the immigrant drive and hustle mindset in business… and a lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join 60,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

OpenAI competitor Anthropic is looking to raise another monster funding round — this time led by Menlo Ventures. Why it's still open season. 

Maia Benson and Joe Lynch discuss A SaaS Gal in VC Land. Maia is a SaaS gal in VC land and a Managing Director at Forum Ventures where she works with SaaS founders from inception to scale.  About Maia Benson Maia Benson is a Managing Director at Forum where she works with SaaS founders from inception to scale.  She has spent over 20 years founding, building and scaling award-winning SaaS products for Entrepreneurs and SMBs at places like LexisNexis, Pitney Bowes and most recently at Shopify, where she helped found, launch and scale their Shipping and Fulfillment products from inception to 60%+ merchant adoption and $Bs of transportation spend. About Forum Ventures Forum Ventures is the leading early-stage fund, program and community for B2B SaaS startups. Founded in 2014 as Acceleprise, we're on a mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible and successful for early-stage founders, through pre-seed and seed-stage funding, high touch programming, corporate perks and introductions, and an active SaaS community. Forum For Founders, our pre-seed program, provides founders with $100k in funding and 15 intense weeks of talks, events, mentorship and 1:1 guidance focused on go to market and fundraising. Forum Seed, our seed fund, backs exceptional SaaS startups at the seed-stage both from within and outside of our pre-seed program. With over 250 portfolio companies, Forum founders have gone on to raise from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SV Angel, True Ventures and many more. Our private peer community for Innovation executives -- The Innovation Forum -- brings together like-minded intrapreneurs from all backgrounds to share best practices, insights, and advice, and support one another. In addition to our incredible peer community, members get access to industry trend reports, collaborative events, emerging technology, and startup introductions. Key Takeaways: A SaaS Gal in VC Land Forum Ventures is the top choice for early-stage B2B SaaS companies looking for funding. Forum Ventures is different and better for the following reasons: Founder-focused: Their team consists of former SaaS founders, offering deep understanding of the early-stage journey and expertise in GTM, sales, and fundraising. Pre-seed and seed investments: They empower early-stage B2B SaaS companies with pre-seed and seed funding, ranging from $100k to $2 million. High-touch programs: Beyond funding, they provide high-touch programs like "Forum For Founders" (15 weeks of talks, mentorship, and guidance) and a dedicated fundraising track. Thriving community: They foster an active SaaS community with over 450 founders, mentors, and experts, offering connections, support, and valuable insights. Accessibility champions: Committed to diversity and inclusion, they strive to make the B2B SaaS ecosystem more accessible to underrepresented founders. Proven success: With over 250 successful pre-seed and seed investments, their track record speaks for itself. Fractional co-founder approach: They act as a "fractional co-founder" with world-class expertise, helping startups navigate crucial steps like product development, go-to-market strategy, and fundraising. Mission-driven: Driven by a genuine passion for aiding founders, they prioritize their success and strive to make the B2B SaaS journey easier and more impactful. Learn More About A SaaS Gal in VC Maia Benson | LinkedIn Forum Ventures | LinkedIn Forum Ventures | Homepage The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

What are the superpowers that lead to product success? In the first episode of the new Product to Venture series with Products That Count Founder and Board Chair SC Moatti, Menlo Ventures Venture Partner Joff Redfern shares lessons on building great products at LinkedIn and Atlassian, the skills that make a top product leader, and his transition to Menlo Ventures. He discusses why operators are moving to VC and his focus areas investing in the future of software teams, productivity with AI, and network businesses. For ambitious PMs, Josh offers advice on communication, impatience, and "asking forgiveness, not permission."

UEFN is gunning to be the next major Roblox competitor, but just how competitive is it? Today, your host, Alexandra Takei, Director at Ruckus Games, sits down with the founder of Bungie, Alex Seropian, now the current CEO of Look North World, and Amy Wu, the partner heading up the games and consumer practice at Menlo Ventures. Fortnite Creative 2.0 has drawn in a lot of committed creators: Snoop Dog and his son, 100 Thieves, and many more. In this episode, we talk about building in the UEFN ecosystem, how the tools have evolved over time (and what's still missing), what healthy business models might look like for UGC / UEFN based studios, and the ultimate showdown of Roblox vs. UEFN. As a primer for our discussion, make sure to look back at our Naavik Digest by David Taylor on Fornite's Long Creative Road ahead.   We'd also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Shubham Goel is the Co-foudner and Co-CEO of Affinity, a relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers. The company has raised over $120M in funding from Menlo Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Pear VC and Advance Venture Partners. Prior to Affinity, Shubham completed his BS in Computer Science at Stanford University. . . . Episode notes: What made Shubham pick entrepreneurship (2:00) Propensity of risk increasing as the company grows (6:08) The journey until the ah-ha moment (10:06) The aha-moment (17:00) Unlocking the operator and leader persona as a founder (25:15) Getting the most out of your teams as a leader (31:10) Things that have surprised Shubham in the company building journey (37:15) What would Shubham do differently if he were to build Affinity from scratch today? (43:54) . . . Social links: Follow Shubham on Twitter Follow The Desi VC Podcast on Twitter Follow Akash Bhat on Twitter

Tim Tully of Menlo Ventures joins Nate to discuss Navigating the AI Hype: Where Value Will Accrue for Investors, the Future of AI Tech Stack, and the Role of Open Source, Vector Databases, and Recommendations Engines. In this episode we cover: AI Hype, Investments, and Company Growth Using Vector Databases to Improve AI Accuracy Tech Investments and Trends in Developer Tools and Microservices Enterprise Customer Demands, Engineering Teams, and Data Privacy Guest Links: Twitter LinkedIn Menlo Ventures The hosts of The Full Ratchet are Nick Moran and Nate Pierotti of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Follow us on social. You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and we'll send a list of potential investors right to your inbox!

In this episode of the Parenting Great Kids podcast Dr. Meg Meeker and Brent Dusing chat about the need for creating safe and wholesome entertainment options for children in the digital age. They discuss the alarming rates of anxiety, depression, and moral decline among kids and how True Play aims to address these issues. True Play offers a subscription-based platform that provides high-quality, biblically sound content, including video games, digital comics, and videos. If you're a parent seeking safe and engaging entertainment for your children, this episode is a must-listen. You'll gain insights into the importance of media choices and how True Play can contribute to your child's mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. In this episode, you will learn how to: Discover the power of biblically sound entertainment that nurtures your child's mind, heart, and spirit. Teach character development and moral values through entertainment to shape your child's behavior and choices. Explore the world of safe and wholesome entertainment, where your child can enjoy age-appropriate content without compromising their innocence. TODAY'S GUEST: Brent Dusing created TruPlay to bring excellent, fun, beautiful, and biblically authentic entertainment to audiences worldwide. An entrepreneur at heart, Brent pioneered game creation with Christian content through Lightside Games, a Christian gaming studio reaching more than 7 million game players world wide and resulting in 25,000 decisions for Christ. As the founder and CEO of Cellfire, Brent created the nation's leading mobile coupon company, used today at grocers like Safeway and Kroger, leading Catalina Marketing to acquire Cellfire for $108M.Brent began his career as a venture capitalist at Menlo Ventures, where he sourced multiple 9-figure exits and generated top-quartile returns. Over his career, Brent has been featured on CNN, Fox News, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and other news media. Brent has a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University. OUR SPONSOR A revolutionary baby monitor is born!  Masimo Stork is a new device to monitor your baby's health. Featuring SET technology which has been used in hospitals for nearly 25 years, Masimo Stork uses a silicone boot to track your baby's pulse rate, oxygen saturation and skin temperature.  While not a medical device, Masimo Stork can help you be a calmer, more confident parent.  Go to masimostork.com to learn more.  FROM THE PRODUCER Discover "How to Talk to Your Kids About Puberty & Sex" – a vital resource for parents with children aged 8 to 18. Equip yourself with the knowledge and confidence to have these essential conversations. Visit meekerparenting.com/courses to learn more.  Get social with us and take advantage of other resources here.  RECOMMENDED EPISODES Digital Safety 101: Back to School Edition, Part 1 Digital Safety 101: Back to School Edition, Part 2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a recent episode of the Dealmakers' Podcast, Matthew Darrow, Co-founder of Vivun, shared his remarkable journey from being an engineer to founding a B2B enterprise software company. His experiences growing up in different parts of the world and his background in engineering laid the foundation for his entrepreneurial spirit. His venture, Vivun, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Tiger Global Management, Salesforce Ventures, Accel, and Menlo Ventures.

Highlights from their conversation include:Steve's journey into supply chain investment (1:27)The Intersection of AI and Supply Chain (3:28)Applicability of Generative AI in Supply Chain (11:23)Capital efficiency and scaling challenges (12:36)AI's role in improving efficiency (14:02)Use of generative AI for internal operations (15:57)AI's application for SaaS and other mediums (18:48)Final thoughts and takeaways (21:01)Dynamo is a VC firm led by supply chain and mobility specialists that focus on seed-stage, enterprise startups.Find out more at: https://www.dynamo.vc/

We sat down with Grace Ge, Principal at Menlo Ventures. Growing up in a small town in Texas, she was inspired by her father's involvement in robotics and tech, eventually catapulting her into a career in VC. In this episode, she shares her thoughts on the flaws of the current partnership model in VC firms and how VC remains largely a solo sport. Grace also emphasizes the importance of proactive sourcing and hustling to find the best companies, rather than relying solely on network and brand. We also deep dive into Ilan Frank's (VP Product at Airtable) framework on how to become enterprise-ready, as many companies tend to struggle with scale! 00:10:34 Career path: VC requires experience. 00:13:20 Partnerships in VC need improvement. 00:16:24 VC role has evolved, hyper-specialization. 00:22:01 Proactive sourcing and all-in partnership. 00:32:29 Enterprise readiness criteria: scale, security, compliance, administration, usability. 00:33:06 Importance of scalability in software. 00:41:54 Risks of AI concentration. 00:47:11 Importance of diversity in tech. 00:50:07 Importance of diversity in tech. 00:54:00 Lightning Round