Podcasts about pitchbook

Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, says she is minimizing geopolitical inputs right now because it's impossible to make investment decisions around uncertainty. She says it's particularly important right now to focus on fundamentals and what's real — "We're investing in companies not countries" — and she is not buying the long-term hype on Europe because she says the recent rally doesn't have a strong foundation to stand on. That's one of four interviews from FutureProof Citywide in Miami Beach for today's show. Chuck also talks emerging markets and global income investing with Dan Shaykevich, head of Multi Sector Strategy, co-head of Emerging Markets and Sovereign Debt with Vanguard, discusses the evolution  of new financial products with Alec Davis, head of enterprise reporting at Pitchbook, and covers the stock market and being a patient investor in impatient times with Eddy Elfenbein, editor of the Crossing Wall Street blog and portfolio strategist for the AdvisorShares Focused Equity ETF.

Welcome to another insightful episode of Coffee with a Journalist, brought to you by the team at One Pitch. This week, we're excited to have Kia Kokalitcheva, the Senior Editor of VC News at PitchBook, join us from San Francisco. Kia dives into PitchBook's editorial focus on the deal-making world, shares her approach to managing an influx of press releases, and offers advice for publicists looking to effectively engage with her team. With her extensive background at Axios and Fortune, Kia also highlights the critical elements she considers when covering funding announcements. So grab your coffee and get ready to learn about the power of data-driven journalism and how to navigate the fast-paced media landscape. Enjoy the episode!

In 2024, startups with exclusively female founders received just 1.8 percent of all venture capital dollars, a decline from 2023, according to PitchBook. Add a male co-founder and that number shoots up to 21.7 percent. This despite the evidence suggesting that when women do get funded, they deliver higher returns. Is change likely? And if so, what should we expect? At our SXSW Inc. Founders House, Mansueto Ventures CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta sat down with Rebecca Minkoff, founder and chief creative officer, of Rebecca Minkoff, and Ali Wyatt, co-founder and CEO, of Female Founder Collective and The NORTH, to discuss the state of funding and the challenges facing female founders.

In the latest episode of Technology Reseller News, Doug Green sits down with Jeffrey Fidelman, CEO and founder of Fidelman & Company, to discuss an innovative approach to fundraising—Fundraise-as-a-Service (FaaS). The Evolution of Fidelman & Company Founded in 2015, Fidelman & Company initially provided consulting services for early-stage companies, helping them prepare investor materials, financial models, and capital structures. As demand grew, clients requested more than just preparation—they needed execution. This led to the development of FaaS, a structured service that actively helps businesses navigate the complex fundraising landscape. How FaaS Works FaaS streamlines and systematizes investor outreach, ensuring companies connect with qualified investors through a methodical, data-driven process. The service operates in two tiers: Self-Service: Clients access Fidelman & Co.'s proprietary database and systems but handle outreach independently. Full-Service: A dedicated analyst manages all outreach, sequencing investor communications, personalizing engagements, and setting up meetings. Fidelman emphasizes that fundraising is not a numbers game but an efficiency game—increasing conversion rates rather than blindly reaching out to more investors. Making High-Level Fundraising Accessible Many smaller companies struggle with fundraising due to high costs and limited access to key resources. Fidelman & Co. absorbs the costs of premium tools like PitchBook and ZoomInfo—subscriptions that often exceed $125K annually—and provides clients month-to-month access without long-term commitments. Key Benefits of FaaS: Curated investor outreach based on industry, funding stage, and interest. Structured follow-up systems that ensure consistency. Performance-based incentives for analysts, ensuring high-quality engagement. Transparency & flexibility—no six- or 12-month lock-ins. A Personalized Approach to Fundraising Unlike traditional advisory firms, Fidelman & Co. remains hands-on, offering weekly strategy meetings and tailored investor engagement. AI plays a supporting role, but human expertise drives the process. For companies considering fundraising, FaaS offers a scalable, high-touch solution that levels the playing field for startups and growing businesses. Learn More Interested companies can explore Fidelman & Company's services at fidelmanco.com or contact Jeffrey Fidelman directly at jeffrey@fidelmanco.com. For founders looking to raise capital without the complexity—FaaS might be the game-changer they need.  

Good morning from Pharma and Biotech Daily: the podcast that gives you only what's important to hear in Pharma and Biotech world.Industry is anxiously awaiting the hearing for FDA commissioner nominee Marty Makary, following disruptions and layoffs at the FDA. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are intervening in legal battles against drug compounders over shortages of glp-1 compounds. ARS Pharmaceuticals has received FDA approval for Neffy spray for children with anaphylaxis. A Pitchbook report found $4.3 billion in funding for women-led biotech companies amid sociopolitical headwinds affecting initiatives to support women and minorities.Tariff threats, Novo launching a DTC program for WeGovy, Merck's legal dispute over injectable Keytruda plans, and Jazz's acquisition of Chimerix are also making headlines. The job market outlook is still uncertain, with layoffs cooling off but rare disease biotechs struggling as Congress fails to renew priority review programs. Various job opportunities in the biotech industry are also listed.

Pitchbook reports that of venture capital deals in 2024, roughly 30% of them were down rounds or flat, meaning their valuation of the companies either went backwards or were the same round to round. It's a trend that will continue, so how can entrepreneurs break the cycle? Matt Tyner, managing partner of America's most active venture capital firm – Elevate Ventures, joins today to make sense of what's ahead and how innovators can succeed. He gets into: The current state of venture capital – and the criticality of taking a step back to understand where things sit today Investors' increased focus on profitability and not being able to cut your way to growth Artificial intelligence as an enabler – not a vertical Does the future include a shift to debt versus venture The cost of innovation and the role of an investor in this era of venture capital What the current conversation with portfolio companies looks like for Elevate Ventures What Matt sees as emerging trends in agbioscience The most important jobs to be done in the industry

Pitchbook reports that of venture capital deals in 2024, roughly 30% of them were down rounds or flat, meaning their valuation of the companies either went backwards or were the same round to round. It's a trend that will continue, so how can entrepreneurs break the cycle? Matt Tyner, managing partner of America's most active venture capital firm – Elevate Ventures, joins today to make sense of what's ahead and how innovators can succeed. He gets into:  The current state of venture capital – and the criticality of taking a step back to understand where things sit today Investors' increased focus on profitability and not being able to cut your way to growth Artificial intelligence as an enabler – not a vertical  Does the future include a shift to debt versus venture The cost of innovation and the role of an investor in this era of venture capital What the current conversation with portfolio companies looks like for Elevate Ventures What Matt sees as emerging trends in agbioscience The most important jobs to be done in the industry 

Nikola Lazarov is the co-founder and CEO of Eilla AI, a tool that provides AI workers for private market intelligence. Nikola is an AI engineer who started his career at a London-based hedge fund, Marble Bar Asset Management, where he worked as a quant. He realized the value of AI in structuring unstructured data for private companies and decided to start a company almost three years ago. What Eilla AI Does While Nikola mentions that their target clients are investors and investment bankers, Eilla AI's tool does various tasks, such as finding competitors, analyzing their USP, target market, and financials. It also offers a solution for finding comparable transactions and conducting valuation reports. By searching for similar companies, it can determine their multiples, revenues, and valuations. The tool collects data from various data providers, including CrunchBase Zero and PitchBook, and scrapes it on its own. One of the most exciting solutions offered by Eilla AI is finding comparable transactions and doing valuation reports. This involves finding similar companies, analyzing their financials, average multiples, and what is driving these valuations. The tool automatically gathers and compares the data, providing valuable insights for startups, investors, and investment bankers. How Eilla AI Works The conversation turns to how it works. Nikola talks through using the software and explains the visuals on the screen, which includes tabs such as company, profile, competitor, research, buyer, selection, investment highlights, key questions, risks and mitigates, and a one-pager. The company profile page provides a consolidated set of information about the company, including its headquarters location, number of employees, founding status, total raised, and last transaction. The company description, industry, problem solved, key team members, funding, product, clients, business model, digital intelligence, and news are all included. The platform is similar to CrunchBase and other data aggregators, but it aggregates data from various sources, such as LinkedIn, their website, CrunchBase, and Capita. The platform also offers footnotes for each piece of data, allowing users to hover over it to see the source of the information. The platform also provides information on the website traffic, such as the source and the number of followers. Aggregating Data from Various Sources Nikola explains how the tool works using competitor research as the example to find the closest competitors to Pay Hawk. He explains that this process saves time and helps save time by aggregating data.  However, what differentiates Eilla AI is what happens on top of this aggregated data. It uses a proprietary database of in-depth product information to gather information from over 7 million companies, ranking them based on funding, cat count, and other factors. AI is used to determine the number of competitors and similar companies.  A Vertical View of Information Users can select a few companies to dive deeper into, and a vertical view allows for a comparison table. The table includes company name type, description, product description, headquarters location, team, year of founding, last round of funding, status, ownership status, detailed offering, unique selling proposition, and target market. The information is organized in a way that would take weeks to pull together. Users can use the vertical view to see the companies side by side. The platform also includes green dots on product descriptions to indicate high similarity and source information. This tool is unique in that it not only provides data but also replicates the workflow of competitor research. It offers insights such as a SWOT analysis on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Pay Hawk versus its competitors. Product and Services The platform also includes a Products and Services tab with bullet points around PayHawk versus its competitors. Each product has a footnote where users can click to see the sources and scroll down to understand the differences between the two companies. Nikola also mentions the upcoming release of Cap IQ Financial, which includes important information like revenue, beta, valuation, and financials. The buyer selection tab is particularly interesting, as it shows all similar companies to Payco, including acquisitions and mergers. These companies are split into potential strategic buyers, competitors, and financial buyers. The tool also highlights the similarities between Pay Hawk and other companies, such as Visma and Instant, a platform that automates control for secure payments and trustworthy suppliers. The platform also assesses the financial capabilities of the company to buy companies like Pay Hawk. Eilla AI Features Eilla AI  Nikola explains that the platform aims to replicate the workflow of investors and investment bankers by breaking down complex workflows into simpler steps. This is done by breaking down data from various sources, such as data providers, CRMs, emails, and nodes. The goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of the company's funding, team, head count, product, services, USP, and detailed offering. The platform also offers a one-pager, which can be easily downloaded and viewed as a PDF. This information provides a detailed overview of the company's funding, team, head count, product, and services, as well as its unique selling points. The platform also provides a free seven-day trial for potential customers, such as corporate executives or business consultants looking for acquisitions. Eilla AI Pricing Schedule The pricing schedule is based on the number of requests per user and the amount of time spent on due diligence. For larger companies, the standard price is $98 per month per seat, while for smaller companies, it is $300 per month per user. The platform also offers a free seven-day trial for those interested in trying out the product without the need for sales meetings. Timestamps: 02:38: Overview of Eilla AI's Services  04:46: Demonstration of Eilla AI's Capabilities  09:50: Competitor Research and Insights  16:08: Buyer Selection and Investment Highlights  20:18: Key Questions and Risks Mitigation  22:09: Customer Base and Pricing  24:50: Conclusion and Next Steps    Links: https://Eilla.ai   Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

In this episode, Bill welcomes Andrew Akers, lead quantitative research analyst at PitchBook, to dive deep into private equity and private market replication strategies. Andrew shares his journey from traditional finance to quantitative analysis, discussing the key findings from his seminal paper on private equity replication. The conversation examines the nuances of equity risk premia, operational alpha, and the challenges of building a replicable index for private markets. They also explore the role of machine learning in analyzing patterns within financial data and the growing importance of private markets for high-net-worth investors.

La nuova serie Galaxy S25 di Samsung consolida la collaborazione con Google per portare sugli smartphone nuovi servizi di Intelligenza Artificiale Generativa, in molti casi con una elaborazione “in locale”. E arriveranno dal primo giorno anche nella UE. Facciamo il punto con Roberto Pezzali della redazione di Dday.it.Stargate Project è una nuova azienda, nata come joint venture fra OpenAI, Oracle e SoftBank (finanziata dal fondo emiratino MGX) che ha l’obiettivo di creare nuove instratutture per l’IA negli Stati Uniti. Ma la potenza di calcolo è l’unica condizione per avere successo in questo mercato? Enrico Pagliarini ne parla con Luca Mari, docente all’Università Liuc di Castellanza ed esperto di IA.A Brescia una sperimentazione di A2A e Politecnico di Milano punta a trasformare il servizio di car sharing usando la guida autonoma per raggiungere i clienti. Ne parliamo con Renato Mazzoncini, amministratore delegato di A2A.Infine, con Emil Abirascid, fondatore e direttore di Startupbusiness.it, un commento sui dati di Pitchbook sul venture capital e i finanziamenti a start up in Europa.Come sempre le notizie di innovazione e tecnologia più importati della settimana in Digital News.

Climate tech may have had a down year in 2024, but new data also shows a maturing sector with larger deal sizes. Venture investment in the climate tech sector was down 7% to $12.9 billion, $1 billion shy of 2023's tally, according to data in a new PitchBook report. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning from Pharma and Biotech daily: the podcast that gives you only what's important to hear in Pharma e Biotech world.In 2025, VC funds are expected to follow the data when investing in biopharma companies, as high profile failures and long timeframes for revenue have shifted investment away from phase I. To attract VC dollars, companies must bring solid data to the table, according to Pitchbook's 2025 outlook. Additionally, GLP-1 receptor agonists, known for their use in diabetes and obesity treatments, have now expanded into the cardiovascular and sleep apnea markets. They also show potential in other indications such as cancer, addiction, and neurodegenerative diseases. Applied Therapeutics has faced challenges with a significant drop in share price due to FDA rejection and a warning letter. On a positive note, Lilly's Zepbound has received approval as the first-ever sleep apnea drug for adults with obesity. Other companies such as Vertex have also received FDA approval for new treatment options. Novo's recent blunder highlights the high investor expectations for weight loss drugs. Overall, the biopharma industry is constantly evolving with new approvals and advancements in various therapeutic areas.

The state of venture capital appears to be rocky at the moment.  A report from PitchBook Data and the National Venture Capital Association highlights potential weakness ahead in the venture industry. The Pitchbook/NVCA Venture Monitor First Look report showed fewer active investors and high deal counts but repeat investing.  What does that mean for the Bay Area?  Sand Hill Road Host Scott McGrew spoke with Kyle Stanford, the Lead venture capital Analyst at PitchBook, to learn more about the report and its local impacts.Sand Hill Road is hosted by Scott McGrew and produced and edited by Andrew Mendez. Sara Bueno manages NBC Bay Area's digital platforms. Stephanie Adrouny is the station's news director. If you'd like to get in touch, email us at sandhillroad@nbcuni.com or on any social media platform at @nbcbayarea.

Matthew Le Merle is Managing Partner of Blockchain Coinvestors. Launched in 2014, Blockchain Coinvestors' vision is that digital monies, commodities and assets are inevitable and all of the world's financial infrastructure must be upgraded. ================ All Episodes can be found at www.thecryptopodcast.org   Podcast Coaching + All Social Media + Donations link https://bio.link/podcaster   Our Facebook Group can be found at https://www.facebook.com/thecryptopodcast   ======= Help Support the show through my Business Partners :  Get a Virtual Assistant at https://va.world/ ------- Upgrade Your Brain    Unleash & Use Your Uniqueness   https://braingym.fitness/⁠    --------------------------   Speaking Podcast Social Media / Coaching My Other Podcasts    ⁠⁠⁠https://roycoughlan.com/⁠⁠   Health & Wellness Products   https://partnerco.world/   My Website https://partner.co/?custid=N6543249    ============ About my Guest Matthew Le Merle : Matthew Le Merle is Managing Partner of Blockchain Coinvestors. Launched in 2014, Blockchain Coinvestors' vision is that digital monies, commodities and assets are inevitable and all of the world's financial infrastructure must be upgraded. Our mission is to provide broad coverage of the emerging unicorns and fastest growth blockchain companies and crypto projects. Our investment strategy is now in its 10th year and has to date invested in more than 40 pure play blockchain venture funds in the Americas, Asia and Europe; and in a combined portfolio of 1,250+ blockchain and crypto projects including 95 of all blockchain unicorns. Our first fund of funds ranks in the top quartile amongst all funds in its category on both Pitchbook and Preqin. Headquartered in San Francisco with a presence in Grand Cayman, London, New York, Zug and Zurich, the alternative investment management firm was co-founded by Alison Davis and Matthew Le Merle. Earlier in his career, Matthew spent 21 years as a strategy, operations and corporate finance advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs, boards and executive teams with McKinsey & Company, and as a practice leader with A.T. Kearney and Monitor Group where he led both firms' West Coast practices and at Booz & Company. What we Discussed:   - His journey into the financial market (2 mins) - Has he gotten his children involved in the business (3:45min) - Who he thinks created Bitcoin (4:30 mins) - How Bitcoin was (7:30 mins) - The result of Different Asset Classes from 2008 (9:30 mins) - Does he see transfers of blockchain will be easier in the future (14:15 mins) - How will the market when BRICS currency starts (19:45 mins) - What is a Unicorn Business (24 mins) - What to be aware of when investing in Blockchain (26:45 mins) - More Projects fail than suceed (32 mins) - Know the vested interests of the investment company (33:45 mins) - Lots of Influencers & singers caused people to lose money (35 mins) - Should people invest in funds in different sectors (36:45 mins) - Blockrock, Trump and others changing their minds about Blockchain (41 mins) - How will market change with Trump win (46 mins) How to Contact Matthew Le Merle:   https://www.blockchaincoinvestors.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/fifthera/ https://x.com/BCoinvestors       ==============   Speaking Podcast Social Media / Coaching My Other Podcasts    ⁠⁠⁠https://roycoughlan.com/⁠⁠   Health & Wellness Products   https://partnerco.world/   My Website https://partner.co/?custid=N6543249 

2 ans après la sortie de chatGPT, l'IA continue de truster toute la Tech

Jacob Robbins returns to Politely Pushy to share media relations wisdom as PitchBook's venture capital reporter. Throughout the episode, Jacob shares his do's and don'ts when pitching and navigating the PR-to-journalist relationship.On a final note, Jacob discusses the role of AI leading up to the presidential election and the future of politics and technology post-election. Keep up with Jacob's work: https://pitchbook.com/news/author/jacob-robbins

Today on Equity, Devin, Margaux and Anthony Ha are rounding up the week's startup and venture news, kicking things off with a look at the $400 million raised by Lightmatter, and the importance of fast networking within the fast growing datacenter industry today — not just in years to come — makes the impressive round a little more understandable.Our Deals of the Week continue with Paladin's drone play for first responders and police, and Abel aiming to reduce the substantial paperwork backlog that officers accrue in their everyday duties. Abel Founder Daniel Francis brings a chaotic energy (having landed a Twitter job from Musk after pretending to have been laid off) that could shake things up.Diving deeper, Anthony breaks down the complex back-and-forth that is the WordPress/WP Engine dispute - and we're left wondering why the obligations of and to the "open source community" are not entirely clear. What does it mean for an open source ecosystem when one person (in this case WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg) still seems to exercise tremendous influence? And could we say the same of Meta's Llama or other "open" AI solutions?Last, the "bummer" results from PitchBook showing that although founders are founding and investors are investing, there isn't a huge amount of money being made. Turns out they weren't just in it to change the world after all. What could this lack of liquidity be attributed to? Is it the macroeconomic climate, the sectors being invested in, the VC's strategies changing... or something else? At least defense and AI are doing OK, and Europe seems to be chugging along, so maybe it's specific to America? Check back in a month.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

At Tesla's robotaxi reveal event last week, several Optimus humanoid robots mingled with guests, pouring drinks and cracking jokes. Impressive technology, but the vocals and some of the gesticulations appear to have been remotely controlled by humans, something Tesla did not disclose. Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan chatted with TechCrunch's hardware editor Brian Heater about Tesla's Optimus bots, the market opportunity for humanoid robots, and other companies that are leading the charge in this industry. We'll dive into:A CBInsights report which found that funding in 2024 already reached new highs for humanoid robots and PitchBook data that suggests funding into humanoid robot companies has reached close to $1 billion as of October. Where we're most likely to see humanoid robot applications in the coming years. Automakers like BMW plan to deploy startup Figure's robots at their plants, and Amazon, which has been a huge proponent of robotics for over a decade now, has tested Agility's digit robot at its warehouses. When we could see  humanoid robots enter homes. Some companies plan to have their robots help older folks with household tasks like Kind Humanoid. Equity will be back on Friday with our weekly news roundup, so we'll talk to you then!Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Top Stories1. New walkway opens downtownSeattle Magazine article2. Gen Z getting fired quicklyYahoo Finance article3. Pokemon to open a museumPSBJ article4. Avalara to move officesPSBJ articleAbout guest Maureen Wiley Clough - Founder & Host, It Gets Late Early podcastMaureen founded the It Gets Late Early podcast about aging in the tech industry about a year and a half ago. Prior to that, she was the head of partnerships at UpKeep and was the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Conga. In terms of Seattle companies – she's worked at Pitchbook, Zulily, and Concur. She also worked for Lumatax, which was one of the companies Pioneer Square Labs invested in.About host Rachel Horgan:Rachel is an independent event producer, emcee and entrepreneur. She worked for the Business Journal for 5 years as their Director of Events interviewing business leaders on stage before launching the weekly podcast. She earned her communication degree from the University of San Diego. Contact:Email: info@theweeklyseattle.comInstagram: @theweeklyseattleWebsite: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theweeklyseattle.com

On this episode, Brenda speaks about purpose with Allison Byers, founder of Scroobious,  a tech company  driving innovation to equitable capital access by removing barriers to partnership among diverse founders, investors, and service providers. Scroobious is a platform that is working toward equitable capital access: In Allison's words “ fair representation of all segments with the exclusion of none”  - now into its fourth year –  having served over 900 founders.  “Finding the funding and the people are critical to early stage success of a company.“ Listen to Allison's personal story of Scroobius and how her  relationships that go back 20 years ago and an introduction to the newly appointed President and COO of Scroobiuos.    You can find out more about Allison, Scroobious, and other resources mentioned in this podcast at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-byers/ https://www.scroobious.com/ For founders working on a pitch: Scroobious is dedicated to empowering founders for successful fundraising. Our platform provides invaluable resources including online learning modules featuring investor-vetted content, personalized pitch feedback, tailored pitch practice sessions, access to a vibrant community of hundreds of diverse founders, and connections with investors. Click here to apply for a sponsored (free!) account. You can also join our Lite plan for just $1 to access our community, events, and curated resources immediately. For early-stage investors: Scroobious connects you to a network of brilliant and diverse founders solving important problems. These founders have worked with us to clarify their story, showcasing comprehensive pitch material and coachability. Click here for a quick platform demo. Visit this website, register, and then use promo code EARLYINV for a free 6-month trial at the Stripe checkout page. After the trial, it's $10 per month (cancel anytime). Complete brief onboarding questions to enter the portal and start messaging founders! https://www.newswire.com/news/scroobious-scales-up-to-meet-the-urgent-call-to-support-diverse-22415543 additional content here : https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/SB-54-SIGN-MSG.pdf   Transcript: 00:04 Hi, I'm pleased to announce something very special to me, a new subscription-based service through Next Act Advisors that allows members exclusive access to personal industry insights and bespoke 00:32 corporate governance knowledge. This comes in the form of blogs, personal book recommendations, and early access to the founder's sandbox podcast episodes before they released to the public. If you want more white glove information on building your startup with information like what was in today's episode, sign up with the link in the show notes to enjoy being a special member of Next Act Advisors. 01:01 As a thank you to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25% off your membership costs. Thank you. 01:19 Welcome back to the Founder's Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, your host. I'm delighted that we're now into the third season of this monthly podcast that reaches entrepreneurs, business owners, and corporate board directors, and VCs. All interested in building resilient, scalable, purpose-driven businesses with an undergirding aspect of great corporate governance. 01:45 I admission, my mission at NextAct Advisors, which is my consulting firm, is really simple. It's just building the scalable, well-governed and resilient businesses. My guests to the podcast are themselves founders, business owners, corporate directors, professional service providers who like me want to use the power of the private enterprise, small, medium or large to make change for a better world. With each of my guests, we go through some storytelling. 02:13 about their origin stories. And we will touch on topics around resiliency, purpose-driven enterprises and sustainable growth. And again, my goal is to provide a fun environment in this sandbox where we can equip one startup founder at a time to build a better world through great corporate governance. Today, my guest is Alison Byers. I'm absolutely delighted that she's joining me all the way from Boston. 02:41 Allison is joining and she wears many hats, but she is going to talk a lot today about her founder journey of Scroobius. And it is a very unique platform that unlike other platforms in the ecosystem used by startups, this is one that has a purpose to improve equitable capital access by providing pitch education for founders while making connections with investors. 03:11 to put unused capital to work. And we're gonna hear more as we get into the podcast. I like to have guests that are also very mission-driven as mission-driven as I. And you are, Alison, unequivocally mission-driven in your purpose after you yourself encountered gender bias firsthand while you were fundraising. So I think it'd be appropriate 03:40 story to start telling now. So thank you for joining me, Allison. Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me, Brenda. And absolutely love being so aligned in our missions and being able to talk about how we can use business elements to accomplish the mission-driven motives that we have. So. 04:02 Yeah, I'm happy to share my origin story for Scroobious. And we're a four-year-old company, so I incorporated in January of 2020, which maybe we'll hit on later what it means to incorporate right before a global pandemic. The initiative started after I, as you said, experienced pretty extreme gender bias myself. 04:26 So before Scroobious, I joined scientific co-founders and launched a medical device company out of MIT in a hospital system here in Boston. And I was the business one on the team and did all the things from incorporation through our fundraising. And we did raise almost $10 million at that company going through a series A prime. And then I really struggled to raise our series B. So we ended up going to early acquisition. And 04:52 I didn't know any of the things that I know now. I was not in this space before then. And Medical  device is a pretty specific industry with pretty specific investors. So you're kind of in that world. But we were acquired in an asset sale. The people that acquired us were men. And not too long after, raised $55 million. And not. Yes. 05:21 Every time I share that, there's eyes open. A multiple of what? 10? Yeah. And it was very clear to me that the one thing I could point to that was different was my gender. And I was co-running the company with another woman. So we were two women out there doing this, and one more woman involved in the company. But it's. 05:48 it set me on a path of trying to understand what happened. And so that's when I researched the field of capital allocation and investing in pitching first just to understand how I could have failed so badly. That's the internalization that many founders have when they're unable to raise the capital your company needs. And very quickly found all the data that I know you're very familiar with. But for those who are listening who maybe aren't, 06:17 Nationally, 1.8% of venture dollars go to women-founded companies. And in my state of Massachusetts, that number is 0.9%. We're also ranked one of the worst states, 47th, for supporting women-owned businesses. And once you learn that, as devastating as it is, it also releases that internalization of failure. Because you say, oh, I didn't actually fail. I just did not know. 06:45 that I was operating in a system that's designed to keep me marginalized. I was not likely to raise that money regardless of how well we were operating the company or how strong our fundraising pitch was. Okay. So that's my origin story for wanting to dedicate my professional career to working toward more equitable access to business capital. And it's not solely focused on women owned companies, is it? Exactly. 07:15 Yeah. So tell us a bit more about Scroobious and starting a company. And right when the pandemic, you know, set in here in the United States and we locked it went into lockdown. So, right. Yes. So I did at least a year of research before deciding. 07:33 what I wanted to do was meant to be a for-profit company structure. I didn't rush into it. That's not my nature. Did my full market analysis and primary and secondary research, thought about our own capitalization plan, then decided to incorporate in January of 2020. So, impeccable timing. But I know we'll talk about that a little later too in terms of how do you handle what 08:02 startups throw at you and building without the ability to predict how your business might fluctuate or how the macro economy might fluctuate around you. But no, we don't focus only on women. That's of course my lived experience. But when I researched it, pretty much any segment where founders identify as underrepresented in some way, receives incredibly inequitable distribution of. 08:31 business and growth capital. If you look at it by gender or race, that's true. If you look at it by geography or by sexual orientation or military veteran status, neurodiversity, there's a lot of different ways that people can identify as underrepresented. And we don't define that for somebody. Nor do we exclude anyone from our platform because we're really working toward equitable distribution which means 09:00 true representation of all segments to the exclusion of none. So, yeah. I love it. Can you say that again? That's a great tagline. So you're working towards? So we're working toward equitable distribution, which means fair representation of all segments to the exclusion of none. Fantastic. Yeah. So we've got white dudes in there too, right? Like we're not turning people away. 09:27 But our own go to market strategy was to and is still to partner with organizations that are diversity first as well, so that we're building the community that represents what should be equitably represented based on our population. 09:45 So let's go into the actual platform itself. It is a platform, right? Yeah. You've got founders on one side receiving pitch education and you have more, and you have investors on the other side. So how does a founder experience Scroobius? Yes, great question. And we are definitely a platform and we actually have three key stakeholders. So there's some marketplace elements with the founders and investors on two sides, 10:15 What we've come to discover, and this is part of the building and pivoting and resiliency of a startup, is that true understanding of how important relationships are in accessing resources and capital. This is not a transactional industry. And so the third key stakeholder here are service providers and program partners. They are very underutilized. 10:44 in this space and they are key connection nodes. And so we are a true platform with all three at the center there. But for founders, to answer your question, yes, we're a scalable platform. We were designed intentionally to scale because with all three of those stakeholder groups, they number in the millions. This is a huge market. And so 11:08 Founders enter our platform and immediately they can access our flagship program called the Pitch It Plan, which is full of micro lessons online, asynchronous access, about everything to do with fundraising strategy and pitching and building those relationships with investors because that type of quality education written from an authentic perspective of understanding that it is different. 11:37 for underrepresented groups and making it accessible and understandable for everyone is not easy to access. It's not freely out there. So your labor of love, for lack of another word, you've curated that and probably through your professional service providers, how did you curate that specifically for underrepresented? So it's all... 12:03 created by us. This is proprietary education, and we do work with providers. In addition to our custom material that we add to all the time based on the needs of our community, we also host workshops twice a month with industry experts on all kinds of topics related to early startup building. Apologies, I do have a cold today, so I'm going to lose my voice every so often. Yes, just. 12:31 But it's based on hundreds of interviews with investors, hundreds of interviews with founders, and personal experience of myself and others on the team to really create different material that speaks to the heart of what founders want to know. So for an example, we have a lesson on how do you give a 10-minute pitch? How do you give a five-minute pitch? How do you give a three-minute 12:57 What if you have a one minute pitch? What exactly goes in there? And we provide the insight into why it is important to an investor. So they get both the lesson and the understanding of why does this matter to do it this way. So they have access to that. And alongside it, they can upload draft material and get personalized feedback from our trained reviewers. So it's a combination of online learning 13:27 Again, that asynchronous scalable human delivered feedback that founders really do need to feel comfortable and confident. Once they have worked through our program, they have the ability to share their pitch and their profile with the investors, right? So that they can get in front of our network of... 13:50 vetted and active angel investors who are specifically looking to diversify how they find opportunities so they can put their capital toward the founders they're looking for, even if they are not in their geography or not in their known network or affinity groups. Is it national? United States actually? We're actually international now. We have founders all over the place. Yes, our community has grown. We've worked with over 900 founders now in basically four years. 14:19 Yeah. Wow. Excellent. And how does the investor then experience it? So are they actually contacted by the founder? Or can they just peruse Scroobius platform, identify opportunities that fit within their investment thesis? How does that work? Yeah. So it's a great question. And again, we've built a differentiated platform by listening to what. 14:48 investors want and we focus on angel investors. We're pretty specifically finding those who are more likely to write checks to our founder base to underrepresented founders and angel investors represent an enormous untapped opportunity. So when they join our platform they do give us some information when they on board about their thesis and what they're looking for and then. 15:11 They can see all of the founders who have uploaded their material, which includes both a comprehensive deck, because we QA what goes up there, and a short video introduction. So they can see the human behind the deck. And that is really core to how we curate for investors what they see. We are measuring variables both about the business and about the founder. 15:36 and constantly learning from the investors as they engage with different pitches, what are they actually drawn to? So that's the AI behind this is building an engine that's a little bit like Netflix, where it's constantly learning based on what you watch and suggesting other things you might like, right? Based on your behaviors, we're incorporating that based on your behaviors. Here are other founders that you might like. 16:05 And so you can log in and get a very customized experience. We also heard pretty loud and clear from angel investors that there's a variety of reasons why they might like to keep their anonymity and not be on a list or have founders reaching out to them constantly. And so they do. They make the first outreach to the founder and they can make that outreach anonymously if they want. 16:29 So they can open a founder's pitch material and ask questions within it, either with their name attached or anonymously, the founder still needs that feedback, still needs that connection. And then they can choose to reveal their name later on. If this seems like someone you want to get to know better. So that's in the investors control. Yeah, totally in the investors control. Interesting, interesting. And it's asynchronous. So if the investor were to ask any questions, then the 16:57 founder does see those and can answer. Yep. Everyone gets an email. They can answer in the platform. They can answer via email. You can have a whole conversation about a slide in a pitch deck in that slide to, again, make efficient use of everybody's time and decide, is this worth a 45-minute call after you can get through some of that conversation? Excellent. So you did share. I wanted to get into some of the metrics that there have been. 17:26 900 founders already experiencing Scroobiouss. What about investors? Because I had an interview just some time back. It dropped this month with Marsha Dawood. Oh, yeah. And she has her podcast, The Angel Next Door, and her new book has just released. I asked her, how many angel investors are actually in presently United States? There's only 300,000. I mean, if you think about that, we are a small group of. 17:55 angels and her mission with the book is to increase the number of people that become angel investors. So like back to you and there are funds of course. Yeah. Yeah. I know I was just with Marsha the past two days contributing to the Angel Capital Association Women Investors Forum and I got her book yesterday. I'm very excited to read it. So yes, and that I will 18:24 representative of the potential for angels that could be actively investing. And it's also very difficult to measure. There is not a good comprehensive set of data on angel investing activity because it does not have to be reported. So you can't scrape it. So personally, I believe that number to be much higher in reality. 18:52 And there also is, I think it's $32 billion in unallocated capital based on inactivity of angel group members. Wow. There are members who are part of that group, but not investing through the group. And that was pretty key in my research as well. To put this capital to work, it means they're not finding the people they want to put their money behind. So 32 billion in dry powder would be the word, right? Yeah, basically. Yeah, that we know of. 19:21 That's of angel group members and not every angel is a member of a group. Right. Right. So, yeah. So in terms of our own investor platform, we launched it last year in twenty twenty three and we've been working on a somewhat invitation basis. Although we do make it open to anybody to join. But we're really looking to have people who actively write checks to those who identify as underrepresented as part of our platform or those who are. 19:49 active investors in looking to start establishing those relationships. Again, we're not transactional. We don't affect the investment through our platform, but we are looking to make more of those connections. We're the infrastructure that allows investors and founders to find each other. I think it's around 40 or 45 active angels in there. We have... 20:15 multiple financings that have happened by discovery on our platform. And it really hasn't been that long a period of time. I know. And in a tough market, very tough market. Yeah, in a tough market. Although again, an angel is an entirely different investor than a fund manager. And where fund managers might go stagnant, angels don't necessarily do that. Excellent. And in the show notes, there will be links, Alison, to Scroobius. 20:45 as well as some other materials you've provided. In addition to your day job, right? You're now into your fourth year of running Scroobius. You also have been a catalyst for change and you have co-authored the California Senate Bill 54 that was signed into law in October, 2023. What's this bill about, Allison? 21:13 I got excited last year when I saw this and I got a lot of phone calls from VCs saying I need women. I need underrepresented found companies. Well, I'm very glad it already catalyzed calls to you and awareness of this. But no, I'm extremely proud to have participated in this and Scroobius is my company and we're making demonstrable change and growing quickly. But yes, I do also a number of other advocacy efforts. 21:42 Again, it's dedicating myself toward working to equitable access. And policy is something my own company needs and other companies in my space because this is unregulated territory for the most part when it comes to trying to move the numbers on at least venture allocation of capital. Again, different than angels. So the bill deals with venture allocation. 22:08 But it will require venture funds to publicly report diversity metrics about their prior year's investments. It is a California bill, but California is responsible for over 30% of investing activity and this will have a global, was it 30 or 60? I might have mixed up that stat. I'm so sorry. But... 22:32 It will have a global impact because it is about having a nexus in California, which could mean you invested in a company with a nexus in California, but your fund is located elsewhere. You will still need to report. And so nexus is defined in the bill. I've actually read it. And it comes into effect in 2027, or is it immediate? 22:53 So reporting requirements. Yeah, they're working through the implementation of it now. It was signed into law in the last year, and there's a whole lot of things that need to happen before this is implemented and enforced. But there are a number of efforts, especially in the private industry, that are already helping funds figure out how to make this the most efficient that they can. And it's information they're collecting anyway. 23:21 This is a data collection bill. It's to establish that baseline of where are the dollars going? So we have accurate data and they have it, they're just not reporting it. So now it will be available to anybody who wants to go see and have an enormous positive impact on future policy, but also on entrepreneurs and how they spend their time because it is not 23:46 transparent to any entrepreneur now, unless they're going to scour every website of every fund and then look up the leadership to know, does a fund write checks to women? Is it worth my time to go do that? So this is not telling anyone where they must invest their money. It isn't dictating that at all. It's just saying, we need a baseline of accurate quality data. 24:12 Because to date, all those numbers we cite, even the ones that I quote, they're from private companies. They're from Pitchbook and Crunchbase. And there's data flaws with their collection as well. Absolutely. And did you pick off California, start with California because of the sheer presence in the ecosystem? Because you're also championing initiatives in other states. 24:41 like the Massachusetts Senate Bill 978 and New York Senate Bill 809786. Yes, there were a lot of strategic reasons for California to start, although it's interesting. 24:59 work on Massachusetts legislation in this space predated the work in California. And we started by working with what we have been pursuing and are still pursuing in Massachusetts over there, over in California. It shifted to a different type of bill for a variety of reasons. I have learned a whole lot about this process in co-authoring that bill. But there's so much that goes with getting policy. 25:27 A lot of it again is people oriented, relationship oriented. California was a, we were there at the right time in the right place with the right people to push that through. I love it. We're going to switch gears a little bit here. And you made an important announcement in the past couple of days. Congratulations on the appointment of president and COO Ralph Gross III. 25:57 Thank you. He's joined you at Scroobius. And if you see the announcement on LinkedIn, it goes into detail about how relationships are important. So you've mentioned, you've touched on relationships several times, right? When you're an entrepreneur, you are an entrepreneur, you founded Scroobius, right? Can you share how relationships matter when building your business? That's the 26:27 And now that you have a COO and president, how's your day job gonna change? All right? Thank you. Yes. Well, I mean, we're now really the perfect example of why a platform like Scroobious and ours in particular needs to exist because it is relationship driven. And people will say everything in business is relationship driven, but there's plenty of transactions that happen and finding the funding. 26:56 And the people are critical to early stage success of a company. It's very different at the early stage. And for our story, I was introduced to Ralph three years ago by a woman who's on our advisory board, who I had actually met nearly 20 years ago when I won a scholarship from her as an MBA student. And he became one of our very first investors. He has an 27:24 exceptional career in large financial institutions and investment banks. But earlier on, he did attempt to start his own company. And it was very similar to what Robin Hood ended up being. But as a black man, he really couldn't raise the funds that he needed. So he experienced that bias as well when he was attempting to go the entrepreneurship route. And it's always stuck deep with him. Right. So he has a 27:51 very strong resonance with what we're building and our mission and firsthand experience, right? That authentic lived experience is something you cannot replicate and the connection with your stakeholders. We both have them. We both have them from the entrepreneur's perspective. And we both have them from an investor perspective. I'm an angel investor as well. And clearly, so is he. But we've developed our relationship over the three years of him being 28:18 of our team as an investor on my cap table. And very recently, he made the intentional decision to leave that corporate career and join us as our as leadership as our president and COO. So we'll be working very closely together as CEO and COO. And it accompanied a $500,000 investment into the company. So we have capital we need to really grow. This is a game changer. 28:48 for the trajectory of Scroobious, both from a capital perspective and a leadership perspective. Amazing, amazing. So I wanted to bring us back to the Founders sandbox and my guest. And again, you're very mission-driven, Allison. And I always like to ask my guests what the meaning is of three. 29:17 kind of terms that I use when I'm working with my clients. And those are resilience, purpose-driven, and scalable slash sustainable. But what does resilience mean to you? Please. So resilience is somewhat similar to me when people talk about grit. It's the quality of taking. 29:44 an unexpected circumstance and figuring out how you utilize that and move forward. And so for me, an easy example is that a month into my company building, we were in a global pandemic. I have two young children who all of a sudden had no school to go to, and all the things that life throws at you. I immediately had to decide, do I close the company down right away? 30:14 Or do I figure out a way to keep doing this? And so when I think about being resilient, there's a lot of elements to that. But that for me was, OK, I'm going to take it, and I'm just going to modify how I build this company. Because it's too important to just close it, and I'm too dedicated to it. And it really did impact our own growth. I was going to go raise a big round. That was my plan. Go do what I did before and start raising. I'm building a scalable venture backable company. 30:43 And immediately I had to say, nope, that's not what I can do anymore. So what do I do? How do I build slower? How do I make this a reality based on the circumstances that have been dealt to me? And we really turned it into a positive for how we've grown. And you did the data gathering. And also really just I love that 31:11 My guests share a personal experience, but personal slash professional, right? And that is an exceptional example of starting a company, incorporating it in the pandemic after experiencing the gender bias in your own previously venture-backed company. So amazing, amazing. What about purpose-driven enterprise? What does that mean to you? 31:40 Each guest has a different, this is kind of my favorite part other than your origin stories. I love it. It's really interesting. The word purpose to me is very interesting because I do a lot of speaking about social entrepreneurship and impact entrepreneurship, but purpose is a little bit different for me. It doesn't have to mean that you're an impact oriented company, but it reminded me of 32:11 guidance that we give our founders is something you need to be attuned to is as you're talking about your company and as you're pitching for the thousand and eighty second time, if you don't naturally get very excited about what you're talking about, that's a warning signal for yourself that you might have lost some of your purpose. Okay. It doesn't really matter what you're building, but as the founder, 32:40 you have to have a direct tie to the purpose of why you're building what you're building or your company is at risk of crumbling because as the leader, if you lose that, where is the North Star for everybody else? Excellent. And you often mentioned the word authenticity during this podcast today. And I think that, forgive me for 33:07 putting words in your mouth, but if a founder is authentic in sharing what that purpose was when creating the company, is don't lose that North Star. Thank you. Absolutely. You know, there's too many stories of companies receiving large amounts of funding and burning it and having to close. And there's too many founders that just want to be a successful founder, which is not. 33:34 it doesn't have that authenticity that you're talking about. And right, the other side of that is having the lived experience to be authentic with those who you are servicing with your company. And I mentioned it before, but again, that's when investors talk about a moat, which some of that lingo is so annoying to founders, but that's a moat, you can't replicate that. 34:00 You can't replicate someone's lived experience. And we're seeing that right now with some backlash in FemTech funding, where more FemTech funding is going to men than to women. They can never have that lived experience. It doesn't matter how close to a woman they are. They can't. And that is not ever going to be as authentically received by customers as somebody who shares that lived experience. Amen, sister. 34:29 Yes, I am co-leading with the TiE SoCal chapter. It's an entrepreneurial membership organization, a competition of women-led companies. We're in our third year, very large cohort, that's in semi finals and independent judges, male and female. It's amazing the energy. And we've talked about nails. We talked about an air purifying machine. The gamut of 34:59 you know, feminine or women-led companies was amazing. And just, we have a second session today. Yeah. And that's, you know, that's something that I talk a lot about and I try to get this message through because it's not something that people always communicate, but you know, the lack of funding to women, to black founders, to any, to take your pick of underepresentation.  For women, it is not just a women's problem. 35:28 We're not just building companies only for women. This is an everybody problem. We are building companies addressing enormous societal needs. And without our contributions to that innovation and to that problem solving, every single person is suffering, not just women. Thank you, Allison. Other term, scalable growth. What's that mean to you? Scalable. 35:58 Um, so scalable means that you are building something that is intentionally designed to reach many, many people and that you are doing it in a way where you can effectively sustain that growth, sustain that scale. Right. 36:21 and there are businesses that are made to be scalable. Scroobious is made to be scalable and there are businesses that are not and both are completely needed and fine, but there is a distinction. And if you are not building something scalable, you're probably not right for the venture capital funding model of how you capitalize your business, but you still might be right for angel investing or loans or debt. 36:49 whatever other type of capital you can add to your stack. But that isn't a very important thing to know. And again, something we educate in our platform for founders, it's not always clear to founders what is the right path or how to understand the venture capital business model and why it requires scalability to be viable. Exactly. And I love that you are all encompassing at Scroobious,  right? It's equitable capital access. 37:18 So not all businesses are venture capital, subject to venture capital. All right, so that's amazing. My last question, did you have fun in the sandbox today? Absolutely. I do love that question. We build humor into everything we do. I think humor is just a critical element of building. And if you're not having fun, what are you doing? 37:46 You have to be able to have fun. So yes, thank you for making a fun podcast experience. Thank you, Allison. So to my listeners, if you liked this episode with Allison Byers, CEO and founder of Scroobius, sign up for a monthly release of the Founders Sandbox where founders, business owners, corporate directors and professional service firms provide stories on how to build with strong governance a resilient, scalable. 38:14 and purpose-driven company to make profits for good. Thank you for joining me, Allison, and until next month. Thank you so much, Brenda. That was fun.  

一， 九月24日，大陸金融管理三巨頭中國人民銀行行長潘功勝、金融監管總局局長李雲澤、大陸證監會主席吳清罕見的突然聯袂召開記者會，宣布了17項政策利多。 受刺激措施激勵，大陸A股三大指數均漲逾四％，其中滬指創二○二○年七月六日以來最大單日漲幅。香港恒生指數昨升破一點九萬點關口，收漲四點一三％。 但華爾街日報指出，許多分析師不確定新一輪刺激計劃是否足以真正提振中國經濟，或為陸股帶來持續上漲。凱投宏觀的Evans-Pritchard就示警，隨著家庭去槓桿化和許多私營企業對借貸持謹慎態度，貨幣政策在中國大陸已經失去了很大的效力。我們又應該怎麼看待這高達17項刺激政策的組合拳？對中國經濟到底有沒有用？ 二， 9月24日，國家金融三部門召開新聞發佈會，發佈了一系列新舉措，給資本市場下了一劑猛藥，中國股市瞬間做出反應，股指大幅上揚。 但PitchBook數據顯示，在2021年至2023年期間，包括美國投資者在內，面向中國初創企業的交易減少88%，從470億美元降至56億美元。這種情況與20年前美國投資者湧入中國的景象形成了鮮明對比。 由於地緣政治緊張局勢加劇，中美雙方祭出的限制越來越多，許多美國風投公司已經收縮了在華投資業務。那麼，現在這些舉措的推出，會對後續的創投初級市場帶來怎樣的影響呢？對於中國政府舉全國之力打造新科技又應該怎麼解讀？也就是說中國未來真正的經濟增長引擎和科技創新引擎到底在哪裡？ Powered by Firstory Hosting

In this episode of the Private Capital Mastery podcast, host Brian Franco is joined by Rebecca Springer from PitchBook to dive deep into the evolving landscape of healthcare investments and private equity. They discuss the increasing scrutiny on healthcare transactions by lawmakers, particularly in states like California and Oregon, and how these changes could impact private equity's role in healthcare. Rebecca offers insights into the data surrounding healthcare private equity, addressing common misconceptions and highlighting key trends in deal-making, including IT services, tech-enabled healthcare, and more. If you're an entrepreneur, CEO, or investor in the healthcare space, this episode is packed with valuable information to help you navigate the shifting regulatory environment while capitalizing on emerging opportunities. Continue the conversation with Jacob Franco: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jacob's Calendar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about Brian Franco by visiting: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email Me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Rebecca: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn

Matt Cohen welcomes back John Ruffolo of Maverix Private Equity, focusing on a variety of topics, including predictions for the next Canadian election, reflections on the 2023 conference season, and the impact of long-term value creation in Canadian business. They also discuss PitchBook's 2024 university rankings and their implications for Canadian education and entrepreneurship. Additionally, they explore trends in private equity and leveraged buyouts, the impact of interest rates on these markets, and the future of long-term capital in Canada.In this episode, we discuss:* (00:21) The busy conference season including Maverix's off-the-record Leadership Summit* (02:00) Reflections on Mark Leonard's strategic growth and long-term value creation.* (04:47) Discussion on Andre De Grasse and his transition into investing.* (06:00) Analysis of PitchBook's 2024 university rankings and Canada's showing.* (11:15) The shift from leveraged buyouts to minority buyouts in private equity.* (16:57) OMERS Ventures and the consolidation of its private capital group.* (20:04) The recent U.S. election debate and its entertainment value.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.ai This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Chris Holman welcomes back Ara Topouzian, Executive Director, MVCA, the Michigan Venture Capital Association, operating virtually, across all of Michigan. Ara, welcome back, remind the Michigan business community about MVCA? You just released the 2024 MVCA Impact Report. Tell us about its Highlights? Where does that rank us Globally in Startup Ecosystem Growth? Who Produced the analysis, tell us about them? So, it's a trend toward larger, later-stage funds? Would you say Michigan's venture capital landscape is optimistic and resilient? What else should we know about this report? Despite National Slowdown, Michigan Maintains Steady Investment Levels with Nearly $500 Million Raised and Detroit Ranking Second Globally in Startup Ecosystem Growth BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. – July 22, 2024 - The Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA), a nonprofit trade association dedicated to increasing capital and talent for Michigan's entrepreneurial and investment sectors, has released its 2024 MVCA Impact Report, revealing that Michigan venture capital firms, defying national trends, experienced one of the best fundraising years in over a decade. Produced by PitchBook, this comprehensive analysis showcases the positive impact of investment activity within the state in 2023. According to the report, four major firms collectively secured nearly $500 million in capital, indicating a notable shift towards larger, later-stage funds. “In a year in which firms across the country struggled to raise capital, Michigan venture capital firms demonstrated immense success. The strength of our VC firms and start-up companies makes Michigan stand out as an emerging ecosystem” said Patricia Glaza, Managing Director, ID Ventures and MVCA Board Chair. Investment activity in 2023 also demonstrated the strength of Michigan's entrepreneurial ecosystem, with more than $1 billion invested into Michigan-based portfolio companies. Reflecting a broader market trend, this investment activity was driven by more mature companies, with 2023 seeing record-high average and median ages for funded companies. Despite a slow pace of exits and a scarcity of unicorn returns, there is a silver lining: Detroit has emerged as a major player on the global stage, ranking second among startup ecosystem growth worldwide, according to PitchBook's recent Growth Score research. About Michigan Venture Capital Association The Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA) is a nonprofit trade organization founded in 2002 to increase the amount of capital and talent available to venture and angel investors for the funding of Michigan's most innovative entrepreneurs. The organization works closely with entrepreneurs to transform breakthrough ideas into new companies and industries that drive Michigan job creation and economic growth. MVCA membership includes private and corporate venture capital funds, angel investors, universities and economic development organizations, and service providers. More than 400 individuals are members of MVCA, representing over 100 organizations across the nation. For more information, visit www.MichiganVCA.org. » Visit MBN website: www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/ » Subscribe to MBN's YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNX… » Like MBN: www.facebook.com/mibiznetwork » Follow MBN: twitter.com/MIBizNetwork/

In this episode of Topline, hosts Sam, AJ, and Asad dive into the intricacies of growth versus free cash flow margin, especially the evolving premium on growth, the concept of profitable, efficient growth, and the importance of understanding unit economics. The conversation also touches on Q3 market updates from PitchBook and the challenges of transitioning leadership in high-profile companies, using Snowflake as a case study. Want more Topline? Join the Topline Slack channel to engage with hosts, guests, and other listeners and subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Secure your ticket to GTM2024 in Austin, TX (October 14 - 16), and don't forget to use the code TOPLINE for 15% of your ticket.

Gene editing startup Tome Biosciences is laying off nearly its entire workforce, as biopharma companies continue to face challenges in the current market. Meanwhile, Bayer, which cut 1,500 jobs in May, is parting with another 150 in Basel, Switzerland. On the other side of the spectrum, two new companies debuted last week. Novartis and Versant Ventures launched Borealis Biosciences to develop RNA medicines for kidney diseases, and BridgeBio spawned GondolaBio to focus on therapies for genetic and rare diseases. In Q2, biopharma VC funding reached its highest quarterly level since the same quarter in 2022, according to PitchBook. Separately, U.S.-China biopharma relations are making headlines again, with a House committe writing to the FDA comissioner about U.S. companies working with the Chinese military on potentially unethical clinical trials. And in case you missed it, a special edition of ClinicaSpace this week focuses on the obesity and diabetes space—a combined market that is expected to exceed $200 billion within the next decade.

Jacob Robbins, known as “Captain Wetblanket” by his colleagues, often covers the AI industry and VC landscape through a skeptical lens. Jacob uses his carefully trained eye to weed through the industry's flashy headlines to share stories of action and anxiety bubbling just below the surface.For those unfamiliar with PitchBook, it isn't just a data company; it also produces VC and private equity data news. Jacob refers to their niche as “second-day” stories; when Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI, PitchBook thoughtfully distilled that deal for a private market audience.Tune into this episode as Jacob gives Eric his playbook to uncovering the story beneath the story and balancing journalistic integrity with what an audience demands. To read Jacob's latest work, visit https://pitchbook.com/news/author/jacob-robbins

Some of the world's biggest banks loaned Elon Musk $13 billion to secure the social platform Twitter, now X. But according to new data from Pitchbook, the Twitter takeover now represents the worst buyout for banks since the Great Financial Crisis, as the platform struggles to retain advertisers and has been marked down by more than 70% from one of the acquisition financers, Fidelity. 

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Google for Startups. Accelerate your startup journey with the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Get up to $200K in Google Cloud credits – or up to $350K for AI startups – plus training and guidance. Apply at https://startups.google.com/twist Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist AssemblyAI. Get maximum value from voice data with AssemblyAI. Build powerful products and features for your end users on the industry's leading speech-to-text models. Get 100 free hours to start building at https://www.assemblyai.com/twist * Todays show: Alex Wilhelm joins Jason to discuss the evolution of startup costs and media aggregation (3:17), media's addiction to Trump coverage (13:46), Polymarket and Perplexity partnership (40:08), and more! * Timestamps: (0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show (3:17) Evolution of startup costs and media aggregation (7:47) Jason and Alex discuss Trump and Elon conversation (10:09) Google for startups. Accelerate your startup journey with the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Apply at https://startups.google.com/twist (13:46) Media's addiction to Trump coverage (20:04) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (21:18) Trump's media strategies and speech analysis (30:04) AssemblyAI - Get 100 free hours to start building at https://www.assemblyai.com/twist (31:17) Societal resistance to tech and the rise of self-driving cars (37:14) Self-driving technology's impact on Uber and Lyft (40:08) Polymarket and Perplexity partnership (47:34) Hacking capitalism and the FIRE movement (54:12) Perplexity's AI competition and the value of proprietary data (1:00:45) Reddit's traffic and monetization (1:07:35) European venture capital and the rise of unicorns (1:13:00) Work culture: Europe vs. US (1:16:11) Investing in AI startups and consulting opportunities * Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com/ Check out the TWIST500: https://twist500.com * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Mentioned on the show: Trump/X conversation transcript: https://turboscribe.ai/transcript/share/4422534834081521519/HWE18owsC2u8E5u2HpZNikyBdermlV2YSwGlTEPKJJw/donald-trump-and-elon-musk-full-transcript-august-12-2024-https-x-com-i-spaces-1nakepnklwoxl Jason's argument concerning the Trump Bump: https://x.com/Jason/status/1823381839647756392 WeRide IPO filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1867729/000119312524197868/d343706df1a.htm Alex's notes on WeRide: https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/p/inside-werides-ipo-filing-and-the Perplexity + Polymarket deal: https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/12/prediction-market-polymarket-partners-with-perplexity-to-show-news-summaries/ Polymarket Dune data: https://dune.com/rchen8/polymarket Balderton raises $1.3B: https://sifted.eu/articles/balderton-1-3bn-fundraise-news PitchBook data concerning recent European VC activity: https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q2-2024-european-venture-report 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: (10:09) Google for startups. Accelerate your startup journey with the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Apply at https://startups.google.com/twist (20:04) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (30:04) AssemblyAI - Get 100 free hours to start building at https://www.assemblyai.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

Global startup funding was up 16% in the second quarter, according to Crunchbase data, led by an uptick in mega-rounds. That increase was led, unsurprisingly, by the AI sector. Funding to companies in AI made up 30% of all dollars invested and actually doubled quarter over quarter to $24 billion.On today's episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Mary Ann was joined by Gené Teare, a Senior Data Editor at Crunchbase and Crunchbase News, to talk through the numbers. Teare is a well-known analyst of the global venture capital market, and was instrumental to Crunchbase's early life and remains one of its more tenured staffers.“I was actually quite shocked by the doubling in AI because we're six quarters in from the launch of Chat GPT,” Teare said. “I think part of that is that in venture, things take time to sort of filter through.”There were also signs that larger M&A deals increased in the second quarter, providing much needed liquidity in a continued dry IPO market.“We're definitely seeing a stronger M&A environment compared to 2022,” Teare said. “The big expectation is that M&A is going to pick up more significantly and I'm not sure we've seen that yet, partly because prices have come down. There's a lot of companies who might realize they're not gonna make it to going public in the next 3 to 5 years…So, I think it has improved but not as much as many in the bench community were wanting or expecting.”Equity is back on Friday with our weekly news roundup. So come back then!Before we let you go, some disclosures: We invited Gené on the show because we wanted to get her valuable insights regarding the venture capital markets. We knew she'd be great on the topic, because Mary Ann worked with her for years at Crunchbase. During her tenure at Crunchbase, she was paid partially in stock options, and retains a minor stake in Crunchbase itself. We do our best at Equity to cite the best data source for whatever topic we're looking at, which means we use Crunchbase data as well as information from its competitors at PitchBook and CB Insights. For instance, we had a PitchBook denizen on the show to chat through Q2 2023 results last year. We think we put together the best possible show for you on its merits alone, but did want to note some professional overlaps right up top.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

In E86, Mike and Charlie deep dive into the latest trends in venture funding, highlighting key insights from CB Insights and PitchBook.  They explore the significant impact of AI on venture capital, discussing whether AI is propping up the funding landscape and the scrutiny AI startups face from VCs.  The conversation also touches on the rise of deep tech and the resurgence of SaaS-based FinTech.  This Week in Local is a Localogy production. To learn more, please visit Localogy.com.  Would you like to recommend a guest, ask a question, or sponsor an episode? Start a conversation with us at podcast@localogy.com.

In this episode of BioTalk, Rich Bendis, President and CEO of BioHealth Innovation, Inc., speaks with Alex Philippidis, Senior Business Editor at Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. Alex joins the podcast to discuss the latest Top 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters list, where the BioHealth Capital Region secured its #3 ranking for the second consecutive year.   The conversation highlights the factors that contributed to the success of the top biopharma clusters, focusing on early investments in biotech, the generation of high-quality science, building networks with partners, and broadening clusters beyond anchor businesses. Alex elaborates on how these regions have sustained their scientific excellence and the long-lasting impact of pioneering efforts.   We explore the criteria used for ranking U.S. biopharma clusters, including NIH funding, venture capital funding, laboratory space, and the number of jobs. Alex provides insights into the methodologies and data sources, such as the NIH RePORT database, PitchBook, and regional life sciences groups, that underpin these rankings.   About Alex Philippidis: Alex Philippidis is the Senior Business Editor at Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). Specializing in biopharma business news and industry issues, Alex joined GEN in 2011 after covering research institutes at GenomeWeb and editing the BioRegion News newsletter. With over 20 years of experience in journalism, Alex has reported on various topics for newspapers and has been featured in major media outlets such as the New York Times and the BBC.   Tune in to BioTalk for an insightful discussion with Alex Philippidis as we explore the latest trends and developments in U.S. biopharma clusters, and the ongoing success of the BioHealth Capital Region.  

Eric Zhu, a 17-year-old entrepreneur from Carmel, Indiana, started Aviato, an analytical platform for private market data, in his high school bathroom. Aviato tracks various metrics including funding rounds, headcount, and company credit card revenues. The platform aims to integrate an analytical layer similar to SignalFire's internal database. Zhu's early interest in venture capital was sparked by Discord group chats during the pandemic, which led him to launch and sell a digital platform called Esocial in 2021. To build Aviato, Zhu conducted meetings from his school bathroom and landed customers like NEA and Republic Capital. Aviato raised $2.3 million in seed funding from investors like 8VC and SoftBank. The company also hired co-founder David Razavi and CTO Harrison Kessel. Zhu has moved to San Francisco and is completing his high school degree online. Aviato aims to become a key player in the private market data space, potentially replacing platforms like PitchBook.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is your sales team truly set up for success? In this episode of Reveal, host Dana Feldman sits down with Paul Santarelli, Chief Sales Officer at PitchBook Data, to discuss his processes for empowering reps and driving real growth.Throughout the conversation, Paul shares pivotal points in his career journey and how those have informed the way he leads and trains at PitchBook. He also discusses the importance of solid processes for frontline managers, practicing proactivity, committing to a habit of hearing, and staying nimble in a fast-paced industry. You won't want to miss it.

In this episode, Scott Becker discusses seven notable private equity stories, including Maxwell Street Capital’s recent strides, KKR and Blackstone’s market performance, and the latest investment by Dental Investment Alliance. He also highlights Pitchbook’s new pharma services report, Iron Path Capital’s $273 million fund, and Peter Thiel’s Piloter Technologies’ impressive year-to-date growth.

In this episode, Scott Becker discusses seven notable private equity stories, including Maxwell Street Capital’s recent strides, KKR and Blackstone’s market performance, and the latest investment by Dental Investment Alliance. He also highlights Pitchbook’s new pharma services report, Iron Path Capital’s $273 million fund, and Peter Thiel’s Piloter Technologies’ impressive year-to-date growth.

Biologicals – the broad category of ag input products derived from living organisms – have experienced significant growth in terms of adoption and investment. An analysis of Pitchbook data reveals there have been more than 6,000 deals in the global ag biotech market over the past decade. One of those companies driving growth is Biodyne USA. This week, we are joined by their National Director of Agronomy, Bodie Kitchel, to talk Biologicals vs. Biostimulants and what's driving growth in the space. For Bodie, everyone's “why” looks a little different when it comes to the adoption of biologicals and farm economics are certainly a piece of that. He gets into the farmer mindset around adopting innovation to leverage net farm income and Biodyne being an education company to help farmers learn where their dollar has the most value. Bodie also talks about needing economic impact right away but also balancing that belief with the value of economic impact in years two, three, four and five. With his experience in ag retail, how has Bodie seen innovation evolve? He talks about positioning, investment and companies being afraid of the unknown. Looking ahead, Bodie talks about that fear being outweighed by the urgency around innovating – and Biodyne USA doing it with speed.

Biologicals – the broad category of ag input products derived from living organisms – have experienced significant growth in terms of adoption and investment. An analysis of Pitchbook data reveals there have been more than 6,000 deals in the global ag biotech market over the past decade. One of those companies driving growth is Biodyne USA. This week, we are joined by their National Director of Agronomy, Bodie Kitchel, to talk Biologicals vs. Biostimulants and what's driving growth in the space. For Bodie, everyone's “why” looks a little different when it comes to the adoption of biologicals and farm economics are certainly a piece of that. He gets into the farmer mindset around adopting innovation to leverage net farm income and Biodyne being an education company to help farmers learn where their dollar has the most value. Bodie also talks about needing economic impact right away but also balancing that belief with the value of economic impact in years two, three, four and five. With his experience in ag retail, how has Bodie seen innovation evolve? He talks about positioning, investment and companies being afraid of the unknown. Looking ahead, Bodie talks about that fear being outweighed by the urgency around innovating – and Biodyne USA doing it with speed. 

WOW! Sometimes you're given a gift of industry research and we've got TWO of them on the same day. I share some further insights into a report from PitchBook as well as an article from Becker's that validates the entire "Operator versus Aggregator" approach to the last 2+ years. Interested in digging into how we can help your group improve for exit? Let's talk: https://meetings.hubspot.com/perrin3

In this episode we speak with Marlon Nichols, co-founder of MaC Ventures Capital, who discusses his diverse career path from starting as an early employee at an enterprise software company, moving into consulting, and ultimately venturing into the world of venture capital. He explains the founding and growth of MaC Ventures Capital, sharing insights into their investment thesis, sector focus, and the types of companies they seek to partner with. Marlon also provides invaluable advice for new fund managers and entrepreneurs, touching on the current fundraising landscape, strategies for success, and the importance of aligning with a firm's culture and team dynamics   MaC Ventures Capital is a seed-stage venture firm that invests primarily in North America, with a focus on California. While the firm does not have a specific sector focus, it considers itself a generalist firm run by sector experts. Marlon explains that the common thread among their investments is a focus on popular culture and future trends. The firm seeks to identify emerging behaviors and trends early on and invest in companies that align with these shifts. This approach allows MaC Ventures Capital to invest in a wide range of sectors, including fintech, B2B SaaS, digital health, and space and defense.   If your company is looking to scale its AI initiatives, head over to Tesoro AI (www.tesoroai.com). We are experts in AI strategy, staff augmentation, and AI product development.  Founder Bio: Marlon Nichols is the co-founder and managing general partner at MaC Venture Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionary founders building the future that the world wants to see. Marlon has an extensive background in technology, private equity, media and entertainment. His unique eye for global and cultural trends, along with shifts in consumer behavior, has helped him uplift and accelerate entrepreneurs and companies that are on the verge of their breakthrough moment. Some of his current and previous portfolio companies include Blavity, Faze Clan, FINESSE, Gimlet Media, LIT Videobooks, Mansa, MongoDB, Pipe, PureStream, Ryff, Solo Funds, Spill, Thrive Market, Wonderschool and others. Thanks to his background as a professional athlete, Marlon utilizes sports leadership philosophy when working closely with CEOs to build the ventures of tomorrow. His diverse network of media and entertainment industry leaders, tech entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 executives and sports professionals helps him develop strategic partnerships and promote brand expansions for his portfolio companies.Marlon serves on the board of directors for the Kauffman Fellows program, where he has been instrumental in growing the representation of underrepresented minorities. He also serves on the advisory board for Los Angeles Mayor's office's PledgeLA. Marlon has been honored on the LA500 in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and ranked among top early stage investors on Business Insider's Seed 100 for three consecutive years. He was also named Pitchbook's 25 Black Founders and VCs to Watch for the last six years. Marlon has been featured in Axios, CNBC, Cheddar, The Information, Crunchbase News, Fortune, Yahoo! Finance and more. Prior to MaC Venture Capital, Marlon was co-founder of Cross Culture Ventures. He eventually enacted the merger with Adrian Fenty's M Ventures that resulted in MaC Venture Capital as it stands today. Prior to Cross Culture Ventures, he served as an Investment Director at Intel Capital and earned hands-on experience as an operator himself. Marlon earned his Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Northeastern University and an MBA from the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, where he was also adjunct faculty in entrepreneurship and venture capital.   Time Stamps:   02:57 Marlon's journey from early operator to VC founder 08:55 Venture capital as a path to diversity and strategic engagement 12:14 MaC ventures Capital investment thesis and strategies 16:25 Fundraising challenges and advice for new founders 21:04 Strategies for First-Time fund managers targeting LPs 23:25 Fundraising realities for new VC managers 26:18 The multifaceted role of a founding general partner 28:56 Strategies for startups targeting successful exits 31:42 Evaluating seed stage investments 34:03 Venture capital's shift to sustainable investment strategies 38:25 The impact of AI on business 41:40 What is coming up in 2024 and how to get in contact with MaC Ventures Capital team   Resources   Company website: https://MaCventurecapital.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MaCventurecap/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/MaC-venture-capital/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaCVentureCap

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Squarespace. Turn your idea into a new website! Go to http://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. OpenPhone. Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist⁠ Lemon.io. Hire pre-vetted remote developers, get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist * Todays show: David Weisburd hosts Jaime Matus, Michael Eisenberg, and Jason Calacanis to discuss AI investments and the potential washout of overfunded startups (4:11). They also touch on VC hypocrisy (38:47), and the role of geography in the VC ecosystem (54:53). * Timestamps: (0:00) David Weisburd intros Jaime Matus, Michael Eisenberg, and Jason Calacanis (4:11) Pitchbook data summarizing the total amount of capital invested in AI (12:12) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at http://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (16:33) Predicting a washout of overfunded AI startups and sky high valuations (25:30) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://www.openphone.com/twist⁠ (26:57) Discussing Michael Eisenberg's career and investment experiences (37:22) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist (38:47) Discussion on Greg Isenberg's tweet about VC hypocrisy (54:53) Fundraising rankings by ecosystem * Follow Jaime: X: https://x.com/JaimeMatusVC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-matus Check out: https://www.invariantes.com * Follow Michael: X: https://x.com/mikeeisenberg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg Check out: https://aleph.vc * Follow David: X: ⁠https://twitter.com/DWeisburd⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd⁠ Check out: ⁠https://10xcapital.com * Follow Jason: X: ⁠https://twitter.com/jason⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jason⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (12:12) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at http://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (25:30) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://www.openphone.com/twist⁠ (37:22) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist * Check out the Launch Accelerator: https://launchaccelerator.co * Check out Founder University: https://www.founder.university * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

Say hi to the new Equity  crew! To kick off today's show, Mary Ann invited her new co-hosts - Becca Szkutak, Rebecca Bellan, and Haje Kamps - to introduce themselves and shared a bit more about what they do here at TC. The team then jumped right into the news, starting with Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet announcing she is leaving the company, just weeks after TechCrunch reporter Dominic Madori-Davis published an in-depth investigative article on what's been going on behind the scenes at the accelerator in recent years. (You can listen to Dom talk more about it here).As always, there was plenty more to uncover in the world of startups and venture. Mary Ann, Rebecca and Haje dug into two funding deals, one straddling the lines of crypto and social media and the other in the fintech space.Rebecca wanted to talk about Farcaster, a blockchain-based social protocol that ​​invites developers to build other apps on top of it. The startup raised a $150 million round, news that had the Equity team asking, “Is crypto back?” Mary Ann dug into immigrant banking platform Majority securing $20M in funding after notching an impressive $40 million in ARR as of April.Last but not least, our trio riffed on the fact that a bunch of tech majors made commitments to the safe development of their AI models, including a potential “kill switch.” While we felt the news was mostly positive, we are also skeptical, too. The team also discussed the challenging environment for emerging fund managers, and our surprise at just how many of them there are.That's it for this week, but we'll be back bright and early Tuesday morning (thanks to a U.S. holiday on Monday) with more tech and startup news, along with another round of Pitch Deck Teardown. Talk soon!Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.Subscribe to us on  Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on  X and Threads at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

We have two guests this week on The Long View, our colleagues, Damien Conover and Rebecca Springer, who both focus on healthcare investing—Damien on the public equity side and Rebecca focusing on private markets for Morningstar PitchBook. Damien is director of healthcare research and director of equity strategy for Morningstar Research Services. Before joining Morningstar in 2007, Damien covered healthcare for Raymond James, Bank of Montreal, and Tucker Anthony. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in finance from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a member of its applied security analysis program, and he holds the CFA designation. Rebecca Springer is lead healthcare analyst for Morningstar PitchBook, where she directs coverage of private market investing across healthcare and the life sciences. She has written extensively on P/E investing in healthcare providers, the growing role of retailers in healthcare, and value-based care. She has worked in nonprofit consulting and as a college lecturer. Rebecca holds a bachelor's from Yale, a master's from Cambridge, and a doctorate from Oxford.BackgroundDamien Conover bioRebecca Springer bioAnti-Obesity Drugs and Healthcare“Obesity Drug Stocks: Where to Invest Now,” by Diana Anghel, Morningstar.com, Dec. 7, 2023.“Eli Lilly Earnings: Pipeline Gains and Great Diabetes and Weight-Loss Sales,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, Feb. 6, 2024.“Eli Lilly's Strong Position in GLP-1 Drugs and Powerful Pipeline Support Industry-Leading Growth,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, Feb. 6, 2024.“Walmart, Amazon and CVS Want to Disrupt Healthcare Services. Here's How PE and VC Could Benefit,” by Rebecca Springer, PitchBook.com, Sept. 13, 2022.“Q2 2023: Healthcare IT Report,” PitchBook.com, Sept. 12, 2023.“Investment Opportunities in the Biopharma Industry,” by Karen Andersen and Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, April 5, 2024.“Research & Development Is Driving Medical Breakthroughs and Exponential Growth Opportunities,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, April 7, 2022.“Healthcare Stocks: Valuations Look Attractive Across Almost All Industries,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, April 3, 2024.“Pfizer Highlights Pipeline to Address Post-2025 Patent Cliff, as Long-Term Growth Concerns Linger,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, Dec. 12, 2022.“Can Innovation Offset Biopharma Firms' Losses From Patent Expiration?” by Damien Conover and Karen Andersen, Morningstar.com, March 21, 2023.“A Wide-Moat Dividend Stock to Buy That's 35% Undervalued,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, Aug. 2, 2023.“AbbVie: Cerevel Acquisition Brings High-Risk/High-Reward Neuroscience Pipeline Drugs at a Fair Price,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, Dec. 7, 2023.“How Weight Loss Drugs Will Reshape Healthcare,” by Rebecca Springer, PitchBook.com, Nov. 16, 2023.“Healthcare Funds Report,” PitchBook.com, Feb. 26, 2024.“Q3 2023: Healthcare Future Report: Weight Loss Drugs,” PitchBook.com, Sept. 29, 2023.Covid Vaccines“Pfizer Earnings: Cost-Cutting Remains on Track to Adapt to COVID-19 Product Sale Declines,” by Damien Conover, Morningstar.com, Jan. 30, 2024.“Focus: Drug Companies Face Covid Cliff in 2023 as Sales Set to Plummet,” by Michael Erman and Patrick Wingrove, reuters.com, Feb. 6, 2023.Value-Based Care“PitchBook Analyst Note: The Value-Based Care Enabler Landscape: 2024 Update,” PitchBook.com, March 14, 2024.“Enablement Companies Are Key to the Future of Value-Based Care,” by Rebecca Springer, PitchBook.com, March 16, 2024.“Our Value-Based Care Crystal Ball,” by Rebecca Springer, PitchBook.com, July 22, 2023.Healthcare Market Underperformance“Healthcare Service Report,” PitchBook.com, May 7, 2024.“Healthcare Is a Frontier Not Even Walmart Could Conquer—And It's Not Looking Great for Others Either,” by Katie Adams, medcitynews.com, May 1, 2024.OtherSesameAmazon ClinicRo

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… OpenPhone. Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist⁠ NetSuite. The number one cloud financial system, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR, into ONE platform. Giving you ONE source of truth. By popular demand, NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind flexible financing program for a few more weeks! Head to https://www.netsuite.com/liquidity Attio - A radically new CRM for the next era of companies. Head to https://attio.com/twist⁠ to get 15% off for your first year. * Todays show: David Weisburd hosts Joshua Berkowitz, Donald Stalter and Jason Calacanis to discuss Elon Musk raising $6B for his new AI startup (5:02), PitchBook's report on Emerging Managers (17:32), SVB's venture portfolio situation (44:18), and much more! * Liquidity Timestamps: (0:00) David Weisburd intros Joshua Berkowitz, Donald Stalter and Jason Calacanis (5:02) Elon Musk raises $6B for his new AI startup (9:49) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://www.openphone.com/twist⁠ (13:16) Sequoia leading a $6B round for AI (17:32) PitchBook's report on Emerging Managers (20:38) NetSuite - By popular demand, NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind flexible financing program for a few more weeks! Head to https://www.netsuite.com/liquidity (28:18) The impact of the surge of venture capital in 2021 and its implications for the ecosystem (30:41) Attio - Head to https://attio.com/twist⁠ to get 15% off for your first year. (34:42) The impact of a positive investor attitude on founders (44:18) The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) venture portfolio situation (49:33) Lightning round of last 3 investments * Thank you to our partners: (9:49) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://www.openphone.com/twist⁠ (20:38) NetSuite - By popular demand, NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind flexible financing program for a few more weeks! Head to https://www.netsuite.com/liquidity (30:41) Attio - Head to https://attio.com/twist⁠ to get 15% off for your first year. * Mentioned on show: https://www.axios.com/2024/05/03/svb-venture-capital-arm * Follow Donald: X: https://twitter.com/donnystalter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldstalter Check out: https://www.fieldguide.io https://www.permitflow.com https://slopepay.com * Follow Joshua: X: https://twitter.com/berkowitz_josh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-berkowitz-86005b23/ Check out: https://dexa.ai https://powerset.co * Follow David: X: ⁠https://twitter.com/DWeisburd⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd⁠ Check out: ⁠https://10xcapital.com * Follow Jason: X: ⁠https://twitter.com/jason⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jason⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Check out the Launch Accelerator: https://launchaccelerator.co * Check out Founder University: https://www.founder.university * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

In this episode, we talk about one woman's quest to bring non-alcoholic adult beverages to the masses. Our guest is Emily Heintz, founder of Sèchey. Sèchey is a retailer focused on alcohol-free and functional drinks — and also low dose THC products – that launched in 2021. Sèchey has a bricks-and-mortar shop in Charleston, South Carolina, an ecommerce platform that ships nationwide, and a curated collection of products within Target stores nationwide.  Emily has a fascinating story. After the retail veteran launched Sèchey, she found fundraising efforts to be challenging. Sadly, that's all too familiar a scenario for female founders: According to Pitchbook data, in 2023, women-founded startups received 2% or less of venture capital (VC) funding in the United States and Europe. This number has remained unchanged for over a decade. But Emily didn't throw up her hands and quit. Instead, she found an innovative way to build her retail brand nationally by partnering with the mass retailer Target. Sèchey now has a curated collection of its products nationwide, in some 2,000 Target stores. The brands carried there include Surely, Starla, and De Soi wines, non alcoholic cocktails from Ghia, Edna's, and Mingle, and functional beverages from Kin Euphorics among others, along with Sèchey's own branded line of dealcoholized wines. If you're interested in what's happening in the non-alcoholic beverage space, you won't want to miss this episode. We cover a lot of ground. A few of the key takeaways: How Sèchey landed a curated product collection within Target stores nationwide What Boisson's closure means for the emerging non-alcohol product landscape Understanding the regulatory challenges faced by non-alcoholic brands How retail pop-ups helped Sèchey build brand awareness Why product tastings are so crucial for driving bottle sales The shifting distribution landscape for non-alcoholic and THC beverages Why Sèchey is modeling itself after Sephora Customer data — who's buying non-alcoholic and functional beverages How Sèchey developed its own in-house brand of dealcoholized wines What e-commerce looks like in the non-alc beverage space How to pitch Sèchey if you're a non-alc or THC brand Stay tuned for our next episode dropping on May 15.  About Erica Duecy, host: Erica Duecy is founder of Business of Drinks, and one of the drinks industry's most accomplished digital and content strategists. She has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. She also has led digital editorial teams at Architectural Digest and Saveur magazines. Her content, podcast, and video programs have won more than 40 digital and editorial awards. She is a WSET Advanced-certified wine and spirits communicator, and author of the cocktail book Storied Sips (Random House), about the real-life stories behind the world's most famous cocktails.    To learn more about Erica Duecy: https://www.instagram.com/ericaduecy/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-duecy-4a35844/ https://twitter.com/ericaduecy And if you like what you heard, help us spread the word! Follow Business of Drinks, and rate and review our episodes on any platform where you're listening. It helps us find new listeners. Thank you

We're off to an AI-heavy start to the week. OpenAI has a new deal with the Financial Times that caught our eye. Sure, it's another content licensing deal, but there appears to be a bit more in the tie-up than just content flowing one way, and money the other.On this early-week episode of Equity, we also dug into the xAI news that TechCrunch broke recently; namely that Musk's AI enterprise is not looking to raise $3 billion on a $15 billion valuation. No, it's now looking for $6 billion at an $18 billion valuation. That's a lot of capital.But there was even more to chat about, including the EU handing Apple even more bad news in the form of placing iPadOS under its DMA rules that should force third-party app stores on the tablet line in time. And Tesla got some good news in China, though just how impactful it will prove is not 100% certain at this juncture.And to close out, the Times has a fascinating look at pace at which venture capitalists are putting money into AI startups. Given the ability of OpenAI to land big deals with Microsoft money, I wonder if it is enough?Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and you can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.For the full interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Venture investments fell in the first quarter of 2024 to a near five-year low, PitchBook says. Funds started falling when the Federal Reserve first raised interest rates, and large exits have slowed in the past couple of years. Plus, “another test for the community”: Where Baltimore port workers and nearby businesses stand. Also, how campaign ads shape voters' economic views and what the Realtors settlement means for buyers and sellers.

Venture investments fell in the first quarter of 2024 to a near five-year low, PitchBook says. Funds started falling when the Federal Reserve first raised interest rates, and large exits have slowed in the past couple of years. Plus, “another test for the community”: Where Baltimore port workers and nearby businesses stand. Also, how campaign ads shape voters' economic views and what the Realtors settlement means for buyers and sellers.

In the dynamic world of entrepreneurship, stories often unfold in unexpected ways. Dr. David Albert's journey from the son of a prominent politician during the Watergate era to a trailblazing entrepreneur in the medical technology sector is a captivating tale of resilience, innovation, and the pursuit of a passion that transcends traditional boundaries. His company, according to PitchBook, has already raised $50M+.

Justin is the Founder and Managing Partner of one of the nation's best-performing private equity firms, Shore Capital Partners (“Shore”). Since the firm's inception in 2009, Shore has grown from 4 to over 140 team members managing over $6 billion in AUM, representing 900+ acquired companies and more than 33,000 employees. Shore is also one of the most active private equity firm in the world by deal volume according to PitchBook while continuing to achieve return profiles that rank Shore among the top 1% of private equity firms. Justin is an avid sports fan/investor and is the Alternate Governor for the Phoenix Suns (NBA), Phoenix Mercury (WNBA) and Nashville SC (MLS).  In Today's Episode with Justin Ishbia: 1. From Law Student to Founding Shore Capital: How did seeing Justin's father operate impact how he thinks about building Shore today? What does he know now that he wishes he had known when he started Shore? How important a role does luck play in success? How has his mindset changed on this? 2. How to Make Top 1% PE Returns: Why does Justin see private equity done well like "using a flashlight in a dark room"? What are the top 3 elements that Justin looks for in all acquisitions they make at Shore? When did Justin think there was an advantage of scale/network effect but was proved wrong? How does Justin think about downside protection and risk mitigation? Why does Justin like to back and invest in first time founders more than any other type? 3. Building World-Class Investing Teams: Why does Justin believe the best companies are talent systems? How does Justin structure the talent system at Shore to ensure consistent incredible talent? What does Justin believe are the three traits required to win in private equity? What question does Justin ask all potential CEOs he hires for acquired companies? What has Justin learned is the single clearest sign of the top .1% talent? 4. Justin Ishbia: The Family Man and Husband: What metric does Justin use to track whether he is being a good and present father? Is it possible to be top 1% and have balance with a wife and family? What does "great fatherhood" mean to Justin? How has his thoughts on this changed? How does Justin think about bringing kids up in a world of immense privilege and ensuring they remain ground and ambitious?