James Alexander

📈 Curious about the startup scene in Massachusetts? Explore our detailed funding list featuring startup names, HQ locations, and investor info. Perfect for investors and entrepreneurs alike! Check it out: https://lnkd.in/dAp3xj-Q #startup #startups #venturecapital #funding #vc #managementconsulting

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We gathered dozens of operators from the MGMT Boston Operators Club and local founders alongside the 186 Ventures team this October to discuss the evolution of our dear software markets, the status of some predictions for 2024 (all looking good!), and what’s on deck for next year. General Partner Giuseppe Stuto led us through the following predictions for 2025 to share with you all.. ↕ We will see more vertical AI applications manifest themselves within the Enterprise in a similar ways that SaaS moved from horizontal to vertical use cases 🔔 We will see services business models more common and software budget purchasing models less common - SaaS may even be given away for cheap/free as a “way in” ⚖ Capital efficiency, on a relative basis, will almost be required to create enduring & compounding defensible enterprise value. Details like procurement cycle lengths and creativity with non-dilutive financing, like leveraging revenue based financing tools for example, will all matter 💡 Specific to AI, premiums will be placed on applications that can actually get “reasoning” right. All purpose LLMs still have a ways to go and there are multiple approaches with the “jury still out” on how to get context and reasoning right. Infrastructure solutions that use general purpose or customizable knowledge graphs to help application developers get to 100% (enterprise acceptable accuracy) will emerge OR savvy application developers will fill the gaps themselves. We will likely see both, depending upon the specific case! Thank you Giuseppe, Julian, and Sophie for a great discussion and evening!

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This San Franciscan has landed in the Big Apple for #NYTechWeek! Here’s why it was important to me to be out here this week and I view NYC as a sister city. ((scroll down for 2 events The Council is hosting today!)) 🏭🏥 Reminder: The Council Fund invests at Pre-seed in Software’s Third Act, the transformation of the essential economy. Our investments span healthcare and industrial sectors like manufacturing, logistics, construction. 🐂 I’m eternally bullish on NY & SF and hate how many pit the two cities against each other. The reality is that a lot of capital and talent flow back and forth between the cities. They need each other to thrive! 🗽🌁 Cities like NY & SF attract young and mid-career talent because of their population density, transient nature, beauty, and reputations as cities where someone new on the scene can make a name for themselves. For the areas we invest in, I’m *specifically* excited about NY because of: 🏗️ Closer proximity to industrial hubs which are scattered across the Midwest / Rust Belt 🏛️ Closer proximity to DC where a lot of regulation around VC, startups, healthcare, onshoring initiatives, and industrial sectors takes place 💰 Many of the large financial institutions that are backing hard tech focused funds and major healthcare initiatives are also headquartered here in NYC 🎯 We’ve got several startups here who are hitting it out of the park, like Dirac and Siena. This has further validated my belief in this ecosystem to support young companies! Today we are kicking off with 2 events on Day 1 of #NYTechWeek 👉 AI Demo Day: The Council, Next Wave NYC, Lynx Collective, Flybridge will host 8 founders and 200+ investors and founders for a pitch competition this evening! Luma: https://lnkd.in/gbdYiJMw 🔜 Can still join the waitlist! Small & Big VCs in Hard Tech: The Council joined General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Iron Prairie Ventures, AlleyCorp, House Of Ventures, Steel Atlas for 2 back to back panels on industrial innovation & collaboration across the capital stack Luma: https://lnkd.in/gj6D4-Au ⏰ Event has passed

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Insightful look into bioplatform strategy, and what it takes to raise a Series A from my partner, Omri Amirav-Drory: https://lnkd.in/dFv7GbF6

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Big announcement below! 👇 Let's talk about the current state of GP-LP affairs: 🤯Emerging VC managers have absolutely exploded over the past 5 years. 📈 At the same time, more and more data has surfaced that shows that emerging VC firms tend to outperform larger, established firms. 🤔 All of this has made it intriguing but tough for LPs to know where to direct their attention. 🛍 GPs frequently meet LPs at conferences who are window shopping but not committed to the asset class or emerging managers. 🧾 And both crews get overwhelmed by transactional convos. So Sydney Paige Thomas and I created Abundance. Abundance is a private, nomination-based retreat for active LPs and top emerging GPs to form new experiences together and build lasting relationships. Why Abundance? Abundance is knowing that there is more than enough for more than one to succeed. And a single win within a community is a win for the community itself. The journey of an emerging VC manager from 1st close to final close or Fund 1 to Fund 2 is (1) communal and (2) requires an abundant mindset. LPs look for structure and confidence to feel comfortable investing in early VC firms. Yet many of the feeds we scroll and conferences we attend reinforce inherent power dynamics and transactional thinking, which allows scarcity mindset to creep in for emerging GPs. Some of the best events I’ve attended have been intentionally non-transactional, e.g. Camp Hustle, Recast Summit, and other GPs’ AGMs. The fundraising success stories we see usually involve a community (usually of other GPs & LPs) coming together to support and open doors for the emerging GP. We designed Abundance to be an immersive gathering that fosters these connections. Starting tonight, ~100 GPs and LPs are descending upon Seattle for the inaugural Abundance retreat. This has been under wraps for months and I can’t wait to see it come to life! Thanks in advance to our awesome sponsors who were the earliest believers in this vision: Sydecar, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Gunderson Dettmer, & Zelda Ventures. And shoutout to my dad Ed Illig for logo design & Halle Kaplan-Allen being the first sponsor to say yes 🤩 Presented by The Council Capital & Symphonic Capital.

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Cambridge Future Tech builds DeepTech ventures and last week we hit another milestone; we're co-founding our 15th venture 🤘 It's awesome building new ventures from the ground up. It's why we started CFT in the first place. It always feels great to be at the start of the build phase, helping founders articulate a new venture’s tech and potential, building a strong narrative. We’re collaborating closely with founders to transform groundbreaking ideas into companies. 🚀🚀🚀 More to come on this. I'm hyped to share what we're building 🤘 #venturebuilder #deeptech #startups #cambridge

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In his latest piece, Paul Graham dives into a thought-provoking realization sparked by Brian Chesky's memorable talk at a recent YC event: **what if the conventional wisdom on scaling companies is fundamentally flawed for founders?** Graham dissects why advice that works for professional managers often fails founders, leading to disastrous results. He introduces the concept of "Founder Mode" — a distinct approach to running a company that clashes with traditional management practices. Graham argues that embracing this mode could be the key to unlocking greater success for startups, potentially revolutionizing how founders scale their companies. Made me think. https://lnkd.in/exHmEE5M

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I refer to Sarah Tavel's "selling the work" thoughts on a regular basis when it comes to what kind of models will be built in our AI driven future. (https://lnkd.in/etBvUeQ9) Here's one snippet I rediscovered talking about the post to Ilya Vakhutinsky from Careswitch--the future of homecare work: "𝙰𝚗 "𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝" 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔. 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗'𝚝 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕. 𝙸'𝚍 𝚐𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 "𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔" 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚎 "𝚌𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚙-𝚘𝚞𝚝" 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚖 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚎𝚍𝚐𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚘 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛." Ilya's a perfect example of the kind of founder that is incredibly well positioned to build AI into the work experience of the stakeholders in this industry--caregivers, agencies, and patients alike. He not only experienced the lifestyle of a homecare worker through his mom, but he got certified to become one himself. AI Founders: What's your **getting certified as a home healthcare worker** to understand the work firsthand?

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From Inventing the Swipe to Shaping the New Future of Connection, Christopher Gulczynski. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the co-founder of Tinder and co-creator of Bumble—the visionary who brought the "swipe" to the world. 🚀 In our latest episode, we journeyed back to the early days when a simple idea transformed how millions romantically connect. We discussed: - The Genesis of Tinder & the Swipe: The story behind one of the most iconic features in mobile app history. - The Societal Impact of Dating Apps: How technology shapes our connections and the unintended consequences that come with it. - Building Bumble: Addressing societal challenges and empowering women to make the first move. - The Evolution of Connection: The recent shift from online to IRL experiences and what that means for the future. - What's Next: A sneak peek into what Chris is building now—something that could redefine how we connect. We also touch on algorithmic fairness, ethics, and diversity/inclusion. If you're interested in the past, present, and future of how humans connect - not to mention all the eye-opening facts and insightful tips - this is a conversation you won't want to miss. Thanks for making this happen Amrapali Gan https://lnkd.in/eD7nWPdy

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What do you do when a radical new technology puts your main product right in the crosshairs of disruption? Listen to David Okuniev — co-founder of Typeform | Ask awesomely — discuss the challenges of innovation within existing structures. David shared a game-changing insight: Radical innovation is really, really difficult to do inside your own product. He emphasized the need to break free from the constraints of familiarity and embrace change from outside the box. Henrik Werdelin and I have both seen our fair share of this in our respective careers. What struck us most was how David leveraged structure to overcome the innovator’s dilemma. By creating a culture of experimentation and providing space for bold ideas, he propelled Typeform beyond incremental improvements. What other hacks have you seen or employed to help your organization overcome the innovator’s dilemma? Share your stories below! 👇 And if you want to dive deeper into our conversation, click the link in the comments to catch the full podcast episode!

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Wonderful article about Emily Knight and the whole The Engine Accelerator team on the amazing work their doing changing the world with #ToughTech!

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A Plea for Sober AI | Drew Breunig https://buff.ly/3wyTMk9 Below all this hype, there’s a quiet revolution happening. I keep meeting new companies and seeing new products that make practical use of LLMs. They use them to solve narrow problems and prioritize consistency and efficiency over giant, all-singing, all-dancing models. I keep meeting people who are amplifying their capacity and abilities by handing simple, mundane tasks to AIs, which they then refine and improve. AI-assisted coding has been a boon for early-stage start ups, which are shipping products with a maturity and polish beyond their years. Source: A Plea for Sober AI | Drew Breunig ()

Unpopular opinion: AI won't revolutionize design. It will make good designers great. And great designers unstoppable. Here's why: • AI accelerates ideation • Humans guide the process • AI optimizes for engagement • Humans ensure mission alignment • AI analyzes user data • Humans translate insights into impact At our social impact design studio, we use AI tools to complement human-centered design strategy. For us, it's not about the tech. It's about the mission and the impact. But don't get me wrong, AI is a powerful tool that allows you to produce more work in less time. However, the real magic in design happens when we create with empathy, compassion, creativity, and a deep understanding of who and what we're designing for and how to drive real change. That's still 100% human. What's your take on AI's role in design? I'd love to hear your thoughts. --- Follow me for more insights and stories on how to leverage design for positive change. #AI #SocialImpact #UXDesign #WebDesign #NonprofitTech #AIForGood

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Was chatting with another investor today on a call, and mentioned Tim Urban's Wait But Why Blog post, "The AI Revolution" and how prescient it was. Given that it was written in 2015, decided to flex AI's latest muscles to give it a new venue: a podcast. Podcast here: https://lnkd.in/gW8Dh89U Pretty easy to do: Step 1: Save the posts as PDFs. Step 2: Upload to NotebookLM, have it create a podcast. Step 3: Upload to Descript, give it captions. Step 4: Export, publish to Youtube. Total time to create the podcast: ~25 minutes. To generate this podcast and publish it even a few years ago would have taken >8 hours. Love the future (Original posts: https://lnkd.in/gW-PQXE7, https://lnkd.in/gg-nRvxz) #AIRevolution #GenerativeAI #WaitButWhy #TimUrban #NotebookLM #AIContentCreation #Podcasting #Descript #ArtificialIntelligence #ContentFlex #ProductivityHacks #FutureOfAI #AIinMinutes #TechEfficiency #AIandCreativity #YouTubePodcast #InnovationInContent #vibecap #vibecapital

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I recently saw this metric from Carta’s 1Q24 VC Fund Report, which is very concerning. DPI... is nowhere to be found in earlier vintages that probably should start showing DPI. Funding early-stage projects is great, but ultimately, these venture dollars need to exit their investments and pay back their limited partners. That’s where the metric Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI) comes in. While managing a fund, we get interim measures during the life of the fund (e.g. IRR, MOIC), but ultimately, “you can’t eat IRR.” If you want to build a lasting venture capital organization, you need to start showing DPI for your fund. Keep in mind that this is traditional VC data from Carta, and is not strictly crypto venture. Crypto venture tends to get liquidity earlier (tokens) and things tend to go parabolic sooner (faster, more unicorns) - but I’d wager that the data here is somewhat similar for Crypto VCs… Not as much DPI as there should be from these earlier vintages. Read the full article, as well as a recap of all the crypto fundraising rounds for August, here: https://lnkd.in/g3eVJ-iF

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AI Integration vs. Standalone Products | Product vs. Feature As a CTO, I'm constantly evaluating emerging technologies for client projects. The recent hype around dedicated AI hardware has me intrigued, but Marques Brownlee's video on "AI the Product vs AI the Feature" raises a compelling point. Video Link: https://lnkd.in/gbJw5UQN Is AI destined to be the "Clubhouse" of tech – a flash in the pan overshadowed by established players integrating similar features? Here's why I believe Brownlee might be right: • Frictionless User Experience: Consumers have a limited amount of mental space for new devices. Integrating AI into existing products they already use creates a seamless experience. • Power of the Platform: Established platforms have vast user bases and data – fertile ground for training powerful AI models. Dedicated hardware struggles to compete. We're already seeing this with Apple's WWDC announcements. Enhanced Siri, on-device image generation – these are powerful AI features woven into the fabric of the iOS experience. Of course, there will always be exceptions. But for most businesses, focusing on integrating AI to enhance existing products is likely the smarter move. What are your thoughts? Is dedicated AI hardware a fad, or is there room for it in the future? #AI #Technology #DigitalTransformation #ArtificialIntelligence #Apple #ClubHouse #MKBHD

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And my second investment at defy is in 🐶 zeroETL puppies 🐶... I mean PuppyGraph, which is all the beauty of a graph database, none of the data migration or continuous upkeep of a graph database. Sounds like magic? So are puppies 🐶 . Puppygraph is NOT a graph or a database. It is graph analytics engine that answers graph questions on your existing data warehouses, whether that is a Databricks datalake, Google BigQuery or postgres. Compared to SQL, it's faster, handles way more complexity, scales and has almost no upkeep. How did I get to conviction? 1. Tailwinds - 🌊 Lakehouses 🌊 have helped enterprises put all their data in one place, enabling Puppygraph to unlock insights previously unavailable. - 📚 LLMs! 📚AI and RAG cannot easily traverse fragmented data. Puppygraph's Graph RAG unlocks insights with their Knowledge Graph and spoonfeeds to the LLMs. 2. 👯 Team 👯 We have graph experts from Google, LinkedIn, Databricks, Tigergraph, and Instacart who are uniquely able to build this solution. 3. 💸 Customers 💸 . My alma mater Coinbase is a proud user. The feedback from my former colleagues was off the charts! A blockchain is very much a graph database and Puppygraph tracks down fraudulent transactions that go through mixers and helps identify patterns. Huge congrats to Weimo Liu Danfeng Xu Lei Huang Zhenni Wu Gary Hagmueller, defy.vc is proud to be an investor!!

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5 hours long Lex and Dario Amodei, the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, a company behind Claude 3 Haiku, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Claude 3 Opus LLMs, speak about how AI is shaping the future and how it could impact the way we live and work. They discuss how far AI can go. Amodei thinks AI can match human intelligence and even surpass it in areas like biology, where complexity overwhelms humans. But in other areas, like speech recognition or conflict resolution, AI might hit limits close to ours. One of the challenges is the fact of running out of quality data and the cost of scaling compute power. Enjoy the entire talk! https://lnkd.in/dRhpafzU

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