Vivian (Wei) Tao

Giorgio Pontillo lives and breathes sales. As an early employee at IP Fabric, he led the company's sales from seed to a $25m series B round raised in the summer of 2023. That was one of the biggest CEE rounds, in a very slow year for the venture industry. In 3 years, he changed his hat multiple times - from supporting the founder's sales efforts to recruiting and organizing an international sales team. In this article, we discuss about: 💴 How founders should organize their early sales process 🔛 Selling with intent, by focusing on specific ICPs and value propositions to validate/invalidate them 👬 Recruiting and organizing a sales team, and aligning the sales team's culture with the wider company culture 📔 Using customer feedback to improve the product 🚀 Link in comments -- enjoy!

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Now is the right time to invest in Israeli innovation! Israel will and forever be a nation of innovation, prosperity, and grit. Throughout Israel’s history it has been faced with adversity, but our resilience and perseverance has never wavered. We will continue to be the Start Up Nation and our recipe for success will deliver time and time again. Check out an article I wrote for the Jerusalem Post. Amir Alroy Steven Berelowitz Tehila Greenberg

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We called it "Startup Nation Restart" for a reason; The last year has taken a toll on Israel’s startup economy – first judicial reform politics, a global slowdown, then war – all of which caused a slowdown in new companies and funding. That's why today NFX opened "Restart Startup Nation FAST" – an ultra-fast initiative aimed at investing in the next wave of founders in Israel. Pre-seed, Seed, and Seed extensions. Funding between $1.5M and $3M. Decisions are made in just 9 days! Applications are open now through May 02, 2024. Apply soon for a faster funding decision. Come join this awesome group of top founders and lets build amazing companies together 💪🏻🇮🇱 Gigi Levy-Weiss Omri Amirav-Drory Or Offer Idan Tendler Raphael Ouzan Oz Alon Oriel Bachar Aj Orbach Amiad Solomon Yoav Vilner Shahar Koren Pinto Bentzi Rabi Mor Brokman Michal Tsur Yishai Cohen Or Weis Gilad Almog Itamar Jobani Lanir Shacham Li-ran N. Yotam Gil Yuval Gonczarowski Ben Ofiri Eran Groner Lior Shalev Adam Gal-Ed Tamir Wolf Evyatar Ben Artzi Irad Eichler Learn more and apply here:

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Really nice of e27 (Optimatic) to republish a previous article which I wrote in 2018. It was a season where I was deeply involved in mentoring startups. It was also the age of no AI, where I had to write the best I could. In essence, a startup mentor: *Guides, not dictate, how you run your company *Does not get paid, so reject those who want compensation *Is more than a friend, and focuses you objectively *Listens and not humblebrag *Goes beyond business and understands you as a person *Keeps information confidential and not abuse it This pay-it-forward long-term relationships with startup founders and mentors should be revived in our ecosystems. Only then can we truly see deeper quality growth startups. Ping me if you are in Singapore or Malaysia looking for a startup mentor. #startupadvisory #startupmentoring

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At AV, we are harnessing the power of female founders with our Women's Fund. <br /> <br /> As VCs, it's our mission to seek out and invest in promising startups that embrace unique ideas and innovative solutions. Read about the staggering size of the Sheconomy, the benefits of investing in women, and explore some of the amazing startups women are creating. https://buff.ly/4cxHmZQ

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QED Investors is fortunate to had led a $20M Series A round in Payabli. We're really excited to have the opportunity to work with Joseph Elias Phillips, William Corbera, and the whole team and to join up with our friends at TTV Capital, Fika Ventures, and Bling Capital. Many of the largest fintechs have been built in the payments infrastructure space (Paypal - $66B, Stripe - $65B, Square - $40B, Adyen - $38B), and a massive opportunity still exists today. At QED, we have been watching the ongoing tectonic shift of trillions of dollars in payment processing migrating from legacy technologies and traditional distribution channels to being embedded within software platforms. We are thrilled to support Payabli in helping software platforms transform payments from a cost center into a monetization engine. Previously, building a payment processing and analytics stack has been complex and required significant resources. But, Payabli's payments infrastructure has simplified the process, allowing platforms to avoid cumbersome integrations, substantial administration, and high compliance costs. More on why we invested here - https://lnkd.in/esewzCDe!

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This is what true venture funding is: about picking the winners qualitatively, and not out of FOMO; growing the venture with competence rather than with "coincidence"; most importantly- knowing when to exit. Thanks Sajith Pai for sharing this podcast Avi Eyal Entrée Capital #venturecapital #investing #vc

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Hello friends! Today, I have news about a new deal from our fund. We've invested in Webvizio and our partners as part of the Pre-Seed to Succeed program! Webvizio is a collaborative platform for web agencies and digital marketers working with websites and web applications. The service allows users to leave comments and assign tasks directly to web elements, view pages in different resolutions, and share feedback in seconds. In this round, Webvizio will receive investment from its P2S program partners - Yellow Rocks!, AltaIR Capital, Smart Partnership Capital, and I2BF Global Ventures. The additional capital will be invested in marketing, sales, product development, and human resources. According to the founders, the focus will be on finding product-market fit and setting the stage for 10x growth over the next three years. As a reminder, the Pre-Seed to Succeed investment program: https://p2s.vc is designed for early-stage startups with an MVP and initial traction, building products in various industries, including AI, B2B, SaaS, FinTech, productivity tools, and others. Participants will receive initial investments from 4 prominent venture firms and a soft commitment for a 50% follow-on round at the end of the program for selected startups. #yellowrocks #yr_portfolionews #investmentprogram #preseed #p2s #preseedtosucceed #fundraising #earlystagestartups

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Launch Your Journey with #HypernovaFund! We're thrilled to introduce #Hypernova Fund, the investment vehicle of 1802 Ventures, dedicated to igniting #emergingmarkets in #spaceexploration! At Hypernova Fund, We're building a vibrant #community of #passionateindividuals – #spaceenthusiasts, #industryprofessionals, #innovators, and #thoughtleaders – all united by a #commonvision. We believe #spaceexploration holds the key to solving some of humanity's most pressing challenges. Our #mission is to: Foster #collaboration: We connect #talentedminds across disciplines to spark #groundbreakingideas. Fuel #innovation: We invest in audacious ventures #pushingtheboundaries of what's possible. Champion forward-thinking solutions: We support those who dare to dream big and build a #brighterfuture for ALL. Are you ready to join us? ✔ Potential Clients & Partners: We're actively seeking groundbreaking space ventures to support. Let's discuss how #HypernovaFund can support your mission! Investors: Interested in learning more about investment opportunities with Hypernova Fund? We'd love to chat! Get in touch at Investor.Relations@1802Ventures.co #SpaceEnthusiasts: Join our network and connect with like-minded individuals. 🌎 https://lnkd.in/dVxTjRTW 🌎 https://lnkd.in/dMGtjYCf 🌎 https://lnkd.in/dx-HdBax Let's propel towards a brighter future, together!

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We don't spend enough time thanking the teams that enable the engine to run under the hood. Thanks Kasun De Silva & team for the great work and interesting article for anyone that wants to know more about what happens behind the curtains of hedge funds, venture debt funds and Bootstrap Europe!

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After 3.5 days navigating the exhibition floors, dozens of happy hours, and fighting for meeting space at hotel lobbies, cafes, etc, I wanted to share some of my learnings from the 2024 RSA Conference. Complexity = Vulnerability: The industry is congealing around the notion that complexity is leading to vulnerability, meaning that the nature of managing dozens, if not hundreds, of solutions in a security tech stack is in itself making organizations vulnerable. The buzz continued about Palo Alto Networks' “platformization” as a response to this, and other major cyber vendors are following. Threats Growing, Budgets Tight: Despite the billions in venture capital dumped into cybersecurity, the threats and breaches continue to grow. The exponential increase in connected devices and cloud services are major components of the problem. In spite of this, there remains pressure to get a handle on corporate security spending. AI and more AI: AI — not surprising at all — was everywhere, at least in terms of marketing. The hype is still feels very much ahead of actual innovation, but areas showing the most promise are SOC manpower reduction and GenAI Pen testing. Deepfake Defense: Dedicate platforms are emerging for fighting deepfakes. The winner of the Innovation Sandbox, the competition for the most innovative early-stage startup, was Reality Defender, a deepfake detection platform. More solutions are emerging from automated detection to security awareness training. Big government presence: There was a strong emphasis on the geopolitical dimension of cyber - see, Blinken Keynote - and cyber as a national security issue. Funding slowdown alongside interest surge in AI: A sentiment of caution remains among investors. While optimism exists around new opportunities emerging in AI, investors are struggling to find differentiators, especially among the dozen or so AI SOC companies that have emerged in the past year or so. What’s more, security professional seem skeptical about adopting such tools, making investors nervous about investing at this stage in the AI hypecycle. But, early-stage AI security deals are happening and with large sized rounds and valuations. Early-stage vs Growth Investors: Early-stage investors seem to be more optimistic about investment opportunities, especially around AI security or security for AI companies. For growth-stage investors, new and attractive opportunities are still frustrating low and very competitive. The growth deals that are getting done are extremely competitive, often pre-empted, and valued-high. A lot of cyber unicorns in queue: Of the 77 security unicorns crowned since 2019, just 6 have exited above $1B via IPO or sale. Lastly, the top enterprise segments remain cloud security and identity, with growing interest in any tech related to AI (security for AI, data security, etc), but these segments are crowded and competitive. (For fun, I asked ChatGPT to create an image of the conference. Not bad...)

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For anyone building AI agents or reasoning systems, you need to check out the latest release from Logikon AI Logikon AI has partnered with Hugging Face and Allen Institute for AI (AI2) to create the first Open Chain-of-Thought (CoT) leaderboard. CoT is crucial for complex problem-solving and decision making tasks in AI. However, until now, there hasn't been a standardised way to evaluate and improve reasoning models. This leaderboard changes that, providing transparency and fostering competition that drives forward innovation in AI reasoning. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eMEJfjqG Clémentine Fourrier Gregor Betz Clem Delangue 🤗

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🌟 Meet the Visionary Founders Powering Mamazen Startup Studio IH1 Startups! 🌟 At Mamazen, we believe in the transformative power of innovative startups driven by passionate and experienced founders. Let's introduce the incredible minds behind our ventures: 🔹 William Selmo - PeloMatto William is an experienced entrepreneur and a digital transformation leader. As a former Sales Manager at Kleecks, he has developed Glimmed, a fashion brand building company. His expertise in sales and digital transformation is driving PeloMatto to new heights in the pet grooming industry. 🔹 Irene Giani - Deeva.it Irene brings a wealth of experience from her 6 years at Facile, where she served as a Business Unit Director focused on personal insurance. Her strategic insight and leadership skills are instrumental in steering Deeva towards success in the beauty and personal care sector. 🔹 Yan Cataldo - Deeva.it Yan is a seasoned entrepreneur in the beauty industry, having owned three salons with a combined turnover of €600K. His global experience and mentorship of over 30 businesses make him a key player in Deeva's growth, bringing innovative beauty solutions to the market. 🔹 Ferdinando Volpe - PeloMatto Ferdinando has a rich background in real estate crowdfunding, having launched one of the first Italian platforms in this space. As a former Country Manager in Spain for Trackting, he leverages his international experience to expand PeloMatto’s reach and impact. 🔹 Carlo Alberto Danna - Morsy Carlo has an impressive career trajectory, from working in the Giorgio Armani sales team in New York to serving as Ad Ops in Beintoo, Milan. His diverse background in high-end fashion and digital operations is now fueling the success of Morsy, our innovative food delivery startup. 🔹 Chiara Bottini - Inpoi Chiara's profile information is not detailed in the provided document, but she is part of the stellar team of founders at Mamazen IH1, bringing her unique skills and vision to the table. 🔹 Gian Luca Ranno - Inpoi Gian Luca transitioned from design and communication into the food and innovation industry. As the founder of Gnammo and MyOrgango, he combines creativity with entrepreneurial spirit, leading Inpoi to revolutionize the real estate market. Highlights: PeloMatto: 📈 Revenue: €13K (+120% vs January) Deeva.it: 📈 Revenue: €20K (+200% vs January) Morsy : 📈 Revenue: €110,000 in May (+18% vs April) Inpoi: 🌐 Real Estate valuations: 227000

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Our view on the current venture capital markets. Curious to hear other investors' thoughts but I feel like seed stage valuation, at least in the gaming and entertainment sectors, has finally come down to the pre-covid level. Since February or March this year, we started seeing that the founders are willing to raise a $1-2m seed round at a $10m-ish valuation, not like $4-5m at $20-25m in 2022 and 2023. What are you guys seeing?

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Welcoming Sorbet to the Antler Portfolio! 🚀🚀🚀 Sorbet is revolutionizing the freelance ecosystem by integrating workflow solutions with its Web3-enabled payment platform, enabling seamless cross-border collaboration. 🌶 Why does this matter? 85% of freelancers are not using marketplace platforms to land gigs (high platform fees, low visibility, and lack of viable works) and 74% are claiming not to be paid on time. 🌟 What does Sorbet provide? - Instant Global Payments upon milestone completion. - 0% Freelancer Fee. - Secured Transactions, milestone-based escrow smart contracts on the NEAR Blockchain. 👨‍💼 Who are the founders? - Rami Djebari: Blockchain and arts enthusiast with experience at Deloitte's OMNIA AI. - Maher Ayari: Specialist in VC-backed startups, fintech operations, and data consultancy. Antler is proud to support Sorbet located in The Garage | الكــراج in Riyadh 🇸🇦. #Antler #CreatorEconomy #Blockchain #USDC #NEAR #Payments #Creatives #VC #Startup #Freelancing

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Utterly superb. The candidness, openness, and honesty of Daniel dos Reis this morning was next-level. He and Dima Beidas from Wamda Capital joined our weekly SANDBOX founder roundtable breakfast, discussing the likes of: 👉 reporting discipline is critical 👉 as a #founder, if you can't track it you can't improve it 👉 the art of storytelling doesn't stop with the pitchdeck 👉 spellign errosr say a lot more about a one's attention to detail than they might expect 👉 be honest to yourself if things don't work out It's funny how "common knowledge" is often far from exactly that. What veteran investors take for granted is more-often-than-not nuggets of gold for early stage #startups ⚡ It's quite some journey Fadi Ghandour has had, having co-founded Aramex almost 4 decades ago, to now leading one of the most notable VC firms in the region - Wamda Capital. Are you a preSeed/Seed stage #tech startup founder reading to this? Do you have ambitions to scale your business? Want $150,000 investment from Oraseya Capital? Seeking exposure to investors such as Wamda Capital? 👇👇👇 Apply to the SANDBOX #Accelerator program today @ www.sandboxaccelerator.com

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Europe's tech market has some catching up to do. #eu #techmarket #technology #techcompanies #marketvalue #financing #growthcapital #scaleups #commercialisation

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Latest three Big Data/AI startups pitching for our investors 🚀 ______ Yesterday, we hosted the 3rd edition of this year's Core Angels pitch event. Founded in 2022, our Core Angels Big Data & AI startup investment group combines the best aspects of a vc fund approach and of individual angel investing. Our investors enjoy considerable influence and share in a growing portfolio of diverse, handpicked startups. We actively scout the best startups in Europe, providing access to top-tier opportunities and presenting three of them at our quarterly pitch events. Here are three promising startups from Switzerland, Germany, and Norway our investor group had a look at yesterday: 🏠 Scandens: Revolutionising the real estate market with a platform that enables profitable building decarbonisation at scale, fostering regulatory requirements, energy efficiency and wealth accumulation. 👩‍💻 Ninetailed: Providing a next-gen AI personalisation platform trusted by top global companies, delivering tailored digital experiences and significantly boosting customer engagement and conversion rates. 🎤 HANCE: Transforming audio communication with on-device AI technology, Hance provides superior sound quality and privacy by eliminating noise and enhancing clarity in real-time on the edge, making any communication more pleasant, productive and efficient. ______ If you are a qualified investor, you might join our exclusive network and invest in Europe's top AI and Big Data startups. For more information, please, reach out to me directly. #BigData #AI #Startups #InvestmentOpportunities #AngelInvesting #VentureCapital #Innovation #TechStartups #InvestorNetwork #EuropeStartups #RealEstateTech #AIPersonalization #AudioTech #FutureTech #PitchEvent #CoreAngels

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