Ofek Lavian

Our revamped newsletter, The Angle by Angular Ventures, officially launched today! We hope this new format will make it easier to read, share, and subscribe. Back to it, in this week's column, Gil Dibner covered the spirit of risk-taking that inspired Angular to venture into unusual spaces. While, of course, we invest in AI and SaaS, as of late, we have been investing in more and more contrarian spaces - from quantum, to spacetech, to energy, etc. in search of the supposedly impossible - the truly contrarian. Read the full column via the link.

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Mikal Ventures Annual Wrap-Up This week Mikal Ventures is pleased to bring you our year-long breakdown of the global venture capital market with an emphasis on the Mikal verticals. Over the 52-week period ending April 27, over 26,500 new companies were added. The market grew to just under 194,700 companies included in the Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. The non-US market saw the largest percentage of new companies added-- the group is trending at over an impressive 22% annual growth rate, with all of the non-US verticals seeing double digit growth.  The total deal count saw about 93% in North America and Europe and Asia at 6.2%. AI Tech saw the largest projected annual percentage of growth in new companies, weighing in at a notable 21% and 35% in the US and Non-US markets, respectively. A global annualized growth rate topping an estimated 28% shows a striking indication of just how active this vertical has become. The 52-week indicated transactions in AI Tech were impressive as well, with US, Non-US and global rates coming in at 22%, 26% and 24% respectively. The use of AI is ubiquitous--AI Tech saw about 35% of the patents filed globally across all 10 PitchBook verticals. We see horizontal flow and crossover impacts of machine learning technology in every vertical we follow. Fin Tech is seeing a spate of uses including risk assessment and workflow improvement. Med Tech boasts new drugs, drug delivery platforms and disease detection systems as well as significant advances in robotic surgery. Ed Tech companies such as Zhipu AI and Cohere Health have incorporated AI in their business productivity software for healthcare and science tech B2B audiences. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Awesome to chat about Team Equity with startup leaders today at William Buck. Equity can be a great motivator for startups and growth companies, when you have the right compliance structure, balanced with awesome communication and culture. A great team equity plan involves Founders and executives buying into and setting a winning strategy and culture, and finance, legal, and people operations bringing it all together! Thanks Jack Qi and 😎Alex Millar from Hudled for being awesome partners and putting this on! Cake Equity Callum Davidson Kim H.

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I 💯agree with Oz Merchant on this topic. Some folks advise founders to pitch very selectively and 'pick your pitch' - you get one shot, choose it wisely? I'm 180 degrees opposite of that - be a promiscuous pitcher! - ABP - ALWAYS BE PITCHING. Because your pitch gets better with every no, take that feedback, learn, iterate. Right now it's taking 50-100 no's for Triangle co's to get funding, it's still tough out there, so get through the no's fast to get to a yes. Check out the event - also go see others pitch, it all helps you get better - pitching is like PMF - lots of iteration, tons of grinding to get through to the other side.

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We love seeing founders be able to keep their equity and take advantage of non-dilutive funding sources⚒️. We're excited to collaborate with Stacy Chin, PhD leader of KeepYourEquity.co, who has secured over $15M in SBIR/STTR grants for startups across various sectors. She's written a guest blog post sharing her insights on navigating the competitive landscape of grant funding 💰. Some highlights: ❇️ Understanding SBIR/STTR: A lifeline for startups, offering up to $2 million in non-dilutive funding! ⏺️ Learning how to overcome hurdles and capitalize on the golden opportunity. ❇️ Gaining essential tips on outlining your go-to-market strategy, choosing the right program, and preparing thoroughly. ⏺️ Benefiting from Stacy Chin's 10+ years of grant writing experience and her extensive track record in securing funding for startups. Read More in the blog post linked in the comment below 👇🏾 #SBIR #STTR #GrantFunding #StartupSuccess #SmallBusiness #KeepYourEquityCo #ShayCPA #cpafirm #techaccountants #startupaccountants #techstartup #techcompany #nondilutivefunding

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Ever wonder what the inspiration behind compelling startups is? I’m excited to share the first entry in our portfolio spotlight series: HopSkipDrive. At its core, HopSkipDrive is driven by the mission to create opportunities for all by ensuring equitable access to education through reliable transportation. Of her entrepreneurial journey, Joanna says, “No matter how many obstacles you face, how many people tell you ‘no’, every day is a new opportunity to do better, be courageous, and do what it takes to get a ‘yes.’” You can read the full story at the link in the comments. #entrepreneurship #caretech #schooltransportation

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Love seeing the diversity of PE operator applicants to our Ascend leadership accelerator, across both role: → CEO → CRO → CPO → VP Ops → Head of Corp Dev → PE investor turned COO → More ..and sector: → Edu → SaaS → Franchise → E-commerce → Industrial svcs → Manufacturing → Healthcare svcs → Residential svcs → Managed IT svcs → (More) Makes me think of of something I've learned elsewhere in my career: oftentimes, the most impactful ideas and learnings come from other domains. Reminds me of this story (from the book "Benchmarking for Best Practices") ⤵️ “In 1912, a curious Henry Ford watched men cut meat during a tour of a Chicago slaughterhouse. The carcasses were hanging on hooks mounted on a monorail. After each man performed his job, he would push the carcass to the next station. When the tour was over, the guide said, ‘Well, sir, what do you think?’ Mr. Ford turned to the man and said, ‘Thanks, son, I think you may have given me a real good idea.’ Less than six months later, the world’s first assembly line started producing magnetos in the Ford Highland Park Plant.” * * * Still enrolling for our first 2 cohorts for the Ascend PE leadership accelerator. Learn from other leaders. Check out the link in the comments

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If you’re an early-stage founder, finding out what your customers *really* want so you can build the right product is critical. I’m excited to share some of First Round Capital's PMF Method program with Gagan Biyani on Friday! Gagan has founded 3 companies including Udemy, Sprig, and Maven. We’re hosting this live conversation for product leaders & founders on how to reach PMF. You’ll learn: - How to identify your customers' real problems - How to test demand by selling before building - When to write code vs. build a no-code MVP RSVP to join on June 14th (it’s free): https://bit.ly/3VBAK69

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Employee terminations: they're a topic no one wants to discuss but that every company has to navigate. Thankfully, Melanie Naranjo and wonderful Ethena advisor (& Gusto's former People Leader) Jess Yuen are tackling this tricky topic for the next Ethena webinar. Register if you want to learn more about these topics: How to pressure test whether or not termination is the right course of action Best practices for communicating termination decisions How to minimize risk and choose the best course of action when things get tricky Critical pitfalls to avoid

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Catch another episode of This Week in Startups where Upfront Managing Partner Mark Suster interviews Max Altman and Ben Braverman, two of the three co-founders of Saga Ventures. With Saga’s new $125 million fund, the trio talk about: ➡ Fundraising challenges the co-founders faced as a first-time fund and the playbook of how referrals can be the best leads for increasing the chances of success ➡ Nuances of determining a fund size to maintain competitive advantages in deal strategies ➡ Ben’s learnings from working with Ryan Peterson at Flexport as well as Max’s experience and unique advantages working with his brothers Jack and Sam Here's a short clip below about the attributes of successful founders that they look for, including those willing to take unconventional risks 👇

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Key area where smaller company ($5m - $25m) #CPG and #Restaurant group management teams fall short 👉 🔥Building the right team. If you’re a founder / executive and alway seem to have problems that can’t get solved… You probably don’t have the right team. This is especially true in the finance department. This size company is one in a tight zone where the budget doesn’t usually exist for a deep bench, expensive ERPs, BI tools, etc. So instead you have to pick your bench strategically: - CFO = one who understands tech, people, accounting and strategic financial forecasting and FP&A (fractional), P.S. don’t hire a bookkeeper who claims to do CFO work… you’ll get shortchanged. - Tech = pick the right ERP and automation for the right stage of growth (if you’re smaller and have thin margins, Netsuite might not be the right thing yet), automate what you can for free/cheap and pipe into QBO. QBO can be shockingly scalable with the right AP automation, credit card, payroll, or PoS integrations. Focus on automation tools like Ramp - Accounting Partner = find a solid controller/accountant hybrid that can speak debits and credits, but handle integration breakages and keep the books in order (outsourced / US-based accounting groups can be highly scalable) _________ If you want to take a deeper dive into some of these concepts - download my free book linked in my bio 📕✌️

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Great time on the Embracing Erosion podcast w/Devon O'Rourke! We talked about: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups and much more!

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Congrats to the Revive team for the latest fundraise led by Equal Ventures, as well as the new brand! I’ve had the honor of working with Allison Lee (Founder/CEO) and team for almost six years as their first institutional investor. My gosh, it’s been an incredible–and at times harrowing–journey… ‘Revive’ is such an appropriate name for this company, on multiple fronts. First, it describes the core business well, where this platform helps large retail apparel brands to upcycle garments and deadstock into new products, thereby substantially reducing apparel waste. But it also accurately describes Allison Lee herself. Allison is one of the most resilient humans I’ve ever met, and she’s gone through hell and back to create this outstanding company. When we were first introduced to Allison in 2018 (thanks Bebe Kim for that intro!), Allison was a solo founder experimenting with mall kiosks that provided on-demand hemming services for retail apparel consumers. Over the years, Hemster (the name of the co back then) scaled up to become a substantial business, with her own warehouses and staff to handle hemming for top apparel brands throughout the US. But then the pandemic happened. Brand clients budgets collapsed, along with her business model, and Allison had to reduce her team down to just one person. Herself. This was a dark time. I remember reaching out and attempting to check in with her during a six-month period where she was at her loneliest as a founder. She pretty much locked herself in her apartment, mulling new directions for her company by herself. But she figured it out. In 2021, she saw that the consumer retail market was shifting as Gen Z was strengthening their purchasing power. This new generation of shoppers were more climate and sustainability conscious, and wanted to hold big brands’ feet to the fire for products that conformed to their values. Allison saw an opportunity to retool Hemster into a top platform to help facilitate upcycled products for apparel companies. And it worked! Allison breathed new life into her company and business has been growing quickly ever since. Her business’ thesis is even stronger and bigger than the one she initially launched with. Beyond her being a skilled founder and operator, Allison is also a fantastic human being. She is relentless and un-killable as a founder. And also so warm, kind, and present as a friend. I’m grateful to call her a friend today, as well as a role model. Allison’s journey is still in the early days with Revive, and no doubt she is going to build something that has a huge impact on this world. Hustle Fund is nothing but grateful that she said YES to us, and allowed us to be part of this amazing and inspiring journey. Congrats again, Allison and team!

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Last week, I sat down with Vator to discuss AI applications in the workforce, and how founders in key industries like Healthtech, Fintech, and supply chain can apply AI in meaningful ways to reduce friction in day-to-day life. We have literally seen a usable, value-generating case of artificial intelligence inside pretty much every major vertical that exists in the last year or so, but many people are still not using AI to its full advantage. At Forum Ventures, we see thousands of B2B AI companies a quarter, and we are increasingly bullish on AI-powered verticalization. Read on to learn more about some of the exciting AI applications we see founders utilizing, the nuances we consider when finding great founders across diverse industries, and the importance of founder-market fit. https://lnkd.in/gh-hDSSG

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NY friends! Please come see me at Tech Day on my panel discussing the future of the NY tech ecosystem and what I hope to bring to it!

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A post from Rob at Balderton Capital pointed me at this piece from TechCrunch, and it perfectly aligns with what I've seen in the market: When things (aka: building businesses) are getting harder, founders seem to be more aware of how to structure ownership within their team. I've recently seen a few transactions where mostly experienced founders insist on longer vesting schedules for them and their team (👋🏻 Mario from Enpal revealing this week the whole company runs on 7y vesting schedules). Avoiding dead capital on the cap table is one of the key priorities we try to make founders aware of when raising rounds - be cautious with part-time, non-operative 'co-initiators', professors, accelerators or angels that don't add much value beyond the very initial stages, or co-founders that decide to move on. Enforcing strong (read: long) vesting mechanisms including cliffs (no need to stick to the 1y cliff market standard either) can be a simple mechanism to align interests for the long-term.

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This is a big deal. A new #investment structure for #startups like this is a big #deal. Helping more #founders connect with more #angelinvestors is a great project that can have beneficial ripple effects of increasing #startup investment worldwide. Thanks to the Angel Capital Association for initiating this work to help #entrepreneurs. Pat Gouhin Ronald Weissman John Harbison Tony Shipley Marcia Dawood Silvia Mah PhD, MBA Eli Velasquez Nicole Washington Damien Delgado TCA Venture Group TCA Venture Group Orange County David Friedman Digvijay (Sunny) Singh, Ph.D. Parisa Khosropour Dave de Csepel Pat Hwang StartupCouncil.org

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Summary: Digital banking startup Mercury is expanding its services to include accounting automation and advanced bill pay features for business customers, putting them in direct competition with other fintechs like Brex and Ramp. Key takeaways: Mercury's new software integrates with its bank accounts and includes features such as AI bill population and approval on mobile or Slack. The company is also offering accounting automations and will soon provide invoice creation and employee reimbursement capabilities. Mercury hopes to attract larger businesses with their new offerings, in addition to their traditional startup clientele. Counter arguments: Mercury may face competition from other established fintech companies in the space, including Bill.com. Some concerns have been raised about Mercury's allowing foreign companies to open accounts through their partner bank, Choice Bank, which has been under federal scrutiny. #venturecapital #vc #startups https://lnkd.in/gJ_xRfYs

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Earlier this week John Germinario, VP of People at PebblePost, sent me this thoughtful and unprompted note after his company’s offsite that we were lucky enough to support at Marco Experiences. Building and working at a startup is a grind. Notes like this remind me that it’s worth it. First off, hats off to John Germinario. He went out of his way to not only show gratitude for our partnership but also ensure I was aware of the efforts of our TEAM in making the event a success. In business relationships, it’s better to work with partners on the same team. The fact that John went above and beyond, offering to act as a reference or help close a deal also demonstrates that he’s exactly the kind of customer that we feel lucky to work with (don’t worry I asked him before posting this note 😉). Sometimes it’s hard to quantify or measure human connection's impact in an increasingly disconnected world. This is that value. The impact of intentional gatherings, both on a human and business level, is clear. Big praise to Anna Nikiforov and Court Roberts. Both are huge contributors to what we’re building at Marco. #employeeexperience #offsites #futureofwork #futureofculture #hybridwork

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