Andrea Turner Moffitt

Check out my recent post on why President Trump is the forcing function for us to solve the “Missing Middle” and catch the industrial Tsunami of onshoring coming to the US!

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Listened to Bloomberg’s Zero: The Climate Race recently—worth a listen for anyone in the climate tech space. Akshat Rathi interviews Eric Toone from Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Key topics: ⚡️ Carbon removal ⚡️ Grid modernization ⚡️ Nuclear fusion and fission ⚡️ Green hydrogen—the hype, promise vs reality Good insights on where innovation is heading in sustainability and energy. #ClimateTech #Sustainability #Energy #Innovation

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✨ Breaking: BFM Fund Announces New Fund.- BFM Fund A seed-stage fund focusing on founders who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, promoting diversity in venture capital. https://www.bfm.fund Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups#Venturecapital

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Prime Coalition has long taken a different tack to climate finance compared to its for-profit brethren. It makes the usual venture-style investments in startups through Azolla Ventures and also helps philanthropists direct their money to climate-related projects that it deems high impact. Trellis Climate follows the latter model with a focus on middle stages, where capital has grown scarce. #climatetech #climateVC #climatefinance

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A lot of Superclusters listeners asked about hearing the psychology of an individual LP, and today we finally have the amazing Susan Kimberlin, who's been the founding LP of Backstage Capital, as well as an early LP in Forum Ventures, Operator Collective 🔆, Boom Capital, The Council just to name a few. And of course, big thank you to the amazing Amber Illig at The Council for setting up this intro! Without you, this episode would not have been possible! From how Susan's first check in Backstage was structured to what motivates Susan to write emerging manager checks, we covered a lot of ground. Hell, even how Susan first started with acapella. But sharing my favorite soundbites below: 🏎 Drive is the relentless pursuit of a goal, but also having the flexibility and the willingness to find more than one path to it. There are often multiple paths Fund I and II managers can take to build an enduring brand, and how one repeatedly tackles that goal is a huge tell on their resilience, but also their mental plasticity. ❓ The value of starting from the why. Why are you doing this? Why do this over the 100s of other options you have? What would the GP be doing if they had to do something else? Motivations transcend pure strategy. In fact, most things are likely to change between a Fund I and a Fund III. Most things won't go according to plan. And there are many opportunities for GPs to give up partway through. But if they really plan for VC to be the last career they'll ever have, they'll have an extremely clear why. 🏆 To build a world-class organization, you must always have high expectations. But there's a delicate balance between having high expectations and conveying the trust you have in your team's ability to get there. And you always need the latter, and to communicate that as explicitly as possible, if you expect high expectations to meet reality. Of course, as always, full episode in the comments

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I've participated in 100+ conversations with venture fund LPs this year. The most frequently discussed topics include: Team dynamics Sourcing differentiation Decision-making and selection process Portfolio support Sector thesis Track record Model and deployment strategy Network Long-term vision Timing (why now) References Fund infrastructure and reporting

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Excellent blog post on the realities of Climate & VC. While these are "tough times for the transition," there are also many opportunities. Significant capital will continue to flow, with Corporate VCs playing a larger role in financing this transition. Through this process, they will strengthen their LP positions in funds tackling climate challenges. I receive weekly calls from large Holding & Corporate VCs seeking introductions to Climate / Energy / Infra VC Funds. When I ask about their target sub-verticals within Climate / Energy, they often mention that they default to focusing on specific regions due to limited resources and coverage. In other words, rather than evaluating whether a DACH VC is better positioned for solar or grid-tech compared to a Nordic or US VC, they simply pursue whichever regions they can access—a haphazard approach at best. I always advise LPs to evaluate VCs within their operating market context. Since sourcing is crucial in venture capital, Holding Cos. and Family Offices should carefully assess a VC's location, regulatory context, and market environment before investing and building a portfolio of Funds. I've heard "I wish I had discovered this VC / region sooner" far too many times... * At ComposeVC's Built World Fund, we do not invest in Climatetech or Energytech directly, only as it relates to our Built World thesis.

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Excited to announce our investment in Alta Resource Technologies alongside Leonardo Banchik (Voyager Ventures) with participation from Orion Resource Partners, Overture Ventures, and WovenEarth Ventures. Rare earths are critical in products from magnets to ceramics and it's important for the US to develop its own supply chain. While the US has some of the best rare earth resources, separating them has historically proven expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Alta through it's computationally designed and optimized proteins allows the US to bring back rare earth production with a cleaner, lower capex, and lower opex solution - and that's just the beginning. Congrats to Nathan Ratledge and the entire Alta team. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gbGnAJn3

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Reflecting on the enriching discussions at the recent PEWIN - Private Equity Women Investor Network CIO Roundtable in Boston. It was a joy to hear from panelists Letitia Johnson (Amherst College), Deb Shufrin (Colby College), Abigail Wattley (Williams College), and moderator Sarah Samuels, CFA, CAIA (NEPC, LLC). Some of my key takeaways: From the CIO perspective, alignment with the board is paramount. Portfolios experience ebbs and flows, emphasizing the necessity of a board committed to long-term strategies. Data underscores the repercussions of misalignment—allocators often undermine value by prematurely exiting positions for liquidity needs or reacting impulsively to market fluctuations. Across the board, CIOs prioritize firms that can articulate their competitive edge, foster sustainable organizations with top-tier talent, culture, and succession planning, and demonstrate agility in evolving markets. A robust LP base providing long-term support and institutional guidance is also crucial. Success isn't about funding billionaires—it's about supporting determined individuals committed to sustained success. Privates demand more than short-term commitment—they require a relentless desire to succeed over time. For a deeper dive into the role of CIO, I highly recommend The Counting House by Gary Sernovitz. #CIOInsights #PEWINRoundtable #InvestmentStrategies

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It has been a week of climate at The Drop and another incredible one coming up with NY climate week! Another topic that's close to my heart: Spotlight on #femalefounders: There's been a recent decline in the aggregate number of female startup founders (down almost 2% in 2023), one of the lowest % in recent years. While this decline affects many traditionally active sectors (education, consumer, biotech, and SaaS), FemTech is a notable exception - with a 1000% increase in startups over the past decade. Still, in 2023 - only 1.4% of capital invested went to #FemTech, many citing the "ick" factor. To add salt, male-led FemTech startups have historically secured more funding than female-led ones. Many have written on this, including Cindy Gallop 👏🏻. This is a largely untapped and underfunded market - some argue the "Femtech Revolution" will exceed $103 bil. by 2030. I'm excited to see more funds with female partners executing deals - which will naturally #growthepie and increase the capital flowing to female founders. The #formula is simple: Female investors + female founder expertise puts us in solid position to solve the many issues that disproportionately affect women - from #healthcare, #FinTech and #sustainability. ⭐️I'm proud to work with the fantastic team at Emmeline Ventures - and if you haven’t heard: they are doubling down on this focused thesis. 👀 #WomenInTech #VentureCapital #Investing

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At the #SEENSummit2024 in NYC, I had the privilege of joining The New VC Playbook panel with Gabby Cazeau (Harlem Capital), Morgan Blumberg (M13), and Desiree Almodovar (AlleyCorp). One of the biggest takeaways from our conversation was how tough it really is out there for entrepreneurs right now. With interest rates persisting, tighter funding, and investors playing it safe, it’s a grind to even get a foot in the door—especially if you don’t have the right connections. The reality is, the bar is higher, and the road to securing capital is getting longer and harder. We talked about how to keep pushing through, strategies to get funding, and why it’s critical to support founders who’ve been overlooked for too long. It’s tough, but the drive to change the game is what keeps us going. Shoutout to Tech:NYC, Visible Hands, and everyone who showed up and made this summit an honest, energizing conversation about what it really takes to make things happen. #Entrepreneurship #Growth #Innovation #Startups #VC

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Breaking down barriers in venture capital is essential for fostering true innovation. Knowledge gatekeeping limits diversity and stifles growth. It's time to invest in inclusive networks, skills-based hiring, and educational programs to ensure a more equitable VC industry. 🌍 #VentureCapital#Diversity#InclusiveNetworks#Innovation

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How does an institutional LP decide which GPs to back? UTIMCO alum (and now partner at Foundry) Lindel Eakman opened up about how he picks on Samir Kaji's Venture Unlocked podcast 👇 (episode linked in comments) 🎣 "Would you trust them with your children?" Questions like this one tend to elicit genuine reactions and a real sense of a GP’s character and capabilities. Non-answers or silence in response to a pointed question like this one can be telling. 🤨 "Who fires who?" Questions like this help him evaluate governance and conflict resolution dynamics and the overall stability of the partnership. 1️⃣ Unlike some LPs, Lindel is very open to backing solo GPs. One of the reasons being that partnership risk -- which is one of the biggest when investing in VC funds -- is by definition, eliminated. 👍🏻 Lindel shies away from backing investors who may have potential to be top performers but are divisive or unpleasant to work with. Life is too short! Follow me - John Gannon - to learn more about the ins and outs of the VC market from all 3 sides of the table.

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This article by Forbes encapsulates the vision and drive of Shally Shanker and what we as a team at AiiM Partners are driving to solve. We focus on the untapped opportunities where capital remains scarce, the ‘missing middle’, the unclaimed territory between the early seed funds and the larger, institutional funds investing at later stages. As Shally highlights, "We invest in companies that are building products that solve a critical climate problem and are scaling through rapid commercial traction. Solving meaningful climate issues often requires deep or hard tech solutions. It has not been easy for such companies to raise capital recently as most climate investors prefer ‘asset-lite’ solutions to climate, particularly those centered around software. Climate is not only a software problem". Read the full article to learn more. https://lnkd.in/diW9VBaU Get in touch if you want to be part of the solution. #climate #startups #venturecapital #impactinvesting

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Huge thanks to Paayal Zaveri for covering the launch of Patron Fund II in Bloomberg and to Edward Ludlow and Caroline Hyde for having me on to chat about our new fund on Bloomberg Television this morning. Re-posting the note shared by my co-founder Brian Cho this morning: We’re excited to announce Patron Fund II, a $100M seed-stage fund dedicated to supporting founders building for the next generation of consumers. This new fund is shaped by our experience as early builders and investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Riot Games, and Discord, along with insights from the past three years since launching our first fund. Our journey has made it clear that tomorrow’s most transformative companies will serve the hundreds of millions growing up on platforms like Roblox and Discord. Games have always been at the forefront of consumer tech adoption, and we’re dedicated to supporting visionary founders who use this gaming lens to build venture-scale businesses across all verticals. The name "Patron" reflects the kind of firm we strive to be—one that offers unwavering support to founders. With our experience scaling category-defining companies, we bring unique expertise in designing products that engage people for thousands of hours, while guiding founders through every step of their journey. We exclusively lead seed rounds to stay deeply involved from the start through to scale. As patrons, we empower builders to create something lasting. If you’re a founder who shares this vision, we’d love to connect. Amber Atherton, Brian Cho & Jason Yeh

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We took the pulse of emerging fund managers about what it's been like for them during these post-ZERP, venture-capital-winter years. #venturecapital #veteranventures

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A good article from Kevin Starr in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on Big Bet Philanthropy (a new adjective philanthropy!). There's some good insights from those on the front line on the upside and downside - as always, interested in your views and insights. One of the big questions for me is whether 3 years of a big bet approach to solving a social problem can have more impact than 10 years of consistency of guaranteed funding? Is lack of money for big ideas a problem to be solved? Or is lack of consistency in funding a bigger barrier to impact? A quote from Starr below: "It’s fun to feel like your money is going to make the critical difference. The problem is, it won’t, at least not in the long run. Even a Very Big Check cannot solve the problem." Letting go of attribution is a tricky thing, because attribution inspires more giving. It's one reason theory of change work can be really effective, if done in the right way within Foundations. Jane Magor Emily Wellard-Baring Stevie McGregor Sharon N. Andrew Baker Daniel Tomé Tania Cecconi Drew Bourgeois https://lnkd.in/g5ETcG-H

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Happy Thanksgiving! Love this perspective on fund diversity and deployment strategy. "For early stage investing, large portfolios (~100 investments) outperform small portfolios (~30 investments). The goal for pre-seed or seed GPs is to invest in a large enough number of companies to maximise the chance of finding outliers (about 2% for ~50x, 5% for ~15x according to data from Dave McClure). From that point, once you have built a sufficiently diversified portfolio, you can consider a strategy to deploy remaining funds into follow-on rounds for best looking companies as "call options". This only makes sense if you think these follow-ons are the best opportunity available for that capital. Evaluate them as you would any other investment. A lot of VCs (and LPs, for that matter) understand the logic of concentrating into winners, but not the first step of building an appropriately sized portfolio. Why? Probably because the former amplifies risk, while the latter reduces it — playing into the principal-agent problem in VC and the "power law" smokescreen. It also happens to be a lot easier to manage a small portfolio. I've spoken to LPs that say they prefer small portfolio strategies because concentrating into winners is more likely to produce >10x returns. In a world where only the top 5% return >3x, it makes ZERO sense to optimise for that level of risk. Especially when you are allocating other people's capital (pension funds, MFOs, sovereigns, etc). "Few investors demand diversified funds, so GPs don’t offer them. A slow and steady 'venture is a numbers game' pitch is much less emotionally compelling than 'I am a rock star who can consistently beat the odds.' And GPs need an emotionally appealing pitch to get funded." - The Pervasive, Head-Scratching, Risk-Exploding Problem With Venture Capital" This is how we built our fund's strategy -- to invest early in a diverse portfolio. Our current partially deployed fund already has 42 bets, averaging a deal every 1.8 weeks. Dave McClure taught us that investing in 50 companies on a 10x lower cost basis leads to close to the same ownership in each one as investing the same capital in just 5 companies. This approach seems advantageous for startups too as it allows us to give an easier yes to diverse and early companies. We are still finding our sweet spot around valuations and portfolio construction, and we are passionate about these core principles. Jamie Rhode, CFA has done many podcasts on this for those who want to hear more about the data. I look forward to fund 2 when we will have enough capital to both make diverse bets (60+) as well as have follow-on capacity for winners when they are, as Dan says, the best available opportunity for that capital. For investors and startups, what do you think about this strategy? https://lnkd.in/gizefUYC Benjamin Rolnik Julia C. Manu Satyavolu Aman Verjee, CFA Sophia Platt

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💰 Women-Led VC Funds: Navigating 2024 Fundraising Landscape 💰 According to Venture Capital Journal, despite a strong start, women-led VC funds are feeling the impact of the industry-wide fundraising slowdown. As of November 30, 2024, women-led VC funds have raised $2.54 billion, which represents a 25% decrease from 2023's total of $3.43 billion. In comparison, global venture fundraising is down 13% YoY. While the numbers reflect challenges, there's still potential for growth: • Several funds typically file updates in December • These late submissions could help narrow the gap Let's continue supporting diversity in VC and monitor these trends as we approach year-end. #VentureCapital #WomenInVC #FundingTrends2024 La Creme de la STEM ™ - female founders support system Noshin Ahmed Lori Rodriguez Emilie Vallauri Craig Zapatka

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