Tim Draper

🌟Innovative VC Firm Overcomes Exits Drought with Secondary Sales🌟 ⛵Navigating a challenging landscape where exits are scarce, Santa Barbara Venture Partners (SBVP) has pioneered a novel approach to sustain its growth and attract investors for its second fund: secondary sales. Instead of waiting for traditional exits like IPOs or acquisitions, SBVP opted to sell shares of its portfolio companies, demonstrating its ability to generate returns for investors and stand out in a competitive market. 🎤According to Dan Engel, founder and managing partner of SBVP, these secondary transactions have been a game-changer, sparking investor interest and bolstering the firm's credibility. By leveraging its recent successes, including a lucrative stake in sports-betting company DraftKings Inc.' acquisition of digital lottery app Jackpocket, SBVP seized the opportunity to return profits to its limited partners (LPs) and pave the way for its second fund. 💡Engel highlighted the challenges faced by young VC firms in raising subsequent funds, particularly amid a downturn in exit activity and heightened investor scrutiny. With traditional exit routes becoming increasingly elusive, the pressure is on for firms to demonstrate tangible returns and establish a track record of success. ✨"For us, secondary sales have been a game-changer. They've helped us return profits to our LPs and attract investors for our second fund," said Dan Engel. 💰For SBVP, the decision to pursue secondary sales was driven by the need to provide liquidity to LPs and validate its investment thesis in the eyes of prospective investors. By strategically offloading portions of its holdings in high-performing portfolio companies like Bark Technologies and Rad AI, SBVP not only generated substantial returns but also bolstered investor confidence in its ability to deliver results. ⚠Despite the complexities and potential stigma associated with early share sales, Engel emphasized the importance of prioritizing investor returns and seizing opportunities to unlock value for stakeholders. With a focus on profitability and transparency, SBVP remains committed to its mission of delivering sustainable growth and maximizing returns for its LPs. 🔍 "Returning profits to our investors is our top priority. By strategically selling shares, we're proving our commitment to delivering results and driving value for our stakeholders," added Engel. As SBVP continues to explore secondary transactions and expand its investor base, the firm stands as a testament to innovation and resilience in the face of market challenges. 🚀 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VCInnovation #SecondarySalesSuccess #InvestorReturns #ValueCreation 

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During yesterday's LibreQoS APNIC webinar, I posed the question: won't more bandwidth solve these problems? As Herbert Wolverson said, yes, more bandwidth is good, but, still these problems remain if queueing is done incorrectly. Here's my take on why bandwidth alone is not as good as bandwidth + good queueing policies: Generally it was believed that 'data is important, so don't throw it away; hang on to it and send it later'. In practice, this has proven to be suboptimal as two issues may emerge: 1) latency increases for some flows due to heavy demand from other flows using the same bottleneck link, 2) even a single flow can have excessive latency due to aspects of typical TCP behavior (referred to bufferbloat) when the buffers grew large enough that the data being buffered was retransmitted anyway. It turns out that not all data is equally important. Active Queue Management is the art of deciding priorities, both in deciding what data to throw away, but also in allowing some later arriving data to be transmitted ahead of data in another connection that arrived before it. These problems have been studied, and good solutions have been found by using certain queueing policies in routers and switches, referred to as “fq_codel’ and “cake”. These track the different flows not by classifying the data, but by watching the behavior. Flows that send relatively little data (DNS lookups), or at a measured pace (video chat) have priority over flows that send a lot of data as quickly as possible (App and System updates, Video and ISO downloads).

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🔥 🔥 🙌 🙌 🎆 🎆 I'm *fired up* to share this. #VentureIQ by the 9point8 Collective is officially live. We've heard from investors of every size and type that it takes too long and costs too much to evaluate deal flow; this limits the scale and speed at which these capital allocators can operate. To address this problem, we've created an innovative solution which delivers high fidelity diligence information near instantaneously. From a time and cost perspective, VentureIQ immediately creates leverage to look at more deals - and creates space to focus deeply on the most meaningful opportunities. To learn more, you can reach out to me directly or visit VentureIQ.ai. I'll close with some thoughts on my team, to whom I'm so grateful. Blair Merlino, Neal Ghosh and Evan Allen don't just talk about interesting concepts, point out problems or pontificate on what could be. Instead, they identify a problem, frame and validate the solution, and do the work to bring it to reality. VentureIQ is the best example I've seen of this, to date. #VentureCapital, #FamilyOffice, #PrivateEquity #CorporateDevelopment #Startups

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This is just incredible. Neal Ghosh's demonstration of how #VentureIQ takes deeply technical and complicated content across a range of industrial use cases and ages/stages through an AI-generated conversational podcast (a la #notebookLM) is really mind-blowing. Check out his post, below, and if you haven't seen VentureIQ, yet, let's get you set up to learn more. You can visit VentureIQ.ai or DM any of us over here to book a demo!

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Why Buying Your First Business is the hardest & Financing The Fear is Being seen as too risky by lenders and investors. The Solution: Prepare a solid business plan with detailed financial projections. Work with a financial advisor to enhance your credibility. Consider alternative financing options like SBA loans or seller financing.

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It seems inevitable that as the underlying foundation models become more powerful, the LLM players will seek to justify the enormous investment that has gone into training their models by moving "up the stack", and evolve from an API or chat interface, to async agents. Regardless of whether the foundation model companies end up directly competing with you in your vertical, I believe as a B2B AI startup, you NEED to go through the thought experiment: how do I future proof my company as the underlying models progress? More here: https://lnkd.in/gkdhmVer

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Future (proof) #universities will cultivate abilities in their students to shape the #Mind of the #Machine. Artificial intelligence is no longer the stuff of #science #fiction. It permeates our lives, from the algorithms powering our #socialmedia to anything in #motion. However, with this incredible potential comes immense responsibility. The future of #AI, and its impact on #society, hinges on the shoulders of those who develop and deploy it. This is where universities have a unique and pivotal opportunity – to shape the future of AI by educating the next generation of developers and thinkers. AI development shouldn't exist in a vacuum. Courses that encourage collaboration with philosophers, sociologists, and legal scholars will ensure AI is developed with consideration for human #values and societal context. Imagine AI developers working alongside ethicists and philosophers, ensuring technology serves humanity and aligns with our values. Black box nature of some AI models can be concerning. Universities should introduce students to explainable AI techniques, enabling them to build #models that are not just accurate but also allow humans to understand how decisions are made. Imagine AI systems that can explain their reasoning, fostering trust & collaboration between humans & machines. By ensuring transparency & responsible development, universities can help build public trust in AI, encouraging wider adoption and maximizing its benefits. Imagine a future where people embrace AI not with fear, but with confidence, knowing it has been developed with #ethical considerations at its core. By encouraging students to consider the #social #impact of AI, universities can become a beacon of responsible AI research and development. Imagine university research labs setting the standard for ethical practices, influencing the entire AI industry. By educating #students and fostering open discussions about AI's implications,universities can shape public discourse and build a #society that embraces AI responsibly. Imagine informed public debates about the use of AI in various sectors, ensuring #technology serves humanity's best interests. Universities have a great opportunity to play crucial role in shaping the future of AI. By moving beyond technical skills training and prioritizing ethical considerations, universities can equip the next generation of AI #developers with the #knowledge and #values needed to create a #future where AI serves as a powerful tool for progress – a Future where AI isn't just intelligent, but also ethical, responsible, and beneficial to all. It's in the #classrooms of universities that the ethical foundation for a better #tomorrow with AI will be being built. We (Sahil & Team) at Rishihood University under the guidance of Suresh Prabhu Ji are building the cradle of India’s #political and #entrepreneurial #leadership https://lnkd.in/geMZqRNZ Dataquest

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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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When we started this new video series and invited our UC Berkeley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Council members to introduce themselves, I knew it would be good. I didn't know it would be this great right out of the box. I'm going to have to up my video game! University of California, Berkeley | #GoBears | #BerkeleyInnovation | #BerkeleyEntrepreneurship | #YouSeeBerkeley

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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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Pragmatism wins. China is emerging as the global leader in #AI by focusing on execution, applications and affordability over breakthrough scientific innovations. Without those principles, massive R&D and venture investments directed towards infrastructure can yield negative ROI. This dynamic could also impact emerging technologies like #Web3, where infrastructure is outpacing actual use cases. More about this phenomenon from a review of two global ecosystems on different trajectories of AI adoption, from Jen Zhu Scott of IN. Capital in an op-ed in the Financial Times: “Such restraints mean Chinese companies have more incentives to produce AI services built on smaller large language models, instead of training them on the entire internet. They may lack the brute strength of their larger counterparts but they are cheaper to create and run. China’s tech ecosystem is grounded in such pragmatism. Research that cannot be turned into a product within the foreseeable future, such as artificial general intelligence, struggles to attract funding. This means that while the US ecosystem has the edge in groundbreaking innovations, China excels in execution: finding product-market fit, scale, and making applications highly affordable.”

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Exciting to see startups aiming to use AI to discover chemicals, materials, drugs, etc. Semi companies have taken notice: AMD is investing in and Cadence is acquiring them. Semi/EDA companies have broken out by becoming critical path, whether it’s through critical software, packaging, IP, design kits from foundries, or user communities. Aside from just making it easy to make new materials, these “AI for making X” companies also need to articulate a vision as to how they can establish monopolistic positions in their industries.

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So great to speak to Mohammed Islam on The Mo Show podcast last week! Watch the full episode here!

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I’m delighted to showcase a special guest blog from my Stanford colleague, Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt. Frederik is Google’s original Chief Innovation Evangelist, and just published his first book, “What’s Next Is Now.” *** Let’s face it: our minds are wired to crave certainty about the future. We scour the news, analyze trends, and even check our horoscopes—all in search of a glimpse into what’s coming next. But here’s the thing: that relentless hunt for predictions is a mistake! Why? Because the future isn’t something that happens to you. It’s something you actively shape. By obsessing over predictions, we become passive observers, waiting for the future to unfold. But what if we flipped the script? What if we stopped worrying about what might happen and started creating the future we want? I’m a future optimist because I believe in embracing the opportunities ahead rather than fearing uncertainty. The choices you make today are the building blocks of your future. The more intentional and varied your choices, the more opportunities you create for yourself. On the flip side, if you avoid stepping outside your comfort zone, someone else ends up making choices for you. Ever wonder how people find themselves in unfulfilling careers? It’s often because they stopped making intentional choices that could have led them down a different path. They become passengers in a car driven by fate, luck, or happenstance. But here’s the good news: You don’t have to be a passenger. You can be the driver. Imagination is your most powerful tool. By engaging with the possibilities of each moment, you start to see a different landscape for your future. (More insights at the link in comments below!)

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Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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Today, we had a productive gathering in San Francisco with top management from Five Star Bank - California and several of my VC colleagues to discuss current market challenges. It was an enriching conversation with a diverse group of individuals representing various types of funds, and the open-minded team from Five Star Bank. Here are a few key points from our discussion: - Inequality in Funding: We addressed the funding disparities between male and female founders. It's notably harder for female founders to raise funds, especially now as startup funding decreases. However, there are funds specifically targeting minority and underrepresented founders to support their innovative ideas and products. Our Vibranium Venture Capital team has always been dedicated to helping those in need, focusing on immigrant founders looking to relocate their businesses to the Bay Area. - Banking Challenges: A major topic was the situations with Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, which not only created gaps in specific banking products for startups and VC funds, but also led to serious trust issues. What our ecosystem is looking for in my couple of points?  - Banking Flexibility: Many banks lack flexibility, often requiring founders to be physically present and have extensive documentation to open accounts. This is why many immigrant founders, who are new to the U.S., turn to Neo Banks for their speed, flexibility, and simpler requirements.  - Trust Rebuilding: Trust can be rebuilt through personal relationships. Knowing there’s a person at the bank you can call to solve immediate issues like wire transfers or document retrievals can significantly enhance trust. - Use of Ai and Streamlining Due Diligence: We also touched on inefficiencies in the due diligence process between startups and VCs. I shared that we are developing an AI-powered platform INNOVERA.AI to streamline this process, enrich data, and synchronize founders and investors faster, thus increasing funding success through data-driven decisions. We agreed to meet again as this journey is just starting, and there are many opportunities to make this ecosystem more efficient. We aim for a win-win approach that allows founders to focus more on their companies and VCs on effective deal-making. We hope these meetings continue to bring ecosystem players closer together and further establish San Francisco and the Bay Area as the AI capital of the world. More updates to come! Was happy to see. James Beckwith, Brian💥 Sparkes , Irene Montalvo, Renzo Luján , Jennifer Vancini, and many others. Attn to: Daniel Kozlov, Kamran Elahian, Pedram Mokrian, Marilynn Ahern, Ella Shukho, Galina Dremova, Valentina Podgainaia (Pidgaina)

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“You can have a great product, but a compelling story puts the company in motion” - Ben Horowitz Understanding your company’s narrative is crucial when looking for investment. 🚀🚀🚀 Particularly in DeepTech where a good narrative makes complex ideas easy to grasp and compelling to hear. It involves more than throwing together some facts and figures; it’s about finding a message that resonates with your audience on a deeper level. It should never be a one-off effort. It should always be a continuous process of refinement through iteration, collaboration, and honest feedback. 🔁 What problem are you trying to solve? Have you asked your customers? Have you solicited honest feedback? In the end, it's about answering the all-important question… Why should they care? 🤘 #narrative #venturebuilder #deeptech Cambridge Future Tech

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