Benjamin H.

🗺️ Startups are leaving NYC & Silicon Valley towards Florida Across 5 of the main investment regions in the US, 4 saw growth in funding, 1 saw a decline while all regions experienced decreased deal counts: 1. Southeast: 18% rise in funding, 20% decline in deal count 2. Mid Atlantic: 17% rise in funding, 27% decline in deal count 3. New England: 5% rise in funding, 20% decline in deal count 4. South: 7% rise in funding, 31% decline in deal count 5. West Coast: 7% decline in funding, 19% decline in deal count 6. Nationwide: 9% rise in funding, 20% decline in deal count From this, we are seeing bigger deals being signed at a lower frequency across the country. Data was based on all deals occurring in H1 2023 and compared to all deals occurring in H1 2024. For more data insights on startup deals, follow deelscoop. Source: Pitchbook

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Tons of new business owners are missing out. You can get up to $100,000 in AWS credit (as in, no-payback) to build a proof-of-concept if you have an idea and a website. AWS Activate is the program. If you're a founder and you're looking to build cost-effectively before you have paying clients, check it out.

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Health tech founders: Are you tired of the endless fundraising cycle? Here's why your pitch deck isn't cutting it anymore and what you need to do instead: 🔔Ditch the generic investor outreach 🔔Leverage the Capital Readiness Scorecard 🔔Streamline due diligence (save 118+ hours!) 🔔Master every funding stage from pre-seed to Series C In today’s #LinkedinAudio event, we dive deep into the challenges and strategies of capital fundraising in health tech. Here's what you'll learn: 💰Why many startups get caught in a perpetual fundraising cycle 💰How to target the right investors and stand out from the crowd 💰The power of the Capital Readiness Scorecard in streamlining due diligence 💰Key strategies for successful fundraising at every stage Don't miss out on these game-changing insights! Tell us: What is one of the biggest frustrations when fundraising for your innovative solution? Can't make it to the Audio event? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app. It will be published on Sep 17th. See the specific link in the comments below. #HealthTech #Fundraising #StartupAdvice #CapitalReadiness

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Bold prediction for 2025: Investors will pay founders to access their venture data. Founders own their data and grant access to investors for a fee. This shift promotes transparency, trust, and efficiency in fundraising, while giving startups a new revenue stream.

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Doing Loby’s Y Combinator application for W25. Any YC Founders want to give it a review (or if u know a YC founder who's down)? Would help a loooooooot. #ycombinator #yc #ycw25

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Occupier - We ❤️ Leases! is building software to help commercial tenants make better real estate decisions to drive the operational needs and growth of their businesses. It's W7 / Q2 / 2024 & this week in our MGMT Boston startup series we’ve got Occupier, a growth stage startup building a platform where all commercial real estate decisions are made, facilitating access to data and collaboration required by all the stakeholders who require it. Andrew Flint & Matt Giffune teamed up with technical co-founder 🏔 Erik Pearson on nights & weekends to work on their project before signing their first customer: DraftKings. Occupier was born in 2018 to solve tenant real estate portfolio management administration. The commercial real estate market in the U.S. is a $25T market. With a T! Real estate is typically the second largest company expense (historically) after payroll and there are more than 20,000 employers with 500+ employees. These companies have sprawling office & retail footprints to go along with their large employee bases and customer responsibilities. Let’s say you’re a large restaurant chain with 500 global retail locations. If you don’t have a sound system to track certain dates throughout your lease portfolio, you might miss a renewal option. Occupier is still growing through the post COVID commercial real estate contraction because they help customers more rapidly abstract data out of their lease documents. As employers have needed to get a tighter grasp on their real estate expenses (and strategies), they’ve helped customers centralize their data & workflows to make better decisions. Occupier is in a fortunate spot to not need to raise capital right now and can patiently grow in 2024. Like many startups that raised in 2021, they had an ambitious operating plan and have responded to market changes by continuing to grow as efficiently as possible in this new environment. They still grew revenue over 100% in 2023 relative to 2022 and hope to double again in 2024. One third of their employee base sits in Boston, one third of the team sits in New York, and they have the remaining third remote. Occupier is backed by Stage 2 Capital, OMERS Ventures, MetaProp, Alate Partners, & Second Century Ventures Operators to Know: -Mia Arrieta, Account Executive  -Jerry Aviles, Software Engineer -Lauren Bahr, CPA, VP Finance -Morgan Beard, Director of Marketing -Noah Cate, Account Executive -Krishan Taylor, Principal Software Engineer -Clement Titsworth, Senior Account Executive -Lisa Gaffney, Senior Product Manager -Jessica Kurz, VP Customer Success -Vrajesh Patel, Senior Solutions Consultant -Amber Perez, Senior Customer Success Manager -Leah Prescott, Head of Design If you're interested in learning more, the full post is linked in the comments! And sign up for the newsletter to see who we bring you next week, will you?? #bostontech #startups #proptech

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💡Benchmarks in the investment industry serve as a standard for measuring the performance of securities, mutual funds, or investment managers. They provide a reference point for analyzing allocation, risk, and return of a portfolio, enabling investors to make informed decisions. Thanks Peter Walker for keeping us all informed!! Can’t wait for this!! Follow and get on the waitlist for this one! #benchmarks #fundraising #Capitalraise #founders #womenshealth #femhealth #medtech #wellness

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We know property management is evolving, but how fast? Looking ahead, what would it take to completely change the property management landscape as we know it? If you work in tech, real estate, VC, or just have opinions, we want to hear from YOU on this topic. As part of Alpaca VC’s ongoing focus on disruptive technologies shaping the future of real estate, we’re running our first Futurecasting Survey to crowdsource a wide range of industry insights. We will publish the findings before the end of the year. Why this question and why now: it’s often said that real estate takes a decade to truly embrace new technologies, but we’ve seen digital platforms, smart home technologies, and automation reshape many aspects of real estate. Especially in the age of AI, will property management be noticeably different in 2026? Or will it look largely the same as today?   As a team, our conversations often ask, what could be the next wave of innovation? Not just incremental improvements on what we have now—but the completely new ideas that could disrupt the industry in just a few years. We’re excited to aim these questions at property management and unpack insights alongside our industry peers.    To share your thoughts with us and be a part of our first Futurecasting Survey, fill out our single-question survey: https://lnkd.in/ewgMAmdC #venturecapital #proptech

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Should you ask a VC to sign your NDA before sharing information about your startup? Check out my latest Youtube video to hear my perspective on this divisive topic. I cover: - the reasons a VC will not sign your NDA - why its a bad tactic to ask - when its appropriate to ask Many startups thrive on outcompeting their peers through innovation. Its understandable that many startup founders will want to jealously guard information about their innovation, product, and business. But its not a good strategy to ask for an NDA because it creates unnecessary barriers and has very little utility in the early stage of the fundraising process and very hard to enforce. Also, there are ways to mitigate the risks of sharing sensitive info. I am not a lawyer, and nothing I say in this video should be construed as legal advice. This is my personal opinion from ~10 years of experience as a VC investor. #venturecapital #startups #investing #NDAs https://lnkd.in/dxyRyrbG

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Three Phrases Founders Need to Hear 💡 "No software company should raise a pre-seed." (Controversial but true for some) 💡 "A lifestyle business is thrown around like a derogatory term as if you are not a legitimate founder because you didn't take on funding." (Let's change this narrative) 💡 "The Mighty Middle" - A newly coined term for founders who are aggressively building, reaching profitability, and creating sustainable businesses without institutional capital. (Join the revolution) As an early-stage company (Openroom HQ), we're experimenting every single day to see what sticks and what doesn't. It doesn't make you less of a Founder just because you didn't take capital. The mindset of "go raise capital" and "growth at all costs" is starting to shift. It's not that founders need reassurance to continue building and solving hard problems. We will continue regardless! But, it definitely helps when people who have done it, seen it, and believe it too. It might be controversial but I loved this morning's debriefing. Thank you to Cherry Rose Tan, MBA, MA, Moshe Mikanovsky, Brice Scheschuk, CPA, CA and Schulich School of Business - York University's Schulich Startups for a memorable mentorship quarter and helping me see a better future of building my own company. ---- Repost this for your network ♻️ P.S. What's the most controversial advice you've heard recently?

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VCs rate STARTUPS, should the SBA or BBB (Better Business Bureaus do the SAME? Often a complicated and lengthy process for complaints reduces feedback. By Providing a RATING (like RESTAURANTS receive from the health department (ABCD)) that provides a clear metric 📊 on our local SERVICE PROVIDERS who too often can hide 🙈 TRUE results behind SEO (Search engine optimization) or (PPC) pay-per-click that many seniors and homeowners mistake for objective reviews? Whether raising future FUNDING from investors or calculating VALUE, how can consumers better understand and reward great service? How can COMSUMER PROTECTION learn from and mimic VCs IDEA: Dept of Due Diligence ?

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The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

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The Zumper May rent report is out ✍ National rent index saw both 1 and 2 BRs grow 1.2% monthly to $1,504 and $1,865, respectively That's the first time we’ve seen monthly growth rates of >1% in 20 months, pulling up the YoY trend

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I became a real estate agent in 60 days. Here’s how. 3 months ago, jumping into the world of PropTech with Kendal meant I needed a fast track to understanding real estate from the inside out. Here’s how I went from tech girly to quasi-real estate agent. 1. The Decision: Figured the best way to get real about real estate was to be an agent myself. To truly understand their pains, gains, and wants — you had to walk in their shoes. Or in this case, their blazer. 2. The Transformation: There was no thinking more, had to suit up. Started talking to more agents, seeing how they dress, where they hang out, how they talk AND HOW THEY SELL. Shadowing my real estate friends helped A LOT. 3. The Learning Curve: - Hit the Books and Feeds: I was all over real estate blogs, pages, and top influencers. Realtors have some of THE MOST interesting storytelling techniques. - Get Out There: Tagged along for property showings and client meetings—nothing beats the real thing. 4. The Strategy Shift; Used what I learned on the ground to tweak our marketing approach, making sure our content and tech speaks the agent’s language — cause agents frankly don’t care as much about tech, they want to close faster and better. 5. The Results: Not only did our tools get sharper, but our whole team now gets what agents need and why. Which means we’re not just building a random CRM, we’re building it for every real estate agent out there to use with ease. 6. Looking Back: More than just a learning sprint, this was about shifting our mindset. You’ve got to live it to truly get it. Sometimes you’ve got to lace up those loafers and hit the pavement to see the big picture. Or in my case, button up the blazer. #realestate #crm #realestateagent #brokerage #proptech

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How to pitch: The company has zero traction —> “We’re early” You only have 2 customers —> “We’re working with design partners” You currently have no revenue but hoping some pipeline finally closes —> “we’re on track to exit this year at $3M ARR” You’re in the natural kill zone of a FAANG —> “We view them as partners rather than competitors” There’s no way the tech can actually work —>“We’re manifesting the future” And of course: One of your developers uses Co-Pilot to write some front end code —> “We’re an AI company”

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Rent data and how to set rents in our new environment was all the rage at Blueprint: The Future of Real Estate. For those dealing with this challenge, I put together a primer on how to stay clear of concerns about using the wrong data and inadvertently colluding or mispricing properties. Some key points: 1. Stay out of other people's business. If you have access to data that hasn't been made public by the source of the data, get rid of it ASAP. 2. Know your sources. If you don't know exactly where every data point you're working with is coming from, then steer clear. Even if you're working with summary analysis, you still need to make sure the underlying data is safe to work with. 3. Set your own rents. Look at high-quality source data and make your own decisions to choose better, more appropriate pricing that factors in what only your team knows about your properties - which will give you higher effective rents and less vacancy. All the details are in the article and let me know if you want to talk further. #revenuemanagement #propertymanagement #multifamily #SFR https://lnkd.in/gp_Jh752

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Here are my thoughts on what it takes to make partner: To make partner, you have to understand value and leverage. Most large firms run at a 26% net margin. If you want to make $500k, you likely need to drive $3-4M of value. Why? Assume you manage $3M. 26% net margin = $780k. $500k then goes to you and $280k to the firm. But a $3M expectation might even be low because firms have C-Suite and rainmakers who don’t bill clients… so to make $500k you might need to manage $3M and sell an additional $500k-$1M. These numbers sound big, but people figure out how to do it all the time. Larger firms make it easier due to the ability to cross-sell. It’s also very possible in today’s digital age to hit these numbers quickly. For example, in my firm, our 2024 parter class had a median age of 31. So how do you do it? Being great at your job (technical work, serving clients) is table stakes. You can’t be partner without it, but being great at the work and client service alone isn’t going to get you an equity seat. Partners know how to drive more value through leverage. Examples of leverage: - managing/leading a growing team - building a strong referral network - strong personal brand/large social following Focal points: leadership and sales. If you every additional hour you put into leading your team or selling new work delivers outsized results, you have great leverage. Unfortunately, this is the hardest part for people to figure out. Many people think if they just do more of the same they will drive enough value to make partner. But you can only bill so many hours. So if billing clients is your only leverage point, you effectively cap your earnings. If you want to make partner: - invest time in going to networking events, learn how to build relationships tangential to your services and call on them regularly just to keep the relationship alive - build your skills as a speaker / trainer… raise your hand for presentations - read books and implement best practices… (recommend Scale, The Manager’s Handbook, and Meditations) - build your personal brand, become a magnet for referrals with clients and in industry - don’t say you only want to work 40-45 hrs a week… no partner wants to work more but we collectively know we own the business and will do what it takes to get the job done. Sometimes that requires prolonged sprints. You want to join a partner group willing to sprint when needed. But if partners are always burning the candle at both ends, that’s a huge red flag and indicates they don’t have great leverage (I would steer clear of such a group) - most importantly, get results. Inputs are only half the equation… you have to show you can get results. Can you sell $500k-$1M of new work per year? Can you manage a $1-2M book with raving client reviews and little-to-no employee turnover? You can go through all the motions but if you can’t get the results you won’t make partner.

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