Murat Aktihanoglu

Excited to share an insightful article by William H. Janeway on "The Rise of Mesoeconomics" and its impact on modern economic policies published in Project Syndicate! The digital transformation of our economy opens new avenues for understanding and managing complex economic networks. This article brilliantly links the historical context of industrial mobilisation with contemporary challenges, emphasising the importance of mesoeconomics in addressing geopolitical risks and technological advancements. In my dynamic role, I see firsthand how the interplay of advanced technologies like AI and blockchain with economic strategies can drive innovation and resilience. There is a need for a dynamic approach to economic policy making. Michael Hobbs and Barry Perkins 🔗 Read the full article here https://lnkd.in/e7z7cnAZ #Economics #Technology #AI #Blockchain #Mesoeconomics #Innovation #Policy #SupplyChain #PixeletteTechnologies

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⚡ 🔌 Sense is helping to decarbonize the world through better grid analytics as we march through a critical intermediary step: electrification 🔌⚡ It's W2 / Q3 / 2024 & this week in our MGMT Boston startup series we’ve got Sense, a growth stage startup bringing better intelligence to the edge of our electrical grid. Founder and CEO Mike Phillips has built software companies through many cycles, including the dot com era. In the early days of AI and machine learning he founded a company called Speechworks, licensing speech recognition technology from MIT. When Mike & his early team were ready to build something new at the intersection of machine learning, data and consumer in climate tech, they had a battle tested plan. Electrification helps decarbonization because we can then use software to more intelligently identify areas of efficiency. As we onboard more electric vehicles, integrate more heat pumps, and stop burning stuff in our home and cars we need to see what is where. When you get a bill from your energy provider and it shows that energy usage bar chart relative to your neighbors, it’s not very actionable. Did you know the transformer at the end of your street can only support charging 3 EVs at any given time? Our electrical grid is the largest machine in the world, based on 100-year-old technology. It’s amazing it even works because it’s practically devoid of real time insights. When Mr. & Mrs. Smith move in next door with the 4th EV in the neighborhood and the power goes out, do you know how the utility knows? When you call them! Estimates from Bloomberg, McKinsey & others state that $21T of investment is needed to upgrade our electrical grid in order to hit net zero emissions with capacity also needing to double by 2050. In 2024 they are focused on meter rollouts to utilities across the U.S., partnering with major utilities on the east coast to bring Sense’s technology and insights to over 3M consumers, with more on the horizon. Sense is proud to be a part of Boston’s growing climate community seeing big potential throughout the Boston ecosystem, aspiring to be one of the companies leading the way in the years ahead. Sense is backed by Blue Earth Capital AG, Bolt, TELUS Global Ventures (TGV), MCJ Collective, Schneider Electric, Energy Impact Partners, Prelude Ventures, and iRobot. Operators to Know (Locally): -Karen Rubin, COO -Colin Gibbs, VP Energy Services -George Zavaliagkos, VP Technology -Sam Alden, Director of FP&A -Maggie Fitzgerald, VP Business Operations -Vikas Garg, Senior Electrical Design Engineer -Joel Margolese, Director Software Engineering -Stephon McCoy, Head of Strategic Integrations, North America -Aisha Strauss, Director of Customer Success -John A. Watlington, Director of Hardware 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 ya?? #bostontech #startups #AI

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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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New AI Model Alert: Claude 3.5 Sonnet Title: Anthropic claims its latest model is best-in-class Summary: Anthropic just launched Claude 3.5 Sonnet, a cutting-edge generative AI model that sets a new standard for text and image analysis. According to Anthropic, it outperforms previous versions and even competes with OpenAI's GPT-4o on benchmarks, offering faster response times, superior vision capabilities, and a better grasp of complex instructions. Plus, they've unveiled Artifacts, a dynamic workspace for collaborative content generation. https://lnkd.in/gn_7Bpcf #GenerativeAI #AIInnovation #Claude35Sonnet #TechNews #Anthropic #usaii

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Partnering with startups can help companies to "solve a product problem, create a new avenue for revenue, accelerate R&D, or accelerate time to market for a specific product," according to Otilia Barbuta, principal at HP Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of HP. She was talking at a breakout session at Circularity 2024. "There are solutions in the market created by startups and in this circularity realm, I think it's more important than ever to partner with [them]." #climatetech #startups #climateVC

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What do you think about having an AI judge review startups along with human judges in the inaugural ClimaTech Great Global Innovation Challenge? We have posted information on how we are doing this, including the AI prompt, and you can share feedback through the form on this page: https://lnkd.in/ezVnvGiG While AI will play a role, our human judges will make the final decisions, ensuring a balanced and fair evaluation process. We're committed to learning from this experience and sharing our insights. Please reach out to me if you are interested in helping with the competition in any way. Research has demonstrated that "Data-driven initiatives have been shown to help VC firms reduce gender bias and make better, fairer investment decisions" (https://lnkd.in/ecfqqgj3). Additionally, "Machine learning models have already been proven to outperform human investors in deal screening" (https://lnkd.in/exicBiTR), helping to identify high-potential startups more effectively. By incorporating AI into our evaluation process, we aim to support an objective selection of startups. As a reminder, applications are due on May 26th. Daniela G., MIT Climate and Energy Prize, #Innovation #AI #Startups #ClimateTech #GlobalChallenge #TechForGood #Sustainability #Climatechlive #MITCEP #MIT #AIJudge #Pitch

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🤖 Have you ever heard of an #AIJudge at a pitch competition? We're excited to announce that the inaugural ClimaTech Great Global Innovation Challenge will feature an AI judge alongside our incredible panel of human judges. Learn more about our approach and provide your feedback here: https://lnkd.in/ezVnvGiG While AI will assist 🤖, our human judges will make the final calls, ensuring a fair ⚖️ and balanced evaluation. We're interested to learn from this and share our insights 💡. Research shows that data-driven methods help reduce gender bias and make fairer investment decisions 📊 (https://lnkd.in/ecfqqgj3), and machine learning models can outperform human investors in deal screening 🤖 (https://lnkd.in/exicBiTR). By leveraging AI 🤖, we aim to objectively identify high-potential startups. Reminder: Applications are due May 26th. 📅

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One month left to apply!!!! Apply to NETI's Climate Tech Bootcamp Cohort 3.0, a pre-accelerator program powered by Riffle Ventures, Climate Tech Bootcamp, OHUB and Greater New Orleans, Inc. – GNO, Inc. part of H2TheFuture, a Build Back Better Regional Challenge of The Economic Development Administration. This bootcamp is a 10-week pre-accelerator program for climate tech and new energy entrepreneurs in the United States that have an interest in building in or expanding to South Louisiana. ‍ Five (5) founders from the program will pitch for a $100,000 (US) investment on the terms of their current round. Application is in the comments and here's a quick overview as well: - 📆 When: September 3 - October 31, 2024 - ⏰ Deadline to Apply: August 27, 2024 - 💻 Location: Virtual - 🆓 Cost: Free. The $5,000 per person fee is waived thanks to GNO, Inc. and The Economic Development Administration's Build Back Better Regional Challenge. - 💰 Funding: Up to $100,000 US (equity investment) in current round to the top startup selected at the end of the cohort. - 🈺 Cohort Size: 25-30 entrepreneurs - 🌍 Cohort Geography: United States - 📈 Stage: We welcome applicants from multiple stages, though having a minimum viable product is ideal.

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A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

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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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Anticipation is in the air as TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 prepares to take over Boston (Go Celts & Bruins!) tomorrow! This well-attended event will be a hotbed of innovation, where over a thousand attendees from early-stage startups will converge. But remember: success in our rapidly evolving tech landscape requires more than just innovative ideas - it's about achieving synergy between human ingenuity and technological advancements. As we dive into this immersive experience, let’s make sure to keep our human-centric approach at the forefront. After all, technology isn’t what drives change—it’s how people adopt it that truly matters. Excited to share insights & foster discussions around this philosophy at #TechCrunch2024! Explore more about what’s coming: https://lnkd.in/eptdAKXy #TechnologyAdoption #HumanCentricTech #Startups

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If you believe that #Diversity and #Inclusion matter, specifically in times like this, join us on October 30th. We will discuss the challenges and success stories of promoting Diversity in 2024. With me you will find industry leaders who were able to pull it off (!) 💥💥💥 Dorit Dor, Hasan Abasi, Vered Raviv Schwarz, Gal Shaul Guesty, Augury, HAAT Delivery, Check Point Software Power in Diversity Glilot Capital Partners Poalim Tech, Meitar | Law Offices, ESOP - Phoenix, Microsoft, Calcalist כלכליסט #nomatterwhat

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Let's finally get rid off the "VC alphabet song" and redo the system to become more founder friendly. "The benchmarks set by funding stages are often arbitrary and not necessarily aligned with the actual development needs of individual startups." #vc #venturecapital #founder #fundraising #startups #fundingstages #funding #fundingrounds #pitchbook

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Mayfield Fund just announced a $100M initiative to back the next wave of AI startups, focusing on what they call “AI teammates.” Think about it—AI that doesn’t just assist you, but works with you on complex tasks. Like having a digital partner helping with customer support, sales, or even engineering. Mayfield Fund’s new AI Garage is modeled after their Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, meaning founders will get hands-on support to bring their AI ideas to life—without capital right away, but with up to $5M as soon as the business plan is ready. It’s not about copying others. It’s about leading. P.S. Would you want an AI teammate? Navin Chaddha Vaneeta Varma Gamiel Gran Kamini Ramani #AIFuture #Innovation #VentureCapital

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Over the years, we at GFR Fund have solidified our investment thesis, which is that we invest in "emerging digitally native communities." These communities can be built around games, social media, and any consumer applications. Now, founders have many easy-to-use tools to build user communities, such as Discord, X/twitter, Instagram, etc, and we believe the founders should start building communities even before they launch a product. The communities can help founders: - reach PMF faster - acquire users cheaper - retain and engage users longer - build better UX/UI, and - hire early employees Below, you can see how RTFKT and Omeda Studios built the community and then worked with them to create a product the users really wanted. We would love to talk to the founders who think the community is essential in building a product!

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Wonderful article about Emily Knight and the whole The Engine Accelerator team on the amazing work their doing changing the world with #ToughTech!

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As colleagues meet at #NAFSA this week, it cannot be much fun being an #agent aggregator right now. Once the darling of #edtech, with eye-watering valuations & record levels of investment, the #future is looking far less rosy now. #Student caps, more regulation, a number of whistle-blowers & growing anti-#immigration rhetoric in three of the major Anglophone study destinations – #Australia #Canada & the #UK – mean that making the numbers add up is becoming increasingly problematic. What does this mean in real terms for aggregators & institutions alike? Aggregators work on various different models. Some, for instance, are members’ clubs for agents & universities who pay an annual membership fee, matched up to provide increased student applications, universities hope, admissions. This model will be hit by increased regulation & scrutiny of #agents & their numerous #subagents. The other more common model is where the aggregator takes a percentage of the agent’s commission for increasing the lead pool & reducing the administrative burden on the agent & #education institution. The issue with the split commission model is that the aggregator only gets a percentage of the agent’s commission, with the agent keeping the majority. Even if the aggregator’s share is as high as 30%, it means that for them to turn a profit they need a significant volume of prospective students to make it work. So if study permits are cut as they were in Canada by 20%, you can say ‘cheerio’ to 20% of your revenue. Increasingly problematic for many aggregators is their reliance on private sector colleges delivering their own or joint programmes with public institutions. The government net is tightening on private provision & public-private partnerships (PPPs)… #Artificialintelligence (#AI) now permeates every facet of modern life, with its impact on education poised to be profound & enduring. The response from #highereducation institutions – whether they advocate its integration, resist it or remain indifferent – is unfolding in real-time. Yet, amidst this dynamic landscape, few are considering the global #recruitment prospects & the subsequent winners and losers that will emerge. Crucially, AI is able to eradicate the frustrating bias of existing platforms, which often prioritise universities based on financial arrangements rather than merit. Consequently, there will no longer be a need to rely on intermediaries, such as agents & aggregators, as students can autonomously navigate their search process.” Asia Careers Group SDN BHD - Investing in International Futures AUIDF British Council BUILA Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) Innovative Research Universities (IRU) University Industry Innovation Network (UIIN) Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia Regional Universities Network The Group of Eight UCAS UKCISA Universities Australia Universities Canada Universities UK #nafsa24 #nafsa2024

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