Randall Crowder

⛳ Emerging fund managers pulse check. PitchBook tracks over 10,000 funds that are raising money, with 45% being emerging fund managers (defined as firms with less than 3 funds). Despite a dip in available capital—down to 16% from the pre-pandemic 23%—these managers are finding creative ways to stay competitive, like partnering with larger firms. 💼 Joanna Drake (founder turned investor) shared how "wildly different" it is raising a fund versus for a startup. One key datapoint she shared on the fund side was how little feedback you get along the way (and the years you can wait for it). The “long-winded and challenging process to raise capital” inspired Drake and Ben Black to create RAISE Global, a community for emerging fund managers and the “forward-thinking LPs” who back them. (A decade later, several hundred emerging managers with AUM under $200m are on the platform) They've found the newest emerging managers are more diverse and geographically dispersed than Silicon valley, and more were able to crack the ceiling and raise larger $100m funds (although this is still a small % of the market, requiring partnership with larger funds at the late stage). ▶ And not a hugely surprising datapoint: A lot of action is in the sub $49 million range, where roughly 50% of emerging managers are raising. Theresa Sorrentino Hajer, Head of U.S. venture capital research at Cambridge Associates warns that past success isn't actually a strong indicator on it's own to assess emerging managers. We've had a valuation reset. And newer managers with investments during the 2019-2021 "party days", need to build relevant track record and play to their strengths. A lot of emerging managers are specializing (70% who applied for Raise had a thematic focus), and betting on getting in as early as possible in the startup's lifecycle (Raise: 31% at accelerator/ pre-seed stages, and 47% at seed stage). “Emerging managers have to compete on a different dimension,” Nick Moran from New Stack Ventures. You're no longer just dealing with capital. Emerging VC's need to be as innovative and nimble as the startups they invest in, having a unique thesis and insights. They also play a role at the top of the deal-flow funnel: helping larger firms find promising companies, so finding a thesis, sector or philosophy aligned partner at a larger firm is helpful. Onwards! #EmergingManager #Startups #VC

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Interesting piece from Marc Andreessen on how startups are not getting the regulatory support they need to sustain America's technological leadership. "Regulatory agencies have been green lit to use brute force investigations, prosecutions, intimidation, and threats to hobble new industries, such as Blockchain. Regulatory agencies are being green lit in real time to do the same to Artificial Intelligence." While many investors themselves (both in the US and Europe) are worried how AI will change our lives, our jobs and social interactions, the top VC opinion leader thinks regulation is already too restrictive. #techstartups #techleadership #strategicgrowth

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Excited to roll out a new series: Allocators Anonymous a new recurring Austin Venture Association series for senior fund managers in town or passing through during peak times. With so many event invitations flooding your inbox, it can be tough to know which events will give you the best return on your time. Some are mismatched based on seniority. Some on the goal of the community. Some simply because you may already know everyone in attendance. Using my own experience on both sides, I've curated a high-quality, vetted gathering for senior professionals from early to late stages to come connect with each other. Our guest list featured partners from the top funds in town, founders of fund of funds, pensions, family offices, and a handful of founders who are allocators themselves, through angel investing or their own funds. And if you know me, you know every event needs a fun, tongue-in-cheek name, hence Allocators Anonymous 🤫. Huge thanks to Powder Room for hosting and huge huge thanks to everyone who carved out some time in their very busy schedules to attend on a Monday evening. If this sounds like your crowd, I’d love to get you an invitation to the next event as I work to keep bringing fresh faces into the group. And if you're interested in partnering, let's chat about how we can work together to continue supporting Austin's venture capital ecosystem. Remember.. rising tides lift all ships!

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Betting on the future. Today, a very successful Silicon Valley serial tech entrepreneur engineer shared with me this assessment of the AI frenzy. "Its like 1995 when the Internet launched". I agree. To me, having started and invested in early startups in 1995, means we are at the very early stages of AI investment, infrastructure build, expansion of the sector impact, creation of new technology AI solutions, and formation of AI companies that haven't been thought or dreamed about yet. Very exciting times ahead for the next two decades and beyond. Fasten your seat belts. Forward. #openAI #ai #articificalintelligence #AIfunding

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup features new data insights, key launches, community events, & updates from the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 📊 Data Hamza S. from Carta Insights has released their Q2 2024 State of the Markets. You can just feel the Austin vibe as it’s one of the featured regional profiles along with the SF Bay Area, NYC, and LA. (It could also be that I am loud and bug both him and Peter Walker all the time on all the things Austin...nah couldn't be that 😉) From a Bio & Health perspective, Healthtech came in as the 3rd largest sector behind Hardware & SaaS. If we combine Healthtech, Biotech, and Med Device, it would likely jump to 2nd. Reminder: Carta's data captures about half of all startups, so consider these values as representative and relative rather than absolute total. 🚀 Launches, Expansions, and Milestones Love.Life, the integrated health and wellness company co-created by Whole Foods Founder John Mackey, has opened its first holistic health and wellness club in Los Angeles. The club offers personalized care, advanced testing, fitness, and food services to promote overall well-being. When Elon Musk appeared on Lex Fridman’s podcast this past week, he announced that Neuralink has successfully implanted its brain-computer interface device in a second patient. While not headquartered here “yet,” Neuralink's growing presence highlights Austin’s depth as a key player in the neurotech. 🏙️ Community The Greenlight Guru True Quality Roadshow is coming to Austin on September 5th. This event brings together leaders in quality, regulatory, and product development for a valuable half-day of insights and networking. Austin Bio & Health entrepreneurs Lior Eshel Ansher of TestDynamics and Christopher Idelson of ClearCam Inc. will be taking the stage and representing the local ecosystem. Check out the comments for the registration link. 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle Houston based Coya Therapeutics, Inc. is expanding its pipeline and intellectual property portfolio with the filing of new U.S. patents for COYA 301 in combination with GLP-1 receptor agonists. The combo shows promise as a multi-pathway approach to treating neurodegenerative, autoimmune, and metabolic conditions. Congrats Howard Berman, PhD and the rest of the team! What’s Next?

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🚀 New Episode Alert: Investor Connect with Gary Forni, Chairman of CTAN 🚀 Join host Hall T. Martin for an insightful conversation with Gary Forni, the visionary Chairman of the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN). With a storied career in technology and venture capital, Gary has been instrumental in shaping the startup ecosystem in Central Texas. 📅 Listen now: https://ow.ly/Po6Q50RBUJt 🔹 What to Expect: Gary's journey from Intel Corp to leading one of the most active angel groups in the U.S. An inside look at CTAN's investment strategy and how they're nurturing the next wave of disruptive tech startups. Expert advice on overcoming challenges in angel investing and adapting to economic changes. 📈 Under Gary's leadership, CTAN has invested over $129 million in 215 companies, driving innovation and economic growth. Learn how this network supports entrepreneurs with capital, mentoring, and more. 🎧 Tune in to "Investor Connect" for more expert insights into the investment landscape. Don’t miss it! #InvestorConnect #AngelInvesting #Startups #Innovation

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What does it take to attract venture capital in the ever-evolving world of AI and machine learning? Hear a founder's POV on VCs' wants, needs, and expectations in this space. On today’s Austin Next episode, recorded at the March Austin Data Science Salon, I sit down with Cheryl Sew Hoy, CEO and Founder of Tiny Health. We dive into the AI and machine learning zeitgeist and walk through Cheryl's funding journey to see what it was really like to raise in this environment. Episode Highlights: 🧬 Early Life Microbiome Insights 🤖 Leveraging AI and Data for Health Innovations 💡The VC AI Landscape 💰Raising pre & post ChatGPT ⬇️ Find links to the full episode in the comments. Founders, are we still in the middle of the AI hype where you feel the need to make sure and give your AI strategy when pitching? Investors, is AI an absolute necessity or an overused buzzword? What's Next?

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DeepCast shipped a number of really cool new features recently in advance of a broad outreach push to podcast listeners. One new feature is our new Daily DeepDigest tool that sends you a concise daily email including any new episodes from the trailing 24 hours from any podcasts you Subscribe to (on DeepCast). Think daily podcast cliff notes or podcast news ticker tape, with a hint of Morning Brew various brews or PitchBook News—it's increasing information throughput when you're pressed for time. And this feature is rapidly evolving to distill other key extractions from shows you're already interested in, but also exposing you to other shows you might be unfamiliar with that also have nuggets to share—and thus increasing your aperture yet still conscious of your time. Want to go deeper on any given episode? Click the episode detail and you're off to an episode on DeepCast, where you can subsequently read a longer form distillation of that episode or go straight to the source and listen to the episode. (And podcaster friends, these pages are definitely increasing indexing and thus Google entry points to your shows!) I'm loving this feature as a user, personally. Can't wait to see what others think! #BuildingInPublic #Podcasts #AllTheWorldsInformation #HowYouWantIt

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Private Markets (PE, VC, Growth Equity) are asset classes largely inaccessible to public investors, yet there's a lot of demand. This locks individual investors out of the market for innovative companies, and also reduces liquidity opportunities for employees, founders and angels (opaque secondary markets with high tx fees and approval hurdles don't count). Is there a way to solve this using technology, potentially GAI, in a regulated way to give retail investors access to private markets in the UK? It would for sure encourage more entrepreneurship and innovation as well. This was one of the topics we discussed yesterday at the panel at Fund Finance Association , where I was invited to give the Founder's & Entrepreneur's view. Thanks for having me Joel Buckett and very insightful to hear the different perspectives of Muhammad Billal Malik, CAIA, Ibrahim Khan and Mohamed Azzam Khan, CFA

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Friends, Q2 was a quarter of progress and learning for us at HawkTower, where we invest in early-stage startups applying breakthrough computing technologies to maximize California's natural resource markets. Our focus is on technology-enabled interventions (e.g., AI-enabled geospatial radars for lithium-ion batteries in the waste stream) for critical, market-level imperatives (e.g., disaster prevention) that can drive rapid commercial adoption (e.g., placed on every recycling truck in the world). Our current investment priorities are: - Agricultural productivity and efficiency - Biomanufacturing - Labor and mobility automation - Waste stream optimization and decarbonization - Disaster prevention and management Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to: Milestones and Investments: - In late April, we officially launched our fund, filing with the SEC. Yay. - By June, we completed our first fund close ahead of schedule, with backing from family offices, foundations, high-net-worth individuals, and organizations aligned with California's future. - Our portfolio now includes three early-stage investments (Farm-ng, Agriful Software, and Nexstera Tech). Strategic Partnerships: - We believe that startups operating closer to their customers and resources, especially in agriculture and biomanufacturing, have a strategic advantage. For instance, the Salinas Valley, a major agricultural hub, is less than an hour from Silicon Valley and serves as a center of thought leadership in the convergence of agriculture and AI (from Western Growers, Taylor Farms, and others). - Similarly, the North San Joaquin Valley is emerging as a biotech and agtech innovation hub, and we are proud to support BEAM Circular, a startup hub for the circular bioeconomy. Key Relationships: - Karen Warner, CEO of BEAM Circular, joined HawkTower as a strategic advisor. - Jackie Cruz, Ed. D. Cruz, Hartnell College’s VP of Advancement, advises on Salinas Valley and workforce development. - Ben Palone from Western Growers, with his technical background in agriculture, became a trusted advisor. - Matthew Hoffman from Driscoll's Global R&D team provides insights on global agriculture, product positioning, and investment strategy. - We collaborated with Monterey Bay DART for workforce development and automation in agtech. - Dominic Milano and the Milano Technical Group from Merced collaborated on key initiatives and advised us on investments. - HawkTower is participating in Santa Cruz Works's accelerator cohort as a mentor and advisor. Thank you Doug Erickson. - We published an overview of entrepreneurship across the UC system with input from across the University of California system. Moving into the fall, we remain deeply committed to supporting founders shaping California's future natural resource markets. Stay tuned and be in touch! : ) Db

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💡𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 🤖️ As this great deck by Pip Bingemann explains: - 𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗰𝘆 = 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆: the fact that we have immediate data on what we do becomes a self-fulling prophecy as everyone does more of the same thing (what the data says is trending) - 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘃𝘀. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀: we end up with mediocre thinking based on dashboard reporting and no Vision of what should be. 👉 Solution: use data to inform your Vision (not the other way around)

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I've traveled to a lot of great crypto and digital asset conferences over the years, including the Texas Blockchain Council's North American Blockchain Summit, Blockworks' Digital Asset Summit, CoinDesk's Consensus, and Untraceable Events' Blockchain Futurist Conference. The crypto and digital asset conference circuit for the back half of the year is heating up! Where should the CryptoEQ and Event Horizon Capital teams head next?

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The north star for Fireworks AI is simple API access to the totality of knowledge. The big unlock? Compound AI systems orchestrating 10's/100's/1000's of models and components. On Episode 9 of Training Data from from Sequoia Capital, Pat Grady and I spoke to founder Lin Qiao about building toward that ambition, how they intend to get there, and what they’re doing to ensure customers have access to low latency, cost-effective solutions.

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Connect The Dots AI-powered relationship management platform is a standout in the value they deliver — so it’s no surprise they made Business Insider’s Most Promising AI Startups of 2024!    I see the hard work that Drew Sechrist and team put into Connect the Dots every day, and it’s great to see it recognized among the other innovative companies on the list. https://lnkd.in/gwaaSDe4

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🍽️💡 Can ATX's food scene catalyze connection, creativity, & innovation? Grace Chow of Lobos Hospitality, the team behind Toasty Badger, Manny's, & the Powder Room, joins me on Austin Next to dive in. We cover a range of topics, including: 🌮 The current state of Austin's food scene 🌿 Navigating the balance between local sourcing, trends, & staying true to a concept 🍳 Crafting distinctive dining experiences that resonate 🏙️ What it takes to create a thriving hospitality industry in Austin 🤝 How restaurants intersect with and influence other sectors 📱 The role and impact of technology in the restaurant industry 🌇 The potential for restaurants to serve as "third places" This is a topic that I have wanted to do since nearly the inception of the podcast. One of the superpowers of Austin that I have identified is "We are cool." Major attractions like ACL, F1, UT Football, and brands like Yeti and Tito's create an aura that attracts people and helps shape our narrative beyond the region. More and more, I have seen our food scene show up in that narrative, from our world class barbecue and breakfast tacos to “Somebody Feed Phil” featuring Austin to now Michelin reviewers roving the city. Here are links to the episode, which you can find on all major podcast platforms: Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ekQ8DsxM Apple: https://lnkd.in/emZ3MAAF Austin Next Website: https://lnkd.in/eMY4RMJN What do you think? Are we balancing the old and the new in the evolving food scene? Are you even able to get reservations?

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Great year for FirstMile Ventures' core geographies as exits start to heat up. We're starting to see the "snowball effect" take shape. We're in the process of backing a team who cut their teeth at one of Denver's best private companies and are ready to do their own thing. "The Denver metro is one of two non-coastal cities, along with Dallas, to land in the top 10 for expansion stage exits." "What we're watching: As the venture capital market matures it can have a snowball effect, Tune explains, and lead to more capital and mature entrepreneurs who are ready to invest in startups."

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Early stage VC investing is a job for the innately curious with an aptitude for risk.

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Another edition of VCs Doing Work: Slauson & Co. 🎉Congrats to raising $100M for your second fund continuing your mission to make a difference!🎉 Wait... What and who is Slauson and Co? Slauson & Co. is a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments, founded by Austin Clements and Ajay Relan. The firm's mission centers on economic inclusion and democratizing access to entrepreneurship for underrepresented founders. Slauson & Co. primarily invests in: Preseed and seed SMB Tech (tools supporting small and medium businesses) Consumer technology The firm typically writes checks between $500,000 and $2 million, aiming to lead most rounds. Since its launch in 2020, Slauson & Co. has made significant strides: Raised a $75 million Fund I, exceeding its initial $50 million target Backed 38 companies, with a majority led by people of color and at least half by women Recently closed a $100 million Fund II, demonstrating continued investor interest in their inclusive approach The firm has garnered support from prominent investors and organizations, including: PayPal Ron Conway (veteran technology investor) Ashton Kutcher will.i.am True Capital Management Alpaca VC Slauson & Co. is just getting started! If you think you have a startup that fits their thesis and stage, reach out! #diversity #inclusion #venturecapital #consumer #smb Brittany Crockett #longla #losangeles #celebration #vcsdoingwork

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup features key insights from other regions, exciting funding news, major research advancements, and significant developments across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💡Insights from Other Regions & My 2 Cents Patrick Sisson in Bisnow reported on the Research and Development District in downtown San Diego, a 1.7M sqft multi-use life sciences project. Costing $915M, it has 0 signed tenants just months before opening. Don’t forget that the San Diego region is one of the world’s top Bio & Health clusters. The critical issue: "To this day, much of the life sciences real estate in San Diego tends to be more office park or campus-style sites that aren’t in walkable urban neighborhoods." So, what does this have to do with Austin? You need alignment between location, infrastructure, & sector. I am not convinced that 80%+ of Bio & Health companies work downtown. Keep this in mind when people pitch a downtown Austin Life Science Innovation district. 💰 Funding Workweek, a publishing platform for business professionals, closed a $12.5M Series A.  This is in the Roundup because their vertical, run by Blake Madden, focuses on healthcare. It’s also another case of Austin funding Austin as the round was led by Next Coast Ventures. Congrats Adam Ryan! Koda Health, a digital care coordination company for advance planning, raised its oversubscribed Seed+ round led by Austin’s own Ecliptic Capital. Super pumped for you Tatiana Fofanova, Ph.D.! 🔬 Research & Medical Advancements Eliah Overbey, Professor of BioAstronautics (what a cool era we live in) at Austin’s newest university, the University of Austin, published a series of studies in Nature on what space flight does to humans. Professor Overbey led a multi-institutional research team that obtained 3,000 samples from the SpaceX 2021 Inspiration 4 flight, resulting in a “10-fold increase in publicly available human space cell health data." 🏆 Recognition Christian Keil & Ryan M.’s BuildList, a viral database of critical tech companies, features numerous Austin companies including Paradromics Inc. & Harmonic Bionics, Inc. in Bio & Health. Way to go Matt Angle and Mark Hunter! 🚀 Launches, Expansions, and Milestones Wheel launched Horizon, their new AI virtual care platform with predictive care pathways and configurable, patient-centered care programs. Amazing work Michelle Davey! Keyspan is bringing their affordable biomarker testing and personalized coaching to Austin Simply Fit to enhance their fitness programs. Kudos Nate Taylor! 🏙️ Community Join the BrainCheck-Alzheimer’s Association brain health panel on June 20th, featuring Briaincheck CEO Kim Rodriguez. Link to the event in the comments. I’ll be attending & hope to see you there! 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle Solugen, a synthetic biology unicorn, secured a $214 million loan from the Energy Department to build a Bioforge, marking a significant step for Houston’s industrial bio sector. What’s Next?

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