Thomas Greaney

This San Franciscan has landed in the Big Apple for #NYTechWeek! Here’s why it was important to me to be out here this week and I view NYC as a sister city. ((scroll down for 2 events The Council is hosting today!)) 🏭🏥 Reminder: The Council Fund invests at Pre-seed in Software’s Third Act, the transformation of the essential economy. Our investments span healthcare and industrial sectors like manufacturing, logistics, construction. 🐂 I’m eternally bullish on NY & SF and hate how many pit the two cities against each other. The reality is that a lot of capital and talent flow back and forth between the cities. They need each other to thrive! 🗽🌁 Cities like NY & SF attract young and mid-career talent because of their population density, transient nature, beauty, and reputations as cities where someone new on the scene can make a name for themselves. For the areas we invest in, I’m *specifically* excited about NY because of: 🏗️ Closer proximity to industrial hubs which are scattered across the Midwest / Rust Belt 🏛️ Closer proximity to DC where a lot of regulation around VC, startups, healthcare, onshoring initiatives, and industrial sectors takes place 💰 Many of the large financial institutions that are backing hard tech focused funds and major healthcare initiatives are also headquartered here in NYC 🎯 We’ve got several startups here who are hitting it out of the park, like Dirac and Siena. This has further validated my belief in this ecosystem to support young companies! Today we are kicking off with 2 events on Day 1 of #NYTechWeek 👉 AI Demo Day: The Council, Next Wave NYC, Lynx Collective, Flybridge will host 8 founders and 200+ investors and founders for a pitch competition this evening! Luma: https://lnkd.in/gbdYiJMw 🔜 Can still join the waitlist! Small & Big VCs in Hard Tech: The Council joined General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Iron Prairie Ventures, AlleyCorp, House Of Ventures, Steel Atlas for 2 back to back panels on industrial innovation & collaboration across the capital stack Luma: https://lnkd.in/gj6D4-Au ⏰ Event has passed

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🎬 The Future of Personalized Content Creation At the Spring NYU School of Professional Studies x Intellibus AI Masterclass 2024, Ricky Ray Butler, CEO/Founder of Stealth Startup, posed a powerful question: What if AI could create content not just broadly, but tailor-made to your audience, predicting emotional responses in real time? His envisions a future where AI doesn’t just assist in content creation but drives impact by optimizing videos based on real-time biodata—saving creators time while delivering hyper-personalized experiences. We’re just scratching the surface of what AI can do, and the next phase promises to revolutionize how we create and engage with content. 📅 Join us for more forward-thinking insights at the AI Masterclass Fall Term 2024, October 4-6. 👉 Learn more: www.aimasterclass.com #AIMasterclass #AIInnovation #PersonalizedContent #FutureOfAI #ContentCreationRevolution

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At Kearny Jackson, founders constantly ask us what we look for in founding teams. I’m sharing the rough framework that my partner, Sriram Krishnan, outlined to assess founders as a pre-seed/seed investor. This is also how I judge whether someone is “biased for action” or “biased for thought.” I get along well with the former and not the latter, but that’s a story for another day. Level 1 - Speed of communicating Whether by text or email. Quick turnarounds, “acknowledged receipt” types of folks. Not being speedy is not necessarily a bad sign; it can also mean they’re busy or don’t care about you or your email. Usually “closes the loop” and, most importantly, tries to leave no email unresponded. Level 2 - Speed of rewriting deck or memo Founders who pitch one version of the deck and share an updated version after the pitch the same day with slides that address the questions asked during the pitch. Or founders that iterate on positioning and strategy quickly based on input and ship a new version of a deck within days. Some founders use a static deck when presenting (i.e. the same deck for weeks on end), but some are more dynamic and change/pivot/edit when new information or tactics come to light. Level 3 - Speed of talking to or onboarding design partners Founders who not only speak to 50-70 potential prospects within a short time frame but also ones who onboard X design partners very quickly. I’ve seen some founders pitch an idea in week one and sign up four design partners in week two. That’s pretty impressive regardless of what is being built and shows they can execute. Level 4 - Speed of shipping new code, new features, new products, or new pivots This is the holy grail. This is what every early-stage investor means by execution velocity. In the world of early-stage startups, the big fish don’t eat the small fish. The fast ones eat the slow ones. And how quickly you ship code represents how efficient or productive you can be in a resource-constraint environment. All investors would preferably want to see how founders execute with code, but (A) founders don’t always have product during the seed/pre-seed rounds, eg. figma designs, mock-ups, ideas, etc (B) so investors have to rely on other signals to decipher whether you can execute on 4 so levels 123 above will hopefully inform them on that.

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In April, House Representatives Jerry Nadler and Joaquin Castro wrote to Disney, Fox, and WBD about Venu Sports' business. Last week, they followed up, deeming Venu Sports' response "insufficient" on collusion, privacy, and pricing concerns. Despite acknowledging Venu Sports' quick reply and offer to meet, they still found the responses lacking. Here's what they are asking for details on: - "Overall, we still have not received answers about the firewalls your companies may implement to prevent collusion; the precautions you may take to ensure consumer privacy; or the methods you may use to determine pricing of the new service. Some of the vague assurances you have provided strike us as contradictory. For example, we find it difficult to understand how your companies can both promise not to share competitively sensitive information and also evaluate the success of the joint venture on a company-by-company basis. Your repeated assertion that the details of the joint venture have not yet been finalized is also hard to believe, given that the joint venture is projected to roll out in mere months." Full letter here: https://lnkd.in/esk4ZZ8Y -- #streamingmedia #sportsnews #SVOD #disney #venusports

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How do you find Limited Partners and get them over the line? Find out in this webinar next week!

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Reid Hoffman’s post about his digital twin, Reid AI, is fascinating! The idea of having an AI that can reflect your thoughts and interact with others on your behalf is impressive - As AI keeps advancing it'll be interesting to see all the new ideas and solutions for real-world problems emerge. #AI #DigitalTwin #Innovation #FutureOfWork

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Yes I am also seeing the trend of our companies targeting the highly competitive and large USA market early. I am like Jeremy from tin man in that I feel should secure home ground with decent revenue/profits and traction before heading there. This is the more conservative,grounded businessman in me speaking. It maximizes chance of success, and doesn’t create a do or die situation. But i am also mindful there are always many ways to build a business and that if enough try, at least a few will make it big there. There’s also the idea of do or die creating the drive to succeed at all costs. So kudos to these intrepid founders who uproot themselves to give their startups a new giant market. I am sure some will succeed and I hope it will include the likes of EngageRocket and Auk industries! https://lnkd.in/gXVwrRV7

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