Tristan Pollock

Check out the latest issue of my investor-focused newsletter Not From Concentrate!

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The founder of SwagUp made a simple $75M mistake in launching his startup. Here is an event for you to avoid his and many other mistakes 👇 If you are planning to launch your startup in the U.S., join me this Friday to learn everything you need to know to register your business entity in America and raise venture funding. During this webinar, you will learn how to do it in 8 steps: Step 1. How to confirm that your desired business name is available Step 2. How to choose the entity type and state of registration Step 3. The process of incorporation Step 4. How to issue stock and assign intellectual property to the company Step 5. How to obtain the EIN and open a bank account in the U.S. Step 6. How to prepare for fundraising Step 7. How to prepare to retain advisors, consultants, and employees Step 8. Compliance (the Beneficial Ownership Information Report with FinCEN, securities laws, and annual report) Join here: https://lu.ma/5ynag6z1 #startuplawyer #startupfounder

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Thrilled to personally participate in the $1mn seed raise of Electron that is building a universal zk-proof aggregation layer for Ethereum, alongside LambdaClass, @Zephyrus Capital, Blue7, Interop Ventures, Founderheads, Router Protocol and super angels including Sandeep Nailwal, Martin Köppelmann, Jaynti Kanani, Anurag Arjun and others. The high cost of proof verification on-chain in Ethereum can result in millions of dollars of infrastructure costs, even for new projects. #ProofAggregation emerges as the ultimate solution for elastically scaling on-chain proof verification. It has the potential to slash proof verification costs by over 99.9%, saving builders hundreds of millions annually. Electron aspires to become the de-facto "method" for verifying proofs on Ethereum. They're already collaborating with tier-1 partners like Polygon Labs, Gnosis , LambdaClass, Avail, Biconomy and several others. Notably, Electron's superproofs, currently live for Cosmos Network: Internet of Blockchains are already demonstrating a 98% reduction in verification costs. You can explore them here: https://lnkd.in/dZYWEEJ2

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This week OpenAI and Google presented their latest on GPT-4o, Gemini, Astra, Multi Modal, Voice as the new GUI, and a lot more ... BUT what does it all mean and lead towards? No one better to discuss, explain and put ALL this into context than Brad Gerstner, CEO at GERSTNER CAPITAL, LLC and Bill Gurley - Pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee, get comfortable, take A Listen and in less than 60 minutes you will have a much better understanding of it all ... Enjoy (00:00) Intro (00:40) Open AI Launches GPT-4 Omni (10:29) Chat GPT-4o Benchmarks (14:11) Voice as the New GUI (20:01) Breakout Power of ChatGPT (22:09) Consumer AI vs Enterprise AI Landscape (27:51) AI Disruption (35:45) Regulation & Industrial Policy (43:47) China Tariffs (53:15) Tech Market Check

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🌟 California--not just Hollywood + SaaS! 🌟 Some find it vogue to "hate on" the Golden State, but founders there are saving us all... In just a few days, I saw this across three cities: 🚀 San Diego at DIBC | Defense Industrial Base Consortium - visionaries like John Maslin at Vulcan Elements and Mike Grubbs at Safire Technology Group, Inc. are rethinking the essential inputs that "power" life (🔋⚡ ) 🌴 LA at #DeepTechWeek - met some civic-minded legends like Tom Cwik CTO of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, spent time in storied #TheGundo where founders like Picogrid's Zane Mountcastle and Antares' Jordan Bramble are quietly tackling the world's great challenges, and investors like Fulcrum Venture Group's Andrew Bartholomew and ecosystem builders like Jay V. are aligning tech w/ public interest. 💻 SF - investors "thinking outside the box" on what it takes to back critical tech, like luminaries at Lightspeed Taggart Bonham and Raviraj Jain. Capped it off with friends at Council on Foreign Relations where Rich Wong and Ben Quazzo and the amazing team at Accel convened a community of likeminded peers (incl. rising policy + tech stars like Maggie G.!) committed to advancing U.S. foreign policy. Hard to say how to solve the country's great challenges. One thing is for sure: IT TAKES A VILLAGE. California is definitely doing its part!

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We're excited to participate in the $4mn seed raise of Nitro Labs alongside Lemniscap, Race Capital, No Limit Holdings, Animoca Ventures, Finality Capital Partners, @bitscale Capital, Chorus One, Flowdesk, P-OPS Team including angels from Jump Crypto, Solana Foundation, Tensor, The Spartan Group, Laser Digital and others While Solana Labs offers incredible speed, developers often face challenges with network congestion during peak usage. This can lead to increased costs and latency, sometimes forcing projects to migrate to centralized solutions. Nitro Labs Termina, the first #SVM network deployment platform, addresses this by providing dedicated blockspace. This empowers developers to build high-performance applications with controlled performance and scalability, while remaining tightly integrated with the Solana Labs L1. We believe that network extensions are more than just a way to increase throughput. They're tools for experimentation and innovation, allowing builders to meet a diverse range of needs beyond simple scaling. By providing developers with the tools they need, Nitro Labs Termina can unlock new possibilities and drive innovation. We're confident that #SVM adoption will rapidly surpass #EVM adoption in this cycle, and that consumer crypto will continue to flourish within the Solana Labs ecosystem. Termina is specifically targeting use cases like #DePIN, high-frequency trading, #gaming, and #payment networks, which are best suited for Solana Labs's capabilities. Termina is committed to scaling the #SVM, enhancing developer engagement, and accelerating blockchain deployments. With over 20 ecosystem partners, including both Solana Labs-native and Cross-chain projects, Termina is actively supporting this transformative period. If you're interested in launching an instance, please visit https://termina.technology More here: Decrypt: https://lnkd.in/dGmUUgsM The Block: https://lnkd.in/d4DwExkE CoinMarketCap: https://lnkd.in/d5Kruqhq

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💲The Founders Weekly BOOST - the 12 Rules to 10x your Business, All the New Minted Ca$h from VCs for you to Pitch for, AI 🤖 Lots on AI & so much more 🔥 💲 Another Jam Packed edition from Rubén & I to help you Raise Capital and Grow Revenues 📈 💲Gen AI - Whats Coming Next According to Sequoia 🤔 💲or lack of 💲- Whats happening in a World With No Exits as we're still 90% (😱) off of Peak! There are green shoots 🌱 💲You Founders in Pro Services - Convert to an AI Business 🤖 It's All in Here 💙 💲Dig in, share with friends & colleagues BUT also ask questions too - we have loads of experts who can join the conversation 📣 🎯 Don't Forget To Subscribe so you Never Miss A Single 💲of Value 💙 "The Founders Corner"

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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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🌟 Exciting news from Global Founders Capital🌟 📢Global Founders Capital, the Berlin-based VC firm closely associated with Rocket Internet SE, is making a strategic pivot. Instead of raising another fund, it will exclusively deploy capital from Rocket Internet's balance sheet. This move reflects their commitment to quality investments over quantity. 👨‍🏫Partner at Global Founders Capital, David Sainteff, explains, "There have been quite a few changes at Global Founders Capital in recent years... [and] it's not a great time to invest as we don't believe there are that many good opportunities that meet the firm's criteria." 🎯Despite the decision not to raise a third fund, Global Founders Capital has a strong track record. Sainteff notes, "Fund I is going to generate returns between 3x and 4x... For the second fund, it's far too early [to say], but we have a few clear winners like PennyLane. 🔎"Global Founders Capital was originally structured as a traditional VC firm with several limited partners participating in funds. With its first fund, it backed then-future unicorns such as Personio, Revolut and SumUp. With its second fund, the firm invested in several companies such as Ankorstore and Seyna. 💰With €300 million at their disposal, Global Founders Capital remains competitive in the early-stage investment landscape. This shift also means the firm will focus solely on early-stage ventures, with the ability for follow-on investments in later rounds. 💡The decision to pivot reverses much of the fund's earlier expansion. Now, with a leaner team of five partners and a renewed focus, Global Founders Capital is positioned to thrive in the ever-changing VC landscape. As Sainteff emphasizes, "We have €300 million to deploy for venture investments on the balance sheet. We don't have any fundraising planned." This ensures they have the flexibility to capitalize on investment opportunities when they arise. 📝The new strategy means Global Founders Capital is now much smaller than it used to be, with only five partners left: Fabricio Pettená, Don Stalter, Cedric Asselman, Sainteff and of course Rocket Internet co-founder and CEO Oliver Samwer. ⚠“It wasn’t the best moment to raise funds with [limited partners],” Sainteff told TechCrunch. “We think it was difficult to have the imperative to deploy capital.” “It’s an easy decision to make when you have €300 million in the bank,” he added. “If other VC firms were in the same boat, they would have made the same decision. We don’t rule out the possibility to raise a fund when the conditions are right and favorable.” ✅ 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 #VC #InvestmentStrategy #StartupEcosystem #Entrepreneurship #TechInvesting #StrategicPivot

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Check out our curated list of #SanFrancisco startups, complete with funding details and key insights. https://lnkd.in/drQWSuqx #startup #startups #venturecapital #funding #vc #investmentbanking

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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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Here's why founders pick Space VC ✨ Building a brand is all about understanding what sets you apart. For us at Space VC, our founders choose to work with us for three main reasons: → Founders-turned-VCs as mentor → Domain-focused expertise → Strong go-to-market strategies Jonathan Lacoste For full conversation: https://bit.ly/3RVezG6

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Over the past two years, Integral Labs had the privilege of contributing to the creation of the Polkadot Community Foundation. Polkadot has already pioneered one of the most active and robust DAO governance systems to date, including tokenholder management of a nine-figure treasury. As the DAO continues to mature, the need to represent and serve tokenholders’ interests off-chain has become increasingly apparent. That’s where the Polkadot Community Foundation comes in. Designing the corporate structure, governance, and operating model, Integral Labs joined a working group led by our friends at Actum Node with a mission to extend the reach of Polkadot's onchain governance into the offchain world. This project was a first in the industry, with a novel design that stands apart from traditional DAO "wrapper" structures. Unlike foundations that subsume treasury assets and delegate limited powers back to the DAO, the Polkadot Community Foundation works as an optional, unopinionated side-car entity that any DAO member may utilize in their proposals. This ensures the DAO retains full autonomy and control of its treasury while enabling offchain activities such as holding real world assets, entering commercial agreements, making fiat payments, owning IP, and more—all for the benefit of, and under the explicit direction of, the tokenholders. The governing documents and bylaws are open source and available for future use by Polkadot or other DAOs. We hope is that this modular design becomes a blueprint for a future constellation of real-world businesses to permissionlessly cooperate and compete to serve DAOs by extending their existing onchain governance systems. The Polakdot community voted with over 98% support to establish the Polkadot Community Foundation. Now incorporated, community members have begun to publish treasury proposals that utilize the foundation, including the creation of what will be the first mobile app owned by an open community, and increasing accountability for vendors and service providers in the ecosystem. You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/ebCJKsjD Integral Labs is proud to have contributed to this project alongside Michael D'Alto of Actum Node, James Hutchings, ACA, CFA, Theo Louw, Michael Preston, and Kevin Foster-Archibald CA(SA) of Autonomous, Edward Noyons of Marfire, Matthew Shaw and Gregory Peacock of Webslinger Advisors, Glenn Kennedy of Leeward Management Limited, Jonathan Bain of Bridgestream, Ignatius N., Jonathan Hernandez, and David Manadom (formerly) of Fenwick & West, Melissa Lim and Justin Wretham of Walkers, Björn Wagner, Raul Ignacio Romanutti, Dieter Fishbein, and the Polkadot community.

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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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Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Rebecca DeGraw on the common legal pitfalls that could delay your funding and how to avoid them as you grow. As startups scale, converting notes and securing a priced round often becomes a key consideration. That's why getting your cap table, IP, and employment agreements in order is a must for closing the deal.

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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Special Futurists #TechWeek Power Walk for AI, Web 3, and Space Tech founders, investors, and developers. 🚀 🍦 ​What We Will Do ​Join us for the very first Futurists walk in NYC, an easy-going and excellent icebreaker opportunity during the heart of tech week. We'll spend an hour strolling along the beautiful Highline on the west side, chatting about our AI, Blockchain, and Space Tech projects, exchanging ideas, and hearing about new business ventures, emerging trends and future scenarios. It's a relaxed affair with no stiff or formal meetings. Feel free to join us for conversation, to listen, or simply to enjoy a walk on the Highline and indulge in some ice cream afterward. ​Bonus Exclusive for those who've joined our power walks, we invite you to join our Futurists WhatsApp group and visit our virtual spaceship! Connect with like-minded individuals who share the experience and have something in common. ​*After Walk Due to high interest in our walk, we're heading to a special ice cream event after the walk where you can mingle and socialize. Note: the ice cream location will be revealed only to walk participants. If you can't make it, feel free to send someone in your place! ​Is This for Me? This event is perfect for you if you actively involved in A.I., Web 3 and/or Space tech: ​An investor ​A creator ​An influencer ​A founder ​Running a startup ​Raising money ​Looking for a co-founder ​Interested in sharing ideas ​Seeking brainstorming opportunities ​Networking ​Looking for new or first customers/users ​Pitching your business ​Seeking a chance to clear your head ​Aiming to get in 2,000 steps ​ Also, check out our virtual events on our space ship These events are filling up quickly, and early bird specials are available. Additionally, individuals with 10,000 or more followers or subscribers on social media (business or private) can get free tickets (limited spaces available  https://lnkd.in/emwmKeMY ) ​Follow us on X https://lnkd.in/eAwMiqfa ​Linkedin: https://lnkd.in/euaJebRW ​ Sponsored by Future Center Ventures (www.futurecenter.ventures) ​This event is a part of #TechWeek Andreessen Horowitz - a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem look forward to seeing you tomorrow. 🚀 🍦 https://lu.ma/0e623t5f

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