Uri Raz

Goldcast's startup journey has perfectly mapped the last 4 crazy years of SaaS. Palash Soni and his cofounders first started the company in 2021 to build great, customizable virtual event solutions for enterprise marketers. While their business kept growing past the pandemic, it was clear that overall spend was shifting back to IRL events fast. However, video consumption continued to rise and quickly became the best way to build your brand and an audience in software - if you knew how to operationalize video marketing. Goldcast's product evolution from a virtual events platform to an AI-native video marketing solution has been incredible to watch. The company had its best quarter yet, adding customers like OpenAI and Coupa Software and I couldn't be more proud. Here's Palash talking about their product evolution and the future of video marketing in an AI-native world.

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Venture Capital Contact Compilation. Explore a detailed list of 1,250+ VC firms, 7,400+ professionals in the VC space (including partners and principals), and 6,400 email contacts. https://payhip.com/b/cs7UQ #startup #startups #vc #venturecapital #investmentbanking #privateequity #managementconsulting #b2b #founders #entrepreneurs

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Open access. Lots of talk about it, but what is it, how to do it? There is no getting around the need for ISPs to deploy some infrastructure; otherwise, they are just resellers of someone else’s service. But by sharing middle mile Infrastructure they can focus their Capex on last mile investments rather than duplicating what can be shared. The question then is, how to share it? In theory, Kenya's National Broadband Network is Open Access, but from what I've heard it's not a good solution. Leasing fibers on middle mile fiber would allow each provider to light it as fast as they would like. All of the civil works and fiber would be shared; the electronics is small portion of the total. In our transportation system, we share the roads, built by the public sector, and let multiple providers, that is private cars, taxis, buses, and trucks, all share the same infrastructure. That's a rough analogy, but maybe useful.

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We are thrilled to announce that TurboDocx has successfully closed its Angel funding round, raising $75,000. This significant milestone marks a leap forward in our journey to revolutionize smart and modular document and slide deck creation, accelerated by AI. A heartfelt thank you goes out to our friends, family, early supporters and everyone that believes in our vision. Your support is not just appreciated-- but a strong vote of confidence in our mission to innovate and transform how business document creation is created. What does this mean for TurboDocx? We're reinvesting it into the business: - Focusing on Partner/Client Needs - Understanding and addressing the evolving needs of our users remains our top priority. We're here to build not just a product but a solution that truly makes a difference. - Enhanced Solutioning - We're more committed than ever to developing solutions that set new benchmarks for efficiency, re-usability, and innovation has never been stronger. - Innovation, Partner, and Channel Growth - Our investment team and advisors primarily consists of go-to-market (GTM) and implementation professionals that have already provided invaluable guidance on scaling our overall growth. Looking ahead: As we celebrate this achievement, we're mindful that fundraising is not the end goal but a milestone --a means to an end-- to build out a well oiled machine. We're excited to leverage this opportunity to further our mission, drive innovation, and exceed the expectations of our users and partners. With this said - If you'd like to be part of this exciting journey, please reach out! Stay tuned for updates, join our growing community, and let's reshape the future of document and slide deck creation together. -Nicolas https://lnkd.in/e4CGrUVB

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Excited to share the launch of Verix from Virtualness! As we embrace the AI era, the need for authentication, transparency, and security is more critical than ever. That’s why Virtualness has developed Verix—a self-serve platform designed to simplify the verification of skills, tickets, certificates, products, and content. Powered by blockchain and GenAI, Verix allows businesses to effortlessly manage verification processes, complete with real-time analytics and alerts. With a product that offers dynamic verification badges, design customization, global digital shareability, enterprise-grade workflow, and engagement and personalization, their mission is simple: to build a future where everything real can be verified, trusted, and celebrated. If your business thrives on trust, verification, and recognition, now is the time to get involved. Sign up today at https://lnkd.in/g_g2sUUW #Verix #NewBeginnings #DigitalTrust #Blockchain #Innovation #ProductLaunch #Virtualness

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The Stoke Space team in Seattle has built a rocket company faster than many people can build software. Morgan Beller breaks down how this is helping them capture a huge opportunity: https://lnkd.in/gc5jv2-c 

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2023-2024 Startup Funding Contacts. Explore a curated list of over 5,500 startups, featuring 5,500+ Founder/CEO profiles and their corresponding email addresses. https://payhip.com/b/95Ope #startup #startups #vc #venturecapital #investmentbanking #privateequity #managementconsulting #b2b #founders #entrepreneurs

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Chat with Miles Clements about building Linear For me companies are like design problems: you have context, constraints & goals unique to you. Then you look for a solution that has a good fit to your unique problems. The company problem also evolve over times the solution Directly applying what others have done doesn’t work that well, yet there is lot emphasis on playbooks, pattern matching and playing copying what other companies are doing in industry. https://lnkd.in/ghxjJwYU

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Comprehensive #Seed VC Contact Database. Access a list of over 1,250 venture capital firms, 7,400+ VC professionals (including partners and principals), and 6,400 email addresses. https://payhip.com/b/cs7UQ #startup #startups #vc #venturecapital #investmentbanking #privateequity #managementconsulting #b2b #founders #entrepreneurs

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Live optimization workshop on Tuesday. We partnered with Amplitude to help their customers get more wins. We will host a live workshop on Tuesday to share:   1️⃣ The two psychological principles at the heart of optimization 2️⃣ The four simple changes that consistently drive significant results 3️⃣ Over 12 real-world A/B tests from the world’s top testing brands such as Twilio, Apple Music, GoDaddy, Noom, Invisalign, The New York Times.   4️⃣ **Live Optimization** We will put these principles into practice, optimizing audience-submitted webpages live during the webinar.   Reserve your spot today to submit your webpage for live optimization! Jheel Jawharkar, Phil Burch, Austin McCraw #splittesting #cro #UX #optimization #AbTesting

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Today is a huge day for our team, and for me personally, it has deep significance! Two years ago I was facing a fork in the road: I was being recruited to become CEO of a successful product that had just been acquired out of a large company to be run as an individual company, and simultaneously recruited to be a technical co-founder to disrupt the credit card application process with a heavily financed opportunity. I chose neither. I had a feeling about a technology wave I was seeing and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. My wife rolled her eyes but knowing nothing was going to get the idea out of my mind, stopped me mid-conversation and interjected "Well you better just do it then!" I turned down both opportunities to start yet another company from scratch. I immediately called Mark Parson and told him what I was going to do. We both laughed because we knew he was in without even fully understanding what we were about to do. After over a year of Mark and I working on the foundation, we teamed up with Robin Vasan at Mango Capital, and then in short-order filled out the amazing founding team, including Marc Barry, Kevin Romani, Andrew Valencia, Devin Bernosky, Rob Genova, and Jon Friesen. I seriously can't say enough about them, I feel so lucky to have teamed up with such incredible talent and great people. After over two years of grinding, building, and drilling to the center of the earth with eBPF 😅, we're so happy to release our product to the world! Modern apps depend on external 3rd party APIs for critical functionality, and now teams can gain visibility and control of these connections without having to jam a man-in-the-middle proxy with a self-signed cert, creating operational havoc and a security nightmare. For me personally, this is a monumental moment because even though we are still just starting and we have a long journey ahead, it marks the point where yet again, a small nagging intuition has turned into a real solution that solves a real problem for real people and companies. What started out as a risky proposition has turned into not only another real opportunity, but the biggest opportunity for me so far. There is a quote on my wife's parents' fridge: "Opportunity is often missed because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work". Well, it's been WORK and now it's time to change into some new overalls and start a whole new phase. The future is eBPF, come check out what Qpoint can do for you!

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I had an absolute blast with Michel Gagnon and the Stun and Awe crew - THANKS again for having me... Sneak peek of the substance below: > Micro SaaS companies can be just as safe and stable as larger businesses, offering lower valuations and less competition from institutional players. > Founder-product fit is crucial, as founders solving their own problems often create useful products with great retention. > Founder burnout can be a buying signal, indicating a solid business with a founder ready to move on. > The first 90 days post-acquisition should focus on visibility, documentation, transition, and validating diligence assumptions before pursuing growth. > Building transparently and maintaining open communication with users post-acquisition helps preserve the human element and avoid the pitfall of going silent. > Simplicity equals mastery - if it takes a complex explanation to justify an acquisition, you probably don't fully understand the business. > Establishing reasonable incremental growth goals based on baseline performance (systems over goals) is more effective than setting arbitrary targets. > Fostering a culture of care and respect enables honest feedback and allows teams to move faster through a shared commitment to truth-seeking.

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#𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁: Insights on Conscious Leadership with Ruby Yeh. A serial entrepreneur and mentor with expertise in scaling VC-backed startups, building alliances, empowering leaders, and producing transformative tech and personal growth initiatives. We delved into the concept of 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽—leading with empathy, mindfulness, and purpose. She appreciated our focus on not just our 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀’ 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹-𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀, connecting it beautifully to the principles of conscious leadership. 𝘉𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 and a reminder that 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀. #Leadership #ConsciousLeadership #EmployeeWellbeing #PowerMeet

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ex Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at Stanford this week. Lots of nuggets here, but most interesting for the near term, Schmidt believes in the next year AI is set to make a big leap forward. He predicts AI will combine three important features: 1. Vast knowledge retention (1 million token models) 2. Text-to-action capability 3. Personal AI agent fleets While the full impact is unknown, everyone may soon command their own AI teams. Here's an example: Imagine you're developing new quantum computing algorithms. Your AI assistants could: - Continuously scan and synthesize global quantum research papers - Generate novel algorithm ideas based on this knowledge - Simulate and test these algorithms across various quantum architectures - Automatically document findings and prepare draft papers - Identify potential collaborators and draft outreach emails All initiated by a command like "Advance our quantum algorithm research." This could dramatically accelerate R&D cycles and scientific breakthroughs.. https://lnkd.in/eJbg6cnD #frontiertech #AI #futurefrontier

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Ross Haleliuk posted the fantastic article below. This is the world where I live day-to-day. At TechOperators, we invest mostly in early-stage cyber, but we do things a little differently, and we believe there are ways to invest successfully outside of pure Power Law math. The article argues that many security problems are too small for VC. I agree. I often try to convince bootstrapped founders not to raise venture because doing so can turn a successful, slow-growing bootstrapped company into a failed venture-backed company because, despite a large infusion of capital, it couldn't double every year. VC is not monolithic--not by stage, strategy, or style. Venture is often equated with "Tier 1 Venture". Ross argues that VC is not always great for early-stage cyber--and he is right. Bootstrapping AND VC work when incentives are aligned. Does it work for an early-stage VC with a <$200M fund to invest in several early companies at reasonable valuations, setting up the conditions for reasonable exits that pay off for both investors and founders? Yes. Does it work for $800M funds investing in seed stage at $100M+ valuations? Well, that depends! Power law says it does (for VC), but the unfortunate externality is that these rounds destroy companies and founder equity more often than not. There is a role for patient capital in this ecosystem to fuel successful companies that retain exit optionality as they scale--driving exit value for both founders and investors.

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There is a lot of grandiose thinking around AI right now with plenty of VC essays and manifestos but we thought we'd get practical at Balderton 🙂 If you're at a company that wants to use AI, understanding what rules and regulations might affect you is incredibly complicated to understand. A shifting political landscape and constantly evolving understanding of the technology has given rise to a spiders-web of rules and frameworks. And the problem is even if you solve it today, you then have to stay on top of it every quarter as things keep changing. 🤯 Balderton's new Founder's Guide to AI Policy and Regulation solves this problem. Simply key in what you're doing and where you're doing it and the product summarises all of the key things you need to watch out for so you can quickly check you are in compliance. Need to dig deeper? The site also gives you links to underlying sources and expertise to go further! 🚀

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📰 Solo VCs are rising in popularity once again. This means only one General Partner is leading the firm, versus multiples. 💔 Why? There are GP breakups going on all around us after partnerships have been tested by the market for years now. The bar to co-found a venture firm with a partner is very high. Those GPs that thought they might graft another one on in the short term to share the load are stopping in their tracks to deeply consider those implications. 🌱 Many are opting to bring in more junior talent and grow them into Partner roles instead. It’ll take time and capital to be able to do that as the firm grows. Talked to 3 diff GPs about this at dinner last night and we’re all leaning toward that approach in our short and long term planning. 💡 FYI - this is just an observation of the moment we’re in. There are plenty of firms thriving with full partnerships as well as solo GPs. But it’s worth calling out that new partnerships are particularly risky right now, especially if the partners haven’t worked with each other for a long time.

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