Harmonic

Introducing Harmonic’s exclusive investor case studies! We sat down with investors we admire and asked them about everything from investor workflows to predictions about the industry. Dive in and discover the strategies and perspectives that are shaping the future of venture capital: 🚀 Riley Rodgers of Valia Ventures covers how he evaluates location, identifies current “have” and “have-not” startup categories, admires who remain mission-focused, and wishes he had been more of an industry historian early in his career. 💪 Susannah Duke at Pelion argues that AI is underhyped, insists on the importance of “stocking a firm’s own pond,” warns that excess capital can hinder finding product-market fit, and believes a track record is crucial in an industry with ambiguous KPIs. 🔥 Salvatore Spina of Kyber Knight highlights the satisfaction of working for a first-time fund, emphasizes a firm’s network as its key differentiator, advocates for problem-first over company-first approaches, and shares time optimization strategies. 💥 Gopinath Sundaramurthy, Ph.D of Ensemble stresses data as the core of their strategy, notes the limitations of data, predicts automation and source-of-truth platforms becoming essential, explains why they don’t overly focus on founders, and reflects on learning from past mistakes. Read the articles below!

🎉 Introducing Network Mapping 🎉 💪 Investors: Your network is your superpower. You know this. Yet we constantly hear about missed opportunities—those perfect-fit deals that close before an investor even knows about them. The worst part? They’d been unwittingly connected with the founder all along. That’s why we built Network Mapping. Network mapping allows your firm to integrate its entire network with a few clicks. Everyone your firm has ever emailed, met with, or is connected to on LinkedIn gets mapped onto the complete startup database. Here’s what you can do with this feature: 🔍  Filter your searches for startups and founders with whom your firm has a connection. For example: “show me every AI startup founded this year, where someone in my team has a connection.” 🚨  Get alerted anytime someone in your firm’s network launches or joins something new 👀  View the full interaction history with a startup or founder. Know who on your team has been in touch with whom—and when, and why. Don’t miss another deal in your network. Harness the full potential of your team’s connections with Harmonic.

We're proud to collaborate with Aya Spencer on her in-depth report on #fertilitytech!

Yes, this was an April Fools joke, Harmonic is not actually launching a fund of fund of funds (but we can help you make better investments). We loved seeing all the commentary about it though - some of our favorite posts from yesterday are below in the comments!

At Harmonic, we’re thrilled to launch the biggest VC innovation since the SAFE! Welcome to The Fund of Funds of Funds of Funds (FoFoFoF). This offering allows investors to get the best of both worlds: Harmonic’s core suite of products, which helps you find opportunities and make informed investment decisions, and the FoFoFoF, which enables you to outfit your portfolio page with the logo of every unicorn ever. The FoFoFoF is the ultimate diversification tool, allowing you to invest in the ENTIRE startup ecosystem, from pre-seed to pre-IPO. Get broad exposure to all the action for just a fraction of the effort. https://lnkd.in/d-NGWxVX

Sponsored by Harmonic: Sarah Guo, Founder and Managing Partner at Conviction, discussing the safeguards of the Internet and the decision-makers behind them

𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗩𝗖 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 🎖️ As geopolitical tensions spike, VCs dive into the Defensetech sector. Here’s why 👇 𝗛𝘂𝗴𝗲 𝗧𝗔𝗠 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆  → Annual US and partner nations' defense spending stands at $1.6T (SIPRI) → US contract obligations, spending, and grant awards totaled $558.7B in FY2022 alone (United States Department of Defense)  → US CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 unlocked an additional $280B to increase semiconductor capacity and create regional high-tech hubs 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀  → The United States Department of Defense recently published an AI Adoption Strategy highlighting the need for speed, learning, and responsibility in AI adoption: https://lnkd.in/gCTTftjE  → Neither political parties are keen on looking weak on security spending this election year 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 → Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries paved the way for tech startups to compete w/legacy incumbents like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics   → Incumbents will likely keep getting government contracts, while more VC dollars fund innovative and cost-efficient new players. I think 2024 will see a boom in Defensetech VC deals in the early and later stages. 🤔 Here’s my handpicked list of Defensetech startups that closed a VC round recently, according to Harmonic data 👇 - True Anomaly, a government supplier of tech services for space-based missions, raised a $100M Series B led by Riot Ventures with participation from Eclipse, ACME Capital, Menlo Ventures, Narya, 645 Ventures, and FiveNine Ventures.  .     - Darkhive, an open, autonomous robotic systems developer, raised a $4M seed round led by Crosslink Capital with participation from Stellar Ventures, MVP Ventures and Capital Factory. - Cambium, a biochemical engineering and hardware developer startup, raised a $19M Series A round led by 8VC with participation from Veteran Ventures Capital, GSBackers, Marlinspike, MVP Ventures, among others.    - Labrys, a UK-based Command and Control (C2) software developer, raised a $5.5M seed round with participation from MD One Ventures, Offset Ventures, Marque Ventures and Expedition Fund.    - Lassen Peak, a developer of advanced solutions for public safety, expanded its Series A round by adding Madrona to its investor base. The $6M expansion totals a $22M Series A round raised to date. Sign up to Harmonic to see the full list: https://lnkd.in/gBUGQnDb Would it make sense to turn this post into an ongoing Defensetech Overview series? Let me know in the comments! #venturecapital #startups #entrepreneurs #fundraising PS 🔔 Follow me for tech industry trends, updates, and insights. 

We teamed up with G2 to build a list of fast-growing AI startups to watch, check it out! https://lnkd.in/gFH6B3Ds

Segment has proven to be a hotbed for top talent, reinventing the customer data space and achieving a multi-billion dollar exit. Just this week, Segment co-founder Calvin French-Owen announced he is working on something new, joining other Segment alum who have built startups we think are worth watching👇 Hightouch - Founded by Kashish Gupta, Tejas Manohar, Josh Curl Koala - Founded by: Matthew Shwery, Netto Farah, Tido Carriero Charm Industrial - Founded by: Peter Reinhardt Studdy - Founded by: Michael Lam, Alex Lanzoni Demand Curve - Founded by: Neal O'Grady 🍉, Justin Setzer Which other company alums should we look at next? #Startups #Segment #Entrepreneurship

If we’re being honest, enrichment data sources fall short for early-stage startups. That’s why today, we’re excited to share that the best enrichment dataset for startups — Harmonic — is *free* for all Koala customers and lives on your Koala profiles. With Harmonic 🤝 Koala, you can: 💡 Precisely understand company stage / size of companies showing intent 💰 Get a robust picture of exact funding timing & funding per employee 📈 See employee count over time, and by department Time and time again, we’ve seen this data give the best reps superpowers when it comes to leveraging relevant, contextual data to close deals quickly. We can’t wait to see what this data unlocks for you!