Michael Loeb

リアルテックホールディングスはUntroDに名称変更します。 この社名変更に込めた意味は、未踏の資本主義の実現です。 従来の資本主義では投資対象とならなかった、だが価値があると我々が信じる（情緒的に価値があると皆さんが感じてはいる）領域にまで資金を呼び込む、その呼び水としての開拓者という決意の表明でもあります。 理想の実現に歩みを止めず、進み続けたいと思います。 Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd. has relaunched as "UntroD," a company pioneering uncharted territories in capitalism. As of June 3, 2024, Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd. has changed its name to "UntroD Capital Japan Co., Ltd.". We are also pleased to announce that we have redesigned our website to embody our company mission. UntroD, which means "未踏 untrodden," will continue to be the first to step into uncharted territories of capitalism, where there is a societal need but no established mechanism for capital flow, such as the deep tech domain. By investing and proving economic viability, UntroD will continue to create a flow of capital and human resources. https://untrod.inc/

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Amongst the most successful VCs in consumer in the past decade has been Kirsten Green at Forerunner So I asked her all about how startups can navigate the 70% reduction in consumer investing & why now might be the best time for VCs to look harder at the category. I loved this discussion. I always learn something from Kirsten. Click below to watch / listen https://lnkd.in/g3kiMPD5

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Avoiding bloody water (lots of competition) might be the most high leverage way to engineer success…here’s our blue ocean strategy: Avoid venture backed players (who can spend on unsustainable growth practices) by targeting niche industry verticals Avoid private equity buyers (who drive up valuations via auctions) by staying under $3M ARR What else can be layered in to avoid other dimensions of competition? #microsaas #saasgrowth #acquisitionentrepreneur

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Suppose you are a VC, Early investor, or CIO trying to keep your eye on the industry trends. In that case, you’ve probably heard already about hallucinations, context shifts, and accuracy measurement problems in LLMs. These scary concepts kill motivation to invest in LLM-based projects and build RnD departments. Are they really so scary? Yes, but just for now, you have a good strategy to cope with them. Is this strategy already known? Yes, old but still one of the most effective approaches- knowledge graphs in combination with fresh new RAGs will allow you to keep your models free of hallucinations, stable in accuracy, and easily adaptable for context change. Btw, do you know that knowledge graphs are seeing as one of the most impactful AI enables during this year?🙌🏻 How big companies like Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft are seeing the future of LLMs adoption you can find here https://lnkd.in/d4B3t56z

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My amazing cousin, Cleven Ticeson (https://lnkd.in/gWis4xX6) , a 14 time Emmy award winning producer for KCTS9 in Seattle, is a hero of mine. I grew up watching the educational shows like Bill Nye and the performing arts they would showcase. He was following the work I have been doing de-siloing the Black professional class working in venture scale entrepreneurship in the Pacific Northwest and composed a news reel covering Dreamward Group that moved me not only because he is my hyper-talented and dear cousin but because it voiced and gave me the perspective of the decades that what we’re building has been missing from the mass culture and my culture. Lewis Rudd once told me that the hardest target to hit is an invisible one and my dear cousin hit me right in the heart by speaking in his video about the unseen, but nonetheless felt, absence of inclusive capitalization of startups. Felt by the generation of Black people that watched the tech industry grow not only painting Black technologists and Black founders out of the heroic saga of tech, but Black funders as well. I am so glad that Dreamward Group is able to paint the target and make it visible through our work. Venture Capital, the financial backing of the tech industry, just like tech itself, had an evolution with foundational moments in the 70s on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley yet it’s mechanics, drama, and operation are largely unknown to the public that isn’t working in tech entrepreneurship. It’s trajectory and heights of accomplishment with Andreessen Horowitz and Madrona Ventures are parallel and analogous to Google and Amazon…But only the later two brands are household names to people outside of the industry. The world knows the story of Black people being excluded from Tech, It knows the story of Black people being excluded from executive leadership. It experienced the Obama administration and the depravity of the Trump backlash and had to ask itself why it had actively or passively participated in writing off Black professionals. Some of the world hears of Black founders getting less than 2% of invested capital, but even on hearing that, they don’t know the story of Black people being excluded from the role of deciding which startups get funded using a yet third party’s (often their own government’s) money…That is the story of Venture Capital today, and that’s what Dreamward is changing for the future.

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Venture capital backing Celebrity-Led DTC Brands In the world of VC, celebrity-led DTC brands stand out as one of the most resilient and promising verticals. Despite economic downturns, this sector continues to demonstrate impressive M&A activity and compelling success stories. Take, for instance, Jessica Alba's The Honest Company, which soared in value to $1 billion before going public, or Rihanna's Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, which quickly reached a valuation of approximately $3 billion due to its unique market positioning and inclusive product line. Similarly, Kylie Jenner's Kylie Cosmetics, LLC was valued at nearly $1.2 billion at the time of partial acquisition by Coty Inc. These examples underscore the potential that celebrity-led brands have to disrupt traditional markets and create significant value for investors. The key lies in leveraging the unique influence and reach of celebrities, combined with savvy marketing and a strong product-market fit. Right now ICLUB Global offers a unique opportunity to invest in a celebrity-led Consumer Product with outstanding business performance and great team of enterpreneurs backing it! Write "DTC" in the comments and I will share this exclusive opportunity with you in DM.

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His career started when someone said to him, “well, have you thought about venture capital? We don’t think that you’d be any good at it.” The rest is history. Today’s Alt Goes Mainstream episode features one of the legends of the venture capital industry. Peter Barris joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1992 after a storied operating career as President and COO at Legent Corporation and an executive at GE Information Services. He served as Managing General Partner and Chairman of NEA from 1999 to March 2024. Under Peter's leadership, NEA saw tremendous success, growing into one of the world's largest venture capital firms and raising the largest-ever venture capital fund a number of times. Today, NEA's AUM stands over $25B. Peter was responsible for investing in a number of foundational and industry-transforming technology companies, including Salesforce, UUNET, Groupon, WebMD, Workday, CareerBuilder, Tempus AI, and more. We had a fascinating discussion about the early days of venture capital and how the industry has evolved. We covered: * The inside story of how almost every other Partner said no but Peter's investment turned out to be a 75x return. * What's the “best characteristic and the death characteristic” of an entrepreneur? * In today's hypercompetitive market do VCs have enough time to make good decisions? * Why the world of venture capital is about influence. * What does it mean to earn an entrepreneur’s trust as a VC? * Why VCs with operating backgrounds can bring unique value to startups. * How NEA came up with the term "Venture Growth Equity." * How can a VC tell that a founder is good at experimentation and that they have the good judgment? * Why specialization and domain expertise are prerequisites in today’s venture industry. Thanks to Ultimus Fund Solutions for sponsoring this episode of the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. Thanks Peter for coming on the show. It was an honor and a pleasure to hear your views on the evolution of an industry and for you to share your wisdom and experiences. https://lnkd.in/eEJGEFWe

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Halle Kaplan-Allen and I will be chatting with Ali Hamed tomorrow about sourcing LPs. You can RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/edYZhKrA Ali wrote this excellent tactical piece on networking that is well worth a read for anyone networking their way to capital: https://lnkd.in/eZ_2f_4x This event is presented by Sydecar, a frictionless deal execution platform for venture capitalists. By pioneering a standardized approach to private investing, they enable capital allocators to identify and back entrepreneurs who are changing the world. Their platform reliably handles back-office operations, automating banking, compliance, contracts, tax, and reporting so that customers can focus on making deals and building relationships.

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Who will be the next supply chain consolidator? From 2011 to 2021, XPO scaled up from $70M to $20B, fueled by a combination of organic growth and 18 acquisitions. The model was extremely successful. But the supply chain ecosystem remains extremely fragmented. There is plenty of room for new consolidators to emerge as winners. In the food supply chain software arena, one emerging acquiror is GrubMarket Inc. They have built a network model to help food suppliers automate their relationships with their customers. GrubMarket has acquired over 100 companies to date. They are expecting to exceed $2B in annualized revenue. And they just announced their latest purchase: Butter 🧈, a SaaS platform to automate food distribution. Kudos to Mike Xu, Winston C., and all involved! #logistics #supplychain #consolidation https://lnkd.in/emY4wpsy

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Got a fundraising sea story for you . . . I've known Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen, Klaviyo co-founders, for >10 years. They personally helped me back when Klaviyo had ~10 employees. I was running marketing at a turnaround in Boston (Karmaloop--it had gone bankrupt). Klaviyo was a few doors down on Boylston street. Or Newbury. I can't quite remember. Our turnaround marketing team was FRUSTRATED. Karmaloop's email program was on some legacy platform (I won't mention it. . . we shouldn't speak ill of the dead). We couldn't do any of the lifecycle marketing we wanted to do . . . . . . and lifecycle marketing was critical to our turnaround thesis. It was the only way we were going to make it work. So after a particularly frustrating time trying to get a triggered email send to work, I threw up my hands, announced "I'm going next door," walked over to Klaviyo, and knocked on the door. Ed answered. Andrew waved--he was coding. "Hey, can your team help me migrate this beast onto your platform and make it sing? Like, this week?" Andrew and Ed bent over backwards for me and helped me get Karmaloop's 5M emails migrated and humming. It's not a stretch to say the turnaround (and the next ones) could only happen because of Klaviyo. I've stayed in touch with them ever since. They've given Michael Epstein and me advice over the years, been in our corner, and been a part of PostPilot journey. (PostPilot's original thesis was simple: "Klaviyo for direct mail." Now, it feels like the story's come full circle, because Andrew and Ed just invested in PostPilot's Series A. Like so many other things in my career, it all started with a turnaround. 

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Exciting news in the venture capital space! Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of the world's leading venture firms, has announced the launch of its inaugural private equity fund. This development marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the VC landscape. Interestingly, I had anticipated this shift in my video, "The privateequitalisation of VC," where I explored the trends and implications of private equity's growing influence in the venture capital ecosystem. You can watch the video here: https://lnkd.in/dWniGsUA #Venturecapital #privateequity #investing

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Charles Hudson is hands-down one of the sharpest minds in early-stage investing. As the Founder and Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, Charles has backed over 375 companies and supported more than 400 founders. → His portfolio includes hits like Clearco, Juniper Square, and Carrot → He's helped founders raise over $175 million across four funds → He's an active leader in the VC community, serving as the 2023-2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors But even with all of his successes and accolades, what really sets Charles apart is his founder-first philosophy. He's not looking for "coachable" founders who hang on his every word. He wants founders who are decisive, independent thinkers. He believes his job is to give founders what they need, not impose his own agenda. Charles is the kind of investor every founder wants in their corner. One who shows up, follows through, and builds genuine relationships over time. And on this week’s episode of Minimum Viable Podcast, he's sharing his insights on what makes for a truly productive founder-investor partnership. Founders, this is a conversation you’ll want to hear. — What's the #1 quality you look for in an investor? Tune in to the full episode when it drops this Wednesday to hear much more from Charles and learn how to make the most of your investor relationships.

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Significant Development in the Venture Capital Industry: Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), a renowned venture capital firm, is launching its inaugural private equity fund. This milestone marks a notable expansion of their investment strategy. In my recent lecture, "The Private equitalisation of VC," I anticipated this shift and discussed the implications of private equity's growing influence in the venture capital ecosystem. This development validates the trends and insights shared in my presentation. As the venture capital landscape continues to evolve, it's essential for industry professionals to stay informed about the latest developments and their potential impact on the market. I invite you to learn more about this significant development and its implications for the industry. Learn more in my video below. *Link to full video on the comments*

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Players in the VC world have access to tons of tools like what we're building at They Got Acquired Data. How badly does the lower-to-middle market M&A community want insight on private transactions, bootstrapped company sales, and who's buying? We're about to find out.

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Another brilliant article from Collabfund The two takeaways: find and stick to your investment style and manage your temperament. If these sound trivial, you can attribute it to my reductionist summary of a masterfully crafted article. If you think about the outrageously and consistently successful investors that you know, they will very likely have these mundane attributes.

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Founders Should Pitch Like Doctors Founders/CXOs = Doctors. Investors/VCs = Patients. Just as a well-informed doctor explains health issues to a patient, founders must be able to articulate the problem statement and solution to investors. Investors will ask counter-questions to understand the situation better. If a doctor gives confusing answers, the patient loses confidence. Similarly, investors need clear, confident, and direct responses. Key traits: - Confidence - Clarity - To the point Be the doctor of your startup. Know it inside out. These green flags are what investors 

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【Venture Capital Performance Latest Update: 2022 Vintage Shakes Up Expectations】- IRR, DPI, RVPI, TVPI in 🇺🇸🇪🇺🇯🇵🇮🇳 The 2022 vintage has brought some staggering revelations that are sure to leave investors on the edge of their seats. In the post-pandemic economic landscape, one might wonder which regions have managed to outshine in returns. Is it the traditional powerhouses of the USA and Europe, or could there be a new leader emerging from the East? 🇮🇳 India has emerged as a powerhouse, boasting an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of approximately 30%, setting it apart from VC luminary geographies like the USA and Europe. This remarkable performance can be attributed to the country riding the wave of opportunity presented by a rising middle-class population with increased tech familiarity and a favorable regulatory landscape. Even the median figures from Indian ventures either match or surpass the top 25% quartile of VCs in the USA and Europe in terms of Residual Value to Paid-In (RVPI), reinforcing the earlier observations where Indian VCs’ Distributed to Paid-In (DPI) lagged. Indian VCs continue to astound, retaining the highest value for Limited Partners (LPs) with value creation of approximately 190% RVPI over initial investment over a span of roughly 5 years, coupled with around 30% DPI distributions. This highlights the potential of massive global trends toward increasing investment in this high-flyer geography. Despite lower exit activity driven by a prolonged period of companies remaining private, India's RVPI remains high, although this keeps DPI low in comparison to the US. 🇯🇵 Contrastingly, Japan has struggled to keep pace, hampered by its conventional approach to investing. The focus there has been more on risk-averse investments, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem has been less than ideal for budding entrepreneurs, resulting in a visible lag in performance. 🇺🇸🇪🇺 While Japan's VC performance for the vintage years 2020-22 shows quite dismal negative returns, the VCs in Europe and the US have remained competitive. The real eye-opener here is the performance of Indian VCs. Even the median figures from Indian ventures either match or surpass the top quartile of VCs in the US and Europe in terms of RVPI, reinforcing the earlier observations where Indian VCs’ DPI lagged. This analysis points to a significant shift in the VC landscape, underscoring the emergence of India as a dominant player in the VC sector. Investors and analysts alike will surely be watching closely as these trends develop further in the coming years, potentially heralding a new era in global venture capital dynamics! #VC Access to Full Article: https://lnkd.in/gYXsircb Alex Lin Talha-Khan Aquil Rachita Murali Anish Pai Pankaj Agarwal Milan Thakkar Rubén D. Alok Anand Patra Priya Mohan Ashish Khetan Puja Jain Shubham Chaudhary Varoon Verma Tanmay Deshpande Sorabh Agarwal Rohan Bansal

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I've sat on both sides of the M&A table dozens of times. Having a differentiated product with a defensible moat in a healthy market is critically important. Full stop. However, don't under-estimate the importance of demonstrating to the buyer that you have a deep, genuine understanding of your business. For example... Be able to clearly articulate why strategic decisions were made in the past. (What was your rationale? What adjustments did you make and why? What did you learn?) Be able to logically and reasonably describe how and why gross margins, growth rates, profitability, retention rates, etc. will improve over time. Know the language of your buyer...e.g. if you're a SaaS business seeking an investment from Private Equity, you must know what they mean by bookings, net revenue retention, gross margins, CAC, payback, cash EBITDA, etc. Further, when asked about these things, your ability to answer immediately with confidence and specificity ("$24.2M" is a MUCH better answer than "I think it's about $24 or $25M...but I can confirm with our investment banker"). This instills a level of comfort with the buyer, which generates real value in how excited they will get about the investment / acquisition and maybe even the price they're willing to pay. It may feel superficial, but someone that is going to write a check for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars wants to feel confident that you and your team are locked in on the economic engine of your business and can speak to it in black-and-white metrics. Obviously, I can't scientifically put a number or percentage to what this is worth, but I can tell you that I've been in the room with the people writing the big checks and have been engaged in the deal team debates on whether or not to buy and at what price. A seller that knows the "secret sauce" of their business, the levers that can be pulled, and the data that tells the objective story greatly increases the likelihood of a fast and high-value outcome. ************ P.S. Even if you don't plan to sell or take on a majority investment, run your business like you are. Your leadership team's ability to speak a common, data-driven language will allow you to make better decisions faster.

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