Adam Wiggins

Silicon Valley Thoughts At Mento vc, we review about 100 projects a week, and 85-90 of them contain an AI thesis. This is no surprise: Silicon Valley and San Francisco have long been the AI ​​capital of the planet. What surprises me is that the talk here is no longer about AI, but about AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). This is a form of AI that is capable of understanding, learning, and applying knowledge in any area of human activity, just like humans do. AGI will come, and it's only a matter of time. The questions that currently concern IT people in the Valley are: - What will we, as humanity, do when AGI arrives? - How quickly will AGI be able to spread? - What regulations will be needed, and are they needed? And investors are in an even greater duality. On the one hand, they invest a lot of money in AI projects, on the other hand, they understand that AGI will come and kill most of them. For investors, this means writing off investments. Over the past six months, at least, we have added a point to our project review: what will happen to the startup if AGI appears? In general, when you spend a long time in the Valley, you may get the feeling that the whole world is already thinking about AGI, and that new discoveries are about to happen, but Portugal is very sobering for me: there everyone enjoys life - the sun, delicious food and a leisurely look at the ocean, where every second person is on a surf... We live in interesting times, friends!

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🔬 Excited to launch 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 interviews on Substack! This series will showcase scientists who transition into founders, spotlighting their journey from academic research to launching startups. 🥼The inaugural interview features Stefan Müller, co-founder and CTO of Ferroelectric Memory Company (FMC). This interview is special as Stefan represents my first VC investment. His journey from lab research to securing support from top investors like M Ventures ,imec.xpand, Bosch Ventures, Air Liquide, TEL Venture Capital, and SK hynix is truly inspiring. 𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔: Persistence Pays Off: Unwavering commitment to research. Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with industry giants. Industry Impact: Revolutionizing semiconductor memory solutions. Read the full interview and subscribe for more inspiring stories. Let's continue transforming scientific research from university labs into startups. 🚀 💡 Calling All Scientist-Founders: Have you made the leap to entrepreneurship? I’d love to connect and explore your journey! #Scientist #Founder #VentureCapital #PhD #Spinoff #Lab #Startup #Research #Univeristy

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In “Do software companies actually have good margins?”, Benn Stancil makes a case for a counterintuitive point : Software companies are much less profitable than they might seem. Why? Because the research & development costs associated with software should be part of their cost of goods sold. Software companies don’t invest once in R&D & then sell copies of the software as we did in the 90s on CDs. It’s software-as-a-service. So the costs of developing & maintaining the software are ongoing. If that argument is correct, then the average gross margin of a software company in the public domain would fall from 72% to 47%. Quite a stark difference. Profitability for software companies isn’t straightforward. Different accounting rules govern revenue & cost recognition. In 2017, the industry migrated from ASC 605 to ASC 606, which are financial arcana as esoteric as it reads. Overnight, some companies were more profitable & others were not. So let’s set profitability aside for a minute, & look at free-cash flow yield. Free cash flow yield offers investors or stockholders a better measure of a company’s fundamental performance than the widely used P/E ratio. Investors who wish to employ the best fundamental indicator should add free cash flow yield to their repertoire of financial measures. FCFY is a metric that measures this : how much of a company’s revenue, after funneling through every cost imaginable, is left over in its bank account at the end of the year. That’s my mental model for it, anyway. Software companies top the charts at 3% over the last 20 years, according to data from New Constructs, a financial research firm. For a period from December 9, 2009, to approximately March of 2016, technology companies produced nearly 5% free cash flow yields on average. There are times when other sectors yield more. For example, energy tops the list at the moment, primarily driven by the fluctuations in those markets. But over two decades technology tops the list. And if AI fulfills anywhere close to its promise, we should expect that trend to continue. Despite the enthusiasm from Investopedia, I think it’s important to say that no financial metric is perfect & all of them are proxies for the ultimate performance of a business. Free cash flow yield has its imperfections & nuances like any other metric.

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Vishal Sachdev highlights the strategic integration of open source and proprietary tech in architecting tech stacks, developer ecosystems and resulting business models. The world class companies effectively balance value commoditization in open source and value capture in proprietary tech. This is the strategic challenge for companies operating in #blockchain and #AI. I believe those who operate at the intersection of blockchain *and* AI stand to win this strategic battle...

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Excited to share our 0-1 #DevGTM Playbook for early-stage technical founders building developer tools and infrastructure! We at Speciale Invest had the privilege of working closely with many brilliant technical founders and evaluating many Devtools/Infra Cos. During our in-depth discussions, we discovered a recurring obstacle that many of these technical founders face: despite identifying problem statements and developing cutting-edge technology but crafting a clear and effective GTM strategy often proves to be a significant challenge. Recognizing this gap, we set out to create a comprehensive playbook tailored for early-stage technical builder/founders in their 0-1 journey. My colleague Aryan Pareek and I have spoken to over 50+ #DevTool founders, GTM experts, and #developers from companies like Amnic, Appsmith, DhiWise, Dyte, Esper,Hashnode,Hivel,Keploy 🐰, LambdaTest, Neverinstall, Portkey, Reo.Dev, Requestly (YC W22), ToolJet, Tailcall, Typo, Unstract , videosdk.live, Zenduty and many more. And we consolidated the best examples and learnings into our playbook. We dive deep into various aspects of #developer GTM, including defining your ICP, buyer journeys, messaging for developers, #SEO, content strategy, and more - all tailored for dev founders. Check out the playbook here: https://lnkd.in/g425vuqy Huge thanks to all the #devfounders and #GTMExperts who shared their invaluable insights and experiences with us. Special shoutout to Dev founders and all the amazing developers and GTM experts who gave us their valuable time. 🙏 📣 Special Creds to the devfounders who helped us with this: Sachin Jain Achintya Gupta Navaneeth Padanna Kalathil Vishal Virani Anirudh Murali Shiv Sundar Kshitij Mohan Sudheer Bandaru Venkatesh Radhakrishnan Harini Janakiraman Arjun Kava Narendran Hariparanthaman Sidhant Goyal Madhukar Kumar and many more.... (lol - I've exceeded the maximum mention limit) Special thanks to Freshboost for assisting us with SEO strategies. *Please tag technical founders/builders who would find this useful, and feel free to share your feedback with us over DM* P.S.: It's still a work in progress, and we'd love to hear from more technical founders about your experiences and challenges about your GTM journey. Your feedback will be invaluable in making this resource even better for the broader dev ecosystem. Arjun Rao Vishesh Rajaram #TheDeepTechVC — Build from India for the World

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"If we’re measuring velocity in days or weeks, it might seem obvious to directly tie a startup’s velocity to the number of hours you work each day. But startup velocity is far more than just hours worked (a nuance that many adherents to startup “hustle” culture get wrong). Velocity is not only about how hard you work, it’s about how you work. At a fundamental level, startup velocity is a measure of a company’s sense of urgency." https://lnkd.in/gV9Z_ift

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Character Labs is back! And we want to work with you if you are an early-stage founder! We are living in the most interesting time ever for building software. But it's also wild out there: 1️⃣ It's easier to build software than ever, so how do you build a durable competitive advantage? 2️⃣ The landscape is changing at every moment. How do you adjust to changes (or should you?) 3️⃣ How do you find product-market fit?? ➡ At Character, we think the best way to address these questions, and many more, is through Sprints! Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and I want to work with you at Character during the earliest part of your journey. Character Labs is 100% focused on product-market fit. Across 4 weeks we work with 5 companies to help them gain clarity on product market fit through Sprints. Apply by July 14, the program starts on August 14th

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“You have to put your blinders on and focus on finding the most compelling founders tackling really big, hard problems” Roger Ehrenberg and the team at IA Ventures deliver top returns by putting their blinders on during hype cycles and focusing on finding the most compelling founders. What does a “compelling founder” look like to Roger? Someone with a grand vision coupled with incredible confidence and a large chip on their shoulder that will enable them to persist and succeed against all odds. The grand vision should be non-negotiable, but the missions to accomplish it should be highly negotiable - Unwavering knowledge of and clarity around the future they want to build, but flexible enough to adapt to market circumstances - Has enough EQ and introspection to take constructive input from the market and their partners - Not dogmatic, very pragmatic; coachable, but with courage in their convictions — Like Mike Maples, Jr and Ann Miura-Ko, Roger is most interested in the novel insights founders have about an existing market, where they have secrets that would cause that market to unfold in different ways. Or, insights + secrets that would lead to the creation of a market that doesn’t yet exist Founders should have an encyclopedic knowledge of the market they’re going after. Roger will almost always pass if he finds himself teaching the founder about the market. — Roger’s biggest mistakes have resulted from being so enamored with the market opportunity and technology that he explained away concerns about the founder(s). A great product and great market doesn’t compensate for a meh founder. If you back “B” founders into an “A” market opportunity, the ceiling may actually be a “C” outcome, because “B” founders never recruit “A” people. On the other side of the coin, Roger also believes that backing “A” founders into a “B” market opportunity has a ceiling of a “B” outcome. Market matters. — Tomorrow, I’ll cover how Roger approaches relationships with the founders he backs. Thanks for reading!

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Check out the new investor report of Startup Insider - with interesting input for startups and VCs. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eM4cRnNa .

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“You can have a great product, but a compelling story puts the company in motion” - Ben Horowitz Understanding your company’s narrative is crucial when looking for investment. 🚀🚀🚀 Particularly in DeepTech where a good narrative makes complex ideas easy to grasp and compelling to hear. It involves more than throwing together some facts and figures; it’s about finding a message that resonates with your audience on a deeper level. It should never be a one-off effort. It should always be a continuous process of refinement through iteration, collaboration, and honest feedback. 🔁 What problem are you trying to solve? Have you asked your customers? Have you solicited honest feedback? In the end, it's about answering the all-important question… Why should they care? 🤘 #narrative #venturebuilder #deeptech Cambridge Future Tech

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Groq is certainly addressing a major painpoint that plagues many people. It is not a great UX when the system takes multiple seconds before the users sees a response. A response needs to be provided within 300 ms. Note, that humans may also sometimes have to think for a few seconds before a verbal response is produced. That is ok, because the non-verbal cues clearly indicate to the user that their counterpart is thinking, is confused, or is contemplating. The round-trip time to non-verbal cues is what matters so that the users is not left wondering if their counterpart actually understood or heard what was being said. This is why non-verbal communication is super important and the "Agent" needs to have affordances that can effectively express that immediate feedback. That's our perspective at Embodied and what we do on Moxie.

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At our VC firm, we don't just fund companies, we fund your existential crises. Every investment comes with a complimentary philosophy book. #vc #startups #investment

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“At the very least, do no harm; at the very best, challenge our thinking.” Most VCs talk about their criteria for evaluating founders, but they rarely talk about their criteria for evaluating LPs. Roger Ehrenberg and the team at IA Ventures oversubscribed their funds since Fund I, so they have had the luxury of selecting the best fit LPs. He lays out the criteria they use in his 2020 interview with Samir Kaji on Venture Unlocked: 1) Shared missions: Do we feel great about making money for them and for their investors? 2) Commitment to the asset class: How committed are they to VC? Are they secular committers or cyclical opportunists? To validate this, IA will ask LPs for data on how much they’ve invested in venture for each year they’ve been in the asset class 3) Culture of the organization: How does their partnership interact? How do they make decisions? Have they thought through succession planning and generational transition? At the very least, IA wants LPs who will do no harm, but ideally, they will challenge IA’s thinking. Roger cites one individual as a fantastic LP — Lindel Eakman. Roger specifically respects how Lindel goes beyond digging into performance, but seeks to assess VC character. One way he does this is by talking to founders of companies that didn’t work to see how the VCs dealt with failure. We're lucky to count Lindel as an LP at Resolute as well. I’ll wrap this series up with Roger’s top advice for VCs that are fundraising: “Don’t underestimate the power of doing what you say you’re going to do — follow through is intoxicating and unusual.” That wraps up my learnings from 8 years of Roger’s podcast interviews. The full set of learnings, notes, sources, and book recommendations from Roger’s podcast interviews can be found at https://lnkd.in/eXbktFxZ Up next, I’m going to tackle the peer Roger mentioned he respects the most — Josh Kopelman. On the docket for when I get to Series A investors is Fred Wilson, the mentor that helped Roger break into VC.

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Don't Be Fooled By DAU/MAU - It Hides Your Real User Activity! When founders want to see how engaged their users are, they look at the (Daily Active Users) / (Monthly Active Users) ratio metric. While it only gives a single, blended average. It doesn't show where users fall across the activity spectrum. So instead of relying solely on this ratio, what should founders analyze? Analyze the Power User Curve. It's a 30-day histogram which graph the number of days per month users were active, provides a more detailed breakdown of user engagement to identify and understand power users. 1️⃣ When The Curve Smiles A curve that looks like a smile - with high bars on the left and right - it shows that users are highly engaged and returning to the app daily. As the product can create more power users, the curve will shift further towards the right side of the smile. Facebook has a very right-leaning smile curve, with more than 60% of its MAUs coming back daily. 2️⃣ A Left-weighted Curve When the curve is left-weighted, most users only have activity one day a month. By this activity metric, the product has very few power users. That's okay, not every product is built on daily returning users. An investing product like a professional network like LinkedIn is bound to have a more left-weighted Curve. Low engagement simply means the company must extract more value from each engagement and create revenue with a business model that isn't tied to daily usage. 3️⃣ Trends & Cohorts Seeing how the curve changes over time will show if a product getting more engaging and why. A positive shift towards the right means a cohort of users is finding value in the product. This can illustrate how a new release or feature is bringing users back more often. Likewise, products like Uber or Thumbtack would want to look at cohort trends by geographic location to see how their product is developing in different areas and building network effects. 4️⃣ Customizing Your Curve To get the most from your curve, customize it to your business. It doesn't need to be viewed on the 30-day scale. A SaaS/productivity product focused on the workweek and weekly active users might want to look at their power users on a 7-day histogram, and the activity doesn't need to be app opens or logins. The curve can look beyond visits by using a deeper action that is more likely to show users getting or creating value. A publishing platform might want to look at “posted content” activity to identify its small contingent of power users. This is how YouTube could look at its creators, or eBay at its sellers. There's no silver bullet for how to look at user engagement, However, the Power User Curve visualizes user activity distribution, helping identify power users and understand how to monetize the product around them, rather than relying solely on blended average metrics. . Source: Andrew Chen (Partner at a16z) #startups #metrics #users #activity #MAU #DAU #fund #funding

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"You can have a great product, but a compelling story puts the company into motion" - This quote from well-known VC Ben Horowitz hits hard.... Crafting a compelling narrative is pivotal for both written and verbal communication with investors, and here’s why: Connection and Engagement: A well-told story creates an emotional connection with investors, making your pitch memorable. Facts and figures are essential, but it is the narrative that stays with the audience and lands your message with impact. Be authentic and make sure to connect and understand your audience rather than bombard with facts straight off the bat. Clarity of Vision: Storytelling helps articulate the vision and mission of your startup in a clear and relatable manner. It allows investors to see the bigger picture and understand the long-term goals and potential impact of your venture. This is SO useful in highly scientific fields that the generalist will struggle to grasp. They must understand the size and scale of this opportunity which then adds context to the detail on "the how" Simplifying Complexity: High-growth startups most likely deal with complex technologies and markets. A good story breaks down these complexities into digestible and engaging elements, making it easier for investors to grasp your concept and its viability. Simon Sinek's famous 'Start With Why' Ted talk sums this up expertly. Explain your secret sauce as if you are giving a talk to a primary school audience and start with your Why! Building Trust: A compelling narrative builds credibility and trust. It demonstrates your passion, commitment, and depth of understanding - crucial for gaining investor confidence who are often too busy to understand detailed complexities. A calm narrative told in a structured fashion gives a feeling of control and knowledge. As founders and technical operators, mastering the art of storytelling is a highly underrated skill. It is the story that breathes life into your numbers and strategies, making your pitch not just a presentation, but an invitation to join a journey to scale!! #vcfundraising #fundraising #venturecapital #startup #scaleup #venturecapital #investors #seed #seriesa #funding

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Fantastic event (and ecosystem) that Patrick Meier, PhD and his team at the Climate Robotics Network are creating. Highly recommend you check out the Climate Robotics Summit, done in partnership with EPFL, SOSV, Cybernetix Ventures, ETH Zürich, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. I just had the pleasure of moderating a panel just now on investing in climate robotics, alongside Urvi Nagrani, Malini Samtani, Sashi Jayatileke and Fady Saad. Here are some of the key insights: 1) Applications for robotics to climate challenges (adaptation AND mitigation) are enormous: support to farmers as conditions for humans become too hot to farm for long hours, drones that help capture data on forests and wildlife, supporting with installation of maintenance in large solar fields, wind turbines, circular economy applications - e.g. de-manufacturing - to just name a few. 2) Investing in robotics is simply different - it doesn't fit the standard SAAS VC strategies, often having a lot of engineering input and require non-dilutive funding upfront - e.g. similar barriers to investing in hardware writ large. Thus, it sits in a bit of its own asset class, so investors and entrepreneurs alike need to understand how these solutions behave, esp. in the early-stages of building/testing. That said, there is a growing pool of funds that have been specializing in this area. 3) So how do we move robotics solutions up the TRL ladder faster? It can take a LONG time for any robotics solution to be truly market ready. Even when there is theoretical product-market fit doesn't mean that it's ready in investors' eyes. Lots of testing as well as setting proper expectations with customers is critical, and part of this long process. Non-dilutive funding is rare to find in most countries, but in the US in particular there is a growing pool of grant funding that can help. 4) Development finance institutions and donors have a critical role here, especially in vulnerable countries/communities: Robotics could have bit impact in supporting climate solutions in vulnerable communities, but we need to ensure that there is an enabling environment for these solutions, which means that the policy, academic, and traditional finance space (e.g. local commercial banks)

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For non-technical founders venturing into software development, the challenge isn’t just about having a groundbreaking idea—it’s also about successfully executing it. Traditionally, this meant needing a technical co-founder or a costly fractional CTO. However, AI is changing the landscape, making it possible to bridge the technical knowledge gap more efficiently and affordably. AI can help with technical planning so you can generate a comprehensive technical blueprint that details the essential aspects of your software project. These include everything from defining solution capabilities to selecting the appropriate technology stack. This means even without deep technical expertise, you can make informed decisions early on. A few areas AI can help.... 1. User Workflow Mapping: AI helps ensure that the software design aligns with user behaviors and expectations. 2. Solution Architecture Planning: Build a solid foundation for your application with architectures suited to your business needs. 3. Data & Systems Security Design: Prioritize security from the start, with AI suggesting the best practices and necessary protocols. 4. Domain Modeling: AI can assist in visualizing and planning the database and system architecture according to the business logic. 5. Team Capabilities Inventory: Evaluate your current team’s skills and identify gaps that AI suggests filling through hiring or training. 6. Technology Stack Selection: AI can recommend technologies based on latest trends, compatibility with your requirements, and overall project scalability. AI is democratizing access to technical leadership for non-technical founders, helping them navigate the complexities of software development without the traditional barriers. By leveraging advanced AI tools, founders can ensure that their innovative visions are effectively translated into reality, minimizing risks and maximizing outcomes. #BuildSomethingToday #AI #Startups

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Female Foundry Week 109 is here! https://lnkd.in/e9f6YYyq In it: Jumping the pond. Managing technical teams. Founders turned VCs - but how many? Meet us at the Tech.eu Summit. Congratulations to Cozero Helen Tacke Kvanted FilmChain Maria Tanjala Irina Albita AmphiStar sophie roelants FYLD Shelley Copsey Yonca Braeckman Alina Klarner Impact Shakers #femalefoundry #venturecapital #femalefounders #fundraising #femalefoundrynewsletter

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