Sienna Santer

We joined forces with TechCrunch today to announce our $6M Series A, led by Adjacent! This will fuel our mission, helping us raise the next generation of creative thinkers with healthy, non-addictive digital play and learning for kids. ✨ Read the full scoop about what we're doing with all of this money, why building a diverse cap table is hard and what's next for Pok Pok. And if you want to know what it's like trying to get a smidge of that 2.2% of global VC dollars allotted to women founders, keep reading... Nico Wittenborn from Adjacent is awesome. He has incredible expertise and we're so glad to have him lead this round. Plus, he's unlike any other VC I've met (that's a compliment). Perhaps just as important, with him comes the expertise from his kids, too! His daughter has been playing with Pok Pok for over two years, and has an opinion just as important as her dad's. 😉 Same goes for Turner Novak's daughter at Banana Capital. And Brandon Leonardo's family. And all of the kids at Metalab — shout out to Luke Des Cotes and David Tapp! We're also thrilled to have the folks at Konvoy participating again too, and just love that with every passing year, more kids (and future playtesters) are being born into the Konvoy klan. The TLDR: we are so grateful to have a bunch of amazing investors be part of Pok Pok. But, we had a really tough time finding female investors for this round, something that was not the case in the past. It turns out that way fewer women VCs invest beyond Seed stage. After all that pitching, we found ourselves at a tipping point. We were so thrilled to have some really awesome investors in our corner, but it just didn't sit right to close without a single woman on the cap table (especially given our product and customer)! So we paused. Esther Huybreghts and I debriefed, allocated a chunk of capital and vowed to prioritize women investors in a second close. We were grateful to have had the unwavering support of our board and Nico in this decision. It took more time, but we found some incredible women like Michelle Kennedy, Mengting Bönsch (Gao), Julie McGill, CA•CBV, ICD.D and Ekaterina Damer, PhD. These women are strategic, valuable and simply awesome. I’m sharing this story to hopefully inspire even just one woman to start investing and one founder to push a little bit harder for a diverse cap table. And maybe in 2024 we can make that 2.2% a 3% and finally quantify how many female investors there really are out there so we can add more! Now, back to building! 💪 https://lnkd.in/gzKJSGDB

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Had a great discussion with Nathan Lands and Matt Wolfe on The Next Wave about where we are today with autonomous agents, and more :) https://lnkd.in/eijGB_P6 Episode 7: Why and how, Yohei Nakajim built a baby AGI. Matt Wolfe (https://x.com/mreflow) and Nathan Lands (https://x.com/NathanLands) sit down with Yohei Nakajima (https://lnkd.in/en_mQf9D), a venture capitalist and serial AI tool builder. In this episode, Yohei dives deep into the transformative potential of AI in automating tedious tasks, revolutionizing venture capital, and redefining job markets. He shares insights on the practical applications of AI for small and medium businesses, discusses the branding of "web three," and explores the development and impact of autonomous agents like his Baby Agi project. Whether you're interested in tech innovation, business adaptability, or AI ethics, this conversation covers it all. — Show Notes: (00:00) VC turned coder using AI for prototyping. (03:38) Community support led to modding and improvements to Baby AGI. (08:16) Learning curve in using autonomous agents. (11:31) AI agents offer guided next step suggestions. (15:04) Developers emphasize handcrafted agents over autonomous agents. (17:10) Balancing niche and broad market expectations in tech. (20:12) Massive models trained on millions of people. (22:52) Childhood fascination leads to pondering internet immortality. (27:24) Venture capital, AI, SaaS, future-proofing investment criteria. (30:03) Interest in lowering company startup costs and VC innovation. (33:34) Try using free version of chats first.

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Last week, Suno announced $125M in funding, marking a significant milestone in their journey to reshape the music creation landscape. On this week's episode of Unsupervised Learning, we caught up with Suno's founder, Mikey Shulman, to hear the latest (and workshop some new intro music for the pod 👀). Some of my favorite take-aways 👇 Non-text based prompting While text-based prompting has been an effective approach so far, Mikey argues that it’s a sterile way to describe what you’re really after. Users should be able to really pour themselves into a song, which might require expressing themselves through a montage of visuals or recorded sounds from every-day life, belting out a melody or tapping on the table to create a beat. Everything multi-player Picture musicians jamming together in real-time shooting musical ideas back and forth—it's all about making music creation as natural as having a conversation. Mikey’s really into the idea that these collaborative sessions can be just as fun for someone who's just starting out as they are for seasoned pros. It's about opening up music making to everyone, no matter their skill level, and creating a community vibe that lets everyone contribute their own flavor. This way, making music becomes not just more enjoyable but a shared experience that anyone can be a part of. One of the coolest night’s of Mikey’s journey Mikey got a kick out of seeing a popular Twitch streamer use Suno for a digital concert that pulled in a football stadium’s worth of people. It wasn't just about the size of the crowd though—the cool part was how viewers could use micropayments to interact directly with the performer. This takes your usual digital concert and turns it into something super interactive.   How Suno does model eval Mikey shares how tricky it is to evaluate models in music compared to other fields. Suno looks at things like audio quality, but those metrics are far from perfect. At Suno, they believe that aesthetics really matter—so much of this comes down to how the music feels, which is super subjective. Unlike text AI, where you can measure correctness, music doesn't have one right answer. It's all about whether the music resonates with users and gives them the control they want over the creation process. A lot of it relies on human judgment and that's probably not changing anytime soon for Suno. Check out the full episode to hear more from Mikey about the future of music with AI. YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ghh_qhnd Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3WXvkDN Apple: https://apple.co/4aCIOrz

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I'm looking forward to speaking at this conference on the confluence of law, tech, advocacy and policy and how new innovation centers like the Berkeley Space Center can reinvent the way we tackle hard problems. Berkeley Center for Law and Business, #gobears

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"I'd love to have you in my team. Wanna work with us?" This is a question I've been fortunate enough to hear a lot from founders in the hottest tech fields – Web3, Web2, and generative AI. But the question I hear even more often, from friends and crowd alike, goes something like this: "How do you manage to get so many offers?" Or, "I've been grinding away, but still not getting any leads. What am I doing wrong?" Here's the answer to the biggest "HOW?" for frustrated job seekers: 1. Be Clear About Your Value: Don't just explain what you'll do, show how you'll make a difference. Connect your skills and experience to the company's goals. 2. Aim Bull's Eye: Research the company culture and tailor your application to fit. Generic resumes or pitches won't impress. 3. Proof of Work : Did you take a relevant online course? Build a side project? Any real-world experience ? Show initiative and a passion for what you want to work on. 4. Shoot Numbers : Don't just say you're a "team player," back it up with data. Increased productivity or engagement ? Streamlined processes? Highlight achievements with numbers. 5. It's a Job Description, NOT YOURS : Demonstrate you understand the industry and its bigger picture. How can you contribute something unique to the product as a whole ? 6. Show, Don't Tell: Got a killer portfolio or impressive freelance work? Showcase your skills with concrete examples. 7. Be Realistic & Flexible: Tailor your salary expectations and be open to different project structures (internship, freelance, etc.). Remember, you're selling yourself! By presenting a clear value proposition and genuine interest, you'll grab the attention of people and that's all you want because you Network is your Net-worth! #internship #ai #web3 #jobs #pitch

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Excited to share that Incubate Fund Asia has partnered with INCLUD which is focused on creating a major brand in the $22B kidswear apparel market by providing affordable clothing with a safety and quality-first positioning. As more millennials become parents, the modern consumer persona is changing. We're noticing a digital-first approach to shopping in this category, accompanied by quicker decision-making processes. Moreover, as single-child families become more common, there's a trend of spending more on one child. Children, being easily influenced, often emulate their millennial parents who tend to be brand-conscious and prefer high-quality products. Lastly, with the westernisation of this category, there's an increasing demand for a variety of options suitable for different occasions, from friends' birthday celebrations to outdoor activities. Thrilled to work with Ashwin Rastogi and his team, who are on their way to building a truly transformative company. NAO MURAKAMI Rajeev Ranka Dave K. Rohit Sar Surbhi Bhatia Jasmin Yee Darren Jawara https://lnkd.in/gwZDgy-G

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I couldn't agree more with the insights from Lenny Rachitsky's recent interview with Bangaly KABA, PhD (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Instacart) on career advancement. To succeed and make a real impact, remember that impact = skills x environment. Environment is everything that enables you to do great work that is outside of your direct control, including: manager, resources, team, scope, compensation, and culture. Skills, on the other hand, are things that are within your direct control that enable your success: communication (the most impactful), influence/leadership, strategic thinking, and execution. In my experience, focusing on both your skills and the environment you operate in is key to advancing your career. Just like a conductor leads an orchestra, your skills are the notes you play, but the environment is the concert hall and the audience that amplifies your impact. So thank you, Lenny and Bangaly, for articulating this so well. Your insights certainly resonate with my career journey so far. Full interview here 👉 https://lnkd.in/dMehh2iQ #CareerSuccess #ProfessionalGrowth #ImpactfulWork #Skills

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New from me: I wrote about how AI founders are raising money from investors. A simple agreement for future equity or SAFE is a Y Combinator model for funding that allows founders to bring in cash from VCs without having to price rounds at the early stage. The speed at which AI funding rounds are coming together, the high cost of talent and computational power, and the often pre-revenue nature of these businesses make SAFE notes and similar mechanisms outside of the US appealing. I spoke to David Sainteff at Global Founders Capital, Shaun Johnson of AIX Ventures, and Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, founder at Artisan AI, about the pros and cons of using SAFEs or similar funding tools for Business Insider: https://lnkd.in/epeG8zji #AI #funding #capital #vc #investors #equity #funding #safe

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How to build an addictive app, according to Mark Pincus, billionaire CEO of Zynga. In a recent conversation with Mark, he discussed the ways to build an addictive app that users need. He highlighted that the first thing founders should do is identify the “proven”; Founders should find out:       ·      What is everyone interested in?       ·      Who is the best in this domain?       ·      What features do they offer that make people go “F*ck yeah!”       ·      What can you do to be better than the best?       ·      How can you satisfy users more than the domain leaders? Mark points out that a good way to start is to look in the mirror. “Become a student of yourself” he said, inviting young founders to realise what addicts them. In his words, the younger generation generally has a better intuition of which direction the market will go, so it is strategic to study oneself retrospectively. Mark also points out a common feature found in most addictive apps: Hoops and Rewards. Mark uses Chess.com as an example, where the challenging chess game is the hoop, and the Elo rating is the reward. The hoop must also adapt to the user to keep it challenging. In Chess.com, when the elo increases, the user is matched with more skilful opponents. If the hoop does not adapt, the experience will quickly become mundane. It’d be interesting to apply Mark’s principles to my development with Calmi. I look forward to exploring the potential of gamifying the self-help and therapy process. Doing so could improve user experience, helping them stick to treatment plans by making it fun and rewarding.

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Happy Tuesday, Pygmalions! This week, let's explore the evolving landscape of pre-seed pitch decks in response to changing macro conditions. Insights from Dropbox DocSend’s "The Startup Fundraising Playbook" shed light on how investor scrutiny has shifted. 🔍 Deck Scrutiny: In 2023, venture capitalists spend less time on pitch decks, emphasizing the importance of quickly capturing attention. 📈 Prioritizing Profitability: There’s a stronger focus on long-term profitability. 📘 Effective Deck Structuring: Highlight product and business model details upfront for better impact. 🎯 Quality Over Quantity: The correlation between investor outreach volume and success is waning. 🔍 Uncovering Bias: Funding disparities persist along gender and racial lines. 💸 Investor of the Week: Fernando Rivera, Managing Partner at BuenTrip Ventures 👨🏽‍🚀 Founder of the Week: Vidit Gupta, CEO of Elevar Salud To read my insights, go to our newsletter!

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Karen Liu, the lead for growth and marketing at Permian Labs (MetaStreet), participated in the #BlastL2 Project Meetup hosted by DAO Envelop (Animoca Brands Ecosystem) and https://myshch.io/, discussed the values that MetaStreet aims to contribute to this L2 ecosystem and shared her thoughts on the general advantages of this chain for Web3 builders. 00:00 opening remarks 01:00 about Metastreet 05:25 why Blast was chosen 08:25 how good is Blast for NFT-related projects 10:50 is there a sort of custody for real non-liquid assets control 13:00 are price oracles for value limits used for loans 15:25 general thoughts about building on Blast 17:00 how losses are borne in the case of collateral price fall or borrower's default 18:20 closing remarks https://lnkd.in/eXWmHBrp

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Omg.. my friend got 15 sales from Reddit comments! A few months ago, I ran an experiment with Christal Wang, founder of Shimmer (ADHD coaching platform), to see if organic marketing would work for her startup. I built a tool to alert her whenever a relevant post on Reddit appeared, such as "Anyone know any good ADHD coaches?" Once alerted, Chris could quickly join the conversation and introduce Shimmer. However, as the volume of posts grew, Chris got tired of writing the comments herself. That's when we had an "AHA" moment! What if we could train an AI model to generate comments that sounded just like Chris? With help from Lainey Wang, we trained an AI to generate Chris-like comments based on her previous responses. This enabled her to copy and paste comments with minimal edits, allowing her to make 80 comments in a month!!! The results were awesome! After 1.5 months, Shimmer went from being talked about 1-2 times on reddit, to 80 times per month. They got 15 sales (all attributed to reddit) and their MRR shot up by $3000. In total, they got $13,500 in value. I'd love to see if I could replicate this case study with another company. If you're a company with a big market and low pricing (eg: beauty, wellness, THC, banking, etc.), DM me and I'd love to see if we can replicate this result!

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Calling all #Founders: Venture Capital Association of Alberta (VCAA)’s Deal Flow Calls represent a great opportunity for #PreSeed to #SeriesA companies to gain exposure to some of the countries most active Venture Capital #investors. If your company is raising equity capital, I strongly encourage you to check out the link below!

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Every Friday I host a bunch of Angels and Experts in a live deck review session. We record it and distribute the notes/questions/feedback directly to the founders to help them re-engage with our investors more effectively. If you are a founder gearing up for a capital raise or just looking for some general feedback/guidance in a safe closed way - shoot us through your deck. We'll review it can get back to you with the intent and feedback. Here are the checkboxes you need to tick get free feedback (no strings attached): 💸 The company is at pre-seed or seed stage 💸 You are welcoming and open to constructive feedback 💸 Founders are deep experts in their domain 💸 Are building a sophisticated technical solution for the problem or opportunity Link to shoot your deck through in the comments below 👇 Jason Ming Robert Nicholls Jacqui Bloom Pippa Smith

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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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Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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Time and time again - how can a group without diversity and therefore inherent bias speak for, or represent a diverse world - especially when it comes to AI (inputs = outputs)? How can this still happen today Meta Facebook, after all the ethical challenges the company already faces on how it uses algorithms. Thank you for this article TechCrunch by Dominic-Madori Davis, Amanda Silberling , Kyle Wiggers and the flag Cindy Gallop! Already in 2021 The New York Times covered the ‘ethical AI’ team at Google and the challenges to excluding bias but failing on retaining a diverse team to work on the problem, when just one year earlier facial recognition technology was found to be biased with a higher failure rate for a person of colour due to the lack of representative datasets. The NYT article https://lnkd.in/eTTrknmK by Cade Metz. https://lnkd.in/eUrnEgRC for research data summarised by Harvard Business School. AI is front of mind at the moment, but you can take this bias in data back to historic product design - such as seatbelts dissadvantaging women. A good book that covers this topic broadly is Invisible Women https://lnkd.in/eVH9K9KR Caroline Criado Perez. I am often asked why I advocate so much for gender equity and women in finance/business, when there is no more problem anymore? Then comes the task of explaining cis white privilige to a man who cannot see it and often feels attacked in the exchange. Building the right incentive structures (if not quotas, which is hard for a free market economist/graduate from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business to accept) is key. But how do you create willingness to change? Surely training and workshops on inherent bias should be de rigour in all firms to drive home the benfits of diversity in ideation and decision making? Well covered in https://lnkd.in/erxQ-PEi by Matthew Syed Consulting . Such data just seems relegated to ESG public market reporting at the moment. At least in private makets funds Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) is driving requesting change management, senior participation and active engagement in initiatives adoption and progress into its reporting requirements. #diversity #equality #businessstrategy #AI #femalegaze #data #ESG #genderequity #datarepresentation

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Summary: Alchemist Accelerator has unveiled its latest batch of AI startups and is making expansions into Tokyo and Doha. The cohort consists of highly specific companies solving problems in specific domains. These include Equality AI in healthcare, Cerevox in eliminating AI errors, and Quickr Bio in the biotech industry. The program is also receiving significant buy-in from Japan and Qatar. Key takeaways: The AI startups in this cohort are highly specific and have narrowed their ambitions, focusing on vertical plays and ownership of the end user. The program's expansions into Tokyo and Doha are aimed at sourcing talented founders from emerging markets and providing them with opportunities and stability. Companies are specializing in fields such as healthcare, biotech, and fin/insurtech, where AI has the potential to improve processes and outcomes. Counter arguments: Some argue that these startups are not aiming high enough and are missing out on the potential for revolutionary advancements in AI. The program's expansions into Tokyo and Doha may result in a different type of company joining the cohort, potentially altering the dynamic and diversity of the group. #startups #venturecapital #vc

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Pre-seed/seed founders: When pitching investors, don't shoot yourselves in the foot by trying to hide what isn't pretty. A good early stage investor accounts for there being things that aren't figured out, or just plainly look bad. When I can't get a straight answer to a fact-based question from a founder, it is likely that my main takeaways will be: 1. #Fundraising will be hard for you. This is a gut and trust business. Obfuscation drops a bomb on that for many investors who index on founder honesty and ethics. "I don't know", "I can get back to you", "It's not great" or "I don't think that's the right question" are better than a cryptic misdirecting answer. 2. #Hiring and #retaining top talent will be hard for you. Great talent won't stick around at the early stage if you can't provide clarity and transparency in your leadership of teams & targets. 3. #Sales will be hard for you. Customers want clarity on value add, and how it solves their problem. I'm less inclined to believe that you provide that when I am not experiencing it myself. Any combo of the above makes a bigger dent on your funding prospects than the ugly truthful answer to the question I asked.

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