Ella Alkalay Schreiber

I recently talked with Paz Yanover, VP of Product at Amplication, about creating and managing effective docs. Here is his developer docs success formula (check 1st comment): In this interview, Paz shares his formula to creating developer docs that drive product adoption. You'll learn: - The important role docs plays in support and attracting devs - Tips for balancing technical accuracy with user-friendliness in your docs - Strategies for effective collaboration between technical writers and product teams Check the first comment for the full interview. --- Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Derick Ruiz for more.

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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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Legit quotable and actionable advice: * Power of Threes - 3 mentors, 3 peers, 3 mentees. * If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together

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💡 Almost daily, I hear a leading investor say that their firm is betting on Carta Fund Admin as the future. It is thanks to Vrushali Paunikar's team who are the masters helping revolutionize the present. The game-changing potential this announcement holds for our clients and the industry is one of the many reasons why folks back Carta to reshape how private markets should have operated over the last dozen decades. Our robust infrastructure powers crucial transactions with unparalleled efficiency and transparency & I'm excited to share how Carta is redefining the status quo once again ... 💼 🌐 Automated Money Movement for Fund Admin 🌐 💼 In this new era we partner with clients to optimize supporting the treasury function while managing their funds and spvs. The future is bright with Carta leading the charge welcoming the following: > Automated Setup for Client Approval: Client requests related to management fees and expense reimbursements are auto set up for the VC/PE firm approval, reducing processing time and providing real-time fund performance tracking. Did someone say, DAILY NAV? > Consistent Processing and No Transaction Fees: Error-free money movement, without the worry of unexpected fees on late or expired wires. > Consolidated Infrastructure for Enhanced Transparency: Systems that communicate reduce headaches of multiple log-ins to separate bank portals and provide clients payment status visibility directly within Carta's Platform. Clients believe that with the correct #People, #Systems, & #Controls in place we as an industry are ready to say farewell to manual processes, black-box operations, and cumbersome transactions. #FintechInnovation #FutureOfPrivateMarkets #Treasury #MoneyMovement #VC #PE #FundAdmin

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One of aspects of Carta's product development that excites me the most is not something we have an opportunity to talk about a lot. Its the infrastructure behind the product experiences we build that is so foundational to the ecosystem. Carta money movement infrastructure moves billions of dollars every year to facilitate crucial transactions. Now we are bringing automated money movement to fund admin and it is a game changer. This infrastructure will work to eliminate the manual, black box, and cumbersome ways that fund transactions are processed today. The future is transparent, seamless and predictable for Carta Fund Admin customers. I am pumped! https://lnkd.in/g3W_cRxn

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Interesting new surrvey about the VC industry by PitchBook: 13% of VC firms are not planning to raise a new fund and 27% of VC firms have been pushed further thier plans to raise a new fund. That means a 40% decline. No wonder that startups are haveing tough time to raise funds. See article below. https://lnkd.in/exYYyCPu

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The above is all true, and I'd like to add a really important point. In the Bay Area, I observed that startups collaborate, partner, meet, etc - all in the spirit of the best possible user experience as an end in itself. The startups work together more. It's easy to get a meeting, you can basically show up to someone's office, just walk in, and you're welcomed. Founders work on "cool" experiences or tech first, and worry about financials second. In NYC I found the reverse to be true. It's harder to get a meeting with a founder. When you get one, it's like going to the dentist; the EA schedules a meeting with you 6 weeks in advance, upon arriving you sit in lobby and you wait until you are called. The meeting is transactional, a "novel" user experience or excitement around a technical breakthrough is rarely a main topic. It's much more transactional. This isn't a criticism in any way, it's just an observation that I believe explains why there are less household tech names coming out of NYC. Because if you look at the household tech names in the world - they always put the user first.

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I sometimes see entrepreneurs effectively "single-thread" their approach to VC pitches. They find a partner they like and want to work with, and they let that partner champion them through the process. If you're a hot deal, moving fast, you might meet one other partner one time before you pitch the partnership. Maybe not even. It is absolutely the right thing to start by targeting individual partners you want to work with. They're the ones you build the business with, day in and day out. But as you move through the process, take a moment to understand the broader firm. It's the firm you're legally marrying, not the partner. Understanding the decision-making process and culture inside the firm will pay dividends if and when you hit a bump in the road. You're raising from a partner *and* a firm: https://lnkd.in/gSHuh399

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Seed VCs are turning to new ‘pro rata’ funds that help them compete with the big firms Alpha Partners, SignalRank and now SaaS Ventures help seed VCs pay for shares when big VCs try to price — or push — them out Lee Edwards, partner at Root VC, has a saying at his firm that “pro rata rights are earned, not given.” That may be a bit of a stretch since pro rata refers to a term that VCs put in their term sheets that gives them the right to buy more shares in a portfolio company during consequent funding rounds to maintain an ownership percentage and avoid dilution. Still, while these rights are not exactly “earned,” they can be expensive. One of the latest trends in VC investing these days are funds dedicated to helping seed VCs exercise their pro rata rights. https://lnkd.in/dRM3RvdA By Christine Hall

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This time last year, we hosted the first-ever Ecosystem-Led Growth (#ELG) event in Europe alongside our friends and ELG Alliance member, Stripe. As the inaugural event of its kind, we were uncertain about the demand, so we kept it fairly small. 😳 Little did we know, it sold out shortly after we announced it. 🤝 Fast forward to today, and we are thrilled to be hosting another ELG event in London, once again in partnership with Stripe. A lot has changed since last year: 🔺ELG has exploded in popularity 🚀 Everyone is talking about it, and we see this reflected in the numbers every day—from the growth of the ELG Index to the fact that the banner in the picture below now reads "20k customers" (43% ⬆️). 🔺 In response to this growth, we've adjusted the format accordingly. What started as a couple of hours' meetup has evolved into a full-day conference, following our successful event in Austin, TX last month 🇺🇸 Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to be part of the ELG movement. With only a few tickets left, now is the time to secure your spot and join other SaaS industry leaders and GTM operators for a day of insightful discussions, networking, and growth. Book your tickets today before they sell out 👉 https://bit.ly/3RKLGft

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It’s a common problem that I've personally experienced: as a company quickly scales, it becomes challenging to understand a growing customer base. Ramp, a platform for modern finance teams, encountered this problem. Their Product Operations Lead, Read W., talked to us about how important it is to uplift the voice of the customer continually: “At Ramp, it’s essential for the customer to be an active part of the product development process,” he said. So how do you keep that focus on the users’ needs? Here are a few key tips from Fintech leaders: - Make sure you survey the right audience within your product. Pick a survey tool like Sprig that helps you target the right users at the right time. - Use AI to get product recommendations directly from users. Sprig’s AI-powered analysis saved Ramp hours of work that would have been spent analyzing and interpreting user feedback. - Prioritize qualitative feedback. Product analytics aren’t enough. The cryptocurrency leader Coinbase used qualitative survey feedback to identify customer friction points hindering the user experience. Learn more about how Fintech leaders are using Sprig at https://lnkd.in/giaNPhzA.

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Next one up, Glide! In an attempt to demystify some of the non-obvious elements we found when we first met the founders of our fastest growing portfolio companies at 186 Ventures, here is the third edition of the "idiosyncratic phenomenon". This highlight will be on Gautam A., Sameer Kapur, and Vishnu Chakroborty and their journey building Glide to bring world class, unparalleled enterprise grade infrastructure to the much overlooked market of credit unions and community banks-- some of the most important financial institutions across virtually every community in the US. Since we invested in their Winter, 2021 seed round, the company has built an incredible technology stack and has outpaced revenue projections by multiple orders of magnitude. This story is a *fantastic* reminder that it takes time to build incredible product and technology; the Glide story is a quintessential example of this startup proverb, in almost every regard. https://lnkd.in/e8b32CR2

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NYC Tech Week was perfect. (regardless of the dumb look on my face) I met so many amazing people, from founders to funders and everything in between. Also, grateful to be able to take the stage at several events to share Yoodlize's vision to change how we consume. I see a future where we can utilize our resources efficiently and focus on owning experiences, not things. Thanks to everyone who allowed us to share our vision publically and those who listened in one-on-one discussions (too many to name them all). #reuse #circulareconomy #sharingeconomy #nytechweek #startup

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Interesting concept to rename rounds by milestones. But "Series Client Expansion Extension" just doesn't have the same ring to it 😋 . Maybe we can start incorporating it into a descriptor to add context, "Series Seed Extension: client expansion." #startups #venturecapital

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On-device capabilities are the future of many AI use cases. Privacy, cost, offline functionality, and reduced latency will all play crucial roles. Check out our latest blog on how to run Small Language Models (SLMs) and build RAG pipelines on devices. #SLMs #RAG #AI #GenAI

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🔔 Major Shake-Up at OpenAI: Ilya Sutskever's Departure! 🌍💥 🚨 In a shocking turn of events, OpenAI's Co-Founder Ilya Sutskever and machine learning expert Jan Leike have resigned, just after the launch of their latest innovations. 🌐🤖 🔍 Sutskever, a pivotal figure in the AI field and the mastermind behind CEO Sam Altman's ousting six months ago, is stepping down. Known for his influential 2017 paper on sentiment analysis, Sutskever's departure marks the end of an era. 📜💡 🗨️ CEO Sam Altman announced the news, praising Sutskever as one of the greatest minds of our generation. Sutskever expressed confidence in OpenAI's future and hinted at a new, personally meaningful project on the horizon. 🌠✨ 🚀 Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s Director of Research, will now take on the role of Chief Scientist, leading the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five. Pachocki, with his PhD from Carnegie Mellon, is set to drive forward the mission of safe AGI development. 📈🔬 🆕 In other news, OpenAI has released an updated version of ChatGPT, now capable of responding to voice commands, images, and videos. This enhanced chatbot is part of a broader push to integrate AI with voice assistants like Google Assistant and Siri. 📱🗣️ 🖇 Source: https://lnkd.in/dj2hkDg4 🔥 Follow us to be updated about more tech advancements: linkedin.com/company/mimrg 🌟🛠️ #AI #OpenAI #TechNews #Innovation #Sutskever #ChatGPT

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"We are entering the new SaaS era, moving from Software-as-a-Service to Service-as-a-Software." - this recent statement by Andreessen Horowitz is as profound as Marc Andreessen’s 2011 assertion that “software is eating the world.” It’s time for software companies to shift their focus from delivering tools and features to delivering outcomes. The current state of AI allows companies to do that, addressing the complexity, underutilization, and lack of customization that plague SaaS. There’s an interesting parallel here to the shift from on-premise to the cloud. Back in the day, organizations had to maintain both infrastructure and software to achieve their desired outcomes. Cloud solutions allowed companies to outsource infrastructure management. Now, with Service-as-a-Software, the utilization of software can be outsourced too, enabling organizations to focus entirely on outcomes. This is a new and compelling model for tech entrepreneurs. Instead of building tools and features, they can focus on delivering outcomes using AI and other technologies to lower costs. This approach allows startups to generate revenue quickly and achieve profitability from the outset, without the immediate need for venture capital. For organizations, this model eliminates the need for extensive software installation, configuration, training, and onboarding. They can simply prescribe the outcomes they need, have service providers deliver those outcomes directly , and start reaping the rewards right away, all while keeping costs low. Service-as-a-Software is not just a future trend—it’s the present opportunity that businesses must embrace. This is the operating thesis at my new venture, and we are doubling, even tripling down on it. I’m happy to share our learnings with anyone interested. Do you believe the same? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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TL;DR: STARTUPS + THE LITTLE TECH AGENDA 🙏 Andreessen Horowitz & Marc Andreessen, July 5, 2024 ☀ American tech leadership thrives on a 150-year foundation of pioneering spirit, work ethic, rule of law, capital markets, education, and government investment, with startups at the core. 🔊 Startups face challenges from incumbents who use regulatory capture to stifle competition, causing stagnation. Supporting startups is crucial to prevent this. 🌱 Little Tech (tech startups) contrasts with Big Tech. Bad government policies threaten startups, making their defense essential for tech supremacy. Our efforts focus on protecting Little Tech, supporting politicians who back them, and ensuring their freedom to innovate. "THE LITTLE TECH AGENDA Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz July 5, 2024 Little Tech is our term for tech startups, as contrasted to Big Tech incumbents. Little Tech has run independent of politics for our entire careers. But, as the old Soviet joke goes, “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.” We believe bad government policies are now the #1 threat to Little Tech. We believe American technology supremacy, and the critical role that Little Tech startups play in ensuring that supremacy, is a first class political issue on par with any other. The time has come to stand up for Little Tech. Our political efforts as a firm are entirely focused on defending Little Tech.[1] We do not engage in political fights outside of issues directly relevant to Little Tech. But we will fight for Little Tech – for the freedom to research, to invent, to create jobs, to build the future – with all of our resources. We find there are three kinds of politicians: * Those who support Little Tech. We support them. * Those who oppose Little Tech. We oppose them. * Those who are somewhere in the middle – they want to be supportive, but they have concerns. We work with them in good faith. We support or oppose politicians regardless of party and regardless of their positions on other issues. We are in this for the long haul." via https://lnkd.in/gdMqvvni

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One of the things that worries me the most about 2021-era AI startups is precisely this: early-stage burn rate. Burn rate applies not only to dollar amounts but equity as well. Raises ultimately have to tie to revenue at the very least, so even if the first stage VC went starry-eyed, it doesn't mean the second stage will. I suppose it's just the Great Filter of AI, but here's to the prudent leaders!

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