Mary Gwinn

How is AI transforming the future of defense and warfare, and what role does Austin play in this evolution? On today’s Austin Next episode, I sat down with Charlie B., Founder and CEO of both Valkyrie and their newest spinout, Valkyrie Andromeda, to discuss not just the technological advancements shaping modern warfare, but also the philosophical, inspirational, and cultural underpinnings behind those advancements. Episode Highlights: 🌟 What is Andromeda? Synthesizing large volumes of information quickly and accurately to make informed decisions. 🎥 Media Narratives: How pop culture and media, from Terminator to Oppenheimer, shape public perception of technology. 🤝 Industry & Defense: History has shown that industry and defense have always been intertwined, with modern tech entrepreneurs playing roles similar to past industrialists. 🔢 Probabilistic Thinking: The critical role of thinking in probabilities and confidence intervals to manage high levels of uncertainty. 🔮 Intelligence Community in Austin: "I think the next thing for Austin...we're going to see a big push to support the intelligence community the way we've seen a big push to support the defense community." ⬇️ Find links to the full episode in the comments. What’s Next?

13

1 Comment

The #1 thing I tell CEOs of service businesses is this. ⚛️ Shake more atoms. At Poseidon, we analyze the networks of seriously hardworking, smart CEOs. They have great goals, like penetrating a new sector like logistics and distribution. But often there is a huge disconnect. They'll have a very nuanced, strong concept of their target market down to the annual revenue sweet spot, yet only 4% of their LinkedIn network touches that vertical. You are allowed 30,000 LinkedIn connections. Most of you aren’t even using 10% of that capacity. That’s like owning a Ferrari and never taking it out of second gear. And the real secret is you don’t have to be super aggressive. Many executives and marketing teams fear burning the brand by being "one of those companies" that spams them on LinkedIn. You don’t have to do that. Sending naked connection requests—without an immediate ask—can be far more effective if you are posting helpful content already. Let your organic LinkedIn posts do the talking. - Share insightful content that resonates with your target audience. - Invite people to your virtual and in-person events - Give out free consulting and advice - Share useful stuff on your website People will consume and engage with your posts naturally. But it starts with shaking more atoms in the universe. 

6

“The deal team tends to forget about the ambers and greens, even though they often outweigh the reds”🚦 That was the feedback shared with me by a seasoned CEO who is now running his third PE-backed company. He was making the point that traffic light (or “RAG”) ratings for diligence findings are usually effective for helping to focus the mind of the deal team on the single-most impactful diligence findings (usually those flagged as red risks). And this is often what is required to get deals across the line⏩ ⚡However, when it comes to operating / integrating the newly acquired asset post-closing, in the aggregate, it is often the lower-order issues identified in due diligence that require the most attention and are those that are most neglected by the deal teams. 🔰 With a degree of compassion, he acknowledged that “you can’t really blame the deal teams. Investment committees and boards rarely have any interest in discussing ambers and greens”. 📄 It is for this reason that some of the more sophisticated corporates and financial sponsors are now broadening their internal reporting and dashboards. 🖼 The goal being to expand the viewing pane through which diligence issues are considered holistically and integrating feedback from the management teams / PMI advisors earlier in the diligence process. One Head of Corporate Development told me that “we used to include a list of the top ten (or so) risks and their mitigants in our board submissions. Now we share a dashboard of all of the findings and we make sure we take into account the feedback of our ops team before we do so”. No doubt to the relief of management teams and PMI advisors, this approach seems to be increasingly common. Although, by way of contrast / light relief, I was also recently talking to the Global Head of Corporate of a large advisory firm about their innovations in the space of diligence. One example he gave – with surprising enthusiasm - was the recent introduction of a traffic light system into their DD reports… Fortunately for them (and their clients) this was not the only (so-called) innovation… #manda #dd #duediligence #pmi #ragreports #dontforgettheambersandgreens

62

1 Comment

�� New Episode Alert: Investor Connect with Gary Forni, Chairman of CTAN 🚀 Join host Hall T. Martin for an insightful conversation with Gary Forni, the visionary Chairman of the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN). With a storied career in technology and venture capital, Gary has been instrumental in shaping the startup ecosystem in Central Texas. 📅 Listen now: https://ow.ly/Po6Q50RBUJt 🔹 What to Expect: Gary's journey from Intel Corp to leading one of the most active angel groups in the U.S. An inside look at CTAN's investment strategy and how they're nurturing the next wave of disruptive tech startups. Expert advice on overcoming challenges in angel investing and adapting to economic changes. 📈 Under Gary's leadership, CTAN has invested over $129 million in 215 companies, driving innovation and economic growth. Learn how this network supports entrepreneurs with capital, mentoring, and more. 🎧 Tune in to "Investor Connect" for more expert insights into the investment landscape. Don’t miss it! #InvestorConnect #AngelInvesting #Startups #Innovation

12

1 Comment

Where is the money? "In Q1, funding to startups in the industries of military, national security and law enforcement dropped to $118 million, a 74% drop from the $459 million invested in such startups in Q1 of last year." #funding #investment #investmentstrategies #defence #dualuse #venturecapital #privateequity

1

Looking for insights on how to use AI to increase sales productivity, check out this Denver event featuring Pitch Lab Sales Consulting & Training.

4

Who doesn't love chatting about the frontier of Space?! Loved getting this insiders look from Epsilon3 CEO Laura Crabtree (ex-SpaceX, Northrop Grumman) as the industry reshapes into a lightening fast startup ecosystem for us to marvel. Small teams are lowering the cost to access space. Homegrown automation software is dramatically reducing team size -- as Laura puts it: "You won’t see 50 people in a control room for launch…you’ll see 5 controlling 50 different assets and a couple of 100 assets that are mostly operating on their own." Personally i'm keeping a close eye on the new interconnectedness between space and the broader economy will spark a flywheel of innovation. 🎙️ Listen in to our discussion (link in comments) as we release today -- 5YF#16: Space command reimagined, automating mission control, new deep tech hubs, interstellar missions, and the future of space operations w/ Epsilon3 CEO Laura Crabtree To infinity!

11

1 Comment

To all #founders and #entrepreneurs out there, our intro meetings are conversational and easy going. Feel free to message me to setup a call. Learn what Pioneera Ventures can do for you!

22

Today, Last Money In Media is excited to share a guest post from one of our colleagues Phil Nadel, who leads Forefront Venture Partners. Phil wrote a piece title "The Misaligned Syndicate Incentive Structure" to provide a viewpoint on syndicates doing high volume deals versus those that are more concentrated. (link to full post in comments) Forefront Venture Partners formed one of the first syndicates about 12 years ago. They have invested in more than 200 rounds in over 100 companies since then. Additionally, they started a rolling fund about 3 years ago. Given Phil’s experience across models (SPVs/Funds) and having seen the evolution of the syndicate ecosystem over the last decade, Phil has offered to share his unique perspective with Last Money In Media readers in our article published today. In this Last Money In Media article, Phil discusses: - His POV on the incentive structure in the SPV ecosystem - The landscape shift to some higher volume syndicate GPs - Why Rolling Funds may be a better alternative for some LPs - And more The full article is in the comments for further reading. Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In Media is the most actionable venture capital newsletter. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis who have deployed > $200M across 700+ SPVs.

10

4 Comments

Over the last two days, this retreat brought together some of the best creators in Texas 💪🏼 Eric and Dom, the hosts of the retreat, are beasts, but even more importantly, they’re community-builders. As a retreat host myself, there’s few things I cherish more than immersing myself in and creating community. During this two day retreat right here in my home of Austin, TX, Eric and Dom wrangled together some of the best people and the best health/fitness entrepreneurs in the game. To use a word my friend Corey Hiben loves, this event was far less networking and far more friendworking, which is the best way to “network”. Every person at this retreat is doing something dope in the world of health/fitness, whether it be helping others build their websites, optimizing other’s business systems, helping people get in workouts, helping people refuel with minimally-processed ingredients, running gyms, running social clubs, connecting brands to their customers, inspiring others to lead healthy lifestyles, bringing the community together in person, and more. I’m definitely leaving this retreat feeling energized and equipped with new knowledge that I will be applying in my own businesses. Coming out of this retreat, I also can’t help but be grateful to be part of this community. It’s actually wild to me that there is a world that exists in Austin that has nothing to do with health/fitness whatsoever 😂 I know it’s out there, but after experiencing how amazing it feels to prioritize a healthy lifestyle and to surround yourself with likeminded people, I just can’t imagine not being part of this community. #austin #fitnesscoach #fitnesscommunity #communityworkout #fitnessretreat #retreat #creators #entrepreneurship #microsoft #microsoftlife #productmanager #productmanagement #microsoftpm #tech #technology #engineer #softwareengineer #software #swe #pmjobs #pmlife #microsoftteams #business #newjob #newteam #remote #remotework #remotejob #remotejobs #pm #texas

23

8 Comments

Some more insight into what we are building at Aerodome 📈🚀

47

4 Comments

Is it just me or is Austin having a moment for events in 2024? While always a hot spot for conferences, it feels like this year is particularly Austin-heavy. Certainly no complaints on that here :) Forrester B2B Summit is in full swing. So, what's up next? 👉 The ELG Conference 👈 May 15-16 at the Proper Hotel in Austin. Presented by Crossbeam and The ELG Alliance. At the event, you'll hear how the top SaaS companies are leveraging partner ecosystems in their GTM motions aka Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG). Interestingly, the conference is attracting not just partnership leaders but also a wide range of go-to-market executives, showing how leveraging your ecosystem for growth extends beyond a defined partner role. What you'll get at ELG Con: 📑 Case studies from companies like Data, Cloudera, and more. 🏎️ A chance to tour (and maybe even race on?) Austin's F1 track. 🔇 Candid, off-the-record conversations — no recordings. 👥 A highly curated group of 200 GTM leaders, 85% director level and above across Sales, Marketing, and Partnerships. I'll drop the link to check it out and register in the comments.

49

25 Comments

Our newest First Funders episode is up! Meet Rajiv Bala, GP of Clutch VC, a pre-seed and seed-stage exclusively investing in Texas. Rajiv is committed and bullish on the region with a hands-on approach to investing, working with founders on product feedback, team building, and more to see initial customer validation before investing. Rajiv also embraces sub $500 million outcomes to drive fund multiples rather than relying on Unicorn outcomes only. This episode pushed Aamir Virani and me to think differently about what we know and practice here in Silicon Valley, reminding us that there is more than one way to achieve Alpha. Highlights from our discussion: - Starting startups, Texas style: Is it about 24/7 work-life or work-life balance? We discussed a Texas vs. Silicon Valley approach to company building. Can it work and drive outsized venture outcomes? - Beyond chasing unicorns: Can you be successful with sub $500M outcomes in VC? We dug into how portfolio construction starts with fund size and what scale of outcomes matters to you. - Does previous founder or operator experience make you a better investor? Rajiv believes it builds founder empathy, skills, and experiences that make you more effective in challenging moments. - Selective incubation as a strategy: Rajiv will sometimes work with a team for 6 to 12 months before investing to gain information asymmetry, build conviction (or incertitude), and establish a genuine relationship ahead of the check. #startups #texas #austin #pre-seed #seed #vc

15

1 Comment

Very pleased to be leading the Series A in GovDash, and backing the incredible Sean Doherty, Timothy Goltser and Curtis Mason. As a Vertical SaaS investor, I spend a lot of time thinking about different industries: construction, manufacturing, life sciences, insurance, etc. But while a construction company and a life sciences business may sound like they have little in common, there’s actually a workflow that is nearly identical across thousands of different businesses in diverse verticals: doing business with the government. If you want to win a government contract, you have to work within the byzantine RFP requirement system, spending weeks to draft bid responses that illustrate your past performance, your future potential, and ability to be compliant with stringent government standards. And this process is actually a good thing. It prevents corruption and ensures that the $650B of annual US government contractor spend is being captured by the best possible businesses for the job. So while a construction company may be building a new data center for the office of Social Security, a life sciences company may be manufacturing flu shots, and a staffing company might be hiring janitors for a courthouse, all spend anywhere from 2-3 weeks on average to submit a proposal to win these government dollars. Drafting strong RFP responses is critical to their business growth and really painful: this is a hair on fire problem. What’s more, sometimes the best businesses for the job don’t win the government contract because they have fewer BD resources and overworked teams. This is where GovDash comes in. GovDash has learned that to win this market, you can’t only offer AI-based RFP response drafting (which they do really, really well). You have to extend more deeply into government contractor workflows to provide an entire suite of copilot tools purpose-built for federal contractors, and trained on each customer’s specific industry and past performance. Not only can GovDash’s platform draft a compliant RFP, but using AI it can also discover opportunities based on customized market intelligence, guide teams towards best practices in solution development, standardize the reporting and compliance for contracts in place, and eventually will automate recruiting and HR as teams begin to staff that contract. We are thrilled to welcome GovDash to the portfolio and are excited to be working down the street from them in NYC. Their office has a really cute dog and an American flag, and maybe some day I’ll bring them over an Apple Pie. But most importantly, they have the best people. Northzone https://lnkd.in/esNmUVZa

197

30 Comments

Wilmington North Carolina USA is #1 Startup Ecosystem in the WORLD for small cities under 300,000 people #2 in North Carolina behind an ecosystem that is 40 years old #22 in the USA no matter what size population #61 in the WORLD and the fastest climb up the rankings by moving up 32 spots  in StartupBlink #WilmingtonNC #startup #entrepreneur #investor #NorthCarolina

106

10 Comments

I’ve had some thought provoking discussions with #founders, investors and fellow advisors recently on #marketing efficiency, channel mix, measurement and incrementality. As someone who’s recently transitioned from leading in enterprise environments (Google) to advising scrappier setups, I know it’s not easy. Be that as it may, here are a few observations & rules of thumb worth considering: 1️⃣𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 & 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁: ✔️Spend more time on decisions where implications cascade down vs. silo-ed ones that have less surface area impact. ✔️Therefore, when it comes to high-level channel strategy (or that eternal brand vs performance question), it's better to be directionally on track vs. obsessing with precision at a narrower level. ✔️There is no silver bullet that will solve everything overnight. Yes, some channels could give you clear signs of success early on, others give you a proxy or lagging indicator. That has no bearing on effectiveness. 2️⃣𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 (𝗖𝗔𝗖): ✔️I’m not sure how many founders or investors truly understand 'demand creation’ vs. 'demand capture’ or how to evaluate certain channels over a longer time frame. ✔️The oft quoted #CAC metric is, more often than not, a garbage in - garbage out situation. It’s the easiest metric to game in the short term. 3️⃣𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (+ 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆) 𝗳𝗼𝗿 #𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀: ✔️You could argue that at an early stage, any marketing is likely to be more 'incremental’ than not. I agree that the benefit of better measurement (better channel allocation & forecasting) should be > the cost to implement it (analytics resources, dashboards). ✔️However, when you expand to 3+ channels, it is worth knowing what channel is in the driving seat [causing your car to move] vs. tagging along [pun intended] for the ride. ✔️It’s interesting that MMMs, the stalwarts of econometric measurement, are witnessing a comeback as marketers look for a future-proof solution in light of cookie deprecation and cross-channel tracking issues. There’s likely to be more innovation here courtesy LLMs, particularly solutions that are open source, lightweight or more actionable. ✔️ While modelling & experiments are the collective holy grail, there are tactics that can improve the chances of your marketing being more incremental as you scale. a) If you’re running acquisition campaigns, exclude your existing customers from being targeted with paid ads. Sounds basic, but this often gets overlooked. b) Avoid over-indexing on brand SEM or retargeting campaigns. The last click ROI may look great, but you’re just using paid ads for use cases that your owned touch points should address efficiently.

24

Key takeaway from Texas Venture Gala & Forum this past weekend? "Heck if I know" 😂 A wonderfully fun photo with the incredible Christine G. of VU Venture Partners made me put a bit more thought to the early morning panel I moderated with Austin Technology Incubator's Rebecca (Becky) Taylor, Muriel Foster of gener8tor's gBeta, Angelos Angelou from the International Accelerator, and Martín Martinez of Founder Institute. That, if I were sum up the most paramount of lessons to #entrepreneurs and venture capital investors, it's that we don't know. The very definition of #startup means that we're trying something distinct, and hopefully evolutionary. Anyone claiming to have the answers is lying to themselves and misleading you. Founders, TRY it, TEST it, and PIVOT Investors, if you're looking for a sure bet, please go back into banking and stay out of startups. The consensus among the panelists exploring how Venture Capitalists can help incubators and accelerators was the same: participate. Show up, mentor, help, and be involved. The ONLY way to capably serve innovation is through collaboration. Help founders avoid mistakes by advising and answering what we *do know* so that they can focus on solving the problems not yet explored and resolved. How? Where? Everyone, get Incubators in place for the pre-seed and support Accelerators as startups are (actually) ready to scale. Join me here for more on that perspective and some wonderful ongoing discussion: https://lnkd.in/gixAeSm8

100

13 Comments

Apply by May 31st!! If you lead a company between seed and Series B+ and are looking for equity investment between $350k-$3m, I hope applying to Elemental is on your list. If you’re an investor in such companies, reach out to your favorite 1-2 CEOs about applying by May 31! #eex #elementalexcelerator #energyinnovation #energy #energyreailiency

9

1 Comment

We are hours away from Disruption in Austin! Our workplaces need to be disrupted. In 2019, I felt like leaders were starting to be more open-minded in how they could embrace a People-Centered approach to the workplace ecosystem. Org Capability = PEOPLE + Process + Systems The pandemic further shifted the conversation. Now, that feels like a fleeting dream. It feels like conversations with leaders have gone back to my earlier HR career days when Org Capability = Process + Systems. Our hope is that tomorrow we will ignite a dialogue of hope and change that creates positive ripple effects back into our workplaces. Attendees in fourteen different ways will hear how they can reinforce the PEOPLE side of the Org Capability strategy at work. Disruptive Difference-Makers Unite! #disrupthraustin #innovation #disrupthr

9