High Alpha

The way early-stage teams generate sales pipeline is changing rapidly. The share of teams with 75%+ inbound pipeline fell from 26% to 17% YoY. At the same time: 📈 Outbound moved from one of the lowest-ranked lead sources in 2025 to the second highest in 2026 🤝 Events more than doubled as a primary lead source YoY ✉️ Email and paid digital declined meaningfully as lead sources Pipeline is getting harder to generate through traditional SaaS playbooks, yet despite this, most teams continue to target a 3x or 4x pipeline coverage ratio. Download the full 2026 Early-Stage GTM report from Mercury Fund for pipeline benchmarks, lead source trends, and funnel conversion data. 👇

I turned 41 yesterday. In the year since my last birthday, AI has made me faster at almost everything and buried me in more unfinished work than I've ever had. This is my screen time from a recent week. Claude was my most-used app at 29 hours, more than double my browser. I'm more productive and faster at almost everything but I also have more half-finished things open than ever before. Each prompt and task requires multiple iterations and getting my finished product from 80% to 100% can take more time than it would have had I just done it myself. We are getting faster at individual tasks but at the same time accumulating a growing portfolio of things to maintain and keep updated. At Base, we've been calling this AI Admin Debt and we're trying to measure it. If you work with AI tools regularly and want to help us understand the shape of this problem, the survey takes five minutes (link in the comments).

First Founder Meetup of 2026, hosted with our friends at Topo Advisors, is in the books! Thanks to all the founders, ecosystem partners, and operators who came out to the event — and to Topo CEO Tim Page, CPA and TechPoint President and CEO Eric Christopher for sharing a few words with us 🙏 A few moments from the meetup 👇

As I'm wrapping up my MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, I'm also closing my chapter at High Alpha, and what a great experience it was. Over the past months, I had the priviledge of learning from one of the top B2B SaaS Venture studios in the US, while also building AI Workflows. Learning and applying is the way to go! A sincere Thank you to Blake Koriath for the vote of cofidence and to Jan Davis for creating this amazing internship program and experience Looking forward to graduation and the next opportunity to keep learning and building great things with AI

Last week, we celebrated our own Claire Kelley at TechPoint's annual Mira Awards! Claire was honored as a finalist in the Emerging Tech Leader category for her contributions to the Indiana tech ecosystem — building and defining brands for early-stage startups like Tenon and Topo Advisors. Congrats to High Alpha portfolio company Zylo for being named a finalist in the Tech Innovation of the Year category, and to Zylo Senior Product Designer Sarah (Estes) Day for her recognition in the Emerging Tech Leader category as well. 🎉 Read more 👇

The XO Summit 2026 Recap video is here 🔥 A huge thanks to every founder and CEO who made the trip, to our sponsor Customers Bank for their partnership, to our amazing speakers for sharing their knowledge with us, and to every vendor who made the event truly special: Colin M Evans, OpenAI Christopher Shutts, ServiceNow Emily Heath, Wiz Paul Hedrick, Tecovas Nate Moore, Customers Bank Ryan Atlas, Vista Equity Partners Nick Weaver, Blue Delta Jean Co. Katy Boos, Remix Communications Alana O'Grady Lauk, Verkada Shoutout to the video team at PAETHOS for capturing the highlights so beautifully.

Good luck to High Alpha Design Lead Claire Kelley tonight at TechPoint's Mira Awards! Claire is a finalist for the Emerging Tech Leader Award, and we're excited to celebrate her and the Indiana tech ecosystem later this evening! 🎉