Next Coast Ventures

BIG FLIPPIN’ NEWS Flip has secured $20 million in a Series A funding round, following exceptional growth. Alongside the raise, we’ve hit another milestone: 300 million customer service calls automated across hundreds of brands. While industry-agnostic agentic AI '“platforms” that require custom building are making a bunch of noise, Flip has been hyper-focused on going deep on three specific industries—Retail eCommerce, Healthcare, and Transportation—building phone AI that is ready 'out-of-the-box' with everything brands in these industries need already built. As Flip CEO Brian Schiff shared with Crunchbase News: “The great irony of this space right now is that all of the headlines and much of the funding has gone into these generic platforms that are trying to be the AI everything for everyone. In reality, most of the actual traction is working with vendors like Flip that are going very deep into one or a couple of specific industries.” The round was led by Next Coast Ventures and Ridge Ventures, alongside Data Point Capital, ScOp Venture Capital, Bullpen Capital, Forum Ventures and a group of angel investors. Michael Smerklo, co-founder and managing director at Next Coast Ventures, said that in the two decades he has spent in voice technologies he’s “never seen a more compelling ROI for customers” than Flip. “While the market is still experimenting with AI concepts, Flip is already operating at an industrial scale,” Alexander Rosen, Managing Partner at Ridge Ventures told Business Wire. “Processing 20 million calls a month for 250 global brands proves that deep vertical integration is the only way to solve complex service workflows.” Industry-focused, battle-tested, and built for reality. Get the stories in the comments below, or visit us at FlipCX dot com. FLIP YEAH!

I’m honored to share that I’ve been appointed to the Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee, with a term through September 1, 2029. This committee plays an important role in shaping nutritional guidelines for Texans, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute, especially at a moment when nutrition, chronic disease prevention, early-life microbiome health and longevity are more intertwined than ever. My work over the past several years has centered on one core belief: that biology and nutrition shape health across the entire human lifespan – from the earliest moments of development through healthy aging. And the science is finally catching up to what many clinicians have long observed in practice. I’m excited and proud to serve alongside an incredible, multidisciplinary group of leaders across medicine, nutrition, agriculture, and public health, including Sid Miller, Natalie Bachynsky, Ph.D., Padmaja Patel, MD, FACLM, DipABLM, CPE, Jaclyn Albin, MD, CCMS, DipABLM, and Kathleen Davis, PhD, RDN, LD. I was especially delighted to discover that my friend and one of the leading functional and integrative medicine doctors in Austin whom I deeply respect, Ann Shippy, MD, was also appointed to this important committee (she just launched an incredible new book about how to best prepare your body for conception, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 - link in comments). Thank you to Governor Greg Abbott for the trust, and to my fellow appointees for their commitment to improving health outcomes across our state. I’m looking forward to contributing, learning, and helping shape guidelines that reflect both evidence-based science and practical, human-centered care. Read the official announcement: https://lnkd.in/g28mVVWj

one final post (🤞) about Outlier's Series A Round! huge s/o to all of our creators, vendors, affiliates, investors, and sportsbook partners-- this is equally a reflection of your hard work and trust oh, and props to HITCH MEDIA for shooting/editing this vid