Catalin Briciu

Three kinds of AI startups I’m especially excited to invest in and work with these days: 1. The Surprisingly Valuable Niche Workflow — small enough for OpenAI not to care about; big enough to make $100M per year. Sooo so many opportunities out there, from logistics to finance to healthcare to construction to manufacturing and on and on. 2. The Full-Stack Software Company — founders are realizing they can move up the value chain, to not just sell software to other businesses, but use their own software to provide end solutions to customers. Our own portfolio has inspired us here, from industrial solutions to life science to agrochemical to admin services and more. 3. The Bold Consumer Bet — it’s time for a new generation of consumer mainstays that are AI-native and fit the way people use software today. We don’t often invest in consumer apps, but we have seen great examples of this in language learning, personal finance, fashion, dating, social, messaging, etc. All three are great examples of building at new frontiers of the software-addressable economy, where advances in AI have opened up new opportunities for software founders. A good litmus test for this thesis: “If I had this idea 5 years ago, could I build it?” If the answer is no or maybe, you’re on the frontier. If you’re building something cool in one of these areas — or anywhere else on frontiers of the software-addressable economy — please get in touch with us at character.vc We’d love to learn from you. And we’d love to share how we help founders bridge the gap from possible to PMF in these categories.

271

31 Comentarii

A Founder’s Guide to Seed Fundraising by Mike Wilner and Max Nussenbaum This book is for founders who are considering raising money, founders who are in the middle of raising money, and founders who have already raised an angel or seed round but find themselves needing to raise another one. It covers everything from the basics of seed fundraising for first timers to the advanced tactics that enable founders to create urgency for investors and close rounds quickly. This book is broken up into six chapters. If you’ve never fundraised before, you should read all six chapters. If you have fundraised before, you’ll get the most value out of Chapters 2–6. Chapter 1: Seed Fundraising 101: This chapter will give you a baseline understanding of the seed funding landscape, along with the implications of seed funding for founders, angel investors, and VCs. Chapter 2: How to Run a Swift Seed Fundraise Chapter 3: Fundraising Narrative Preparation Chapter 4: Researching & Engaging Angels Chapter 5: Researching & Engaging VCs Chapter 6: Pitching & Closing This book provides simple answers to address all of the issues. ~~~~~ ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost it so your network can learn from it, too. And follow me, Fazlur Shah, for more content like this. #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #investing

154

29 Comentarii

How does Lovable balance a great user experience with actually paying their bills? In this TWiST highlight, Lovable CEO Anton Osika swings by the show to take me and Alex Wilhelm inside his fast-growing vibecoding startup. Obviously, founders like Anton are all about providing a great user experience… but the compute bills for providing AI tools like Lovable’s aren’t exactly cheap. Go inside Anton’s process, considering his Big Picture goals for the company, and how to balance the needs of the Lovable faithful with his duty to investors and staff to actually build a sustainable business. It’s the kind of in-depth, nuts and bolts, founder-focused discussion you can ONLY GET from “This Week in Startups.”

196

17 Comentarii

YC is a behavioral training camp for high-agency founders… disguised as a funding program. The real output of YC is founders who operate on compulsion (not permission)   • The funding = It’s enough to survive, not succeed.   • The advice = Great, but a lot available in startup school vids.   • The brand = Powerful - but only if you do something with it. (plenty of static YC startups) So what does YC actually do? It rewires founders to act without waiting.   • Launch before it’s perfect.   • Email partners before you’re “ready.”   • Ask investors for intros before you feel credible.   • Charge customers before you finish the product. This is not just building a startup but learning to move before the world says yes. imo this is the sauce that most accelerators miss… They coach you to build a startup. YC trains you to become the kind of person who builds startups no matter what. It’s founder behavioral rewiring - YC turns people who ask for permission into people who build like it’s already theirs. That’s the asset. The company is just the vessel. PG says it similarly… “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳? 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 - 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 - 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳.”

48

12 Comentarii

Myth #1 about Venture Studios “Studio investors are also funding the studio’s operating costs.” False. In a dual-entity model, investors don’t fund costs they build equity. Here’s how it works: suppose the Studio holds 30% of each startup. If the Fund owns 35% of the Studio, then the annual capital deployed into the Studio translates into roughly 10.5% ownership in every new venture. This isn’t an additional cost it’s an alternative cost of equity creation. The cost per equity point is actually lower than what a traditional VC pays to acquire stakes on the open market, often in startups that are not yet validated. And there’s more. Each startup built through the Studio generates learning, improving the quality of every subsequent venture. At the same time, the Studio itself accumulates assets, processes, and capabilities that create residual value making the Studio itself a valuable, sellable entity. Studio investors, therefore, are not paying for operations. They are backing an investment thesis: building equity instead of buying it.

34

What does the process of raising VC money actually look like? 👀 🚀 Here's the step-by-step journey most founders go through: 1️⃣ First meeting → Usually with Analysts or Associates. Their job is to filter to see if you fit the fund’s thesis and whether your traction matches their criteria. 30-40% of startups make it past here. 2️⃣ Internal discussions → The team meets (often weekly) to decide which startups to advance. If you’re get past this phase, expect multiple follow-ups (2nd, 3rd, sometimes 4th+ meetings) as they dig deeper. 10-15% make it past this stage. 3️⃣ Due diligence → Once there’s conviction, the fund runs DD to validate numbers, legal, tech, customers—making sure no red flags pop up. 5-8% of initial pool enter DD, about 50–60% of those in DD make it through. 4️⃣ Investment Committee (IC) → This is where the real decision happens. A 1–3 hour pitch to the fund’s partners/ key decision-makers, covering everything about your business. 3–5% of the original startups get to IC, 50% get approved. 5️⃣ The Offer → If you clear every stage, you’ll (finally!) receive a term sheet 🥳 ⚡️ On average, ~1–2% of startups that start first meetings with a fund actually get a term sheet. That means for every 100 investor meetings, expect 1–2 real offers. (Every VC has slight variations, but this is the typical path)/ ________________ 👉 We get founders back-to-back VC deal flow (up to Series A). Apply here: https://www.easyintro.vc/

43

16 Comentarii

As a VC, Hustle Fund Partner Eric Bahn handles 300+ emails / day while managing countless founder conversations, he's learned that the right tools can 10x your output. Here are the three that transformed how he works: 1. Voice Dictation (Willow) He barely types anymore. AI-enhanced voice input has doubled his productivity by: 🤺 Correcting grammar automatically ➖ Reducing redundancies 🗒️ Perfect formatting Voice is the future of human-computer interaction. Period. 2. AI Note-Taking (Granola) This desktop + mobile app automatically detects conversations and delivers: 💎 Flawless transcripts ✅ Action items extracted 🌏 Multi-language support (tested in Korea/Japan!) No more frantic note-taking in meetings. Just pure focus on the conversation. 3. Email Mastery (Superhuman) 359 weeks straight of inbox zero with 300+ daily emails. Here's why it works: ⚡ Speed: Every action under 100ms (vs Gmail's sluggish response) 💬 Snippets: Template 40 similar emails in under 5 minutes 🏆 Team templates: Crowdsource efficiency across your whole team Bottom line: The compound effect of small efficiency gains is massive. 💸

65

13 Comentarii