Gabrielle Morgan

I've been spending some time thinking about the second-order effects of what happens as large, multi-stage venture funds account for a greater share of VC AUM. One area of particular interest to me is the evolving conversation around how multi-stage firms will think about conflicts in a world where they need to be in the biggest, power law companies. https://lnkd.in/d2RZXcEw

119

10 Comments

I’m thrilled to announce defy.vc’s investment in Birches Health as part of their $20M combined Seed and Series A funding round, alongside incredible partners like AlleyCorp, General Catalyst, Will Ventures, and others. As someone deeply passionate about backing companies that tackle important problems for our society, I couldn’t be more excited about what Birches is building—a national virtual clinic dedicated to treating gambling addiction and related behavioral disorders like gaming, sex, porn, and internet addictions. What excites me most is Birches’ innovative health assurance model: proactive, accessible, and affordable care that’s evidence-based and delivered right at home. With the explosion of legal sports betting—think nearly $1.5 billion wagered on this year’s Super Bowl alone—we’re staring down a looming public health emergency. Traditional options like hotlines or generic therapy fall short for this high-acuity issue, but Birches changes that by offering specialized therapy from trained clinicians, multimodal treatment, and peer support, all covered by major insurers like United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. It’s available in all 50 states, breaking down geographical and financial barriers that have left so many without help. The impact is already profound: 96% of patients report an improved quality of life, and 94% give Birches a 5/5 rating. By partnering with state governments, payors, and policymakers, Birches is pushing gambling addiction into the spotlight of behavioral health conversations, where it’s been neglected for too long—often leading to shame, worsened outcomes, and higher suicidality risks. This funding will supercharge their growth: expanding the provider network, boosting clinical excellence, scaling infrastructure, and deepening insurance and state partnerships to meet surging demand. Very excited to partner with Elliott Rapaport and the entire Birches team! See more about our POV in the blog post linked in the comments. #GamblingAddiction #BehavioralHealth #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation

158

10 Comments

Sharing a few thoughts on why Thema invested as an LP in Upside VC Fund I, a new consumer fund with built-in distribution, led by Jamie Elliott and Sam Uwins and backed by high profile creator LPs including Sidemen Entertainment We backed the fund as we believe: 1) Scalable and cost-effective distribution within the consumer sector is essential. Upside’s model offers a differentiated route to reduce customer acquisition cost at scale, giving the fund a clear edge. 2) The fund has been built with deep alignment to ensure creator LPs are meaningfully incentivised to contribute to portfolio success. 3) The unique value-add proposition has already translated into several up-rounds, with a longer-term ambition by the team to build a next-generation consumer VC platform. You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/eH4YD8tG

110

8 Comments

A VC just announced she’ll back 3 founders this month—no warm intro required. Warm intros are still the gold standard in fundraising. But not every talented founder has them, and lack of connections shouldn’t be a gatekeeper. This month, Olivia O'Sullivan, Partner at Forum Ventures, announced something unusual: she’s setting aside capital in October to back 3 founders in vertical SaaS or applied AI with $50–200K checks + a spot in Forum Ventures’ pre-seed accelerator. No warm intro. No endless waiting. Just submit your deck through a simple form. (I’ll drop her original post in the comments ⬇️) That’s a real opportunity to reach a VC who is actually open to cold outreach. And it’s not the only one. Here are a few other firms that review cold submissions and respond (I know because I’ve worked with founders who got traction this way): 1. LAUNCH, founded by Jason Calacanis. Pre-seed and seed. Apply on their site. 2. Geek Ventures, founded by Ihar Mahaniok. Early-stage, immigrant-founded US startups. Website form. 3. Village Global, chaired by Reid Hoffman. Early-stage, cross-sector, global reach. Website form. 4. GGW Ventures, founded by Danil Kislinskiy. US-based software (late Seed, Series A+). Apply on the website. They also run the Go Global World community – which I’ve personally found invaluable (more on that soon). Warm intros will always help. But founders without them shouldn’t be locked out of VC conversations. 👉 I’ll keep sharing real, practical ways to get in front of investors without waiting for the “right connection.” Follow along if that’s useful. #fundraising #startups #VC

433

97 Comments

⚡️How do we fund climate and energy infrastructure that doesn’t neatly fit into venture capital, debt, or project finance? This challenge keeps popping up in my work as a climate tech investor at Electrifi Ventures, and as a strategic advisor in the energy transition space with GrowthStream. We’re seeing more hardware-heavy solutions, grid-edge deployments, and community-scale infrastructure models that need real capital — but don’t check the usual funding boxes. They’re too early for project finance, too capital-intensive for traditional VC, and too complex for bank debt. But they’re essential. So I’ve been spending more time exploring hybrid models, creative capital stacks, and how others are getting these projects off the ground. If you’ve seen clever examples of how tricky energy or climate projects have been funded, I’d love to hear about them — drop a link in the comments or DM me directly. I’m looking to compile a bit more of a resource for founders and developers who are navigating this messy middle of climate capital.

46

25 Comments