Julian Titz

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.

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What happened in mental health this week? ⏺️ Ash by Slingshot AI launched their AI-powered therapy service Ash, and closed an extension of their Series A funding round, bringing their total raise to $93M. ⏺️ AbsoluteCare raised $135M to fund their market expansion. The company provides integrated care, including physical, behavioural and social care and has a strong emphasis on value-based payment models. ⏺️ Kooth Digital Health released their half-year trading and operational update, including progress on their California contract, which appears set to meet registration targets. ⏺️ Coinbase Co-Founder Fred Ehrsam raised $100M for a BCI neurotech startup called Nudge. ⏺️ Talkspace partnered with Tia Health to integrate mental health care services into primary care for women, expanding Talkspace's specialised women's health services. ⏺️ Elon Musk's Grok launched two new AI 'companions', including a sexualized anime bot that is available for users as young as 12. Just what we needed… ⏺️ Headstream Innovation announced their 2025 Accelerator cohort of early-stage founders building tech to support young people's mental well-being. I know a few of the businesses in this cohort and think they have a lot of potential. I will be following this cohort closely. ⏺️ In the UK, NICE recommended Limbic and Wysa's Digital Referral Assistant as digital 'front door' technologies for NHS Talking Therapies assessments for anxiety and depression. ⏺️ Clerkenwell Health, the site for the UK's first sponsored LSD trial, announced that they screened the first participant for MindMed's Phase 3 study of MM120. ⏺️ Ember Mental Health announced their 2025-26 cohort, selecting 15 community-based mental health initiatives which they will support. The program received over 1,800 applications, which is wild, and frankly, I love seeing support being provided to community initiatives like these. ⏺️ Winslow Strong announced The Consciousness Foundation, a public charity aimed at advancing scientific understanding of consciousness and fostering consciousness development, including awakening, healing, and inner development. This is very relevant to our recent post on Spirit Tech - the space seems to be gaining some momentum. ⏺️ Penda Health's real-world study found that their LLM clinical copilot reduced diagnostic errors by 16% and treatment errors by 13% across 39,849 live patient visits at 15 clinics. Whilst this was focused on primary care, it points to the kind of impact that may exist when these kinds of LLMs are applied to mental health. __ 📩 Like this? I send it as a weekly email (including links and even sometimes irrelevant personal stories about my life) to thousands of mental health operators. Sign up for free here > https://lnkd.in/g9xgMW4r 👉 Follow me Steve Duke, for more insights on the #mentalhealth industry.

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🍿 Venture Capital today feels like what it must have felt operating a Blockbuster store at the early stages of Netflix... 🍿 ...it feels like things are changing. Some see it coming clearly and most have a gut feeling that something doesn't feel alright. I've tried to collect and structure my thoughts around the current (unfortunate) state of venture and how to navigate these uncertain times of AI disruption on the one hand, and AuM maxxing of big platform VCs on the other. 𝐌𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞-𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬: - The promise of 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 of every industry is largely overblown. Improving operational efficiency through AI != business model transformation. - Funds aggregating excessive capital with the promise of unforeseen opportunity are in for a very 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬. - 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥, but actual financial innovation combining debt where necessary with equity. - To 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 in early-stage venture, you need to 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 - chasing expensive consensus has never worked. You can read my full thesis here: https://lnkd.in/ee2SFYPs

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The best startup ideas and the worst startup ideas have one thing in common: most investors they ask for money from will say no. Fundraising mostly sucks. It’s hard to maintain conviction when the majority of people you talk to don’t believe in your business the same way you do. But the biggest difference I’ve seen between the people who raise money and the ones who don’t is the ability to change nothing after getting a no. They might tweak their story if they realize they left out important info or said something confusing, but they don’t slow down. I recently heard a great definition of resilience: “how fast you resume normal behavior after something negative happens.” So if you’ve been getting no’s, remember each no is one no closer to a yes. And if you need a second pair of eyes on your materials, feel free to shoot me a DM with your deck attached and I'm happy to send some feedback. #startups #venture #fundraising #pitching #founders #VC #tech

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