Glenn O. Brown

INTERVIEWS OF 2024 SXSW PITCH WINNERS: Dhavel Patel of Lotus Every March in Austin, 50 of the world's most impactful startups showcase their talents at SXSW Pitch. Today we begin a series of short interviews with some of the category winners from the 2024 event. Founder and CEO Dhaval Patel has been growing Lotus for three years. At this year's SXSW Pitch, his San Jose based startup emerged as the winner of the "Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability" category. Patel's short answers to our questions are below. SXSW: What is Lotus?  Patel: A wearable ring that controls objects at home by pointing. See https://www.getlotus.com/ SXSW: What community does Lotus serve? Patel: Folks with limited mobility -- older adults, veteran soldiers, people with disabilities.  SXSW: Who is your all-time favorite entrepreneur? Patel: Warren Buffett. SXSW: Best startup-related advice you have received? Patel: Don't start building first, find the need first. SXSW: Current entrepreneurial trend that excites you the most? Patel: Desire for tech that is intuitive and simple. SXSW: Fail fast or perseverance? Patel: Persevere in failing fast repeatedly. SXSW: Favorite VC? Patel: Andreessen Horowitz. SXSW: Favorite gadget or device? Patel: Apple AirPods. SXSW: Government can best support startups by Patel: Moving faster. SXSW: Most over-hyped technology at present? Patel: AI. SXSW: Most under-hyped technology at present? Patel: Consumer hardware. SXSW: What did you enjoy most about your experience at SXSW? Patel: The people -- each person wanting to make the world a better place. SXSW: What is your best trait as an entrepreneur? Patel: Simplifying complex problems. SXSW: What is your best advice for other startups? Patel: Focus (say "no" to more). Learn more about Dhaval Patel of Lotus plus other 2024 SXSW Pitch winners by listening to the audio of their session at this year's event. See https://lnkd.in/gHtwQB8n Applications for SXSW Pitch 2025 will open in late summer. See https://lnkd.in/gE2hcVPK #sxsw, #sxsw2024, #startups, #founders, Chris Valentine, Dhaval Patel, SXSW, #venturecapital, #entrepreneur, #entrepreneurs, #startup, #founderstories, #sxswpitch, Lotus (Techstars'23), #techstars, #Austin, #ATX, #creativity, #innovation, #hardware, #consumerhardware, #pitch, #accessibility,

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At Costanoa Ventures, we pride ourselves on identifying and supporting exceptional founders poised to create impactful, lasting change. Hona is a shining example, driven by a trio of extremely talented founders: Manny Griffiths, Joshua Christensen, and Matt McClellan. They each bring unique, differentiated expertise to the table, and Amy Cheetham and I are extremely excited to partner with them. There are approximately 450,000 law firms in the United States, with half of those firms being B2C - think personal injury, mass tort, or immigration law as opposed to BigLaw. One of the reasons we love how Hona is tackling this market is their focus on B2C law firms and product excellence - B2B firms are historically difficult to sell brand new software products into, but B2C firms are completely different buyers. Oftentimes there's just a handful of lawyers and paralegals in a partnership, and any piece of technology they can use to give them an edge would be valuable. 44% of negative Google reviews on law firms directly reference poor communication as the reason for a negative experience, and the number 1 reason for Attorney Bar complaints in the U.S. is "lack of communication". On the lawyer's side, attorneys, paralegals and legal assistants spend an average of 7.4 hours per week on unnecessary updates, redundant communication, and activities that aren't directly contributing towards getting a client's case solved. Manny and the team at Hona are working to change all of that. Hona delivers a tightly-integrated communications platform to help facilitate better communication between law firms and their clients. During legal proceedings, client communications tend to be a large resource-stressor for law firms. Clients will frequently call firms for case updates, legal explanations, or general administrative questions that tend to eat away at firm resources without providing any additional progress toward case resolution. Hona exists to ease that burden - it’s a platform that allows law firms to efficiently communicate with their clients over text, easily build customizable web pages and embed videos, and share information on case status and basic legal process education. This crucial communication processes allow attorneys to focus on their job – moving cases forward, while keeping their clients informed and educated. If you're a lawyer dealing with these problems - don't hesitate to reach out to us or the Hona team! It's a privilege to work with Hona on this journey. The company has been growing at a rapid pace, and they're delivering meaningful technology to help people get through legal proceedings in a much more fluid, transparent, and easy process. Manny, Joshua, and Matt are exceptional founders whose combined skills and dedication to continuous learning position them perfectly to lead Hona to success. They're just getting started, and we can't wait to see what they'll achieve.

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We’ve officially been issued a patent for Onsite Opt-in, and we remain *so* excited about this innovation. OOI delivers exactly what we hoped--increases list growth rates, keeps shoppers on site, and fix the stolen attribution that comes with the other opt in formats. And over the last 18 months, we've seen *enormous* adoption across the customer base, and it's because the results speak for themselves. This slide below a favorite because it reflects the results from one Postscript customer (who was skeptical for months) but once they turned it on, they saw an immediate 2.9x increase... now they see Q4 like list growth numbers on a regular august day. And P.S. Don't turn off your popups during peak traffic days of BFCM! Super important to capture high intent subs those days.

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It's been a pretty frantic start to our journey into the new world of Generative AI, but working with Mike and the team has shown that the opportunities are endless. Whilst some are taking about robots and singularity, I'm more excited about the real world application of our approach to Intelligent Agents and how we can bring to life use cases such as large scale knowledge management and operational analysts. These may, at face value, not sound like the sexy end of AI, but they are having a genuine impact on our clients (see our recent NR press release as an example). We continue to innovate every day and find new 'analysts' and 'assistants' use cases for enterprises. If you want to hear more about our framework and it can be used to accelerate your adoption of AI.....then Mike can explain it better than me!!! #ai #generativeai #data #dataeverywhere #datastrategy

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This is a great article from Kevin Tian, founder of Doppel talking about how the company transitioned from detecting crypto scams to tackling digital threats like deepfakes and impersonations. Doppel uses AI to identify and remove harmful content, aiding in the protection of campaigns and organizations. With today’s environment and rapid growth of AI and deepfakes, Doppel is critical to help maintain election integrity. Tian highlights their effective partnerships with platforms to enforce content takedowns and their high success rate in removing policy-violating material. #cybersecurity #stayvigilant #AIrisk #deepfake #hireVets

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NYC bars and restaurants are struggling and one of the reasons is legal cannab*s, according to this new report. Bars and restaurants should be able to sell weed, especially at events. These small business owners are relying on the OCM to expedite the events license so they can stop being harmed by legal cannab*s and start being apart of the market. https://lnkd.in/eSbFmtA6

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Data security safety concerns with using GenAI: Vets BEWARE Any, in fact ALL, #veterinary #clinicians using any #LLM large language models #AI for any part of clinical work (this includes scribing software) need to be aware of this. If models can memorise and regurgitate copyrighted information, they sure as hell can do the same with confidential medical information and owner personal information. Before you use any software, find out what happens to the data you give it!

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Mastodon CEO Criticizes Meta's Moderation Changes, Cautions Threads Users on Cross-Posting Eugen Rochko, the CEO of Mastodon, has raised concerns about Meta’s recent decision to shift its moderation approach. Meta announced that it would replace fact-checking across its platforms with a crowdsourced Community Notes system, similar to what’s used on X (formerly Twitter). Rochko described this change as “deeply troubling” and warned that it could have serious implications, particularly for marginalized communities. He also addressed how this impacts users who cross-post from Threads—a Meta platform—onto Mastodon using the fediverse-sharing feature. Rochko made it clear that Mastodon will enforce its existing policies, including taking action against hate speech and other violations, even for content originating from Threads. The fediverse-sharing feature, introduced by Meta last year, allows Threads users to share posts directly on Mastodon, expanding their audience. While Rochko initially saw this as a step forward for decentralized social media, not everyone in the Mastodon community feels the same. Some smaller Mastodon servers have blocked Threads entirely, citing concerns over moderation and privacy. Similarly, Meta has blocked certain Mastodon servers for similar reasons. This latest moderation shift from Meta has created uncertainty about how large Mastodon instances, are like Mastodon. social, will handle Threads accounts moving forward. Rochko assured Mastodon users that the platform is prepared to address any challenges that arise. For those uncomfortable with Meta’s new direction, Rochko suggested moving to Mastodon as an alternative. However, he acknowledged that transitioning from Threads to Mastodon isn’t as straightforward as moving between Mastodon servers, due to Threads’ current limitations in fully integrating with the fediverse. By reinforcing its commitment to protecting its community, Mastodon aims to maintain a space that prioritizes thoughtful moderation and user trust. https://lnkd.in/dG6hDTT8? Platform: TechCrunch Author: Sarah Perez #mastodon #meta #metasocial #moderation #threads #socialmedia #socialmediaplatforms #bigtech #technews #socialmedianews #technology #crossposting

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This San Franciscan has landed in the Big Apple for #NYTechWeek! Here’s why it was important to me to be out here this week and I view NYC as a sister city. ((scroll down for 2 events The Council is hosting today!)) 🏭🏥 Reminder: The Council Fund invests at Pre-seed in Software’s Third Act, the transformation of the essential economy. Our investments span healthcare and industrial sectors like manufacturing, logistics, construction. 🐂 I’m eternally bullish on NY & SF and hate how many pit the two cities against each other. The reality is that a lot of capital and talent flow back and forth between the cities. They need each other to thrive! 🗽🌁 Cities like NY & SF attract young and mid-career talent because of their population density, transient nature, beauty, and reputations as cities where someone new on the scene can make a name for themselves. For the areas we invest in, I’m *specifically* excited about NY because of: 🏗️ Closer proximity to industrial hubs which are scattered across the Midwest / Rust Belt 🏛️ Closer proximity to DC where a lot of regulation around VC, startups, healthcare, onshoring initiatives, and industrial sectors takes place 💰 Many of the large financial institutions that are backing hard tech focused funds and major healthcare initiatives are also headquartered here in NYC 🎯 We’ve got several startups here who are hitting it out of the park, like Dirac and Siena. This has further validated my belief in this ecosystem to support young companies! Today we are kicking off with 2 events on Day 1 of #NYTechWeek 👉 AI Demo Day: The Council, Next Wave NYC, Lynx Collective, Flybridge will host 8 founders and 200+ investors and founders for a pitch competition this evening! Luma: https://lnkd.in/gbdYiJMw 🔜 Can still join the waitlist! Small & Big VCs in Hard Tech: The Council joined General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Iron Prairie Ventures, AlleyCorp, House Of Ventures, Steel Atlas for 2 back to back panels on industrial innovation & collaboration across the capital stack Luma: https://lnkd.in/gj6D4-Au ⏰ Event has passed

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In April, House Representatives Jerry Nadler and Joaquin Castro wrote to Disney, Fox, and WBD about Venu Sports' business. Last week, they followed up, deeming Venu Sports' response "insufficient" on collusion, privacy, and pricing concerns. Despite acknowledging Venu Sports' quick reply and offer to meet, they still found the responses lacking. Here's what they are asking for details on: - "Overall, we still have not received answers about the firewalls your companies may implement to prevent collusion; the precautions you may take to ensure consumer privacy; or the methods you may use to determine pricing of the new service. Some of the vague assurances you have provided strike us as contradictory. For example, we find it difficult to understand how your companies can both promise not to share competitively sensitive information and also evaluate the success of the joint venture on a company-by-company basis. Your repeated assertion that the details of the joint venture have not yet been finalized is also hard to believe, given that the joint venture is projected to roll out in mere months." Full letter here: https://lnkd.in/esk4ZZ8Y -- #streamingmedia #sportsnews #SVOD #disney #venusports

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Hey folks, I think you might be aware that what we're building at DeepCast includes a podcast discovery and exploration platform for listeners at www.deepcast.fm. We also recently unveiled www.deepcast.pro -- a promotions, marketing, and monetization platform for podcasters (and folks like networks and agencies who support them). "You make the shows, let us help you with what comes after." Shows claimed and processed via DeepCast Pro are also published for listener consumption on DeepCast. High value all around! If you're a podcaster, claim your show at www.deepcast.pro to get started. Free speaker-labeled transcripts for all your episodes as well as generated insights for each (key takeaways, quotes, topic & keyword sets, summaries, and more) plus many more features—and growing daily! We're shipping fast over here! (Thanks to Rachel Perez Hosna Qasmei Kim Burgaard Benjamin Moon Rachel Magana Hari Ramachandran!)

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Thrilled to announce BBG Ventures second institutional fund – a $60M early-stage fund backing overlooked founders who are building for the Polycultural Future of America. Thanks Emma Hinchliffe at Fortune for sharing the news: https://lnkd.in/gSwqpHpq We’ve spent the last few years observing the passage of the country from a monoculture to one where women were a bigger part of the story, to today - where identity and lived experience matter more than ever. We call this the Polyculture – a new status quo in which America is a mosaic of unique segments; where identity is multivariate and dynamic; and where individuals can identify with multiple communities at once. I began using this term over 2 years ago, as a cross-culture kid myself: the child of Indian immigrants, growing up in rural Australia - and now an immigrant in America. We wondered - how do Americans perceive identity, and how does that drive their most fundamental needs? We conducted research with +2000 Americans across equal cross sections of race, gender, age and income. Here’s what we found: 1. We have surprisingly common priorities, needs and concerns despite our unique identities. 2. The biggest areas of the economy are still on the table, with Americans highlighting huge areas of opportunity in health, work, financial security, climate safety, and the underserved. 3. But we need new, more nuanced-solutions and personalization considering the emerging majority minority generation, an aging population, widening wealth gaps and continued differences along gender lines. To that end, we’ve officially expanded our mandate to embrace this evolution, backing underestimated founders – female or diverse – addressing the biggest pain points for our polycultural population. Read the full report here: The Mind of Polycultural America - https://lnkd.in/gdtiFE7v We’re proud to partner with new LPs including Fairview Capital, Pivotal Ventures, The California Endowment in addition to our many returning partners like Illumen Capital, George Kaiser Family Foundation who believe as we do: when you make change, you make money. If you’re an early-stage founder working to move the world forward in health, work, financial security, climate safety or for the underserved - in B2B or B2C - we want to talk to you. Susan Lyne Claire Biernacki Drew Silverman Fennessy Carol Magalhães Isaacs, CFA Addison B. Marsh, Jr.

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WSJ piece by Dalvin Brown is my highlight for this week's "Read the News" which looks at the cross section of tech, economics, politics, and PR/media relations. All four are in this piece with highlights of the tech companies making it easier to lend funds to friends and family along with the question of how regulation and taxes come into play. Way to go Dalvin Brown! #readthenews

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Back in 1997, The New York Times highlighted a “Roundtable in Multimedia” attended by senior media executives. They lamented that apart from a few exceptions like pornography websites and Amazon, no one had cracked the code for a viable 'interactive' media business model. Fast forward to 2024, and Fable has launched Showrunner, a revolutionary platform known as the “Netflix of AI" , which allows users to create their own TV shows with just a few prompts. 📺✨ The way we create and consume content has evolved dramatically. But what does "interactive media" really mean today? We break it down, exploring how it intersects with massive shifts in technology, culture, and new media. And how with a growing "Swipe before Type" generation, there is now an ingrained expectation of interactivity in all digital experiences. We dive into the future of interactive media and gaming and see where we're headed next! Link in comments. #InteractiveMedia #Gaming #AI #TechRevolution #ContentCreation #NewMedia

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Wonderful article about Emily Knight and the whole The Engine Accelerator team on the amazing work their doing changing the world with #ToughTech!

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Today marks a groundbreaking moment for BLCK VC and our fellow collaborators—Diversity VC, All Raise, 2Gether-International, SomosVC, StartOut, and VetsinTech—as we proudly announce the launch of the Diversity Data Alliance. This important alliance underscores our unwavering commitment to nurturing a venture capital and entrepreneurial ecosystem abundant in equity and inclusiveness. By standardizing and linking our data, we empower ourselves with the essential tools to track deeper trends that have, until now, eluded us to identify and fill funding gaps for historically excluded investors, founders, and operators. We can’t change what we do not measure, and now with the Diversity Data Alliance, we're now equipped to do both. Join us in this mission. Learn more and get involved: https://lnkd.in/eEZKdrac #DiversityDataAlliance #BLCKVC #VentureCapital #MeasureToChange

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Digital assets are meant to be used. Not hoarded. Not endlessly flipped in pursuit of speculative riches. They’re to be used—for the unique purposes for which they were designed. That’s why Ayre Group is the world’s largest venture capital investor in Metanet apps. What is Metanet? Metanet represents the vision of a better, more inclusive and dynamic internet, an economically integrated online system that enables cost-effective, instant micropayments. Metanet will restore the original promise of a peer-to-peer internet model. Silicon Valley giants hijacked the original internet model by forcing all traffic through their centralized (and proprietary) hubs. Metanet will undo this sabotage. Metanet will bring a global democratization of access to data and services. Creators will be able to engage in an economically feasible direct-to-consumer model—no middlemen—allowing them to succeed on their merits, unconstrained by bureaucracy. Metanet will upend cross-border transactions by eliminating intermediaries. Remittances will be cheaper and more secure, as Metanet’s decentralized nature will enhance trust in digital transactions and offer greater control over personal data. Metanet is the marriage of IPv6, AI and the BSV Blockchain. IPv6 is bringing an exponential rise in the number of IP addresses, with a similar rise in the number of unique devices connected to the internet, including an army of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. All of these devices are talking to each other, many of them autonomously. AI’s assistance will be required as a traffic cop, helping to ensure that all these digital messages arrive where and when they should. The final piece of Metanet’s puzzle is BSV. BSV can process a huge volume of transactions swiftly and securely, at a cost measured in fractions of a cent, allowing the monetization of every piece of online data. BSV is the base value transfer token of the future internet. Developers can build with confidence on BSV. BSV is legally-and regulatory-compliant, with a locked protocol that traces its unbroken lineage to Bitcoin’s Genesis block, so what’s built today won’t be undone by unnecessary protocol tinkering. Metanet’s potential is too great to ignore. Learn more about how AI, IPv6 and BSV—the only public proof-of-work enterprise blockchain that can scale to make Metanet a reality—are building the internet of the future. https://lnkd.in/gxFM_jrW

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“Celebrity culture serves as a constant reminder that we can’t believe everything we see online” Nope. It’s a reminder we can be more conscious. We can demand to be empowered with tools that make us conscious, and more resistant to those who want us to believe that nothing is true. For inspiration, check out the work of the Content Authenticity Initiative and Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA)

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“The funding landscape has changed during the time we have been involved in it, and continues to evolve,” “And we’re evolving with it, to ensure that there is even more flexibility for companies to access the specific capital they need for a given scenario. We’ve funded well over 180 technology companies across multiple industries and verticals, and we’re not slowing down any time soon.” Regarding the total addressable market for Tractor to operate in, Imam explains that the one-funding-product-fits-all approach has required tweaking, simply due to the totally different needs expressed by the financial decision-makers, related to time, total access to the capital itself, and looming milestones that require a more strategic approach to accessing capital. “If you’re a SaaS company, or an ecommerce company, or a hardware company, or operating in a particular niche or vertical like marketing tech for example, you will have a different set of needs for funding based on your revenue,” explains Imam. “We’ve moved to a scenario-based funding model, based on the most common queries we receive at this point in time. B2B Enterprise SaaS we will always be able to fund in an instant. Other scenarios arise when the financials require a bit more flexible and bespoke assessment.” “In particular, our Inventory product points to our capability to fund in some very very specific and founder-focussed ways, and that flexibility really excites us, now and for the future.” Thank you for this write up SmartCompany!

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