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Building an "unsexy" consumer / SMB business? If so, here's an investor you have to know! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Eric Ong from Lightbank. He is: 🏙️ NYC based 💪 The youngest to be promoted to partner in Lightbank's history (associate to partner from 2016 to 2021 🤯) Amongst founders, Eric and his team at Lightbank , including Bill Pescatello, Matt Sacks, Jyothi Vallurupalli, and Dwight Greenhouse are known for being a founder's first call and answering ready to roll-up their sleeves. ✉️ To get in touch, make sure to pitch him over email or LinkedIn For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Lightbank's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

If you're a founder building an enterprise / B2B software company - here's an awesome pre-seed / seed investor for you. This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Shawn Merani from Parade Ventures. He: 🌁 Is Bay Area based ☀️ Grew up in Cupertino, a true local 🧵 Is a part-time lecturer at Berkeley Haas 🏋️ Equal parts tonal & fantasy sports fiend Amongst founders, Shawn is known for being very collaborative and wanting to be the first call for all things (good and bad). ✉️ Make sure to pitch him at [email protected] (though warm intros are best!) For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Parade's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

If you're building a startup that helps closing the access gaps health and wealth wise in overlooked communities, you probably know this investor already. But just in case.... This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Sydney Paige Thomas, founding general partner at Symphonic Capital. She: 🌊 Is San Diego based 🧵 Launched Symphonic Capital in 2022 after 7 years of investing and being in the trenches with founders 🖋️ Still writes in cursive and says that "it's so messy, it serves almost as a secret code for myself that nobody else can decipher!" Amongst founders, Sydney and her team at Symphonic Capital, including Shruti Shah, are known for taking a very hands on approach and working directly to build out KPIs and metrics that make sense. They are also there to support founders in achieving them! You can think of them as part investor + part coach + part outsourced COO! Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch her at [email protected] 🎥 Subscribe to the new Symphonic Youtube channel where they are going to share more founder insights! For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Symphonic's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

"If you're relying on the model not becoming 100x better, you're about to get steamrolled." Jason Warner, the CEO and Co-Founder of poolside (former CTO GitHub), discusses this and more on the latest episode of Daniel's 5 Year Frontier podcast 🎙️ In it, they chat about AI eating software, specialized models winning, billions of coders, synthetic data, NVIDIA and the Hyperscalers, and the future of code ⛱️💻 #5YF #PoolsideAI #code #futureofsoftware

If you're building a startup in Canada, chances are you already know the "best connected tech investor in Canada"! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Alex Norman from N49P Ventures. He: 🍁 Is Toronto based and passionate about the Canadian innovation economy 💥 Paid for university by buying and selling comic books 📚 Recommends the book, Good Inside, by Dr. Becky Kennedy - noting that even as a parenting book, the insights in how to work with your children can also be applied to working through emotional situations with adults 🎶 Co-founded TechTO whose mission is to build a community that makes Canada the best place in the world to start and scale a technology company Amongst founders, Alex and his team at N49P Ventures, including Omar Dhalla, are known for being there for them. A direct founder quote literally said: "𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘹 (𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕49𝘗) 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴— 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘢." Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at [email protected] ✏️ Follow the TechTO newsletter at techto.org/newsletter For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with N49P's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

Celebrating yet another milestone at Pump.co, thank you focal Sydney Wasikowski Pascal Unger Daniel Darling for sending this and making our day! PS. We are celebrating $🤫M in ARR, I’ll let you guess.. (and it’s not a 1 🥳)

"The ultimate personal trainer is essentially a closed loop system, adjusting challenges and rewards based on real-time data." Adam Gazzaley, the Founder of Neuroscape at UCSF Health (also co-founder of JAZZ Venture Partners and Akili), discusses this and more on the latest episode of Daniel's 5 Year Frontier podcast 🎙️ In it, they chat about turbocharging the mind, digital drugs, psychedelics, autonomous therapies, the neuroscience frontier, and the future of the brain 🧠🧐 #5YF #Neuroscape #futureofthebrain #technology

The Midwest is known for small towns, manufacturing, a good soul, and many other things. Lately, its startup scene has become one of them, contributed greatly by this investor you should know! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Victor Gutwein from M25. He: 💨 Is Chicago based 🍬 Started a bubblegum vending machine business in 6th grade with "margins almost like a SaaS business!" ⏩ Founded M25 in 2015 and quickly grew it to become the most active venture firm in the Midwest 🚙 Has his Uber rating on his M25 bio: 4.92 🏆 Amongst founders, Victor and his team at M25, including Mike Asem are known for working with a lot of first-time founders and putting themselves as the best VC to get them from pre-seed to A. They aren't known for 'hovering'. Rather, working with them has been called 'solicited value-add' where they are there when you need them...which can be a lot or a little. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him on email, LinkedIn or via M25's website 📥 If you want to work at a startup in the Midwest, check out MidwestStartups.com and reach out to M25's talent team here! For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with M25's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

Sitting down with Story Protocol co-founder Jason Zhao drove home two major shifts in the creative economy: 1. Empowering Creators: Creators are poised to significantly increase their earnings by allowing fans to remix their IP and generate income from it 2. South Korea’s Influence: The future of digital cultural trends is already unfolding in South Korea In Episode 18 of 5 Year Frontier, we explore these topics and more, like how blockchain can enhance data attribution for LLMs. Tune in to catch the full conversation! (Link below)