defy.vc

✨🚨 Another Make Cents post is live! 🚨✨ In this post, "AI & its Impact on Vertical SaaS: The Gates of Distribution have Flung Open", I explore how AI is impacting vertical SaaS workflows and its implication for distribution and defensibility. We defy.vc are more excited than ever to invest in vertical SaaS because we believe there's tremendous value leveraging AI to enhance human productivity across tasks like 1) structuring data, 2) analysis, 3) recommendations, and 4) taking action. I also walk through why customer acquisition costs are at an all-time low, attributed to more than just AI-driven product functionality. Read more ⬇ and share your thoughts and feedback in the comments! https://lnkd.in/gRVcJASH

I contributed to the Forbes article, “How to become a VC”! Step 1: Live, Eat, And Breathe Technology 🍽️ - have a passion for game-changing technologies and finding the people who create them. Step 2: Build 🛠️ - Get out there and start something, whether that’s a startup (ideally), working at a startup, bringing like-minded folks together or hustling on a side project. Step 3: Be Helpful 👩🔬 - Figure out how to be helpful to other builders. Much of VC is about your reputation and how much you can help founders and operators with their ideas. Start building up your karma account. Step 4: Start Investing 💸 - If you can afford it, try angel investing to see if you like it and are good at it. That’s what I did, while I was an engineer at Coinbase, and found that my network and experience were directly applicable to early stage founders and was able to identify some breakout founders like Matt Schulman at Pave. Step 5: Get Noticed 😎 - Get noticed. Unfortunately, this can take a bit of luck. Many VC jobs are invite-only so getting your name out there and letting potential employers know that you are on the market is about networking with the right people so that you are top of mind when one of those rare opportunities comes up. Link in comments 👇 thanks to the author Dasha Shunina for including me in this piece!

We're excited to come out of stealth today and announce the launch of Almanax. Almanax uses the latest advancements in AI to prevent web3 hacks. We’re starting with a product that finds vulnerabilities in blockchain code before hackers do. $9B was stolen in crypto since 2021. We decided to launch Almanax to stop that. I spent the past 4 years building products to investigate these crypto thefts. Maxwell Watson spent the past 2 years at Coinbase, building infrastructure and developer tooling. Almanax raised a pre-seed investment from defy.vc. We couldn’t be more enthusiastic to partner with Brian Rothenberg, Bartek Ringwelski, and Nafis Jamal, and we’re thankful for the trust they put in us. Read the full announcement on our website: https://www.almanax.ai/

We're excited to come out of stealth today and announce the launch of Almanax. Almanax uses the latest advancements in AI to prevent web3 hacks. We’re starting with a product that finds vulnerabilities in blockchain code before hackers do. $9B was stolen in crypto since 2021. We decided to launch Almanax to stop that. I spent the past 4 years building products to investigate these crypto thefts. Maxwell Watson spent the past 2 years at Coinbase, building infrastructure and developer tooling. Almanax raised a pre-seed investment from defy.vc. We couldn’t be more enthusiastic to partner with Brian Rothenberg, Bartek Ringwelski, and Nafis Jamal, and we’re thankful for the trust they put in us. Read the full announcement on our website: https://www.almanax.ai/

💡 Unlearn Episode 24 is out! "The closer you can be to the product, technology, and the actual user experience, the better the results you're going to have." - Bob Rosin, General Partner at defy.vc. Do you agree? 🤔 In this episode, Bob chats with hosts Asher Mathew and Kelly Sarabyn about the various partnership types for startups, the evolving role of the Chief Business Officer, and the role of partnership leaders in driving growth for their companies. 📈 Partnership professionals and executives in the startup space will get tremendous value from this conversation with Bob, who has worked in leadership roles at companies like Sony, LinkedIn, and Stripe! Check out the full episode today. More details in the comments.