Armory Square Ventures

Meet the ASV Advisory Board: Lindsay Moore! Lindsay is Principal Data Scientist at Marubeni America Corporation, where she is the lead of the Digital Innovation Center of Excellence. In this role, her team has developed machine learning tools and platforms across various industries including agriculture, healthcare, power and automotive. She is also responsible for technical diligence for all new acquisitions across Marubeni group companies. Lindsay is passionate about equity in STEM education and is an active member of the PTA in her local public elementary school where her two children attend. We're thrilled to have her passion and expertise on our side!

ASV Senior Associate Anthony Santaro shares why we love Upstate Capital Association of New York and how fostering community is such an important part of the job when you're working outside of major hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston. https://lnkd.in/gzXQGnPd

Buffalo, you brought the love! What a great group we had for this happy hour co-hosted with our friends at Aleron Group - Acara Solutions, Broadleaf Results, Lume Strategies, TalentRise, Viaduct. As always, we love getting to connect with so many of the inspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders driving the Queen City's renaissance. Thanks to everyone who came out!

We had a fantastic time at this week's Founders Forum from our friends at BNY. The day included an invigorating round of founder-investor speed dating, panels including this one on wealth management and estate planning from Robyn Meredith, Preston C. Demouchet, and Wole Coaxum, and plenty of networking time. We caught up with our friend Steph Johnson of portfolio company Multiplayer and met incredible founders working in fintech, green tech, and B2B software. Kudos to Kevin Amoo-Mensah, CFP® (He/Him/His) and the BNY team for organizing this great event!

We were thrilled to have Sal Khan give a keynote discussion during our Annual Meeting, where Somak Chattopadhyay asked him about some of the nearer-term commercial applications of AI. His answer may surprise you. Somak will be leading more expert discussion on enterprise software and #AI at the MIT AI Conference on Oct. 26 - it promises to be a fascinating conversation!

More big news out of Buffalo! ACV co-founder Dan Magnuszewski has been selected to run a new venture studio by the 43North Foundation. This is a huge milestone and promises to infuse even more growth into the region's startup community. https://lnkd.in/eNWrx_mX

As 43North founding board chairman Jordan Levy put it so well in his great Buffalo News article this week, Buffalo really is an "entrepreneur's dream come true"! He tells the story of how 43North came to be, plus the thrill of ACV Auctions' success after winning their pitch competition in 2015: https://lnkd.in/gQ7ke2hP ACV's George Chamoun and Dan Magnuszewski feature in this short film about Buffalo's revival we made together with 43North a few years ago: https://lnkd.in/ex9XWg2N

AI is everywhere you look in enterprise software lately, but how many of these implementations are successful? What are common pitfalls delaying AI rollouts? And how do decision makers distinguish true productivity boosters from "AI snake oil" (to borrow the title of a recently published book on the subject)? At the MIT AI Conference on October 26, our very own Somak Chattopadhyay will be moderating a panel on the impact of AI on enterprise software with Daniela Braga, PhD, Jay Dawani, Jonathan Cohen, and Sherry Marcus Ph.D. Interested in attending? Register here: https://lnkd.in/eZvMPnR3

Gathering our community together is in our DNA, which is why we look forward to our annual meeting all year long! We couldn't have had a better day for sharing the year's highlights, spotlighting our incredible portfolio companies, and, of course, sharing a few laughs together. Our thanks to everyone who came out, and deepest thanks to Sal Khan for his thought-provoking keynote discussion on the promises and pitfalls of AI, his work at Khan Academy, and his new book, Brave New Words.

Cheers to our 2024 summer venture fellows, Jin Kwon and Pearson Ehrich! Thank you both for all your efforts this summer. In addition to helping out with sourcing and operational tasks, Jin and Pearson conducted a deep dive on the vertical AI landscape, surfacing a slew of new insights for our investment team. Most importantly, both fellows demonstrated an insatiable curiosity about the art of venture. Know a young person who might be interested in our 2025 fellow program? Reach out to us!