Dorm Room Fund

Happy National Poultry Day! 🐔 🐣 Today we celebrate the industry that feeds millions and supports the livelihoods of countless farm families across America. At Barnwell Bio, we're proud to provide poultry producers with innovative data that helps monitor and prevent disease outbreaks. Our work wouldn't be possible without our incredible partners who share our commitment to healthier birds, safer food, and more sustainable farming practices. From our research collaborators to the farmers who implement our solutions, we're truly grateful for each relationship that drives our mission forward. As we continue our work on critical challenges like H5N1 surveillance, we're reminded that progress comes through partnership. Thank you to everyone who has joined us on this journey to revolutionize poultry health through data-driven biosecurity!

Feeling incredibly proud of our very own Emma Lawler and the Velvet team today. Arize AI just acquired Velvet to enhance AI observability by integrating its monitoring and evaluation tools, providing deeper insights and better performance tracking for LLMs. Learn more below:

Most financial systems only see the total on your receipt— but not the full picture of what you actually bought. BANYAN extracts item-level receipt data to provide new, more personalized incentives and commerce experiences. Started in 2020, they've analyzed more than 20 billion receipts and processed hundreds of billions in spend. Bilt Rewards' acquisition marks an incredible step in the future of hyper-personalized rewards and benefits, unlocking new ways for brands, merchants, and consumers to seamlessly engage through smarter, data-driven experiences. Big congrats to Jehan Luth the entire Banyan team on this milestone. Honored to have been early partners in their journey.

Spiky.AI secures $2.8M in second funding round to lead the future of Customer Conversational Intelligence! Our $2.8M second round is backed by further participation and new investors 43North, Amrock Ventures Ltd, Roo Capital, Good News Ventures, Team Ignite Ventures,TechOne Venture Capital, Innovent Capital Group, Draper Startup House, Kültepe Yatırım, APY Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, and top angels, who joins our prior investment by Amrock Ventures Ltd, MXV Capital, TechOne Venture Capital, Dorm Room Fund and Techstars —Spiky is scaling fast. Burak Aksar, PhD, Co-Founder: “This funding is a testament to our vision of transforming customer conversations into tangible revenue-driving insights. With the support of our investors, we are closer than ever to redefining how customer teams engage with prospects and close deals.” With investor backing, Spiky is doubling down on AI-driven, real-time conversational intelligence to help teams win more deals with confidence. The best is yet to come! Read more: https://lnkd.in/dpsnpvPN #fundinground #startup #sales #spikyai

Spiky.AI secures $2.8M in second funding round to lead the future of Customer Conversational Intelligence! Our $2.8M second round is backed by further participation and new investors 43North, Amrock Ventures Ltd, Roo Capital, Good News Ventures, Team Ignite Ventures,TechOne Venture Capital, Innovent Capital Group, Draper Startup House, Kültepe Yatırım, APY Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, and top angels, who joins our prior investment by Amrock Ventures Ltd, MXV Capital, TechOne Venture Capital, Dorm Room Fund and Techstars —Spiky is scaling fast. Burak Aksar, PhD, Co-Founder: “This funding is a testament to our vision of transforming customer conversations into tangible revenue-driving insights. With the support of our investors, we are closer than ever to redefining how customer teams engage with prospects and close deals.” With investor backing, Spiky is doubling down on AI-driven, real-time conversational intelligence to help teams win more deals with confidence. The best is yet to come! Read more: https://lnkd.in/dpsnpvPN #fundinground #startup #sales #spikyai

Eat your heart out Mav and Goose: Dorm Room Fund company Shield AI announced their $240M Series F at $5B post this week to support making fighter jets fly themselves. We backed the team as one of their first investors, before their seed round in 2016, when Brandon Tseng was still a recent Navy SEAL and student at Harvard Business School. One of my favorite highlights from the investment memo was this quote from the founders, "The team’s biggest concern is fundraising, 'the VCs we’ve met with have shied away from defense because of misconceptions' around how long it takes to win contracts in that end market". Oh how far we've come! Shout out to Riley Soward and Vesal Yazdi who first introduced Brandon, Ryan Tseng 🇺🇸, and then CTO Andrew Reiter. Just goes to show that our thesis that fellow classmates-- in this case, Vesal-- know better than just about anyone who the best builders are in their peer set. Congratulations, Bandon, Ryan and Team ShieldAI! What a ridiculous journey.

We invested in Tarun Amasa back in 2022 when he was building in Edtech— not just because of the idea, but because of him. Great founders evolve, and the we stick with them through pivots. Today, he’s building Endex, using AI to rethink financial analysis and investment workflows. The journey from Edtech to fintech wasn’t linear, but conviction in the right people always pays off. Proud to have been part of the journey from the start. Read more about their partnership with OpenAI: openai.com/index/endex

Around the world, our partners at DRF— alumni and present— are busy building the future. But for one weekend each year, we bring them together at the Winter Clove Inn. Besides the DJ sets and bowling rivalries, All DRF is a testament to what makes this community special— founders who’ve been through the chaos of building a company return to share hard-won lessons with the next builders and investors. Not because they have to, but because they know it's hard— and that it’s easier with the right people beside you. This year, we heard from alumni shaping industries with companies like Dandy and Hightouch, investors who've led early bets on now-household names, and operators who’ve scaled startups from zero to millions of users. More than anything, this retreat is about people. One of our favorite traditions is writing positive post-it notes for each other, slipped into goodie bags. A reminder that DRF isn’t just a fund; it’s a community that lasts well beyond the first check.

Founders! Get ready to go all in. Dorm Room Fund alongside CRV and Bain Capital Ventures are hosting Founders Poker Night at Stanford— where high stakes meet high-impact connections. 🃏 $1,000 Grand Prize (Runner-up: $500, 3rd & 4th: $250). 🤝 Meet and network with fellow founders + top VC partners. 🎟️ No buy-in, but application only—tell us what you're building!Open to MBA, undergrad, and grad student founders. Whether you’re here for the game or the game-changing convos, this is your chance to make some real plays. No poker experience needed to enter! 🗓️ Monday, April 7th from 6-9pm PT ***Note: There's a limit of 50 spots!*** Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with priority given to current founders/builders. Apply by Friday Mar 14. See you at the table. 🚀 Apply here: https://lu.ma/jwg7q79n

Kicking off 2025 with Dorm Room Fund’s ALL DRF—a powerhouse weekend in Upstate NY bringing together the brightest student investors, founders, the unstoppable alumni network & of course the visionary leaders behind DRF. From fireside chats to lightning talks, “Between Two Pins” to late-night bowling, this crew is shaping the future of venture—one investment at a time. Honored to produce an event that fuels the next generation of builders and investors. The future of VC? It starts here. 🚀