PIN (Power in Numbers)

This week in tech mafia news: University of Washington! Stay tuned to find out about the top companies founded by UW's alumni. Quick stats: 📌 $54B raised 📌 2,064 companies founded

Ever wanted to see what an a16z pitch deck to LPs looks like? (yes, even VCs have to pitch!) Andrew Chen, GP at a16z, shared the fundraising deck for a16z’s $660M GAMES FUND ONE. Key slides: 📌 1. Contextual overview of the industry: ↳ They framed the games industry as a powerful cultural force. Key examples included The Last of Us, Super Mario Movie, and Hogwarts Legacy. 📌 2. Technological relevance: ↳ Games as a driver for technological innovation (e.g., 3D, GPUs, virtual items) and a key player in emerging technologies like the metaverse and NFTs. 📌 3. “Why Now” slide: ↳ Emphasized the current tailwinds in the industry, like AI and its massive potential to reinvent core gameplay and tools. 📌 4. Investment focus: ↳ Initial focus on studios, Web3, and infrastructure, with a shift toward AI. This diversification showed their awareness of how to balance core areas with new opportunities. 📌 5. Operating team advantage: ↳ Highlighted the importance of their "games native" Operating Team, which helps portfolio companies with hiring, marketing, creators, and launching products. This was a significant differentiator, positioning a16z as a support-heavy fund. 📌 6. Strong hires from major companies: ↳ They showcased key hires from prominent gaming and entertainment companies like Supercell, YouTube, Riot, Twitch, and Unity to strengthen their operational team. 📌 7. Resilience in economic downturn: ↳ Emphasized how their operating team’s guidance helped portfolio companies navigate economic challenges, pointing to the resilience of the gaming market. 📌 8. Team mentality: ↳ A focus on a startup mindset within their team, with everyone acting as owners, and a willingness to innovate and adapt to challenges and opportunities. 📌 9. Call to join: ↳ They closed the deck by inviting others to join their initiative. Check it out >>>> #fundraising #limitedpartners #venturecapital #VC #founders #speedrun #gaming #web3 #funding #startups #investor #pitchdeck #LPdeck

9 startups that stood out on YC Demo Day 2: 📌 1. Entangl (YC S24) What it does: Detects errors in engineering projects, proposes solutions and can even implement them itself Founded by: Shapol M. and Antanas Žilinskas 📌 2. Exa Laboratories What it does: Energy-efficient chips for AI  Founded by: Elias Almqvist 📌 3. Kopra Bio What it does: Developing an autoimmune therapy that kills cancer Founded by: Andrew Bartynski, Alexander Haddad 📌 4. LedgerUp What it does: AI bookkeeper for startups Founded by: Joseph Johnson, Bailey Spell 📌 5. OrgOrg (YC S24) What it does: Offers a suite of productivity apps for growing organizations Founded by: Wayne Crosby 📌 6. Oway What it does: Carpooling for freight Founded by: Phillip Nadjafov 📌 7. Silurian AI What it does: Foundational model for predicting the weather Founded by: Jayesh K. Gupta Ph. D, Mark Baum, Nikhil Shankar, and Cristian Bodnar 📌 8. Theseus    What it does: Develops unjammable drones Founded by: Ian Laffey, Sacha Lévy, and Carl Schoeller 📌 9. XTraffic What it does: Reduces congestion and accidents with smart traffic lights Founded by: Everett Ivy, Luke Adams, Brian Payne Make sure to keep an eye on these up and coming startups! 🚀

Top 5 funding rounds of the week: 📌 1. Distyl AI - Develops AI-powered tools to automate complex workflows for large enterprises across industries like retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. Founded by: Arjun Prakash and Derek Ho Raised: $20 million in Series A funding. Previous investor Coatue participated in the round. 📌2. Jump - Provides freelancers access to benefits such as health insurance, sick leave, and retirement plans, typically reserved for full-time employees. Founded by: Nicolas Fayon Raised: $12.2 million in Series A funding. Investors included Breega, Index Ventures, and Raise Ventures. 📌 3. Letta - Helps AI models remember users and conversations, emerging from UC Berkeley’s startup factory. Founded by: Sarah Wooders and Charles Packer Raised: $10 million in seed funding led by Felicis’ Astasia Myers, with participation from Google’s Jeff Dean, Hugging Face’s Clem Delangue, Runway’s Cristóbal Valenzuela, and Anyscale’s Robert Nishihara. 📌 4. Ephos - Designs and manufactures glass-based photonic chips for applications like quantum computing, telecommunications, and high-speed data transfer. Founded by: Andrea Rocchetto Raised: $8.5 million in seed funding. Investors included Starlight Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Exor Ventures, 2100 Ventures, and Unruly Capital. 📌 5. Scribenote - AI-powered software designed for veterinarians to assist with note-taking and administrative tasks. Founded by: Ryan Gallagher Raised: $8.2 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Inovia Capital and the Velocity Fund. Congrats to everyone on the fresh funding! 👏

Part 2 of our Columbia University Mafia series is here! You prob know it as one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the U.S. It has also produced some of the most successful founders and startups in recent years. Some key facts about Colombia's entrepreneurial community: ➡️ Alumni have founded 3,232 companies & raised $93B  ➡️ Columbia Startup Lab is one of the oldest incubators in the U.S. ➡️ The university ranks among the top for producing venture-backed entrepreneurs We dug deeper to highlight some of the founders and companies emerging from Columbia’s Mafia. Here are 10 companies founded by Columbia alumni: 📌1. Odyssey Therapeutics Founder: Gary D. Glick Columbia University: PhD, Organic Chemistry (1983-1988) 📌2. SiliconBox Founder: BJ Han Columbia University: PhD 📌3. Human Longevity, Inc. Founder: Robert Hariri, MD, PhD Columbia University: A.B., Biological Anthropology (1976-1980) 📌4. Scorpion Therapeutics Founder: Gary D. Glick Columbia University: PhD, Organic Chemistry (1983-1988) 📌5. Tempo Founder: Joshua Augustin Columbia University: B.S., Computer Science (2013-2015) 📌 6. LifeMine Therapeutics Founder: Greg Verdine Columbia University: PhD, Chemistry (1981-1986) 📌 7. Odeko Founder: Dane Atkinson Columbia University: (1991-1993) 📌 8. BrightFarms Founder: Ted Caplow Columbia University: PhD, Environmental Engineering (2001-2004) 📌 9. Alloy Founder: Laura Spiekerman Columbia University: B.A., Political Science (2004-2008) 📌 10. Refinery29 Founder: Philippe von Borries Columbia University: — If there's anyone we've missed, please tag them below! ❗Quick plug: Are you a Columbia alumni member interested in bringing your community together to invest in innovative ventures (and enjoy potential profits and other perks along the way)? Or perhaps you're part of another dynamic group that could be a fantastic source of startup investments? 😉 Then sign up to our waitlist & newsletter for investors. https://www.getpin.xyz/ #columbiaalumni #startups #techmafia Link to full article in the comments.

Last week we covered Part 1 of our Columbia University Mafia series. Stay tuned for Part 2 this week. Quick sneak peek in case you missed the stats: 📌 3,232 companies founded 📌 $93 billion raised

Adam Nash, CEO of Daffy, is an influential leader in the fintech industry. ➡ Previously, he was the CEO of Wealthfront, where he helped revolutionize automated investment. ➡ He served as VP of Product and Growth at Dropbox. Adam Nash is also an active startup investor, here are some of his top investments: 🚀 Gusto (valued at $10B) 🚀 Figma (valued at $10B) 🚀 Varda Space Industries (valued at $500M) 🚀 Pinwheel (valued at $500M) 🚀 Titan (valued at $450M) 🚀 Column Tax (raised at $26.8M) 🚀 Atoms (raised at $18.7M) Those are some 🔥 investments right there!

What do the most successful venture capital firms have in common? Swipe to see 8 key lessons from top VCs >>> Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for investors for more! Link in the comments 👇

Top 5 funding rounds of the week: 📌 1. Orb - Provides billing software that integrates with QuickBooks and Stripe, helping teams streamline revenue operations and adapt pricing strategies Founded by: Alvaro Morales and Kshitij Grover Raised: $25 million in Series B funding. Investors included Mayfield, Uncorrelated Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Greylock Partners, South Park Commons, Basecase, and Scribble Ventures. 📌 2. Supermaven - Provides an AI-powered coding assistant that offers real-time suggestions, code completions, and error fixes for developers. Founded by: Jacob Jackson Raised: $12 million in seed funding. Investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, John Schulman (OpenAI co-founder), and Denis Yarats (Perplexity co-founder). 📌 3. e6data - Provides a high-performance compute engine for data lakes, helping businesses run analytics and AI workloads faster and at a lower cost. Founded by: Vishnu Vasanth Raised: $10 million in Series A funding. Investors included Accel and Beenext. 📌 4. smalt - Installs solar systems for both residential and commercial properties. Founded by: Marius Westhoff Raised: $8.9 million in pre-seed funding. Investors included Noa, General Catalyst, Owl Ventures, and Heartfelt. 📌 5. HowAbout.Tech - Social calendar app that helps friends easily plan and share events in one place, primarily designed for young people Founded by: Neil Tanna, Jake Jenner, and Duncan Cowan Raised: $8 million in Series A funding. Investors included Goodwater Capital, FJ Labs, Sequel, Harry Maguire, Boost Capital, and Angel Invest. Congrats to all on their funding success! 👏

Columbia University, one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the U.S., has produced some of the most successful founders and startups in recent years. With alumni behind unicorns like Warby Parker and Casper, the university’s startup ecosystem is thriving. Some key facts about Colombia's entrepreneurial community: ➡ Alumni have founded 3,232 companies & raised $93B  ➡ Columbia Startup Lab is one of the oldest incubators in the U.S. ➡ The university ranks among the top for producing venture-backed entrepreneurs We dug deeper to highlight some of the founders and companies emerging from Columbia’s Mafia. This is Part 1, and we will share Part 2 of the Columbia series next week! Here are 10 companies founded by Columbia alumni: 📌 1. Compass Founder: Robert Reffkin Columbia University: B.A., Economics-Philosophy and History (1997-1999) 📌 2. Pinterest Founder: Evan Sharp Columbia University: Architecture (2007-2009) 📌 3. Zymergen Founder: Zach Serber Columbia University: B.A., Biophysics (1992-1996) 📌 4. AvantStay Founder: Reuben Doetsch Columbia University: B.S., Computer Science & Philosophy (2007-2011) 📌 5. BuzzFeed Founder: John S. Johnson Columbia University: M.A., Research Methodology and Quantitative Methods (2011-2013) 📌 6. Shutterstock Founder: Jon Oringer Columbia University: M.S., Computer Science (1996-1998) 📌 7. Thumbtack Founder: Marco Zappacosta Columbia University: (2003-2007) 📌 8. Knotel Founder: Amol Sarva Columbia University: B.A., Economics and Philosophy (1994-1998) 📌 9. FogPharma Founder: Greg Verdine Columbia University: PhD, Chemistry (1981-1986) 📌 10. Spring Health Founder: April Koh Columbia University: Advanced French Language (2011) If there's anyone we've missed, please tag them below! ❗Quick plug: Are you a Columbia alumni member interested in bringing your community together to invest in innovative ventures (and enjoy potential profits and other perks along the way)? Or perhaps you're part of another dynamic group that could be a fantastic source of startup investments? 😉 Then sign up to our waitlist & newsletter for investors. https://www.getpin.xyz/  #columbiaalumni #startups #techmafia