RESRG

Generative AI is hella popular for report writing and code optimization, but many managers and directors still overlook how AI can facilitate risk assessments within their business plans and strategic decisions. Risk managers, you're probably nodding, right? AI-driven tools can seriously double-click on assumptions, help navigate tradeoffs, and explore alternatives. Using chatbots to test scenarios and impacts keeps things legit by cutting out the biases, personal interests and emotional conflicts that sneak into company plans. Also, co-thinking with AI is fuego for digging into the root causes of risk incidents and seeing the ripple impacts on stakeholders. Shoutout to Elisa Farri and Gabriele Rosani at Capgemini for the insightful convo on using generative AI to validate and set strategic plans. Illustrative prompt Prompt: Analyzing Misclassification Risks and Impacts in Predictive Models for Client Solvency Evaluation Objective: As an experienced AI risk manager, assess the risks and stakeholder impacts of potential misclassification errors within a predictive risk model that evaluates client solvency. This model, with a 97% accuracy rate, is used to decide on the eligibility of clients—including large and mid-size private businesses, US Federal and State agencies, and EU public companies—to purchase advisory services for physical security monitoring software installations. The primary focus of this analysis is on solvent clients who may be incorrectly classified as high-risk, leading to unjust denial of access to the monitoring software and advisory services. Analysis Requirements: Identify Key Misclassification Risks: False Negatives: Detail scenarios where the model could incorrectly classify a solvent client as high-risk, resulting in denial of advisory services and monitoring software. Outline potential factors contributing to these errors (e.g., data biases, insufficient financial indicators, or lack of sector-specific data). Specific Affected Stakeholder Groups: Identify particular characteristics of stakeholders—such as unique industry attributes or organizational structures (e.g., government agencies or public EU companies)—that might make them more vulnerable to such misclassifications. Impact on Fundamental Rights: Right to Fair Treatment: Examine how a misclassification resulting in denied service could be viewed as a violation of the right to fair treatment, especially if certain industries, regions, or demographic groups are disproportionately affected. Economic Exclusion and Reputational Damage: Discuss the economic and reputational consequences for the rejected entities, especially if a denial implies a false perception of insolvency or financial instability. Operational Disruption: Consider how denial of the monitoring software might hinder an organization’s ability to maintain necessary security protocols, especially for critical infrastructure entities or government agencies. .. More..

Please STOP chasing funding without a plan. I see too many founders with big dreams but no fundamentals. If you want to raise capital, do this at each stage: 1. Pre-Seed: Focus on developing your MVP and proving technical feasibility 2. Seed: Validate product-market fit and establish early traction 3. Series A: Implement a scalable go-to-market strategy and grow your customer base 4. Series B: Expand your addressable market and optimize operations For example: → Conduct user testing to refine your MVP → Survey customers to identify key pain points → Hire experienced sales leaders to scale revenue → Invest in infrastructure to support rapid growth You will build a fundable startup by methodically decreasing risk at each stage rather than just chasing the next round. Do that consistently and watch your valuation soar. -- ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost it so your network can learn from it, too. And follow me, Chris Tottman, for more content like this. #BrainDumps 🧠 💩 // Brain Dump #37

#Brand! It's what people say when you're not there (thanks, Jeff Bezos). Your brand is your most efficient salesperson—it keeps working even when you're offline. And when you harness the internet’s scale, it becomes a force multiplier. This data visualization dives into how top brands achieve that. Interbrand ranks brands based on three key factors: financial performance, influence on buying decisions, and brand strength. Curious to hear your thoughts! Credit: James Eagle

The Complete Founder's Guide To Creating and Presenting a Pitch Deck.... Pitch deck has one purpose - to drive enough interest to schedule a meeting. That’s it. And the goal of the first meeting is to get another meeting. So as a founder it's important to build the right pitch deck and present the right things in the first call. The attached pdf will give you an idea on building the right pitch deck and how to present to investors. It includes: 1️⃣ The “Best” Pitch Deck Template What slides to include. Scalable: 5-30 slide deck options. 2️⃣ Slides Example 3️⃣ What to include on each slide 4️⃣ Top Pitch Deck Guidelines 5️⃣ Before The Pitch 6️⃣ How To Pitch Effectively 7️⃣ Top Investor Questions : Company and Capital raising questions. Things to remember while fundraising: → There are no right number of slides, only critical points you need to cover! → Be 10x better (at one thing vs. doing 10x more things). Being 2-3x better isn’t good enough! → Focus on your customers #1 problem, not 10th problem → Prepare yourself for rejection, ask why and learn (don’t take it personally) → Biggest competition to raising capital: Companies with equally great (or better) ideas and teams, but more traction at your stage (If you were a VC, which would you pick?) → Best Opportunity: A big growing market, with a big problem, and an elegant solution, where you can achieve LTV > CAC → You don’t know, the market does! Ask often. Read more in attached pdf 👇 Found this helpful? Give it a like, share your thoughts in the comments, and share in your network. 💫 For more insights, check out my free newsletter and Join 62000+ founders & investors: https://lnkd.in/dPtZDpv8 . Thanks J. Skyler Fernandes for sharing this. #startups #pitch #founders #fundraising #guide #fund #funding #pitchdeck #venturecapital #angelinvestors #investors

Top 10 fundraising resources for startup founders: 1. The essentials of a killer pitch deck by Hustle Fund: https://lnkd.in/drHRWqm8 3. How to run your first meeting with a VC: https://lnkd.in/dXwpPR94 4. How to pitch to investors by Product Market Fit: https://lnkd.in/d5NpN8yC 5. 7 Rejections by Brian Chesky: https://lnkd.in/dRmJbMbM 6. Pitch the way VCs think by Khosla Ventures: https://lnkd.in/d8BN8yXT 7. Creandum's seed Deck Template: https://lnkd.in/d2MM7txc 8. Linkedin's Series B Pitch Deck: https://lnkd.in/d_3iX2xs 9. Who makes the decision at a VC firm and how the decision gets made by Mark Suster: https://lnkd.in/dGRrV2r6 10. 20 Startup investors lists: https://lnkd.in/dUfTRwiv

#learningdispatch #entrepreneurship #startup #fundraising #investing #strategy #management #venturecapital

I’ve been teaching young tech leaders about how to talk about AI this week, so I made a collection of 25 talks from some of the world’s top CEO’s, storytellers and scientists to help.   Here are 13 things we discovered from these talks that could help anyone to TELL BETTER STORIES at work. (Some break the rules of traditional storytelling advice)...   🧠 Too many tech speakers use language which doesn’t resonate with an audience. They over-index on “left-brain” language that <informs, educates & solves problems> rather than building trust and empathy first; using “right brain” language that <inspires, entertains & challenges> .   💬 “You shouldn’t speak faster than 140 words a minute”. Really? OpenAI’s Greg Brockman speaks over 180 but the readability score of his talk is so low that the audience can still keep up.   📱 “Never read notes, especially NOT from your phone”. OK, try telling that to Eliezer Yudkowsky. He broke most rules of presenting but his 6 minute talk has been enjoyed by almost 2M people.   📺 Great speakers have a strong ‘Cold Open’. First 30 seconds. “I'm excited to share a few spicy thoughts on AI…” Yejin Choi.   🎬 Tell the audience what you’re about to tell them first: “I'm going to talk about a failure of intuition that many of us suffer from…” Sam Harris   📚 To talk about the future you need to understand the past. AI speakers need to understand why leaders like John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky and Geoffrey Hinton are so influential.   ⛔️ Media trained communicators use the world “BUT” regularly to create engaging contrasts within their talk. Hannah Fry (every 58 sec). Liv Boeree (every 42 sec).   💭 28% appear to have an INTJ personality type (Introverted Thinkers). Controversial PoV? Understanding personality type can help you pick which speakers to emulate, based on who has a similar personality to you.   ⚖️ Corporate messaging might seem generic on paper, but see how speakers make it their own. Compare similar data but very different talks: Arvind & Rob (IBM), Satya & Mustafa (Microsoft), Sam & Greg (OpenAI).   🤷🏽♀️ People are not persuaded by what you say but by what they understand. Geoffrey Hinton shows how even the most technical talks can still be easily understood. (Readability scores are important).   🌈 I created an “Optimism Index” using an LLM to compare talks and see how attitudes are changing over time. Most optimistic: Sir Demis Hassabis. Least: Sam Harris. No surprise there. 🤣   🐝 Compare Sundar (Google) & Arvind (IBM). Identical “RHETORIC” but one talk appears 4X more ‘entertaining’ than the other.   ❓ Need to engage an audience quickly? Ask a question straight away. “How many of you are creatives, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists…?” Maurice Conti   💙 If you measure the success of a talk by engagement (views/likes) then the more “PATHOS” (emotional language) the higher your chances of success. Most watched talks were all above 22%.   Fascinating stuff….

The hard thing about building a new business/startup is to keep the focus 💡 Many startups struggle with deciding what ICP they want to serve because they don’t want to miss out on any potential revenues. However, they end up creating Frankenstein products that try to work for everyone but in the end aren’t the best for anyone. In order to avoid this👇 1. Focus on the problem you want to solve 2. Define your ICP clearly: start with a small market and then move on to a broader one 3. Prioritize ruthlessly: learn to say no to customers that ask for features that aren’t solving the initial problem. Share with other entrepreneurs if you found this valuable 🚀

New Accenture report on data readiness for GenAI: (+enterprise examples, summary page 21) Brief: Accenture’s new report, drawing from insights on “1,800+ GenAI projects”, outlines data essentials with real-world examples and actions for data executives to improve readiness. Breakdown: 1\ Nearly half (48%) of 2,000 CXOs surveyed in 2024 indicated their enterprises lack the high-quality data needed to operationalize GenAI effectively. 2\ GenAI yields the greatest impact when powered by an enterprises proprietary data, as seen in BBVA’s new digital sales model. 3\ Unstructured formats like text, images, audio, and video hold significant untapped potential for AI, as demonstrated by Fortune’s data analysis improvements. 4\ Synthetic data can help fill gaps in data cost-effectively and reduce biases. An end-to-end data foundation breaks down silos, like Accenture’s GenAI platform for BMW. 5\ GenAI can accelerate data-related risks (legal, reputational or both). For mitigation, enterprises can establish Responsible AI principles, conduct risk assessments, and other data strategies. 6\ Applying GenAI to a firm’s data can improve readiness (for instance, summarizing and classifying business data requirements, and generating test cases/synthetic data) 7\ Accenture's data readiness recommendations include identifying differentiated data (e.g. McDonald's), evolving architecture (e.g. Databricks and Snowflake), and using GenAI to streamline data (e.g. Cencora) 8\ “Agentic generative AI workflows—coupled with responsible AI frameworks and centralized data management and governance—are the path to success" - SVP, PepsiCo Why it's important: GenAI is changing data, further raising its importance and creating new enterprise requirements. Accenture’s insights offer a starting point for improving data readiness. P.S. Report below and here: https://lnkd.in/eXAbNQ-Q --- ♻️ Repost this to help your network! 📌 Want more insights like this? Get on the list: https://lnkd.in/eJ6QQeru

"Our local angel / pre-seed investors don't use SAFEs so founders shouldn't ask for them" Well, maybe. But the data shows otherwise. We just released our State of Pre-Seed Q3 2024 report for startups raising pre-seed capital. All the latest market information for things like valuation caps, discounts, fundraising tools, dilution, angel checks...lots of charts. Head to the comments for a link to the full thing! One of the biggest questions I get whenever we put out new info on pre-seed: is all this talk of SAFEs just a Silicon Valley thing? Or are investors across the country actually using these instruments as well? Data below is from 55,000+ SAFEs and Convertible Notes signed between Jan 2022 and Aug 2024. All signed by pre-priced round startups using Carta (most of those are using our free tier known as Carta Launch btw). 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄? It's true that mature venture ecosystems like Silicon Valley and New York use more SAFEs than other parts of the country. But it's pretty clear that SAFEs are the default instrument for pre-seed funding in just about every major metro area across the US. And if we segmented the data to just 2024, the percentages are even higher. 𝗡𝗼𝘄 - 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴? There are definitely problems with SAFEs. They don't include many protections for investors should the company in question never raise a priced round. They don't have much in the way of rights attached upfront (although you can solve that with a side letter). They can get overused by founders who should really moved to priced equity instead of raising their third round on SAFEs. But in general I think they are a net positive for many early-stage ecosystems. Other quick stats: • SAFEs in 2024: 58% valuation cap only, 34% val cap + discount, 8% discount only. • 88% post-money, 12% pre-money • Median post-money val cap for $1M raise is currently $10M • Median discount (when there is one): 20% • Yes, AI companies typically have higher val caps and bigger rounds • No, convertible notes have not made a comeback Share with your pre-seed founder friends! #startups #preseed #SAFEs #founders #fundraising If you crave more startup data - subscribe to weekly data bursts at the link in graphic