Touring Capital

📣 Join us in celebrating the whole team at Numa, as they announce their $32M Series B led by Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and us at Touring Capital, with participation from existing investors Costanoa Ventures, Threshold Ventures, and Gradient! Numa is transforming the AI-native auto dealership by putting intelligent AI agents into every facet of dealership operations. From resurfacing missed calls and booking service appointments to coordinating inter-departmental tasks, Numa’s platform redefines how dealerships engage with customers. Numa provides a seamless, stress-free experience that enhances loyalty and drives profitability. Read more about Numa and why Touring invested on our blog linked below! Plus, don’t miss Numa at the Digital Dealer Conference & Expo from October 8-10 at booth 707 #DDCE24 

Remember the days when we had more than two mobile operating systems (Google + Apple)? Nagraj Kashyap predicts that we will see a similar consolidation trend with LLMs, and only a few major players – likely OpenAI and a couple more – will dominate the market With the commoditization of LLMs, venture dollars will shift towards other parts of the stack like Vertical AI apps. To learn more about the next wave of GenAI innovation, check out the highlights from Hg’s Software Leadership Gathering: https://lnkd.in/eGaATD9b

Some may say that the AI hype bubble has popped. LLMs can be unreliable, and chatbots often hallucinate. At Touring, we believe that hidden among the generative AI hype cycle, many impactful advancements in artificial intelligence are worth our attention because their applications have a tangible impact on their industries. A few we’re excited about include: 🔶 “Embodied” multimodal AI: By learning from interacting with the real physical world, simulations can teach and train robots, particularly using generative video models. 🔶 AI for science:  Generative AI, LLMs, and foundation models are being applied to scientific R&D to accelerate healthcare, drug discovery, and materials science, and create better physics simulations. 🔶 Cybersecurity solutions: Driven by AI, these solutions are designed to protect and harden AI deployments. Generative AI and foundation models can then detect and mitigate cyber threats more efficiently. As AI continues to evolve, we expect advances like these will drive significant progress toward putting AI to real work.

The team at Daloopa knows a thing or two about true product-led growth. For them, growth is not about ‘hooking’ a customer with flashy strategies, but about building a product that is so valuable that buyers are at a disadvantage if they don’t use it. Daloopa Co-founder and CEO Thomas Li explains: “Product-led growth is less of the traditional, ‘How do I create these elements to hook the customer or get them to convert?’ It’s more of, ‘How do I create a product that is so good that it’s essentially mission-critical? Because not using our product will create a competitive disadvantage.” Watch the full video to hear more about what product elements really matter to this Touring portfolio company.

The Chief of Staff role can be polarizing for early-stage startups. This strategic role is incredibly valuable, but not every startup needs one. When we speak to our founders about which key hires they need to make, we remind them that there’s no one-size-fits-all ‘best of breed’ definition for what a Chief of Staff should look like. The job description depends on the startup’s stage: ✔️ Early stage: Because the team is small and scrappy, the Chief of Staff acts more as an assistant to the founders. At this stage, Executive Assistants are more important. Hire that EA! ✔️ Series B and beyond: This is where the Chief of Staff role becomes more strategic. This role serves as the CEO’s right hand and as a vital member of the executive team, helping to inform company-wide decisions, prepare communications for board meetings, and push forward special projects. Regardless of the funding stage, the key to making the most of hiring a Chief of Staff is providing them with the clear KPIs and tools needed to be successful. Founders, when was the right time to hire a Chief of Staff at your company?

When we invested in SafeBase, we were drawn to the team’s commitment to earning trust through transparency. With a background working with healthcare systems, Al Yang has a deep understanding of the historical pain points in security reviews. Listen as Al discusses how the team at SafeBase is turning the complexities of security reviews into a seamless experience and providing security leaders with the right tools to balance risk and reward confidently. https://lnkd.in/eXVfmDCW

📣 A very exciting week lies ahead for our very own Priya Saiprasad and Evan Wijaya, as they head to Darwin, Australia, to join over 100 VC partners at Venture Downunder! We’re looking forward to the conversations that will offer a global perspective on topics like: – Geopolitics and investing – Market trends – Fundraising Strategies A big thank you to Innovation Bay for putting on this event! Stay tuned for highlights and key takeaways we’ll share after the event. Will we see you there? Let us know in the comments below!  #IBVDU24

Over the next decade, Millennials and Gen Z will represent almost 80% of the workforce. Millennials are values-driven, seek work/life integration, are concerned about environmental impacts and the state of the world, and are looking for employers who will empower them. They are rising through the ranks across organizations and making buying decisions about which software solutions their companies will leverage. These tech-savvy (or even tech-native) buyers have high expectations for the software they use at work, just like they do for the user-friendly apps they grew up with in their personal lives. So how has this rise in younger generations at work changed the software industry? From an organizational procurement perspective, individual business users from every team want control over the individual pieces of software they use. With this shift, the traditional long, wine-and-dine software sales process is turning into a more efficient product-influenced sales motion. The end buyer has done their research before even entering the buying stage, and they know what they want. The outcome of this product-led growth shift? 🚀 The formal sales processes will continue to shrink (the product sells itself) 💲 Product pricing paradigms need to shift in a world where the end-user controls the purchasing decision Software is becoming increasingly democratized, and we have the Millennials and Gen Z-ers to thank for it! 

Entering a new market can be challenging for any company, regardless of age or stage. 🌏 For our portfolio companies and potential partners considering international expansion, our best advice is to be very strategic about the timing and preparation for entering new markets. Ask yourself: ▪ Does my company have a strong foundation at home? Do we have consistent growth and stable operations?  ▪ Have we tested the TAM in the region? What’s the buyer’s appetite and capacity for my solution there?  ▪ Do we fully understand the new market's dynamics, including customer needs, competitive landscape, and regulatory environment? ▪ Do we have a plan for implementing strong HR policies related to hiring, firing, promotion, and retention that work in the new geo? You only get one chance, so how you launch matters! Any other pieces of advice for founders interested in expanding internationally? Share them in the comments. 

We’re proud to share that we’ve added two new Venture Partners to the Touring Capital team. Welcome Ray Cao and Abhi Kumar! Our relationship with Ray and Abhishek has developed over the years, from close connections with Touring’s past and present portfolio companies to working with our general partners at M12. Heading into our one-year anniversary, we are thrilled to have them join us in uncovering the next generation of category-defining companies! Read more about the news on our blog: https://lnkd.in/erh7X-zP CC: Priya Saiprasad, Nagraj Kashyap, Samir Kumar, Evan Wijaya,