Red Bike Capital’s Post

Thrilled to share: Jay Estefani C. of m]x[v has been recognized by NYC founders as a top founder- focused investor! Forum Ventures recently invited founders to nominate investors who've been pivotal in their entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing a founder-centric approach. Our deepest gratitude goes to: - Forum Ventures for championing a founder-first venture ecosystem - The visionary founders who took the time to nominate - All recognized investors for their unwavering support through highs and lows This recognition underscores our commitment to fostering symbiotic founder-investor relationships. It's about more than capital—it's about partnership, mentorship, and shared success. To building a venture landscape where founders and investors thrive together. Nick Adams - Differential Ventures, Lisa Burton O'Toole, PhD - Hearst Lab, Richard Odior - Zeal Capital Partners, Alex Hornick - Purple Sage Ventures, Lauren Reeves - MGV, Ashley Ryder - Vamos Ventures, Jeremy Kagan - Textbook Ventures, Jesse Middleton - Flybridge, Stephan Cizmar - Lorimer Ventures, Vivin Hegde - Zacua Ventures, Iynna Halilou - The MBA Fund, Owen Willis- Opal Ventures, Jeffrey Silverman - Laconia Capital Group, Shashi Srikantan - Level Up Ventures, Rachel ten Brink - Red Bike Capital, Moshe Bellows- Maccabee Ventures, Wyeth Coulter - Point72 Ventures, Claire Goldsmith- BoxGroup, Eric Ong - Lightbank, Adam G. - 640 Oxford, Ilan Abehassera - Origins Ventures, Megan Ruan - GoldHouse Ventures, Charles Hudson - Precursor Ventures, and Jenny Fielding - Everywhere Ventures #VentureCapital #FounderSupport #NYCTech #StartupEcosystem

As an emerging manager, the most important thing for us is to be close to our founders and hopefully add a little bit of value. So having some validation that it is actually working, is deeply satisfying. Thanks Forum Ventures for including us in the list "List of the top NYC Founder-First Investors" I am thankful for this recognition and for the great founders we get to support. Nothing is more satisfying than being a part of their journey. And this couldn't be possible without my amazing co-founders Mauricio Tessi Weiss and Juan N. who would would definitely be on any such list in Europe / Asia Honored to be alongside some other rockstar investors: Shashi Srikantan from Level Up Ventures, Iynna Halilou from The MBA Fund, Nick Adams from Differential Ventures, Lisa Burton O'Toole, PhD - HearstLab, Richard Odior - Zeal Capital Partners, Alex Hornick - Purple Sage Ventures, Lauren Reeves - MGV.VC, Ashley Ryder - Vamos Ventures, Jeremy Kagan - Textbook Ventures, Jesse, Stephan Cizmar - Lorimer Ventures, Jeffrey Silverman - Laconia Capital Group, Rachel ten Brink - Red Bike Capital , Wyeth Coulter - Point72 Ventures, Eric Ong - Lightbank, Ilan Abehassera - Origins Ventures, Jay Estefani C. - MXV Capital Ventures, Charles Hudson - Precursor Ventures, Jenny Fielding - Everywhere Ventures 🙏 Kait Stephens Paulina Szegda, Michael Cardamone See full list here: https://lnkd.in/gzbdgG3Q #venturecapital #founders #startups Zacua Ventures #construction #contech #sustainability #ai

When the stars align: Last night, a constellation of VC marketing masterminds emerged from the doors of their storied firms to gather in the Khosla Ventures' garden. When this crew comes together, magic happens! Thanks to Shernaz Daver at Khosla Ventures, Shannon Brayton at Bessemer Venture Partners and Allie Cefalo from Kleiner Perkins for hosting last night. It’s not often that so many of us can come together as a group, but it’s always a treat! (Sorry to miss those of you who couldn't make it.) Mandy Kakavas, GV (Google Ventures) Melissa Chaika Sobel, CapitalG Krista Canfield McNish, CRV Nicole Pack, Venrock Caroline Caswell, Operator Collective 🔆 Reze Wong, Khosla Ventures Shernaz Daver, Khosla Ventures Allie Cefalo, Kleiner Perkins Shannon Brayton, Bessemer Venture Partners Elena Tico, Bessemer Venture Partners Nikki Horn, Bessemer Venture Partners Hillá Watkins, Scale Venture Partners Ana Andreescu, Index Ventures Tiffany Spencer, Menlo Ventures (Will try to tag everyone later!)

The REAL Investors = always bring in a Dollar+ Value into the business Money = Commodity, & smart founders will always be able to raise rounds, but bringing the ‘Right Investors’ who add $+ Value is THE GAME. Back in 2021 when we were just getting started - Huddle Ventures was one of our earliest believers. From crazy brainstorming to > customer access > preparing our 1st pitch & eventually > raising our first round — we had a lot of fun building our 0-1 with the folks at Huddle (they were an accelerator back then) They’re out with their Fund II now & will be backing the next generation of entrepreneurs. If you’re a founder building an early-stage venture - feel free to reachout to them at Huddle Ventures or email them on sanil@huddleventures.vc 🚀 Sanil Sachar | Ishaan Khosla | Sarthak Rastogi

“if we are not standing up in [a founder’s] wedding, we’ve failed.” This quote by Ludlow Ventures' Jonathon Triest is everything that's "good" in venture capital. I was born and raised in the same Detroit community, “midwestern nice" is real and I love that it's part of my DNA. They have a saying where I grew up. "Once a Detroiter, always a Detroiter." Drives my wife crazy. I haven't found many venture capital firms that have these type of people. Then again, there are as of February, more than 500 firms in the US alone. It's a great article by TechCrunch and gives a glimpse at Treist's mantra, how they've grown, and some of their early successful calls in founders. I've been thinking about other VC people that have similar Midwestern qualities and vision in investing. I'd love to find more of them. If you know one, please share their profiles in the comments. I'd love to follow them and get to know and learn from them. Recently I think I've found a founder friendly investor in Jeff Becker of Antler. I don't know Jeff, however I like what I read on his blog and here on LinkedIn. Who else embodies similar qualities? #startups #vc #founders

Money makes money Joe Montana and Ashton Kutcher make more investments than any other celebrities — and mint more unicorns. Since 2020, Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures has invested in a whopping 10 of today’s unicorns — including Airbyte (currently valued at $1.5B), Pipe ($2B), and Whatnot ($3.7B) — before they reached $1B+ valuations. During that time, Kutcher’s Sound Ventures bet on 5 companies that went on to become unicorns. The top-performing celebrity investors have made investing into a repeatable business. The top 5 in our ranking have all set up their own VC funds to complement their individual investing activity. Alongside Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures and Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, these include The Chainsmokers’ MANTIS, Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners, and Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures. Mindy Kaling beats out other top celebrities in terms of her current investments’ Mosaic scores, which have an average score of 883 out of 1,000. CB Insights’ Mosaic score measures emerging startups’ health and growth potential using signals like companies’ commercial traction and their management teams.

NY based VC Era Ventures launches its inaugural $88 million fund #Era Ventures, a New York City-based #VC firm dedicated to driving positive change in the built environment, has launched its inaugural $88 million fund. Founded by industry veteran Managing Partner Clelia Warburg Peters and joined by Partner Raja Ghawi, the firm focuses on investing across multiple stages in innovations that span from enablement technologies to disruptive platforms within the sector. The new fund has garnered support from a diverse group of investors, including one of the country's leading Ivy League endowments, ICG Advisors, LLC, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, The Ashforth Company, BGO, Continental General Insurance Company (CGIC), Pelwood Holdings, First American, Bain Capital Ventures, and law firm Fenwick & West LLP. Era Ventures aims to capitalize on seven core business models that are transforming the industry, such as SaaS and AI solutions, marketplaces, embedded #fintech, and hardtech ventures optimizing physical assets. The firm has already made significant investments through Fund I in companies like Honey Homes, Shepherd, Truehold, Homeward and Indigo. With her extensive background in PropTech—as a co-founder of MetaProp and a former Venture Partner at Bain Capital Ventures—Clelia Warburg Peters brings a wealth of experience to Era Ventures. The firm's mission is to foster innovation across the built world by supporting a new era of founders who are reshaping the industry through technology and innovative business models. The article on #VCwiretech in the first comment.

From all of us at Latinas in Tech - Chicago, congratulations to Chingona Ventures & Samara Mejia Hernandez for five years of leadership, learnings, and success across #chicagotech and #venture. 👏 🎉 🌎 When we talk about innovators paving the path for underrepresented entrepreneurs and tech professionals, this 👆 is what we mean. When less than 3% of total US venture capital (VC) funding goes to Black & Latino founders, and only 0.1% to Black and Latina women founders 🤯, we know we have a formidable challenge requiring stakeholders from across the ecosystem. So, what should we do with this inspiration? 🤔 I, for one, want to elevate organizations in Chicago doing the work: 1871, P33 Chicago, and GET Cities, just for starters! And, of course, you know I'm dropping Latinas in Tech - Chicago and Latinas in Tech ✨. We're an industry leader in empowering Latinas in tech, offering resources, community, and programming. Congratulations again Chingona Ventures! Can't wait to see what your team accomplishes next! 🚀 #chicagotech #chicagostartups #latinasintech

A must-read interview in TechCrunch! Keith Rabois is a legend in the realms of start-ups and venture capital. Returning to Khosla Ventures, after 4 years at Peter Thiel's Founders Fund is an interesting move. Yes, Khosla Ventures is a tremendously successful name brand led by a multi-decade legend in #siliconvalley who recently raised $3.1 billion for early through growth venture capital fund strategies, but LPs have indicated risks of being a dependent "one-person show" versus Founders Fund's partnership of several venture investment partners. Either way, it will be interesting to track this development, as I see Keith Rabois teaming up with Vinod Khosla akin to Luke Skywalker and Yoda. TC: Congrats on the move, though it was never crystal clear why you left Khosla Ventures in the first place after spending six years there. KR: The real reason is really simple. I hated coming down from SF to Sand Hill Road, and KV at the time — this obviously was pre-COVID — had a very strong in-person, one-office culture and it was pretty demanding from the top down that people should be in the office at least three or four days. And I just felt that the future of venture was more distributed. I remember talking to Sam Altman about the pros and cons of leaving KV for Founders Fund, which was in San Francisco; I was like, “Am I crazy to factor in this geographic commute stuff?” And he was like, “Look, every single study on human happiness suggests the single best predictor is inverse correlation to commute time, and you’re human, and you shouldn’t be shy about that.” #fundmanagers #siliconvalley #venturecapital #teams #partnerships #fundraising #founders #entrepreneurs