Tuan Ho

Can poop save the planet? 🤔 Well, in Silicon Valley, it's not just a punchline—it's a multimillion-dollar climate solution. Big players are teaming up with startup Vaulted Deep, paying $58.3 million, to pump organic waste underground. The deal was brokered by Frontier Climate, a coalition launched in 2022 by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability. But why are tech giants getting their hands dirty with sewage and manure? Vaulted Deep's technology, rooted in decades-old methods used for oil and gas fracking cleanup, gives them an edge. But instead of sludge, they're tackling carbon-rich waste, aiming to sequester CO2 underground. They plan to sequester 152,480 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027 as part of the deal (That equates to 36,000 gas cars off the road for a year). Is this greenwashing, or a silver bullet? Critics warn of cost, the need for rigorous carbon accounting, and potential environmental trade-offs - i.e. emission prevention versus carbon removal. #decarbonization

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Super helpful article and accompanying doc with a #Startup #Equity Calculator to determine the equity for early hires, thanks to Pear VC head of talent Matt Birnbaum! Thanks for sharing Pejman Nozad! 🙏🏼 You can read more here How to structure startup equity for early hires: https://lnkd.in/ggmpT5-Y Google Doc: https://lnkd.in/gjsvths6

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Wonderful article about Emily Knight and the whole The Engine Accelerator team on the amazing work their doing changing the world with #ToughTech!

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Startup founders, you don't have to do it alone! Apply now to join the Techstars Boston Accelerator and gain access to our extensive network! We are looking to select 12 high-growth startups to participate in our 13-week Techstars Boston accelerator program kicking off in September -- apply now or tag a founder below who you think might be a good fit!  https://lnkd.in/gbi3hAGi #startups #founders #entrepreneurs #boston 

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Reflecting on the current state of pre-seed from my perspective. Here are some key observations from recent weeks: 🏃‍♂️ Seed and Series A funds are showing increased activity in pre-seed. ⏮ Pre-emptive seed rounds are on the rise, as more funds at later stages aim to secure promising startups early on, preventing them from slipping away. 🛰 Series A rounds are picking up momentum, US funds are taking a more active approach to Europe (a consistent theme over the past few years). 🌶 Hot sectors in the UK pre-seed scene include Cybersecurity, Robotics, Energy, and Fintech, with AI remaining a prominent player despite its broad scope. Excited to see if anything changes next month. Am certainly seeing more activity and later-stage funds comfortable taking more risk earlier on for a cheaper and secured stake in said companies. ✌️

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NY friends! Please come see me at Tech Day on my panel discussing the future of the NY tech ecosystem and what I hope to bring to it!

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Next week is NY Tech Week, and on Wednesday, I'll be co-hosting TechWalk at 2 PM in Central Park. More details here: https://lnkd.in/eFey-aBd I look forward to connecting and chatting about the dynamic world of early-stage startup investing, go-to-market strategies, and the venture capital ecosystem. As a Venture Fellow at Fordham Angel Fund (FAF), I bring hands-on experience evaluating startups, conducting market analysis, and developing go-to-market strategies. Let's discuss founder due diligence, growth hacking techniques, and the nuances of crafting effective term sheets. I'm also passionate about discussing programs like Vencapital and Venture Cooperative that support minorities and women breaking into VC. Additionally, I'd love to share insights on content creation and storytelling from my experience hosting a YouTube podcast. If you're interested in personal branding, networking, or leveraging LinkedIn for career growth, let's connect! Join me for a walk and chat about the global business landscape, embracing diversity, and adapting to new environments. See you there! #NYTechWeek #TechWalk #Startups #VentureCapital #ContentCreation #PersonalBranding #Networking #GlobalBusiness #DiversityInVC

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🗽🌳 Exciting News for NYC Tech Community! 🚀 Join us for an invigorating Venture Walk & Talk, proudly part of NY Tech Week! Scheduled for June 4th from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM at the scenic Maine Monument in Central Park, this unique event is hosted by Founders Committee Ventures. 🌟 Why Join Us? Imagine a relaxed stroll through the beautiful pathways of Central Park, where you can disconnect from the digital world and engage with NYC’s finest founders, angel investors, and venture capitalists. This is more than just a walk; it’s an opportunity to forge meaningful connections, share innovative ideas, and enjoy the great outdoors—all within the heart of Manhattan. ✨ Event Highlights: - Network with industry leaders and peers - Brainstorm new ideas in a refreshing setting - Enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of Central Park Whether you’re looking to collaborate on new projects, explore potential investments, or simply enjoy a break from the office routine, the Venture Walk & Talk is the perfect occasion. 👉 Registration is open but spots are limited and approval is required. Don’t miss out on this chance to be part of something special during #TechWeek. Lace up your walking shoes, grab a coffee, and let’s make strides together in the tech ecosystem! 🔗 https://lu.ma/wj9o67iy See you there for a breath of fresh innovation! #NYTechWeek #TechNetworking #StartupLife #VentureCapital

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Exciting news! We just sent out the inaugural newsletter for Future Frontier Capital, our pre-seed venture fund backing frontier tech startups. As I hit "send," I realized how launching FFC parallels the path of the founders we support. Starting FFC has required the same passion, perseverance, and self-belief that drive entrepreneurs. Just like a startup, getting a VC fund off the ground demands relentless hustle—building the brand, perfecting the pitch, and networking tirelessly. There are constant challenges that test your resolve and endless hours of unglamorous work behind the scenes. And perhaps most daunting - the self-doubt, wondering if you're crazy for attempting something so bold. Pushing through that negative self-talk requires unshakable faith in your mission. Raising this VC fund reminds me of starting our IP strategy and patent analytics firm two decades ago. It’s a powerful reminder of the perseverance, creativity, and resilience needed to turn an ambitious idea into reality. This experience makes us more empathetic partners, ready to support the founders we back. Our work is just beginning, and this inaugural newsletter underscores our commitment to supporting frontier tech startups every step of the way. #startups #VentureCapital #EmergingManagers #Entrepreneurship #InnovationMindSet

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I couldn't agree less with this article. In my view, AI will change the world as much as, if not more than the internet did...which is a lot. '60s computer scientist Roy Amara said it best: “we overestimate the impact of technology in the short-term and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Both Altman and the author are falling victim to this blind spot, but to me, it seems far more dangerous to underestimate the impact and get blindsided by the change than it is to be slightly overzealous on estimating the rate of change. #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #Innovation #cdntech [Read more](https://lnkd.in/gJWwyFZR)

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Cost-effective geothermal energy has the ability to fully transition and decarbonize our grids and industrial systems - in the near term! We believe the team and technology at XGS Energy will realize this vision and we couldn't be happier to be working with them on a geothermal-powered reality.

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For NY Tech Week we'll be demo-ing Substrate at the South Park Commons Science Faire on Thursday: https://lnkd.in/e5JwDKKX There are so many incubator-shaped things out there these days, but there's nothing quite like SPC. It's like a chill, small-batch, locally-sourced alternative to YC, where you can either hang out as a member forever - or choose the VC-funded adventure. The -1 to 0 phase [0] they talk about at SPC is real, and it made a real difference for us to have a home at SPC. It takes a lot to quit your job and do something new, especially when it isn't entirely clear what you're doing. (1) Do it – take the leap! and (2) consider joining SPC. Though the core vision has remained the same, many of the important turns in our squiggle at Substrate (including the graph framework) came from those early days at SPC. If you're here for tech week and can't catch us at SPC on Thursday, DM me if you want to meet up! [0] https://lnkd.in/e6KEMr9V

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Today marks a groundbreaking moment for BLCK VC and our fellow collaborators—Diversity VC, All Raise, 2Gether-International, SomosVC, StartOut, and VetsinTech—as we proudly announce the launch of the Diversity Data Alliance. This important alliance underscores our unwavering commitment to nurturing a venture capital and entrepreneurial ecosystem abundant in equity and inclusiveness. By standardizing and linking our data, we empower ourselves with the essential tools to track deeper trends that have, until now, eluded us to identify and fill funding gaps for historically excluded investors, founders, and operators. We can’t change what we do not measure, and now with the Diversity Data Alliance, we're now equipped to do both. Join us in this mission. Learn more and get involved: https://lnkd.in/eEZKdrac #DiversityDataAlliance #BLCKVC #VentureCapital #MeasureToChange

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Here’s a question investors are often asked: When evaluating early stage companies, how much time do you spend on due diligence around future exits? It’s not surprising we hear this question a lot. Also not surprising: it’s got a wide range of answers depending on the firm. Some don’t spend much time here at all. Others make it a point to put meaningful time in as part of their process. Our current thinking: take the time to do the work on public market comps. At Alpaca VC, we spend significant time understanding how public market investors will  realistically value a business based on margin profile, product, business model & TAM. In short, we want to know: how will this company be valued at scale when we get taken out? Yes, we can acknowledge that the journey toward exit is a windy road and that there may be pivots along the way, but there are still public market companies that have a business model similar to the early stage company you're evaluating. And you can always look at gross profit multiples if you think the margin profile will change over time. So we still do the work on the comps. Quantitative metrics we look at when making the comparison to public market comps include EBITDA multiple, revenue multiple, Gross Profit multiple or all of the above. As part of this process, it’s also important to factor in the public market company’s year-over-year revenue growth as this will also significantly impact the multiple it trades at. Simple example: if you have two public market companies with similar business models and similar margin profiles, but one's growing 100% year over year, and one's growing 50% year over year, then obviously the DCF (discounted cash flow) analysis is going to spit out a very different valuation for the one that's growing faster. Why this matters: When you take all of that information into account as you evaluate an early stage business, you can begin to create a realistic picture of how this company will be valued in the public markets at exit - or how an acquirer will value the company for an acquisition. Strategic acquirers may, of course, pay a premium, but we won’t underwrite for that. This allows us, for example, to form conviction around valuation based on revenue and gross profit predictions. If we think they can do $100M of revenue five years from now, we use this diligence process to form a thesis about whether the characteristics above (product, margin, business model, etc.) will cause the company to be valued at $200M vs. $500M vs. $1B at exit. Curious how other early stage investors think about underwriting an exit and how much time they’re spending on public market comps even though these companies are in their infancy.

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Our partner Eddie Eltoukhy has identified these opportunities in Biotech. Eddie has a PhD in bioengineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and over a decade experience as an operator. Reach out to him if you are working on these areas of biotech. Pear VC - Technology-Driven Therapeutic Platforms Companies developing therapeutic assets with a core product engine Proprietary tool, workflow, or samples leading to novel biological data sets Preference for omics platforms or high throughput screening / engineering workflows First-in-class or best-in-class drugs - Next-Generation Therapeutic Modalities Technologies to improve the efficacy, safety, access, or reach of next-gen modalities including the following: Genomic medicines (gene tx & gene editing) Cell therapies Targeted protein degraders Antibody-drug conjugates Radiopharma - Precision Medicine New technologies supporting the discovery of novel biomarkers and the generation of proprietary data sets for applications in: Disease screening Therapy selection Recurrence monitoring - Life Sciences + AI Software Platforms Software & AI-driven platforms to improve all aspects of life sciences R&D, including: Target discovery and validation Drug design and optimization Manufacturing Regulatory Clinical development

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NY Tech Week has been exhilarating, dynamic, diverse, and inspiring! So many organic connections were made between investors, founders, and rising change-makers, and we learned so much about the current landscape and the future of innovation. The Fourth Effect, in partnership with EisnerAmper, hosted a vibrant panel discussion "Let's Talk About Boards" at Savills with uplifting expert speakers Mina E. Black and Caroline McCaffery. The Fourth Effect founders Breen Sullivan and Katrin de Haën are on a mission to empower female & minority executives to advise on governance boards and contribute their wealth of knowledge to the world by connecting them with startups seeking to establish boards and scale. So many founders in particular attended this event, and from the lively discussion afterwards, it's clear we all walked away thinking a whole lot more about the importance of proactivity, diversity & inclusion, and expertise when establishing company boards. AcceleratorCON, New York City Economic Development Corporation, and Civic Hall co-hosted the panel "Reimagining Accelerators for Tomorrow's Startups." Especial focus was given to tailoring accelerator programming to the startup cohort's unique skills and needs, peer-to-peer learning, intentional considerations to engage diverse founders, industry-agnostic accelerators, follow-on support and investor networks, as well as the rise of pre-accelerator accelerators. So much great info was shared at this event! My friends at Kaplak Ventures hosted a climate tech demo night at Brown Rudnick LLP on Times Square, where we heard enthusiastic pitch presentations from a diverse cohort of startups, from deep tech to arts-based solutions, including aich2, carbogenics, TeamStack.ai, Tesleon LLC, and Tolam Earth. Copenhagen-based Kaplak Ventures just partnered with New Haven-based climate incubator ClimateHaven to host the 3-month ReGen Accelerator program for seed-stage startups addressing the climate issues of today. I was especially touched by Kaplak's "Dreams & Details" model of leadership coaching and presentation, and am continually inspired by all the great work happening in the climate innovation ecosystem from Boston to New Haven to NYC. #NYTechWeek #NYC #NewHaven #Innovation #InnovationEcosystem #Startup #VentureCapital #Boards #Advisors #Accelerators #Climate #ClimateTech #TechWeek

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Calling all #Founders: Venture Capital Association of Alberta (VCAA)’s Deal Flow Calls represent a great opportunity for #PreSeed to #SeriesA companies to gain exposure to some of the countries most active Venture Capital #investors. If your company is raising equity capital, I strongly encourage you to check out the link below!

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To all #founders and #entrepreneurs out there, our intro meetings are conversational and easy going. Feel free to message me to setup a call. Learn what Pioneera Ventures can do for you!

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I’m happy to share one of Prolific's new endeavors: the Prolific Participant Wellbeing Report. This pioneering study explores and evaluates the mental wellbeing of online research participants, leveraging the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) to uncover insights. The findings? A reassuring confirmation that participant wellbeing on Prolific is solid, underscoring our unwavering dedication to ethical practices in research. This is a first-of-its-kind publication for our industry. It casts a spotlight on the critical importance of ensuring participant wellbeing - a timely addition to the ongoing debates about the impact of online research and AI training methodologies. Read more about our findings here: https://bit.ly/3UmnFNF EDIT: Full report is also available here: https://lnkd.in/eBVNE68J

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