Rodney Williams

✨ Breaking: BFM Fund Announces New Fund.- BFM Fund A seed-stage fund focusing on founders who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, promoting diversity in venture capital. https://www.bfm.fund Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups#Venturecapital

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Prime Coalition has long taken a different tack to climate finance compared to its for-profit brethren. It makes the usual venture-style investments in startups through Azolla Ventures and also helps philanthropists direct their money to climate-related projects that it deems high impact. Trellis Climate follows the latter model with a focus on middle stages, where capital has grown scarce. #climatetech #climateVC #climatefinance

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It takes a village. Collaboration and teamwork solves problems more effectively. That's why BizCrunch works closely with partners across the SMB M&A ecosystem, to achieve more exits for more business owners, and power Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. Start exploring your exit options now, with a free valuation from BizCrunch. Then work with a dedicated team of "exiteers" drawn from the and The Grafter communities, to achieve your own 8-Figure Exit. Every journey starts with that first step. If the time is right for you to pass the baton on, take that stride today.

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Excited to join Blackout Tuesday # 18 at LocalGlobe this coming Tuesday centered around the theme: 'Increasing Venture-backed Black Founders: Journey from Seed to Series A and Beyond'. This event will focus on the challenges Black founders face when scaling startups and provide insights on navigating growth stages from Pre-seed to Series A. After a panel of founders sharing their experiences, the breakout session will dive into practical strategies for scaling. ✏ Register here: https://lnkd.in/eHZpMDN2 Launched in 2020, Blackout Tuesday aims to: 1. Increase Black representation in VCs 2. Boost venture funding for Black founders 3. Elevate Black employees in venture-backed companies 4. Support Black GPs 5. Increase Black or Black-aligned LP representation Balderton Capital Phoenix Court Blackout Tuesday

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Chargezoom Announces $11.5M Series A - https://lnkd.in/g9VDQW5f Founder - Matt Dubois Funders - Kickstart Fund, Motley Fool Ventures, Early Light Ventures, Frazier Group VC, adly, SaaS Ventures, Stout Street Capital, and Okapi Venture Capital. #SiliconSlopes #UtahVC #UtahBusiness #VentureCapital

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In our newest blog post, Nine Four Ventures General Partner Kurt Ramirez shares some of his thoughts on the current environment of startup shutdowns and valuation resets, and if these are natural consequences of an earlier period of frothy investment and easy money. Some key points are around how:  ·        Startup failures are common and expected, especially after a period of high funding.  ·        The recent increase in shutdowns should be viewed relative to the outsized number of startups funded in the boom years of 2020 and 2021 and reaching their make-or-break moment now.  ·        Some of these startups may have been funded based on unrealistic expectations of future growth, leading to valuation drops. Read the full post on our site, Substack, or by clicking below to learn more. Please reach out with any questions or comments on trends, companies, or anything else. https://lnkd.in/dZm6vfis Cc Jeffrey Elowe, Kurt Ramirez, Paul La Londe, Sophia Ghadamian Kier, Avi Pradhan #VentureCapital #Startup #Valuation #Tech

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A reckoning is coming for emerging venture funds, and that, VCs say, is a good thing #startup  #fundraising  #angelinvestor  #investments  #VentureCapital  #vc #Entrepreneurship  #venturefunding  #investing #TechNews #Innovation #technology  https://lnkd.in/dTf6bUQt

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🚨 NEW! Fundraising Playbook: 10 Steps to Fundraising Success In partnership with our friends at Forecastr, we are excited to share a new FREE resource for founders who are looking to step up their fundraising game. The 10 steps outlined in this Fundraising Playbook will guide you through the entire process, from building an investor pipeline to crafting your pitch and closing the deal. These are the same steps Forecastr has successfully implemented to raise 4 consecutive oversubscribed funding rounds, even through some of the most challenging fundraising conditions ever. These tried and true fundraising tips and strategies have also been implemented by numerous clients that Forecastr works with to successfully raise capital from investors. To receive a FREE copy simply reply "FNF" in the comments.

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Entering the Post-ZIRP, venture-capital-winter years. Thanks TechCrunch for this great summary of the macro economic context of #VC emerging managers.

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Namit Chugh of W Health Ventures breaks down the distinctions between accelerators and venture capital model. If you are a founder starting your journey, learn how the two models shape up startup growth strategies and investment avenues. Catch the full episode on our Youtube channel, if you haven’t already https://lnkd.in/gB2q_iWp #venturestudio #vc #healthcare #accelerators #founder #YouTube #episode #podcast

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As startups face higher interest rates and fundraising hurdles, venture debt remains a flexible, non-dilutive option for maintaining growth momentum. PitchBook’s Q3 2024 Venture Monitor shows that venture debt continues to play a vital role for startups navigating today’s challenging market conditions. Deal activity in venture debt is on track for a stronger performance this year, with total deal value reaching $34.7 billion so far. Late-stage and venture-growth companies account for nearly 75% of all debt raised, but we continue to see a need for the strategic use of debt by capital-intensive ventures at all stages. Download the full report from PitchBook here: https://lnkd.in/g-bEHTqC

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My amazing cousin, Cleven Ticeson (https://lnkd.in/gWis4xX6) , a 14 time Emmy award winning producer for KCTS9 in Seattle, is a hero of mine. I grew up watching the educational shows like Bill Nye and the performing arts they would showcase. He was following the work I have been doing de-siloing the Black professional class working in venture scale entrepreneurship in the Pacific Northwest and composed a news reel covering Dreamward Group that moved me not only because he is my hyper-talented and dear cousin but because it voiced and gave me the perspective of the decades that what we’re building has been missing from the mass culture and my culture. Lewis Rudd once told me that the hardest target to hit is an invisible one and my dear cousin hit me right in the heart by speaking in his video about the unseen, but nonetheless felt, absence of inclusive capitalization of startups. Felt by the generation of Black people that watched the tech industry grow not only painting Black technologists and Black founders out of the heroic saga of tech, but Black funders as well. I am so glad that Dreamward Group is able to paint the target and make it visible through our work. Venture Capital, the financial backing of the tech industry, just like tech itself, had an evolution with foundational moments in the 70s on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley yet it’s mechanics, drama, and operation are largely unknown to the public that isn’t working in tech entrepreneurship. It’s trajectory and heights of accomplishment with Andreessen Horowitz and Madrona Ventures are parallel and analogous to Google and Amazon…But only the later two brands are household names to people outside of the industry. The world knows the story of Black people being excluded from Tech, It knows the story of Black people being excluded from executive leadership. It experienced the Obama administration and the depravity of the Trump backlash and had to ask itself why it had actively or passively participated in writing off Black professionals. Some of the world hears of Black founders getting less than 2% of invested capital, but even on hearing that, they don’t know the story of Black people being excluded from the role of deciding which startups get funded using a yet third party’s (often their own government’s) money…That is the story of Venture Capital today, and that’s what Dreamward is changing for the future.

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Unlocking startup success often hinges on effective fundraising.     In this article, Kristen Craft dives into how a well-organized data room can streamline the fundraising process and provide a competitive edge.    Hear from VC investors about some of the best practices for managing your data room and securing the capital you need to grow, including:    -Derek Bugley, Managing Director at Forum Ventures,   -Abigail Risse, Healthcare Investor at Touchdown Ventures  -Brittney Wade, Senior Associate at Alumni Ventures at the time.     🔗 Read the article here: https://hubs.ly/Q02-dYpW0      #Startups #Fundraising #DataRoom #VentureCapital #FidelityPrivateShares

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Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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