Sourcery (8/28-9/1)
HE'S BACK + X's new algo ☀ FirstMate, Parallel, AeroSafe, Otto, Better Life Partners, Speak, Moxie, AI21 Labs, Apollo.io, Rockset, Hyperproof, Ideogram AI, Aditude, Trellis, ControlRooms.ai, Praso
We are so back
From Burning Man.. well not really but our friends are and this week has been hectic so here we are, super late. Typically Sourcery gets published every Tuesday morning, something I’ve been doing consistently for 3 years but alas, this week was a lot of work. I am a failure.
What the heck did you miss? Well.. X turned dark.
I actually wasn’t kidding when I said I was in virtual reality trying things, except it’s not just VR & Oculus, it’s mainly X. If you haven’t noticed (I’d be really surprised if not) I’ve been kind of heavily “testing” out twitter/X since Elon took over. It’s not everyday when you can try an affordably priced Elon takeover product. And I’m down for the ride.
There was a point in time when the first algo fix dropped that I actually was pretty good at it. Getting 100s of likes, 100ks of impressions, 3k+ followers, it was beautiful. Almost too easy. But it’s a game. And it leveled up. If you want to play or not, up to you, but social engineering is wildly intriguing. Unfortunately, the last algo update has pretty much stumped me, and in effect, deterring me from all efforts of wanting to become ridiculously famous or “win” the game, so now I’m kind of just testing ideas and, more importantly, having fun engaging with people over silly little things and nerdy things.
Some things are working, some things aren’t.
The dynamics really shifted once they started to throttle users by limiting their posting so it didn’t spam the feeds, as well as emphasize replies and real engagement over just “likes.” Actual conversations & connections? Bold. But I might argue the feeds were better. I don’t know why but I can’t seem to find any of my friends' posts anymore so I’ve resulted to putting alerts on them to find them.
Another noticeable difference was a distinctive drop-off in engagement on things, especially posts that would normally get good early traction. Were they inflated all along? Was anything real? They’re really focused on imposing delayed gratification on impressions over a longer duration, which is hard when you’re a ‘creator’ and you’re hooked on the immediate notifications. Probably better for our mental health. Social media is a drug. And we’re spending more time on it. X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed with their latest 14% YoY increase in usage, we are addicted.
Lastly, because of the engagement-oriented dynamics, posts are evolving. Creators are playing the game posting extremely long essays & videos, and then others have resulted to memes. Not sure what’s actually working. But I am optimistic we’ll adjust and get back to the wholesome, uplifting, rabbit hole deep dives on odd topics.
Check out these threads into the recent algo changes: Shorter Version or Longer Version
TLDR / if you care about engagement:
Replies are ‘the same’ as retweets
People are asking more questions to get replies
Add media like photos/videos
Restrict adding URLs to the first post & limit the use of mentions - (add these in a thread)
Upgrade to Blue or get a Subscribe button - ( 👀 Blue users can see deleted tweets)
Keep it authentic
Post actual good content & just be consistent - (this is where I fail)
Monkey B0mb: HE’S BACK
To make it all interesting, a week or two ago we had a “Monkey B0mb” dropped on us - ie throwing in a highly alluring object to draw attention, that is also entirely destructive..
(shoutout to my childhood guy friends “the originals” back in middle school for a core memory of them reenacting this COD defense strategy in the hallways by throwing a backpack on the ground, running towards it as a group, and then all falling down. It was cute.)
However, that monkey was in fact a scary orange man who posted a mugshot of himself and a link to his website. Honestly, not a bad move. Embracing it all. The post got over 259M impressions. That’s about ~78% of the size of the US population. Yikes.
Safe to say this incited pure chaos. Suddenly everyone had laser beams coming out of their eyes. Fingers were typing furiously. Moods shifted towards aggression. It went red. It was insane. But we were all in it together. I’m fairly convinced this was a test. What would happen? Something bad? Idk? But I’m also convinced Elon was probably laughing, and I’d be curious to see the spike in X traffic on that specific day. As for the meme? Well, yeah, it went viral. I just hope we recognize the absurdity of it and don’t fall back into the media loop that is name-calling pop-culture and lean more into people who have expertise, clear eyes, and a full heart.. Anyways, that’s all I’ll say about that.
Kind of makes me wonder about this whole UFO thing thrown in a presidential debate.. hmm.. was that a monkey bomb? What was the point of that? Entertainment value? Lighten the load? Make something interesting happen? ..distract us with a shiny object? idk.
All in all, I just picture Elon, roaming around his factory floors checking in every now and then, with a smirk on his face embracing the chaos he’s gotten himself into. Not a bad hobby.
The more important HE’S BACK
After a short hiatus, Ryan Peterson returned as CEO of Flexport. Nature is healing. Here’s a link to the post with his announcement. More news to come on this.
Musings
BarbAIrians at the Gate: The Financial Opportunity of AI, Alex Rampell
If anyone wants to have a deep discussion on the macro/micro of it all & get deep into the system of financial engineering of VC in the broader context of asset classes, please let me know. Seriously, not kidding.
The Evolution of Open Source Business Models, Tomasz Tunguz
Marc Andreessen: How Risk Taking, Innovation & Artificial Intelligence Transform Human Experience, Huberman Pod
The collab we always secretly wished for, and somehow have gotten.
Might have to do a breakdown of this one for X..
WTF is happening in Canada?! & meet the “Rainmaker” Pirate Wires aka Mike Solana
"Rainmaker" CEO Augustus Doricko to brainstorm possible reasons the entire country of Canada seems to have gone insane, why American culture is one of decline (and how to fix that), geo-engineering, and Augustus' cloud seeding company Rainmaker.
#311 James Cameron, Founders
Incredible story, incredible vision, unbelievable creative. Highly recommend.
Context.ai - Unlocking Insight into LLM-Based Applications, Tomasz Tunguz
Playing Different (Stupider) Games, The Other End Of The Valuation Stick, Kyle Harrison
Tiger takedown, VC fund models, etc.
AI startups: Sell work, not software, Sarah Tavel @ Benchmark
. . .
Last Week (8/28-9/1):
Relevant deals include the 60+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into four categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise & Consumer, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds. Highlighted deals include FirstMate, Parallel, AeroSafe, Otto, Better Life Partners, Speak, Moxie, AI21 Labs, Apollo.io, Rockset, Hyperproof, Ideogram AI, Aditude, Trellis, ControlRooms.ai, Praso, DeForm, TeamSense, Agave, Jitty, Arcion, Redwood Materials, Sortera; Thorne, e.l.f. Beauty, VanMoof
Final numbers on Change in Chipmaker Stock Prices at the bottom.
Deals
Fintech:
- FirstMate, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based NFT marketplace platform for creators, raised $3.8 million in seed funding. Dragonfly led the round and was joined by Coinbase Ventures and NextView Ventures.
- Frontier Risk Group, a Westport, Conn.-based insurance company for the cannabis sector, raised $3.1 million in seed funding. Casa Verde led the round and was joined by Euclid VC, Inter-Atlantic Capital Group, and Bruce Macfarlane.
- Parallel, a Lehi, Utah-based fintech platform developer for headcount forecasting, raised $1.9 million in pre-seed funding. Penny Jar Capital led the round and was joined by Convoi Ventures, Peak Capital, the Frazier group, and others.
. . .
Care:
- AeroSafe Global, a Rochester, N.Y.-based provider of outsourced cold chain solutions for life sciences, raised $43m. NewSpring Healthcare led, and was joined by Peloton Equity, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Hamilton Lane, Flexstone Partners, Wave Equity Partners and Escalate Capital. https://axios.link/45vRNJz
- Otto (fka Televet), an Austin, Texas-based customer engagement platform for veterinary clinics, raised $43m in Series B funding from Hill's Pet Nutrition and insiders Mercury Fund and Boehringer Ingelheim. www.otto.vet
- Better Life Partners, a Hanover, N.H.-based virtual and in-person whole-health solution for individuals and populations with substance abuse disorders, raised $26.5 million in Series B financing. aMoon and existing investor F-Prime Capital co-led the round and were joined by existing investor .406 Ventures.
- Speak, a San Francisco-based language-learning mobile app for those learning English, raised $16 million in Series B-2 funding. Lachy Groom led the round and was joined by Drew Houston, Arash Ferdowsi, and existing investor OpenAI Startup Fund.
- Moxie, a medspa operations platform, raised $15.7m co-led by SignalFire and Boulton & Watt. www.joinmoxie.com
. . .
Enterprise & Consumer:
- AI21 Labs, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based A.I. and large language model developer, raised $155 million in Series C funding. Walden Catalyst, Pitango, SCB10X, b2venture, Samsung Next, and others invested in the round.
- Apollo.io, a San Francisco-based go-to-market solution for sales and marketing teams, raised $100 million in Series D funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors Sequoia Capital, Tribe Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners.
- Mediafly, a Chicago-based revenue enablement startup, raised $80m. BIP Ventures led, and was joined by Boathouse Capital. https://axios.link/44uGr75
- Rockset, a San Mateo, Calif.-based serverless search and analytics engine platform developer, raised $44 million in Series B funding. Icon Ventures led the round and was joined by Glynn Capital, Four Rivers, K5 Global, and existing investors Sequoia and Greylock.
- Hyperproof, a Bellevue, Wash.-based risk and compliance management company, raised $40 million in funding. Riverwood Capital led the round and was joined by existing investor Toba Capital.
- Ideogram AI, a Toronto-based text-to-image A.I. generator, raised $16.5 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures co-led the round and were joined by AIX Ventures, Golden Ventures, and Two Small Fish Ventures.
- Aditude, a New York City-based ad operations technology solution for online publishers, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Volition Capital led the round.
- Trellis, an LA-based provider of state trial court data, raised $15m in Series B funding. Top Tier Capital Partners led, and was joined by Okapi Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, Craft Ventures, Revel Partners and Sky Dayton. www.trellis.law
- Voxel, a San Francisco-based computer vision and A.I. company building developer tools to identify workplace hazards, raised $12 million in funding. Rite-Hite led the round and was joined by existing investors Eclipse Ventures and Mtech.
- ControlRooms.ai, an Austin, Tex.-based A.I. startup focused on automating the industrial troubleshooting process, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Origin Ventures led the round and was joined by Amity Ventures, Tokio Marine Future Fund, S3 Ventures, and others.
- Praso, a São Paulo, Brazil-based distribution platform for small retailers, raised $9.3 million in Series A funding, according to TechCrunch. Valor Capital Group and NFX co-led the round and were joined by existing investors Base Partners, Formus Capital, Iporanga Ventures, and Endeavor Scale-Up.
- ConverSight, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based intelligence solution provider, raised $9 million in Series A funding. Surface Ventures led the round and was joined by Techstars, Augment Ventures, Elevate Ventures, and existing investors.
- Qase, an Austin, Texas-based provider of software QA testing and reporting solutions, raised $7.2m in Series A funding. Chrome Capital led, and was joined by FinSight Ventures and S16VC. https://axios.link/3YV4uec
- Qualiti.ai, a Lehi, Utah.-based software test automation solution, raised $6.5 million in seed funding. Sierra Ventures led the round and was joined by Epic Ventures.
- Confirm, a San Francisco-based hiring and performance management platform developer, raised $6.2 million in Series A funding. Spero Ventures led the round and was joined by SHRMLabs, Elefund, Gaingels, Black Angel Group, and others.
- Modern Adventure, a Portland, Ore.-based travel company, raised $4.8 million in Series A funding. Seal Rock Partners, Natty Zola, and Nate Abbott joined the round.
- DeForm, a San Francisco-based web3 marketing startup, raised $4.6 million in seed funding. Kindred Ventures led the round and was joined by Elad Gil, Scalar Capital, A.Capital, Alchemy Ventures, and others.
- Refiberd, an Oakland, Calif.-based textile waste sorting company, raised $3.4 million in seed funding. True Wealth Ventures led the round and was joined by Better Ventures, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Fashion for Good, and others.
- TeamSense, a Mukilteo, Wash.-based platform connecting hourly employees and their companies, raised $4 million in seed funding. Bonfire Ventures led the round and was joined by Operator Collective.
- Occuspace, a Westlake Village, Calif.-based crowd monitoring technology developer, raised $3.6 million in seed funding. Okapi Venture Capital led the round and was joined by Cove Fund, Shadow Ventures, and Hamilton Ventures.
- Rent Butler, a Chicago-based provider of tenant screening software, raised $3m led by RET Ventures. www.rentbutler.com
- Agave, an API for construction industry software, raised $2.9m in seed funding led by Accel. https://axios.link/3QXkp9Z
- Jitty, a British property search engine, raised $2m in pre-seed funding led by Gradient Ventures. www.jitty.com
- Arcion, a San Mateo-based database platforms developer for autonomous migration and cloud-neutral database replication, raised $1.8 million in funding from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
. . .
Sustainability:
- Redwood Materials, a Carson City, Nev.-based EV battery recycler, raised $1 billion in Series D funding. Goldman Sachs, Capricorn, and T.Rowe Price co-led the round.
- Sortera Technologies, a Markle, Ind.-based recycling platform company, raised $30.5 million in Series C funding. RA Capital Management-Planetary Health led the round and was joined by investors including T.Rowe Price Associates, Mitsubishi Mineral Resources Group, Macquarie, Assembly Ventures, and others.
- CH4 Global, a Henderson, Nev.-based climate tech company that wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, raised $29 million in Series B funding. DCVC, DCVC Bio, and Cleveland Avenue led the round and were joined by others.
Acquisitions & PE:
- L Catterton agreed to acquire Thorne HealthTech, a New York City-based provider of health tests and supplements, for $680 million.
- e.l.f Beauty agreed to acquire Naturium, a Los Angeles-based skincare brand, for $355 million.
- Lavoie agreed to acquire VanMoof, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based e-bike provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Verdane acquired a majority stake in UrbanVolt, a Dublin, Ireland-based clean energy provider with a “solar-as-a-service” model, for up to €26 million ($28.2 million).
- Wiz, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based cybersecurity startup valued by VCs at $10.3b, is considering a takeover bid for SentinelOne (NYSE: S), a Mountain View, Calif.-based cybersecurity company with nearly a $5b market cap, per Bloomberg. Wiz backers include Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital, while SentinelOne shareholders include Insight (11.86%) and Redpoint Ventures (5.98%). https://axios.link/45ro4Bu
- Altafiber (fka Cincinnati Bel) raised $600m in new equity funding from existing backers like Ares Management and Macquarie Asset Management. https://axios.link/3L24TGm
- TPG is in talks to sell its majority stake in Hollywood talent agency CAA to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault for around $7b, per Bloomberg. The deal could include minority investor Temasek increase its stake by buying out CMC Capital. https://axios.link/45PXRfx
- MaryRuth Organics, an LA-based health supplements maker backed by Butterfly Equity and CFT Capital Partners, is exploring a sale that could fetch nearly $1b, per Reuters. Houlihan Lokey and Mally Collective are managing the process. https://axios.link/3Phv7Hi
Funds:
- Reid Hoffman will not be a general partner on the next fund for Greylock, which is targeting $1b, per the WSJ. He joined the VC firm in 2009, after co-founding LinkedIn and being an early employee at PayPal, and helped spur Greylock's shift from an East Coast to a West Coast firm. https://axios.link/3Phu8a2
Final Numbers
Data: Yahoo Finance; Chsrt: Axios Visuals
The material presented on Molly O’Shea’s website are my opinions only and are provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Any analysis or discussion of investments, sectors or the market generally are based on current information, including from public sources, that I consider reliable, but I do not represent that any research or the information provided is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. My views and opinions expressed in any website content are current at the time of publication and are subject to change. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Great to have you back. Great article. You did a great job. Great insight on Twitter. You really do extensive research. That is appreciated. So you keep it up.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!