Vasco Pedro

YC’s new batch (S25) is live and investors are already swarming 🔥 Harmonic’s data highlights the 20 startups attracting the most attention. The signal is clear: this batch is dominated by AI-native and infrastructure-first companies. ▫️ Pally (YC S25) – Personal relationship management with AI insights ▫️ Avelis Health (YC S25) – AI auditing for medical claims ▫️ Motives (YC S25) – Video-based market and user intelligence ▫️ IronGrid – Insurance-backed warranties for battery storage ▫️ Imprezia – Native ad engine for LLMs and chatbots ▫️ Finto – Automated invoice processing with AI agents ▫️ Kernel – Cloud platform for web automation agents ▫️ Nottelabs (YC S25) – Framework for browser-based AI agents ▫️ BootLoop (YC S25) – AI-driven firmware development and debugging ▫️ Convexia (YC S25) – Automated sourcing of early-stage drug candidates ▫️ Closera (YC S25) – AI marketing workflows for real estate ▫️ AgentMail (YC S25) – Email API purpose-built for AI agents ▫️ Alter (YC S25) – Secure gateway connecting AI tools to enterprise data ▫️ Channel3 (YC S25) – API for AI-powered online shopping ▫️ Albacore Inc. (YC S25) – Autonomous underwater vehicles ▫️ Wedge (YC S25) – Compliance and monitoring for AI in healthcare ▫️ Halluminate (YC S25) – Testing and deployment automation for AI apps ▫️ Cactus (YC S25) – Run AI models directly on devices and wearables YC continues to be the strongest early-stage pipeline in the world. 👉 If you were writing checks today, which of these would you back? Image source: Lenny's Newsletter

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Every VC website says "value-add." Most have never operated and are selling help they can't actually deliver. After 100+ investments, here's what real value looks like (and how to spot the BS). Last week, a founder asked me: "What value do you actually add beyond the check?" Fair question. I've heard every VC claim they're "value-add." Most aren't. The Marketing BS: "Access to our network" = We'll send one intro email, maybe "Strategic guidance" = We'll give opinions on things we don't understand "Operational support" = We'll suggest you hire a recruiter "Brand value" = We have a nice logo for your website I've watched founders waste months chasing these empty promises. What Actually Matters: After backing 100+ companies, here's the only "value-add" that counts: 1. Speed of Decision The best VCs get back to you in 48 hours, not 4 weeks. Time killed waiting for answers is time not building. One of my founders needed emergency bridge funding. Decision in 3 hours. Money wired same day. That's value. 2. Useful Introductions (With Context) Not "Hey, you two should meet." But: "Sarah, meet John. He solved the exact payment processing problem you're facing at scale. He's expecting your call Tuesday at 2pm." Context. Relevance. Follow-through. 3. Pattern Recognition That Saves You Money "I've seen this movie 5 times. Here's what killed the others..." When I tell founders not to hire a VP of Sales before product-market fit, I'm saving them $400K and 6 months of pain. 4. Being There When Things Break Every VC loves you when you're up and to the right. Real value shows up during layoffs, failed product launches, and co-founder breakups. 3am calls. Emergency board meetings. Actual support when everything's on fire. 5. Getting Out of the Way The most underrated value-add: knowing when to stop giving advice. Your company. Your vision. Your execution. The best VCs amplify, not override. The Litmus Test: Ask any VC: "What specific help did you provide your last 3 portfolio companies?" If they talk about their "platform team" or "exclusive events," run. If they name specific introductions, saved costs, or crisis moments they helped navigate - that's real. The Truth: Most "value-add" is BS because most VCs have never operated. They're selling a product they don't understand. The real value isn't in the services they list on their website. It's in the scars they earned building and failing themselves. I tell every founder the same thing: Judge VCs by their actions in your worst moments, not their promises in pitch meetings. What's the most valuable thing an investor has ever done for you (beyond writing a check)? #VentureCapital #Startups #Fundraising #RealTalk #Founders

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Me: What’s the hardest part of raising capital? Vitor Asseituno 宋伟明: You don’t just raise money from VCs — you build a pipeline and convert it like sales. Most founders approach fundraising backwards. They blast pitch decks to hundreds of VCs, hoping someone will bite. This spray-and-pray approach fails because it ignores a fundamental truth: fundraising IS sales. Just like you wouldn't sell to unqualified leads, don't pitch VCs who don't invest in your stage, sector, or geography. Study their portfolio companies, recent investments, and thesis. A VC who just backed a competing startup isn't your prospect. Start conversations 6-12 months before fundraising. Share updates, ask for advice, get introductions to their portfolio CEOs. When fundraising time comes, you're not a cold email—you're a known quantity. Handle Objections Like a Pro. When a VC says "it's too early" or "the market isn't ready," don't just accept it. Dig deeper. Understand their real concerns and address them with data, analogies to successful companies, or strategic partnerships that de-risk the investment. Follow up systematically. Track every interaction, follow up on commitments, and keep momentum alive. VCs see hundreds of deals—staying top of mind requires intentional effort. The founders who master this raise faster, at better terms, and from investors who truly understand their vision. Stop hoping for luck. Start building your conversion funnel. 👉 Swipe through for more of insights from my conversation with Vitor Asseituno 宋伟明, founder at Sami 🎧 Search The J Curve podcast with Olga Maslikhova on Spotify or YouTube for the full story. 🗞️ Read the most tactical and practical insights from this interview in this week's Insider (link in comment)

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I interviewed the Spenser Skates, founder & CEO of Amplitude, a YC Company doing +300M in revenues. This man has raised from Sequoia, Benchmark, Battery Ventures and more. If you are thinking about raising Venture Capital, these are 8 things you can't miss: 1. Think in decades, act as if there's no time: https://lnkd.in/dZcFEz5f 2. Most startups don't get traction early on: https://lnkd.in/d7f4Kd3X 3. How to raise millions: https://lnkd.in/diuayRxZ 4. How to choose between investors: https://lnkd.in/dTyM3aiD 5. Rule of 40: https://lnkd.in/dxw36nM4 6. What is the 20% of what Spenser does that drives 80% of his results: https://lnkd.in/djpGEBuY 7. What's the future of Software: https://lnkd.in/dj67C7in 8. The GoHub Ventures question. What would Spenser build right now: https://lnkd.in/dJbHq5ic PS: The podcast is packed with insights, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dTgiD4cA

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Venture studios aren’t VC So why should we try to fit them inside VC frameworks? The carousel below explains why this is the case (and breaks down an alternative model for venture studios instead). For more on studio structures, capital efficiency, and the case for new frameworks for venture studios… DM/Comment “VSF” to join the venture studio forum (a community for the venture studio ecosystem)

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As a VC, Hustle Fund Partner Eric Bahn handles 300+ emails / day while managing countless founder conversations, he's learned that the right tools can 10x your output. Here are the three that transformed how he works: 1. Voice Dictation (Willow) He barely types anymore. AI-enhanced voice input has doubled his productivity by: 🤺 Correcting grammar automatically ➖ Reducing redundancies 🗒️ Perfect formatting Voice is the future of human-computer interaction. Period. 2. AI Note-Taking (Granola) This desktop + mobile app automatically detects conversations and delivers: 💎 Flawless transcripts ✅ Action items extracted 🌏 Multi-language support (tested in Korea/Japan!) No more frantic note-taking in meetings. Just pure focus on the conversation. 3. Email Mastery (Superhuman) 359 weeks straight of inbox zero with 300+ daily emails. Here's why it works: ⚡ Speed: Every action under 100ms (vs Gmail's sluggish response) 💬 Snippets: Template 40 similar emails in under 5 minutes 🏆 Team templates: Crowdsource efficiency across your whole team Bottom line: The compound effect of small efficiency gains is massive. 💸

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Don't ship your fundraising pitch deck to your homepage. Your pitch deck is for VCs. Your homepage is for prospects. When you reuse your pitch deck deck, you end up with a site that: ❌ Talks about big vision, not the pain your prospects feel today ❌ Focuses on your entire total addressable market, not a niche ICP ❌ Leaves prospects confused about what exactly you do A great homepage should answer, in seconds, in the hero: ✅ Who the product is for ✅ What it does ✅ Why it’s better than alternatives 📰 I wrote about how to translate your story from a fundraising pitch deck slide by slide to your website in First Round Capital Review this week 1️⃣ (It's a natural fit, we both have 1s in our name) Like everything in marketing know your audience, know what they care about, and don't copy and paste from one audience, format, or channel to the next.

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Founders: Don’t Give Away 40% at Pre-Seed! As a pre-seed investor, I’m telling you this: giving up 40% this early is not survival: it’s selling your future. Here are smarter ways to survive and build momentum: 1. Start small, win narrow. Prove PMF in an ultra-niche before chasing big markets. 2. Bootstrap with revenue. Even small MRR forces validation and discipline. 3. Run lean experiments. No-code MVPs, landing pages, small pilots: all cheaper proof than burning through a million-dollar round. With AI, the cost drops even further. Building an MVP, testing a marketing campaign, running experiments. 4. Raise only what you need. Hit milestones, then raise again at a higher valuation. 5. Use convertibles wisely. SAFEs/notes buy time, but too many create cap table headaches later. 6. Set caps and discounts carefully. They decide your future dilution, model them: take help if needed 7. Be disciplined with ESOPs. Keep pools lean and tied to real hiring needs. 8. Guard against unfriendly clauses. Super pro-ratas, liquidation preferences, ratchets: push back early. 9. Track your cap table religiously. A clean, updated cap table is your strongest negotiation tool. Fundraising isn’t survival. Momentum is.   And momentum comes from revenue, customer love, and smart equity management: not from giving away 30-40% of your upside before you’ve even begun.

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𝗥𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘃𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱 (𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟭𝟬𝟬+ 𝗩𝗖 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀) What does “traction” actually look like when raising early-stage capital? If you’re gearing up for a pre-seed or seed round, here’s what the data says about ARR benchmarks from 100+ funded startups: 1. $1.5M Pre-Seed Round • 46% were pre-revenue • $150K ARR → 27% • $500K ARR → 15% • $1M ARR → 9% • $2M ARR → 1% 2. $4M Seed Round • $500K–$1M ARR is the sweet spot • $500K ARR → 29% • $1M ARR → 28% • $2M ARR → 20% • $150K ARR or Pre-Revenue → 17% each 3. Key Insights • Pre-seed is still a bet on the team, vision, and potential • Seed investors look for product-market fit and revenue repeatability • Hitting $500K–$1M ARR can significantly improve your odds This is why some founders wait to raise — and others sprint to get even $100K in early ARR. Where do you think the line between pre-seed and seed is really drawn today? #startups #fundraising #venturecapital #seedround #founder #startupfunding

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There's a lot of hand-wringing about AI applications and revenue retention. Many have shot out of the gate, adding ARR quickly. But much of that budget is experimental. Will the spend stick?   Emergence Capital's new Beyond Benchmarks study suggests it might. The data surprised me:   AI-native apps achieve 132% Net Dollar Retention versus 108% for companies just adopting AI—a 24% advantage that's unprecedented in B2B software.   This isn't just expansion revenue doing the heavy lifting. AI-native companies also see meaningfully better GDR (89% vs 81%), meaning customers aren't just buying more—they're staying at higher rates too.   The retention strength becomes even more remarkable when you consider the growth context.   These same AI-native companies achieve median ARR growth of 100% versus 23% for traditional SaaS—a 4x advantage. Typically, hypergrowth comes with retention challenges as you race upmarket or stretch product-market fit. Not here. Yet.  🚨 This presents a narrative violation 🚨 AI is supposed to be churnier. Easy come easy go. What should we make of this data?   It could show the power of AI relative to "static" SaaS". AI-native applications continuously evolve, becoming more valuable without manual intervention. Your product literally improves while customers sleep.   This could explain why AI-native companies are breaking historical SaaS patterns—21% higher net retention overall.   All that said, I think we're likely still in an AI honeymoon. There will be bifurcation between the AI tire kicking apps and those that become an enduring part of workflows.   One example I've seen first hand is with AI for GTM. AI SDRs have grown quickly but have had some well-reported churn challenges. It's easy to sign up for easy leads but harder to make those leads high quality without deeper infrastructure and integration.   Unify, on the other hand, has done the unsexy work of building out a robust data architecture and CRM integrations that drives quality, converting top of funnel. This has allowed them to hit GDR of 98%, amongst the best I've seen in AI.

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We had Tom Charman (Co-founder at Blok) on Ventures, Fresh out of stealth having raised $7.5m He explains why their star-studded team is building Blok "A lot of companies aren't particularly good at predicting how their customers are going to behave, but more importantly, they're not necessarily targeting the right customer." "Most companies will optimise for short-term benefit as opposed to long-term gain - what's actually happening is in the long term they're shooting themselves in the foot." "Nine in ten experiments are failing, it's taking too long to run experiments, teams don't know which experiments to run." "If we're going to move towards a world where it's multimodal interfaces with lots of different UI, knowing what to generate for who and when is going to become significantly more difficult." You can watch the full conversation by searching "Tom Charman, Co-founder @ blok: How We're Predicting User Behaviour Before Writing Code"

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I blew 20 VC meetings before I realized I didn’t need a perfect pitch; I needed to show investors how I'd make them money. Here’s how I did it by focusing on milestones 👇🏾 REGULAR PITCH: I thought my pitch was smooth: "Our product is in market and we’ve gotten 7 customers and $100K in ARR. We’re raising $750K to hire engineers to move off of no-code" Sounds solid, right? Nope. 20 meetings and 0 checks in, I realized I was making a big mistake. I was telling investors how I'd use their money, not how they'd make money. MILESTONE-FOCUSED PITCH: Once I understood venture math, everything changed. My new pitch: "We're at $100K ARR with seven customers, and our product is a no-code MVP. With $750K, we'll grow to $1M ARR in 15 months - which will allow us to raise our seed round at 2-3x our current valuation." WHY THIS WORKS: Pre-seed investors aren’t investing in today’s version of your company. They’re investing in what your company can become. They need to believe that in 12-18 months, you can raise another round at a 2-3x valuation. That means if you’re raising at a $6M valuation today, your job is to convince investors that you’ll be able to raise at (at least) a $12M valuation down the road. Why do you have to double your valuation? Because VCs need to show their LPs (limited partners; the people who give them money to invest) that they're picking good companies. Happy LPs = more money for the next fund. TAKEAWAY: When fundraising, your job as a founder isn't to show investors your great company. Your only job is to convince them you'll hit the milestones to raise your next round at a higher valuation. The other parts of your pitch (team, product, GTM, etc.) are just there to support the story. What’s your biggest challenge with fundraising? Drop a comment and I’ll try to help! Save and repost this to help a first-time founder 🤝🏾

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Everyone thinks competitive moats are built with code. I sold Bleacher Report for $200M, and our tech stack wasn't special. What was uncopyable? 5 years of daily habits from fans. Every founder I meet thinks their code is special. VCs reinforce this, always asking about proprietary tech. But technology gets commoditized fast. Instagram cloned Stories in weeks. Every feature gets replicated. The real defensive advantage? Time. At Bleacher Report, competitors copied everything... Push notifications, team pages, and mobile design. All cloned within months. But they couldn't replicate 5 years of fans checking scores during breakfast. Or muscle memory of swiping after every big play. These weren't features - they were rituals. We grew from 300,000 to 100 million social followers. Users opened the app 4 times daily. Not because our tech was better. Because we'd become part of their identity. Competitors matched our features perfectly. Better UI, faster load times. Then wondered why users didn't switch. Simple: You can't engineer 5 years of shared experiences overnight. When we sold in 2012, B/R had 50 million monthly users. Our 30-day retention hit 68% while typical media sites struggled to break 20%. Checking B/R was no longer a decision. It was a habit. This extends beyond media. Reddit's tech is ancient. Craigslist looks like 1995. Still dominant. Because habits compound. Every day makes the moat wider. Stop obsessing over features. Start thinking about daily rituals. What behavior becomes automatic after 30 days? That's your real competitive advantage. Since B/R, I've helped over 30 founders build their daily habits, from fintech morning routines to B2B Monday planning rituals. The patterns are teachable: Trigger moments, reward loops, becoming essential to someone's day. Want to explore your time-based moat potential? I open a few slots weekly for founder strategy sessions.

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How not to raise venture capital: Reading “Poor Charlie’s Almanack” one idea stuck: inversion. And it hit me, this is one of the most powerful mental models for fundraising. Because while fundraising can feel subjective, there’s a fixed set of moves that almost guarantee failure. So, here’s the checklist on how to fail at fundraising: 1. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗼: • Never ask yourself if your business needs venture capital Vs other options. • Don’t spend time researching and targeting not just the fund but the specific investors that tend to invest in your space and match your vibe. • Never ask for a warm introduction through a mutual connection. • Never ask portfolio company founders from your target fund what it is like working with them. • Never personalise your outreach or deck. • Do not batch your outreach, target all the funds all at once. • Do not use an AI CRM and a process to keep notes, reminders, cadences and so on. • When you get a reply or someone requests a deck, always ask for an NDA. 2. 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵: • Do not make a distinction between a first Vs second / third / IC meeting. • Assume that talking to an analyst is a waste of time. Believe that they don’t have any power internally to be your champion, and therefore don’t research them. • Never spend time understanding a VC’s business model, especially to know how they think and what their incentives are (from intern to GP). • Use as much text per slide as possible. • Use lots of confusing colours and shapes in every slide. • Give them the impression that you’ve spent more money and time on the deck’s design than thinking about what problem to solve. • Make the deck at least 30 slides, include a large appendix. • Never role-play beforehand. • Don't spend any time preparing a good story explaining why you and your team are the right humans to solve the problem you are attacking. • Never prepare hard questions. • Do not practice telling a story about the market, the twists and turns it has taken, and which obstacles you are likely to face. • Be as unclear as possible on your engagement metrics slide. Make sure they don’t get a clear view on traction quality. • Don’t include any information regarding your cap-table and any issues that would be uncovered when they ask for it. • Bonus examples: dead equity, “advisor equity with no skin in the game $”, excessive early dilution via accelerator / incubator etc. • Don’t share a solid data room or pitch deck ahead of time (don’t use this template for Series A in particular). 3. 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: Keep reading, full article 👉 https://lnkd.in/d9wAU8dq #vc #fundraising #tech #startups #founders

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