Ari Horie

🌟Innovative VC Firm Overcomes Exits Drought with Secondary Sales🌟 ⛵Navigating a challenging landscape where exits are scarce, Santa Barbara Venture Partners (SBVP) has pioneered a novel approach to sustain its growth and attract investors for its second fund: secondary sales. Instead of waiting for traditional exits like IPOs or acquisitions, SBVP opted to sell shares of its portfolio companies, demonstrating its ability to generate returns for investors and stand out in a competitive market. 🎤According to Dan Engel, founder and managing partner of SBVP, these secondary transactions have been a game-changer, sparking investor interest and bolstering the firm's credibility. By leveraging its recent successes, including a lucrative stake in sports-betting company DraftKings Inc.' acquisition of digital lottery app Jackpocket, SBVP seized the opportunity to return profits to its limited partners (LPs) and pave the way for its second fund. 💡Engel highlighted the challenges faced by young VC firms in raising subsequent funds, particularly amid a downturn in exit activity and heightened investor scrutiny. With traditional exit routes becoming increasingly elusive, the pressure is on for firms to demonstrate tangible returns and establish a track record of success. ✨"For us, secondary sales have been a game-changer. They've helped us return profits to our LPs and attract investors for our second fund," said Dan Engel. 💰For SBVP, the decision to pursue secondary sales was driven by the need to provide liquidity to LPs and validate its investment thesis in the eyes of prospective investors. By strategically offloading portions of its holdings in high-performing portfolio companies like Bark Technologies and Rad AI, SBVP not only generated substantial returns but also bolstered investor confidence in its ability to deliver results. ⚠Despite the complexities and potential stigma associated with early share sales, Engel emphasized the importance of prioritizing investor returns and seizing opportunities to unlock value for stakeholders. With a focus on profitability and transparency, SBVP remains committed to its mission of delivering sustainable growth and maximizing returns for its LPs. 🔍 "Returning profits to our investors is our top priority. By strategically selling shares, we're proving our commitment to delivering results and driving value for our stakeholders," added Engel. As SBVP continues to explore secondary transactions and expand its investor base, the firm stands as a testament to innovation and resilience in the face of market challenges. 🚀 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VCInnovation #SecondarySalesSuccess #InvestorReturns #ValueCreation 

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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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Fellow UC Berkeley grads— As a proud alum, I'm excited to share an exciting opportunity ICYMI last week: Foundation Capital Cal Build. Here's what you need to know: → What is Cal Build? It's a program designed to assist Berkeley alumni in launching and growing their Enterprise startup. Whether you've recently started your business or plan to do so in the near future, we're here to help. → Who can join? Our initial invite extends to all Bay Area-based UC Berkeley grads. We're eager to welcome 10 new Cal founders to our community every month. → What does it offer? Expect exclusive access to a host of benefits—including in-person and virtual events, mentorship, office space, and more—all without any cost or equity exchange. → Interested in joining? Apply for our 3rd cohort before the end of September and be part of the network that includes successful Cal-founded companies such as Tubi, TubeMogul, Inc., SafelyYou, Conviva, Anyscale, CaptivateIQ, Arize AI, and more. → What is the time commitment? We ask for ~2 hours of your time per week. We hope you spend significantly more outside of the program building. Learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/guyAagiu

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Wondering what Regenerstive Design is and how to implement it? Excited to lead this important conversation. Please join me! Grateful for Portland Design Thinkers for hosting this series. #innovation #planetpositive #naturebasedsolutions #regenerativearchitecture #regenerstivedesign #impactinvesting

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Severe mental illness remains one of the most underserved areas in mental health, possibly because it is difficult to address with the type of virtual, easy-to-scale models that VCs love to back. We're so excited that Sonia Priscilla García and Stas Sokolin at Amae Health have been able to break the mold, bringing better in-person solutions for patients and families dealing with SMI, and attracting strong venture partners to do so cc: Lisa Jacobs Blau, Alison Ryu, Claire Akkan Quiet Capital, Healthier Capital, Jan Ellison Baszucki, Karin Kissane, Mike Volpi

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Have a story to tell... Use Narratize AI Co-Authoring platform to tell your stories in an impactful manner. Katie Trauth Taylor, PhD and the entire team is committed to helping you in becoming amazing storytellers. Check out their impressive work at https://lnkd.in/gnNYHSSX Start telling your stories with Narratize AI as your co-author. #generativeai #storytelling #innovation #aicoauthoring #innovators #researchers #impactstories #startups #problemsolvers #AI #AIStartup

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I’m thrilled to be announcing that Notion Capital is leading the $15m Series A investment in Cogna today. In the industry, we like to think that software has been eating the world. But when you look at the data a better description would be more of a nibble. Depending on what source you look at the software industry represents between 5-8% of global GDP. Contrast that with the services industry that represents between 60-70% of GDP and worth around $25 trillion on a global basis. Most services have been out of reach for the software industry. They have either been too complex or too specialized for off the shelf software to access in any economically viable way. But that’s beginnning to change with GenAI leading to the emergence of ‘service as a software.’ Cogna is at the forefront of this opportunity - building precision software at scale and delivering huge productivity gains for traditional industries. We know Ben Peters & Lars Mennen well having backed their previous company Five AI that was acquired by Bosch in 2022. And we’re very excited to be backing them again together with Hoxton Ventures & Chalfen Ventures Read my full blog post on why we invested here. Radu Bozga Ben Peters Lars Mennen Bryan G. Mike Chalfen Hussein Kanji Kirsten Connell https://lnkd.in/eh8mhcJb

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“Be quick, but don’t hurry.” John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach coined that phrase, and this week will offer interesting opportunities to watch pros applying it: the NBA Playoffs, yes, but also SF Climate Week. I’ve been thinking about how to apply the proper balance of patience and urgency to the climate fight. First, what does Wooden’s advice mean? Prolific basketball scorers will often talk about the need to “let the game come to you.” In other words be aggressive, move with purpose, probe for openings… but not to the point where you are hurrying into the teeth of the defense and in so doing making careless mistakes or missing the right play. The notion of patience also applies over time. Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers famously talked a few seasons ago (in a very impatient sports town) about trusting “The Process” in turning the league’s worst team into one of its enduring best. Back to climate. While hundreds of functional technologies/approaches are being deployed in thousands of ways across all industries to draw down emissions, it will take time we don’t really have — maybe a generation — to scale up these new methods enough to keep us under the warming levels above which really bad things happen. It can be depressing, and I’m certainly not alone in wanting to push harder. But it occurs to me that some of that urgency could qualify as hurrying in Coach Wooden’s sense. This (possibly contrarian?) perspective comes in part from an executive coach who once reflected that I sometimes struck him as having “both the gas and brake pushed down all the way.” He—and my team it turned out—experienced a grinding between my inner drive to quickly usher everything from decisions to workstreams through to conclusion and a desire to gather more information and make the perfect set of moves. Both “pedals” represented an exertion of control; and the solution to this inner tension was actually to practice patience by easing up with *both* feet. Point being this: amidst our ever-increasing incentives to ramp up velocity with decreasing margins for error, I wonder if being a bit more methodical each day could significantly improve the end result. In a realm as complex and fraught as climate, with so many entrenched defenses, could daily 1% improvements to our patience compound our effectiveness over time? Taking the extra breath to be more present in a conversation and learn more about another perspective. Sitting with the discomfort of ambiguity while waiting on more information. Trusting in the flow of things, the skills of colleagues, the angles that will appear and allow us to make outsized impact with more leverage than if we hadn’t allowed the game come to us. Think about it this week. As a hoops fans or climate warrior, a connector or caretaker — where and how could a little more patience help improve your part of the game? #ClimateChange #Sustainability #EarthDay #Improvement https://lnkd.in/gmyV3DYt

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If you believe that #Diversity and #Inclusion matter, specifically in times like this, join us on October 30th. We will discuss the challenges and success stories of promoting Diversity in 2024. With me you will find industry leaders who were able to pull it off (!) 💥💥💥 Dorit Dor, Hasan Abasi, Vered Raviv Schwarz, Gal Shaul Guesty, Augury, HAAT Delivery, Check Point Software Power in Diversity Glilot Capital Partners Poalim Tech, Meitar | Law Offices, ESOP - Phoenix, Microsoft, Calcalist כלכליסט #nomatterwhat

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🐺🚨🚀Three years ago, we launched Pack Fund I. Today, we launch Fund II with some big news from U.W.!🚨🚀🐺 We are now a Preferred Venture Partner of the University of Washington and CoMotion at University of Washington! After three years of hard work, during which we backed 29 startups, mentored on campus, and sponsored entrepreneurship clubs and competitions in the UW Foster School of Business and Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, we are thrilled to be taking our collaboration with U.W. to the next level! On the back of this news and early successes, we are hosting a webinar for accredited and interested L.P.s to learn about joining Fund II - https://lu.ma/pbwih7xa What Is the Latest On Fund I? - 26 companies backed in 3 years - 12 have raised additional funding at higher valuations - $135M+ in additional funding and grants - Invested alongside Madrona, FUSE, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Pioneer Square Labs, Trilogy Equity Partners, Cercano, Washington Research Foundation, and dozens of other top investors. - Supported founders in Software, Life Sciences - Recognized as a top 5 most active life science investor in the PNW in 2022 - 80+ L.P.s supported our vision How is Pack Fund II Starting? - Ti Zhao joined full-time - let's go!!!! - Agreement (M.O.U) signed with U.W., making us a preferred venture partner - 2 investments alongside top VCs - 50+ L.P.s already joined - Fund II is larger than Fund I already - Hundreds of companies reviewed already See the news from U.W. here -https://lnkd.in/girhA3BM GeekWire and Taylor Soper covered our vision masterfully here - https://lnkd.in/gHYFAxzY Thanks to all of the Pack members and founders who have been on this journey with us!

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An interesting article below, that demonstrates out how San Diego is punching above its weight.  And how Connect's strategy and execution over time, contintues to be central to that success. The article describes the current state of the market in Seattle.  (And i love Seattle.) It's a market that we tend to track with relative to venture fundings.  They used to kick our butts, we outraised them each of the last three years.  This despite the fact they have 3x as many funds there, and 9x the amount of resident capital there. (per pitchbook) Some key takeaways:  * They continue to compare themselves to SIlicon Valley. Instead, we leverage our proximity. *They whine there's not enough local investors (see note above - they have more than us). We bring over 200 VCs to SD annually! * They say founders are not connected with one another. We bring CEOs together regularly, in a variety of ways - private dinners and through our Springboard program. * They say they need to elevate their image on a national & international stage. Why we created and continue to build Five.Ten.Thirty (aka Inno Day).  * And the last paragraph - they need to concentrate on making their region a great place to live. Our mantra: "It's about Better, not Bigger." (See XEO, TL Fund). THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT. WE ARE ON A MISSION TOGETHER!!!  (Comments, whining, suggestions on SD always welcome.) https://lnkd.in/g6Rq_f2Y

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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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I’m delighted to showcase a special guest blog from my Stanford colleague, Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt. Frederik is Google’s original Chief Innovation Evangelist, and just published his first book, “What’s Next Is Now.” *** Let’s face it: our minds are wired to crave certainty about the future. We scour the news, analyze trends, and even check our horoscopes—all in search of a glimpse into what’s coming next. But here’s the thing: that relentless hunt for predictions is a mistake! Why? Because the future isn’t something that happens to you. It’s something you actively shape. By obsessing over predictions, we become passive observers, waiting for the future to unfold. But what if we flipped the script? What if we stopped worrying about what might happen and started creating the future we want? I’m a future optimist because I believe in embracing the opportunities ahead rather than fearing uncertainty. The choices you make today are the building blocks of your future. The more intentional and varied your choices, the more opportunities you create for yourself. On the flip side, if you avoid stepping outside your comfort zone, someone else ends up making choices for you. Ever wonder how people find themselves in unfulfilling careers? It’s often because they stopped making intentional choices that could have led them down a different path. They become passengers in a car driven by fate, luck, or happenstance. But here’s the good news: You don’t have to be a passenger. You can be the driver. Imagination is your most powerful tool. By engaging with the possibilities of each moment, you start to see a different landscape for your future. (More insights at the link in comments below!)

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Structural bias in VC funding is undeniable. This article reveals a hidden trap for female founders: getting initial support from female investors can hinder future funding rounds. It's time for VCs to step up and create a more equitable system. https://lnkd.in/dFEGQw94 #venturecapital #womeninbusiness #diversityandinclusion

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Women led half of new businesses in 2023 but 80% of funding went to all-male teams. How is this possible? Numerous studies have shown that gender-diverse and women-led companies outperform their counterparts: 1) McKinsey & Company reported that companies with gender-diverse executive teams are more likely to achieve financial outperformance by 39%. 2) BlackRock found that women-led companies over the past decade have almost consistently outperformed companies led by men. 3) The Impact Group and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) showed that having gender-balanced boardrooms are more likely to improve business outcomes, and women-founded businesses deliver 2.5x more revenue per dollar invested than male-founded businesses. So, what can the venture world do to shift funding patterns so more investment goes to women and gender-diverse teams? Branching out from pattern recognition-driven investing and including more women in roles within VC firms are just the start. #womenfounders #powerofdiverseteams #vc #inspireglobalventures

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Kimmy Paluch leads Project Deep reshaping entrepreneurship and investment paradigms for underrepresented groups. Co-founding Beta Boom she prioritizes ventures addressing women and multicultural consumers. Eighty-six percent of Beta Boom’s portfolio is #woman-founded and led, and their latest fund portfolio is composed entirely of companies run by a woman or person of color. Through Project DEEP, Paluch advocates for holistic support, emphasizing diverse experiences and innovative funding models. She champions increased access, transparency, and non-dilutive capital to empower underestimated entrepreneurs. Kimmy mentions, " While it is absolutely true that underestimated entrepreneurs are over-mentored and underfunded, our philosophy is that the check is not enough. Where we’ve seen transformative results, and research has shown correlation, is when financial capital is combined with social and human capital. So, I’d like to see more funding options that leverage these models more intensively." Thanks Kimmy Paluch for sharing these REAL insights.

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🙏 Thanks to my friend and colleague, Keith Gipson for sharing this memory. It's been my ongoing pleasure supporting his mission! 📷 I feel like a celebrity being features in a Keith Gipson ThrowbackThursday 😎 ⚡When I met Keith, I instantly felt his "energy" - ironic that he's in the EnergyTech business. As we got to know a little abut each other, and hearing his story of being a 7-time founder, I was inspired. 📺 One of Keith's previous startups, a predicative crime solution, was actually featured on an episode of CSI LAs Vegas! ⏩ Today, Keith is RAPIDLY growing his newest company, facil.ai. Simply put, with NO new hardware, Keith's software runs securely in the cloud, and saves up to 50% in HVAC energy costs. Keith and team had an AI solution before AI was even a thing! This means that the system learns and gets even smarter over time. Over time utility bills lessen and building occupants are kept at the temps they want. Gone are the days of buildings that are too hot 🥵or too cold🥶. #innovation #technology #future #startups #leadership Portola Valley Partners

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Sometimes I'm reminded of the paradoxical exuberance/foolishness of my own youth. Every day I meet amazing founders. Yo-Yo Ma level geniuses that are budding masters of their crafts and vectors, early in their careers, and intensely brilliant. The top products of the labs at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, amongst other amazing institutions. They span upbringings, backgrounds, socioeconomic class, whathaveyou - doesn't matter. They're legit, and they're smarter than all of us. One or two of them will be a Tesla/Turing. Take my word for it. It's a pleasant byproduct of my job. Not the point. What I want to focus on is how in almost every conversation one of these folks says something that renders them a complete buffoon. Usually the baseheadedness is rooted in an Icarus Complex or can just be chalked up to being young, bold, and inexperienced (ironically the same qualities that can lead them to later build a decacorn). It's like listening to an LLM with an incomplete data set, hallucinating in real time. The only variation in these instances is how doggedly said youngin' sticks to their proverbial guns and digs in on a position of high moronitude. I've been there. I don't think I've ever told any one this story outside of Rob May having actually been there, sitting next to me. Not sure if he remembers. I was at a NextView Ventures dinner hosted at Trade in Boston. It was some startup event. Lots of very smart people. I was 27, and the CEO of my first vc-backed startup. The company had some heavy math roots - algorithmic rostering and optimization software, which I wrote the initial schema for. Anyway, I was sitting next to an older gentleman and (slightly) buzzed on wine, I mathsplained to him about how our statistics worked. Generally. A diatribe on normal curves. I think I said something along the lines of "should I explain normal curves to you?" It was painful, I'm sure. He listened politely. We both then returned to our dinners. It was only afterwards that Rob told me who that man was. It was Stephen Wolfram. I explained statistics and normal curves to Stephen Wolfram. I'm not sure what else to say here. Epic. I am the clown. The clown is me. There's no parable here. I just find it funny. If anything, it's that we all get ahead of our skis a bit - and probably more often when we're young or inexperienced. I certainly did. But I guess the ultimate takeaway for me is this: don't try to explain statistics or math to Stephen Wolfram.

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Angelina Ly founder of fireflyslime and a University of Washington Bothell alum shared how she launched one of the top selling slime companies! 🎇 Time Management is Key: Doing it all on your own is possible if you use your time wisely. Tools like Google Calendar can help streamline responsibilities and keep you on track. consistent work ethic makes a difference. 🎇 Embrace E-Commerce Opportunities: Starting a business through e-commerce is possible. Platforms like Shopify are user-friendly and perfect for taking the first step into an online business. 🎇 Passion Drives Success: Your hobbies and passions can become a thriving business. Age or experience isn't a barrier and in fact can be an advantage. 🎇 Small Ideas Can Become Big: Whether it’s a simple idea or an accidental discovery, with experimentation and social media marketing, your business can grow organically.

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