DALLAS, June 22, 2026--(<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--Jordan Miller, Co-founder and CEO of Yendo, was named an EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 Southwest Award winner. Miller was selected among nearly 1,000 program participants that included 592 finalists across 17 regions competing for the title. Jordan Miller co-founded Yendo in 2021 with George Utkov and Daniel Ashy to reshape consumer finance for the 65 million Americans who have historically been excluded by the archaic and expensive operating models at legacy lenders. Yendo's thesis is simple: proprietary technology can break those operating models, replacing the low-utility that has historically left consumers worse off than when they started. Today, Yendo has saved its members over $250 million in interest and fees and offers a full suite of credit card products, including vehicle-secured, home-secured, and unsecured cards, giving Main Street Americans more choice, flexibility, and spending power than they've had from any other lender. "Being named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner is a huge honor, and a testament to our entire team's commitment to building a fairer financial system," said Jordan Miller, CEO and co-founder of Yendo. "Millions of Americans have been locked out of affordable credit simply because of a number that doesn't tell the whole story. This recognition fuels our mission to keep expanding access and opportunity for the consumers who need it most." Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. It celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or raised outside capital to grow their company, transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future. Regional winners were chosen by an independent panel of past winners, top CEOs and business leaders. Judges assessed candidates on long-term value creation, entrepreneurial spirit, purpose-driven commitment, and significant growth and impact. As a Southwest award winner, Miller will now be considered by the national judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 National Awards, which will be presented in November at the annual&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2Fen_us%2Fgrowth%2Fstrategic-growth-forum-us&amp;esheet=54558284&amp;newsitemid=20260622838088&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Strategic+Growth+Forum%26%23174%3B&amp;index=1&amp;md5=ea4cbed6a58c7a5c1ffe221b678825ca" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">Strategic Growth Forum®</a>, where high-growth CEOs, Fortune 1000 executives and investors converge to shape the future of business. The National Overall Award winner will move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in May 2027. The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has recognized the leadership of entrepreneurs such as: ●&nbsp;Jason McGowan, Crumbl Cookies●&nbsp;Reid Hoffman | Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn Corp.●&nbsp;Saeju Jeong,&nbsp;Noom●&nbsp;Allison Ellsworth | Stephen Ellsworth,&nbsp;Poppi●&nbsp;Jitendra Mohan | Sanjay Gajendra | Casey Morrison,&nbsp;Astera Labs●&nbsp;Shelly Ibach, Sleep Number●&nbsp;Howard Schultz,&nbsp;Starbucks Coffee Company●&nbsp;Holly Thaggard | Amanda Baldwin,&nbsp;Supergoop!●&nbsp;Jodi L. Berg,&nbsp;Vita-Mix Corporation●&nbsp;Michael Happe,&nbsp;Winnebago Industries●&nbsp;Arthur Blank,&nbsp;Atlanta Falcons, The Home Depot, Georgia Force Sponsors Founded and produced by Ernst &amp; Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh Risk, SAP and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In the Southwest region, sponsors also include regional Platinum sponsor, Haynes and Boone, regional Gold sponsor, Big Picture, and regional Silver sponsors, ADP, EOS Worldwide and Pierpont Communications. About Entrepreneur Of The Year Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year® has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 60 countries and territories globally. The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2Fen_us%2Fgrowth%2Fstrategic-growth-forum-us&amp;esheet=54558284&amp;newsitemid=20260622838088&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Strategic+Growth+Forum%26%23174%3B&amp;index=2&amp;md5=73303d6559977da6f06e951b80f1bc6a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">Strategic Growth Forum®</a>&nbsp;in November where national finalists and award winners are announced. The national overall winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition. Visit&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2Fen_us%2Fentrepreneur-of-the-year-us&amp;esheet=54558284&amp;newsitemid=20260622838088&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=ey.com%2Fus%2Feoy&amp;index=3&amp;md5=0d8f9669f197a190af2f4b7a0f42c067" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">ey.com/us/eoy</a>. EY | Building a better working world EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets.Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow. EY teams work across a full spectrum of services in assurance, consulting, tax, strategy and transactions. Fueled by sector insights, a globally connected, multi-disciplinary network and diverse ecosystem partners, EY teams can provide services in more than 150 countries and territories.All in to shape the future with confidence. EY refers to the global organization and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ernst &amp; Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst &amp; Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2Fen_gl%2Flegal-and-privacy&amp;esheet=54558284&amp;newsitemid=20260622838088&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=ey.com%2Fprivacy&amp;index=4&amp;md5=a6d4657273aedcdb3700a69801d76b45" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">ey.com/privacy</a>. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2F&amp;esheet=54558284&amp;newsitemid=20260622838088&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=ey.com&amp;index=5&amp;md5=94efe74cc3407f1485bcc398ab2a1b66" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">ey.com</a>. EY refers to the global organization and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ernst &amp; Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst &amp; Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2Fen_gl%2Flegal-and-privacy&amp;esheet=54558284&amp;newsitemid=20260622838088&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=ey.com%2Fprivacy&amp;index=6&amp;md5=926cf1b9eb61c4ec4108ea49957f753f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">ey.com/privacy</a>. EY member firms do not practice law, where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com&amp;esheet=54558284&amp;newsitemid=20260622838088&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=ey.com&amp;index=7&amp;md5=65ae20b0ee1bfedc1192e59c015095bd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">ey.com</a>. © 2026 Ernst &amp; Young LLP.All Rights Reserved.ED None This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, legal or professional advice. Please refer to your advisors for specific advice. View source version on businesswire.com:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260622838088/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260622838088/en/</a> ContactsWinning Company's PR Contact: Stephanie CookCompany: YendoTel: 515-208-9743Email:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:stephanie@goodpr.co" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(35, 42, 49);">stephanie@goodpr.co</a>

Business Wire Mon, June 22, 2026 at 11:43 AM MDT

Jordan Miller of Yendo named EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 Award winner

Redo, a Draper, UT-based commerce technology company that helps brands manage customer interactions across the post-purchase journey, has raised $81 million in a Series B funding round led by Smash Capital at a $1.25 billion valuation. The round also saw participation from existing investors Pelion Venture Partners and Cervin Ventures.&nbsp; The company plans to use the funding to support product development, advance its AI initiatives, and expand internationally. Redo started as a post-purchase platform focused on returns and exchanges. It has since expanded to include order tracking, package protection, fulfillment support, customer service tools, marketing features, and AI-powered commerce experiences. Today, more than 4,100 brands use Redo, and over 1,750 merchants use multiple products from its platform. Redo says a key focus for investment will be building AI-powered commerce tools that support customer engagement across the entire shopping journey. The company also reports that one of its exchange-focused AI tools delivers significantly higher customer retention compared to standard return processes.The company plans to keep investing in technology that enables more personalized customer interactions, increases engagement, and improves efficiency for merchants as AI changes how shoppers connect with brands. Redo has already used part of the funding to acquire ReturnBear, a company that provides international returns services across more than 100 countries. This acquisition strengthens Redo’s ability to help merchants simplify and improve the customer experience.&nbsp; "It's really difficult for merchants who sell internationally to do returns at all,” said Aaron Evett, Chief Commerce Officer at Redo. “Our network allows customers to return products locally, where we can inspect, refurbish, re-fulfill, and reship inventory without forcing merchants to absorb unnecessary cross-border costs." "The best technology companies earn the right to solve bigger problems,” says Paul Szurek of Smash Capital. “Redo started by building trust with merchants through post purchase experiences and has expanded into a much larger opportunity. As AI transforms commerce, brands will need infrastructure that helps them own and strengthen direct relationships with shoppers. We believe Redo is uniquely positioned to build that future.""When we started Redo, we thought we were solving returns. What we learned from thousands of brands is that returns were only one piece of a much larger challenge,” said Sterling Snow, Co-Founder and CEO of Redo. “Every merchant is fighting to own the relationship with their shoppers. This funding allows us to accelerate that mission and build the infrastructure brands need to create direct relationships with customers across every touchpoint." About Redo Founded in 2018 by Sterling Snow, Redo is a technology company based in Draper, Utah that helps direct-to-consumer brands bring together fragmented tools and simplify their tech stacks. The company offers an AI-powered ecommerce platform that enables businesses to manage orders, returns, exchanges, fulfillment, and marketing in one system. This helps improve operations through automation, better customer experiences, and increased retention.

Jun 24, 2026 | By Startuprise io

Redo Raises $81M in Series B Funding

<h2 class="ql-align-center">WHY WE INVESTED IN&nbsp;VALINOR</h2> Today&nbsp;<a href="https://www.valinordiscovery.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Valinor</a>&nbsp;announced it has raised $13m in funding from Pelion, Harpoon, CRV, and others. We could not be more thrilled to co-lead this round with several incredible investors. I wanted to share a few thoughts about why we knew we had to invest. About 2 months ago I had my close friend Larsen Jensen, the founder of Harpoon Ventures, on the IO Podcast. Shortly after, he sent me this email:&nbsp; “Tyler, I want to work together on more companies. I need to introduce you to Josh Pacini. He is an absolute killer, and one of the best founders we’ve ever worked with….progress has been amazing,” I was stoked to meet someone with Utah roots that I didn’t know, who came so highly recommended from a trusted source. I don’t often get that strong of a reference from that strong of a referrer. After we met with Josh, I sent Larsen this text: <img src="https://tylerhogge.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-2.png?w=770"> Some people just blow you away from the first meeting, and that is Josh. When that happens, I do one thing: I dig deeper, and figure out if I get more excited, or less.&nbsp; In this case, the more I dug the more ecstatic I got.&nbsp; After some customer calls, a bunch of research, and one more meeting with Josh, we offered to write a large check out of Pelion’s seed program. The day he signed I happily tweeted this: <img src="https://tylerhogge.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-2-1.png?w=1024"> So what is Valinor? Very briefly:&nbsp; Pharmaceutical companies are not actually struggling from a lack of ideas for new drugs. This is not the bottleneck. The actual bottleneck is clinical trial success – the step where 90% of drug programs go to fail. Going a layer deeper, the underlying reason&nbsp;why&nbsp;clinical drugs trials fail is in large part due to unsuccessful patient selection. That is, it’s very hard to select the right&nbsp;type&nbsp;of patient that is most likely to see results from your particular drug. Choosing the wrong patient set has disastrous consequences: you might fail a trial that otherwise would succeed – a false negative – and this has life and death implications.&nbsp; Valinor’s insight was incredibly valuable: what if we generated the best biological datasets&nbsp;in the world from patient-derived tissue and blood samples – and trained the world’s best model at predicting patient response? That simple insight could have profound implications for our world, and for Valinor as a company. If Valinor succeeds, we will see much higher success rates on some of our most groundbreaking therapeutic innovations. Valinor will be a required part of every pharmaceutical company’s testing process, and as a result,will change how new medicines come to market. On top of this unique insight, we realized something else about Josh: he was an incredible recruiter. He was landing candidates that he had no right on paper to win. Several of the most highly respected ML researchers and translational scientists in this space have joined Valinor already, a company just a mere few months old. When we talked to these individuals they all said the same thing: Josh is incredible, this is hands down the right problem to be working on, and we know this is going to succeed. “It feels inevitable.” Andy Rachleff taught me that there are two types of risks you can take as an early stage investor: technical risk, and market risk. In his view, you never wanted to take market risk, but you’d love to take technical risk. What does this mean? It means to invest in things that, if they work, will no doubt find exceptional product market fit, because the market is clearly desperate for it. You can methodically kill technical risk by hiring talented engineers and brilliant technical minds to build what you need to build, but you cannot kill market risk unless you build what people desperately want. Valinor is exactly that type of company: if they succeed, the market is desperate for it. That much is clear. So, the only question is whether they will succeed in creating this model that changes drug development and effectively removes the technical risk. The early signs of this are great.&nbsp; We have deep conviction that they will succeed. Valinor’s early case studies are looking incredibly strong, the talent density momentum is accelerating, and Valinor is starting to feel like all generational startups start to feel. Inevitable. We could not be more proud to partner with Josh and the Valinor team. They are always looking for top machine learning talent. If you are interested,&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/joshpacini?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">please reach out to Josh directly on x</a>. Hogge, Tyler. “Why We Invested in Valinor.”&nbsp;always happy; never satisfied, 10 Dec. 2025, tylerhogge.com/2025/12/10/why-we-invested-in-valinor/.

Why we Invested in Valinor

<a href="https://www.honeyhealth.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Honey Health</a>&nbsp;announced it has raised $7.8M to build AI Agents for the healthcare back office. Pelion is fired up to lead the round and I could not be more excited to join the board and work with the team, led by Matt Faustman. This is my, and Pelion’s, first investment in a startup focused explicitly on building digital workers – also known as AI agents, which is another reason for my excitement. So, why did we invest? 3 reasons:&nbsp; <ol><li>The current</li><li>The captain</li><li>The customer quotes</li></ol> The current here is incredibly strong. A confluence of factors has created a market pull for what Honey Health offers that cannot be ignored. On the product side, the ability of AI to reliably complete tasks that humans currently do is improving daily. On the demand side, one of the main problems facing healthcare providers of all types is their ability to hire the right type of people to manage all the tasks that make up their “back office”: things like patient charting, prescription refills, pre-patient visit preparation, aggregating patient data from an EHR, reading faxes, and reaching out to insurance providers for prior authorization. In addition, non-clinical staff turnover sits at 33-40% annually. All of this stuff is a pain, and all of it means there is less time for that worker to focus directly on patients.&nbsp; Some estimates now show that administration costs now account for more spend than even direct patient care. Even if you dispute this data, it would be hard to argue that admin costs shouldn’t be lowered. <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/pelion-webapp.appspot.com/o/articles%2Fo8f1D4C5dxRZfKKF03iF%2F4eb72ed1-c7f8-4bfb-ad11-932417eeb4da.png?alt=media&amp;token=1bc79878-08bb-4867-9d41-84a32e2b1121"> All of this results in one driving force: providers (of all types) are desperate for a way to reduce the cost of completing these administrative tasks, and they are very open to AI doing it for them. The captain is also incredibly strong. Matt is a founder’s founder, who has already built and sold one business (UpCounsel) and has now dedicated his life to making healthcare more efficient. He experienced the problem as a Type 1 Diabetic who has seen first-hand how inefficient many of the back office tasks his doctor’s staff have to handle just to get his prescriptions refilled. Matt has built a team that lives at the edge of AI Agents capability, navigating archaic medical software systems with ease. Finally – the customer calls. We called several clinics who have adopted Honey Health’s agents, and the feedback was jaw dropping. We heard providers – many of which are in their 50’s or 60’s, express their confidence in this new technology which dramatically changes the efficiency of their practices. They expressed awe at the level of accuracy already outpacing their human employees. One provider shared “Matt is a force of nature. He responds immediately, he builds software fast, and he knows exactly what problems we need to have solved.” He continued; “I get an email every morning that contains all the info I need for all of my patients coming in that day. All their patient data has been downloaded and compiled. I don’t have to spend time interviewing patients. I can just start treating them. My workflow is so much better, my staff is so much happier. I would like to invest personally in Honey Health.” This was shared by several other customers we spoke with. The pattern was clear. Hearing these types of customer quotes from a startup that is less than a year old is just wild, and it was all we needed to offer to lead Honey Health’s seed round. I believe Honey Health has a real shot of becoming the largest “employer” of digital workers over the next 10 years, saving providers billions of dollars and improving millions of patient lives as a result. In less than a year, thousands of providers are using it, across more than 100 medical groups.&nbsp; The future of healthcare is here, thanks in large part to Honey Health. Hogge, Tyler. “Why We Invested in Honey Health.”&nbsp;Always Happy; Never Satisfied, 28 Oct. 2025,&nbsp;<a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2025/10/28/why-we-invested-in-honey-health/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://tylerhogge.com/2025/10/28/why-we-invested-in-honey-health/</a>

WHY WE INVESTED IN HONEY HEALTH

Agree.com says its AI-powered e-signature platform is different from competitors because it includes invoicing and payment processing. That’s why the company might have a shot at tackling the industry Goliath, Docusign.&nbsp; Because the startup makes its money from transaction fees for any money movement facilitated by its platform, Agree.com has made e-signatures free to all users.And now it’s raised a $7.2 million seed round, the company tells TechCrunch exclusively. Founded in February 2024,&nbsp;<a href="http://agree.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(33, 38, 35);">Agree</a>&nbsp;also raised $3 million in a pre-seed round of funding last year led by Sheel Mohnot, general partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures. This latest financing was oversubscribed and led by Tyler Hogge at Pelion Venture Partners, according to Agree.com co-founder CEO Marty Ringlein. Funding for the raise only took two weeks, according to a source familiar with the transaction. Agree.com uses AI on top of optimal character recognition (OCR) software so that it can auto-detect and label all of a contract’s input fields and signature blocks. Its technology can also identify and extract “any and all” payment terms to dynamically generate invoices. “At the end of almost every signature, someone has to pay someone money,” Ringlein told TechCrunch. “We combine what has historically been a disjointed and fragmented workflow to make signing better and payments faster.” Ringlein believes that because of its multitasking approach, Agree.com can potentially replace traditional e-signature software and invoicing and accounts receivable tools such as Bill.com.<h3> </h3>“Agree extracts every character, indentation, semicolon, and hyphen to not only understand the type of contract being signed, but make it fully editable and collaborative with commenting, redlining, and version control,” Ringlein told TechCrunch. Although it primarily competes with Docusign, Agree’s business model is a fintech company through B2B payments. So far, its trajectory seems promising. In its first three months, after launching in early September 2024, it hit 10,000 users. Seven weeks later,&nbsp;it doubled to over 20,000 users. Today, it has over 25,000 users, including ad networks such as Beehiiv and Product Hunt, B2B SaaS startups such as Rho and TaxGPT, and enterprise sales teams like Brico and Thoropass, it says. Agree offers a premium offering for larger teams that charges a traditional monthly SaaS fee per seat. It also will monetize invoicing and billing logic on transaction volume. Presently, Agree has seven employees, including co-founders Will Hubbard (COO) and Evan Dudla (CTO).&nbsp; All of the founders have launched and sold multiple previous startups. Ringlein, for instance, previously&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2012/06/04/twitter-buys-design-agency-nclud-appoints-co-founder-twitters-new-design-manager/6/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(33, 38, 35);">sold</a>&nbsp;design agency nclud to Twitter in May 2012 for an undisclosed amount. In 2016, Ringlein, Dudla, and Agree’s CPO Mike Dick sold a startup called nvite to Eventbrite. In 2020, that trio also sold Gather to Brex. Hubbard started his first company, air-quality monitory startup ChemiSense, as a junior at UC Berkeley. He ran it for about six years and sold it to&nbsp;<a href="https://learn.kaiterra.com/media-center/kaiterra-acquires-chemisense-expands-global-footprint" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(33, 38, 35);">Kaiterra</a>&nbsp;in 2019. Hubbard then started his next company, Niche (verticalized community marketplaces), shortly thereafter, and it was acquired by&nbsp;<a href="https://operaevent.co/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(33, 38, 35);">Opera Event</a>&nbsp;in 2020. More recently, Hubbard and Ringlein also started early-stage venture firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adventure.fund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(33, 38, 35);">Adventure Fund</a>, which has invested in the likes of Mercury and Beehiiv.&nbsp; As for the growth plan for Agree, Pelion partner Tyler Hogge told TechCrunch that “the smartest way to get massive adoption would be to use e-signature as the wedge, give it away for free, and make it impossible for incumbents to reply.” Hogge added that Agree’s “business model is truly unique: free software, monetized through invoicing and payments.” Blank Ventures also participated in the seed round, along with angel investor Gokul Rajaram. All existing backers, including Better Tomorrow Ventures, 8-Bit Capital, Sophia Amoruso’s Trust Fund, Hustle Fund, Everywhere Ventures, Singh Capital Partners, and Firsthand VC doubled down on their investment. While the company primarily operates in the United States today, it intends to expand internationally later this year, starting with the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Full Article Available on <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/06/agree-com-raises-7-2m-to-take-on-docusign-bill-com-with-ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TechCrunch</a> Azevedo M. Agree.com raises $7.2M to take on Docusign, Bill.com with AI.&nbsp;TechCrunch. May 6, 2025.

Agree.com Secures $7.2M Seed Funding to Challenge DocuSign and Bill.com with AI-Driven Platform

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 17, 2025&nbsp;— Cy4Data Labs, a leader in next-generation data protection, today announced the successful closing of its funding round, led by Pelion Venture Partners, a well-established technology venture capital firm. This strategic investment will accelerate Cy4Data Labs’ growth in sales and marketing, enabling more organizations to access its breakthrough solution. With Cy4Data Labs, data remains encrypted and protected—not only at rest and in motion, but for the first time, while in use. Cy4Data Labs redefines data protection by securing information at the data level, keeping data encrypted even in use. This prevents exposure, stops insider threats, and ensures stolen data remains useless. Cy4 integrates seamlessly with existing systems—delivering unbreakable security without compromising performance or access. “We’re not just protecting data—we’re changing the rules of how it can be used securely,” said Lance Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Cy4Data Labs. “We already have revenue, Fortune 100 customers, and products in production. This funding allows us to accelerate our go-to-market efforts and get our technology into the hands of organizations that desperately need it—especially as AI, cyber warfare, and quantum computing reshape the threat landscape.” “We believe Cy4Data Labs is solving one of the most urgent problems in cybersecurity,” said Blake Modersitzki, Managing Partner at Pelion Venture Partners. “Their team has developed a truly novel approach that doesn’t force a trade-off between performance and protection. That kind of innovation is rare, and it’s why we’re excited to lead this investment.” As one of the first companies to protect data in use across any database or SaaS environment, Cy4Data Labs is redefining what’s possible in data security. We invite you to challenge our claims and see it for yourself at RSA Conference 2025. About Cy4Data Labs Cy4Data Labs is a cybersecurity company pioneering a new model of data protection—making encryption persistent, portable, and practical across all environments. By enabling encrypted data to be used without decryption, Cy4 ensures that sensitive information is never exposed, even during active processing. Its novel key management system and real-time threat detection capabilities offer unmatched protection against both external attacks and insider threats—without compromising accessibility or performance. About Pelion Venture Partners Pelion Venture Partners is a leading early-stage venture capital firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah. With a strong history of backing bold entrepreneurs across enterprise software, data infrastructure, and cloud computing, Pelion brings deep expertise in scaling transformative technology companies. Media Contacts: Robert Brumfield<a href="mailto:rbrumfield@cy4datalabs.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">rbrumfield@cy4datalabs.com</a>&nbsp; Cy4Data Labs.&nbsp;(2025, April 17).&nbsp;Cy4Data Labs Secures a $10 Million First Round Led by Pelion Venture Partners to Transform How Data is Secured—Even While in Use. Retrieved from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cy4datalabs.com/cy4data-labs-secures-a-10-million-first-round-led-by-pelion-venture-partners-to-transform-how-data-is-secured-even-while-in-use/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.cy4datalabs.com/cy4data-labs-secures-a-10-million-first-round-led-by-pelion-venture-partners-to-transform-how-data-is-secured-even-while-in-use/</a>

Cy4Data Labs Secures a $10 Million First Round Led by Pelion Venture Partners to Transform How Data is Secured—Even While in Use

In this episode of Exceptional Startups, Brandon Rodman (founder of Weave and now Previ) breaks down how he’s quietly building a Costco for the modern workforce — one that’s already grown from 300K to 1.5M users in 3 months, all without charging employers a dime. He shares hard-earned lessons from going 0 to IPO with Weave, why he got rejected by 150 investors, and how he's self-funded Previ with a bigger vision in mind — this time, he’s not giving up control. It’s honest, tactical, and full of gold for anyone scaling something real. Listen to the episode on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-io-podcast-investor-operator/id1678642609?ls=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Apple Podcasts</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">here</a>.

His Company Went Public At $1.8 BILLION...And His Next Idea Is Even Bigger

In this episode, Pete Kazanjy—author of&nbsp;Founding Sales&nbsp;and a veteran sales leader—joins hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow to share a crash course in founder-led sales, explaining why early-stage founders must take charge of selling before hiring sales reps. He breaks down the key mindset shifts for technical founders, how sales is like “weaponized product management,” and when it’s time to delegate lead generation. If you're a startup founder looking to master sales we highly recommend this episode. Pete's book which can be found for free online at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foundingsales.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">foundingsales.com</a>. Listen to the episode on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/building-the-sales-machine-with-pete-kazanjy-author-of-founding-sales-io-podcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Apple Podcasts</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">here</a>.

Building the Sales Machine with Pete Kazanjy, Author of Founding Sales | IO Podcast

Transforming Revenue Management for B2B Companies&nbsp;Revenue and billing management have long been critical functions for B2B organizations, yet they've been hindered by manual processes, disconnected systems, and inefficient implementation timelines. These challenges have consistently limited real-time analysis capabilities and introduced unnecessary inaccuracies.&nbsp;Exceptional Leadership&nbsp;Our first meeting with Sidharth, Subscript's founder and CEO, immediately revealed the potential of his vision. He is a special builder.&nbsp;His track record speaks volumes—having previously scaled an educational technology startup (hard!) to $40M in annual recurring revenue. From our initial in-person discussion at his house through subsequent meetings, we became convinced that Sidharth and his team could fundamentally reshape this market segment.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;AI-Enhanced Financial Operations&nbsp;The emergence of large language models and artificial intelligence has created an opportunity to reconsider the foundations of revenue management, particularly regarding sales contracts as the authoritative data source.&nbsp;Subscript automates the extraction and interpretation of contract details, transforming these documents into dynamic information hubs. This automation enhances revenue analysis, improves analytics capabilities, and accelerates decision-making, enabling companies to respond more effectively to market developments and customer requirements.&nbsp;Comprehensive Platform Development&nbsp;It requires exceptional vision and engineering talent to build beyond basic billing software toward an integrated platform with multiple complementary product lines. Our strategic roadmap is ambitious. This integration eliminates the need for separate solutions, improving efficiency across financial operations. The goal is a unified system capable of handling billing, revenue recognition, tax compliance, and CPQ functionality seamlessly.&nbsp;Product Excellence&nbsp;The platform balances sophisticated capabilities with intuitive design, making complex financial information accessible and actionable. Co-founders Sidharth and Michelle have fostered an innovation-driven culture within their organization. Their commitment is reflected in a product that consistently exceeds market expectations, earning recognition from both customers and industry partners.&nbsp;Our investment decision, alongside First Round Capital, reflects our confidence in Subscript's vision and the transformative potential of their platform. As language models continue to enhance data analysis capabilities, Subscript is positioned at the forefront of this evolution, establishing new standards in revenue management. We congratulate Sidharth, Michelle, and the entire Subscript team on their achievements and look forward to supporting their continued growth.&nbsp;

Subscript Announces Series A Led by Pelion Venture Partners

How do early-stage founders break through and build exceptional companies? In this upcoming season of the I/O Podcast, hosts Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge unveil a new approach—combining insights from the Exceptional Startups List with tactical advice from founders actively scaling their businesses. This season, we’re setting out to be the best podcast in the world for seed and Series A founders. Exceptional Startups List Here:&nbsp;https://exceptionalstartups.com/ Follow the I/O Podcast Here:&nbsp;x: https://x.com/IO__podcastWeb: https://www.investoroperator.io/ Listen to the episode on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-io-podcast-investor-operator/id1678642609?ls=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Apple Podcasts</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">here</a>.

The Best Podcast For Early Stage Founders - Season 2 of the I/O Podcast & the Exceptional Startups List

I’m excited to share the 2025 Exceptional Startups List today. You can see the list&nbsp;<a href="https://exceptionalstartups.com/list-2025" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">here</a>. A few quick highlights to share: <ul><li>240 startups made this year’s list – up from around 140 last year. Huge growth.</li><li>43% of startups in Bay Area</li><li>30+ top venture firms submitted names this year – up from ~20 or so last year, including some of the best funds on earth:</li><li><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeYUFV5SxulJHQ-tYit0x7kxjb4GPuQXEHA-ZZJgFE_TFFLWYowdshb_R-rY7V7-7TZJu0-UywjpUALaH9Uv1LIDhjGvIqUaGOkweimQXOiGpwnY4GrTJeOyBaETkSTODs4KpR2IA?key=DRMXHzgH2H9AR--RxNwQoZoG"></li><li>As expected, AI is the main driver of the size of the list. The growth of these companies is unprecedented – the 2025 exceptional startups are growing faster than any cohort of startups I’ve ever studied. Eric said it perfectly here:<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeRbCli9qH0TbQZFmMEMICo9fn7bayhd2Z5LbNi2i2UvEb5qpxlBj5HFGNJpQth__lmC9k_heWUokDmUn7Sc6B_WmCBDsfh5Q3T2dHmc8elJ4cbBSJ_U1lH9eSZJZtuf786WtfT_A?key=DRMXHzgH2H9AR--RxNwQoZoG"></li></ul> I also thought it would be useful to share how last year’s list turned out: <ul><li>Over 100,000 job seekers used ExceptionalStartups.com to find their next role</li><li>Several dozen founders shared that they used their inclusion on the list as a selling point to potential candidates</li><li>5+ investors used the list to help them close candidates on behalf of their portfolio</li><li>Several dozen exceptional startups raised large up-rounds or even filed to go public! Very cool to see.</li></ul> A good first year –&nbsp;certainly an experiment worth continuing. So, what is the future of ExceptionalStartups.com? We are going to continue to do the annual list, in Q1 every year. In addition to that, we are going to help Exceptional Startups tell their story and recruit the best candidates.&nbsp; Here’s the offer: an open invite for any Exceptional Startups founder/CEO to get all of the following: <ol><li>An&nbsp;<a href="https://t.co/tsL9oREcfl" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">IO Podcast episode</a>&nbsp;with any Exceptional Startup founder/CEO, to help you share your startup’s story with thousands of IO Podcast followers</li><li>A free sponsorship of the podcast episode so your product is featured on the episode where you are the guest</li><li>Free billboard takeover for several days on the most valuable billboard in Utah.</li><li>An Exceptional Startups deep dive on your company to help job seekers better understand why they should join your company. To see previous examples of this, check out ones we did for&nbsp;<a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2024/08/06/why-we-invested-in-remi/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Remi</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2024/08/20/the-redo-opportunity/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Redo</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2024/06/10/why-we-invested-in-jump/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Jump</a>.</li></ol> If you are an exceptional startup founder and want that package above,&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/thogge" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">DM me</a>!&nbsp; And for any job seeker – I strongly believe the best investment you can make is to join the right company. That single choice has more impact than any other choice you will make in your financial life. I hope the Exceptional Startups List can help you in that journey.&nbsp;

ANNOUNCING THE 2025 EXCEPTIONAL STARTUPS LIST

Pelion is excited and grateful to share that we’ve raised $500m for our 8th venture fund. As a part of the announcement, we thought it would be fun to share a little about our firm’s history, what we plan to do with the funding to serve the entrepreneurs we partner with in Utah and beyond, and why we are so excited about the opportunity ahead. Many people don’t know this, but Pelion was actually founded by Jim Dreyfous in 1986 as “Utah Ventures.” It wasn’t until 2010 that we rebranded to Pelion. Like all firms, the early days of Pelion were full of many ups, downs, and uncertainties. Our early focus was split across medical devices and software, but after seeing the early potential of software the firm decided to focus there, and eventually partnered with incredible businesses like Fusion-IO, Riverbed Technologies, and many others. Early on, we often felt like we had to sell “around” Utah to our potential LPs, who were uncertain that a real tech ecosystem could thrive here. But as Utah’s ecosystem has grown exponentially, the narrative has completely shifted: some of the world’s best LPs now see Utah as an ecosystem that can produce many billion-dollar startups, and they are excited to support it. We believe something special is happening in Utah. In our two most recent funds, we’ve found that about 50% of our investments have a Utah tie (Divvy, LVT, Nursa, Neighbor, Redo, Torus, and many others) and we expect that trend will continue with Fund 8. If you look back at the history of Utah tech, there have been 4 distinct waves, with each wave growing on the last: <img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcCO3ZQ5sD4c17hgkuBKigYETqBuTmEYYqxtxD9KaakfiMx-8XW9JaJA2qmqv-IZD30KsjhzDGKp2SVwVGdyt5fRL9QPLirFfjyWQtmLqTgLzZ5vnfTihZ9XLGOMdqjH6_KrSLhew?key=z374pILmj0taV9pe17VkMbYW"> <img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdSx7VT4b044rwjXrSChqNvLUqA8vi2iqkEDy0xrwNhRoMD9G-VymLhpkfUpt2vM2X-PyOiLYkkcidcBMIopryNBxuyL4hFEL9XYK_s9aRfzsHPpQu16bRE3ADV4c6E9AP_G6S-?key=z374pILmj0taV9pe17VkMbYW"> <img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeGsE4J4Qr-1OWLkBFBtrmcDzVB8BDZ5EZkHOQi1HeWa__TUh7YYuiFpWkoGiyTDO56v6lu2ExzamKa1JSTC3cv07cbRjx-c4yOJV_1ALVmNMq75aXO3nWL1Csf_RJAd8yC32jZbA?key=z374pILmj0taV9pe17VkMbYW"> <img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfGKokQHFhVJChzOVf6m-b3dgQf937acUYhUw8Q1a7jCcjVy2eQu1gF2RwmQXoJaaRmqsbmOucvbgfHufyosQrkserQ4PeCVhSoMmIr6ysRgmQweno_5aHc3MFjJZ4MDamuX4jOsA?key=z374pILmj0taV9pe17VkMbYW">TechBuzz. Wave Chart Series. TechBuzz News, images source: <a href="https://www.techbuzznews.com/wave-charts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.techbuzznews.com/wave-charts/</a>. As we kick off 2025, we believe we are at the start of the biggest wave yet: Wave 5. One interesting fact is that if you look at the number of startups and the amount of funding in Utah today, it roughly matches the amount of funding and startups in Silicon Valley around 25 years ago. Silicon Valley was made special by a confluence of university talent, early exits that created new angel investors and executives, and anchor venture funds to feed the flywheel. We believe the ingredients for Utah are all here to have a similar 25 year run: we have multiple universities with world-class talent, we have dozens of company exits who have created hundreds of executives and angel investors, and we have many great firms along with Pelion committed to growing the ecosystem. <img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfiqO5c-1d73fPvgwkYjloqCkBFZ3FIspLDtqWm81mI6s8G2sJMwWphbiCQ7iUrRvT0SlCmlfJ0aB-g2YOFXgjLwuRiwLRRPeAR_QyrVrsXp-E5VqbKdAzt5OUeOQMVx0C79eOPjg?key=z374pILmj0taV9pe17VkMbYW">We are committed to backing exceptional founders and companies. Like previous funds, Fund 8 will focus on leading series A rounds in exceptional startups. We also have a <a href="https://pelionvp.com/stories/UwiYzzLGVfnKnCQrmKCF" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">seed program</a> to support founders at the earliest stages, and we will invest at the Series B and C round as well. We have made several investments out of Fund 8 already: <ul><li><a href="https://www.striderintel.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Strider</a></li><li><a href="https://www.bancoautofin.mx/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Kapital</a></li><li><a href="https://www.remihq.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Remi</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nala.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Nala</a></li><li><a href="https://jumpapp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Jump</a></li><li><a href="https://www.commenda.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Commenda</a></li><li><a href="https://www.subscript.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Subscript</a></li><li><a href="https://moises.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Moises</a></li><li><a href="https://getcartwheel.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Cartwheel</a></li><li>One unannounced</li></ul> We are especially grateful to our LPs, most of which have been partners to us for many years across many funds. Pelion also has a sleeve of our fund that we call the “Entrepreneur Fund”, which allows executives and founders in our portfolio to invest smaller amounts and help us source great deals and support other founders.&nbsp; As we look forward to Wave 5, we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity ahead. We believe that there will be once in a generation companies built in the next several years - in Utah and beyond. Our goal is to partner with the world’s most ambitious founders and to serve them as they try to pull off the impossible. If that’s you, reach out!

Announcing Pelion’s Latest Fund

How do you become the best of the best—the top performer in your field? Dr. Julie Gurner, an acclaimed executive coach and once likened to Billions’ Wendy Rhoades by The Wall Street Journal, shares her insights on what it takes to excel at the highest level. In this episode, Dr. Gurner joins hosts Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge to explore the mindsets, strategies, and leadership styles that empower people to perform at their peak. Whether you're a startup founder, entrepreneur, or aspiring leader, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways to help you break through personal and professional barriers. Dr. Gurner’s guidance is invaluable for anyone striving to reach the top in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment. Listen to the episode on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1678642609?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Apple Podcasts</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/the-formula-for-outlier-success-with-dr-gurner-a-worlds-best-executive-coach-io-pod-ep-15/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">here</a>. Follow Dr. Gurner Here:X: <a href="https://x.com/drgurner" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://x.com/drgurner</a>Newsletter: <a href="drgurner.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">drgurner.substack.com</a>Web: <a href="drgurner.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">drgurner.com</a>

The Formula for Outlier Success with Dr. Gurner, a World's Best Executive Coach | IO Pod Ep 15

"Joining a company as early as possible, right after achieving product-market fit, offers the greatest career advantage." – Jack Altman Jack Altman epitomizes the true "Investor-Operator." As the co-founder and former CEO of the multi-billion-dollar startup Lattice, and now a full-time investor with his $150 million venture fund, Alt Capital, Jack has successfully navigated both sides of the entrepreneurial journey. It’s clear he excels in every aspect, and we were thrilled to have him on the show. In this episode, we delve into Jack’s career trajectory, from his early days in tech to how he gained the insight to launch Lattice. Jack shares the invaluable lessons he’s learned from building and scaling Lattice to a Series F company, and how those experiences have shaped his approach to investing. For more on Alt Capital, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.altcap.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--primary-color); background-color: transparent;">altcap.com</a>.Check out Jack’s&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/jaltma/status/1763269426714219013" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--primary-color); background-color: transparent;">hierarchy of investors</a>&nbsp;on X (formerly Twitter). Discover more insights from Investor-Operators on the IO Podcast:YouTube:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@IO-Podcast/videos" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--primary-color); background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;@IO-Podcast</a>X:&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/IO__podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--primary-color); background-color: transparent;">@IO__podcast</a>TikTok:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--primary-color); background-color: transparent;">@io_podcast</a> Listen to the episode on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1678642609?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Apple Podcasts</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/building-lattice-alt-capital-jack-altman-on-investing-operating/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">here</a>.

Building Lattice & Alt Capital: Jack Altman On Investing & Operating

Strider Technologies: The Category-Defining Intelligence Powerhouse You Haven’t Heard Of (Yet) Utah has quietly become home to what we believe will become one of the most critical, category-defining technology companies of our time: Strider Technologies (Strider). You may not have heard of them yet, but that is about to change.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/strider-technologies-raises-55-million-in-series-c-funding-led-by-pelion-venture-partners-302245850.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Yesterday, Strider announced</a>&nbsp;a $55 million Series C funding round led by&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Pelion Venture Partners</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axavp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">AXA Venture Partners</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.valorep.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Valor Equity Partners</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://datatribe.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Data Tribe</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cyfr.vc/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Cyfr Capital</a>. While they have garnered press from outlets like the&nbsp;<a href="https://us-west-2.protection.sophos.com/?d=wsj.com&amp;u=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud3NqLmNvbS9hcnRpY2xlcy9jeWJlci1pbnRlbGxpZ2VuY2UtY29tcGFueS1zdHJpZGVyLXJhaXNlcy01NS1taWxsaW9uLWluLWZ1bmRpbmctMmY1MjYyMTU_c3Q9NXA1ZmdjazlzaTIzMDNvJnJlZmxpbms9YXJ0aWNsZV9jb3B5VVJMX3NoYXJl&amp;p=m&amp;i=NjNhMzI2YjJlOTMxNTUxMjZjNTdkMjcy&amp;t=dDFMNUlrU1ltcndsaElRVEdWdHZYb1JzTkpvZGE5M1F2VU5qMVppRDZqST0=&amp;h=ad1eb900389d4faf9019b6d7c9ed0582&amp;s=AVNPUEhUT0NFTkNSWVBUSVZuH3tdlWY0fzHOfDNpwwLP" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Wall Street Journal</a>,&nbsp;we believe this is just the beginning of Strider’s story. We’ll dive into what they do shortly, but first, we want to share why Pelion decided to write the largest check in our history.&nbsp; <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/pelion-webapp.appspot.com/o/articles%2FHOnlItoSSeFQb7twPZ02%2Fd0bcbe89-1f07-46ce-a95a-689a440b404b.gif?alt=media&amp;token=985a90e4-6c1a-43d4-9cc8-6fe2e8ed5576"> Although our journey leading Strider’s Series C officially began on December 22nd, 2023, the interest had been building for some time. Several at Pelion had been tracking Strider’s progress and recognized a critical inflection point, driven by both shifts in geopolitics—major tech companies like<a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236380984/china-google-fbi-ai" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: windowtext;">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236380984/china-google-fbi-ai" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Google</a>&nbsp;and<a href="https://msrc.microsoft.com/blog/2024/01/microsoft-actions-following-attack-by-nation-state-actor-midnight-blizzard/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: windowtext;">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://msrc.microsoft.com/blog/2024/01/microsoft-actions-following-attack-by-nation-state-actor-midnight-blizzard/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Microsoft</a>&nbsp;were being hit by nation-state actors, sometimes even from within—and Strider’s evolving momentum. It became clear that something significant was happening. Not to mention that when managing partners are ready to personally invest millions, you pay attention. So, the team visited Strider’s office. That December day, the office was nearly empty for the holiday break, but the Strider team was still hard at work late into the evening. The energy was undeniable. After spending just a few hours with two of Strider’s three co-founders (and identical twin brothers!) Greg and Eric Levesque, two things were clear: these founders were destined for greatness and building category-defining technology in a massive, underserved market—all while making a meaningful difference in the world. It felt inevitable. It felt big. From that moment forward, our team knew Pelion had to be a part of it and we hoped Greg, Eric, and Mike Brown, the third co-founder and tech guru, would consider Pelion as a potential lead investor. Fast forward to June 2024 at the annual client conference, Strider Summit, where we had the privilege of attending alongside experts from the intelligence and security communities. We quietly took seats in the back. As we introduced ourselves to the person sitting next to us, we learned that he was&nbsp;the&nbsp;leader of quantum security at one of&nbsp;the&nbsp;most recognizable software companies in the world. When we asked his thoughts on Strider, his immediate response was, "There’s nothing out there like Strider." He went on to emphasize that managing insider risk will only grow in importance and that every software company should be talking about this. Next, we were able to chat with the Managing Director of one of the world’s most prominent banks. He described Strider’s impact on their security operations as “magical.” These were not isolated comments; they echoed in conversations we had encountered throughout our diligence process and throughout the rest of the summit. The room was filled with C-suite executives from some of the largest Fortune 100 companies spanning every imaginable vertical: software, manufacturing, financial services, government, higher education, and more. The level of enthusiasm and respect for Strider’s technology was palpable. Adding to all this is the fact that Strider has recruited some of the most accomplished leaders in global security.&nbsp;David Vigneault, former Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), has joined Strider as Managing Director of the Global Intelligence Unit.&nbsp;Paul Maddison,&nbsp;former High Commissioner of Canada to Australia and Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, has come on board as an advisor alongside&nbsp;Admiral (Ret.) Craig Faller, former Commander, U.S. Southern Command. The roster is STACKED.&nbsp;&nbsp; As for Eric and Greg, many on our team have had the privilege of watching their individual journeys for years. Eric, once an intern at Pelion, moved his family to Muscat, Oman to work for the<a href="https://oia.gov.om/Index.php?r=en%2Fsite%2Findex" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: windowtext;">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://oia.gov.om/Index.php?r=en%2Fsite%2Findex" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Oman Investment Authority</a>, a role that launched his career in international investments and global business relations, particularly in Eastern Europe and North Asia. Meanwhile, Greg was building a distinguished career in Virginia as an expert in international business advisory, focusing on China. Mike Brown, the third co-founder and Chief Data Officer at Strider brings over two decades of experience as a technology executive leading at companies like ComScore, ID.me, CSRA, and IBM.&nbsp;The co-founders combined experience in geopolitics, international business security, and technology is unparalleled, and it was clear that these unique insights led them to the founding of Strider. Building a successful business is hard. It takes more than great founders, smart tech, or unique insight—it requires all of this, plus perfect timing and favorable macroeconomic conditions. With all these elements aligning, the Strider team has built something truly special. Strider’s proprietary, AI-driven global intelligence platform helps organizations proactively protect their intellectual property and mitigate risks such as state-sponsored threats and supply chain vulnerabilities. With offices in Utah, Virginia, London, and Tokyo, many customers in the Fortune 100, Strider is signing seven-figure contracts and transforming how companies defend their assets on the global stage—all while maintaining a remarkably efficient burn rate.&nbsp; And this is just the beginning. With fresh capital, Strider is poised to accelerate the development of their platform, expand further into Europe and Asia, and increase their presence in the public sector. As more organizations across industries recognize the pressing need for proactive strategic intelligence, Strider is positioned to lead the charge. They are not just protecting the innovation of the free world—they are empowering it. At Pelion, we are thrilled to back such visionary founders whose company is already making waves in a massive market. Strider is building something extraordinary while pushing the boundaries of innovation. We are confident they will continue to shape the future of global intelligence with unmatched precision and impact.

Pelion leads $55m Series C for Strider

Why We Invested In Strider

In this episode, Tyler Hogge &amp; Sterling Snow sit down with David George, General Partner at a16z, where he leads the growth investing practice. Since joining in 2019, David has been at the forefront of investments in companies like Coinbase, Databricks, Figma, Robinhood and Instacart. Prior to a16z, David was at General Atlantic, where he invested in iconic brands like Airbnb, Opendoor, Slack, Crowdstrike, and Uber. David shares his unique insights into growth investing and his predictions for the future. Connect With David &amp; a16zhttps://x.com/DavidGeorge83https://a16z.com/growth/ Listen to the episode on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1678642609?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Apple Podcasts</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/leading-a16zs-growth-fund-david-george-on-investing-now-and-in-the-future-ep-14-io-podcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">here</a>.

Leading a16z's Growth Fund: David George On Investing Now and In the Future | Ep 14, IO Podcast

We’re excited to share a few announcements about our plans to invest at the seed stage at&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Pelion</a>.&nbsp; But first, some quick context. Pelion has been around for over 30 years and, throughout its history, has always made seed investments in addition to our core focus on Series A and B. For example, we invested $800k in Cloudflare at the seed stage. We incubated Rivet Health and Neighbor inside our office at the seed stage. Recently we incubated Redo as they’ve worked out of our office from the seed stage (before they had much if any revenue), to where they are now with more than 60 employees. But occasionally we hear from founders who aren’t sure whether Pelion invests super early and, if so, how our process or criteria might differ from a Series A.&nbsp; So today, we thought we’d clear that up and share more details on how we think about a seed program at Pelion: <ul><li>Investment amount:&nbsp;As opposed to a $5-10m Series A investment, our Seed Program will make $1-3m investments into much earlier-stage companies.</li></ul> <ul><li>Lead or follow:&nbsp;We prefer to lead the round. In the past, we’ve been more open to small “test the water” investments and have decided we don’t really like these, for one main reason: it doesn’t require intense conviction. We want to get enough conviction to lead a round, and we think that’s both in the founder’s best interest and our own. We don’t care who else is investing and are comfortable being the only believers. In fact, we might prefer it.</li></ul> <ul><li>What we look for:&nbsp;Perhaps it’s not surprising, but we look for exceptional founders with unique insights. We want to meet with outlier individuals – founders who are in the top 10 basis points in some particular thing. We believe startups are an irrational act in many ways, so we are looking for irrational people to build them. Extreme personalities produce extreme results. In addition to the founder, we want a unique insight – a secret – that the founder has earned from their unique experience. We want to know why this startup is a founder’s unique expression to the world.</li></ul> <ul><li>Number of investments:&nbsp;We expect to make about 15 of these Seed investments over the next 2-3 years, although this number could be more or less.&nbsp;</li></ul> <ul><li>How early we invest:&nbsp;Early. We’ve made 3 recent investments at the seed stage. The first was about $250k in ARR. The second was about $400k in ARR. And the third is pre revenue, pre product. Generally speaking, the earlier we go, the more history we have with the founder.</li></ul> <ul><li>How we decide:&nbsp;Chad Packard, Sterling Snow, and Tyler Hogge will lead our Seed Program, which will allow us to make quick investment decisions, but every partner and member of the investment team can lead, source, and/or evaluate seed-stage investments.</li></ul> <ul><li>Where we will focus:&nbsp;We are generalists both geographically and by sector. We will invest in any geo in the US, with a particular emphasis on Utah, and across any sector within tech. That being said, we are particularly excited about vertical AI applications, marketplaces, security/infrastructure, and fintech. But we are open to anything. Bring it.</li></ul> <ul><li>The product we offer founders:&nbsp;We think founders should think about choosing a seed investor like they are purchasing a product. So we asked ourselves: What product do we want to offer founders that is highly differentiated from any other product they could buy? After speaking with hundreds of founders, we think what a founder actually desperately wants from its seed investor is&nbsp;improved odds of success.&nbsp;So, that is the product we strive to offer: To bend the odds of success for your startup. Generally speaking, that includes being a trusted advisor, and a helping machine:</li></ul> <ol><li>A trusted advisor.&nbsp;Founders want someone they can trust at the earliest stages. Someone they actually enjoy receiving a text from, and someone they enjoy texting with all news (good or bad). Someone who will always tell them the truth, and someone who will always put the founder’s needs first. Someone whose response time is measured in seconds, not days. Someone who has deep empathy for the company-building process. That’s what it means to be a trusted advisor to us.&nbsp;</li><li>A helping machine.&nbsp;We also think seed-stage companies are like wet cement: Not yet fully formed, moldable, and in a crucial period where the operating models are not yet hardened. This is where we like to be the most helpful. How do we help? There are a few common ways:</li></ol> <ul><li>Customer intros –&nbsp;We set quotas to deliver a certain amount of qualified customer introductions.</li></ul> <ul><li>Recruiting help –&nbsp;We help you find exceptionally talented people for your most critical roles. In the last year we’ve placed CROs, 3 VPs of Product, and several VPs of sales and engineering into some of the fastest growing companies in the country.</li></ul> <ul><li>Product help.&nbsp;Tyler ran the product org at Divvy, and led much of the product experiences at Wealthfront before that. He loves helping any founder think through product strategy, hiring, or execution.</li></ul> <ul><li>GTM help.&nbsp;Sterling ran the revenue org at Divvy, and much of the revenue org at Jive before that. He’s also the CEO of Redo today, which is one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2024/08/20/the-redo-opportunity/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">fastest-growing companies in the country</a>. And while Redo will take the bulk of Sterling’s focus and time, he will still be able to help seed-stage companies as a part of this program.&nbsp;</li></ul> <ul><li>Office space.&nbsp;Pelion has some of the best office space in Utah and several of our seed stage startups choose to work out of our dedicated incubation space.</li></ul> <ul><li>Pelion network access.&nbsp;We open our network to you. This could be for advisors, customers, partners, bankers, lawyers, or any other thing your startup might need.</li></ul> We’re excited to find and partner with many more seed-stage companies in Utah and throughout the country, with a product we believe can bend the odds of success for any exceptional startup. If you’d like to go on that journey with us, please reach out.

Pelion's Seed Investment Program

Redo announces a $24m Series A

The Redo Opportunity

Current Investor and Divvy's Former CRO Sterling Snow is jumping back into an operating role, this time as CEO of Redo, a fast growing customer experience platform.Sterling shares how Redo's founder Taylor Brown approached him to take on the job and how together they're building a company everyone in Utah can root for. Listen to the episode on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1678642609?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Apple Podcasts</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/emergency-episode-of-the-io-building-utah-with-redo-ceo-sterling-snow/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">here</a>.

Emergency Episode of the I/O - Building Utah with Redo CEO Sterling Snow

<a href="https://www.remihq.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Remi</a>&nbsp;announced a $21m Series A today, led by Pelion, after an incredible year of 650% growth and strong profitability. I am extremely excited to join the board along with Todd Pederson, who is one of Utah’s best-ever entrepreneurs, and who is making one of his largest personal investments. Remi now has an incredible set of investors, including our friends at Cervin, Y Combinator (who doubled down in this round), and some of the top founders and executives in Utah, including Blake Murray, Adam Edmunds, Todd Santiago, and others.&nbsp; I thought I’d share a few thoughts about why Pelion chose to lead this round and why we are so excited about Remi’s future.Several months ago, I got a call from my long-time friend Reno Mendenhall. He told me he and his co-founders were doing something pretty interesting: building a roofing marketplace. I was skeptical but excited to catch up with an old friend, so Reno came by Pelion and introduced me to Doug Barnett and Brant Choate, the CEO and CTO of Remi.Fifteen minutes into that meeting, my skepticism left. I knew in that first meeting that Remi was an exceptional startup led by three exceptional founders. Doug, Reno, and Brant walked me through their journey to Remi and the white-hot demand they were seeing. After the meeting, I walked over to Ben Lambert and Sterling Snow and told them we may have found something special.So what was the insight? Reno has spent his career in solar as one of the top sales leaders in the history of the industry. Over many years, he concluded that one of the biggest problems faced by solar companies was the following: in 10-20% of new solar purchases, the homeowner also needs a new roof before the solar panels can be installed. This means nationwide solar providers must coordinate with hundreds of roofers across the country to scope, price, bid, and complete a new roofing job, just to get the actual product they sold (solar) installed. It’s a nightmare. Such a large nightmare that solar providers hire dozens of people to coordinate the work, and even then, the customer experience is challenging, and millions of dollars in sales are lost or frozen due to this roofing hurdle.So the Remi team decided to fix it by building the world’s first roofing marketplace, connecting homeowners who need a roof with a local roofer who wants the work. Just like Uber prices a ride, finds a driver who wants the work, and ensures the ride is completed, Remi’s technology accurately prices a roofing job in any geo using satellite imaging and a highly sophisticated pricing algorithm, finds a local roofer who wants the job, and guarantees quality workmanship.&nbsp; There are a couple of things that make Remi’s business model special. One is that they do not need to find the homeowners directly. Rather, Remi aggregates the demand side of the marketplace by partnering with large corporations that have customers who need new roofs, the first of which is the number one solar provider in the country, SunRun.But as it turns out, solar companies are not the only companies that face problems with roofing. Insurance companies, REIT’s, retailers, hotels, among many others face similar dilemmas. Over time, we believe Remi has a special opportunity to become the place that every homeowner in America uses when a new roof is needed.&nbsp;The marketplace is such a clear win for all parties involved:<ol><li>Roofers&nbsp;get a steady stream of work dropped in their lap, priced fairly, with an intermediary they trust. They can now focus on doing great work rather than finding new customers.</li><li>Homeowners&nbsp;get a white-glove Remi experience, where all the communication, organization, and paperwork are all handled in beautiful software.&nbsp;</li><li>Large enterprises&nbsp;with customers who need new roofs no longer need to be in the roofing business, which saves them millions of dollars and thousands of hours.&nbsp;</li><li>And Remi&nbsp;can charge a fair fee for every roof they facilitate.&nbsp;</li></ol> It’s a beautiful model.And, it’s working.&nbsp; In the last year Remi has grown faster than almost any company we’ve seen not just in Utah, but in the country. Generally when you see such extreme growth, the company also is burning a lot of cash. But that’s not true with Remi. They have been profitable essentially every month since starting operations about 18 months ago. Exceptional, by definition. They’ve built a&nbsp;<a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2023/10/02/sardines-and-a-magic-box/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">magic box</a>.But the last and most important reason we got so excited about Remi is the team of 3 co-founders. Doug was the CMO at Vivint before starting Remi, so he knows this industry as well as anyone. He is an aggressive, impressive leader with an impeccable reputation. Reno is one of the top sales leaders in solar industry history, an incredible recruiter, and an even better person. Brant is one of the top technical leaders we’ve met, who led Podium’s product organization originally and has created a top-tier engineering and product culture at Remi that ships excellent software experiences.&nbsp;An amazing team. A unique insight. Desperate customers. A world-class product experience. A business model innovation with a compounding advantage as it scales. These are the raw ingredients of most exceptional startups, and that’s exactly what Remi has. We believe in 10 years Remi will capture a meaningful % of all roofing jobs across the country. They will already do thousands of roofs a year, and are planning another year of incredible growth. As a result, they are hiring for many roles, and plan to scale fast while remaining profitable. If you want to be a part of this, please apply to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.remihq.com/careers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">one of the roles listed here</a>.&nbsp; Don’t worry: no roofing experience necessary. :)

Remi announces Pelion-led $21m Series A

Why We Invested in Remi

Accelerating Private Investment in DoD’s Capital-Intensive Critical Technology Suppliers 

Pelion Venture Partners Promotes Tyler Hogge to Partner SALT LAKE CITY — July 19, 2024 — <a href="http://www.pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Pelion Venture Partners</a> is thrilled to announce the promotion of Tyler Hogge to Partner, after he joined Pelion as a Venture Partner in January 2023. Tyler brings a wealth of operating experience to Pelion and will focus on seed and early stage investing.&nbsp;&nbsp; Prior to Pelion, Tyler led the product and risk organizations as the SVP of Product at Divvy (a Pelion portfolio company) for 4 years through its acquisition by BILL and has been an active angel investor for several years. Before Divvy, Tyler led product teams at Wealthfront, sales teams at Clearwater, and spent time at Andreessen Horowitz. He graduated with an MBA from Cornell University and an undergraduate degree in Finance from Southern Utah University, where he was also the captain of the Division 1 baseball team. Tyler is also a CFA Charterholder.&nbsp; “My goal for the next several decades is to invest in and help build dozens of enduring startups and I am honored and excited to do that at Pelion. I joined Pelion originally because of my experience at Divvy with Pelion as our lead investor. Pelion was our most helpful and steady investor, and I want to offer that same partnership to other founders” said Tyler.&nbsp; Blake Modersitzki, Pelion’s Managing Partner added: “Tyler is the perfect fit to help lead Pelion as we focus on partnering with the best founders in Utah and throughout the nation. He has an incredible track record as an operator that founders love - both in Silicon Valley and Utah - and he knows what great startups look like.&nbsp; Any founder would be lucky to have him as an investor.”

Pelion Venture Partners Promotes Tyler Hogge to Partner

How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ. Kaz is a fascinating mind in tech and an unconventional thinker shaping the the product culture of Shopify. He shares his story of growing up in Iran, experiencing the Iran-Iraq war, and eventually immigrating to Canada at age 12. In Canada, Kaz gets even deeper into his fascination with computers and goes onto found a YC company, run a product line at Meta and now acts as the COO and Product Evangelist at multi-billion dollar company Shopify. Tyler and Sterling find out why Shopify employees have no meetings, how big tech companies are doing product wrong, and why Shopify's unique culture will create a 100 year company that just keeps getting bigger. Listen to the episode on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1678642609?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a>. Learn more about this episode and The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast <a href="https://www.investoroperator.io/heres-why-shopify-will-be-a-100-year-company-kaz-nejatian-shopify-coo-former-yc-founder-epis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>. Connect With Kazhttps://x.com/canadakazKaz@shopify.com Connect With Tyler &amp; Sterlinghttps://x.com/thoggehttps://x.com/sterlingmsnow Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly)https://x.com/IO__podcasthttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG

Here's Why Shopify Will Be A 100 Year Company | Kaz Nejatian, Shopify COO & Former YC Founder | Episode 12

<a href="https://jumpapp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Jump</a>&nbsp;announced today that they’ve raised $4.6m from Sorenson, Pelion, and other angels to bring incredible AI experiences to financial advisors. We are fired up about what Parker, Tim, and Adam are building, and I thought I’d share a few reasons why. Since OpenAI launched in late 2022 it’s clear that the tectonic plates of tech have shifted. But I have struggled to gain conviction in how to navigate this change as an investor. It was like we were walking through a city during an earthquake, but I wasn’t sure whether new buildings were going to benefit most, or if the existing big buildings were just going to get stronger after some shaking.&nbsp;I constantly asked myself questions like:&nbsp;<ul><li>Will startups benefit from AI, or will it primarily benefit incumbents?</li><li>If startups are going to win, what kind of startups? And why will they win?</li><li>What categories will startups be most likely to win in?</li></ul>Over the last several months I’ve finally gained some clarity on what I think about these questions, and when we met Jump in early 2024 they stood out as a perfect fit for the companies that I think can win in this AI-first world.Why did I feel this way?It’s become clearer to me that&nbsp;vertical SaaS applications&nbsp;are one of the areas that will benefit most from AI, particularly in seemingly niche verticals that are ignored by prior waves of software. There are many reasons for this. I’ll talk about 4.With the right vertical AI opportunities:<ol><li>Foundational model improvements become a tailwind instead of a headwind&nbsp;</li><li>A data advantage emerges over time</li><li>Markets previously thought of as too niche are actually plenty big&nbsp;</li><li>Customers are more desperate because they are historically severely underserved</li></ol>Using this as a framework for evaluating vertical AI startups, Jump checks 4 out of 4. <h3>OpenAI as a tailwind.</h3>When OpenAI launches new features and model improvements, is your startup ecstatic, or devastated? Your answer to this question may largely determine your success in AI. Some currents are not worth swimming against, and I believe OpenAI is one. With Jump, they “jump” for joy at every OpenAI improvement, because their core product workflows and access to data are unique,enabling them to improve the core product to better serve their customers. If you are more horizontal, that is less true—your product might end up competing directly with OpenAI! Vertical applications will find it easier to be&nbsp;<a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2023/12/14/different-is-better-than-better/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">different, as opposed to merely better</a>. <h3>Data as an accumulating advantage.</h3>Another feature of these vertical AI startups is they accumulate a large set of proprietary data over time, which enables product experiences to dramatically improve, and enables a custom model to get trained. With Jump, this is certainly the case. As hundreds and thousands of advisors begin to rely on Jump, they could share insights with their customers on what the best meetings look like, what the best advisors do to retain customers, what clients’ most pressing concerns are, and other adjacent needs an advisors and their clients have. This data augments Jump’s model, which means other, more horizontal solutions are steps behind. <h3>These markets are not as niche as we thought.</h3>It turns out many of these verticals are bigger than we thought. TAM analysis often assumes a number of historical buyers, without understanding that new technologies enable portions of the market to buy that could or would not before. On top of that, investors often look at “who the biggest company is in this space” and write the space off if there hasn’t been a big outcome. But investors should be betting on future outcomes and market dynamics, not the past. With Jump, the advisor market is sneakily big, and the bottom-up nature of Jump’s adoption will enable exponential, organic growth. Spending on Jump is also net new vs. rip and replace. <h3>Underserved, desperate customers.</h3>The last dynamic is one of the most important. These “niche” markets aren’t used to having top-tier startups building for them, so they embrace this software with the desperation of a thirsty traveler in a desert. Jump advisors are ecstatic to see a world-class product being built&nbsp;specifically&nbsp;for them, and they are far less enthused about using horizontal products.&nbsp; <h3>The final key is the team.</h3>All of this is irrelevant without a world-class team. Without an excellent team, the features ship too slow, the customers aren’t fully delighted, and the market is won by someone else. But with the right team, the new market gets created by them and their brute force.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkerence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Parker</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/timchaves/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Tim</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/atomkirk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(202, 32, 23);">Adam</a>&nbsp;are that force at Jump, and seeing them form this market out of nothing has been impressive to watch. We have known Tim for many years from his time leading ZipBooks, and we’ve come to know Parker very well over the last year as they navigated the idea maze for Jump. And both of them are incredible product builders and sellers. They ship fast, and they sell fast.As I talked to customers, it was clear: they&nbsp;loved&nbsp;Jump. I heard things like:<ul><li>&nbsp;“If they can do what they say they are going to do, this changes my life.”&nbsp;</li><li>“The product is phenomenal.”</li><li>“Every thing Jump does is something I desperately need, every day.”</li></ul>When you hear that, it’s clear the dogs are eating the dog food, which is why Jump is seeing tremendous market pull for their product, all inbound, and all organic. Beautiful.I’m excited about the next decade with Jump and to see how much they help many thousands of financial advisors. <a href="https://tylerhogge.com/2024/06/10/why-we-invested-in-jump/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read Tyler's full blog post here.</a>

Blog Post by Tyler Hogge

Why We Invested In Jump

Pelion Venture Partners&nbsp;of Salt Lake City secured up to $125 million in matching funds from the&nbsp;U.S. Small Business Administration. Why it's the BFD:&nbsp;Pelion is the first licensee under a plan SBA&nbsp;launched last summer&nbsp;to modernize the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program, thus opening up billions of dollars to VC funds. Details:&nbsp;SBA says it received more than 100 SBIC licensing pre-screen forms and licensing management assessment questionnaire applications between last August and December.The agency also gave green light approval toward licensing Stifel North Atlantic for its first SBIC license under a joint program with the Defense Department to focus on critical technologies. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/15/readout-of-white-house-hosts-convening-to-announce-new-small-businesses-investment-funds/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9);">Read the Full White House Statement Statement Here</a> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7163935643461484546/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read Bailey DeVries' post here</a>

New milestones announced represent the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to expanding SBIC program investments to high tech small start-ups and advanced manufacturing small businesses

Pelion Venture Partners of Salt Lake City secured up to $125 million in matching funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration

BUCKLE UP. This is a fun one. As we all know, building is hard. Building a business, a family, a career, it's all hard. But we owe every ounce of progress humans have ever made to people who build. I'll get to the point. Where the old Divvy billboard used to shout out customers there's going to be a new and even better campaign. Pelion has partnered with the best firms in Utah to make building just a little bit easier. Starting today&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/pelion-venture-partners/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Pelion Venture Partners</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/kickstartfund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Kickstart Fund</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/mercato-partners/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Mercato Partners</a>&nbsp;(and Prelude),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/peterson-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Peterson Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/sorenson-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Sorenson Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/epicventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">EPIC Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/convoi-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Convoi Ventures</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/signal-peak-ventures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Signal Peak Ventures</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/tandem-vp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Tandem</a>&nbsp;are going to use billboards in the heart of Silicon Slopes to highlight the builders in our community. Highlighting the folks in the arena who are making our ecosystem and the world a better place. Some companies will already be large and successful, some will be just starting out their journey, and others might need some help. We're starting by highlighting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/redo-tech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: var(--color-action);">Redo Tech</a>. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAABMnbdsBU5Ire07FO2qtfp1XCQ-lixRWF0s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--color-action); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Taylor R. Brown</a>&nbsp;and team have a beautiful (and free) software that allows all e-commerce brands not only track their returns but also to offer free return shipping. 😳 The business is taking off in a big way. Thank you for building, Redo. On behalf of the state of Utah and the rest of the builders, we're cheering you on. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sterling-snow-051baab5_buckle-up-this-is-a-fun-one-as-we-all-activity-7075143885882085377-jeny?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read Sterling's full LinkedIn post here</a>

Pelion Launches "Build Utah" Initiative

LEHI, Utah — June 20, 2023 — Owlet (NYSE: OWLT, “the Company”), the pioneer of smart baby monitoring, announces clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.owletcare.com/babysat-fda-clearance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit; background-color: transparent;">BabySat™</a>, Owlet's first medical pulse-oximetry device featuring its advanced, wire-free sock design. Owlet is a leader in infant health data, having monitored more than 1 million babies, and with BabySat, combines its consumer-first expertise with hospital-grade monitoring accuracy. “Our mission is to provide caregivers with the right information at the right time to make informed decisions about their baby’s health,” said Kurt Workman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. “Today, parents whose babies need additional monitoring are sent home with traditional solutions that can be restrictive and more cumbersome for parents. BabySat pushes forward the modernization of hospital-grade technology for at-home use, and underscores our commitment to transforming baby care solutions.” Innovation in the baby care space matters because some of the largest issues facing caregivers and healthcare providers have yet to be solved. For example, there are roughly 92 million infant care visits covering a child’s first four years of life, significantly straining the availability of hospital beds and quality of care. BabySat is a step forward in solving some of these exact challenges by bringing real-time medical grade infant monitoring into the home, while under the supervision of a physician. Available through prescription, BabySat uses pulse oximetry technology to provide a real-time display of their baby’s pulse rate and oxygen saturation level (SpO2) and alerts parents when these readings fall outside of prescribed ranges. With access to this information and under the supervision of a physician, caregivers are enabled to feel confident in providing at-home care for their families–helping to reduce the strain on our valued medical resources. The addition of the FDA-cleared BabySat device expands on Owlet’s existing portfolio of consumer products designed to bring peace of mind to caregivers. BabySat will be available in the U.S. only and is targeted to launch later this year. Customers can learn more and sign up to receive the latest information and details on product availability here:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.owletcare.com/babysat-fda-clearance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit; background-color: transparent;">https://www.owletcare.com/baby...</a> About Owlet, Inc.Owlet was founded by a team of parents in 2012. Owlet’s mission is to empower parents with the right information at the right time, to give them more peace of mind and help them find more joy in the journey of parenting. Owlet’s digital parenting platform aims to give parents real-time data and insights to help parents feel calmer and more confident. Owlet believes that every parent deserves peace of mind and the opportunity to feel their well-rested best. Owlet also believes that every child deserves to live a long, happy, and healthy life, and is working to develop products to help further that belief. To learn more, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.owletcare.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit; background-color: transparent;">www.owletcare.com</a>. For full press release visit: <a href="https://www.owletcare.com/fda-response" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.owletcare.com/fda-response</a>

The addition of the FDA-cleared BabySat device expands on Owlet’s existing portfolio of consumer products designed to bring peace of mind to caregivers.

Owlet announces clearance from the FDA of BabySat™, Owlet's first medical pulse-oximetry device featuring its advanced, wire-free sock design.

J.P.&nbsp;Morgan (NYSE: JPM) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aumni, a leading provider of investment analytics software to the venture capital industry. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed and closing is expected in the first half of 2023. Founded in 2018, Aumni’s proprietary data analytics engine structures, tracks and analyzes essential legal and economic terms underpinning growth-stage private market transactions, placing critical portfolio investment terms within users’ easy reach. With a diverse client base of over 300 institutions ranging from emerging and established venture managers to leading, multinational asset managers, Aumni has evaluated more than $600 billion in invested capital across more than 17,000 private companies. The strategic acquisition of Aumni solidifies J.P.&nbsp;Morgan’s commitment to building the leading private markets platform for companies, their employees and investors, as well as its confidence in the resilience of the venture-backed ecosystem. Aumni also complements the recent launch of&nbsp;<a href="https://capitalconnect.jpmorgan.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">Capital Connect</a>&nbsp;by J.P.&nbsp;Morgan and the acquisition of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globalshares.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">Global Shares</a>. Through continued investment in Aumni, and its other private market assets, J.P.&nbsp;Morgan is positioned to deliver an industry-leading suite of innovative solutions to the private markets. “We’re thrilled to see this collaboration come to fruition as J.P.&nbsp;Morgan first invested in Aumni in 2021 and quickly realized shared synergies of providing more transparency to the private markets,” said Michael Elanjian, Head of Digital Investment Banking, Head of Digital Private Markets, J.P.&nbsp;Morgan. “Aumni’s market-leading data structuring and portfolio monitoring solutions, combined with the capital raising and cap table management services of Capital Connect and Global Shares, further enhances the ecosystem of digital solutions that J.P.&nbsp;Morgan is building for companies and investors in both growth and later-stage private markets.” “We are excited to partner with J.P.&nbsp;Morgan, expediting the realization of our vision to bring more structure, transparency and liquidity to the historically opaque private markets. Together, we can create a best-in-class suite of services for private market participants, enhancing the experience for all current and future clients,” said Tony Lewis, CEO, Aumni. Aumni remains committed to enhancing services to their clients, and will continue to be headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. J.P.&nbsp;Morgan was advised by J.P.&nbsp;Morgan Securities, LLC as financial advisor and Sullivan &amp; Cromwell LLP as legal counsel. Aumni was advised by DLA Piper LLP as legal counsel.&nbsp; About J.P.&nbsp;Morgan’s Corporate &amp; Investment BankJ.P.&nbsp;Morgan’s Corporate &amp; Investment Bank is a global leader across banking, markets and securities services. The world’s most important corporations, governments and institutions entrust us with their business in more than 100 countries. With $28.6 trillion of assets under custody and $649.7 billion in deposits, the Corporate &amp; Investment Bank provides strategic advice, raises capital, manages risk and extends liquidity in markets around the world. Further information about J.P.&nbsp;Morgan is available at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/global" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">www.jpmorgan.com</a>. About AumniAumni is a leading investment analytics company delivering the most reliable data and insights for the private capital markets. Founded in 2018, Aumni has developed a cloud-based, global technology platform that provides portfolio monitoring and market analytics to private market investors. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT with significant operations in the Philippines, Aumni has more than 350 employees globally. For more information please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aumni.fund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(26, 123, 153);">www.aumni.fund</a>. For full article visit: <a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/news/jpmorgan-acquire-alumni-leading-provider-investment-analytics-software" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.jpmorgan.com/news/jpmorgan-acquire-alumni-leading-provider-investment-analytics-software</a>

Acquisition to bolster firm’s suite of private market solutions  

J.P. Morgan To Acquire Aumni, a Leading Provider of Investment Analytics Softwares For Venture and Private Market Investors

Most recently, Banks was Chief Executive Officer at Utah-based Weave and led the firm’s Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2021, the firstBlack CEO to do so in Utah. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Banks has servedas CEO or President five times during his career and increased aggregateenterprise value by over $4 billion during the process.&nbsp;SALT LAKE CITY — March 28, 2023 — <a href="http://www.pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">Pelion Venture Partners</a> today announced that <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybanks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">Roy Banks</a> has joined the leading Utah-based venture capital firm as a Venture Partner.&nbsp;During a professional career spanning over 30 years in technology, Banks has served as Chief Executive Officer and/or President five separate times, roles that included corporate &nbsp;recapitalizations, initial public offerings, and/or acquisitions at each firm.&nbsp;Most recently, Banks was selected to take over the leadership of Lehi, Utah-based Weave as its CEO in December 2020, a position he held until last fall. During his time with the company, Banks led Weave’s Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2022, the first Black CEO to conduct an NYSE IPO for a Utah-based company.&nbsp;Pelion General Partners, Blake Modersitzki and Chris Cooper (who previously worked with Banks at WordPerfect), recruited him out of semi-retirement to help bolster Pelion’s position as the leading venture capital firm in Utah.&nbsp;“We had the privilege of working with Roy for many years, even before he was tapped to lead Weave,” Modersitzki said. “So not only are we energized by Roy’s wealth of experience as an operator and the impact that he will have within our portfolio, we’re also excited to work shoulder to shoulder with him in finding the next great companies here in Utah and beyond.”&nbsp;Prior to serving as Weave’s CEO, Banks served in top executive positions for Authorize.Net, Accelerated Payment Technologies, Network Merchants Inc., Truckstop.com, and Complete Merchant Services.&nbsp;Earlier in his career, Banks also worked for WordPerfect, Novell, and PowerQuest, as well as five years spent serving in the U.S. Navy with a final rank of Petty Officer Second Class. After his time in the Navy, Banks received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.&nbsp;“This is now the second time that Blake and the Pelion team have pulled me out of retirement to put me on a new path, something I greatly appreciate,” Banks said. “The reality is that I’ve been truly blessed throughout my life and career, yet nothing I’ve done or accomplished will compensate for sharing what I’ve learned and done. At this ‘Elder Statesman’ point in my career, I’ve recognized that not only can I help other companies and other executives to succeed, I have an obligation to do so.&nbsp;“I look forward to helping and mentoring entrepreneurs and founders to help them overcome the challenges of growing and building their companies. I believe a great leader sees the potential in others which they often cannot see in themselves. As a Venture Partner, I’m excited to be an example, and to inspire people to believe that they can accomplish the impossible. My experience over the years has taught me that with strong mentors, focus, hard work, perseverance and an unconquerable spirit, virtually anything is possible.”&nbsp;In his Venture Partner role at Pelion, Banks will support existing Pelion portfolio companies, and incubate new businesses alongside very early stage founding teams. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Pelion Venture Partners Names Roy Banks as a Venture Partner

Hogge led the product and risk organizations at Divvy as SVP of Product through its&nbsp;$2.5 billion&nbsp;acquisition by BILL. Prior to Divvy, Hogge led core product teams at&nbsp;Wealthfront, spent time at SaaStr and Andreessen Horowtiz, and led sales for&nbsp;Clearwater Analytics. Since the Divvy acquisition, he has personally invested&nbsp;in nearly 30 startups through his investment fund, Kindling Capital. SALT LAKE CITY,&nbsp;Jan. 18, 2023&nbsp;/PRNewswire/ --&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=1903809216&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pelionvp.com%2F&amp;a=Pelion+Venture+Partners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Pelion Venture Partners</a>&nbsp;today announced that seasoned product executive and active angel investor,&nbsp;Tyler Hogge, has joined the venture capital firm as a Venture Partner, where he will invest in early-stage startups, support existing Pelion portfolio companies, and incubate new businesses alongside very early-stage founding teams. During his career, Hogge led the product and risk organizations at Divvy as Sr. Vice President of Product through its acquisition by BILL for&nbsp;$2.5 billion&nbsp;in&nbsp;May 2021. Previously, Hogge spent three years with&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=3434720221&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wealthfront.com%2F&amp;a=Wealthfront" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Wealthfront</a>&nbsp;where he led core product teams. At&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=3852678507&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fclearwateranalytics.com%2F&amp;a=Clearwater+Analytics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Clearwater Analytics</a>, he oversaw the inside sales and business development teams. Hogge also spent time at Andreessen Horowitz and at SaaStr, helping with VC due diligence and building the SaaStr training program called SaaStr Pro. "We've learned a lot about Tyler during his time with Divvy, especially during the crazy crucible of the COVID-19 pandemic," said&nbsp;Blake Modersitzki, Managing Director of Pelion Venture Partners. "Not only was he rock-solid during that insane time, but as we have reviewed his decisions and progress during his career, we're 100% sure that he will be an absolute rockstar for our investors, our portfolio companies, and for Pelion itself. For these reasons, I'm happy to welcome him onboard as a Venture Partner." Since the Divvy acquisition, Hogge formed&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3759697-1&amp;h=627897534&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fkindlingcapital.notion.site%2Fkindlingcapital%2FKindling-Capital-a1da3c6d0a6d47e6b1cca9e1cad185cb&amp;a=Kindling+Capital" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Kindling Capital</a>, an investment fund that has invested in 29 companies since its founding in 2021, including startups like Nursa, Neighbor, Seis, Flexport, Merge, and over 20 others. Hogge's investments have been made alongside such notable VC firms as a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Accel, Insight, Pelion Venture Partners, and Y Combinator, to name a few."For over 20 years and across seven funds, Pelion has been a quiet monster that's produced exceptional returns by investing in some of the best companies in tech. From Riverbed Technologies many years ago to Cloudflare and Divvy more recently, Pelion has a track record few firms can match. In addition, the current portfolio has&nbsp;multiple&nbsp;behemoths in the making. "Something special is happening in&nbsp;Utah&nbsp;and across all of tech. The excess has been wiped out, and now only the hardcore will thrive. I believe that venture capital will go back to its purest form, which looks much more like company-building instead of dart-throwing. That means more conviction, more urgency, and less sloppiness. This&nbsp;will prove to be one of the best times in history to both build and invest in tech, and I am excited to be doing that at Pelion." For more information visit <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-product-executive-from-divvy-and-active-angel-investor-tyler-hogge-joins-pelion-venture-partners-as-a-venture-partner-301724393.html?tc=eml_cleartime" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-product-executive-from-divvy-and-active-angel-investor-tyler-hogge-joins-pelion-venture-partners-as-a-venture-partner-301724393.html?tc=eml_cleartime.</a>

Utah-based Pelion Venture Partners Snags Former Divvy SVP of Product, Tyler Hogge, As Its Newest Venture Partner

HitPiece has collaborated with the multiplatinum superstar rapper and entrepreneur, Rick Ross to launch limited edition&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/nft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">NFTs</a>&nbsp;aimed at building new engagement for the artist and his fans. The&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/music" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">music</a>-driven NFT platform and&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/metaverse" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">metaverse</a>&nbsp;experience builder, HitPiece is releasing 200 NFTs for Rick Ross fans to receive VIP access to the rapper’s upcoming metaverse, “Boss Land” – an interactive digital twin of Rick-Ross’s IRL Promise Land property. Aimed at allowing Rick Ross to interact with his fans like never before, the NFTs also include a wide range of real-world experiences like signed merchandise worn by Rick and a one of one custom-made&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/jewelry" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">necklace</a>&nbsp;featuring the holder’s own NFT. “I thought I crashed the NFT market, but now I’m here to make it even bigger,” said Rick Ross. “You know, if the Boss is in the metaverse, then it’s the place to be.” Concerts were once the best way for artists to share experiences with their supporters. However, with the rise of new technologies and digital environments, the entertainment industry has been tasked to reshape itself to meet the new demands of the next generation of fanbases. In order to provide experiences through the channels that his followers prefer today, Rick Ross has turned to&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/web3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Web3</a>&nbsp;to foster a fresh take on personalized engagement and deeper relationships with his fans. With the&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/blockchain" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">blockchain</a>, creators are able to offer fan opportunities that are exclusive, secure, and contain true value. For instance, Rick Ross will grant select token holders to receive an annual FaceTime session with the rapper or an invitation to hang out at his real-life property right outside of Atlanta, Georgia – rare experiences that a price tag could never be attached to. Rick Ross has always prioritized building relationships with his fans as he credits them for supporting his remarkable career. Last month, Rick perhaps became one of the first celebrities to actually interact with a fan that was found stalking the artist outside of his home. For those unable to achieve the IRL perks, HitPiece has launched the Boss Land metaverse in hopes of touching the artist’s fans worldwide. As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.euromonitor.com/article/fan-engagement-and-sponsorship-in-the-metaverse" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">50% of millennials</a>&nbsp;are extremely interested in entering an immersive virtual world to take part in an experience that is not possible IRL, it may make sense why branded metaverses are starting to appear all across Web3. Other artists such as&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/steve-aoki" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Steve Aoki</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/Paris-Hilton" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Paris Hilton</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/Snoop-Dogg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Snoop Dogg</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/georgia-sinclair" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">DJ Georgia Sinclair</a>&nbsp;have all launched their own metaverse plots to better serve and connect with their fans globally as well. Despite the countless number of musical amounts of artists just starting to enter the digital setting today, it is clear to say that the impact of Web3 is already being felt. Rick Ross previously entered the Web3 space in June 2021 for a groundbreaking project with the&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/luxury" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">luxury</a>&nbsp;car designer, Rich B. Caliente. Combining the passions of music, luxury,&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/automobile" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">automobiles</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/art" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">art</a>, Caliente and Rick created the first Porsche 911 art car and matching NFT for a&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/miami" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">Miami</a>&nbsp;auction. Additionally, Rick’s favorite fast&nbsp;<a href="https://hypemoon.com/tags/food" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">food</a>&nbsp;joint, Wingstop, which he surprisingly owns and operates several franchises for, has also turned to Web3 for future campaigns and fan activations. According to the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/KondoudisLaw/status/1498997236096770053?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1498997236096770053%7Ctwgr%5Eb0d7427cc8f011edd525e9efcb7121f4d3ac237f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.cryptoflies.com%2Fwingstop-plans-to-enter-the-metaverse-with-virtual-food-and-drinks%2F" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 123, 255); background-color: transparent;">trademark patent</a>&nbsp;filed in February 2022, Wingstop has plans to utilize NFTs, virtual food, and wing sales in the metaverse. For full article visit <a href="https://hypemoon.com/2022/10/rick-ross-looks-to-web3-in-building-deeper-relationships-with-fans" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://hypemoon.com/2022/10/rick-ross-looks-to-web3-in-building-deeper-relationships-with-fans.</a>

Unveiling 200 exclusive NFTs and the rapper’s very own immersive metaverse.

Rick Ross Looks To Web3 In Building Deeper Relationships With Fans

Siri, show me fintech companies, founded in the last two years, that haven’t raised over the past year but have grown headcount by 100% in the same time frame; and can it be founded by Stanford alumni whose Twitter traction has grown by at least 50% in the last six months? This is Harmonic’s vision; well, only if you swap out Siri for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.harmonic.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">Harmonic</a>’s text-based startup search query tool. The data platform, built by co-founders&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/bryancaseyy?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">Bryan Casey</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">Max Ruderman</a>, thinks it can help executives discover the next big startups without hundreds of hours of manual sourcing and research. Harmonic is a more specific version of its largest competitors, Crunchbase and PitchBook, which aggregate and organize private startup data. “We go out and look at every nook and cranny of the web where there might be information about companies and we take that structured and unstructured data and figure out how to merge it all together into some canonical representation of a company,” Ruderman told TechCrunch. Harmonic’s aggregation differentiation, per Ruderman, is the intelligence it uses to help recognize which public data is more accurate for certain fields, and then merges those sources to develop the “most accurate, fresh representation at any point in time.” Harmonic joins a flock of other startups trying to make venture more data-driven, transparent and equitable. In theory,<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/22/algorithmic-investing-cant-entirely-eliminate-the-emotional-element-of-deal-making/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">&nbsp;algorithmic investing hedges against investors’ preconceived notions&nbsp;</a>and pushes emotions to the side. Fintech unicorn Clearco and venture firm SignalFire have spent years implementing data-focused investment processes, joined by AngelList and Hum Capital. In a landscape where investors are re-learning discipline, data feels safe. But, as other solutions have matured, the cleanliness and reliability of said data&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-07/startup-data-integrity-vexes-crunchbase-cb-insights-pitchbook" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">has come into question.&nbsp;</a>(One founder even played a prank once, listing that Andreessen Horowitz was an investor in his startup on Crunchbase; when other investors piled on looking to put money into his upstart, he explained it was a joke to show the poor quality of data on the platform,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-07/startup-data-integrity-vexes-crunchbase-cb-insights-pitchbook?sref=gni836kR" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 165, 98);">reports Bloomberg).</a> Another question to consider is if Harmonic truly helps investors break out of their pattern matching tendencies, or just helps reinforce already existent values. “The core thing is the way they searched for [the ideas they believe in] now is more implicit than explicit, meaning they lean on their networks a lot, right?,” Ruderman said.&nbsp;“The associates, networks, and the partners and their alumni networks…they work with founders that are already in their portfolio companies that can help connect them with other people. Step 1 is just bringing all information about all companies into our index so that when they are doing that search explicitly, they end up finding lots of companies that meet that criteria that they may not have identified through their networks.” Ruderman admitted that data reliability and consistency is one of the hardest problems to get right — and that their strategy is a big differentiator for them. “We’re able to keep data up-to-date at scale, and merge together fragmented bits of structured and unstructured data from all over the web with confidence,” Ruderman said, adding that its main measure of success is an internal score they use that captures freshness, inventory and taxonomy. When asked for more specifics on how they gain an upper edge on freshness, Ruderman didn’t share many specifics (and given that it’s a competitive moat, I’m not too surprised by this). He also said that pricing will evolve as the product evolves, but currently the startup charges licensing and API usage fees. Ruderman’s background adds some color to why he is confident in a better way to search. The co-founder was at Google for around six and a half years — with his last role being a senior software engineer on a team in Search that was all about building tools to help Google do UX research and design at scale. Before that, he spent time learning about behavioral economics in the people operations department, technical infrastructure on the business intelligence team, machine learning on the finance team and, ultimately, Search. So far, his direction and the company behind him has landed Harmonic at least 150 customers, including SaaS startups such as&nbsp;Brex, Vouch, Notion and Carta, and venture firms such as Floodgate, a16z and Accel.&nbsp;Some of those early adopters have even turned into the startup’s largest investors. Harmonic announced today that it closed a $23 million Series A round led by Sozo Ventures, with participation from Craft Ventures, which led its $7 million seed round last year. Floodgate, another customer, was Harmonic’s first investor. “By creating a really powerful discovery tool in venture, it lets capital flow out to more innovation in a more efficient way…if we bring this to sales teams, it lets teams bring their service and push forward at the right time,” Ruderman said. “And then eventually, we want to make it the case that talent can find startups to match their talents, driving startups forward.” For the full article visit <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/harmonic-helps-investors-query-the-startup-searches-of-their-wildest-dreams/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tLw&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAyLSusfvZ_PAnb5aEPzwOK5-IqUqF-0sDHNXaudKaPwS6rdIVLgUV_Y3KfZU3VC5GT1990MM9J-es4EFLfBInX5FKq3ivzNNy_w-eXWG76dIdvnK1S_2a2ft2jyXBaAWHUKDxHnq22KkEYqjSCxWo74l-dnwRBydM-kQzL2fumJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/harmonic-helps-investors-query-the-startup-searches-of-their-wildest-dreams/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tLw&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAyLSusfvZ_PAnb5aEPzwOK5-IqUqF-0sDHNXaudKaPwS6rdIVLgUV_Y3KfZU3VC5GT1990MM9J-es4EFLfBInX5FKq3ivzNNy_w-eXWG76dIdvnK1S_2a2ft2jyXBaAWHUKDxHnq22KkEYqjSCxWo74l-dnwRBydM-kQzL2fumJ.</a>

Harmonic helps investors query the startup searches of their wildest dreams

I’m less than a month into VC and unraveling from more than a decade operating in startups and enterprise, my most recent years spent as a senior executive managing global CX teams, thousands of customers, M&amp;A, and reporting within two PE firms. I’m currently stradding a strange limbo of what feels like an outsider to both VC and Ops. Do I still wear a modest, collared button-up and slacks? No. When do I speak up or shut up? Striking this balance will be my life’s work. Am I bringing enough value? I hear I won’t know the answer to this question for another 8–10 years. Great. I’ve had a lot of philosophical conversations with myself lately about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challenge/dp/0385483821" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Andrew Grove’s ‘Only the Paranoid Survive’.</a>&nbsp;But, this ain’t my first rodeo navigating change or cross-roads. In the past decade I went from being a single-mom living on welfare, in a one-bedroom apartment with my three girls sleeping on the floor next to my bed, to exiting my startup, receiving an issued patent, managing large-scale M&amp;A, growing tens of millions of dollars, and leading global enterprise teams (I also bought a house!). I know how to do everything from making payroll to building and managing scale. I understand the founder/operator perspective and I understand the hard work and humility that any good thing in life takes.&nbsp;This is the perspective I want to bring to VC. A few weeks back (before I started in VC and upon hearing that I was leaving my previous role) a friend and mentor,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davecblake/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Dave Blake</a>, Founder and CEO of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.clientsuccess.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">ClientSuccess</a>, asked me to speak on a VC panel at the&nbsp;<a href="https://cs100.clientsuccess.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">CS100 Summit</a>&nbsp;hosted at Sundance, Utah. This is the mecca event for Chief Customer Officers and was the perfect way to blend my colliding worlds of founder/operator and VC!&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynathan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Jay Nathan</a>&nbsp;moderated our panel on ‘Driving Impact in the Boardroom’ with me,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenejylee/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Eugene Lee</a>&nbsp;of Omers Ventures, and K<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/koryknell/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">ory Knell</a>&nbsp;of RainFocus. *Editor’s note: all founders/CEOs should attend CS100 Summit, it’s a masterclass in building customer-centric organizations and it is invaluable to hear from folks like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sterling-snow-051baab5/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Sterling Snow</a>, CRO of Divvy (also a Pelion portfolio company) who shared trade secrets that led to&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/06/why-did-bill-com-pay-2-5b-for-divvy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Divvy’s billion-dollar exit.</a>Whether you are a founder, exec or someone looking to grow in their career, knowing how to be an all-around badass in the boardroom is a good skill to sharpen. Here are my five takeaways from the event: <ol><li>Be brief. Be brilliant. Be gone.&nbsp;If you are speaking in any capacity to a board don’t make the mistake of 100-page pitch decks or lengthy diatribes of your knowledge, expertise, and justifications. If you are explaining you are losing. You have two jobs: demonstrate competence and build trust. The board is there to verify their assumptions and learn from the experts. Follow their lead and bring every point back to the story (i.e. known value props and insights) you prepared beforehand. Also, be honest.</li><li>Establish yourself as the expert.&nbsp;Many people make the mistake of thinking the board is the expert or giving the board too much power over them. Whether you are a one-person startup or an executive of a 150 person team, the board is looking to you for domain knowledge, role expertise and influence. They need you. Don’t be afraid to push back, ask clarifying questions and speak confidently to the vision, insights and what you know to be true. If you don’t know the answer be prepared to say, “I’d hate to speculate, let me get back to you on this.”</li><li>Understand the process of diligence.&nbsp;Whether you are going through investment/acquisition OR want to understand the POV of any board you go in front of, everyone should go through the exercise of diligence. You will understand your business better than ever. Remember, your job is to be the expert! Do a simple Google search and you will find material for your education.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2014/12/19/20-key-due-diligence-activities-in-a-merger-and-acquisition-transaction/?sh=4240ee4b4bfc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">This</a>&nbsp;article from Forbes is a good 100,000 ft view on diligence, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smartsheet.com/sites/default/files/IC-M-and-A-Buyer-Due-Diligence-Checklist-Template-10584_PDF.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">this</a>&nbsp;Smartsheet’s checklist is a decent start. Additionally, take time to understand who you are pitching. Look up authored LinkedIn articles, company blog posts and personal websites. These are all data points you can leverage to craft your message.</li><li>D̶a̶t̶a̶,̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶a̶,̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶a̶!̶ Insights, insights, insights!&nbsp;Bring insights, don’t regurgitate data. Should you be able to regurgitate all the important business metrics and be able to show your work if asked? Absolutely. But, for in-person presentations your job is to synthesize data points to tell compelling stories. Bringing together the story of let’s say a global pandemic, increase in NRR, decrease in logo count and a product development pivot makes for a compelling story that helps the board understand holistic impact and then make educated and informed decisions. Always know your story.</li><li>Remember your personal brand, because the world is a small place.&nbsp;One of my biggest pet-peeves is when people put themselves down in front of others: “I’m so stupid, I can’t believe I missed that” or “I’m so sorry to have missed this.” Don’t apologize for existing. Be polished, be professional, be authentic! My mom once gave me the advice to ‘leave flowers wherever I go.’ Leaving flowers instead of bombs doesn’t mean you’re not assertive or bold, but it does mean that you haven’t burned a bridge. If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s that you will need as many people in your corner as possible. People change, people grow up, people learn. Have integrity to yourself and your community when interacting with others, because the world is a small place and people talk.</li></ol> <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/pelion-webapp.appspot.com/o/articles%2FWhjJyqveDIjxsZkTpGpe%2F87b2a072-e8b7-40de-8dfd-92287edd9688.webp?alt=media&amp;token=341f5f2f-0182-47ad-b6c4-c49102eff0d7">CS100 Summit VC Panel with Eugene Lee, Kory Knell, Kristy Muir, and Jay Nathan See full article at <a href="https://medium.com/@kristymuir/from-operator-to-vc-5-tips-on-how-to-pitch-or-present-like-a-badass-in-the-boardroom-8ecd08aac6bb#4449-37d3457976dc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://medium.com/@kristymuir/from-operator-to-vc-5-tips-on-how-to-pitch-or-present-like-a-badass-in-the-boardroom-8ecd08aac6bb#4449-37d3457976dc</a>

From Operator to VC: 5 Tips on How To Pitch or Present Like a Badass in the Boardroom

LOS ANGELES, September 8, 2022&nbsp;– Open Raven – the data security posture management company helping enterprises prevent leaks, breaches, and compliance incidents – announced it raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by Pelion Ventures with participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins and Upfront Ventures. This increases Open Raven’s total funding to date to $40M. Jeff Kearl, Partner at Pelion, joined Open Raven's Board of Directors along with Seksom Suriyapa from Upfront Ventures.&nbsp;"If you are a cloud-first company and your business depends on data, the first thing you should be doing is using Open Raven," said Jeff Kearl. "They have a level of visibility at scale and completeness that other platforms simply can't provide. Their execution keeps getting better and better across product expansion, customer acquisition, and retention.""Everything security teams are responsible for, from incident response and risk management to regulatory compliance, requires accurate and thorough cloud data intelligence," said Gary Miller, DVP of Information Security at TaskUs. "The understanding we get from Open Raven of our total data landscape in AWS helps us make better decisions about how to protect what is most important to our business."With the new funding, Open Raven is making additional investments in engineering, sales, and marketing to accelerate their roadmap and expand support for their increasing portfolio of large enterprises. Already, this month, Open Raven released new data intelligence capabilities including structured data classification and a new set of APIs for both pulling data and triggering scans. Also, earlier this year, Open Raven joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program to co-sell with AWS field sellers globally."I'm extremely proud of what our team has achieved in such a short amount of time. Our platform simply works," said Dave Cole, CEO of Open Raven. "We took head on and solved one of the biggest problems in security, specifically data classification at a massive scale that also satisfies budget and privacy sensibilities."For more information,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.openraven.com/blog/open-raven-at-3-new-customers-fresh-funding-and-an-expanded-platform" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;">read the blog post.</a> For full article visit <a href="https://www.openraven.com/press-releases/open-raven-raises-20m-in-series-b-from-pelion-ventures-kleiner-perkins-and-upfront-ventures." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.openraven.com/press-releases/open-raven-raises-20m-in-series-b-from-pelion-ventures-kleiner-perkins-and-upfront-ventures.</a> <h3>About Open Raven&nbsp;</h3>Open Raven is the data security posture management company that prevents leaks, breaches, and compliance incidents. For security teams with modern cloud infrastructures to locate and secure sensitive, toxic, and exposed data within hundreds or thousands of accounts, billions of objects, and petabytes of data, existing tools don’t work. The Open Raven Data Security Platform is the secure, private, budget-safe solution that closes data visibility gaps – and just works. Learn more at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.openraven.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;">openraven.com</a>&nbsp;or follow us&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/openraven" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;">@openraven</a>.

Investment comes amid strong customer growth and significant expansion of its data security platform

Open Raven Raises $20M in Series B from Pelion Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Upfront Ventures 

<a href="https://www.denim.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(220, 161, 13);">Denim</a>, the fintech platform for freight and logistics formerly known as Axle Payments, today announced that it raised $126 million in a Series B funding round led by Pelion Venture Partners with participation from Crosslink Capital, Anthemis, Trucks VC, FJ Labs, Tribeca Early Stage Partners and Refashiond Ventures at a “nine-figure” valuation. CEO and co-founder Bharath Krishnamoorthy tells TechCrunch that the new cash, a combination of equity ($26 million) and debt ($100 million), will be put toward scaling the business and providing Denim’s customers with working capital. Krishnamoorthy and Denim’s other co-founder, Shawn Vo, had been friends for 16 years before they launched the company. Vo was in the credit risk department at Barclays and a full-stack developer at Fintria, a fintech company, while Krishnamoorthy was an associate at several law firms, including Gibson, Dunn &amp; Crutcher. “We witnessed a significant gap in the freight broker market, where legacy systems — i.e. paper checks, physical filing — were still in place, and developed an intuitive payments technology to help streamline broker operations and attract the best carrier relationships through the platform,” Krishnamoorthy told TechCrunch via email. To that end, Denim provides financial products, operations tools and automated workflows for freight brokers — the middlemen between shippers and carriers. The company handles broker invoicing, collections and payments, and in addition provides access to debt financing. “The industry has shown reluctance to abandon its legacy processes — many shippers still pay freight brokers on 30 to 60-day terms despite carriers expecting near-instantaneous payments. These longer time frames can create cash flow problems,” Krishnamoorthy added. Denim uses algorithms to reduce the amount of time its operations team spends evaluating the risk of invoices it purchases from brokers. For each shipment, these algorithms review 20 data points and either approve the purchase or flag that a manual review is required. Beyond this, the Denim platform integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks to allow brokers to share data between various existing systems. From a dashboard, users can see metrics like pending or completed jobs, total factored amounts, the most frequently used carriers and the fastest-paying customers. “This combination of automation, financial stability and accurate reporting enables&nbsp;freight&nbsp;brokers and their partners to navigate volatile shifts in the economy. And most importantly, it ensures the entire supply chain continues moving in the right direction,” Krishnamoorthy continued. “In our current economic environment, companies can’t afford to ignore back-end risks and slow processes.” Denim competes with other fintech firms in the space, including TriumphPay, HaulPay and OTR Capital. Curiously, Krishnamoorthy declined to say how many customers the company currently has or where its revenue stands. But he did volunteer that Denim has connected more than 7,000 freight brokers, shippers and carriers since its launch three years ago. “Despite the slowdown, Denim is uniquely positioned to continue scaling its platform and workforce. We’ve established a financial model based on healthy unit economics,” Krishnamoorthy said. “We’re bringing new solutions to market to give freight brokers the ability to seamlessly operate at full capacity and adapt to changes in the supply chain. And we’re hiring talent that not only aligns with our business goals but with our core values.” Denim has 100 full-time employees and plans to reach 120 by the end of the year, funded in part by the new equity. To date, the startup has raised a total of $165 million. For Tech Crunch article visit, https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/15/denim-a-fintech-platform-for-freight-brokers-raises-126m-in-equity-and-debt/.

Denim, a fintech platform for freight brokers, raises $126M in equity and debt

Traditional employment models are not flexible enough to meet the needs of the most in-demand executives. These seasoned practitioners want optionality and career development outside of traditional career development. Nolan Church (former Chief People Officer at Carta) and Greg White (former Head of DevOps at Carta) recognized this highly-skilled, in-demand group’s unmet needs and founded Continuum in August 2020 as a solution.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.joincontinuum.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 56, 145); background-color: transparent;">Continuum</a>&nbsp;is a fractional executive marketplace to connect seasoned industry professionals with venture capital-backed high-growth startups. The Salt Lake City, Utah-based startup raised a $12M Series A led by Pelion Ventures, with participation from Uncork Capital, Day One Ventures, and angel investors including (but not limited to) Blake Murray, Vivek Sodera, Matt Mickiewicz, Sander Daniels and Joseph Woodburry. Continuum has fifteen team members. The startup will use the Series A funds raised to invest in product development, with the goal to build an “executive storefront.” Continuums competitors are established, legacy executive search firms. Continuum CEO Church says, “We want to help executives drive business and automate their entire back-office. Eventually, startups will be able to click on an executive, book time with them, and start working with them almost immediately.” Frederick Daso: When did you first notice the demand for seasoned executives performing project-based work or consulting engagements instead of traditional employment? Nolan Church: I realized there was a gap in the market when I was Chief People Officer at Carta. I wanted access to consulting/advising/angel investing opportunities, but I didn’t have time to market myself to startups or network with VCs. I started wondering if other non-CEO execs were experiencing the same problem. It turns out that after talking to 1000+ execs, every exec we’ve talked to wants fractional deal flow. These execs are typically not hyper-active on social media, want their work to speak for itself, and need software to help them manage their back-office and operations. Daso: What are the critical issues with traditional employment models (e.g., W-2 employees) in today’s dynamic, inflationary economy? Church: Traditional executive recruiting is expensive (recruiters charge $100k-$150k+), slow (searches usually take 6-9 months+), and has a low success rate (most executives depart within 18 months of their start date). It was constant pain for me as a company operator and an exec looking for my next role. Working with a fractional exec is cheaper, immediate, and gives companies and execs the flexibility to trial each other before committing to a full-time relationship. Daso: Given the current dismal stock market performance and companies firing workers, how will Continuum play a role in ensuring layoffs are conducted in a fair, empathetic manner with the companies it chooses to partner with? Church: It’s extremely important for companies to optimize for humanity versus efficiency. Layoffs are terrible, but there is a way to do it where it can strengthen a company’s culture, morale, and reputation. We’re launching our layoff product to help startups during this difficult time. ​​For tech companies considering a layoff, Continuum is offering one free hour of advising with an HR executive who has run them before. For leadership teams needing more support, Continuum offers an HR executive to build a communications plan, run a DEI impact analysis to ensure underrepresented groups are not disproportionately impacted, and be available for general support. Daso: How has Continuum increased the supply and demand on its fractional executive marketplace by 20-fold? Church: Executive acquisition (supply) has organically grown through word of mouth. It’s the easiest thing we do. When we ask executives if they’re interested in consulting, advising or angel investing, it immediately sparks their interest. They get more excited when we then tell them that Continuum offers them access to the next generation of upcoming startups, runs their back office, and gives them a storefront to generate new business. Execs love the idea of not being owned by one company. They’re able to work with multiple startups simultaneously and have the flexibility to design their lives how they choose. On the demand side, startups often lack in-house expertise when issues arise and only have the option of running a lengthy and costly executive search. Continuum gives these startups on-demand access to top talent who can plugin at every stage/size to solve problems immediately. Sometimes, they’re working with Continuum executives while running a full-time employee search in parallel. We hear from many of our customers that it’s a no-brainer to work with fractional executives. Daso: What behaviors have you observed in Continuum’s marketplace that necessitate the development of future products with its company’s freshly-raised Series A funding? Church: There are three types of executive personas on Continuum. First is the curious executive, who has a full-time job today, joined Continuum to consult and advise for 4-5 hours a week. They often turn into our second executive persona (full-time fractional) when they fall in love with the work because of the flexibility to invest their expertise across a few different startups. Lastly, some execs go from fractional to full-time, essentially trying before they buy. No matter where on the continuum these executives are, they need a back office to support their consulting, advising and angel investing pursuits. We’re deploying the capital from our Series A to completely automate the executive back office, build the executive storefront, and give companies a portal to tap into world-class executive talent quickly. Daso: How can Continuum’s coaching program accelerate the growth and development of future world-class executives outside of their traditional roles? Church: The most effective form of learning is doing the job while learning from someone in similar shoes, who has successfully solved the problem you’re tackling and can help you see around corners. While it’s important to have mentors within a company, having a coach outside of your organization is also valuable to help you view problems from different perspectives, reach your goals, and learn firsthand.

Continuum Raises $12M To Build The Fractional Executive Marketplace

SALT LAKE CITY &amp; NEW YORK, JUNE 21, 2022&nbsp;–<a href="https://www.rivethealth.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.rivethealth.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Rivet</a>,&nbsp;the modern healthcare billing platform, raised&nbsp;$20.5 million in a Series B funding round led by growth equity firm&nbsp;<a href="http://www.catalyst.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">Catalyst Investors</a>&nbsp;with participation from co-investor Ankona Capital and existing investors Menlo Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners and Lux Capital. Tyler Newton, Partner with Catalyst Investors, will join Rivet’s Board of Directors. Founded in 2018, Rivet's revenue cycle operating platform is used by healthcare providers across the country to collect what they are owed from payers and bring greater price transparency to patients. Using Rivet, customers have modeled more than one billion payer contracted rates, created over 400,000 patient cost estimates, and detected denials and underpayments in over 100 million claims, reducing the administrative burden felt by providers while increasing their total income as well. “Medical payer contracts are often very complicated, resulting in reduced transparency from payer to provider to patient. Rivet deciphers contracts for providers so they can offer patients transparent pricing with our Estimates product while also ensuring proper insurance payments with our Underpayments and Denials products,” said Ted Ferrin, CEO and Co-Founder of Rivet. “Rivet shines light on some of the most complex but important data in all of healthcare so that providers, patients, and payers can all be on the same page and have a much more efficient financial experience.”&nbsp; “Rivet has a keen ability to identify pain points in the market, execute on a product vision, deliver a high-quality product and achieve product-market fit in rapid succession,” said Newton. “The team has a compelling blend of revenue cycle management, technology and sales experience that allows them to identify issues that have plagued the healthcare industry for decades and make great strides towards solving it. We look forward to working with the Rivet team to increase market penetration in the outpatient segment and expand into larger facilities, hospitals and health systems.”&nbsp; Rivet currently offers three software products: Patient Cost Estimates, Underpayment Detection Workflow and Denials Appeal Management. The company has historically focused exclusively on outpatient practices, offering a level of sophistication and automation typically reserved for larger health systems and inpatient facilities. Capital from the new funding round will be used to build out the Rivet team and continue investing in the platform, allowing the company to continue delivering unparalleled products to a market that is in dire need of innovation. About RivetRivet, based in&nbsp;Salt Lake City, UT, is dedicated to promoting transparency throughout the healthcare billing process, from payer to provider to patient. Rivet’s unique platform offers tools for Estimates, Underpayments and Denials, giving patients more transparency around the cost of care and providers the ability to hold payers accountable to their contracts. The company currently operates largely in outpatient facilities, but it aims to elevate the healthcare billing experience across all settings, regardless of size or specialty. About Catalyst InvestorsCatalyst Investors is a growth equity firm based in New York. The firm’s mission is to earn superior returns by helping entrepreneurs build great growth companies. Over the past 20 years, Catalyst has invested in rapidly-growing companies across the SaaS, tech enabled services and internet infrastructure sectors, and has established a successful track record of partnering with entrepreneurs and helping companies scale. Recent investments and exits include Pax8, LinkSquares, Ekos, Weave, Clinicient, ChowNow, EDB, and PresenceLearning. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2955371-1&amp;h=1753764514&amp;u=http://www.catalyst.com/&amp;a=www.catalyst.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">www.catalyst.com</a>.

Modern healthcare billing platform provides greater transparency for patients and healthcare providers.

Rivet Raises $20.5 Million Series B Led by Catalyst Investors

<a href="https://www.lvt.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">LiveView Technologies</a>&nbsp;(LVT), a manufacturer of intelligent safety and security ecosystems, raised a $50 million Series B. The round was led by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sorensoncapital.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">Sorenson Capital</a>&nbsp;(Lehi, Utah), with participation from new investor,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lhmauto.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">The Larry H. Miller Group</a>&nbsp;(Utah), with<a href="https://leadedge.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">&nbsp;Lead Edge Capital</a>&nbsp;(New York) and&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">Pelion Venture Partners</a>&nbsp;(Cottonwood Heights, Utah), both returning investors. Rob Rueckert, Partner at Sorenson Capital, will join LVT’s board of directors.&nbsp; “LVT prevents crime and saves lives, period. You simply don’t get the opportunity to partner with a company like that very often,” says Rueckert in the LVT press release. “Their unique technologies are found on the properties of small retailers up to Fortune 100 companies, they are serious about 100% customer satisfaction, and they never stop innovating. You can see their direct impact across various industries, and we are excited to support LVT as they expand even further into the global market.” LVT plans to use funding to advance product research and development and to expand the company through recruiting technical, manufacturing, and business talent.&nbsp; “LVT’s mission is to make the entire world safer and more secure. While theft-related savings and real-time site awareness are a significant benefit for many of our customers, preventing violent crime and saving lives are the most important goals of our company, and at the forefront of everything we do,” says LVT Co-founder and CEO, Ryan Porter, in the LTV press release. “Our accelerated growth is a testament to the solutions we work tirelessly to provide, the value we place on forging strong partnerships with our customers every day, and the belief that we are realizing our mission one safer community at a time.” Based in Orem, LVT is both a SaaS and a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service). The company offers deployable commercial security systems, powered by solar panels, that connect to a SaaS platform. The platform offers security solutions for remote live video, safety, surveillance, IoT, and analytics gathering processing, and delivery. LVT’s hardware is portable and customizable and only takes about 30 minutes to set up. Built with surveillance cameras, sensors, lights, and speakers, LVT’s security ecosystems are meant to ward off theft and deter crime. LVT currently has more than 6,000 security units in use that protect over 2.5 billion sq/ft around the globe. These security ecosystems have many uses and reduce crime up to 62%. LVT customers like the Kansas City Chiefs, Marathon Oil, and the City of Camden use its security systems to ensure public, employee, customer, and facility safety. Yellowstone Park uses LVT’s hardware to track weather and traffic patterns and one well-placed security ecosystem assisted the Miami Police Department in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/miami-police-arrest-suspected-serial-killer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">identification and arrest of a serial killer.</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.techbuzz.news/brandon-fugal-and-the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch-on-the-history-channel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(37, 165, 224);">Skinwalker Ranch</a>&nbsp;uses LVT’s systems to track paranormal activity.&nbsp; “Skinwalker Ranch considers LiveView a key strategic partner,” says Brandon Fugal, owner of Skinwalker Ranch and Chairman of Colliers International, “We value the relationship with LiveView. Their security surveillance systems provide an ideal complement to our existing scientific monitoring and security platforms.” The company was founded in 2005 by Ryan Porter and has grown to over 200 employees. LTV’s recurring revenue has grown 133% in the last year, and averaged over 100% in the last five years.

LiveView Technologies Raises $50 Million Series B

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led a consortium of banks that gave Deserve Inc. a credit facility,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220511005760/en/Deserve-Secures-250M-Credit-Facility-from-Goldman-Sachs-Cross-River-and-Waterfall-Asset-Management" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(37, 79, 156);">according to an announcement on Wednesday.&nbsp;</a>Cross River, a New Jersey financial services company, and New York-based NewWaterfall Asset Management also participated in the deal. The new financing comes after Deserve&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2021/10/28/visa-invests-in-bay-area-fintech-deserve.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(37, 79, 156);">raised $50 million in equity funding</a>&nbsp;from Visa, Mastercard and others last summer at a valuation of about $500 million.Deserve offers white-label and co-branded credit card programs to banks and other financial institutions as well as universities and associations. It leverages Visa’s (NYSE: V) instant issuance technology and security features to allow consumers to apply, activate and place their cards in digital wallets within minutes. The company said it plans to use the new financing to help it continue to scale the business. It said that it enjoyed 650% growth in transactions volume and 800% growth in receivables in 2021. "We're excited about what this new financing will enable us to do as we amplify our reach and help more fintechs, financial institutions, SMB lenders, and brands connect with and grow their customer base," CEO Kalpesh Kapadia said in Wednesday's announcement. The biggest concentration of Deserve's 250 employees work at offices in West Valley City, Utah, where it has 90 workers. About 50 work out of its Palo Alto headquarters and there are 80 more in India.

A Palo Alto startup that says it can help its business customers issue digital credit cards in minutes has $250 million in new financing to help it grow.

Digital credit card startup Deserve wins $250M Goldman Sachs-led financing

<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Naas-Cunningham-46109988" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 75, 130);">Naas Cunningham</a>, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2024 class, is heading to Overtime Elite, he told ESPN's Jonathan Givony. With that, the quickly changing landscape of high school basketball and college alternatives during the NIL era has taken another turn. While that news is notable in itself, the most notable part of the news is that Cunningham will not receive a salary from Overtime Elite - becoming the first athlete in the program to do so. Instead, he will follow the NCAA guidelines to profit off his name, image and likeness. A source told 247Sports that Overtime Elite and the NCAA have been in talks regarding this issue in recent months and the current understanding and expectation is that players who do not receive a salary and instead profit off their name, image and likeness will preserve their college eligibility. With Cunningham choosing to go this route, he maintains his amateur status and should remain as the No. 1 overall prospect in the class and a high priority target for schools currently pursuing him which includes: Duke, UCLA, UConn, Maryland, St. John's and others. This decision is a potentially game-changing moment in grassroots basketball and is a massive win for Overtime Elite, which was only announced last spring and launched in the fall of 2021. Cunningham is their highest ranked addition to the program and now with the current option to profit off NIL within NCAA guidelines, we could certainly see a flood of the top prospects in high school basketball to follow suit. Overtime is a multi-media company with millions of followers across all social media platforms. The company's ability to provide a platform for these high school stars to profit off their NIL will be second to none and could be a major draw for these young athletes. Overtime Elite is based in Atlanta with a state-of-the art facility, an academic structure and immense resources that have been invested into by investors including&nbsp;<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Kevin-Durant-64594" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 75, 130);">Kevin Durant</a>, Jeff Bezos,&nbsp;<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Carmelo-Anthony-82545" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 75, 130);">Carmelo Anthony</a>&nbsp;and many others. Previously, Overtime Elite was operating on a salary-structure with high school athletes. That meant when players were presented with the opportunity join OTE they were forced to weigh the decision of sacrificing their college eligibility for earlier financial opportunity. There will still be plenty of athletes who choose to stay home and go the traditional high school route but Overtime Elite now has a new and potentially lucrative way to lure top talent while keeping college options alive. The changes, could help them land many more top players and usher in a major change in the path elite players take towards approaching their futures. The ripple effect of this development and Overtime's platform could be felt far and wide as we will also see other leagues and high schools adopting similar platforms to remain competitive in national high schools basketball and in keeping top talent on their rosters.

2024's top player Naasir Cunningham picking Overtime Elite could be a game-changer

SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=19QPNm6RcHHN4rEQy17V_pC5JuPwSG9AENnmf5hc3fN4AHn4iHkJGCcns0beBpsOCAhTlTF7ozsqXjICwtCMtg==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">BigPanda, Inc.</a>, the leader in AIOps Event Correlation and Automation, announced it was presented with a Bronze Stevie® Award in the customer service department of the year category in the 16th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service. This is the second year in a row BigPanda has been recognized for this award. BigPanda was selected based on its relentless commitment to customer service the past two years, including notable achievements in record-breaking response times and customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Winners will be recognized during a virtual awards ceremony on May 11. The 2022 Stevie Award recognition reflects the superior work and impact of BigPanda’s customer service department during the pandemic. Over the past year, BigPanda’s customers have quadrupled as well as the number of users and support requests. With the tremendous growth of their customer base, BigPanda saw a record 25 percent year-over-year increase in ticket volume between 2020 and 2021, and the team was still able to set record response times of 2.72 hours for support tickets, also receiving a 99 percent CSAT score. Average industry response times at companies such as Google and IBM range between 1-2 business days for normal priority tickets and 3-5 business days for incident resolution. Additionally, BigPanda has helped customers attain mean time to repair (MTTR) reductions up to 80 percent by introducing automated prioritization, incident routing and assisting operators with event de-duplication and providing them with enhanced alert data sets through enrichment. “Businesses run on digital services, so any outage or degradation, regardless of the cause, results in business impact, oftentimes impacting revenue or productivity. Our customers depend on BigPanda to detect and prevent those impacts, to keep their digital services running, 24/7,” said Jason Walker, Chief Customer Officer at BigPanda. “Our customer success teams have consistently outperformed on service-level agreements, while achieving impressive CSAT scores over the past year, in what is arguably the most difficult and neglected area of modern technology organizations (ITOps). This recognition validates our commitment to lifetime partnerships with our customers delivered by our Support, Outcomes, Professional Services, and Value &amp; Adoption teams.” BigPanda has recently expanded its customer operations team in multiple regions, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), to support customer demand. The customer service department is comprised of four teams who handle a range of services for today’s leading companies, including troubleshooting issues, providing best practices for IT Ops network operations center (NOC), DevOps and site reliability engineer (SRE) teams and ensuring the continued success and adoption of its platform across otherwise siloed teams. Recent customer service success BigPanda is chosen by Fortune 1000 and Midsize enterprises to help them improve incident automation and prevent IT outages across the most complex IT environments around the world. Some recent customer highlights include: <ul><li>INOC, a global leader in the network operations center industry, was looking for a solution to handle automated incident management and reduce the time humans were spending on event correlation so the team could focus on higher-value projects. BigPanda’s Customer Success team supported INOC through a rapid implementation with a proven deployment methodology and is by their side to ensure they are able to deliver exceptional NOC services to their clients every day.</li><li>Visionworks, one of the US’ fastest-growing optical retailers, was in search of a solution to deduplicate and correlate IT alerts to better manage and resolve technology-related incidents. The company engaged BigPanda to help streamline and improve uptime of digital services and are seeing very encouraging results in early days of pilot. The technology leadership team at Visionworks are pleased with the level of customer service BigPanda delivers and eager to see the trends continue into production.</li></ul> These examples demonstrate BigPanda’s commitment to customer success and reflects its ranking in this year’s Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service.“The nominations we received for the 2022 competition illustrate that business development, customer service, and sales professionals worldwide, in all sorts of organizations, have continued to innovate, thrive, and meet customer expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher Miller. “The judges have recognized and rewarded their achievements, and we join them in applauding this year's winners for their continued success. We look forward to recognizing them on May 11.” The Stevie Awards for Sales &amp; Customer Service are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organizes eight of the world’s leading business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business Awards®&nbsp;and International Business Awards®. More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, in 51 nations, were considered in this year’s competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide on eight specialized judging committees. Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=QOiOFmEJFLZCKUTibZcnNd3yfeQ557PViJoWrqkigRo3pwuz7Wqj2CZZ_7jojHpFL_WK3iJcKdLiFq9VQxAFkk6Yuj_Pl6uyExlB3pYQXL9scFq5l45Olod8wL805dqy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">www.StevieAwards.com/Sales</a>. To learn more about BigPanda, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=Pwyxo6vKDYSUmK8PjZPDZsI6hxiJQuAxHpI5PtsWs2Bkt-XarMjA2planSv9T-uCL-hI7w7BxrKyPlaKW9v-Xg==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">www.bigpanda.io</a>. About BigPanda BigPanda keeps businesses running with AIOps that transform IT data into insight and action. With BigPanda’s AIOps platform, businesses prevent IT outages, improve incident management and deliver extraordinary customer experiences. Without BigPanda, IT Ops, NOC, and DevOps teams struggle with a tsunami of data and highly-manual, reactive incident response processes that are poorly suited for the scale, complexity and velocity of modern IT environments. This results in painful outages, unhappy customers, growing IT headcount and the inability to focus on innovation. BigPanda’s AIOps Event Correlation and Automation platform helps Fortune 500 enterprises such as Intel, Cisco, United, Abbott, Marriott and Expedia take a giant step towards Autonomous IT Operations. BigPanda is backed by Advent International, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, Battery Ventures, Glynn Capital, Mayfield, Greenfield Partners and Pelion. Visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=Pwyxo6vKDYSUmK8PjZPDZu22woNExMiyP0hNp3SN9SuoMEYkyeexHylWQWGgW2nHhT_mmrifNlPLGI61lsJA6g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">www.bigpanda.io</a>&nbsp;for more information. About The Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East &amp; North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales &amp; Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=m7W5HdmyuXm-iQhUjMvPjXSnE_YNSZYyyGY4ZW1XDKsVMLddZrvCoo1V8favsRHrI3kKWrNqEeobfNhlMm9Ii7jCMjc6ToWmrd1A_jSfvs8=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(24, 143, 255); background-color: transparent;">http://www.StevieAwards.com</a>. Sponsors of the 16th annual Stevie Awards for Sales &amp; Customer Service include Sales Partnerships, Inc., Thought Leadership Leverage, and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

AIOps leader recognized for customer success with 99 percent customer satisfaction score and record-breaking responses times two years in a row

BigPanda Wins Bronze Award in 16th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Trace, a sports video technology company focused on making personalized highlights of youth athletes, has raised $47 million in a Series C round.The funding gave Trace a $190 million post-money valuation, five times higher than following its previous round, according to David Lokshin, the company’s co-founder and chief executive. Pelion Venture Partners, a Salt Lake City, Utah, venture capital firm, led the Series C funding. Jeff Kearl, a Pelion managing partner since 2019 and co-founder of the Stance apparel brand, joined Trace’s board of directors in conjunction with Pelion’s investment. Kearl has been friends with and a mentor to Lokshin for several years, and he had invested in the company in its early days as an angel investor. Lakestar, a Zurich, Switzerland, VC firm, Toba Capital, a Newport Beach, Calif., VC firm and NextGen VP, a Baltimore VC firm, also participated in the round. All told, Trace has raised $65.2 million in funding, including a $15 million Series B&nbsp;<a href="https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/61806-43#overview" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 56, 145);">round</a>&nbsp;in late 2019. Trace sells subscriptions consisting of its proprietary wide-angle cameras, artificial intelligence and GPS sensors technology primarily to youth soccer clubs across the United States. The clubs install the cameras at their games, and Trace’s cameras record the games and automatically edit and personalize the videos for each player. For instance, the videos show every time a player touched or kicked the ball during a game, which allows parents not to have to wade through the entire game and edit the film themselves. The videos are then sent via email to the players and/or their parents, who can share them with family members, college coaches and others.

Sports Video Tech Company Trace Raises $47 Million Series C Round, Valued At $190 Million

<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=4183032711&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cocodelivery.com%2F&amp;a=Coco" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Coco</a>, the LA-based remotely piloted delivery service, continues to build out its expert leadership team, bringing on executives from DoorDash, Lyft, Eaze, Amazon, Google and more amid its rapid nationwide expansion. The new hires include&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=2212692762&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fsahil-sharma-a09659%2F&amp;a=Sahil+Sharma" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Sahil Sharma</a>&nbsp;as Chief Operating Officer,&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=498314986&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fpquinn86%2F&amp;a=Pete+Quinn" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Pete Quinn</a>&nbsp;as Vice President of Revenue and&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=2454781724&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fandrea-ambrose-lobato-009b7023%2F&amp;a=Andrea+Lobato" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 126); background-color: transparent;">Andrea Lobato</a>&nbsp;as General Counsel. Strengthened by these industry experts, Coco's growing leadership team will work together to bring the company's vision of the future of last-mile delivery to life. "The current food delivery industry underserves merchants with excessive service fees, inefficient logistics, and driver shortages – a cycle Coco aims to break," said&nbsp;Zach Rash, CEO of Coco. "With these leaders on board, we have the expertise and skills we need to transform the food delivery experience for merchants in cities everywhere. These individuals are some of the best in the world in their respective domains. They've solved hard problems in related industries and built products and teams from the ground up. I'm thrilled to welcome them to Coco."&nbsp; Sahil Sharma, COO, will oversee Coco's operations, vehicle engineering team, and service and support functions while scaling the company's delivery service globally. Sharma brings more than 15 years of experience to Coco, having previously served in various operations and senior leadership roles at Snap, Google, Motorola, Amazon and Apple. "I am incredibly excited to work alongside such an accomplished team of professionals as we develop and scale the perfect last-mile delivery service which works for merchants, their customers and the communities we serve," said Sharma. "Every delivery made by Coco takes a 4,000-pound car off the road, reducing emissions and traffic across the country. I'm proud to be part of a company making an immediate contribution to local communities' environmental and economic growth." Pete Quinn, VP of Revenue, will manage sales, customer success and revenue operations at Coco. Quinn previously served as Senior Director, Head of U.S. Enterprise Partnerships at DoorDash, where he developed and led the company's strategic restaurant partnership ecosystem across&nbsp;North America&nbsp;from the bottom up.&nbsp; "Over the past seven years at DoorDash, I've witnessed first hand the need for a platform that enhances the quality and consistency of last-mile delivery while reducing the cost burden on businesses and the environmental impact on our communities," said Quinn. "Coco's technology has the power to enhance the delivery ecosystem for all parties – local businesses, consumers and even marketplaces. I couldn't be more thrilled to work at a mission-first company that will change the world for the better." Andrea Lobato, General Counsel, will provide strategic legal and business advice to Coco, building on her experienced track record of in-house counsel for industries with emerging, complex regulatory structures. Prior to Coco, Lobato served as General Counsel at Eaze Technologies, the largest cannabis delivery marketplace in&nbsp;the United States, and as Director of Compliance at Lyft. "Coco is poised to become the leader in sustainable, affordable delivery services that improve the bottom line for our local businesses," said Lobato. "I'm proud to join this mission-driven company and lead its legal efforts as we shape the future of last-mile logistics across the country." Coco's leadership team expansion comes on the heels of its recent launches in&nbsp;Austin&nbsp;and&nbsp;Houston, with additional growth plans on the horizon. The company's rapid scaling is supported by its Series A funding round of&nbsp;$56 million.&nbsp; Business owners based in&nbsp;Los Angeles,&nbsp;Austin, or&nbsp;Houston&nbsp;interested in partnering with Coco can contact the company at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@cocodelivery.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 131, 126);">info@cocodelivery.com</a>. About Coco&nbsp;At Coco, we're dedicated to perfecting the last-mile delivery experience by using remotely operated vehicles. We strongly believe the delivery service industry in its current state is massively underserving merchants, and we are committed to creating a frictionless, reliable, consistent, and sustainable delivery experience for merchants and their customers in cities everywhere. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3489385-1&amp;h=2901828889&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fcocodelivery.com%2F&amp;a=cocodelivery.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 131, 126);">cocodelivery.com</a>.&nbsp;

Executives from DoorDash, Lyft, Eaze, Amazon, Google and more join the leading robotic delivery company

Coco Bolsters Leadership Team with Top Executives Amid Rapid Nationwide Expansion

LEHI, Utah--(<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254); color: rgb(73, 158, 214);">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--Weave CEO Roy Banks (NYSE: WEAV) has been named as a CEO of the Year by Utah Business magazine. Every year, Utah Business honors a select group of CEOs who have led their organizations with strength, courage, and endurance and have made it their mission to change the way we do business in Utah. Banks was recognized due to his exemplary leadership since taking the helm of Weave as CEO in December 2020. Under Banks’ leadership, Weave went public in 2021, added new expertise and experience to the executive team, and expanded the company’s hiring footprint into India. This is the second recognition of Banks’ leadership so far this year, as he was recently honored as a finalist for the CEO of the Year award at the first-ever Silicon Slopes’ Hall of Fame gala. “I am so honored to be named as a CEO of the Year by Utah Business magazine,” Banks said. “Being the CEO of Weave has been the highlight of my professional life. Weave has had incredible growth year over year, and a world-class culture to boot. Our teams’ customer obsession and emphasis on cultivating a people-first culture makes Weave well-positioned for our next era of growth.” Roy is the only black CEO of a Utah tech unicorn and has a rating of A+ on Comparably, putting him in the top 5% of CEOs of similar sized companies. With over 900 employees and a brand-new six-story headquarters in Lehi, Weave is focused on a continued upward growth trajectory that involves hiring across the U.S. and internationally, having recently expanded its recruiting base to India. You can learn more about open opportunities to join the People First team at Weave by visiting&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetweave.com%2Fcareers&amp;esheet=52593354&amp;newsitemid=20220310005820&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=our+Careers+page&amp;index=1&amp;md5=72ffb2dd4ee3965cc25e85e085041f09" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(73, 158, 214);">our Careers page</a>. About Weave Weave is the all-in-one customer communication and engagement platform for small business. From the first phone call to the final invoice and every touchpoint in between, Weave connects the entire customer journey. Weave’s software solutions transform how local businesses attract, communicate with and engage customers to grow their business. The first Utah company to join Y Combinator, Weave has set the bar for Utah startup achievement &amp; work culture. In the past year, Weave has been included in the Forbes Cloud 100, Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in America, and Glassdoor Best Places to Work. To learn more, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.getweave.com%2Fnewsroom%2F&amp;esheet=52593354&amp;newsitemid=20220310005820&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.getweave.com%2Fnewsroom%2F&amp;index=2&amp;md5=6415aea5d7911a0e741d9b4f6cb5c9ba" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(73, 158, 214);">www.getweave.com/newsroom/</a>

Nominated among Utah’s leading tech CEOs, Roy Banks is selected for his skilled leadership of Weave

Utah Business Honors Roy Banks as a CEO of the Year

Overstock is a limited partner in blockchain fund SALT LAKE CITY, April 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.overstock.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Overstock.com, Inc.</a>&nbsp;(NASDAQ:OSTK), today announces it has closed its blockchain fund transaction with&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Pelion Venture Partners</a>, a third-party venture capital firm with a proven track record of successfully investing in early-stage companies. Overstock’s wholly-owned blockchain-focused subsidiary,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediciventures.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Medici Ventures</a>, has been converted into a limited partnership (the “Fund”) and will be managed by Pelion MV GP, LLC, which will act as the general partner of the Fund. Overstock.com, Inc. is the sole limited partner of the Fund. As the limited partner, Overstock has committed $45 million over the eight-year life of the Fund. The Fund will return invested capital to Overstock first and then split profits on successful exits as set forth in the Fund’s Limited Partnership Agreement. The Fund will hold a significant minority ownership stake in tZERO Group, Inc. (“tZERO”) and Overstock will retain a direct minority equity interest in tZERO. “We remain bullish on blockchain technology and are excited for Medici Ventures to enter this new post-closing phase,” said Overstock chief executive officer Jonathan Johnson. “Pelion has spent the last three months getting to know these portfolio companies better. I expect Pelion, which will oversee the portfolio and make follow-on investment decisions, will take these companies to the next level and help guide them to economic success. I’m pleased we closed this transaction ahead of schedule. Overstock can now focus on our core e-commerce business, which continues to realize tremendous revenue, profit, and market share growth.” Pelion MV GP, LLC now has sole authority and responsibility regarding the Fund’s investment decisions and in exercising all shareholder rights Medici Ventures holds in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediciventures.com/companies/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">portfolio companies</a>.“I am pleased this transaction with Overstock came together and has now closed,” said Pelion Venture Partners founder and managing director Blake Modersitzki. “Pelion recognizes the value in these disruptive companies and the world-changing potential of blockchain technology. We look forward to jumping in immediately and working with each of the portfolio companies to maximize the value of these assets.” About Overstock Overstock.com, Inc&nbsp;Common Stock (NASDAQ:OSTK) / Series A-1 Preferred Stock (tZERO ATS:OSTKO) / Series B Preferred Stock (OTCQX:OSTBP)&nbsp;is an online retailer and technology company based in&nbsp;Salt Lake City, Utah. Its leading e-commerce website sells a broad range of new home products at low prices, including furniture, décor, rugs, bedding, home improvement, and more. The online shopping site, which is visited by tens of millions of customers a month, also features a marketplace providing customers access to millions of products from third-party sellers. Overstock was the first major retailer to accept cryptocurrency in 2014, and in the same year founded&nbsp;Medici Ventures, its wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to the development and acceleration of blockchain technologies to democratize capital, eliminate middlemen, and re-humanize commerce. Overstock regularly posts information about the Company and other related matters on the&nbsp;Newsroom&nbsp;and&nbsp;Investor Relations&nbsp;pages on its website,&nbsp;Overstock.com. O, Overstock.com,&nbsp;<a href="http://o.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">O.com</a>, Club O, and Worldstock are registered trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Other service marks, trademarks, and trade names that may be referred to herein are the property of their respective owners. About Medici Ventures Launched in 2014,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediciventures.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Medici Ventures</a>&nbsp;was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Overstock.com, Inc. created to leverage blockchain technology to solve real-world problems with transparent, efficient, and secure solutions. It is now a limited partnership managed by Pelion MV GP, L.L.C. Overstock.com, Inc. is the sole limited partner. Medici Ventures’ companies are introducing blockchain technology to industries including identity, land governance, money and banking, capital markets, supply chain, and voting. About Pelion Venture Partners Pelion is an early-stage technology venture capital firm with a national track record of investing in software-based businesses that manage the exponential growth in the movement of information, or “bits,” across wired and wireless networks. Founded in 1986, Pelion has been a partner to leading technology innovators CloudFlare, Fusion-io, MX Logic, RedHat, and Riverbed. More at&nbsp;<a href="https://pelionvp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">www.pelionvp.com</a>. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including but not limited to statements regarding expectations with respect to the performance of Pelion and the Fund. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, which was filed with the SEC on February 26, 2021, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC. Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.overstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/overstock-closes-transaction-pelion-venture-partners-oversee/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(66, 139, 202); background-color: transparent;">Read the press release on Overstock</a>