David Hammer

🚨NEW EPISODE: Recorded live at FUTURE TITANS 2026 - Jeff Perry of Carta sat down with the iconic Seth Levine, co-founder of Foundry. Seth has been in venture for 25 years, built Foundry from scratch as an emerging manager himself, and has backed about 50 emerging manager funds through his fund of funds. He has genuinely seen every side of this table. They went deep on building Foundry, why VCs are in the influence business, not the decision business, and why the concentration problem in venture is not only bad for LPs, but also for the innovation ecosystem overall. And why Seth's new book, Capital Evolution, is so important for the future of America. 🎧 Links to listen... Apple: https://lnkd.in/ehQUQ2EM Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eU4FExpg

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I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb

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30+ VCs Backing Marketplace Startups Below is a cross-stage, cross-sector mix of firms that back marketplace and platform companies early and support them as they grow. Consumer and platform investors Upfront Ventures 1752vc (Formerly Pegasus) BAM Ventures Forerunner Brand Foundry Ventures Maveron BoxGroup Greycroft Alumni Ventures Marketplace natives and network effects specialists FJ Labs NFX Great Oaks Venture Capital RiverPark Ventures Left Lane Capital First Round Capital Lerer Hippeau Precursor Ventures Seed partners building two-sided platforms early Founder Collective NextView Ventures Uncork Capital Slow Ventures Bling Capital Gaingels Initialized Capital Felicis Multi-stage firms backing marketplace winners at scale Accel Bessemer Venture Partners Lightspeed General Catalyst New Enterprise Associates (NEA) Kleiner Perkins Bain Capital Ventures (BCV) Founders Fund

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💥 Metropolis Technologies Raises $𝟭.𝟲𝗕 💥 Funding comes in 2 rounds: $500M equity round led by LionTree and $1.1B from J.P. Morgan. Metropolis is now 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 $𝟱𝗕. With the fresh funding, the plan is to take their "recognition and payment-automation" tech beyond parking assets. This would include retail stores, drive-throughs, gas stations, hotels and partnerships with real estate/asset owner. Congrats to Alex Israel, Peter Fisher, Courtney Fukuda, Travis Kell, Ryan Hunt,Chris Sherman, Robert Bland, Paul Rooney, Lookman Olusanya and the rest of the Metropolis family. #fundraise #parkinginvestment #parking #parkingindustry #metropolois Parking Today Media Parking Network B.V. National Parking Association International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI) Tim Maloney Advisory Tim Maloney Reservations Lab

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🚨 Founders: If you're not exploring cross-industry alliances, you're playing the wrong game. Some of the biggest breakout companies didn’t scale by outspending the competition they scaled by out-partnering them. 🚀 Think Figma embedding into dev workflows. 🚀 Calendly riding the rails of Zoom and Salesforce. 🚀 Zapier integrating with Trello and Slack before raising big money. 💡 The playbook? Fuse your solution with another industry's infrastructure and unlock distribution, data, or demand without burning capital. Cross-industry alliances do 3 things: 1. Collapse time by borrowing someone else’s audience. 2. Unlock non-obvious use cases that give you strategic moats. 3. Increase your valuation before the first funding conversation. If you're a startup founder and you’re stuck thinking, “We need capital to grow,” you’re asking the wrong question. Ask instead: 👉 “Who’s already serving my customer in a different way and how do we win together?” That’s how exponential growth actually happens. 💬 Founders: Which alliance would double your reach in 90 days? #Startups #GrowthStrategy #VC #EarlyStage #FounderTips #Platform #AI

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Thrilled to announce that Together Fund is investing in Sentra, alongside a16z speedrun! You track results in Jira. Decisions in Notion. Conversations in Slack. But the reasoning, the debates, trade-offs, and context behind why you chose A over B, disappears into what we call "Dark Matter." A decision made in March looks insane by July because no one remembers the constraints that made it smart. I lived this firsthand at Twitter scaling from 800 to 8,000 employees, and at Google while launching AI Overviews to billions at planet scale. The problem isn't process. Process is compensation for something deeper: organizational amnesia. An organization’s "Systems of Record" doesn’t solve this, they encode it. They store what happened, never why. That's why we are investing in Sentra. Sentra is the always-on collective memory that eliminates organizational amnesia by maintaining accurate context for all members and agents, functioning as an operational nervous system. It connects to every channel where work happens, meetings, Slack, email, code commits, docs, calendars, and treats them not as artifacts to search, but as living signals to synthesize. The fleeting and the permanent, unified into a memory that understands. The founding team is built for this: - Jae Gwan Park (CEO): Product-first founder, memory systems research at UofT and MIT - Ashwin Gopinath (CSO): Former MIT professor, created "Reflexion" (NeurIPS 2023), agents that learn from mistakes, 2x founder - Andrey Starenky (CTO): Early Vapi engineer, ex-IBM, built to process enterprise-scale data firehose Together is an operator-led fund. We invest in problems we've lived. This is one of them. Many congrats Jae, Ashwin and Andrey, we are so excited to partner with you! Read the full thesis: https://lnkd.in/gixj9cE4 Book a demo: https://www.sentra.app/ #OrganizationalMemory #AI #Sentra #TogetherFund #a16z #ContextGraphs

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NYC is losing young technical founders to SF — and it’s not about vibes. It’s about cost of entry. SF has far more entry infrastructure than NYC: i.e. the housing, community, and early support (financial and otherwise) that lets founders start building before they raise capital. This is widening the gap between the two cities' tech sectors. We are specifically calling for ideas (and hopefully action) to address NYC’s dearth of hacker houses: physical spaces that combine housing, workspace, community, and early peer support. I’m convinced that seeding hacker houses, if done right, is a low-cost, high-impact way to attract more young technical founders to NYC — and critically, something this community can actually do. And we should. The data is stark. Venture investment in NYC is ~19% of SF’s total — the lowest since 2017 — and the biggest, most innovative companies (especially in AI) are overwhelmingly being built in San Francisco. People who want to be entrepreneurs tend to work where those companies are. Unsurprisingly, many students and young builders assume they must go west. But do they actually want to — or is it just easier to get started there? I spent significant time in the Bay last year, and one difference stood out immediately: SF is dense with hacker houses and founder residences that help people get from 0→1. These resources are especially critical for recent grads and first-time founders who might lack capital or built-in networks. NYC may have long-term pull, but at the earliest stage, higher upfront costs and friction (recent Economist data suggests ~50% higher rents than SF) push many founders away. Hacker houses may sound anachronistic, but they’re real centers of gravity. We estimate SF has at least ~10x more active hacker houses than NYC, and that these houses have helped foster hundreds of billions of dollars in market value. I’m an NYC tech evangelist. I’ve worked on tech ecosystem development at New York City Economic Development Corporation, helped design national innovation programs for the Obama White House, and now invest in early-stage companies as a GP at Max Ventures. From a dollars-to-impact perspective, seeding hacker houses in NYC is one of the most efficient levers the city can pull. We wrote an overview doc (linked below) that explores this concept — and we'd welcome feedback from the NYC tech community. We are also hosting a small series of conversations — starting with a dinner in February co-hosted with Tech:NYC, Keel (Brent J. Smith), Company Ventures and Inspired Capital — to bring together leaders across tech, real estate, and policy. 👉 If you’re a founder, operator, VC, student, or have built / lived in a hacker house: • Does this resonate? • What would make this work in NYC? • Who’s already doing something adjacent we should talk to? Would love to connect if you’re interested in contributing or joining the conversation.

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Two trends in fundraising that I’m seeing on a daily basis: 1/ The "we'll monetize later" era for infrastructure startups is dead "We'll figure out revenue once we have users" / "we're focused on adoption first"/ "monetization comes later" This worked in 2021. It doesn't work now. Today’s market won’t reward research organizations or companies that believe in perfection over getting it in users' hands. If you don't have a clear path to revenue… you won't get funded. period. VCs aren't writing checks hoping you'll figure it out later. 2/ "Vibe ARR" is everywhere Remember Jasper? hyper growth, but the model companies ate them alive. We're seeing this again. Companies growing really quickly on point-in-time technology that isn't defensible These companies look amazing on paper. Growth charts going up and to the right. But if you think models are getting better and becoming platform companies, many solutions become obsolete. 

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Lessons from YC: Culture Isn’t a Slide Deck YC didn’t just change how we built products. It changed how we worked together. Before YC, “culture” was something we’d figure out later. We thought it meant perks, team dinners, or a list of values on the wall. But inside YC, culture meant one thing: how fast your team can move without breaking. That’s when it clicked. Culture isn’t what you say. It’s what you tolerate. If someone cuts corners and you let it slide, that’s your culture. If someone owns their mistake and you celebrate it, that’s your culture. We started treating culture like product — build, test, iterate. That's when we realized small habits create the real DNA: how you communicate under pressure, how you make decisions, how you handle bad days. YC pushed us to grow up as a team, not just as founders. Because a product might attract customers but culture is what keeps them.

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So yeah – Capital One is acquiring Brex. Big number. Loud headlines. But the interesting part isn’t the card. Capital One didn’t buy a startup-friendly corporate card. They bought infrastructure. Brex quietly moved from “cards for startups” to something much closer to a horizontal spend + payments layer that actually plugs into real finance teams, real ERPs, real controls. That’s the asset. A product banks can distribute without rebuilding it from scratch. Inside the perimeter. On their rails. With their balance sheet. Now compare that to Ramp. Same market. Similar surface area. Very different outcomes (so far). Ramp is still priced as a growth company chasing category ownership. Brex is priced as a product that a bank can absorb. Neither is “wrong” – but only one of those is immediately acquirable. And yes, the irony is strong: Ramp’s founders previously sold a company to Capital One. You really couldn’t script it better. After closing Discover, Capital One now has: – a card network – distribution – underwriting – and a modern spend platform At some point you stop partnering and start owning. $12.3B → $5.15B looks rough if you freeze the chart in 2022. But this is still a real outcome for the founders, the team, and early believers. Brex looked written off more than once. Instead, it pulled off a quiet comeback and a very bankable exit. Guess you can’t Brex the laws of finance forever, eventually you have to Capital One-solid footing. ¯\(ツ)/¯

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Zero funding. Zero plan. Zero IP. One original product idea.  But your buddy still expects cofounder-level equity. Most cap table disasters start with guilt, not greed: “Am I ripping off my "cofounder" if I offer 1-3% equity?” Someone asked me this question years ago. Here’s their situation and what I advised: - Friend had the original product idea. - Sees himself as advisor or early employee. - Brings no funding, no plan, no intellectual property. Just the idea. The founder is asking: "Do I owe him equity?" Here's what I told him: Having the idea doesn't make you a cofounder. Ideas are cheap. Execution is everything. If he didn't bring: - A plan to execute - Funding to start - Intellectual property to build Then you don't "owe" him anything. But here's the relationship reality: Do the right thing anyway. Ask him what he thinks he should receive. Remind him that ideas alone don't translate to execution vision. If he asks for something reasonable,  give it to him. Why? Because every point of equity you give now  prevents future relationship disasters. 1-2% equity as goodwill costs you nothing today. But relationship resentment can costs you a lot down the road. Even if this person isn’t your close friend.  Reputational harm and resentment can travel in interesting ways. Be mindful how you communicate. ”Just business” never feels like “just business.” Especially amongst friends and family. Personalities are tricky things.  To their credit, angels and VCs understand that throwing  a couple points at the idea person. Especially if he's contributing some time and money. Even more if he's your first product tester. The real question is: "What's this relationship worth?" Ideas are worthless. Execution partnerships are priceless. If he transitions into actual contribution,  that 1-3% becomes a good investment, potentially. If he doesn't, it's cheap insurance against drama. Protect the relationship. Give the equity. Now most of you will say 1% - 3%?  That is insane for a co-founder title. Maybe. And…most friends and family will not understand  the nature of startup percentages (1%?! why not 15%?). Good point. Also likely true. And…if you’re raising VC money  won’t a 3% co-founder raise massive red flags? Again, solid point. All three of the above factors probably warrant   an entire post worth of dissection. Though in this specific high level scenario,  I’d say 1%-3% makes sense. What do you think?

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A Founders Guide to The Long Build™ - Physical AI Thesis Part III This one is for the builders. In this final post, my partner Will Porteous and I along with insights from builders in the trenches and investors who play the long game share our guide for founders building intelligence in the real world. A few core takeaways: • Sim before steel: Runway is precious, model the system behavior • Capital intensity is not the enemy — misaligned capital is • Build complete solutions before you talk platform • Hardware opens the door, software wins the room • Trust is earned through resilience, not hype

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Figma files for an IPO, plans to trade on the NYSE under the ticker FIG, and reports Q1 revenue up 46% YoY to $228.2M and net income up 233% YoY to $44.9M 

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The best founders don’t just build products; they reframe the problem. Ryan Alshak has done exactly that with Laurel - turning time from a background task into a source of insight, alignment, and leverage. IVP is leading Laurel's Series C to help build the system of record for how work actually happens. Read more from Allie Garfinkle: https://lnkd.in/gweNiwsc

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With the launch of Claude Co-Work (and tools like it), I feel like every week in 2025 carries the weight of a decade. Some thoughts: 1. The technology is genuinely different this time. Claude Co-Work isn't an incremental improvement — it's a 100x leap over what existed 12 months ago. If you haven't used it yet, stop what you're doing. 2. Markets. Software and advisory businesses face an existential reset .Not decline. Reset. Consulting, legal, accounting, financial advisory — these industries aren't disappearing, but they're heading toward 80% fewer people doing the same work. KPMG just told auditors to cut costs by 50%. This is the beginning, not the exception. 3. Real-world industries aren't safe either — they're just next. Industrials, energy, consumer goods, travel all have a natural (physical) moat. But consumer brands being built today are doing it with 80-90% less headcount than their predecessors. Any company older than 6 months that isn't adapting is already behind. Jack Dorsey's Block cutting 50% of its workforce despite strong growth is a preview, not an outlier. 4. The new bottleneck is energy, not labor. Once labor becomes abundant and cheap, the constraint shifts. Whoever can produce energy at scale and reasonable cost will have the most important infrastructure asset of the next 20 years. 5. The job market is being structurally changed for good and this is not a minor adjustment. Bankers, lawyers, accountants, software engineers — some roles will survive the way painters survived the printing press. Most won't. The talent that moves fastest onto new tools will capture a disproportionate share of the upside. We're entering a period of massive productivity unlocks and equally massive collateral damage. The future is bright. The transition is not going to be comfortable. Go test out some of those new tools.

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The difference between Founders and CEOs. Founders build a product. CEOs build a team. Founders solve problems. CEOs enable others to. Founders chase opportunities. CEOs build momentum. Founders are scrappy. CEOs are strategic. Founders jump in. CEOs zoom out. Founders have a vision. CEOs have a plan. Founders speak first. CEOs ask first. This shift in mindset takes you from doing to scaling. #FoundertoCEO #Leadership #Scaling #GrowthMindset #TeamBuilding

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What does it take to create speed in a regulated industry? For Allie Carey, Chief Strategy Officer at SEI, it meant designing a system that could turn hundreds of ideas into real ventures (without adding chaos). Over three years, she: • Built a culture of experimentation across SEI. • Launched a company-wide innovation contest (with real stakes). • Narrowed 30 ideas down to 10 pitches, to 2 experiments, to 1 live business. • Took one idea from concept to paying customers in just 18 months. We tried something new this week on Beyond The Core and built her full playbook live. It’s how SEI increased decision speed, improved throughput, and built a pipeline of repeatable ventures. Catch the full episode, now live wherever you get your podcasts, and download the playbook at https://lnkd.in/gPRvAK_n

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Most startups bolt AI onto old products. Ravenna reimagined the entire workflow.    When we first met Taylor Halliday and Kevin Coleman, it was clear they weren’t just chasing the hype cycle. They were pairing AI-native architecture with deep founder-market fit, and rebuilding how internal ops work — from first principles.   Their new company, Ravenna, is going after a $160B+ market dominated by legacy players. But instead of being intimidated by incumbents, they got focused, making some smart moves that more early-stage teams should consider: 🧠 Speak with 30+ customers before writing a line of code 📌 Define a clear ICP and pain points ⚙️ Build natively for Slack — where work gets done and support actually happens 🔄 Prioritize automation, iteration, and real workflow transformation 👀 Stayed radically transparent with early customers, teammates and investors   At Madrona, we love backing teams that combine ambition with discipline — and Kevin and Taylor are doing just that. In this episode of Founded & Funded, we talk through their journey, what they’d do differently the second time around, and how they’re building a durable, agentic platform for internal support.   If you're a founder building in #AI, #SaaS, or ops — this conversation is full of lessons worth hearing. Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dS5u5E95 Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/4ju2Cml

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