Kevin Vakil

We continue to see fintechs launch their own chains. First Circle with Arc. Now Tempo from Stripe. In today's webinar, folks asked, "Do we really need another payments chain?" The answer depends on where you are in your journey. At Dynamic, we’ve seen this play out across every type of builder (fintechs to consumer apps to onchain infra teams). The truth is: there is no single “right” chain. There are only tradeoffs. - L1s (like Stripe building its own): Maximum control, but higher setup fees. You own the infrastructure and the overhead. - L2s & rollups (like Robinhood's choice): More agile, but built on shared foundations. Optimized public chains (Solana, Stellar, Spark, etc.): Fast, cost-efficient, and ready to go. They're great for teams that want to launch quickly without reinventing the wheel. My recommendation: Start with what’s performant and proven. Chains like Solana Foundation, Stellar Development Foundation, and Lightspark get you to market fast. Once you’ve found product-market fit and scale, then revisit whether spinning up your own chain makes sense. – 🔁 Share this post if you found it helpful. ➕ Follow me (Itai Turbahn) for more posts on stablecoins and crypto.

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Great conversations at our WillowTree Ventures dinner with leaders across fintech and AI. A few themes stood out strongly: enterprises are leaning into AI for real efficiency gains, product and engineering orgs still set the agenda, and the whitespace in “boring” industries is wider than most people assume. It’s clear that the next breakout companies in AI for financial services won’t come from the obvious places. Thanks to everyone who joined - excited to keep working alongside founders building in these non-obvious, high-impact wedges.

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The first Builders episode by Kleiner Perkins is out now, featuring Adam Swiecicki and myself Really enjoyed the chance to go deeper on what finance actually looks like day to day at Glean, and to hear how the finance org at Rippling approaches similar decisions at scale. Big thanks to Josh Coyne and Leigh Marie Braswell for having us and for creating space for an operator-level conversation! Link to full episode in comments:

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Dayna Grayson is a leading VC who has “sat in every chair” at a young age. She founded Construct Capital with Rachel Holt, an early leader at Uber. Together, they are tackling the digitization of industry. Dayna will discuss macro trends, what it takes to be a founder, and the potential for AI. She is one of the few who have successfully blended a career of operations and investing.  Check out our discussion at: https://lnkd.in/eYBUGjbW #leadershipdevelopment

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Essential services are under more strain and complexity than ever—but most still operate with limited visibility, reacting to failure instead of anticipating it. At BrightAI, we’re changing that. With $51M in Series A funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Inspired Capital, we’re scaling Physical AI to bring real-time observability to the physical world—so essential services can act before things go wrong, not after. We’ve spent the past few years proving what’s possible—now it’s time to scale. Thanks to Dina Bass for the thoughtful writeup in @Bloomberg: https://lnkd.in/gisEct4G Grateful to Upfront Ventures—and especially our board member Nick Kim—for being such thoughtful, steady partners in this work, and to BoxGroup, Marlinspike, and Rsquared VC for their participation in this round. Because when the systems that support daily life run with preventative monitoring, everything else grows stronger.

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In our 4th annual People Survey, we dove into how AI is impacting productivity, hiring, team structure, and more. It's early days, but there is already a massive shift in how startups operate. Check out our discussion of the findings 👇

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Last year’s Series A was a milestone, but it wasn’t a stopping point. As proof that we’ve only been moving faster than before, I’m excited to share that Numeric raised a $51M Series B, led by investors like IVP, Menlo Ventures, Founders Fund, and more. Over the past year, we've launched AI-powered flux analysis that accountants actually trust, built out cash management tooling, and worked with some of the best finance teams in the industry. This raise funds what’s next: more AI agent capabilities, building a strong finance data layer, and expanding the team. If you're interested in working on hard problems in finance infrastructure, let's talk. More on the round: https://lnkd.in/gvkWqiDx

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I had the privilege to speak at the 2025 Khosla Ventures CEO Summit - right after Sam Altman (a tough act to follow). My talk: Growth Lessons that Matter. I shared four critical lessons on building durable, compounding growth, which I’ve seen separate good companies from consequential ones: [1] Fixing weak brand positioning so the story compounds as fast as the product. [2] Measuring product-market fit with retention and PMF scoring, not vanity metrics. [3] Building a multichannel growth engine that scales with time. [4] Recruiting growth leaders who understand system design, not just channels. Grateful to everyone who joined and for the conversations sparked afterward. I'm excited to keep learning (and unlearning) alongside this community of builders. 🎥Full talk + write-up here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ez7xZ_9D

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This really resonates. When Samuel Giraldo Hoyos, Rodrigo Burgos and I launched Aloi, we weren’t tax ops insiders—and that was the point. Fresh eyes let us challenge the “this is just how it works” mindset: manual workflows, fragmented data, reactive compliance. We’re rebuilding tax ops with an AI-first approach so large enterprises can become exponentially better at compliance, control, and audit defensibility. Rene Arturo Díaz García Ian Yoav Escobar #TaxOps #EnterpriseAI #FinanceOps #Compliance #Automation

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Ditch the Buzzwords: Investor Insights on Real Innovation, Expertise, and Traction for Business Success The latest insights from TechCrunch Disrupt’s investor panel hit home for anyone navigating competitive industries, not just in startups. Cut through the noise: if you are tempted to load your pitch or strategy with flashy buzzwords, think twice. Real innovation speaks for itself, as domain expertise and execution matter far more than surface level jargon. Three key expectations stood out. First, is there a truly significant problem and market opportunity? Investors (and strategic partners) don’t want small solutions, they want to see potential for transformative, scalable impact. Second, what makes you or your team uniquely qualified to succeed? In crowded markets, differentiation is not optional; it’s a competitive necessity. Third, validation: Whether through revenue, customer feedback, or any concrete proof, credibility is earned by showing real world traction. This thinking extends well past startup fundraising. In mature industries, such as financial process optimization, real differentiation comes from expertly tackling complex problems with the right people and right tools. It’s not just about being better it’s about enabling new and more efficient ways of working, and being honest about where you sit relative to your competitors. Different beats better. Finally, focus is critical, build your product and refine your core offering relentlessly. Stay connected to peers, keep learning, and don’t lose sight of the fundamentals: solving valuable problems, demonstrating expertise, and generating tangible results. #ThoughtLeadership #StartupStrategy #BusinessGrowth #Innovation #ProductDevelopment

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Leadership in 2025: Designing for Alignment, Not Control Many leaders continue to confuse alignment with control, leading to over-engineered processes and unnecessary layers of oversight that hinder momentum. The most effective leaders, including those at TPG, prioritize alignment around mission and outcomes. When the vision is clear and metrics are established, teams require space rather than micromanagement. This environment fosters creativity and accelerates execution. A recent article in Harvard Business Review emphasizes that the strongest organizations thrive not on tighter control, but on cultivating systems of trust and alignment that promote speed and resilience. Today’s leadership is about removing friction, clarifying communication, and trusting the systems in place. #Leadership #Alignment #StrategicOps #TPG #CapitalEfficiency

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Building a startup is hard. It is especially hard in a country like Nigeria, where the ecosystem is yet to mature, and there are still many challenges to navigate. It is confusing, lonely, and full of uncertain decisions. Founders, especially early-stage founders, need as much support as they can get. Not “inspire to perspire” posts, but practical support on hiring, operations, funding, customer research, and navigating the regulatory landscape. Too many founders are surrounded by noise, surface-level advice, and generic content that does not reflect their current realities. What they need is a community that understands exactly what they are going through and can offer context that is immediately useful. Sierra Collective exists to be that community. A space where founders learn from one another’s live experiences and shorten the painful trial and error that usually defines the early stages of building. At Sierra, we believe that the most valuable support comes from those who are active in the trenches, navigating the same obstacles. If you are an early-stage founder, you should join the Sierra Collective. You do not have to figure everything out alone. As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Join Sierra: https://lnkd.in/d-Nzmtkq

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San Francisco’s tech scene is evolving rapidly, but with growth comes complexity. It’s a city where passion meets pressure, where innovation walks hand in hand with burnout. As founders and leaders, it’s crucial to rethink how we balance wealth creation with well-being. Building a company on sleepless nights isn’t sustainable. Let’s champion startup cultures that celebrate mental health as fiercely as market share. Because true success is holistic. #HealthInTech #StartupCulture #SanFrancisco #MentalHealthMatters #WealthAndWellness #EntrepreneurLife #Innovation

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Heading to the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit this week with the Corvian team. One thing is becoming increasingly clear across agriculture. The era of pilots is ending. Enterprises are now asking a different question. How do we operationalize data, AI, and agronomy across thousands or even millions of acres in ways that produce measurable financial and sustainability outcomes? That is where the Corvian team is focused. We are turning field data and agronomy signals into decision infrastructure for agribusiness leaders, connecting what happens in the field with decisions made across the enterprise. Looking forward to the conversations ahead in San Francisco. If you are attending, it would be great to connect.

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Restaurants like Lazy Dog and Starbird are using Loop AI's agents to grow ~10%, and we’re proud to announce today Anand T. and team have raised a $14M Series A to continue serving these brands and hundreds more. Loop is equipping restaurants with the essential back office tools they need to stay on top of growing demand for delivery and any future industry conditions. Thank you Anand for trusting Base10 Partners early and making us part of this journey with you—so much ahead! https://lnkd.in/gmPqwyfa

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Anthropic announced a significant leadership restructuring, moving Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger from Chief Product Officer to co-lead its Labs incubator alongside Ben Mann. Ami Vora, who joined in late 2025 from senior product roles at Faire, WhatsApp, and Facebook, becomes the new CPO to scale Claude across enterprise and consumer markets. ∙ Builder over strategist: Krieger explicitly chose “hands-on frontier building” over managing product strategy, signaling that execution speed now trumps organizational oversight in the AI race ∙ Labs as competitive moat: The incubator already produced Claude Code ($1B ARR in 6 months) and MCP (100M monthly downloads), proving experimental product velocity drives commercial outcomes ∙ Structural separation: Vora handles scaling and enterprise; Labs handles frontier experimentation—a dual-track model separating “discover” from “deliver” ∙ Doubling down literally: Labs team will 2x headcount in six months, indicating substantial resource reallocation toward rapid prototyping ∙ Revenue context: This comes as Anthropic’s run-rate exploded from $1B (early 2025) to around f $7B (October 2025), with $9B year-end targets The move reflects a broader industry pattern: as model capabilities advance faster than organizations can adapt, competitive advantage shifts from strategic positioning to execution velocity. Anthropic is betting that incubating experimental products at the research frontier, not polishing interfaces, determines who wins the next AI phase.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ https://lnkd.in/dwm-FSX6

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