Meka Asonye
@BigMekaStyle
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630
Partner @Firstround . Ex- @Stripe , @mixpanel , Bain, and @CleGuardians . Bears Fan 🏈, amateur golfer 🏌🏾♂️, pilot 🛩.
San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2010
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Pinned Tweet
1/ PUMPED to finally announce that I've officially joined
@firstround
as a Partner. I couldn't have imagined this when I joined their Angel Track program a few years ago, but now I'm on the team that's laser focused on helping Day 1 founders.
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I've issued 5 term sheets and 4 of the teams have a female founder. If you think there's a pipeline issue, you aren't looking hard enough. 👀
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Today, I spent time with 5
@stripe
alums -- 3 founders and 2 in VC. They are all *insanely* talented. Choose your employer wisely.
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We're having our first kid in 24-48 hours 👶🏾. Advice? Words of warning? What stupid rookie parent shit should I not do? HELPPPPPPPPPPPPP!
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🌶️Hot take: Too many leaders get stuck spending all their time trying to make a C player a B player, rather than keeping their A players happy, challenged, and motivated. Focus your energy on excellence, not mediocrity.
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3 days into a NYC trip, I can confirm we're officially back. Activate Roaring 20s.
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Hot take: EWR > JFK all day. I’d even almost consider a layover to avoid JFK traffic.
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Stripe Fam: Hit me up if you are excited about early stage startups. We’ve got a ton of portfolio companies actively hiring. Today sucks, tomorrow will be better.
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People ask where my dealflow is from. I’ve come to realize it’s a function of helping others when I had nothing to gain. Relationships date back to college days. You don’t realize it at the time but you almost always cross paths with ppl again. Treat everyone with respect ❤️
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1/ Some quick reflections -- 90 days and 3 investments into a hopefully decades long career
@firstround
. Mileage may vary, but hopefully applicable to founders, operators, and investors. 🧵 👇
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I know everyone is preaching that SF is dead and fully distributed is the future. 100% disagree. Spent the last 3 evenings with founders, co-workers, and angels. Excited for water cooler chat, hugs, IRL meals, serendipity and more. TAKE ME BACK TO THE OFFICE!
#yayscience
💉
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1/ On the heels of the news about my new gig, the
@firstround
Review team asked me to share some GTM lessons for founders. While there are stories from my Stripe days, I also reached out to the best leaders I know . Hope it's a helpful read:
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Wrapped up 2 years at First Round, excited for the next 10!🚀 Sharing a few observations from the last couple of years:
1/ VCs are in the business of believing. Lucky to work with teams like
@getpocus
,
@getLogicLoop
,
@ComposerTrade
,
@GuideDotCo
,
@diversioglobal
,
@Prepared_HQ
,…
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My favorite thing is when you text someone for a reference and the response is "call me" or they literally call you immediately. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
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The biggest hack for founder-led selling that too many people forget about: unlocking language-market fit. When you figure out the exact words to explain your product or service to prospective customers in a way that makes them go “wait, that’s EXACTLY what I’m looking for”…
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Looking for our next great teammate🙌🏾. HMU if you have Dennis Rodman 🐛 vibes (e.g. Do anything for the team, hustle to the max, don't take yourself too seriously)
We're hiring a Chief of Staff in San Francisco! We're looking for a curious and intuitive person to be the trusted right-hand of our newest
@firstround
Partner,
@BigMekaStyle
.
Apply here (or help us spread the word) ⬇️
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What is the late 30 / 40s equivalent of weddings? I'm getting serious anxiety realizing so many of close friends wont travel to the same town 5-10 times a year to hang/party/dance. Or I'm just realizing i'm getting old.
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I *love* Angel Track. It's the reason a 1st generation 🇳🇬kid from the Chicago suburbs found his way into the wild world of VC. We're looking for someone special to take the program to the next level. Come join us :)
We're hiring our first-ever GM to lead Angel Track!
After 8 cohorts & welcoming over 240 incredible founders & operators into our community of angel investors, we're ready to raise the ambitions of Angel Track. That's where you come in.
Learn more ⬇️
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1/ Celebrating 1 year as a Partner at
@firstround
this week! I got to sit down with
@brettberson
to discuss what I’ve learned over the course of the last year and what surprised me most about becoming a full-time investor. 🧵
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1/ One of my first investments as a partner at
@firstround
just hit an incredible milestone! After leading
@getpocus
’s seed round last year, they’ve just announced an additional $23M in funding to transform how GTM teams use data to drive revenue 💰
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I owe my career in Venture to a sales gig I took on a whim
@stripe
. I think the primary jobs in tech are building a product and getting it in the hands of customers. If you're non technical, def consider the sales route :)
Introducing Sales Development Track—a tailored course & community for making a career pivot into tech sales. We’ll cover the fundamentals of sales development with our own GTM team, plus experts from
@stripe
,
@NotionHQ
,
@Greenhouse
& more.
Apply by 10/5:
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📣 Come work with me at
@firstround
! I’m hiring someone to fill
@aparas23
's shoes as my Chief of Staff. The CoS role is one of the best springboards to a career in venture. Learn more about the role and how to apply here:
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Feeling extra lucky today to be reunited with
@cjc
at
@firstround
after spending years together at
@stripe
, overlapping in several investments, and sharing an Angel Track cohort. LFG 🚀
📣 After spending 12 years at startups like
@stripe
&
@notionhq
, I’ve joined
@firstround
as a partner! I knew I wanted to make supporting founders my life's work and am thrilled I get to do that as part of an incredible team. Sharing more on that... 1/7
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📢 Founder PSA: DON'T hide the puck. The best founders proactively bring up big concerns and address it head on. Nothing tells me a business is going to fail like a founder who believes they have 0 competitors, $100 trillion TAM, and 90%+ gross margins. Any other PSAs to add? 👇
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I wonder how many people in Early Stage Tech are googling FCF formula for the 1st time? 🤔
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My orthopedist just read my hip x-rays and said "wow, I thought these scans were for a 55 y/o". 👴🏾
@celinehalioua
, can I volunteer my body for human trials of anti-aging potion?
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Nerding out this week at airplane camp 🥸. The sim is so realistic, I was *actually* sweating during my emergency procedures. 🥵
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Your job as a CEO is to build fire departments, not put out fires. If you’re regularly putting out fires yourself, focus your time on how to enable others on your team to put out the fires." Can't-miss lessons from
@SamCorcos
on
@firstround
Review:
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I’m so pumped to share that
@letshighlight
just raised an $18M Series A 🚀🚀
They were one of my investments in 2022 and, since then, have tested thousands of products, signed on some pretty big-name customers and are well on their way to making SaaS-powered product testing…
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5/ I share more about my story and what I look for in founding teams here. If you're building something (or even thinking about building something), would love to talk! Email me at meka dot asonye at first round dot com
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2/ Adding to the list of things I couldn't imagine when I started my career, today I'm in
@Forbes
(no mom, I’m still NOT a doctor). Grateful to
@alexrkonrad
for chatting with me and
@btrenchard
as we shared the story behind how I came to join
@firstround
.
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After coaching a lot of early-stage startups on their sales motions, here are the most common mistakes I’ve seen founders make:
1/ Moving to enterprise before they're ready. Enterprise sounds sexy because you can land one logo and it can all of a sudden translate into a…
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Exciting news! Applications are now open for the 14th cohort of
@firstround
Fast Track 🎉 If you're looking to take your career to the next level (or help others level up) don't miss this opportunity! Learn more here:
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Angel investing was the stepping stone into my current role at First Round Capital. If you’re looking to get started with writing your own checks, here are some of the learnings I wish I knew from Day One:
1/ Know who you are. The best founders will have dozens of angels who…
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Yes. We. Do. 🙋🏾♂️✊🏾
“I often quote Sally Ride, who said, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ Since there aren’t a lot of Black people in technology, that lack of representation can cause us to question, ‘Do I really have a place here?’” says eng leader
@anjuan
Simmons.
📰:
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Angel Track gave me my start in angel investing. 10/10 recommend :) 😀
It's one of my favorite times of the year: opening up applications for
@firstround
Angel Track.
We’re putting together a cohort of experienced angels looking to level up in 2023, and would love help getting the word out. More on why you should join below:
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I thought I was a branding expert, until a friend pointed out that I hadn't *yet* try to make Mekaverse a thing. 🤔
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I've been asked a few times how a kid from the midwest whose first gig was in baseball ended up as a partner
@firstround
. Answer:
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🌉 Bay Area folks —
@jaltma
and I are hosting a dinner 🍝 for very early founders and operators to share ideas 💡 and collectively learn 🧠 from each other. If you are a future founder or founder at the pre-seed stage and are interested in joining please fill out this form:…
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So PUMPED to finally share that
@LizWessel
has joined
@FirstRound
as our newest Partner 🚀🚀🚀 Liz is one of those exceptional people who puts 1000% of her time, heart and energy into what she does, and we are extremely lucky to have her as part of our partnership :)…
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1/ THRILLED to announce
@diversioglobal
's Series A led by
@firstround
🤩 Here’s why we’re so excited about their vision to support D&I goals with data and actionable insights 👇🏾
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In honor of
@Prepared_HQ
's $16M Series A milestone today, I want to share what the team’s pitch deck looked like when they reached out to
@firstround
in 2021 — and what about it made me want to invest.
1/ An urgent problem. The problem around the outdated systems that support…
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4/ I’m already deep into the work of helping technical and product oriented founders get to their first $1-2M in revenue — nailing ICPs, building conversion funnels, winning first customers, mentoring early sales hires, and upleveling execs leading large teams.
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@Suhail
Get to JFK / Newark. Then get on a plane to Chicago. Go to Lou's or Giordannos. There you will discover good pizza.
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Loved sharing my thoughts on angel investing, VC, and early stage sales with
@beondeck
and
@sam_kirschner
! Thanks so much for having me!
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Pumped to be part of this fireside chat with the
@stripe
fam on 2/23! I’ll be talking about seed rounds, the ever-changing fundraising environment and more. Register here👇🏾
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Am I the only one still watching Grey’s? I want to quit but it’s season EIGHTEEN. I can’t stop now right? 👩🏻⚕️
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One of the best things I learned at
@stripe
was how to be customer obsessed. An example: in the early days,
@patrickc
and
@collision
would have lunch with a random user every Friday. Some of the most valuable feedback came from those conversations and shaped the product.
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2/ 🤓I spend my days geeking out with ridiculously talented people. Founders have such infectious energy. I'm inspired by their ambitions. People are *literally* trying to change the world🌎. I'm so lucky to be doing this work. Find a job where you don't have the sunday scaries.
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3/ Huge thanks to those who've bet on and supported my career journey. 👀
@MarkShapiro
,
@jdewitt29
,
@chughesjohnson
, and
@amirmova
. My time at
@stripe
,
@mixpanel
,
@BainAlerts
, and the
@indians
all laid the foundation for this exciting next chapter.
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You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. One of my biggest regrets was not starting to angel invest earlier in my career. Angel track is a great launch pad 🚀. Get involved. TODAY!
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Excited to announce the application for
@firstround
’s fall Fast Track cohort! After now running this program 10 times, we’ve helped 2,000+ pairs forge impactful bonds. Apply by 8/1 to join our cohort of seasoned mentors and rising star mentees:
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The Angel Track community is 200 members strong now! Grateful to be a part of it. If you’re a founder who wants to get in front of more angel investors,
@firstround
just launched a common application. Fill it out or share it with founders you know!
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A campaign we can all get behind: ABOLISH FEES. No more extra for guac. Death to the Airbnb cleaning fee, 7% healthy SF, hotel “resort” fees in manhattan, and $100 “amenity fee” for a closed gym and parking I didn’t touch 😐. Fee-flation has to go. 👋🏿
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1/ 🔥FIRED UP for
@ComposerTrade
’s launch 🚀 today, especially since it's the first time I can share more about my investments
@firstround
. 🙂🙌🏿
Here's why we backed their vision to give retail investors access to hedge-fund like strategies:
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Come work with me. Well mostly
@tjack
, but sometimes me :).
📣 I'm looking for a new Chief of Staff to work alongside me at
@firstround
!
You can learn more about what I'm looking for in this critical role and how to apply here:
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I’ve been part of a few events this year where I shared my thoughts on how to raise a seed round in today’s environment. Here are a few takeaways that seemed to resonate with founders:
1/ Don’t hide the puck. The best founders proactively bring up big concerns and address it…
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One of the most COMMON mistakes I see founders make with their early sales hires: jumping to a commission-based compensation model too soon ❌ Why is this a mistake?
1/ I would never set a target where a significant chunk of someone's comp is at risk unless I have reasonable…
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7/ Don't get caught thinking about life as a zero-sum game where there are winners and losers. Invest in grow the market (vs take share) companies and people. Don't be transactional. Make short-term sacrifices for long-term gains 💪.
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I’ve heard hundreds of early-stage startup pitches, and I’ll say that there are THREE things that help founders get started on the right foot (you might be surprised by how basic some of these are):
1/ Share your deck for a pitch meeting in advance. It helps us come more…
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Last day of H1. Good luck to all my closers out there. Start fast, finish stronger! 💪🏾💰🚀
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8/ 🔋 Happy Memorial Day ya'll. If you can, use the long weekend for pampering and self-care. Take some time to decompress and recharge your batteries . You can find me --> ☀️🛩 🏌️♂️🚴 🍷 📚 .
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Everyone is talking about how much has changed over the last few years in early-stage investing, but I’d argue there’s more that HASN’T changed.
1/ Investors HAVEN’T stopped caring about founder-market fit. Especially in the early stages, VCs are still prioritizing founders who…
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5/ Bring your whole self to work -- every damn day. Be yourself. Let people see your weird and goofy side. Life is hard enough without trying to be what others want you to be. Don't try to win Best Actor 🏆.
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Overheard woman + best friends talking poolside about all the things her boyfriend “better not dare do” during their proposal. I see him in the locker room. Should I warn him or let him fail? 😬
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6/ ⏰ Time is your most scarce resource. Analyze how you are actually spending time and how you wish you were. The 80/20 rule usually applies. Find that 20 and get comfortable pushing back and saying no. FOMO was so 2010s.
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To the person who stole my Postmates Blue Barn salad on an 830-5 pm back to back zoom day. I'm not vindictive, but I hope you get food poisoning. 🤮
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The hardest part of being a salesperson/founder is the constant rejection. I know, I’ve been there. But here’s how I like to think about it: Every slap in the face makes you better. Ask yourself: What went wrong? What can I do better next time? That’s where the magic happens 💥
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Huge congrats to the
@thenaplatform
team on their $5M seed round! Messaging platforms like Slack are the present and future of customer communications, and Thena is making that experience better for everyone involved. Pumped to be part of the ride. LFG!!! 🚀…
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Super proud of all the big news coming out of
@K2SpaceCo
today:
— $4.5M in contracts landed with the DoD over the last few months
— Tripled team growth since March
— An additional $7 million raise in capital
Hard to believe that they only launched 14 months ago. Next…
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Confession: I love the motivational quotes from my
@onepeloton
rides. Going to try to share one every week because sharing = caring.
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Loved chatting with
@TonnaObaze
about my journey to tech and early stage investing. Appreciate y’all having me on the pod 🎤.
🎙 Check out the latest episode from our Angel Investor Series with
@BigMekaStyle
Asonye, Partner at
@firstround
. Meka provides guidance on how to learn angel investing, add value and think through transitions.
Apple:
Spotify:
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3/ 👯♀️Some say VC can be lonely. It doesn't have to be. Join a team where folks have your back - professionally and personally. Find people who will pump you up when you're doubting yourself AND give you shit when you think you've got it mostly figured out.
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Passionate about Product-led growth and looking to be an early startup employee (hurry and you can be
#1
😀)?! Join
@alexa_grabell
and the team at
@getpocus
. They are hiring!
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🔥 Hot take: I’ve torn my ACL, meniscus, achilles and had hip surgery (x2). Despite that, I can confirm that the Dentist sucks ways more than the Doctor / Surgeon. How can tiny little teeth torture you so much?
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I love America 🇺🇸. I can’t imagine *ever* living elsewhere but Europeans do pizza and summer properly. Americans pretend. Sad but true.
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It’s uncommon for first sales hires to work out…but why is that? The 3 most common mistakes I see startup founders make are:
1/ Hiring at the wrong level. Many founders hire someone who is too junior or too senior. From what I’m seen, the latter is more common. It’s easy to get…
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The tooling stack for sales leaders is broken. I haven't met one CRO who says their SFDC hygiene, pipeline forecasts, or lead scoring tools are actually working. Honored to be partnering with
@alexa_grabell
and
@getpocus
to transform product-led sales at modern SaaS companies.
1/ Excited to share a bit about the magic that we’re building at
@GetPocus
- the solution for product-led sales (PLS). First, a little background:
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My work at Stripe and Mixpanel exposed how hard it can be for companies to understand their financial data and draw insights. I <3 the approach Subscript is taking to help B2B SaaS cos like Flipcause get better insights from metrics. 1st case study live!
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Big news from
@benrollert
and the
@composertrade
team! Navigating investments (esp under current market conditions) is overwhelming & time-consuming, but they're changing that. I'm pumped to see the team take their platform to the next level. LFG! 🚀 💰📈
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Honored to be sharing the (virtual) stage with incredibly talented operator turned investors
@fffabulous
,
@DannieHerz
, and
@mallun
!
If you're an operator interested in investing, good news: The time you've spent learning about your customer is invaluable. Panelists will share what motivated their switch & how their operator background led to VC success. Join us at
#CartaEquitySummit
:
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1/ Investing isn’t rocket science…unless it is. Excited to welcome
@K2spaceco
out of stealth today with $8.5M of funding 🚀
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Less than a week left to apply for
@DormRoomFund
's Female Investor Track! Hear from the best in the space including
@aileenlee
,
@annimaniac
,
@hayleybay
and
@lilylyman
amongst more. Apply here 👉
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Get em
@thejo
! It’s been incredibly impressive watching the pace of product innovation from the
@AirbaseHQ
team. 🚀
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10/10 would recommend
Excited to open up spring applications for
@firstround
Angel Track — it’s back and better than ever. For the first time since our original launch, we’ve completely redesigned the curriculum from the ground up. Here are a few reflections after 6 cohorts.
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Proud to continue to support Nikil and the entire crew! Onwards and upwards 🚀
Excited to share our funding news!
💰 $200M raise
📈 $10.2B valuation
🤝 Co-led by
@lightspeedvp
&
@silverlake_news
A new chapter on our quest to bring Web3 to the world 🧵👇
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1/❤️ Most of my friends know that sports and early-stage startups have a special place in my heart. What’s less obvious is that these passions of mine actually have A LOT in common: 🧵👇🏿
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People go from meeting to meeting without thinking that one influences their performance or responses in another. We give ourselves zero transition time, and the result is emotional transference.
Tactics for making your meetings more effective:
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The
@getpocus
team went DEEP on sales at PLG companies. Spoiler alert: PLG companies have sales team. Join
@alexa_grabell
and me tomorrow to get into the report:
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📢SALES PSA: In every conversation with a potential customer (or investor), you should be walking closer to a yes or a no. BE INTENTIONAL. It’s the maybes that will truly kill you (and waste a TON of your time).
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📣 Calling all PLG SaaS founders, sales teams, marketers and PMs.
@firstround
and
@getpocus
just launched the first ever benchmark survey for product-led sales. Curious how the best PLG companies DO sales? Take this survey and get access to the data.
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@aayushjaiswal07
Maybe efficiency isn't always the goal? I personally have gotten more from my last few in-persons than I did over multiple zoom interactions. Call me old fashioned :)
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The ethos of
@firstround
is centered around community. The firm has always believed in the power of bringing people together — whether that’s to start conversations, build relationships or share learnings. That’s how I ended up as a Partner here. My experience of going through…
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Thanks for having me on the
@whartonfintech
pod. I hope these interviews inspire other “non-traditionally” career path folks consider joining our ecosystem 🚀
“Founders write the future. I'm looking for the next great founder to tell me why the current paradigm is broken and why what they're building is so much better”.
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4/ 🤷♂️ Don't be afraid to admit when that you don't have the answer or that you were wrong earlier. I don't know is so much more powerful than BSing your way through a half-baked explanation. Trust, transparency, and honesty are the foundation of the best relationships.
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