partner + builder @645ventures | investing in AI agents, dev tools, and infrastructure | previously @initialized @fcollective @mit | here to help founders win
San Francisco, CA
- Tweets 4,674
- Following 3,537
- Followers 11,597
- Likes 46,628
None of these existed in 2020.
Anthropic
Cohere
ElevenLabs
Harvey
Moonshot AI
Together AI
Figure AI
Crusoe
Character AI
Perplexity AI
Adept AI
Mistral AI
Combined valuation: $178 Billion. For that amount you could buy every team in the NBA, MLB and NFL. #MondayMotivation
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Some personal news ❤️
I’m happy and excited to be joining the @Initialized team with a focus on Saas, health tech and analytics.
More here:
blog.initialized.com/2021/07…
I’m proud to announce Parul Singh (@parulia) as the newest partner at @Initialized
She is a founder, software engineer, and talent spotter for over $1B worth of startups.
The honey badgers are getting stronger 🍯🦡
piped.video/UUfbr-lNqYQ
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To more inclusive & interesting conversations in 2021 🥂
Here are 54 women I follow on @twitter and learn from everyday. I follow both men and women, and I learn from both. Please RT if you do too, and amplify their voices.
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Shared a video with my six year old daughter and got to tell her, “she’s half Indian, just like you.” 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙
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Sometimes it takes a few startups, raising several rounds of venture funding, and going through an acquisition process — before founders understand some of the *unwritten dynamics in venture capital.*
Go in prepared. Here are some guidelines.
parul.substack.com/p/unwritt…
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Some personal news.
I’m getting ready to embark on a new career adventure and wanted to thank my amazing mentors and teammates at @fcollective for 5+ amazing years ✨
More here 👇🏽
parulia.medium.com/what-ive-…
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Reminder that the Roaring Twenties happened right after the last global flu pandemic, and now I can relate.
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I’m starting my quest for best west coast dosa. Who’s got recs? SF or east bay to start.
First attempt, not a disaster 😋
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I never expected to get so much support when I started out this new chapter here at @Initialized ❤️
I'm a little teary. Thank you so much 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 you know who you are 😍
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Spent a lot of Friday wrestling w situation where a pre-seed investor gave a company $100K check & got a side letter granting them 10% super pro rata rights for 9 years.
VC friends: do you consider this a market standard ask? Founders: do you know what the gotcha is here?
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Applying software to highly regulated / intermediated industries like education and healthcare is so tricky.
When well-meaning technologists dive into these industries they slam into quite a few things. Human systems prove harder to hack.
A thread:
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🔥 Repeat founders 🔥
Why does it seem like they get special treatment from investors?
8 secrets that 2nd time founders have learned the hard way 🤫
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What got you here won't get you there, fundraising edition.
Every round you're evaluated for something different.
Pre-seed → Vision 👓
Seed → Team & Product 👯♀️
Series A → Traction 🚀
Growth rounds → Economics 📊
Knowing the rules helps you play to win.
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In SaaS, any barriers to your software being useful are kiss of death 💀
✨ Magical:
💦 Fixing leaky conversion funnels
🎩 High touch customer success
🚶🏽♀️ Walk-throughs
🗣 AI augmented onboarding & sales
💽 Easy data migration
👩💻 1 click installs
💸 Commitment-less trials
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I just got my first pitch formatted as a @NotionHQ page w a deck linked at the end, and actually loved it.
Now let's do more video pitches and we'll be in business.
You say #futureofwork, I say #futureofVC 😇
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I consistently find that some founders find p/m fit faster than others. Why?
They over-index on:
🦄 deeply understanding true believers
🛣 onboarding
🚄 time to value
📊 testing biz model assumptions
🎯 Finding p/m fit always requires the same work. Do the work.
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When I joined Initialized ten months ago, I was blown away by our healthtech portfolio.
To date, @Initialized has made 20 investments in seminal healthcare companies:
📣 11 are publicly announced
🥷 9 are in stealth
🦄 6 are unicorns
🚀 5 will launch later this year
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1. Parul @Initialized
2. $2-5M
3. Pre-seed and seed, mostly healthcare, US only
4. DM me a blurb & I try to respond to everything
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💁🏽♀️ VC
🔮 Consumer, b2b SaaS, health tech
🌱 Pre-seed, seed
💸 $400K - $2M
🌎 Anywhere but primarily US
✉️ My DMs are open!
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Some founders break through walls. They are:
🛠 Scrappy
🐶 Tenacious
📛 Never stop at no
😵💫 Multi-threaded problem solvers
🧱 No matter what pops up, they bust right through.
Esp key, they know what to focus on 🎯
So much admiration when a team is on it.
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Consumer is still alive and thriving in SF 🥰
Thanks to @garrytan for hosting this amazing group of consumer founders for dinner. Some takeaways: you need to be good at everything to build what consumers love. Also you sink or swim with your founder tribe.
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if you find yourself writing a post that goes "is X dead?"
please kill it
we do not care. find something you're excited about instead
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My hope: 2021 will be more normal and the strategy & work you laid down this year will quickly come to fruition 🍐🍇🍋🥑
Thinking of all my founders who worked tirelessly this year, heads down in the craziest year of our lifetimes 🙏🏽 Grateful for your head, heart & energy 💗💥
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What do 1 in 6 couples struggle with, but I guarantee you never talk about at parties?
Hint: it affects 19% of women too.
No one thinks about infertility until it affects them 😕
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We have applied behavioral science to so much, from nudges to reduce our power consumption to dopamine-powered app engagement.
Why is it so hard to apply it to increasing our engagement with complex policy questions? We are failing all the adult marshmallow tests.
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taking disproportionate pleasure in sending out intros for a company raising a series A round with close to a $4M run rate, 9X growth over the past 12 months
the market certainly isn't dead. always keep your eye on the fundamentals
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VCs: brilliant, insightful, humble goes w/out saying
@sarahtavel: brilliant on marketplaces
@aileenlee: OG unicorn spotter + @AllRaise founder
@briannekimmel: SaaS & future of work
@kirstenagreen: consumer queen
@katie_haun: all things crypto
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. @Initialized is kicking off a new in-person salon series in SF next week!
Data & Drinks is a happy hour for the founders, builders, and VCs who get excited about all things data, from pipelines and DBT to data training.
Space is limited, dm @initialized to get a link 🍻
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just read this on why tiktok was banned, 😳 that’s pretty intense data collection.
Someone on reddit reverse engineered their app. You should definitely read what he discovered. It should be banned everywhere. #TikTok
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Unfortunately, the list of jobs least affected by AI has a huge amount of overlap with robotic innovation.
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I ❤️ my founders so much.
Just got off a 2 hour pep talk with one of my founders. Learning so much about myself during this process.
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I am excited that we got to back @SimShagaya to bring STEM to Africa w @uLessonApp. This is one of the fastest growing companies I've worked with.
We are joined by fantastic investors at @OwlVC @localglobevc. I was born in Nigeria, so doubly meaningful.
medium.com/@simshagaya/uless…
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My cousin posted this thread about my grandfather. He was a freedom fighter for India’s independence movement and wrote a book of poetry when he was jailed at age 20 by the British.
We celebrated his 101st birthday this year with a zoom call that crossed 3 continents 🎉
My maternal grandfather who is now 101. During 1942 freedom movement, he was sentenced 2 years in jail
amarujala.com/lucknow/know-a…
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One of the biggest differences between first time founders and serial entrepreneurs is that sometimes first time founders think the first circle is enough (“you’ve made a product people want”) and it’s not.
The next time you’ll sweat the other two circles as much or more.
True Product-Market Fit:
1. Make a product that people want
2. Make a profit delivering this product to people at scale
3. Find, and keep, these people sustainably
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Warren Buffett is considered to be the greatest investor of all time.
An atomic essay wondering why founders can't learn from him, even if VCs usually do not.
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Congrats @garrytan and thank you for bringing me here to @Initialized
And a heartfelt standing O for @jenhwolf and @brettdg.
Grateful to have you as thought partners, leaders and friends. Excited for this next chapter 🫶🏽
blog.initialized.com/2022/08…
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Minted this lady investor in support of @women_vc #NewNFTProfilePic 💶
Her back story about saving your gold jewelry in a cupboard to invest is very vividly real to me; it’s passed down from mother to daughter, right up to my generation.
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Finally, just want to say how proud I am to be on THIS cap table!!!
along w/ @brit @swansit @EnkeBashllari @LaurenBerson @sveedub @trinaspear @heatherhasson @assiagrazioli @rachelspringate @ashleymayer @toyinajayidoc & other incredible investors & angels ❤️
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happy birthday to our intrepid leader & founder of @Initialized @garrytan! 🥳
thanks for all you to do inspire, push & support all of us. so lucky to do what we do & be working with you 🥳
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The FDA approves only 50 novel drugs for humans each year 🧬
@DeSciBoston with @aloktayi who is sharing the @vibe_bio story and their vision to fund clinical trials for rare disease treatments
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What was your silver lining of 2020?
Mine was getting to spend (so much!) extra time with this gang of troublemakers 😍
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Founder stuff no one tells you:
One of the hardest parts of being a founder is constantly grappling with how much stuff *isn't* working & getting to where you can keep attacking it anyway, day after day 👏🏽
Growing as a startup founder means coming to terms with the fact that any given outcome is semi-random, but you *can* improve the process you take to get there.
That, to me, is the craft of startup entrepreneurship: the process of getting to product-market fit.
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Derisk the toughest questions first, including before you raise anything.
👤 who wants this?
💸 who can pay?
🚀 how much to scale?
🥷 what's our moat?
🎯 and .... why us?
the last one may be the most important one of all.
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When deciding whether to optimize for product or traction, consider this.
Very few startups raise a series A round because investors are impressed that they over-delivered on their product roadmap.
The exact opposite is true with traction
Overbuilding can be expensive.
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In lean times, a few traits are rewarded like crazy
🛠 Scrappiness
💎 Operational efficiency
🧐 Clearsightedness
Wield those superpowers to your advantage esp now 🦸🏽
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It’s not that they missed investing in @airbnb’s seed round, it’s that every groundbreaking startup is by definition a narrative violation.
Just like with founding, believing in the unbelievable has you on a knife edge sometimes: what makes you good also makes you a bit crazy.
Way before Airbnb topped a $100B valuation they were constantly rejected at just a $1.5M valuation.
Seven times to be exact.
Here's the email exchange between @paulg and @fredwilson where Paul pleads with Fred to invest in Airbnb 🧵
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What are the characteristics of the ideal beachhead market?
🥳 Innovation friendly
🤩 Fast adopters
🤕 Know they have a problem
🙄 Actively seeking a solution
🤑 Enough $$ to fund further growth
Now do healthcare.
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😍
Welcome @parulia! We're honored to have another builder and founder advocate on our investment team. fortune.com/2021/07/15/initi…
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If you’re the David to an incumbent’s Goliath
& you have a few superior product features
— the tough reality is that it may not be enough.
You have a better chance if:
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Excited to drop my first @substack newsletter in a while tomorrow am 💌
If you are not a subscriber (it’s free!) you can sign up here 👉🏽parul.substack.com/
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As they say in the coven, I'm here for the "lore not the floor."
Such a beautiful, well designed project & ❤️❤️ how they've been so thoughtful about providing an on-ramp for those new to the space (check out the @crypto_coven notion library of web3 resources) ✨
The @crypto_coven caught my 👁️ when I saw how many women in venture capital took up broomsticks
cc @parulia @JuliaLipton @katelin_cruse @saranormous @grlalx @MariaSalamancaM @jomayra_herrera @lindaxie @randizuckerberg
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.@vibe_bio launches today. I’m grateful to be an investor in a company that aims to empower patient communities in the drug discovery process and give them the community support to overcome their dire life circumstances. (1/4)
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Congrats to my partner @garrytan and mentor @dafrankel for their earned placement on the @forbes midas list
For two investors who selflessly put themselves & their resources behind founders at the earliest stage, I can't think of a more well deserved recognition 🎩
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Startups AND kids are 24/7, being a mom founder is no joke🤰
@linamelia @heynicwee and I are starting a community for mom founders of venture backed startups - we want it and we know lots of others would too. Who's a rad VC-backed mom founder we should reach out to?
bit.ly/3CjI1Me
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Truth-seeking is a founder superpower 💥
Can you face the hardest facts about your business
...without getting defensive 🛡
...or going into denial? 😔
Can you find solutions? 🛠
Maybe THE most important one 🦸🏽♀️🦸🏼♂️
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Even though startups are presumed to have unlimited inputs, this is a fallacy 😑
An atomic essay on path dependency for startups 👇🏽
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Why aiming to control your own destiny can be a superpower for founders 💪🏽
An atomic essay on moonshots & escape velocity 🚀
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WSJ today: "Everything is science fiction until someone does it, and then all of a sudden it goes from impossible to inevitable."
At @Initialized, we like to invest before it's obvious. (And also help you become inevitable.)
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You might not be the ICP. The core demo is women 25-34. It’s still quite popular among the mommy blogger and fashionista set.
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“And then Tiger came in and bid on the seed round.”
- chatting w an early stage investor friend 👀
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if you want to introduce an innovation in a complex market like healthcare;
sometimes its faster & smarter to launch a full-stack solution
--> where you can quickly show benefits,
rather than to try to convince the massive old system to change
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More VCs:
@jillruthcarlson: insightful & funny on fintech & crypto
@connieChan: consumer, social, China trends
@dunkhippo33: pre-seed, funny, principled, helpful
@lolitataub: energized community-builder for underestimated founders
@atshruti: AI/ML/future of work
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UX = user experience
CX = customer experience
DX = developer experience
...and now
PX = patient experience
this is the true revolution in healthcare rn ⚕️
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Momentum is the most straightforward way to game your fundraise.
1 - traction
2 - fundraising momentum
doesn't matter which one you pick
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Just tried Kolapasi, a newer South Indian place in the Mission 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 The sambar, fillings and chutney were all delicious which is my hallmark of a good restaurant. The two curries I took home were also delish.
cc/ @pitdesi for your take, if you’ve tried it?
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This seems like a bad omen.... for humankind
Or maybe, reframing: the justification for all meditation practices?
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If you haven’t already welcomed my new NYC-based colleague @Amanda_Herson by following her, please do!
5 themes she is tracking:
📦 Post-Covid Consumer
🔮 5 whys of a product
💻 Sticky SaaS
💰 Global fintech
🤝 Culture & collaboration
🩺 Data-driven wellness
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I guest lectured in @halletecco’s @Columbia digital health class today and one of the students very kindly brought me this pie.
Which I fortuitously matched today 🥧 #keylime #morepie
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This was from a quick scan of my timeline - who did I miss?
A shoutout to all the brilliant women out there & hoping they’ll all get many new followers in 2021🔥
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The 4 most interesting takeaways from the home diagnostics panel I moderated this afternoon at #ViVE2023
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Venture capital dynamics can be opaque for founders to navigate, at least until they’ve been through multiple rounds of funding and sometimes an acquisition.
10 rules of thumb for savvy founders
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you have to be a child of the 80s to appreciate this 😮
hey…who turned on the lights?
will smith is opening the doors to the iconic fresh prince mansion for a limited time—only on airbnb.
airbnb.com/fresh
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For the next 30 days, I’ll ship an atomic essay under this thread. Topics will include high growth startups and issues experienced by founders.
I'm joining with the fun community of #ship30for30 🚢
Follow along with my essays under this thread 🙏🏽👇🏽
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It turns out February is the longest month.
Reading, hearing from, talking to so many today who are at the end of their collective ropes w/ pandemic life. Spring is not far; I don’t know who needs to hear this but hang in there 🌞
Just a little longer 🌷
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every founder can relate.
started at the bottom, and now you're here 🫀💪
Obama in 2000 - only eight years from being President:
* Credit card debt
* No credential to the Democratic National Convention, had to ask friend
* Failed party hopping attempt at convention
* Crashed on couch of friend attending
He’s literally a startup founder.
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No, our fourth graders should not be faced with legal weapons of mass destruction. These officers trained for this and failed.
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Even more:
@minal_hassan: smart, funny, provocative
@daynagrayson: seriously smart hard tech investor
@amanda_Herson: consumer & ecommerce trendspotter
Double threats: Journalist Investors
@rebeccakaden: consumer & edtech
@KTmBoyle: hard spaces
@KimMaiCutler: brilliant, awesome
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Niche specialists
@AnnieDuke: author, Thinking in Bets
@YrDeepika: founder, Women in Product
@KatelynBourgoin: product marketer extraordinaire
@drgurner: intriguing exec coach
@ImCatNoone: top design follow
@ggiiaa: funnel wizard
@aprildunford: positioning
@rhiankatie: shopify
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I’m not exactly sure what’s next yet: @andyhpalmer helpfully describes this phase as walkabout. I’m open to your ideas and suggestions 🌎💌
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Watching @joinClubhouse events shift from evenings to the middle of the day feels like a definite inflection point. 👀
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You know you take Halloween seriously when you start trying on your costume before it’s even October 👻
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