It's been another weird year for tech...
Trace Cohen's Q3 - Investments, Trends and Updates
It's been another weird year for tech...
Hey everyone - it’s been a while… so less words, more charts and links.
I’m back in NY (Long Island) and will be in the city twice a week - lets hang / invite me to stuff 🙂
TL;DR
What’s going on in the tech world?
Investment updates / links etc
Started a podcast with my brother (so fun!)
I wrote some blog posts with my thoughts
Who plays pickleball? Yes, I’m obsessed and just won my first tournament!
The VC/startup world still seems to be hungover from 2021 which was basically 2 to 3 standard deviations from the mean in almost every way. Will a strong (weird) economy etc be the boost we need to get us through it and feeling better… Tech stocks are booming to all time highs, while private markets are still pretty dry.
Hopefully the funds raised in 2021/2022 didnt invest too fast. Some multi stage, multi billion funds are raising less than their intended targets, which sounds ominous but they will be fine in the long run. I unfortunately believe emering manager funds (<$100M) will be hit the hardest as bigger LPs “flee” to safetey and smaller LPs continue to pull back. Basically a handful of tourist investors made it a lot harder for some of us.
Hopefully we hit the bottom? Only up slowly from here but it wont be easy
We invest at pre/seed (<$10M vals / NO fintech/bio/health/education) and are still seeing a lot of activity/deal flow but the expectations have increased. Unfortunately, later stage/ growth rounds seem to be non-existent which is leaving a lot of big unprofitable startups that already raised significant capital without a lifeline. And for us at the early stages, it keeps us in the dark with regard to how our investments can continue to grow and raise more capital.
My investments that are raising more seed to Series A - let me know if interested in these industries and I’ll share more: restaurant tech, food tech, hospitality, sports betting, DIY CPG
Questions:
How are you dealing with mark downs? Waiting until the founders/something public happens or doing it proactively based on what you know and feel?
Everyone is saying to get profitable and control your own destiny but that’s not entirely how our industry works… what do you think?
Is Ai overhyped? I think most is / BIG tech will be the winner here as they continue to invest billions, though it will be hard to monetize… thoughts?
We’ve still been active though with new investments and helping our portfolio:
Roon educates patients with vetted info on their conditions
By curating the data it makes available around individual conditions, Roon is meant to reassure patients and caregivers that it's accurate and well sourced.
techcrunch.com/2022/08/12/roon-wants-to-educate-patients-with-freshly-sourced-info-on-their-conditions
New Comic Book Publisher Sees Creators as Partners, and Stockholders
DSTLRY hopes to improve the treatment of creators in the industry by offering an opportunity to reap the benefits of their characters and content.
www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/business/comic-books-creators-dstlry.html
Uizard Announces Autodesigner | Uizard’s AI UI Generator
The news is out… On February 22nd, we announced Uizard Autodesigner, the world’s first AI UI generator (COMING SOON).
uizard.io/blog/uizard-announces-autodesigner-worlds-first-ai-ui-generator
Personal Assistant by HyperWrite - The first AI agent that can operate your browser | Product Hunt
Self-driving mode for your browser. Meet your new sidekick for web browsing, research, automation, and more. Personal Assistant by HyperWrite can do anything a human can do online — kick back and let the agent work its magic, hands-free.
www.producthunt.com/posts/personal-assistant-by-hyperwrite
Fi Smart Dog Collar Series 3 Review
The third-generation Fi Smart Dog Collar bites down the bulk to accommodate smaller breeds while offering better battery life and quicker location updates to help track down a missing pup.
www.pcmag.com/reviews/fi-smart-dog-collar-series-3
Peel Away Labs Enters Distribution Agreement With Medline
NEW YORK, NY, July 31, 2023 (EZ Newswire) -- Peel Away Labs, the New York-based startup renowned for its innovative and patented bedding products, today announced that its products would be sold and distributed by Medline Industries, the nation's largest privately held manufacturer and distributor o
apnews.com/press-release/ez-newswire/new-york-north-america-intellectual-property-d0f92d500d5bf71d7be36cd0c5e8c2d7
My brother Maxwell (Peel Aways founder / link above) and I also started a podcast - these are actually really fun to do! Check out the latest episode:
Startup Brothers Ep 12 - Big Tech, Ai and Threads
I also have been writing a little more as well
The Differences Between a $50M and $1B VC Fund
As a VC fund grows from a $50 million fund to over $1 billion AUM, there are notable changes in check size, round size, and expected…
trace-cohen.medium.com/the-differences-between-a-50m-and-1b-vc-fund-67b90aec6c07
Startup Unicorn History and Growth
The term “unicorn” was first coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013 to describe privately held startups with a valuation of $1…
medium.com/@trace-cohen/startup-unicorn-history-and-growth-e67fa7622dc5
Thanks for making it this far - I plan to send out more over time but no more than once a month. Feel free to reply back, share and/or unsub.
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