Hello again and welcome to August! The past month continues the brisk pace of fundraising for both start-ups and VC funds - leading some to wonder if the past hypothesis of who were first-check/lead VCs were wrong as capital becomes more of a commodity. And as more money is raised, more is being spent on jobs as the war for talents heats up during what is being called the 'Great Resignation'. Hopefully this puts more fuel on the fire to help encourage more scientists and researchers to start new ventures of their own! (Perhaps you prefer some suggestions in a mixtape format? Got that too!) In other news, IBM and the New York Academy of Sciences are developing an International Science Reserves and the Open Cap Table Coalition came out of 'stealth' this week - two big efforts to impact the scientific and venture space to keep your eyes on.
In the rest of this newsletter, I will highlight some of our progress at AVX, highlight a few (digital) events from around the network, and some think pieces to examine.
A few upcoming deadlines for the AVX community:
With our updated interface, you can see all ventures here: AVX Feed
Conversation Statistics
We are up to 13,461 total connections and conversations on the AVX network - 552 more over the last month (4% month over month growth). We are currently tracking 22 potential match negotiations and another 102 with multi-month long discussions heading toward possible matches. We have now actively connected 593 different ventures (out of 1770+ examined) with 1382 different entrepreneurs and investors (out of a pool of 3200+)
Top Digital Events
Aug 3: Fireside Chat with Biotech/Healthcare VC Dave Allison, 5AM Ventures 5AM Ventures is a leading venture capital firm focused on building next-generation life science companies. In this fireside interview, Dave will speak about the venture capital scene in the hot life sciences sector and how 5AM invests. Hear about the criteria he looks for, what makes a company appealing and how to get noticed among the thousands of emails 5AM receives every year. Find out when in a startup's life cycle you should connect and how to best approach the firm.
Aug 29: NSIN presents: AI for Command Challenge NSIN, in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate is seeking novel AI-based techniques that push the state of the art to compete in the AI for Command Challenge. Open to all Innovators. The need for planning is a fundamental task required to support large-scale and complex operations. This challenge is in support of the AI for Command AFVentures Technology Focus Areas. Toward this goal, this challenge specifically seeks to engage industry to take the first steps and develop AI agents. The challenge is built on the commercial game Command: Modern Operations. Through a series of scenarios this challenge hopes to excite and foster new innovations in the world of AI for planning.
DIGITAL EVENTS
Some Thought Pieces
Last month, TenU hosted an excellent panel discussing the finer points of academic spin-off creation. TenU is a transatlantic collaboration formed to capture effective practices in research commercialisation and share these with UK and US governments and higher education communities, in order to increase the societal impact of research. (The same group that provided guidance on university equity stakes in venture spin-outs last month) They provided four key messages for people to take home. 1) Collaboration is at the heart of ongoing successful regional initiatives and has been accelerated through the pandemic, 2) Building capacity is as much about building and strengthening networks as it is about acquiring skills, 3) Creating place is part and parcel of building and retaining an entrepreneurial community, and 4) There is no one-size-fits-all in technology transfer, but there is one goal: taking the best science to the next stage to create societal impact.
Aug 6 Update 1: On other interesting trends, I'd encourage a look at Y Combinator where they recently launched a new Co-Founder Matching Platform. Yes, the same Y Combinator where Paul Graham has stated "Cofounder dating" is a bad idea. Cofounders should be friends before starting the company. Though the ecosystem has changed a lot since 2017 - CoFoundersLab acquired FounderDating, Stealth launched out of, well, stealth, tools/communities like Lunchclub, Orbiit, BIOS, and On Deck Fellowships have arrived providing people the opportunity to find new colleagues, advisors, investors, and potential co-founders.
Aug 6 Update 2: Recently, I recently spoke with Max Finder of Bountiful.work on his podcast about AVX, then team DNA of strong research-based university spinoff companies, as well as some advice to young entrepreneurs and researchers who want to lead or join these initiatives (YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Google). And if you are tired of my own voice, be sure to check out the episodes with Fernando Gómez-Baquero, Alex Wright-Gladstein, Carl Schoellhammer, Ofra Weinberger, and others! Thank you Max!
As always, thank you for reading – Hamdi