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title: "Brandon Osian - Alumni Ventures | LinkedIn"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/e826184e-2610-4e4e-9af4-937e0af1ae92
source_url: "https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-osian"
stack: https://stacklist.com/c/events/stack/1b7a6771-937f-40a1-b885-1541d438280a
summary: "Brandon Osian is a professional based in New York associated with Alumni Ventures, a UT Austin McCombs School of Business graduate with 2K followers and 500+ connections on LinkedIn. His activity highlights involvement in venture capital and startup ecosystems, including engagement with Antler and Novella's $21M fundraise for AI-powered insurance broker tools."
tags: "linkedin-profile, venture-capital, alumni-ventures, insurance-tech, networking, new-york, startup-investing"
key_entities: "Brandon Osian (person), Alumni Ventures (organization), The University of Texas at Austin (organization), McCombs School of Business (organization), Novella (organization), Antler (organization), Max Kane (person), New York, New York, United States (location), LinkedIn (technology)"
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# Brandon Osian - Alumni Ventures | LinkedIn

Sign in to view Brandon’s full profile Brandon can introduce you to 10+ people at Alumni Ventures Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in Sign in with Email or New to LinkedIn? Join now By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . Brandon Osian Sign in to view Brandon’s full profile Brandon can introduce you to 10+ people at Alumni Ventures Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in Sign in with Email or New to LinkedIn? Join now By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . New York, New York, United States Contact Info Sign in to view Brandon’s full profile Brandon can introduce you to 10+ people at Alumni Ventures Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in Sign in with Email or New to LinkedIn? Join now By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . 2K followers 500+ connections See your mutual connections View mutual connections with Brandon Brandon can introduce you to 10+ people at Alumni Ventures Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in Sign in with Email or New to LinkedIn? Join now By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . Join to view profile Message Sign in to view Brandon’s full profile Brandon can introduce you to 10+ people at Alumni Ventures Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in Sign in with Email or New to LinkedIn? Join now By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . Alumni Ventures The University of Texas at Austin Report this profile About After graduating from UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business, I began my career at… see more Welcome back Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in or By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . New to LinkedIn? Join now Activity Follow Sign in to view Brandon’s full profile Brandon can introduce you to 10+ people at Alumni Ventures Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in Sign in with Email or New to LinkedIn? Join now By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . A week is a month where I work. What half a month inside Antler looks like (from my camera roll): A week is a month where I work. What half a month inside Antler looks like (from my camera roll): Liked by Brandon Osian Congrats to Max Kane and the Novella team on the raise. Novella isn't using AI to replace brokers, it's using AI to make the best ones 10x. Excited… Congrats to Max Kane and the Novella team on the raise. Novella isn't using AI to replace brokers, it's using AI to make the best ones 10x. Excited… Shared by Brandon Osian 📣 Today we're announcing Novella raised $21M to give insurance brokers super-powers. We’ve spent the last two years working with insurance brokers… 📣 Today we're announcing Novella raised $21M to give insurance brokers super-powers. We’ve spent the last two years working with insurance brokers… Liked by Brandon Osian Join now to see all activity Experience & Education *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> Alumni Ventures *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> ******** *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> ******* **** *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> ******* *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> *********** **** ******** *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> ******* *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> *** ********** ** ***** ** ****** *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> ******** ** ******** ************** * *** ********* * *** undefined *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> 2016 - 2020 *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> *** **** ********** *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> ****** ** ******** ************** * *** ******* *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> 2024 - Present View Brandon’s full experience See their title, tenure and more. Sign in Welcome back Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in or By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . New to LinkedIn? Join now or By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement , Privacy Policy , and Cookie Policy . Licenses & Certifications *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> Series 66 *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> NASAA *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> Issued Mar 2021 Expires Dec 2026 Credential ID 7298830 *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> Series 7 *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> FINRA *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> Issued Nov 2020 Expires Dec 2026 Credential ID 7298830 *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> Securities Industry Essentials *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> FINRA *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> Issued Sep 2020 Expires Dec 2026 Credential ID T0105417 Languages *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> Spanish *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> Limited working proficiency *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> Hebrew *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> Professional working proficiency *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> Organizations *]:mb-0 text-[18px] text-color-text leading-regular group-hover:underline font-semibold"> Marketing for McCombs *]:mb-0 not-first-middot leading-[1.75]"> Member *]:mb-0 [&>*]:text-md [&>*]:text-color-text-low-emphasis"> Nov 2018 - Present Marketing for McCombs is a mentorship program for marketing students that are interested in pursuing a career in New York City. Every student is paired with a UT alumni working in New York City, who serves as a mentor that guides their student in their job search and provides them with career advice. More activity by Brandon 🥳 Excited to be speaking at Vancity Innovation House by Frontier Collective and co-presented by Vancity today in Vancouver — one of the most curated… 🥳 Excited to be speaking at Vancity Innovation House by Frontier Collective and co-presented by Vancity today in Vancouver — one of the most curated… Liked by Brandon Osian Big week for Article 41. We’ve officially joined WPP, becoming a core part of Ogilvy’s Sports & Entertainment group. Over the past year, it’s been… Big week for Article 41. We’ve officially joined WPP, becoming a core part of Ogilvy’s Sports & Entertainment group. Over the past year, it’s been… Liked by Brandon Osian Great to be in Tokyo speaking at SusHi Tech this week alongside Christine Tsai (500 Global CEO), Tatsuto Fujii (Mizuho Financial Group General… Great to be in Tokyo speaking at SusHi Tech this week alongside Christine Tsai (500 Global CEO), Tatsuto Fujii (Mizuho Financial Group General… Liked by Brandon Osian Some founders wait for proof. Brett stopped waiting.. and started assuming he was great. His lesson? Don't wait for the data. Play like you… Some founders wait for proof. Brett stopped waiting.. and started assuming he was great. His lesson? Don't wait for the data. Play like you… Liked by Brandon Osian It was fun joining The Insurance Guys Podcast. Thanks for having me 🤟🏻Bradley Flowers and Scott Howell, CLCS. And credit to Aaron Gordon for the… It was fun joining The Insurance Guys Podcast. Thanks for having me 🤟🏻Bradley Flowers and Scott Howell, CLCS. And credit to Aaron Gordon for the… Liked by Brandon Osian Excited to share that I've joined Hatz AI as the first AI Operations Engineer! After 5.5 incredible years at Vestigo Ventures and Link Ventures… Excited to share that I've joined Hatz AI as the first AI Operations Engineer! After 5.5 incredible years at Vestigo Ventures and Link Ventures… Liked by Brandon Osian Just wrapped recording This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis in Austin. 700k followers about to hear why European drone sovereignty matters… Just wrapped recording This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis in Austin. 700k followers about to hear why European drone sovereignty matters… Liked by Brandon Osian Wow. I remember the first check we wrote through Nucleus Ventures. We weren't a fund then and we still aren't. We really just love making warm… Wow. I remember the first check we wrote through Nucleus Ventures. We weren't a fund then and we still aren't. We really just love making warm… Liked by Brandon Osian Happy Independence Day Israel Israel! First time marking it from Palm Beach - and interestingly, the outside perspective makes the pattern even… Happy Independence Day Israel Israel! First time marking it from Palm Beach - and interestingly, the outside perspective makes the pattern even… Liked by Brandon Osian Three new brokers joined Novella last month: Matthew Romano, Tristan d'Adesky, Jeff Antonelli. They didn't come here because of a job posting. They… Three new brokers joined Novella last month: Matthew Romano, Tristan d'Adesky, Jeff Antonelli. They didn't come here because of a job posting. They… Liked by Brandon Osian Something interesting is taking place. A recent Bloomberg piece highlighted a powerful shift: College students aren’t waiting for jobs anymore —… Something interesting is taking place. A recent Bloomberg piece highlighted a powerful shift: College students aren’t waiting for jobs anymore —… Liked by Brandon Osian During the Oscars, Polymarket lines were moving to winners before the envelopes opened. Someone in the counting process knew the results and was… During the Oscars, Polymarket lines were moving to winners before the envelopes opened. Someone in the counting process knew the results and was… Liked by Brandon Osian The US government has officially classified me as an alien of extraordinary ability. My O-1 visa is approved. IONA is expanding to the United States.… The US government has officially classified me as an alien of extraordinary ability. My O-1 visa is approved. IONA is expanding to the United States.… Liked by Brandon Osian View Brandon’s full profile See who you know in common Get introduced Contact Brandon directly Join to view full profile Other similar profiles David Gimpel, MBA David Gimpel, MBA Passion Projects 6K followers Lincolnshire, IL View Profile Contessa Boorman Contessa Boorman VaynerSpeakers 6K followers New York, NY View Profile Madison Tufts Madison Tufts ShopMy 4K followers New York, NY View Profile Anoop Kansupada Anoop Kansupada OpenGradient 8K followers New York, NY View Profile James Buckley James Buckley Donegal Holdings Inc 6K followers Bradenton, FL View Profile Kevin Banks Kevin Banks Utah Community Credit Union (UCCU) 7K followers South Jordan, UT View Profile Jordan Booth Jordan Booth Quantum Industrial 2K followers United States View Profile Tara McAdam Kassal Tara McAdam Kassal Ascent Cities 3K followers New York, NY View Profile Bhavi Kapadia Bhavi Kapadia California State University, Fullerton 2K followers New York, NY View Profile Weston Betts Weston Betts Silicon Valley Bank 4K followers Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex View Profile Ryan Narus Ryan Narus Archimedes Group, LLC 9K followers Charlotte, NC View Profile Alaina Hartley Alaina Hartley Dream Hunter 3K followers Santa Monica, CA View Profile Dan Phelps Dan Phelps Deloitte Digital 3K followers Charlotte Metro View Profile Spencer K Bailey Spencer K Bailey Idaho Vacation Rental Association 3K followers St Charles, ID View Profile Sophie Miles Sophie Miles Go Cuotas 4K followers Italy View Profile Yoray Halevy, MBA Yoray Halevy, MBA StackCommerce 2K followers New York City Metropolitan Area View Profile Brad Kuhn Brad Kuhn Finding Nectar Nursery 1K followers Arvada, CO View Profile Fernando Pena Fernando Pena Rokture 3K followers Charlotte, NC View Profile Dani Niro Carmody Dani Niro Carmody Revolut 4K followers Greater Boston View Profile Show more profiles Show fewer profiles Explore more posts Jason Shuman Primary Venture Partners • 38K followers I’ve spoken to over 2 dozen MDs at PE firms I can confidently say that the arb of figuring out how to implement Vertical AI at portfolio companies is very real right now It will fundamentally change underwriting for those who can do it predictably and unlock generational returns. Most are aware they need to act. Very few have. 454 64 Comments Weston Ginn Bridge Angel Investors • 3K followers Great overview of the Florida VC ecosystem 👇 What stands out is not just the ~$2.85B raised, but how distributed and specialized each region is becoming. • South Florida → crypto, fintech, LatAm access • Tampa Bay → strong early-stage pipeline • Orlando/Space Coast → deep tech, defense, space • North Florida → emerging operator-led funds Tax advantages help, but the real story is growing density of founders, angels, and operators building locally. Still early compared to SF and NY, which is the opportunity. Who are the next Florida-based funds or angels getting active? 4 3 Comments Brett Perlmutter Bulletpitch • 13K followers NYC might lose a lot of very talented people. For context: New York is proposing removing one of the biggest tax advantages for startup founders: QSBS. Meaning exits that are federally tax-incentivized could now be taxed at the state level. If this goes through, the question isn’t whether founders will leave, it’s where they’ll go. As someone who loves NYC and the incredible innovation here, this pains me to say. Based on conversations with some very accomplished founders this weekend, here’s where some may be looking to go: 1. Miami Good energy and world-class weather in the winter. You already have a strong base of later-stage and exited founders, which could accelerate the early-stage ecosystem even further. 2. Austin This city has exploded for a reason. Great lifestyle, weather, strong talent base, and a culture that continues to attract builders. 3. Nashville Quietly becoming a serious hub, especially in healthcare and health tech. 4. New Hampshire Less obvious, but compelling given the proximity to Boston. If founders leave, talent will follow. The most unfortunate part: even if this doesn’t pass, there is some damage that may have already been done. Founders may avoid NY while this is looming. 196 81 Comments Nate Loewentheil Commonweal Ventures • 17K followers #AmTech Weekly Roundup: Base Power Company raised $1 billion in Series C funding at a $4 billion valuation from Addition, Trust Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, Altimeter, StepStone Group, 137 Ventures, Terrain, Waybury, Ribbit Capital, CapitalG, Spark Capital, BOND, Lowercarbon Capital, Avenir, Glade Brook, Positive Sum, and 1789 Capital. Base leases out large battery systems to homeowners that can be used as a backup during power disruptions and sells stored power to utility networks during peak demand. Co-founders: Zach Dell Justin Lopas Heidi Health raised $65 million in Series B funding at a $465 million valuation from Point72 Ventures, Blackbird, Headline, and Latitude, the growth fund of Phoenix Court. Heidi is building an AI care partner to handle administrative tasks, freeing America's doctors to focus on patient care. Co-founders: Yu Liu Dr. Thomas Kelly Waleed Mussa EvenUp raised $150 million in Series E funding at a $2 billion+ valuation from Bessemer Venture Partners, REV, B Capital, SignalFire, Adams Street Partners, Premji Invest, Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), HarbourVest Partners, Lightspeed, and BroadLight Capital. EvenUp helps America’s plaintiff law firms automate administrative tasks and streamline workflows, leveling the playing field for their clients. Co-founders: Rami Karabibar Raymond Mieszaniec Saam Mashhad #Law #Health #Energy #AI #VC 16 1 Comment Simon Lancaster 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇵🇹 University of Waterloo • 35K followers This is great news for early venture investors: Angels, GPs, LPs alike. Shorter time to exit with partial QSBS benefits is an all-around win for the industry in a time where exits through IPOs are rare and M&As are heating up. 🔥🔥 12 Marvin Liao An Investor and ex-Operator… • 32K followers "Having spent time working at Palantir, Volz is deeply knowledgeable about the defense tech sector but she’s making investments in all sorts of startups that are trying to reinvent America’s industrial base. “I bet on people more than anything — people who want to work on the hardest, most important problems and actually have a mission underlying what they’re working on,” Volz said. “There are a lot of ways to make money. I want to make money on people actually doing important things rather than AI slop.” https://lnkd.in/ginJeaPN 5 1 Comment Matthew Weinberg Max Ventures • 13K followers NYC is losing young technical founders to SF — and it’s not about vibes. It’s about cost of entry. SF has far more entry infrastructure than NYC: i.e. the housing, community, and early support (financial and otherwise) that lets founders start building before they raise capital. This is widening the gap between the two cities' tech sectors. We are specifically calling for ideas (and hopefully action) to address NYC’s dearth of hacker houses: physical spaces that combine housing, workspace, community, and early peer support. I’m convinced that seeding hacker houses, if done right, is a low-cost, high-impact way to attract more young technical founders to NYC — and critically, something this community can actually do. And we should. The data is stark. Venture investment in NYC is ~19% of SF’s total — the lowest since 2017 — and the biggest, most innovative companies (especially in AI) are overwhelmingly being built in San Francisco. People who want to be entrepreneurs tend to work where those companies are. Unsurprisingly, many students and young builders assume they must go west. But do they actually want to — or is it just easier to get started there? I spent significant time in the Bay last year, and one difference stood out immediately: SF is dense with hacker houses and founder residences that help people get from 0→1. These resources are especially critical for recent grads and first-time founders who might lack capital or built-in networks. NYC may have long-term pull, but at the earliest stage, higher upfront costs and friction (recent Economist data suggests ~50% higher rents than SF) push many founders away. Hacker houses may sound anachronistic, but they’re real centers of gravity. We estimate SF has at least ~10x more active hacker houses than NYC, and that these houses have helped foster hundreds of billions of dollars in market value. I’m an NYC tech evangelist. I’ve worked on tech ecosystem development at New York City Economic Development Corporation, helped design national innovation programs for the Obama White House, and now invest in early-stage companies as a GP at Max Ventures. From a dollars-to-impact perspective, seeding hacker houses in NYC is one of the most efficient levers the city can pull. We wrote an overview doc (linked below) that explores this concept — and we'd welcome feedback from the NYC tech community. We are also hosting a small series of conversations — starting with a dinner in February co-hosted with Tech:NYC, Keel (Brent J. Smith), Company Ventures and Inspired Capital — to bring together leaders across tech, real estate, and policy. 👉 If you’re a founder, operator, VC, student, or have built / lived in a hacker house: • Does this resonate? • What would make this work in NYC? • Who’s already doing something adjacent we should talk to? Would love to connect if you’re interested in contributing or joining the conversation. 474 163 Comments JT Benton 9point8 Collective • 8K followers Here's a problem we see all the time in early studios: they copy-paste a VC fund's operating cadence and wonder why nothing feels right. Weekly deal flow reviews. Portfolio monitoring calls. Valuation-focused LP reports. All borrowed wholesale from a fund playbook. But a VC fund's primary activity is deal selection -- source, evaluate, check, board, wait. A studio's primary activity is venture creation -- generate, validate, recruit, build, launch. Those are fundamentally different jobs. When you run a studio like a fund, things break in specific ways: Your meetings are wrong. You're reviewing deal flow instead of venture build progress -- milestones, blockers, resource allocation. The work is building, not sourcing. Your team is wrong. Studios need builders at every level -- operators, designers, engineers. Not just investment professionals. You can't build companies with a team designed to pick them. 📉 Your metrics are wrong. Entry valuations and markups don't tell you anything useful. Cost-to-build-a-venture, time-to-market, and venture survival at 18 months -- those are the numbers that actually measure whether the studio is working. Your LP reporting is wrong. Report operational progress -- what's building, what's launching, what's been killed and why. Not just portfolio movements. Here's the lesson -- the studios that struggle most are the ones that adopted VC templates without modifying them for fundamentally different work. The portfolio companies don't exist until the studio creates them. Not a fund that happens to build things. A builder that happens to have a fund. The operating rhythm should reflect which one is primary. 🎯 10 1 Comment Saxon Baum Florida Funders • 11K followers This is an excellent report on the #VC activity in Florida for the first half of 2025, put together by our partner,s eMerge Americas. 💡 5 Takeaways from the eMerge Americas 1H 2025 Florida VC Insights Report: 1. Startups across Florida raised $2.85B across 270 deals, putting 2025 on pace for the strongest year since 2022. 2. AI dominates, 33% of all funded startups are AI-focused, with $830M raised in South Florida alone. 3. Cybersecurity and defense tech are booming, with Tampa emerging as “Cyber Bay” and major new AI-cyber programs launching. 4. Fintech, climatetech & Web3 continue to shine, with record funding and renewed investor confidence in Miami. 5. “If you’re not investing in AI, you’re asleep at the wheel,” says Me! https://lnkd.in/eVb-eYA9 43 Charlie O'Donnell Founder Unfriendly • 16K followers 💡 How do you prove you’re ready to lead your first deal in VC? Moving from supporting diligence to leading a deal is a huge leap in VC. In a recent nextNYC webinar, Claire Biernacki explained how she built conviction early on by developing a thesis, backing it with expert calls and research, and earning partner buy-in. For anyone climbing the ladder, this is the playbook. #VCDeals #WomenInVC #CareerTips #StartupInvesting #VCcareers 11 1 Comment Peter Harris RAF • 4K followers Early fund success isn't just momentum. It can be a mathematical lock. Consider the following math problem, known as Polya's Urn: - Start with an urn containing one red ball and one blue ball. - Draw a ball at random, return it to the urn. - Whichever color you drew, add one more ball of the same color to the urn. - Repeat 100 times. Now think about this question: if your first two draws are red balls, what’s the probability by 100 draws that the fraction of red balls in the urn is below 50%? Let’s walk through the math... Before your first draw, the probability of red or blue is 50%. The expected value of the mix over time is also 50/50. Now draw your first ball. Draw red, put it back and add another red ball. The Urn is now 2 red, 1 blue. Next-draw probability for red: 67%. Expected long-run red rate: also 67%. Draw again and also draw red. The urn is now 3 red, 1 blue. Next-draw success rate: 75%. Long-run expectation: 75%. The fraction of red balls in Pólya's urn is what mathematicians call a martingale — a process whose expected future value always equals its current value. Wherever the early draws push you becomes the system's new expectation for where it will end up. Early draws have massive influence. The long-run destination is being written in the first few chapters. Now let’s extend this to fund performance. Imagine that each draw represents the performance of an investment. Red means success; blue bad result. Follow the same draw mechanics and you can quickly see that a couple of early successes start to heavily tilt your long-term probabilities. Specifically, if the first two balls you draw are red (successes), the probability that after 100 draws you are less than 50% red (successful) goes to only 12.5%. In just the first two moves, you have greatly shifted the eventual end state probability. This is often what plays out in VC. Ramana Nanda at Harvard and Olav Sorenson at Yale studied investment-level data across hundreds of VC firms in 2020 and found that each additional IPO among a firm's first ten investments predicted an 8% higher IPO rate on all subsequent investments. The mechanism wasn't superior investment-picking. Early success improved reputation expanded co-investment networks, and unlocked deal flow that wasn't previously available. Each success literally added a red ball to the urn. The persistence data confirms the pattern. Harris, Jenkinson, and Kaplan at Virginia, Oxford, and Chicago found that top-quartile VC firms repeated top-quartile performance 48% of the time: nearly double the 25% you'd expect if outcomes were independent. Bottom-quartile firms stayed bottom quartile 40% of the time. Once the urn tilts, it tends to stay tilted. Most models treat portfolio outcomes as independent draws from a fixed distribution. Pólya's urn shows why that's wrong. In systems where success breeds access and failure breeds friction, early results don't wash out. They compound. Cheers! 12 4 Comments Trace Cohen Six Point Ventures • 40K followers VC math is hard to wrap your head around sometimes. Take a $1B fund. Let’s say: • $900M is written off to zero. • One $100M check hits and returns $3B. The math: $3B – $1B = $2B profit → a 3x fund. That’s considered very successful in venture. LPs get 3x their money back, and the GPs earn hundreds of millions in carry. It shows the paradox of venture capital: it’s not about batting average. You can be “wrong” 90% of the time and still be a top-performing fund. What matters is magnitude. A single extraordinary win outweighs every loss. That’s why VCs swing for the fences, because one unicorn can carry the entire portfolio. 39 26 Comments Jesse Landry Vention • 14K followers Arch just made private markets impossible to ignore. The New York City-based platform locked in $52 million in Series B funding led by Oak HC/FT with Menlo Ventures, Craft Ventures, and Quiet Capital doubling down. Numbers like that don't just show confidence, they show conviction. Matt Streisfeld of Oak HC/FT spelled it out, after diligence calls with clients, Arch wasn't just another platform, it was the one clients wouldn't stop talking about. The origin story runs back to 2018, when Ryan Eisenman teamed up with MIT engineers Jason Trigg and Joel Stein to attack the mess no one wanted to fix. Private market investing was a minefield of #portals, #statements, #K1s, and #capitalcalls that made sophisticated investors feel like interns in a filing room. Eisenman saw inefficiency from his early work with advisors, Trigg and Stein brought the engineering chops, and Arch was born. Today, that idea has scaled into an AI-powered infrastructure layer for alternative investments, serving as the single source of truth for portfolios spread across #venture, #privateequity, #hedgefunds, #realestate, and #privatecredit. The numbers tell a story even louder than the pitch. Assets on the platform surged from $100 billion to more than $250 billion in just 14 months. Arch now supports over 450 #allocators globally, with 150 single #familyoffices, 100 RIAs and #multifamily offices, four of the top 20 global banks, and seven of the top 20 accounting firms on its client roster. Over half the users refer the product to others, a metric that can't be gamed, it signals trust, adoption, and retention. The product innovation is as sharp as the growth. Arch Pay, their automated capital call system, takes what once required 5,500 clicks and compresses it into a seamless transfer with security baked in for #auditors, #lawyers, and #regulators. Add integrations with Carta, Juniper Square, Addepar, and Black Diamond, and Arch has positioned itself as the Switzerland of private markets. Neutral, connected, and unavoidable. The $52 million isn't survival capital, it's fuel to expand into institutional investors, larger wealth teams, and established family offices with complex portfolios. Eisenman frames Arch as the "Charles Schwab for private markets," and considering alternatives are projected to balloon to $29.2 trillion by 2029, the runway is enormous. It's not about tidying the mess, it's about building the rails the market runs on. #Startups #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #SeriesB #AI #PrivateMarkets #FinTech #DigitalTech #Security #Infrastructure #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem #Hiring #TechHiring If software engineering peace of mind is what you crave, Vention is your zen. 1 Yuechen Zhao Informed Ventures • 21K followers Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, and Dragoneer Investment Group raised $40B in 2025. Just 5 firms raised HALF of all US VC dollars. As LPs continue to fork over billions to "top" funds, they amass tremendous amounts of influence -- and management fees. On these $40B, 2.5% fee amounts to a staggering $1B per year. Without even investing a single $, these funds will generate $10B in fees over 10 years. Further, their effect on the ecosystem will be massive: in order to deploy these funds quickly, expect ever higher valuations and ever bigger rounds, done with higher velocity than ever before -- all into the hottest companies. It's SoftBank's Vision Fund strategy on steroids. For the fastest growing companies, anoint them as "king" and stuff them with capital to solidify and strengthen their position and pray for them to grow, and grow, and grow. With AI's unlimited potential -- for both generating value and eating up dollars -- LPs seem to agree with these GPs that this is the right strategy to pursue. Will be a fun few years as all this plays out. :) #VC #Startups 86 3 Comments Juan Pablo Orlov GRIDX • 14K followers Fresh benchmarks from H1 2025 show a split market: early-stage rounds are heating up, while later stages are still cooling. The data from Aumni J.P. Morgan Fenwick & West covers Seed through Series D+ activity in the first half of the year. A few highlights worth noting: 1) Seed keeps stretching up. Deal sizes grew 5–22% QoQ, often looking more like Series A rounds. The Seed → A graduation rate improved to 21%, up from 12% last quarter. 2) Series D+ is shrinking. Capital raised was down 9%, with pre-money valuations off nearly 50%. Fewer mega-rounds = tougher environment for later-stage companies. 3) AI still gets the premium. Valuations hold strong, but the overall share of funding actually slipped in H1 2025 (except at the late stage). 4) Secondaries are calmer. Almost 29% traded above prior rounds, though the average tranche is still a modest $1.2M–$1.4M. Sentiment is better, but cautious. 5) Founder-friendly terms are climbing. “Founder preferred stock” showed up in 11% of financings, up from 9% in 2024. The big picture? Early-stage is proving resilient, founders are winning better terms, but the later stages tell a very different story. #startups #founders #fundraising 20 1 Comment Charles Mansfield III InnovatePGH • 4K followers Saw this in a post by Yavuzhan Yilancioglu on the early Union Square Ventures funds and I noticed that their fund III featured a Pittsburgh company! I wanted to plug this to underscore a point I've been making around how abnormal our capital markets are in Pittsburgh and how close we were to not having local capital challenges. Context: 1. This is one of the greatest fund streaks of all time and led to USV's emergence as a Tier 1 firm. 23x DPI is absurd on a 200M fund. 2. Funds 1-3 were solely based in NYC with zero boots on the ground in the bay. This was a time when NYC had less than 5 unicorns that were minted in the city. This was an ecosystem bet. When I say that the fact that we've minted 8 unicorns in 8 years with minimal local private capital involvement is the biggest missed opportunity in the ecosystem, this is what I mean. The difference between our ecosystem and some of our peers is that our funds/angels didn't gain access to our best companies. If they did, we would have a much denser local capital market and retain a lot more companies subsequently. If we had firms in Duolingo, Gecko Robotics, or Abridge, we wouldn't have local capital issues. Today, we have less local capital than 10 years ago(largely because of the missed opportunity). We've never had more companies at the earliest stages. This wasn't and still isn't an inevetable problem, we have the companies, we just have to invest in them! 30 10 Comments Brandon Sedloff Juniper Square • 20K followers Every operator thinks they’re “institutional.” But their balance sheet, GP commit, and fund structure say otherwise. Early-stage teams need guarantees. Mid-scale groups need GP co-invest relief. Mature platforms need repeatable LP capital. Until you know where you sit on that continuum, every co-GP conversation is just guessing a guess price, power & leverage. In my recent conversation with David Robertson, CEO of FrontRange Capital we unpack some of the mechanics of GP capital needs and the sources available to help. 55 3 Comments Dustin Dunbar Virginia Venture Partners • 4K followers Everyone talks about the Bay Area and NYC like they’re the only place innovation happens. Meanwhile, Virginia startups just raised a record $2.9B ‼️ in VC in 2025. That should make a few people sit up. The bigger takeaway is not just the number. It’s what the number signals: Virginia is building a startup ecosystem with real depth across defense tech, cyber, AI, advanced air mobility, energy, and life sciences. And when a region compounds sector strength with talent, founder momentum, and returning capital, it stops being “up-and-coming” and starts becoming structurally important. Over the last 3 years, Virginia companies have pulled in more than $7B in venture investment. That is not luck. That is ecosystem formation. 👨🏻‍💻Founders should pay attention to where serious companies can be built. 💰Investors should pay attention to where serious markets are being formed. 👩🏼‍⚖️And policymakers should pay attention to what happens when capital, talent, and commercialization start reinforcing each other. Virginia is not trying to imitate another startup hub. It is becoming its own. What do you think is driving Virginia’s momentum most right now: defense tech, cyber, AI, university talent, or something else? IMO? It’s defense sector, aerospace, life sciences, and VIPC | Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (selfish plug 😂). Drop your take in the comments. #VirginiaStartups #VentureCapital #StartupEcosystem #DefenseTech #Cybersecurity #AI #Innovation #EconomicDevelopment #Venture https://lnkd.in/exEXhiPD 55 6 Comments Vishaal Manjula Sivakumar VC Lab • 770 followers For years, LPs defaulted to big funds. It felt safer. Backing a brand name was easier to justify than backing a first time manager. No one got questioned for choosing the obvious option. But the numbers tell a different story. Smaller funds are closing faster. They are deploying sooner. They are building track records earlier. That flywheel compounds. And when funds under $5M are converting LP commitments at nearly twice the rate of funds above $10M, that is not noise. That is a structural advantage. The math explains why. A $5M fund does not need a billion dollar exit to generate exceptional returns. A $50M acquisition can make that fund look top tier. The same outcome barely registers in a $200M vehicle. Smaller funds have more paths to win. They can be selective. They can move quickly. And they do not need unicorn-scale returns to meaningfully return capital. The emerging manager raising $3M to $5M with a clear thesis and real conviction is not a fallback option. They might be your best bet. #venturecapital #emergingfunds 18 11 Comments Show more posts Show fewer posts Explore top content on LinkedIn Find curated posts and insights for relevant topics all in one place. View top content Add new skills with these courses 3h 40m Using Snowflake with Tableau 2h 14m Scala Essential Training for Data Science 1h 33m Actionable Insights and Business Data in Practice See all courses