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☆ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is privately reassuring developers using the company's tech that it won't compete with them beyond ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A blog post detailing Sam Altman's meeting with developers in London reveals some OpenAI secrets. Altman says OpenAI won't release any products beyond ChatGPT that would compete with developers. The original blog post has since been taken down, but that hasn't stopped people from passing around a copy on an internet archiving site. Among other things on the mind of Altman are the worrying lack of GPUs, the specialized computer chips that help power AI software, according to Habib's blog post. It makes a smart writing assistant, powered by OpenAI's large language model, which Jasper customers pay a monthly fee to use.

Persons: Sam Altman's, Altman, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Raza Habib, hasn't, Fortune, Habib, Sam, Jasper Organizations: Morning, Software, Amazon, Services Locations: London, OpenAI

☆ Exclusive: Fractal, a New York venture studio, is laying off staff and will stop creating new startups
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Melia Russell | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The venture studio Fractal Software will no longer start new companies, Insider has learned. Fractal Software, a venture studio that creates startups by hatching its own ideas and hiring founders to execute, has laid off staff and will stop starting new companies, Insider has learned. At least 28 employees, about 25% of staff, have left Fractal in the past six months, according to LinkedIn. Fractal confirmed layoffs occurred starting in December, but would not specify the number of employees affected. Fractal has a few more startups in the pipeline, with a goal of launching 145 companies, two people familiar with the company's strategy said.

Persons: Omri Bloch, That's, Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, Bienville, Melia Russell, Stephanie Palazzolo Organizations: New, Software, Investors, Tiger Global, Bienville Capital, Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter Locations: New York, 8VC, Bienville

The Seed 100 is our annual list of the best early-stage investors, based on data analysis. These investors have proven track records and are on track for continued success. Also read our list that focuses exclusively on successful women: Seed 30: The best early-stage women investors of 2023Seed-stage investing is the riskiest — and potentially most rewarding — venture-capital round and the choice of seed investor can make or break a startup. The Seed 100 identifies top investors via data analysis supplied by Tribe Capital*. Scroll down for the full Seed 100 list.

Our annual list of the best women seed investors has been expanded this year. Also read: The Seed 100: The best early-stage investors of 2023The venture-capital industry has historically been a boys' club. That's changing as more women join venture firms, found their own firms, become angel investors, and join investing syndicates. The best seed investors can repeatedly identify winners years before they are successful. Scroll down for the full Seed 30 list.

Andreessen Horowitz is preparing to launch a fund of funds to invest in other startup backers. A16z has already been courting up-and-coming fund managers at events in San Francisco and LA. The venture-capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz has in recent months been in discussions to form a fund of funds focused on early-stage investing, according to multiple people familiar with the project. In recent months, the firm has started to court up-and-coming fund managers with events in San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to three sources familiar with the firm's plans. Partners at crossover fund Tiger Global tried a similar strategy in recent years, committing $1 billion to back an array of early-stage venture funds.

☆ Check out the pitch deck that Ukraine startup Fuelfinance, which aims to help finance teams replace Excel with better tools, used to raise $1 million from a war zone
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

In January, it raised $1 million in seed funding from angels at Google, Meta, and Salesforce. That's the situation Alyona Mysko found herself in as the chief executive and cofounder of Fuelfinance, a tiny accounting startup based in Ukraine. In January, Fuelfinance raised $1 million in a seed round of funding from angel investors at companies including Google, Meta, Salesforce, and Uber. Fuelfinance is taking on giants like Microsoft Excel and Pilot with its cloud-based approach to financial planning. Here's the pitch deck that Fuelfinance used to convince employees of Google, Meta, and Salesforce to invest $1 million.

☆ OpenAI has its tentacles in hundreds of companies. Here's how it's making them more productive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Developers are linking arms with OpenAI to access the large language models powering their apps. In doing so, OpenAI has its tentacles in hundreds of Silicon Valley startups. OpenAI's artificial intelligence technology is now baked into hundreds of apps, making it one of the key levers that help companies and their developers be more productive. The latest company utilizing the company's large language models is Superhuman, an email app with a cultish following. The feature came together so fast, according to Akshay Kothari, the third cofounder and chief operating officer, because Notion hadn't done the grunt work of training a large language model itself.

☆ Inside OpenAI's Sam Altman's fixation on death and the apocalypse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, spends a lot of time thinking about risk, especially as it relates to AI. One investor friend told Insider that Altman became even more fixated on delaying death when his father died in 2018. One investor friend told Insider that Altman "says we vastly underestimate risk in society." The investor friend told Insider that urgency grew when Altman's father, a real-estate developer, died in 2018. "I don't think anyone can lose your dad young and wish he didn't have more time with him," Altman told Insider.

☆ He's played chess with Peter Thiel, sparred with Elon Musk and once, supposedly, stopped a plane crash: Inside Sam Altman's world, where truth is stranger than fiction
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

But, "you do at some point need to start having contact with reality," he told Insider. The plan was still only a rough sketch, Blania told Insider, but that didn't seem to matter to his host. "He always wanted to understand everything at a very deep level," Thrun told Insider in an email. (When asked about guns, Altman told Insider he'd been "happy to have one both times my home was broken into while I was there.") When asked about this, Altman told Insider in an email: "i can guess what that's about; these stories grow crazily inflated over the years of getting re-told!

☆ Sam Altman is building his utopia, whether you want it or not
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

Altman told Insider, "We debate our approach frequently and carefully." "I don't think anyone can lose your dad young and wish he didn't have more time with him," Altman told Insider. Altman told Insider that his thinking had evolved since those posts. (When asked about guns, Altman told Insider he'd been "happy to have one both times my home was broken into while I was there.") When asked about this, Altman told Insider in an email: "i can guess what that's about; these stories grow crazily inflated over the years of getting re-told!

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of engineers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Driven by the recent AI boom, companies are raiding top college campuses for rare technical talent. She's currently on leave from her Stanford AI Ph.D. program to focus on Moonhub. In 2011, new AI Ph.D. graduates took jobs in the tech industry and academia in about equal measure. But since then, the majority of new grads have headed to the AI industry, with nearly double the percentage of AI Ph.D. grads taking industry jobs versus academic roles in 2021, according to Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI's 2023 AI Index Report. "All AI companies have roles for people with Ph.D.s and without," said Attaluri, the soon-to-be researcher at DeepMind.

☆ This 24-year-old wants to freeze dead pets with the hope that science can one day bring them back to life – and he's got backing from Peter Thiel to get started
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Kai Micah Mills is a rare cryonics entrepreneur in the latest batch of Thiel Fellows. His startup Cryopets aims to establish a chain of animal hospitals set up to freeze pets upon death. When he was 14, Kai Micah Mills brought home a long-haired tabby cat and named it Cat. Someday, he hopes to expand to human preservation, as the science matures and pet owners warm to the idea. Mills hasn't figured out a pricing structure yet, but says pet owners will make a payment that covers their pet's storage for as long as necessary.

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of rare talent
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil, which helps businesses automate paperwork, used to raise $5 million from Craft Ventures and Alphabet's Gradient Ventures
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It raised an additional $5 million for its Series A round from Craft Ventures and Gradient Ventures. Insider has an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise the new funds. Three years ago, he set out to raise fresh capital for his startup, Anvil, which helps businesses create documents from data. In 2020, Craft Ventures heard Ng's pitch and passed. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise an additional $5 million:

☆ Emerging venture fund managers had few banking options to begin with. After Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, where do they turn now?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Melia Russell | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Silicon Valley Bank had long banked a class of startup investors known as emerging managers. He was able to quickly switch from Silicon Valley Bank with an email to his contact at AngelList. Novak is part of a contingent of investors who are shifting their banking strategy in the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank's failure. After Silicon Valley Bank's demise, the big banks have gotten more selective, the three investors said. The big banks like JPMorgan set account minimums for its private banking group, locking out emerging fund managers.

"You're going to see every board member tell people to keep your money in multiple bank accounts," said Wesley Chan, cofounder and managing partner at FPV Ventures. "I'm not concerned about Bank of America," one business owner said as they left a Bank of America branch on Monday. Big banks can be less competitive, for example, on interest rates because of the security they offer. I think you'll see startups, in particular, questioning moving to the big banks given just how much more expensive it is," Matheson added. "The big banks are in very good shape, and so it probably is a stabilizing decision to move those deposits.

☆ 9 startup founders who banked with Silicon Valley Bank share where they're moving their money: 'We will not get caught like this again'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Silicon Valley Bank's failure has left startup founders scrambling for a new home for their money. Last Friday morning, the startup founder Mang-Git Ng zipped up the interstate before sunrise to a Silicon Valley Bank branch in St. Helena, in California's wine country. Ng's plight is similar to countless other founders following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, who waited with bated breath over the weekend on whether they'd ever get their money back. DiversificationSilicon Valley Bank's collapse could forever change how startups stash their cash, at least two investors told Insider. Silicon Valley Bank had exclusivity clauses with some of its clients, according to a CNBC report, forcing them to use the firm for most or all of their banking services.

☆ The great venture-capital resignation is now the great uncertainty for many solo GPs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But what's gone almost unnoticed in the midst of the tech bloodletting is that consolidation is coming for venture investors, too. "Anyone who wanted to raise a fund could," said Nichole Wischoff, a solo venture capitalist. In essence, the great venture-capital resignation has become the great uncertainty. Family offices and institutions that front money to venture funds are being inundated with pitches, multiple sources said. "There's not going to be a rush by the big mega-platforms to hire them," said the principal at the early-stage venture firm.

☆ Check out the bare-bones pitch deck that AI-powered text editor Macro used to raise $9.3 million from Andreessen Horowitz
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It raised $9.3 million in a round of seed funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Investors have bought into the idea with a $9.3 million seed round, led by Andreessen Horowitz's Kristina Shen and Zeya Yang. When Macro set out to raise a seed round, Andreessen Horowitz's name floated to the top of the list of dream investors. Macro wants to become the "default" app for handling documents, Beckerman said, without scrambling the Microsoft file format on which millions of people rely. Read the pitch deck that Macro used to convince Andreessen Horowitz to leads its $9.3 million seed round.

☆ In leaked document, Ohio venture capitalist and Sequoia alum Mark Kvamme shows off plans for a $500 million state-focused fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

VC Mark Kvamme is raising $500 million for something akin to a sovereign wealth fund for Ohio. Dubbed The Ohio Fund, the investment company will be funded by Ohio institutions and individuals. The Ohio Fund will need to hire investors who founders want to work with. Mark Kwamme, partner emeritus at Drive Capital, is raising a statewide fund in his home state, Ohio. If The Ohio Fund reaches its fundraising goals, Kvamme, according to the presentation, plans to serve as president and chief investment officer.

☆ 2 ex-investment bankers decided to get their hands dirty in the construction industry. Here's how they took an unusual approach to launching their startup and went on to raise $3.1 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Construction-tech startup Suppli has raised $3.1 million in seed funding led by Equal Ventures. But his new startup, Suppli, is also at the forefront of a hot investment trend this year. Suppli, which makes credit-management tools for companies that sell and procure construction materials, has raised a $3.1 million seed round led by Equal Ventures. Having that customer list turned out to be critical a year later as they raised their seed round, Ayers said, given the shift to caution among investors. That's the same opportunity Skafidas and Ayers saw when they decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

A trade group for venture-capital employees has collected salaries data for the industry. The data sheds light on how much people are getting paid across talent, investor relations, and PR. But what few know is that, behind the scenes, many roles at VC firms play a hand in a startup's growth journey. In recent years, the vital function of platform employees has led firms to grow those teams, and pay them handsomely. The report, now in its sixth year, shares data from 601 survey respondents, including 351 members located in the US.

☆ Meet the 18 most promising productivity startups revolutionizing how teams email, record calls, and take notes in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Melia Russell | Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Insider asked VCs to pick the best-in-class startups helping people get work done in 2023. The result is a list of up-and-coming companies juicing productivity for individuals and teams. After years of private-markets investors urging cash-flush startups to grow at all costs, the mandate has flipped to: "do more with less." The shift is leading companies to look for ways to juice productivity, and they have their pick of products aimed at helping teams work smarter. Here are the productivity startups to watch, sorted from least to most capital raised:Additional reporting by Paayal Zaveri.

☆ Elon Musk admits to making mistakes in his first 6 weeks of owning Twitter: 'Hey, I just got here, man.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk gave the "All-In" podcast a gently self-deprecating review of his tenure at Twitter. But he quipped that it would be "pretty embarrassing and sad" if the moves tanked the site. "In the beginning, we'll make, obviously, a lot more mistakes, because I'm new to — Hey, I just got here, man," he said on the "All-In" podcast show posted on Saturday. Musk also defended a new "views" feature that Twitter unveiled this month to show how many people saw a particular tweet, which many users criticized for cluttering the interface. And obviously, if I make a bunch of mistakes, then Twitter won't succeed, and that will be pretty embarrassing and sad."

☆ Here's how beauty brand Alleyoop saved $230,000 in payroll taxes through a little-known federal program as venture capital dries up
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The beauty startup Alleyoop shared part of the application it used to earn $230,000 in tax credits. AlleyoopIn its application, Alleyoop said that Kashani, who leads product development, and other technical personnel met the program's criteria in designing "a state-of-the-art all-in-one portable razor." It described creating 3D models during product development and determining the best materials to "maximize protection from pathogens while maintaining the product's functionality." Concept FormationMany of these solutions required the Project Team to design products that met extremely narrow spatial specifications. R&D ObjectivesSphynx's objectives required the Project Team to design and research new ideas and transform them into viable prototypes suitable for testing out hypotheses regarding design parameters.

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