Daley Ervin

I spoke with Christien Louviere of BDE Capital about his journey from a $330mm exit to becoming an independent sponsor. Christien shared excellent insights for folks looking to partner with business owners, rather than buy sellers out completely. Below are a few of the topics we covered: - Why he moved from “zero-to-one” startups to a buy-then-build strategy - How Christien's background shaped a focus on growth vs. cost-cutting - Why 20–40% rolled equity is central to his deal structures—and how it builds trust with sellers - Using scenario analysis with AI tools to evaluate management teams and uncover hidden key-person risks - How to identify when a $3–5M EBITDA company truly has a middle management layer—or is still founder-reliant For anyone investing in or buying small businesses, Christien’s approach provides a fresh lens on growth, alignment, and deal structuring. 🎥 Watch the full interview here → https://lnkd.in/ekfkaiej 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e86Agx6V

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What’s old is new. Funny to watch VCs flood back to out-of-favor business models—hardware-enabled software, marketplaces, consumer tech—which are now viewed as more defensible because AI can't easily replicate physical infrastructure, network effects, or brand.

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Diving into Atlanta-based VC deal activity in 2025: Last week, I shared a post on ATL 2025 Early-Stage VC deal flow (link in comments), focusing on investments into Atlanta-based startups. This week, I’m shifting the lens to Atlanta-headquartered VC firms (ATL VC)—specifically, the number of early-stage deals they participated in. I’m focusing on deal count because it’s difficult to isolate how much capital in each round came from individual investors. In 2025, ATL VCs: • Participated in 230 early-stage VC deals • Led 41 of those deals Deal participation by sector: • 🤖 AI-enabled: 67 deals | 40% • 💻 SaaS: 36 deals | 26% • 🌱 Climate / Cleantech: 26 deals | 15% • 💳 FinTech: 21 deals | 12% • 🏭 Manufacturing: 12 deals | 7% • 🚀 Space Tech: 2 deals | <1% A few observations: • While Space Tech accounted for only two deals, both involved Atlanta-based startups and together represented 21% ($167M) of all Atlanta-based startup funding last year. This category is likely to grow meaningfully, and Atlanta is well-positioned to be a major player. • Climate and Cleantech often aren’t associated with ATL VC activity, yet the sector ranked third by deal count, ahead of FinTech. That said, only 7 of the 26 deals involved Atlanta-based startups. We can—and should—do better in 2026. • Despite the strong pipeline of Georgia Tech–educated AI engineers, there’s a notable gap between the share of AI-enabled deals ATL VCs participate in (62%) and the share of AI-enabled deals from Atlanta-based startups (34%). This is a trend worth watching closely in 2026. Would love to hear your thoughts if you are either an Atlanta-based VC or startup that raised/ tried to raise capital last year: Bill Nussey, Sean O'Brien, Michael Cohn, Andy Marshall, Aly Merritt, Jennifer Singh, Hannah Turner, Donnie Beamer Jr., CFA, Raghupathy Sivakumar, Anthony Oni, Elizabeth Blankenship-Singh, Chadd Evans, CFA, CAIA, Anthony Clark, Sean Banks, Christopher Klaus, Hernando B., Mike Dowdle, Blake Patton, Frank Tighe, parichit kumar, De'Havia Stewart, Henk Both, Erin Keller, Barry Givens

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I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb

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I met Craig Limoli, Founder and CEO of Wellsheet, in 2019. Craig was presenting at the Ai4 Healthcare Conference in New York City, hosted by Michael J Weiss . It was one of those early gatherings focused on AI in healthcare - well before the recent wave of hype. Craig took the stage to share how Wellsheet was using AI to help doctors and nurses make better, faster decisions at the point of care with its Care Team Copilot. Wellsheet’s technology was impressive, but its real edge came from Craig’s deep understanding of the problem he was solving. Before founding Wellsheet, he worked at IBM as a strategy consultant, helping large health systems assess their tech stacks. He saw firsthand that the tools available were clunky, fragmented, and ultimately failed to support the clinicians doing the hardest work. It’s a story as old as time - the very systems IBM was selling to hospitals weren’t meeting their actual needs. So, Craig left IBM, enrolled in the The Wharton School MBA program to sharpen his entrepreneurial skills, and decided to build the product those systems truly needed - a Care Team Copilot designed to summarize patient charts, streamline documentation, and support real-time collaboration between physicians and nurses. We stayed in touch after that first meeting, and a few months later, Wellsheet raised its $4.5 million Series A, which our team at SpringTide Ventures led. The round came together just as the world was shutting down in the early months of the pandemic. Understandably, Craig was nervous that investors might pull back as uncertainty swept through the market, but we didn’t. We believed in Wellsheet’s mission, and more importantly, in Craig’s ability to execute against it. Despite the chaos of 2020, he stayed focused and transparent - qualities that made us even more confident we were backing the right founder at the right time. Fast forward to today: Wellsheet is now live at hundreds of hospitals and continues to outperform much larger competitors. In fact, when a major national health system evaluated solutions from both Google and Wellsheet, they unanimously chose Wellsheet. The healthcare industry faces an unprecedented shortage of doctors, nurses, and frontline clinicians. Wellsheet’s technology helps address this challenge by automating the most time-consuming and manual parts of clinical work. For physicians, it means no more laborious data entry; for executives, it means decisions are queued up for them - clear, informed, and ready to act on. By streamlining chart reviews, documentation, and decision support, Wellsheet enables care teams to focus on what truly matters: delivering better patient outcomes. We’re proud to support, and keep championing founders like Craig and his mission-driven team at Wellsheet!

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Huge step forward from the Dyad team. AI that actually clears the inbox and kills rekeying (not just talks about it): 📨 Email Triage Agent to route submissions automatically 📃 Extractor to pull data from PDFs straight into ALIS DX If you’re an MGA, wholesaler, or program administrator who wants teams focused on underwriting, not manual work, this is worth a look: https://hubs.la/Q03T_Q1S0

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🥾 #bootstrapping as a mindset should be ephemeral, one that requires a deliberate transition away from as a business enters sustained growth Appointing an established auditor is often regarded as a luxury and not part of bootstrapping Audits discipline a business - to be methodical, thorough and deliberate - traits that acquirers often seek in due diligence After all, "What gets inspected, gets respected," Anon We will share the traits of venture businesses sought and respected by MNC acquirers, join us if your business is out of the #bootstrapping mindset #fulfillingpotential #hepmil #oobmil

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I'm proud to share that Amboy Street Ventures led the recent pre-seed raise for Allswell. In our search for the next generation of founders shaping inclusive, compassionate healthcare, we found the perfect partners in Dawn Androphy and Connor Gordon. Their vision for Allswell—a company redefining how LGBTQ+ communities access healthcare aligns deeply with our mission to fund what the world needs most: equitable innovation in health. What makes this partnership even more special? Dawn and Connor’s story started over a decade ago in college, where they first bonded over a shared passion for LGBTQ+ rights. After successful careers in consulting and tech, they brought that same conviction to Stanford University, where Allswell was born—rooted in empathy, excellence, and inclusivity. We are also excited to be partnering with the incredible investors at Seae Ventures, Unseen Capital. https://lnkd.in/e2wdRknS #AmboyStreetVentures #Allswell #LGBTQHealth #FutureOfCare

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