David Cao

HP has launched “Garage 2.0” in Singapore — a global innovation accelerator built to catalyze DeepTech and AI startups. The program, named after HP’s legendary founding garage, aims to recreate that spirit of invention for the next generation of founders. With strategic partners including Antler, EDB, and SGInnovate, HP is offering startups access to its research labs, AI infrastructure, and mentorship — bridging the gap between corporate R&D and entrepreneurial agility. The initiative highlights Singapore’s rise as a hub where corporates and startups co-innovate at scale. This model of corporate-backed DeepTech incubation could be a valuable blueprint for Japan’s university-linked ecosystems and regional industrial clusters. Turning corporate R&D into open innovation platforms may be key to building globally competitive startups. #DeepTech #AI #CorporateVenture #Singapore #InnovationEcosystem Details: https://lnkd.in/gUR9jnUw

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The landscape for how entrepreneurs build startups has changed with the rapid growth of #AI. While Silicon Valley may have changed, Plug and Play Tech Center has not. With more than 60 locations worldwide, Sunnyvale has remained our primary hub for #investing, partnerships, and events. Our Partner, George Damouny, spoke with Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Alastair Goldfisher about the impact AI in the Bay Area. In 2025 alone, we completed over 250 investments globally, 184 of which were tied to Silicon Valley companies. Read more about this shift: https://lnkd.in/g5YXmdhV Get a closer look at our global impact in 2025: https://lnkd.in/grddZdAY

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Physical AI is transforming city operations as NVIDIA partners harness vision AI, digital twins, and synthetic data to boost real-time responsiveness and infrastructure efficiency.

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Trying something new this week - a studio industry roundup with my take on what matters. The studio model is no longer an experiment being run in a handful of places. It is infrastructure being built across geographies, sectors, and institutional types. 5️⃣ stories from the past seven days:  1️⃣ OSS Ventures hit a EUR 40M first close on a EUR 75M follow-on fund -- capital raised specifically to back the 30 companies their studio created since 2019. The "build then fund" lifecycle is maturing. B'More Venture Studio with a similar thesis: studio operations first, then dedicated capital to scale what's working.  2️⃣ Delta40 raised $20M from 54 investors across 13 countries to launch Africa's first integrated venture studio and fund. The LP base is almost entirely DFIs and foundations. Impact capital is discovering the studio model as a deployment vehicle, something I seeing across geographies (conversations with Michael Bob Starr and Damias McDonald this week alone) 3️⃣ Start Holdings launched Start.vc out of NYC and Barcelona after a $200M EV infrastructure exit. Another operator-turned-studio-founder. This is the pattern we see quite often in our work at 9point8 -- experienced operators like Jason Goldsmith who've built and exited deciding the studio model is how they want to build next.  4️⃣ UBC HATCH admitted 10 new deep-tech spinouts for Winter 2026 -- mostly climate tech. University venture builders are quietly becoming one of the fastest-growing segments. Follow Evan Allen and Jaimie Testai to keep track of its rapid evolution.  5️⃣ The INVEST Act is advancing through the Senate. If passed, it expands qualifying VC fund size from $10M to $50M and loosens general solicitation rules for accelerator and university events. For studio-funds -- and for folks in the The Venture Studio Forum community tracking policy -- this could be the most significant capital formation legislation since the JOBS Act. If this roundup format is useful, I'll keep it going. What other noteworthy news hit your desk this week, and what stood out to you?

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"Build the event you wish existed" That's what we at Monadical did last week at #NYTW. We wanted an AI Engineers discussion for Engineers. There's always a lot of events out there for VCs to network, or for startups to learn about G2M, but very little on lessons learned from actual engineers in the field. So that's the event we hosted. Big thank yous to our awesome panel, Roy Pereira, Ben Cohen and Corey J. Gallon. Here's the key takeaways and the AI tools we're using. 🚀 All three panelists independently called AI Agents the most transformative LLM application they’ve used. They specifically called out Claude 3.5 Sonnet for its accuracy and reliability. 🪨 We dug into how LLMs are “jagged”, not general. They can be shockingly good at some tasks and completely fail at others. Everyone agreed: good evaluations are critical (and hard.) 🧪 Corey noted how public benchmarks and reality are two different things. Most public evals are saturated or gamed. ♊ Ben emphasized that AI projects are actually two projects: building the tool and building the evaluation process. 🧱 We explored how falling dev costs may impact startup defensibility and labor demand. Roy shared that founders are already shifting strategies in response. ⚒️ In a world of daily AI launches, the panel discussed how they decide what’s worth attention, and what’s just noise. They called out tools like Goose, Aider, Claude Code, and Monadical’s own Cubbi, which helps run agentic workflows safely in dev environments. (links in the comments). CTA: What would you want to hear in an AI Applied Engineering talk you attended?

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Customer obsession isn’t a pre-PMF phase of company-building. For the most successful founders, it never stops. T.J. Rylander, General Partner at N47, joined me on CLIMB where we talked about patterns he’s seen across succeeding investments like Skydio, Luminary Cloud, and Encord. Founders like Adam Bry, Pete Schlampp, and Eric Landau don’t just focus on a sharp understanding of the pain to get started. They build it into a culture of customer obsession even after and especially as the revenue shows up. He shared an early insight from meeting the Encord team. Their product vision wasn’t framed around growth curves or new technical capabilities. It was simple: delight the customer. For TJ, that stood in contrast to many legacy and AI-first platforms they had evaluated with strong revenue ramps but unhappy users who openly admitted they were looking to make a change. That NPS gap matters more right now than legacy SaaS companies want to admit. In this AI era, buyers are scrutinizing spend. Switching costs feel lower. And “good enough” software is easier to rip and replace than ever. If you’re building today, the takeaway is to stay close to your customers even as you scale. Find ways to make sure you’re hearing their feedback from your teams on the ground so you know when they’re settling instead of satisfied. What are some ways you have seen leaders build customer obsession into their org as they scale?

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Hybrid investment models are reshaping venture creation and scaling Traditional venture capital is evolving into a more integrated, hands-on approach that blends capital with operational expertise. This hybrid model offers startups not just funding, but strategic guidance, access to networks, and support to navigate complex growth challenges. For example, Mandalore Partners combines venture capital discipline with venture studio capabilities, actively partnering with founders to build sustainable, high-impact companies. This approach has proven effective in fintech, insurtech, and impact-driven sectors where agility and deep sector knowledge matter. What does this mean for entrepreneurs? Access to capital alone is no longer enough. Success increasingly depends on investors who engage deeply, helping ventures scale while aligning on long-term value creation. Are you ready to explore how hybrid investment models can accelerate your venture's growth and resilience? #VentureCapital #VentureCapitalAsAService #VCaaS

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"Coding is becoming what woodworking or hand-sewing used to be – still an art... but no longer the bottleneck to creation." This powerful idea is from my latest "The Next Move" newsletter interview with 🃏 Sherry Jiang, co-founder of the AI builder community Code with AI and the innovative fintech startup peek. We discussed "vibe coding," a paradigm shift where developers move from writing syntax to orchestrating AI. Here are a few key takeaways: 1️⃣ Intent Over Instructions: We're moving from writing precise, line-by-line code to describing a desired outcome or "vibe" (e.g., "Make this landing page feel more urgent and professional"). 2️⃣ AI as Translator: The AI's job is to interpret this "vibe" and generate the functional, complex code to match the feeling. 3️⃣ The New Developer Role: This shift frees developers from syntax and boilerplate to focus on higher-level product strategy, user experience, and creative problem-solving. This is a must read for any founder, engineer, or PM. We also dug into the practical side, tackling the big questions: What are the limitations of “vibe coding”? And how do you get your engineering team to actually start using it? The link to the full article is in the comments! And if you enjoy staying ahead of the curve on tech and strategy, the subscribe link for "The Next Move" is right there with it. #AI #SoftwareDevelopment #VibeCoding #Engineering

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Honored and excited to partner with Drew Baglino and the incredible team at Heron Power as they re-imagine the electric grid for the modern world. Power in America is not zero sum. We deserve access to cheap and abundant electricity and we should win the AI race. And we must build the capacity to manufacture critical technology here at home. When faced with existential challenges, we deploy technology against them. And we win.

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