Drew Meyers

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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API Launch 🚀 Programmatic Access to Local Government Meetings — at National Scale Why? Local decisions drive markets. A single zoning vote can unlock or freeze millions in capital. Every RFP begins as a quiet agenda item in a local meeting. These early signals exist. Those who track them gain a real, repeatable advantage. We listen to 3200+ hours of meetings daily: 5700+ municipalities, 1700+ counties, 50 States. Our API is purpose-built for institutional data teams to help them understand what’s really happening in city hall meetings. What’s inside: 1️⃣ Transcript API — Access raw transcripts from government meetings by location and date. 2️⃣ Search API — Query local meetings by location, date range, and keywords. Get structured results instantly 3️⃣ Custom API — Tailored data feeds to match your unique use case. Flexible and scalable (we have tackled some complex challenges structuring large scale knowledge graphs) Our APIs are a step toward closing the information gap between local government and the rest of the economy — enabling analysts, journalists, investors, and institutions to see what’s coming before it hits the headlines. Explore more here: https://gathergov.com/api Proud of the GatherGov team 🙌 Jayanth K. Hardik Bansal Ovishek Paul Jeevanth R Alexandre Kaiser Prem Kumar Gupta Mainul Hasan Gaurav Kashyap Poulami Paul Nazmus Sadat Shohag #LocalGovernment #RealEstate #DataIntelligence #GovTech #TownHalls

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🏘 Real Estate + Smart Community Flywheel Build Trust • Scale Referrals • Fund Local Wealth Without Ads The U.S. housing market is valued at $47 trillion, and real estate professionals spend $4.2B–$16.2B annually on marketing. Yet most of that ad spend is fragmented, expensive, and increasingly ineffective. 📉 Average cost per lead: $30–$50 📢 PPC conversion rate: just 1.5% 📱 96% of buyers start their search online 📷 Listings with video get 403% more inquiries The Smart Community Flywheel, powered by AI Crowdfunding, flips the model: 🔄 From SILO to Flywheel ❌ Old model: solo campaigns, rising ad costs, low ROI ✅ New model: trust, referrals, and sustainable growth — while funding housing equity and local engagement 💡 How Real Estate Pros Can Fund the Flywheel 🤝 Leverage AI Crowdfunding — pool micro‑funding from local partners, alumni, and community advocates 💼 Redirect Ad Spend — shift budgets into a Local AI Prosperity Hub that powers outreach, education, and trust 🌱 Sustainable Loop — Agents → Non‑Profits → Community → back to Agents 🚀 What the Flywheel Delivers AI‑powered outreach with AI‑SEO, AI‑Social, AI‑Email/CRM, and AI‑Agent Referral growth without paid ads Funding for housing education, first‑time buyers, and local wealth creation Community trust through nonprofit partnerships and local events 📣 Call to Action Whether you’re a broker, agent, or proptech startup — it’s time to turn ad waste into community wealth. 📅 Book your free consultation with the Chief AI Officer (CAIO) to explore how your organization can launch a Smart Community Flywheel: 👉 https://lnkd.in/gDThJSH2 ✨ Together, we can scale real estate impact, build trust, and empower every neighborhood — without relying on ads. #SmartCommunityFlywheel #RealEstateMarketing #AICrowdfunding #HousingEquity #CommunityWealth #AdWasteToWealth #DigitalInclusion #LocalEconomy #AIxAgency #FutureOfRealEstate

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@Get100 team is leading a new era of fraud prevention—one that’s effective, safe, and secure. The launch of VERIFIED by 100, powered by CLEAR, brings real-time identity verification to the front doors of multifamily. Learn more at get100.com/verified and https://lnkd.in/gRBQd7Vq.

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Hot take: war doesn’t kill VC. It just changes what gets funded. Here's my POV as a space founder on this conflict + how to navigate funding if you're raising soon. With US–Iran tensions spiking right now, markets do the same thing every time: they price oil first. Because the Strait of Hormuz isn’t just a headline -- it’s the choke point. ~20% of the world’s oil flows through it. Oil risk → inflation fear → markets go risk-off. And when markets go risk-off, funding doesn’t disappear. It narrows. Fewer: - “this could be huge someday” - “trust me bro” decks - idea-stage hype rounds More: - revenue - customers - contracts - proof TL;DR: the bar moves from potential → necessity. Now the plot twist: Space + defense don’t behave like normal tech in a war cycle. Because war creates urgent buyers. Governments don’t fund “nice ideas.” They fund mission-market fit. Receipts: - Defense-tech deal value hit $49.1B in 2025 (up from $27.2B in 2024) - Space investing stayed huge: $55.3B tracked in 2025 (Space Capital) - Space Force is going “commercial by default” and 2026 commercial services budget got quadrupled (per Aviation Week) The party doesn't end. The party just moves. From hype → procurement. In space, funding tends to concentrate around: 1. imaging + intel (see what’s happening, where) 2. secure comms + navigation (hard-to-jam links + GPS) 3. tracking + warning (early alerts for rockets/objects) 4. in-orbit logistics/infrastructure (move/serve/return stuff in space) And it could move away from: - Moon hotels, asteroid mining -- cool, but years from a real buyer - Futuristic tech with no budget line and no clear customer So if you're thinking of raising in this war market. Here's the play: - Show a real customer. Show urgency. Show a procurement path. - Dual-use > pure commercial. Efficient burn > growth at all costs. Because VC will still open. Just not for optionals.

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Rent Manager quietly powers 5.5 million rental units across the US. But here's another open secret - they've also built one of the most founder-friendly integration programs in multifamily proptech. While many of their competitors have approval processes that can take months and cost tens of thousands of dollars, Rent Manager gets you live in 48 hours. Total cost? Under $5K for full API access. One of our customers contacted Rent Manager, was approved for API access, and had a working integration live in 3 days. And they don't require mutual clients for API access. Mutual client policies present startups with a Catch-22: the startup needs a customer for API access, but the customer demands a functional integration in order for the startup to win the deal. With Rent Manager, no clients is no problem. Start building immediately. Leading proptechs like Flex, EliseAI, and HappyCo all have integrations with Rent Manager. And I'm seeing an increasing number of new AI startups start building their first integrations on the Rent Manager platform, especially because the annual fee provides access to all of the APIs. That makes it easy for companies to expand into new use cases quickly and for no additional cost. Rent Manager is encouraging proptech innovation by making integrations cheap, fast, and comprehensive. And that's worth celebrating. #PropTech #PropertyManagementSoftware #PropertyManagement #RealEstateTech #ApiIntegration

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