Raj Khera

Had a great time at DC Startup & Tech Week (Formerly DC Startup Week) moderating a panel with Scott Christensen (Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund (CBSCF) , Faith Davis (Exelon) and Bill McNulty (NextEra Energy Investments), convened by the great C'pher Gresham. Here's a quick recap: 1) The panelists were phenomenal - a mixture of corporate, state and foundation-backed VC's all focusing on climate. They're actively funding companies across a range of sectors - e.g. nature-based solutions, energy + AI, water, etc. Point being, we were lucky to have experts with such broad purviews. 2) The current climate could be pushing at least some climate VC's to focus on software and move away from hardware, at least temporarily. This type of capital may indeed just be better suited for software companies at this juncture. It also reflects the fact that certain segments of the climate-tech market are just more mature than others - e.g. software performs best once the hardware and the business case around it are solid, then it becomes and optimization and efficiency game. 3) Founders need to target "must-solve" climate problems from the investor lens. In other words, yes there's a sea of climate challenges where startups can be additive. However, in this environment, few of these areas are attracting meaningful capital. There's nothing wrong with tackling problem areas that are under-invested, we need this in spades. However, for those trying to get capital in the door, realize the constraints that come with targeting problems that investors just aren't prioritizing. 4) Look to funders overseas. The EU, where so much climate finance, policy and general expertise has come from, could be playing a much more important role. I'd also argue that Gulf countries like KSA and UAE are going to be critical here too, not to mention China, of course. 5) We need mentoring and coaching to be at an all-time high. With so much uncertainty, networks/communities where both founders and investors can learn from/lean on each other have never been more important. The panel/audience was a nice microcosm of the types of support networks we need to be actively building. Big thanks again to C'pher, Faith, Scott and Bill, as well as the whole DC Startup + Tech Week team. Til next year!

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Today at Rumi Labs, Inc. we launched our Desktop App, running our proprietary SOTA edge VLM optimized for understanding complex multi-modal narratives. This makes Rumi the 1st-ever distributed Vision-Language Model network for Media in production. If you want to help build the Narrative Intelligence Layer for AI, download the Rumi extension at http://rumi.io

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🚀 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐒𝐀 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 has released a new guide spotlighting standout 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 & 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬, helping founders identify the right partners to support growth, strategy, and early-stage acceleration. ✨ 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞: Black Ink Tax & Accounting BD Emerson Prodify Startup Consultancy Startup Distillery G2 Startup Advisors Startup Advisory Group StartSG Consulting StartupEdge Startup Business Bureau 🔍 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭—featuring additional companies and experts supporting early-stage success. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gWs2-ujB 🌐 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 remains your trusted source for insights, top talent, and emerging strategies. Explore our Talent Ecosystem Resources to stay ahead.

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Founders build companies. Ecosystems build founders. 🚀 Behind every "overnight success" is a powerhouse of support, the people who provide the capital, the coaching, and the connections to bridge the gap from a raw idea to a fundable venture. The Reed Smith LLP ROCKY Award by Tech Coast Venture Network (TCVN) is our way of recognizing these pillars of our community. As a Founder’s Choice Award, it is unique because the winners are chosen by the entrepreneurs themselves and the TCVN board. Who we celebrate: We honor the "rock-solid" individuals who help founders become investor-ready, including: * Angel Investors: For providing the critical early-stage belief and capital. * Mentors & Advisors: For guiding founders through the highs and lows of the journey. * Community Champions: For building the infrastructure that makes our ecosystem thrive. By honoring our champions, we ensure the next generation of innovators has a foundation to build upon. Watch this video for a behind the scenes look at the pre-show set up. 👉 Want to see who's leading the way? Check out the full press list to see this year's incredible winners and nominees. #TCVN #ReedSmith #StartupEcosystem #AngelInvestors #Mentorship #FoundersFirst #CommunityChampions

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Most startups die trying to get what an existing business already has — Customers Cash flow Systems Brand trust Why start from zero when you can buy from momentum? Buy a business doing $500K–$2M in revenue. Leverage seller financing, SBA, or private capital. Keep the team, fix the margins, and scale. It’s not about being an entrepreneur anymore. It’s about being an acquirer. Startups are hope. Acquisitions are math. And math wins. 🦈

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One of my favorite panel discussions at the recently concluded OSJ 2025 was on “Navigating the Future of the OSV Sector.” The session brought together some truly stellar speakers — Fazel Fazelbhoy, Alex Brykalov, and Samer Qiblawi — each offering sharp, experience-backed perspectives on where the OSV industry is headed. It was the first time I heard Samer Qiblawi from Marcap on stage, and I was genuinely impressed by his clarity and conviction on how digitalization is no longer an enabler, but a decisive driver of the future OSV landscape. He articulated how digital platforms like Shiparc.AI and VoyageIQ (VIQ) assist in data-driven decision-making, and how real-time operational visibility are transforming: • Fleet utilization and charter performance • Fuel efficiency and emissions management • Predictive maintenance and asset reliability • Safety, compliance, and crew effectiveness What resonated strongly was the emphasis that digitalisation is not about technology alone — it’s about changing mindsets, workflows, and culture across owners, operators, and charterers. As the OSV sector navigates energy transition pressures, tightening margins, and increasing operational complexity, discussions like these reinforce a simple truth: Those who embrace digitalisation strategically will lead — not follow — the next phase of the industry’s evolution. Well done to the OSJ team for curating such a thought-provoking panel. #digitilization #Maritime #osj2025

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**Amazon Introduces Lens Live: AI-Powered Shopping Meets Real-Time Engagement** Amazon's launch of Lens Live marks a significant evolution in the way consumers interact with e-commerce. By adding a real-time dimension to its existing visual search tool, Lens Live harnesses AI to enhance the shopping experience beyond static images, empowering users with immediate product insights. At ElevenX Capital, we see this innovation as a testament to the ongoing merger of technology and retail. As investors, how can we identify similar transformative trends that redefine consumer behavior? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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New York City-based Betaworks has closed its third fund at $66M to invest in early-stage AI startups. Betaworks, a staple of the NYC tech ecosystem since 2008, will focus its new fund on investing in pre-seed and seed-stage AI companies. The firm has been investing in AI since 2016 and has backed companies like Hugging Face. Fund III is larger than the firm's previous funds ($46M Fund II in 2020 and $48M Fund I in 2016) and saw many of its previous limited partners return to invest, a strong signal in a challenging fundraising environment for VCs. The fund will seek to make at least 25 pre-seed to seed investments, as well as 50 investments into startups as part of the Betaworks Camps program. Congratulations to the Betaworks team. TechCrunch: https://lnkd.in/d--hfMpa #VentureCapital #AI #EarlyStage #SeedFunding #NYCTech #Fundraising

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Great to sit down with Jon Fortt of CNBC to talk about the state of AI for Customer Support. Big takeaway: 2026 is the year AI agents deliver tangible ROI, and here’s why… We’ve seen trillions of dollars in spend or commitments to spend from hyperscalers, typically going to the infrastructure layer. Inference, data centers, NVIDIA and the like. That has traditionally outpaced actual value being delivered to end-users, fueling fears that we may be in an AI bubble. The silver lining comes from value created. There are basically three industries where AI will deliver value immediately: 1️⃣ Customer Experiences: Forethought recently announced $1B in ROI delivered to customers, measured in literal dollars saved from resolving 70-80% of issues that pass through our AI agents. This is just the tip of the spear. 2️⃣ Coding: An industry growing faster than anyone could have imagined. It turns out the world still needs more software to be written, and companies like my portfolio company Cognition are leading the charge as some of the fastest growing companies of all time. 3️⃣ Consumer Agents: I also predict that AI will make an even bigger splash for personal AI agents than in the enterprise. There may very well come a time where nearly every business on the planet has access to an agent like Forethought to scale its customer support. But that human on the other side, what agents will they have navigating the internet for them, shopping, etc. and so on. Was great to dissect this with Jon this morning! All in the light of NVIDIA’s recent report on the state of AI in retail and cpg. Please give it a listen when you can! What do you all think? AI bubble? Or are we finally starting to see true value being delivered from AI? 👇 #ai #customerexperience #agents #nvidia #chatgpt

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Sat down with Saurav Shroff, co-founder & CEO of Starpath to talk about what it takes to build a self-sustaining city on Mars, creating rocket propellent production plants, and selling solar panels to satellite companies. Interview is up on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g5xdkK3C

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The “Niche Domination” Prompt Here are advanced AI prompts used by top entrepreneurs in 2026. These go beyond basic prompts—they’re designed for strategy, leverage, automation, and scaling businesses. 🚀 Prompt: Analyze my niche: [describe niche]. Identify gaps, underserved audiences, and opportunities to dominate this market. Suggest positioning strategies to stand out. 💡 Result: Find blue ocean opportunities.

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