Rohin Jaiman

Big milestone for Firmable. We’ve raised $14m Series A led by Airtree. Sales has moved through a few big waves: intuition-led, CRM-led, data-led. We’re now entering the next one – intelligence-led sales. The opportunity isn’t just better data. It’s turning that data into clear direction and action, without adding more work for sales teams. That’s what we’re building at Firmable: a foundation of trusted external data, layered with intelligence that helps sellers know who to focus on and when. Led by Airtree, this round supports our expansion across Asia and into the US – and accelerates the build-out of AI agents that take the admin work off sales teams so they can focus on what they do best. Proud of the team, grateful to our customers and investors. We’re just getting started. Read the exclusive in the AFR. https://lnkd.in/gr66uknb Leigh Jasper | Tara Salmon | Karthik Venkatasubramanian| Chester Thompson| Chath Widanapathirana

147

20 Comments

Talking to users and thoughtfully integrating their needs and wants was woven through everything we did at IDEO—threaded through every prototype and product decision. Reading my colleagues Joanne and Leo's latest work brought that to mind. They describe a future where research runs continuously, with AI agents recruiting participants and instantly surfacing insights. Synthetic personas, carefully trained on consumer signals, mirror human behavior closely enough to extend live studies and compress timelines from weeks to hours. Today user research mostly runs in fits and starts, prohibitively expensive and locked away in dedicated project cycles when it could be a constant companion, seamlessly integrated into the product development process. Joanne and Leo lay out the full vision here: https://lnkd.in/gEUBSG_J

35

3 Comments

Proud to support Esusu as it enters its next phase of growth with a new $50M Series C fundraise! Wemimo Abbey, Samir Goel and team continue to lead the industry in credit building and economic mobility for millions of renters nationwide. Esusu (Founder Institute San Francisco portfolio company) is setting a new standard for combining economic and societal impact. By helping renters get credit (literally) for paying their rent on time, they are increasing financial access and empowering more people to become homeowners - in fact, they have already empowered over $30BN in new mortgages from renters across their system. I'm especially excited about how they plan to leverage their massive dataset to create even more impact. By making rental payment data a more prominent feature in mortgage underwriting, Esusu will be able to increase the number of people that can buy homes and build generational wealth. This is a truly inspiring company 🙌 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/guUKsGtY

102

14 Comments

🚀 Secondaries Are the New Frontier of Liquidity TL;DR The U.S. VC secondary market hit $61.1B in annual deal volume in Q2 2025. With IPO timelines stretching 12–15+ years, secondaries are no longer a side market they are becoming the backbone of venture liquidity. 💡 The Opportunity Unicorns are staying private longer, creating unprecedented demand for alternative liquidity. Secondaries offer access to elite late-stage companies while providing liquidity for employees and early investors. The infrastructure is catching up fast: SPVs, tender offers, and secondary trading platforms are building the pipes for a new era of private-market liquidity. ❓ Why This Matters For decades, IPOs defined venture capital’s big win. But today: IPOs are fewer, later, and concentrated in only a handful of sectors. Secondary trading channels are stepping in as the bridge repricing assets, creating transparency, and allowing institutions to participate earlier. What was once opaque and gated is now becoming structured, scalable, and investable. 💰 Implications for LPs & GPs LPs: Secondaries are evolving into a strategic allocation, providing earlier exposure to winners, portfolio diversification, and quicker liquidity. GPs: Partnering with platforms and structuring liquidity events is no longer optional it is a competitive edge for retaining talent and managing cap tables. 🌇 The Future of IPOs & Secondaries Secondaries aren’t replacing IPOs they are reshaping the path to liquidity. As trading channels mature and scale, secondaries will become a permanent, institutionalized asset class, redefining how private markets deliver returns. At Inspire Global Ventures, we believe companies building the infrastructure for this market will be some of the most important enablers of the next decade of venture investing. 👉 Come join Inspire Global Ventures at #SFTechWeek, where we’ll be diving deeper into the rise of secondaries and the tokenization of private assets two trends transforming the future of capital markets. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ge-XB8bd #VentureCapital #LiquiditySolutions #PrivateMarketInvesting #SecondaryMarketTrends #InvestmentOpportunities #FinancialInnovation #FutureOfFinance #TechWeek2025 #AssetTokenization #InstitutionalInvestors #Secondaries #IPOs #VentureInvesting #LP #GP #Tokenization #SFTechWeek

2

I’ve spoken to over 2 dozen MDs at PE firms I can confidently say that the arb of figuring out how to implement Vertical AI at portfolio companies is very real right now It will fundamentally change underwriting for those who can do it predictably and unlock generational returns. Most are aware they need to act. Very few have.

454

64 Comments

New blog just dropped 🧠 Most VC firms don't have a deal flow problem. They have a signal processing problem. Everyone sees the same launches, the same founder activity, the same market data. The difference isn't who sees more. It's who makes sense of it faster. We wrote about why signal to conviction speed is becoming the real edge in venture and what that means for how investment teams should operate. Link in the comments. Would love to hear how other investors and operators think about this.

9

2 Comments

Seth Levine nailed it! The concentration problem isn't just a GP pain point... it's choking innovation. When capital pools around the same 20 funds, emerging managers and founders get shut out. Love that he's using his platform to call this out. Foundry has backed 50+ emerging managers. That's the diversification the ecosystem needs. This is exactly why Carta exists — making capital allocation visible and accessible. Capital Evolution hits at exactly the right moment. Thanks for having us Daniel Dart. Team Carta loves the community of FUTURE TITANS you have built 🚀

41

6 Comments

Every hire, product feature, and GTM experiment is a capital allocation decision, most teams just don’t call it that. I’m kicking off a 3-part series on capital allocation for founders, operators, and finance leaders with a simple question: ➡️ Will the next $1 you deploy become worth more than $1? Series overview Part 1: defines the core concept + the math Part 2: where capital goes + how to measure whether it’s working Part 3: AIMS framework for communicating allocation decisions to management teams and your board Part 1 (attached here) lays the practical foundation: 🔹 The $1 invested test and ROIIC vs. hurdle rates (scoreboard vs. decision lens) 🔹 A lightweight “investment brief” to evaluate bets (GROW / BUILD / BUY) 🔹 The small metric toolkit that translates finance into operating decisions (NPV / payback / ROIIC / incremental margin) 🔹 Early-stage proxies when DCF inputs are unknowable (burn multiple + revenue quality) 🔹 Operator “vital signs” to spot drift early (profit engine, leverage, cash conversion, optics) Series Roadmap ✔️ This series (Parts 1–3): breadth-first. shared, lightweight framework to define value creation, choose decision-grade metrics, and communicate tradeoffs clearly ✔️ Next series: depth-first. momentum drivers + operational decisions that need near real-time measurement to spot drift early and course-correct fast Read Part 1 here and Part 2 and 3 on substack. Next Series will be out next week. 💰 What’s one bet you’re funding right now, and how will you prove it’s working?

6

Growth at all costs is out. Strategic expansion is in. One stat from our new report that says it all: By $100M ARR, 67% of growth comes from expansion, not net-new customers. We’re seeing a mindset shift among top-performing founders. They’re prioritizing customer success early, building in product-led growth loops, and measuring how they grow, not just how fast. Full analysis and benchmarks here: https://lnkd.in/gZruurYs #AI #SaaS #CustomerSuccess #BeyondBenchmarks

107

5 Comments