Afore Capital

?? Exciting news from MineMe! ?? We’re incredibly lucky to partner with Afore Capital as we build our suite of generative AI tools to help companies better connect with their customers. I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to have been back in San Francisco this summer, learning from such a phenomenal team. Here are some key takeaways from this journey so far: 1?? Doing more with less: Following the 80-20 rule (my guiding force during my time at McKinsey & Company), we’ve learned that you can get 80% of the way there with just 20% of the resources when you have a strong prototype and a persuasive story. When building something of real value, people resonate with your message, opening doors and creating opportunities. Even with funding, using resources efficiently to quickly validate before perfecting the final 20% is key. 2?? Pull, not push: As Rob Snyder emphasizes, our purpose is to serve customers’ needs. When we build something that truly aligns with their priorities, excitement is organic. Build the value proposition based on the needs of the customer, not the other way around. It’s about creating value, not just generating hype. 3?? It takes a village: I am beyond thankful for the incredible support from the community. From Conor, Gaurav, Anamitra, and jack making customer introductions, to Olostep helping us generate our first dollar in revenue, to the team Wayside guiding me on running a sales-first approach—this journey is made possible by the generosity of others’ time and expertise. With all these learnings, we’re thrilled to be heads down, reshaping our suite of generative AI tools that help companies connect more meaningfully with their customers. ?? More updates to come! But in the meantime - if you're an account manager or client-service specialist, would love to connect! ?? #startup #AI #funding #SanFrancisco #growth #entrepreneurship #partnership #customersfirst

Excited to be speaking at the Licensing International AI & Licensing Summit on September 18th in New York! I'll be joining a panel of industry experts to discuss how AI is reshaping the landscape of IP protection and creating new opportunities in the licensing industry. Looking forward to sharing insights from our work at Podqi and learning from fellow innovators in this rapidly evolving space! https://lnkd.in/evUERCnu #Licensing #IntellectualProperty #AI #EntertainmentTech

The new Shortwave AI Assistant is the ultimate search, analysis, and productivity companion – not just a faster way to write emails! With today's launch, it now supports multi-step reasoning and has smarter AI search, larger contexts, and deeper integrations. You can read more about our massively upgraded AI email assistant on our blog: https://lnkd.in/gM-Rzr7D Some common AI use cases include: - Finding emails based on concepts rather than keywords (ie. “find bug reports”) - Understanding trends (“what are the top 3 complaints in emails to support@ this week”) - Getting up to speed quickly on projects (ie. “what’s the status of <project>”) - Writing common emails way faster (“complete this draft the way I usually do”) - Improving your drafts (“make this email good”) - Managing your schedule (“schedule the meeting discussed here. Find a time next friday for 30 mins”) If you’ve ever copy-pasted emails into ChatGPT – stop! Our AI uses the same LLM under the hood, but it also pulls in a huge amount of context automatically so it can give you highly personalized results: every relevant email, draft, and calendar event, along with an understanding of what’s on your screen, your personal writing style, your settings, and more.

Many have ideas, but few can turn them into enduring companies. How do you build conviction around the right idea to work on? Afore’s Founder-In-Residence (FIR) program helps you get from idea (or pre-idea) to conviction. Learn more about the program and how to apply ?? At Afore, we have been laser-focused on Pre-Seed since 2016. Applications for our 5th cohort are NOW OPEN! Don’t miss the chance to turn your ideas into a legendary company. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/exBXfUh2 Here’s what you get as an Afore FIR: ?? $100-500K+ in funding ?????? Build alongside 5-8 ambitious founders ?? Access to customers + database of 10K+ potential design partners ?? Dedicated office space in SF’s South Park Founding a company requires exploration, imagination, and, ultimately, conviction. The Afore FIR program allows you to explore and refine your ideas with like-minded peers and prospective customers over a structured 8-week program. Whether you're a full-time founder, a part-time tinkerer, or even a student, no one is "too early" to apply to the Afore FIR program. This is your chance to take the plunge and bring your vision to life! Apply at https://lnkd.in/exBXfUh2

Introducing the Sizzle Reel: a 2-minute highlight video from your sales calls that decision-makers will actually watch. At the end of every sales call, sales reps send the call's recording in their followup, hoping it would get forwarded to decision-makers who couldn't make it. Let's be honest - does anyone ever watch them? Never! When you add Sam - the AI Sales Engineer - to your sales call, it generates a 2-minute highlight video of the call's best moments. Editing the reel is simple: as easy as editing a word doc. Add some sizzle to your follow-ups with Sizzle Reels, powered by Sam.

Many have ideas, but few can turn them into enduring companies. How do you build conviction around the right idea to work on? Afore’s Founder-In-Residence (FIR) program helps you get from idea (or pre-idea) to conviction. Learn more about the program and how to apply ?? At Afore, we have been laser-focused on Pre-Seed since 2016. Applications for our 5th cohort are NOW OPEN! Don’t miss the chance to turn your ideas into a legendary company. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/exBXfUh2 Here’s what you get as an Afore FIR: ?? $100-500K+ in funding ?????? Build alongside 5-8 ambitious founders ?? Access to customers + database of 10K+ potential design partners ?? Dedicated office space in SF’s South Park Founding a company requires exploration, imagination, and, ultimately, conviction. The Afore FIR program allows you to explore and refine your ideas with like-minded peers and prospective customers over a structured 8-week program. Whether you're a full-time founder, a part-time tinkerer, or even a student, no one is "too early" to apply to the Afore FIR program. This is your chance to take the plunge and bring your vision to life! Apply at https://lnkd.in/exBXfUh2

?? We’re thrilled to announce that Cercli (YC S23) has raised $4M in seed funding from Afore Capital, COTU Ventures, Y Combinator, Rebel Fund alongside the likes of Karim Atiyeh (Ramp), Sebastian Mejia (Rappi), Tony Dong (Rippling), Tony Jamous (Oyster), Allison Pickens, the founders and executives from unicorns Kitopi, Careem and other notable MENA-based startups! ?? We’re building the single modern platform for MENA businesses, to hire, manage and pay your entire workforce - reducing human error and staying fully compliant. ?? ? A big thank you to our customers and investors for trusting in our vision. To read more: https://lnkd.in/dq5gZWiG

Excited to share that Agency from the team behind AgentOps has secured $2.6M in funding led by 645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Ben Tossell and a few incredible angels. We've personally built and reviewed hundreds of AI agents and are excited to continue helping startups and fortune 500 companies prototype and productionize AI Agents. We are extremely thankful for our early users, community members, partners, and advisors. We would not have been able to do this without you.

Thanks to everyone who came to our Founders-In-Residence Cohort 4 Showcase event on Monday! We had a packed house of ~150 top founders, operators, and Seed / Series A investors attending. We're looking for exceptional candidates for Cohort 5! If you know anyone that might be a fit (who is the most interesting person you've met recently?) - please email jack mcclelland at [email protected] / have them apply at afore.vc/residence and mark your name as a referral. Our FIR teams are very early but wanted to showcase where they're headed. Sneak peek into half of them below: 1?? Wayside is an AI assistant for people teams ?? Ish Baid is a 3x founder (YC S20, Forbes 30 Under 30), prev SWE at Meta (helped build their in-house HRIS). Phil Dakin previously led a tech team at Citadel Securities ?? Wayside's AI Agent automates core HR workflows such as inquiry handling and people analytics, reducing necessary headcount 2?? Podqi provides intellectual property protection for the biggest names in entertainment ?? Ivan Esmeral and Jesse Xu lived together at UPenn (CS). Ivan built large-scale data pipelines at Microsoft, Jesse worked on GEN AI for Google Docs. Trevor West grew up with Ivan, went to USC, and sold data science software to the gov ?? Podqi automates detection, takedown, and retroactive compensation for infringement on entertainment intellectual property 3?? Echo (askecho.ai) protects your focus by eliminating busywork ?? Manu Ebert is a 4x founder with 2 exits (one to Airbnb) and has 12 YOE building in ML. Conor Brennan-Burke is a repeat AI founder and seasoned PM (Checkr, Pave), prev BCG ?? Office workers spend over half of their time coordinating their work over email, chat, and meetings. Echo AI protects your focus by automating the flow of information in your organization to enable deep work 4?? MineMe is building a data marketplace where users reclaim control and compensation for their info, while enterprises get access to the best consumer data. ?? Archana Somasegar (Harvard BA, Wharton MBA) worked in consumer tech innovation at McKinsey and led New Customer Growth at Deliverr ?? MineMe builds robust, ethically-sourced consumer data feeds & generates AI driven insights to help marketers better connect with their customers 5?? AgentKali (agentkali.ai) transforms offshore SDRs' voices to sound American during live sales call using deep learning and AI ?? Shikhar Sakhuja was previously a SWE at Discord and Motive, did CS at Waterloo and NYU, and is a 3x published ML author. Charles Javelona was the ex-COO of Tiny Mile, a 3x founder, and ex-Scotiabank (innovation team) ?? AgentKali is augmenting offshore SDRs workflow such as outbound and inbound to book more calls using deep-learning and ML techniques 6?? 7?? 8?? 9?? And we have four more in stealth! For any questions / referrals for our Founders-In-Residence program, please contact jack mcclelland at [email protected] or find out more and apply at https://afore.vc/residence