Costanoa Ventures

We're thrilled to announce our investment in ForceMetrics! ?? ForceMetrics' mission is to help first responders make better, data-driven decisions in emergency situations by providing rapid situational awareness. In doing so, they both help protect communities *and* the lives of first responders. Finding ways to bring context to situations to potentially avoid escalation is a hard problem, and there's no better team up for the challenge. We couldn't be more excited to lead ForceMetrics' Series A and to be partnering with Andre McGregor, Jason Truppi, Shane McGregor, Christopher Kersulic, & team. Read more about ForceMetrics in Greg Sands & Nicole Seah's latest piece: https://bit.ly/407Mosf

Introducing our newest investment: Beacon AI ?? Beacon AI is working to save lives. Human error remains the leading cause of aviation accidents and deaths. Beacon AI’s technology aims to reduce these errors by providing pilots with real-time, context-aware AI support, helping them make better decisions in high-pressure situations. We couldn't be more excited to lead Beacon AI's Series A and working with Matt Cox & team. Read more about Beacon AI as told by Greg Sands & Michael Parker.

It was an incredible honor to participate in the 2nd annual Stanford Conference on Technology + National Security. Special thanks to?the conference organizers Bryce M. and Ethan Klein of Stanford University Graduate School of Business for having us this year–from hosting the kickoff reception with Nini Hamrick of Vannevar Labs, to having Greg Sands on the “Defense Applications of AI” panel alongside Matt Cox (Founder & CEO of Beacon AI) and Lindsey Sheppard (Deputy Director of DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office), moderated by Ahmad Nasir. We left this year's event inspired for the future of #defensetech.

It was an honor for?Costanoa Ventures?to host the welcome reception for the Stanford Conference on Technology + National Security. Special thanks to?the conference organizers?Bryce M.?and?Ethan Klein?of Stanford GSB for having us as part of this year’s big event. And a huge thank you to?Nini Hamrick?for sharing?Vannevar Labs remarkable founding story, including navigating selling to one of most challenging ICPs (the federal government!). Working with founders like you who are making meaningful impact on our National Security is one of the reasons why I’m excited to get up for work every day. As?Connor Love?said, Vannevar was “building in defense tech way before it was cool!” Looking forward to more deep dives and meaningful discussions throughout the conference today!?#defensetech?

?? In a recent interview, Bugcrowd founder Casey Ellis shared the unconventional strategy he used to fine-tune his fundraising approach—by pitching to rideshare drivers! ?? This drill helped him simplify Bugcrowd’s story and connect with investors, even when building from outside Silicon Valley. 2 key tips to remember ??: ?? Never assume you have a technical audience-speak simply and plainly. ?? Lead with their problem, and draw a clear line to how your solution helps. Learn more from Casey's full interview in BuilderOps Blueprints, a newsletter created by the Costanoa Ventures BuilderOps team! https://lnkd.in/gHC86wnz

We’re thrilled to be featured in Business Insider’s list of the 49 most promising fintech startups! ?? A huge thank you to our incredible investors, Meera Clark and Annie Kadavy from Redpoint, for their continuos support and belief in Comun's mission. Our journey to empower immigrants and their families through accessible financial services is only just beginning, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead. We’re still HIRING for several key roles! If you’re passionate about making a real impact, check out our open positions here ?? https://lnkd.in/gEZ8PPue https://lnkd.in/guKs-kse

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month - and the perfect time to share our latest edition of #BuilderOpsBlueprints. We sat down with Casey Ellis, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Bugcrowd, the leader in crowdsourced security. Casey shares invaluable lessons on navigating the venture capital landscape (especially for founders outside Silicon Valley), perfecting your pitch (try his Uber Pitch Drill!), cultivating thought leadership, building a powerful network of allies, and more. Bugcrowd recently acquired external attack surface management leader Informer and was chosen by Google as the payments platform for security researchers identifying bugs. If you’re interested in novel approaches to cybersecurity, check out Bugcrowd's open roles! They're #hiring -- #BuilderOpsBlueprints is a newsletter on company building foundations for early-stage startups by the BuilderOps team at Costanoa Ventures, highlighting learnings from founders and startup leaders. Make sure to hit the subscribe button!??? #CyberSecurityAwarenessMonth #StartupSuccess?

?? Congratulations to the Numa team on their $32 million Series B round! Tasso Roumeliotis Andy Ruff Joel Grossman Steven Ginn Numa is re-architecting how auto dealerships operate at their core, building the technology to run the AI-native dealership. This funding will allow them to accelerate product development by expanding their team of AI and machine learning engineers, including investing in building AI models for the automotive vertical ?? https://lnkd.in/dD3p8G88

What is the real impact of GenAI on the startup ecosystem? This summer, Costanoa surveyed 30 founders (who collectively raised $700 million) about their experiences building in the AI space. ?? Some interesting insights... - Cofounders with an AI-background aren’t considered necessary - nearly?two-thirds?of all respondents do not believe they need an AI cofounder - but this does impact early hiring decisions. - 90%?use at least one GPT version (with 80% using GPT-4o) and 53%?use 4 or more models - Only?13%?expressed even ‘slight concern’ about defensibility.?Rather, most founders voiced confidence that their products delivered unique value or had such a niche purpose that it wouldn’t make sense for foundation models to absorb. ?? Read all the insights: https://lnkd.in/gpKMdpYD #AISurvey #AIstartups #AIFounders