focal

Arctic Wolf CEO & President Nick Schneider joined the focal 5 Year Frontier podcast ??? with Daniel Darling to chat through all things future-focused in cybersecurity, including why companies with the most data will lead the way in this new era of cyber warfare, the potential networks effects of security and why advanced automation and #AI will be the catalysts for advancing the security posture of businesses of all sizes. #EndCyberRisk #5YF Watch the full interview and read more here: https://lnkd.in/gSa--fAY

"The bad actors are doing a pretty good job of making sure that they leverage current technologies or trends to make their lives easier and our lives harder" Nick Schneider, the CEO of Arctic Wolf, discusses this and more on the latest episode of Daniel's 5 Year Frontier podcast ??? In it, they chat about cybercriminal organizations, network effects of security, data as our biggest weapon, crypto’s gift to bad actors, the threat of cyberwarfare, and the future of cybersecurity. #5YF #ArcticWolf #Cybersecurity

If you're a founder that's ever felt like an "outsider" and you're building in fintech or climate, here's THE investor for you! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on ethan austin from Outside VC. He: ??? Is Denver based ?? Had his first job was at the real life banana stand from Arrested Development.?For the record, there was no money in it. ?? Invented the word "friendvestor" (I think ??) Amongst founders, Ethan is known for being all in and the investor who you can be real with when you feel like you can't talk to any one else. ?? Pitch him at [email protected] or on LinkedIn For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Outside VC's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

In software, product risk is decreasing fast while distribution risk is increasing at least equally as fast. Let me explain ?? With recent advancements in AI / coding co-pilots, it’s become easier and faster to build (software) products than ever before. And with English quickly becoming the #1 coding language, this trend will continue. Historically, simply being able to build a good product was often enough to differentiate. This isn’t the case anymore. Which, from an investor’s point of view, means that product risk has decreased significantly across the board. While this is great for the ecosystem overall - especially for end users - it’s not all good news (depending on who you ask) as this is making other things harder and more important. Most notably, being able to nail distribution (aka go-to-market) from the start. Most (at least application layer) companies use similar / the same underlying technology stack and can build great products fast than ever before. Thus, to be able to build differentiated products, founders and product teams need to gain access to proprietary customer data and workflows to train their models as soon as possible. This?further?increases the urgency to nail distribution even earlier in the life of a startup. On top, with so many smart and driven people able to build great products and bring them to market increasingly efficiently (thanks to the growing number of AI sales tools), it’s now also harder than ever to break through the noise—no matter how great your product is. As a result, an increasing number of founders and operators argue that nailing go-to-market is now?the most critical aspect of early startup success. Recognizing this, we (focal) made the decision two years ago to lean even further into our focus of helping the strong technical founding teams we seek to back nail their (B2B) GTM from the start. That’s why we publicly launched?The GTM Circle?a year ago today - a highly curated and facilitated network of GTM executives at Seed through Series D startups. Since launch,?The GTM Circle?has become the most relevant peer network for 175+ of the brightest minds in early stage Go-To-Market. It’s been incredible to see the level of collaboration, support and connection not just amongst members, but also between members and the founders we get to back. Thank you to all the members that make this such a vibrant and high impact community for everyone involved. Including Basile Senesi, Leah Cohen-Shohet, Lucas Piazza, Sean Hiss, Robert Williams, Andrew Shoaff, Austin Ward, Brian Shealey, Colby Morgan, Darcey Harrison, Halle Kaplan-Allen, George Cerny, Jay Filiatrault, Joe Rizzo, Mark Fisher, Guillaume Jacquet, Timothy L., Tim Huang, Nick Mandelstein, Michelle Mckinley Ultimo, Max Feider, and so many more! It's been an incredible year with you all. Here’s to many more years of The GTM Circle! Plus a special thank you to Sydney who's doing such an incredible job behind the scenes ?? !

Mission-driven founders transforming human and planetary health, this one is for you! We're excited to introduce you to an early-stage investment team that has crafted global public health programs, implemented US climate policy, and scaled early product teams. What more could you ask for? This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Leshika Samarasinghe from Twine Ventures. She: ?? Is San Francisco based ?? Was on the early product team at Google ?? Lived in London, Sri Lanka, and Erie Pennsylvania before the age of 4 Amongst founders, Leshika is known for being nimble and able to provide targeted support to companies. She is a partner on GTM strategies and eager to help drive successful Series A fundraises. ?? Make sure to pitch her at [email protected] For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Twine's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

Looking for a Seed / Series A lead that truly gets B2B software GTM? Look no further - here's an investor at the first VC firm run and backed by 800+ Go-To-Market leaders. This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Liz (Cain) Christo from Stage 2 Capital. She: ?? Is Boston based ?? Writes a weekly newsletter with GTM advice at dearstage2 [dot] com ?? Previously scaled the BDR team at NetSuite to 170 people globally AND went on to lead the expansion platform at OpenView, prior to joining Stage 2 ???? Loves to cook and always wants to hear about new recipes and restaurants Amongst founders, Liz and her team at Stage 2, including Anubhav Maheshwari, Jay Po, Mark Roberge, Mandy Cole, Sakib Dadi, Daniel Heck, and others, are known for leaning into their operator experience to bring practical GTM advice. On top, their fund is backed by executives from unicorns and Fortune 500, representing areas of expertise across the GTM spectrum, supporting their venture portfolio. As for Liz, she's known for being willing to dedicate real time to help figure out GTM questions. One founder once even described her to another CEO (on a reference call!) as "willing to hold up the mirror, say the hard things others are thinking and act as a true thought partner". She shows up, and is reliable, consistent and engaged. Make sure to: ?? Pitch her at [email protected] ?? Subscribe to her weekly blog dearstage2 [dot] com For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Stage 2 Capital's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

Drafter is officially out of stealth today ??! The team is taking on the challenge of automating the technical drawing process for engineers and redefine how hardware is designed for manufacturing. A huge congrats to the founding team, Chris and Peter on the launch! When we met a little over a year ago, it was instantly clear your team had both the strong domain expertise and the thoughtful, hard-working attitude needed to solve this problem! Innovative hardware companies need to maximize the time their engineers spend engineering, and minimize the time they spend doing…anything else. Drafter is starting by revolutionizing one of the most time-consuming parts of a mechanical engineer’s job: Technical drawings. By automating this process and creating the highest-quality manufacturing-ready specs in minutes, they’re giving a 5 person team the equivalent of an entire engineer back (who would otherwise be lost to paperwork). Early Drafter customers in high-precision industries like aerospace, robotics, and automotive are already seeing the benefits—more engineering horsepower, with more to come ??. Check them out if you want to see how their tool can shave time off your next project at drafterinc [dot] com. Congrats again Chris, Peter, and the rest of the Drafter team ?? Daniel | Pascal | Sydney #Engineering #Manufacturing #Innovation #Productivity #GD&T #MechanicalEngineering #DesignAutomation #DrafterLaunch

We’re Live Innovative hardware companies need to maximize the time their engineers spend engineering, and minimize the time they spend doing… anything else. That’s not happening today. Mechanical teams spent thousands of hours on 2D GD&T technical drawings. On average 20% of a MechE’s time goes to drawings: creation, review, redlining, back-and-forths, etc. For a 5-person team, that’s like losing an entire engineer to paperwork. Drafter has officially launched to solve this. We’re changing the way engineers bring designs to manufacturing by automating the process and creating the highest-quality ASME Y14.5-2018 compliant GD&T manufacturing specs in *minutes*. With early customers building high-precision products in aerospace, robotics and automotive, Drafter is giving teams more engineering horsepower and redefining how hardware is designed for manufacturing. If you’re an engineer or manager who’s tired of spending countless hours on drawings, check out Drafter. Sign up for early access and see how we can shave two weeks off your next development cycle. #Engineering #Manufacturing #Innovation #Productivity #Automation #Tolerancing #Dimensioning #MechanicalEngineering #DesignAutomation #DrafterLaunch

"We want to make sure that we continue pushing towards this GPT moment in biology and biomanufacturing and make sure that it's not a Sputnik like moment where we wake up, and those other guys have launched something into space" Edward Shenderovich, the CEO of Synonym, discusses this and more on the latest episode of Daniel's 5 Year Frontier podcast ??? In it, they chat about the $4T bioeconomy, nature’s factory, AI scientists, global bio supremacy, and the future of biomanufacturing. #5YF #Synonym #biomanufacturing #bioeconomy

If you're a founder building in AR/VR, AI, or robotics, here's a pre-seed lead you have to have on your radar! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Arian Ghashghai from Earthling VC. He: ??? Is DC based ?? Is an ex-ai/ml engineer at Meta Reality Labs ??? Is a polyglot ?? Writes about VC Stuff on substack - vcstuff [dot] substack [dot] com Amongst founders, Arian is known for being a no BS sounding board and knowing the AR / VR space inside and out. To get in touch, make sure to: ?? Pitch him on X via DMs (@arian_ghashghai) or email (if no warm intro) ?? Check out Earthling VC portco Fid Labs who is hiring for a founding AI infra engineer! For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Earthling VC's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).