focal

On the future of autonomous cars and robots ?? - “Using generative AI and combining it with deep teaching, we're able to essentially take any of those real data sets that we've collected or sourced and then train world models that can dramatically expand the scope of those data sets. Because we're able to get very high-fidelity simulation, essentially closing the gap between real data and simulated data, we can get orders of magnitude and more variety in those data sets. So it's as if you drove a thousand times more than you did foreign. Vladislav Voroninski, CEO & Founder of Helm.ai, breaks this down on the latest episode of 5 Year Frontier. He and Daniel dive into simulating physical environments, helping car makers leapfrog Tesla, real-world AI models, the economics of self-driving cars, autonomous mines, and the future of autonomy. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts. #5YF #AutonomousDriving #Robotics

"If you want to build a differentiator product from the start, you now need to nail the distribution even earlier." Our very own Pascal Unger shared this insight with InformationWeek, discussing venture capital trends in 2025! If you follow his newsletter, you'll recognize this topic, as it's one we talk about a lot with founders these days. Worth checking out the article and his newsletter!

I recently re-listened to the?Invest Like the Best podcast episode with Douglas Leone. Not only does it contain many incredible lessons from one of the greats in venture but Doug also highlights one of the most important things for early stage startups when asked what Sequoia Capital looks for in early stage investments:?Singularity of purpose. Startups succeed not by doing more, but by doing less exceptionally well. Now more so than ever before. Check out the article for more.

If you're a startup founder building a catalytic company for the future of fintech and/or commerce enablement, you should absolutely know this investor. In case you don't, this week's findfunding spotlight is on Jeremy Jonker from Infinity Ventures. He: ?? Is San Francisco based ?? Is the former Head of M&A PayPal and founder of PayPal Ventures ?? Co-runs Noble Goat Farm in Sonoma County with his wife Amongst founders, Jeremy and the rest of the team at Infinity Ventures, including Samantha Klingelhofer, Jay Ganatra, and Mario Ruiz are known for being in the trenches TOGETHER, bringing their deep sector experience in fintech and commerce enablement to the table. ?? To get in touch, make sure to pitch him at jeremy@infinityvc[dot]capital For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Infinity Ventures' profile on findfunding[dot]vc (link in comments).

Our CEO, Cobi, spoke with Daniel at focal about the Medicare landscape, AI's role in health insurance plan matching, and lessons he learned at Palantir that influence how he's building Chapter. Find links to the podcast episode in the comments.

On the future of the US healthcare system ?? - “We can support, you know, one or two people for a given Medicare advisor to we can support 10,000 people or a hundred thousand people or a million people with a given Medicare advisor if you have the right tools and the right technology.” Cobi B., CEO & Co-Founder of Chapter, breaks this down on the latest episode of 5 Year Frontier. He and Daniel dive into the mission for radical transparency, challenging entrenched insurance providers, personalized healthcare, and AI’s empowerment of patient choice. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts. #5YF #Chapter #Healthcare #Medicare

I had a great time recording this podcast with Daniel Darling, Sydney Wasikowski and team at focal. We talk a bit about... - The future of data infrastructure - Ever increasing demand for compute resources - The massive amounts of untapped enterprise data - A bit about #deepseek, energy-efficiency, and how AI is transforming data processing and the ways in which Voltron Data is tackling these problems Give us a listen on: Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g3BQ-Y6t YouTube: https://lnkd.in/grjMCaXF Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gZQfQjEr #dataprocessing #ai #ml #voltrondata #

“90% of the data that organizations have just go unused. And so in addition to this mission that we're on around making data analytics just really more cost efficient, more affordable, it's also awakening companies and organizations a bit to the art of the possible. And we want to make sure that people know that they can unlock this and there's tons of insights that they can get.” Craig Dunham, CEO of Voltron Data, breaks this down on the latest episode of 5 Year Frontier. He and Daniel dive into the explosion in compute demand, the petabytes of untapped enterprise data, energy-efficient GPUs, DeepSeek AI, the $500B Stargate project, and how AI is transforming data processing. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts. #5YF #VoltronData #VC #DataProcessing

If you're an early-stage founder looking for investors with an operator mentality - here's an investor you should know. This week's findfunding spotlight is on David Brown from Impellent Ventures. He: ?? Is Rochester, NY based ?? Says this on the website - "show us how big you think. We love that sh*t." ?? Loves spending time with family and has two big vices in skiing?? and golf?? Amongst founders, David and his team at Impellent , including Philip H. Beauregard are known for being hands on and community / support-centric investors focused on optimizing your outcome. ?? To pitch him, make sure to reach out to david@impellent[dot]vc with a deck and a note on why you and your team are unique For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Impellent's profile on findfunding[dot]vc (link in comments).

In early-stage venture, decisions are made with little to no data (at least on the company) available - and often under time pressure. When it comes to their decision making process, investors can broadly be put into two camps: 1/ Lean on structured processes - think formal due diligence, multi-step approvals, etc to maintain objectivity and ensure critical aspect are properly assessed. 2/ No formal process (unstructured) / rely more on intuition, trusting a gut feeling honed by experience and pattern recognition. Both approaches have real advantages / disadvantages. Structured methods reduce impulsive decisions and mitigate certain biases, but they can also lead to missed opportunities if the startup doesn’t fit a predefined mold. Meanwhile, an intuitive investor can move quickly and seize deals that might appear unorthodox on paper - yet intuition is prone to biases like overconfidence or FOMO. For founders, it’s valuable to identify which style you’re dealing with. A structured VC might want as many data points as possible and a thorough plan, whereas an intuitive investor may connect more with your vision and storytelling. The reality is that especially at pre-seed / seed, most investors are somewhere in the middle. Yet understanding what side they lean towards more lets you tailor your pitch and improves your odds of forging a strong partnership. For example at focal, Daniel Darling focuses much more on the vision and storytelling whereas I spend my time on challenging your thinking on how you want to build your business.