FOG Ventures

Shortlist of B2B teams shipping best-in-class content. All venture-backed, most have raised $25M+ in funding. Highly recommend checking them out: 1) Mercor - AI-powered hiring platform ($30M Series A) 2) Rox - agentic CRM and AI sales swarms ($50M RTD) 3) Puzzle ???? - generative accounting platform ($50M RTD) 4) Render - modern cloud application platform ($80M Series C) 5) Clay - GTM sales intelligence tooling ($40M Series B Extension) 6) Leya - AI-powered workspace for law firms ($25M Series A) 7) Vanta - leading trust management platform ($150M Series C) 8) Riverside.fm - AI-driven podcast recording tooling ($30M Series C) 9) Vooma - multi-channel agents for logistics ($13M Series A) 10) Hyperline - monetization tools for finance teams ($14M Seed)

Last week, I discussed Letters of Intent in the context of early stage customer acquisition. LOIs can be used in other major commercial relationships and transactions, such as in joint development and acquisitions. In today’s post, I discuss Design Partner Agreements, which can be used for early stage startups in early customer acquisition as well as for more mature companies launching new products. Read on to understand when these agreements are useful for your company and the types of provisions they should include. https://lnkd.in/giNbnRgj

When I started my first company back in 2012, I realized something big: Accountants are the heartbeat of every business—they’re the ones keeping everything honest behind the scenes. But, I also noticed they’re often stuck with outdated, manual tools, doing work that could and should be automated. This seemed almost designed to hold them back from reaching their full potential. So, 3 companies and many years later, we decided to build Puzzle ????— to give accountants the modern accounting tools they deserve. Over the past few months, we’ve been hearing more and more from accountants about what they need to make their work faster and less repetitive, and it’s clear they’re ready for a change. In just under a year since launching to the public, Puzzle has: - Handled over $30B in transactions - Supported 3,000+ businesses, 400+ bookkeepers - Double our new signups last month alone! So, why do accountants deserve better tools? The reality is tough. - With 75% of accountants nearing retirement and 300K+ leaving the field, burnout is at an all-time high - Excel and QuickBooks have barely changed since the ’80s - Some in the industry tell clients to “fire their accountants” Puzzle has a different vision: empowering, not replacing, accounting professionals. Today, I’m thrilled to announce Puzzle’s next-gen accrual accounting solution, which automates 90% of an accountant’s routine tasks. Big shoutout to VentureBeat Michael Nu?ez for covering our launch! Link in comments????

Announcing our $25M Series A led by General Catalyst ?? We started Tabs less than 24 months ago Our mission is to build the world’s most powerful Revenue Automation Platform for Finance ? Why? Relative to other areas of the Finance Stack (e.g. AP, Spend, Payroll), Revenue has been left behind Most teams manually aggregate critical commercial data in spreadsheets or rely on insanely painful custom integrations between ERP and CRM ...and after all this get paid late and spend hundreds of hours a year building custom reports Tabs via our powerful AI driven “Commercial Graph” handles Billing, Collections, Payments, Revenue Recognition, Renewals and Reporting, all purpose built for B2B Since coming out of Stealth ~6 months ago with our Seed led by Lightspeed, we’ve quickly scaled to 7-figures and built a product used daily by some of the fastest growing B2B companies and respected operators in the world! Thank you to our customers, accounting partners / advisors and operators who helped us get started and build so quickly Special shoutout to our Seed investors who believed in us and doubled down: ? Brian Schechter and Rachel Pavey from Primary Venture Partners ? Justin Overdorff, Sam Eisler and Aaron Frank from Lightspeed ? Joe Montana / Matthew Mulvey from Liquid 2 Ventures, Vivek Krishnamurthy from Commerce Ventures, Jonathan Weiner, Matthew Harrigan and Nelson Boone Schubart from Company Ventures, Lex Zhao and Semyon Dukach from One Way Ventures and Wesley Yiu from Alumni Ventures And a warm welcome to the new investors joining us in this round: ? Alex Tran and Nathaniel Levy-Westhead from General Catalyst (Joining our Board) ? Gokul Rajaram ? Casey Woo and the entire FOG Ventures syndicate? ? Kiran Lingam and Greg Raiten from The F Suite? ? Imraan Ahmed and Zunaira Arshad Watershed Ventures? Learn more about the fundraise and our future (blog post and media linked in comments).

Payroll is the team you might not see, but definitely appreciate on payday ?? Here are some fun facts about payroll: ?? In some cultures, it’s considered bad luck to pay employees on Friday the 13th. This superstition stems from the idea that anything initiated on this day could be unlucky, so some companies avoid processing payroll on this date. ?? The U.S. government processes payroll for over 2 million federal employees, making it the largest payroll system in the world. ?? ?? ?? ?? In ancient Egypt, workers were paid in beer, bread, grain, meat, and cloth rations - which one would you pick? ?? ?? In Japan, some companies offer employees the option to be paid in rice instead of cash. This harkens back to traditional times when rice was considered a form of currency and a symbol of wealth.

Miss these 2 important steps in your budgeting cycle and you might as well throw away your entire forecast and start over. 1. Identifying revenue and expense gaps 2. Reviewing levers and leakages (to address those gaps) Gaps between revenue projections (revenue engine-related like leads, conversion rates, etc.) and leadership targets (misaligned investments) will happen. Accurately identifying these gaps can make OR break your company’s ability to achieve its plan, so it's important to be thorough here. Then, you can address these gaps by reviewing levers (opportunities for improvement) and leakages (operational waste) within the business to create a flywheel of opportunities to pull from. Reviewing levers and leakages should answer questions like: ? How do we fill the gap? ? Which levers are most viable? ? What has to be true to achieve them? ? Which ones are we willing to commit? Need to get the full picture of navigating budget season? Check out the blog (link in comments). #spendmanagement #finance #budgeting

As a founder deeply invested in the future of SaaS, I spend a lot of time thinking about how AI is fundamentally reshaping how we approach pricing. Traditional models like seat-based pricing are becoming less effective in an AI-driven world where usage can be unpredictable, and costs fluctuate rapidly. Exploring a more flexible, dynamic pricing model is the first step, but it doesn’t come without challenges. It’s worth it, though — pricing can be a massive lever for growth. If you’re curious about how to approach making the switch to usage-based pricing, this piece is for you. I’m excited to write in Forbes Technology Council about the implications in greater detail. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/g6HuvRcz

Fun fact: one of our co-founders previously worked as a neuroscientist ??

Last night, Puzzle ???? & Brex joined forces to host an intimate dinner for female founders ??—and it was nothing short of magical! A huge thank you to everyone who joined us and made the evening truly unforgettable ? With over 80 events happening every week in SF, it means the world to us that you chose to spend your night with us. We shared what we’re working on, the challenges we’re facing, and what makes San Francisco such a special place. One of the founders put it perfectly—it’s all about hope. Hope to make an impact, to make a difference, and to build something truly special! And we’re beyond excited to support you on this incredible journey with Puzzle ????! Let’s keep building and dreaming together! Breeze L. Elina Vale Sandy Li Aditi Aggarwal Kate Sullivan Vanessa Karel Funda Ozge Sahin Ning M. Ana Robakidze Chandrika Maheshwari Claire Xie Ebru Y?ld?r?m Gul Gracie Jing Marcela Gelhoren Meaghan Uhl Dasha Shunina