Mercato

From the small details to the shared moments, this year's Annual Meeting in Chicago stood out. The Second City has always been kind to us, but during this trip the city welcomed us in even more and provided the perfect backdrop for us to connect with our Limited Partners and introduce them to a few of the reasons why we're all-in on Chicago: ?? Education is the bedrock for any successful entrepreneurial ecosystem and Chicago sports two top 15 universities, with Illinois producing the second most computer science graduates in the country. ??♂? Home to 15 Fortune 500 companies (with the broader state of Illinois home to 37), Chicago is an elite training ground for future founders. ???? Chicago is the leading city for both female- and POC- founded companies. 34% of Chicago’s start-ups are run by women—the highest concentration of any metro in the world. Further, with over 1200 minority-owned businesses, Chicago is the #1 city for early stage funding for black and latin founders.

After a fantastic week in Chicago spent with our investors, portfolio executives, and ecosystem partners at our 2024 Annual Meeting, we are back at it! Find us headed east today as we hit the road to spend time with the team at Attain, attend Michigan Tech Week, and visit with our Limited Partners in the horse capital of the world, Lexington. ?? p.s. – Be on the lookout Tuesday through Friday. We'll be sharing behind-the-scene moments from our Annual Meeting in The Windy City every (other) day this week!

At our annual meeting today, Dr. Wendy Borlabi Psy. D. shared lessons with us that she’s taught the Chicago Bulls, Olympians, and even the Navy SEALs: growth mindset; winning and learning; and managing adversity. Mercato is so fortunate to learn from you today, Dr. Borlabi!

The team is off to Chicago en masse for our 2024 Traverse Annual Meeting this week! To everyone making their way to the midwest, travel safe! We look forward to welcoming all of our limited partners, portfolio executives, and ecosystem friends to the Windy City ??

Navigating investor and board relationships can be a daunting, difficult task for first-time and seasoned CEOs alike. By approaching the relationship with trust and transparency, roles and expectations can be clearly set, conflict and ambiguity can be avoided, and you can begin to identify how to best lean on a board for support. ?? Frequently check in with and update the board on ongoing changes. Contact should extend beyond quarterly board meetings and calling with problems. Make sure the board is informed of changes to the strategic course of the business. Make the calls and keep board directors abreast of developments. Otherwise, they’ll be unpleasantly surprised to hear about changes for the first time in board meetings. ?? Discuss expectations (especially for a first-time CEO). There’s often an unstated assumption the CEO should know what to do. As a result, a CEO doesn't want to ask for expectations because it reveals vulnerability. Rather, the CEO needs to get clarity from investors to stave off this sink or swim mentality. ?? Don’t try to keep up appearances for investors. Transparency doesn’t come naturally when you get the big job. CEOs often feel like they need to have a pristine image and make everything seem perfect. Bring the board along on the journey—including, and especially with, any problems.? Investors should not be there to inspect and judge, but collaborate.

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I’m Excited to see NVIDIA highlighting the innovative work of Protopia AI, one of our portfolio companies! Protopia's Stained Glass Transform, accelerated by NVIDIA DGX Cloud, is addressing a critical challenge in AI adoption: enabling organizations to leverage large language models while maintaining robust data privacy. Key advantages of this technology: - Enhances data protection in AI applications - Preserves utility of transformed data for LLMs - Offers computational efficiency and low latency This is a breakthrough for industries where data security is paramount, potentially unlocking new AI use cases previously hindered by privacy concerns. Congratulations to the Protopia AI team on this recognition from NVIDIA and being integrated into DGX Cloud. Your work is at the forefront of responsible AI innovation. For those in my network interested in the intersection of AI and data privacy, I encourage you to learn more about Protopia's approach. It represents an important step forward in making AI more accessible and secure for enterprises. #AI #DataPrivacy #Innovation #NVIDIA #Mercato Eiman Ebrahimi Kyle Mylonakis Abhishek Ratna Jennifer Cwagenberg Andrew Samson Mercato

Exciting to see the expanding relationship between Cigna Healthcare and Paytient, innovatively and collaboratively enabling affordable access to healthcare for millions of Americans. https://lnkd.in/gEk3uRy9

Cheers to the Fika Ventures team on your fundraise! We look forward to lifting a glass with you next month at LA Tech Week ??

Ruthless prioritization is an essential skillset for managing the CEO workload. By developing a clear view of the top business priorities, a CEO can better decide what and when to delegate. ? Have a framework for deciding what’s really important. As CEO, you need to know what’s priority and how you’re going to track those initiatives that are particularly important. Hone your prioritization skills so you can spend time and attention on the most important areas. ? Hand off decisions that aren’t make-or-break. The more you take on, the more often you get work deferred to you. If you have great leaders, they can take items off your plate, and figure out how to deliver outcomes and results. If you don’t, you let people off the hook and take on the accountability as the CEO. You want to be involved in big negotiations or deal presentations on a point basis and never want to let a leader make a critically wrong decision, but you want to give your leadership team ownership and responsibility. ? Understand that good delegation is a skill that’s learned with experience. While some first-time CEOs can come into a business and know where they can be hands-off and what’s important for them to track closely, most CEOs build pattern recognition and knowledge after having done it a few times. These are great areas for first-time CEOs to receive coaching on. #mercatocompass