Pear VC

"sf only has B2B startups rn" while numbers def say so, last week's session at the Pear VC office w the co-founder of Instacart offered a refreshingly contrarian perspective. the golden age of consumer tech isn't behind us—it's unfolding right now. why? as Max explained, "consumers have been conditioned by ChatGPT and every other AI app to believe new stuff is coming out all the time, and it's worth the quick trial. that wasn't true just 2/3 years ago when the average person would say 'I don't need any more apps.'" this shift in psychology—from app fatigue to curiosity—creates an unprecedented opportunity. what struck me wasn't just this insight, but the entire journey from shower-desk offices to ipo, and the psychological principles that drove their decisions at every turn. if you've never experienced PMF, max explained, you might think it feels like someone asking for your product or telling you they'd be disappointed if they can't have it. but the reality? what it really should feel like is sailing a sailboat and then suddenly, a giant wind comes from behind you, and you're just going really fast and you don't know why. that's what it feels like when you have pmf the insight behind Instacart wasn't just "grocery delivery" but recognizing that: > the job wasn't "fill my fridge" but "check grocery shopping off my weekly to-do list" > the moment of satisfaction comes when placing the order, not receiving it > referrals work best in that precise moment of completion here's an interesting stat: they didn't spend A DOLLAR on paid marketing until 2-3 years into the business (!) if you're building a consumer startup, stop getting sucked into the goog/meta ad omnium. focus on what matters. word of mouth / referrals for acquisition and in this case, retention was natural - if customers didn't have a disappointing delivery experience, they'd come back weekly or even multiple times per week. and one for those struggling to raise: here's a v interesting anecdote when pitching Instacart in 2012, investors would say, "grocery delivery has been tried before and failed spectacularly. why again?" max's answer revealed the strategic difference: "WebVan (raised over $1B) owned trucks, inventory, and employed delivery people. Instacart had the gig economy, people using their own smartphones and cars. their capital structure was completely different." he recognized that consumer behavior had fundamentally shifted since 2001 when "putting your credit card in a browser was a big deal" versus 2012 when smartphone adoption had changed everything. bottom line: > if you're a consumer founder pick high-frequency problems that consumers already know they have, particularly ones where people have attempted "DIY solutions" (a sign of genuine need) and go nail it rem: the challenge isn't getting users to try your product; it's building something worth coming back to. and and huge s/o to Warren for hosting this :)

Magi Richani and Alpine Bio let’s go!!!

Congrats to the W25 PearX Baton AI on their launch today. ?? Nancy Fang and Sagar P. have been hard at work these past few months and they're only getting started!

You know that rare feeling when you work with a founder before the world realizes how game-changing they are? When you see them quietly building something that will redefine an industry? That’s what if feels like to work with Sneha Sivakumar. And her company, Spur (YC S24), is about to transform how QA testing is done—forever. Already, Spur is delivering incredible results for customers like Living Spaces Furniture, Norse Atlantic Airways, and Wander. Results like: 80% test coverage with over 500 daily test -- converting testing that once took months and massive resources into an efficient, effective, and scalable system. What's the value of this? ? A better customer experience on travel booking and e-commerce sites (yes, please) ? Eliminating costly, conversion-killing bugs (yes, please) ? Never losing revenue to an unnoticed glitch (YES, please) For QA teams and business leaders alike, this is HUGE. I’m incredibly proud of Sneha and excited to share this Q&A article about her founding journey. Spur is the next big thing—calling it now. ?? ?? Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/gfXyX9n2 Pear VC #qatesting #qualityassurance #eliminatebugs #femalefounders #womenshistorymonth

Excited to announce ResiQuant's $4M Seed round led by LDV Capital, joined by Foothill Ventures, Pear VC, Alumni Ventures, and strategic angels. With catastrophic losses and reinsurance costs skyrocketing, the $200B US property insurance industry urgently needs better data. ResiQuant's platform combines structural engineering expertise with advanced AI to pinpoint hidden building vulnerabilities, empowering insurers to confidently underwrite, recommend adaptation actions, and maintain coverage in high-risk regions. Buildings aren't just datapoints—every structure has a unique story of resilience to tell. With ResiQuant, it will finally be possible to understand. This funding will be used to expand our AI and research teams as we scale our solution to insurers nationwide. We're deeply grateful to our investors for believing in our vision, and to our extraordinary team whose expertise and dedication make this mission possible. Special thanks to Evan Nisselson, Ash Cleary, Eric Rosenblum, Theresa (Wei) Dai, Mar Hershenson, Ajay Kamat, Alim Giga, Jeff Jones, GG Angels, Hamid Barkhordar and Luis S.. + our world-class team at Cooley LLP: Kevin K. Rooney, Kelly McCormick, and Michael Suyat. Read more about the announcement in the The Insurer exclusive. Thank you Mia MacGregor for the feature! ?? Read it here: https://lnkd.in/g-RB9jwW #InsurTech #AI #PropertyInsurance #ClimateResilience #SeedFunding

Exciting day for Pearl Street Technologies! Read all about their journey in Mar Hershenson’s blog today.

I was talking to my friend Parul Singh about how too much VC money can be detrimental. I have been working with pre-seed/seed/A at and with companies for the last 20+ years and I have observed first hand that the saying “constraints breeds creativity” is true. In my experience, a company with 18 months of runway gets much more done in the second nine months than the first. ?? Pre-seed Companies: When you are in the “idea maze” (coined by Andreessen Horowitz) or “drunken walk” having too much money does not necessarily speed up progress. Of course you may need some money for founder living expenses but having a larger team wandering through the "idea maze" together doesn't necessarily make the journey go faster. There is a certain level of founder reflection that has to happen while navigating the “idea maze” and too many distractions (people, money) makes it hard. I teach an entrepreneurship class? (LeanLaunchpad) every year. Out of the eight teams we have navigating the “idea maze”, about half will test and land on a reasonable idea in just ten weeks (including a simple MVP and even some paid POCs). Total budget: zero. With the multitude of AI tools, time to PMF is accelerating. Check out https://lnkd.in/guM7Ymn9 (AI companies revenue >10x SaaS companies). ?? Seed Companies: When you are going from the “idea maze” to “product market fit” and are trying to first build a product that a few customers love and second build a way to acquire these customers efficiently, having too much money can actually be counterproductive. Why? Because too much money often translates to wasting time on things that don’t matter: you are not forced to focus on the features that are absolutely critical, you can spend in non-efficient marketing methods (skipping the crafting of the product-growth loop) and you can afford to over hire or to keep the wrong people onboard. ??? Series A Companies: Post product market fit, when it is time to scale, money is absolutely critical. However there is one common failure mode: the “fake Series As”, the As that get overpriced without really having reached product-market fit. Take a seed in a hot space, a small team that has grown revenue to a few $100Ks or maybe even a million in just six months. There is little data on actual revenue stickiness or whether the founder-led sales motion can be replicated efficiently. There is a lot of competition to invest in the company and they end up raising $20M+ series A.? The founder feels confident, they are stretched-thin and they hire a bunch of folks. There is pressure to scale but the machine is not built yet (the product is not quite there, they can’t figure out how to get to customers efficiently) and things unravel. Venture money is like carbs: quality over quantity (not all money is equal); take in moderation (constraints bread creativity) and if you compete in endurance sports, you might need more carbs to perform well (if you are growing, you will need the cash).

Thank you Aliya Nur Babul and NVIDIA VC Alliance for featuring Pear VC and our portfolio company Atrix AI ahead of International Women's Day. Vera Kutsenko and the Atrix AI team is accelerating evidence-based decision-making that directly impacts patients and the future of medicine. We're excited for AI to fundamentally change how pharma and biotech teams work with unstructured data.

?????????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ???? ???????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????? ?????????? ???? ???????????? ???????? ??????????? What if Netflix changed their fee every month? Or AT&T doubled your bill on Christmas because you called more people? Sounds absurd, right? But we all tolerate something just as ridiculous every single month—our power bills. Power bills have doubled in the past decade. They’re the second largest expense for homes and businesses after rent. And unlike rent, they swing wildly from month to month. At EcoTrove, we’re here to fix it: ?? We replace unpredictable bills with a flat monthly subscription fee to the lowest cost energy ?? Our AI Energy Agent optimizes utility accounts so any business or home pays up to 10% less Ozge Islegen-Wojdyla, Ph.D. and I founded EcoTrove over a year ago and were lucky enough to be ???????????? ???? ?????? ???????????????? ??????????????????: Christine Astoria Manegan, Jess Kerlin and Tegan Fleishman. Now, we’re expanding our service area and announcing new partners! We are beyond excited to ?????????????? ?????? ??????-???????? ??????????????????: Mar Hershenson, Kathleen Estreich and Shravan Reddy from Pear VC; and Enis Hulli, Ar?n ?zkula and Kaan Eren from e2vc to our team. We are also proud to announce our new non-profit partner, The Farmlink Project. Just as we help avoid waste in power bills, Farmlink fights food waste and has already delivered over 300 million pounds of food across the US. ???? ???????? ???????????? $???? ???? ???????????????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????????????? ????????-???? ???????? ?????? ???????? ??????????, ?????????? ???????? ???????????????? ???????? ???????????????? ???????????????? ???? ?????? ???????????? ???????????????????? ??????????????????. Join us, lower your power bills and make us donate our entire pre-seed money to our friends at Farmlink :) ?? Curious? Let’s talk in the comments or DM me. ?? You can read the full story on our blog post. Link in the comments.

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