RDF Ventures

Had the chance to chat with James Maloney from NBC5 about our gener8tor powered StartUp Rutland accelerator, upcoming programs and some of the incredible founders we’ve supported, featuring Brightwater Tools and Aprexis Health Solutions. Applications for our StartUp Rutland gALPHA program are due by March 31! Apply now - https://lnkd.in/gMyuNxMe via NBC5 Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region

Quick Q4 2024 Recap: ? Boston Consulate Event I had the honor of speaking at the Consulate General of Japan in Boston, representing gener8tor at an event hosted by JETRO - Japan External Trade Organization . It was an incredible opportunity to share insights on fostering collaboration between Japanese markets looking to enter US markets and more. Huge thanks to Kevin Kalb and the entire JETRO team for making it all happen! ??? New York Highlights This quarter brought great energy back to NYC! I attended some amazing startup and investor events. Highlights included attending Techstars's Investor Event, T Palmer Agency's Founder Dinner (huge thanks to Thien-Nga Palmer & Jasmine for having me!), Tavern Community Coworking event at Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, the Feedback Loop's pitch event (w/ Sherveen Mashayekhi), being a panelist at a tech pitch roast (Snark Tank) hosted by Elizabeth Swaney OLY (Olympian) & Yorkseed, pitch competition at French Consulate General in New York, and, of course, the amazing Investor Gala hosted by Brett (Bulletpitch!) and Varun. Exciting conversations and collaborations ahead! ?? San Francisco Highlights Our Executives on a Plane trip for gener8tor’s Corporate Innovation Network was an incredible time in San Francisco connecting with our CIN members and partners. Over three days, we visited incredible organizations like Airtable, The Westly Group (Danny Cotter), SOSV(Mohan Iyer), Silicon Foundry (Neal Hansch) at Salesforce HQ, Shuman Mitra from L'Oréal, and my favorite, Berkeley SkyDeck (shoutout to Sanjay Velappan!). The trip highlight for me was a chat with Golden State Warriors Ventures (Ben Draa), featuring a dinner and tour of their world-class stadium and facilities. Lastly, a huge thanks to Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) for the great closing happy hour! Massive thanks to Aidan and the g8 team for an incredible few days. ??? All-In Podcast Live Event Wrapping up Q4, I attended the All-In Podcast Holiday Party in SF — an inspiring mix of insights and entertainment. Listening to industry leaders share their thoughts on tech, venture, and the economy with Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg, David Sachs, Aaron Levie, & more. Plus, I enjoyed a fun poker session with fellow investors & founders (Eric Zhu and I might need to rethink our investment strategy for the next round! ??). ?? Looking Ahead Here’s to an incredible Q4 and even bigger things in 2025! Stay tuned for exciting news about StartUp Rutland x gener8tor’s 2025 accelerator program schedule for Vermont — (hint: two programs are better than one!) and RDF Ventures update!

What a phenomenal end to our first gener8tor powered StartUp Rutland accelerator, alongside Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region's Annual Meeting! ?? I couldn’t be prouder of our incredible cohort founders who took the stage and showcased the results of their hard work over the past 7-weeks as part of the Startup Rutland accelerator powered by gener8tor. The energy at The Paramount Theater in Rutland, VT was electric, and each team delivered a powerful presentation. A massive thank you to all of our mentors, supporters, and everyone who showed up to cheer on our founders, including representatives from our State Legislature—you helped make this event a success! ?? Your guidance, time, and effort played a critical role in driving these startups forward. Special thanks to Mayor Michael Doenges for the continued support. Special moment for me on stage as well, announcing RDF Ventures, my new early-stage venture fund aimed at supporting more founders like them in Vermont. Huge thanks to Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA), The Vermont Community Foundation & H. Kenneth Merritt, Jr. for the support and confidence. More to come soon. ? Grateful to be part of this journey and looking forward to continuing building this vibrant ecosystem. Massive thanks to my team at gener8tor, specially Jake Pollastrini, and my team at CEDRR & The Hub CoWorks, and everyone else who made this program and our pitch event possible. ?? Huge thanks to EastRise Credit Union for presenting a $5,000 audience choice award to Brightwater Tools! Lastly, I'm in Boston speaking at the Consulate General of Japan in Boston with JETRO - Japan External Trade Organization talking about startup and venture ecosystem building, representing gener8tor from Oct 24-25. If you're a founder or VC in town - let's grab coffee! ?? Brightwater Tools (Kim Nace, Jacqueline Gold), Aprexis Health (Rob Squire & Mike Howe), Skingenius (Yuliya P.), Cathoven AI (Erdi Tac)

RDF Ventures is excited to announce the launch of a $7M early-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in Rutland, VT. This Fund is dedicated to supporting startups emerging from StartUp Rutland's gener8tor powered accelerator cohorts, along with investing in promising entrepreneurs across Vermont. We extend our gratitude to Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) for their confidence, reflected in a contingent allocation of $3.5M in limited partner capital from the Us Treasury Department's SSBCI program. Our thanks also goes to the The Vermont Community Foundation and H. Kenneth Merritt, Jr. for their continued support. More updates to follow soon. Please contact our Founder & GP Mose Cassaro for more details.

Quick September Recap: ? We officially kicked off our StartUp Rutland accelerator program powered by gener8tor with an incredible cohort of startups including Tacitly, Brightwater Tools, Aprexis Health Solutions, Skingenius & Cathoven AI. It's been exciting to get to work together and see the progress they've already made, and I'm grateful to be a small part of their journey. ?? Huge thanks to Carta and Ryan O'Conor for hosting a fantastic workshop that brought so much value to our founders on foundational equity and fundraising. ?? Grateful to Google team (Andrea Perdomo & Alex Marcus) for collaborating on another insightful workshop for Google Cloud & Google for Startups. ?? I had a great time speaking on the panel for Founder Institute and the FounderSquare's investor panel at Microsoft, thanks to Silvia Lupu for a great event. It's always inspiring to share insights and connect with so many passionate founders and innovators back home in NYC. Particularly enjoyed connecting and hearing from my fellow panelists Reid Hamilton, Aryuna Merdygeeva & Daniel Nelson. ?? It was great hosting and meeting the Chinese Deputy Consul General and his delegation at The Hub CoWorks. The exchange of ideas was truly inspiring, and I'm looking forward to building stronger ties. ?? Had an amazing experience attending the Kauffman Fellows retreat at the Trapp Family Lodge, hosted by Trevor Barlow and Jenny Barba. The retreat was an inspiring opportunity to connect with fellow investors and leaders in the venture ecosystem. It was great reconnecting with some ecosystem leaders and particularly enjoyed connecting with Dhruv Sehrraa. ?? Lastly, mark your calendars for October 23rd—we’re hosting our Accelerator Demo Day at the Paramount Theater in Rutland, VT from 5-7PM in collaboration with Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region's Annual Meeting. It’s going to be an exciting event where our cohort startups will showcase their progress! Can’t wait to see everyone there!

I've been working with Silvia Lupu for most of 2024. First with the NYC Innovation Collective and more recently she has pitched in and helped out with Founder Institute - New York. During this year, she's mentioned that she helped put together a founder meetup, originally they met at Newlab and then started meeting in a "classroom" at Microsoft. Well, last night I had the opportunity to do my first FounderSquare Pitch Night, and saying she was underselling what she has built with the help of Jamie Redington and Igor Volodin have built is itself a giant understatement. What a great event and amazing community she has brought together. There were over 100 founders, investors, and other builders in the audience across many different sectors and stages from the NY startup ecosystem. We heard pitches from 6 talented founders, creating startups to solve real problems they have experienced themselves. Dror Margalit Uyen Nguyen Abdul Rabbani Eliot Brown Ken Colangelo, CFA Zeid Harb Thanks to my fellow panelists Daniel Nelson Aryuna Merdygeeva Mose Cassaro for asking great questions and giving some excellent recommendations on where they might be able to improve.

Meet our expert panel for Thursday ?? ?? Are you a founder or investor? Join us by signing up here - https://lu.ma/485dxqkv FounderSquare and Founder Institute are co-hosting a "Pitch and Network" night on Thursday 19th, where five Founders will pitch their start-ups to a panel of experts and an audience of 100 fellow founders, receiving candid and valuable feedback. Not ready to pitch? No problem! You’re still welcome to register, listen to innovative startup ideas, and observe how experts evaluate and provide business insights. Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday ?? Silvia Lupu Reid Hamilton Jamie Redington Mose Cassaro Aryuna Merdygeeva Daniel Nelson

What an incredible week in SF with Lauren at the Startup Luxembourg Internationalization Bootcamp cohort powered by gener8tor followed by the LP Summit hosted by IIE.VC & Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center. It was amazing to see Menachem from gener8tor at his best and witness the incredible work he and the cohort have accomplished with Patrick Goergen and Lisa Kucher from RespectUs, Alberto Noronha from NIUM and Chanukya Patnaik and Deepak Chawla from AI Planet. Here are a few key highlights from the week: ??? Dinner with Ryan Baird & Sophia Nguyen from Baird Augustine was a highlight, as Ryan provided exceptional advice for emerging managers and shared his inspiring journey. ?? Meeting Kevin Dick from Right Side Capital Management, who shared some invaluable insights with our cohort. ???? Celebrating Luxembourg National Day and hearing the Startup Luxembourg Internationalization Bootcamp cohort powered by gener8tor present their pitches was a delight. It was an honor to meet Daniel Da Cruz, the Counsel General of Luxembourg. ?? Attending the LP Summit hosted by IIE.VC was a big highlight, where Karl Fooks from U.S Dept. of Treasuery shared some great insights into the SSBCI program and Manan M. from Unshackled Ventures shared his journey and some highly relatable anecdotes, alongside Lauren, H. Kenneth Merritt, Jr., and Jeff Chu. Congrats to chris trinetti and the whole IIE.VC team for their continued success, and a huge thanks to them for their hard work and the support they continue to provide our ecosystem. ?? Lastly, a huge thanks to the team at Waymo for allowing me to experience the future of mobility with completely autonomous ridesharing and for extending the invite. It was a 10/10 experience each time, and I could not have felt safer. I cannot wait for this to scale to the east. The conference season continues!

What an incredible week it has been at NYC TECH WEEK by a16z. The energy and connections made were absolutely phenomenal and reminded me of pre-covid tech week vibes. Here are few key events from the latter part of the week: ?? VC Speed Dating at Google was an amazing experience where I got to meet some incredible founders and funders from LatAm, including a gener8tor alumni, Carmen! (Dollarito, gBETA Houston ‘21). Thanks to Andrés Cano, Rafael Barroso, Susana, Jorge, Pygma, Juan and team for setting this up and hosting us. Always great to visit my friends at Google. ?? Also got to meet some amazing talent via VC Open Office Hours organized by nextNYC. The level of talent and innovation was truly inspiring and the platform shift remains evident. (special s/o to fotostax & team for the incredible live demo). ?? The Panel at UiPath office at One Vanderbilt was specially informative. It was great to meet some amazing European founders and the team at Crew Capital (Dylan & Andrew). Dylan, Alex Urdea, CFA at Deep Ocean Partners & UIPath team shared some great insights. Thanks to Rubik Hub & UiPath for hosting us. ?? The Antler Pitch Event was another highlight. It was fantastic to see the innovative ideas being presented in the franchise space and meeting early founders building scrappy & innovative products. Also great to reconnect with Besart from Antler there. ?? Haiper hands-on demo was also fun to watch and play with. (s/o to Stacie for remaining solid through technical difficulties and being an amazing host). Lastly, I had an amazing time talking everything RDF Ventures, gener8tor & StartUp Rutland. A massive thank you to everyone who made yet another tech week so memorable and looking forward to reconnecting with everyone that has been reaching out in the coming weeks. Next stop — LaunchVT Demo Night in Burlington, VT on June 11th, followed by SF for LP Summit hosted by IIE.VC & Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center. See you there!