Hi there,
Welcome to the 111th edition of Heartcore Insights. Curated with 🖤 by the Heartcore Team.
If you missed the past newsletters, you can catch up here. Now, let’s dive in!
Modern Meditations of Danny Rimer - Mario Gabriele
Danny Rimer is an investor at Index Ventures. He has been ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s top investors for over a decade. Mario Gabriele dives into his thoughts, and we digest them for you:
Early aspirations: Danny's childhood dreams revolved around becoming a cultural ambassador or cultural minister, inspired by the cultural policies of France during President Mitterrand's era. This early passion for cultural integration informs his approach to venture capitalism.
Taking risks: Taking calculated risks is crucial. Great leaders sometimes need to see the bigger picture and stay true to their convictions, even in the face of resistance.
Founder traits: Rimer looks for specific traits in founders that mirror the characteristics of jazz legend John Coltrane. Coltrane's ability to expand the boundaries of jazz through improvisation resonates with Rimer's investment philosophy. He seeks entrepreneurs who have a profound connection with their work and a relentless pursuit of their vision.
Trusting instincts: Rimer has learned to trust his gut instincts more over the years, sometimes going against rational analysis when investing. Following his intuition has positively influenced his investment decisions. Case in point: Figma, where he trusted his instincts about Dylan and Evan's potential to create a category-defining product design company, despite their age and lack of prior experience.
Being a Partner: Rimer considers himself more than just an investor; he strives to be the best partner to entrepreneurs. Important tools: open communication and providing constructive feedback. To build strong, transparent relationships with founders, he aims to create a culture of mutual learning and growth.
TAM irrelevance: Danny challenges the significance of TAM as an investment criterion. Looking beyond market size and focusing on disruptive potential are more important. Case in point: Etsy and Figma.
Art appreciation: Art plays a significant role in Rimer's life, offering inspiration, connection, and honing his valuation skills as a VC. His role as an investor parallels the subjectivity of art. Appreciating and recognizing brilliance in art reflects Danny’s approach to recognizing the potential of disruptive founders and companies.
Future EQ: The next generation will prioritize EQ in the context of AI and the heavy emphasis on STEM education. Danny envisions a future where the development and application of EQ will be crucial to differentiate humans from increasingly intelligent technologies.
Recommended reading: Poetry by Kevin Young for its accessible language and emotional impact, highlighting the importance of appreciating the beauty of words and art as a form of connection and cultural preservation.
Era of innovation and polarization: Rimer characterizes the current era as one marked by rapid innovation but also polarization. Societal changes are occurring at an unprecedented pace, raising concerns about control and adaptation. However, Danny believes that humanity will ultimately find ways to harness the speed of change for positive transformation.
Lux Capital’s LP Letter - Q3 2023
Lux Capital's LP Letter emphasizes the necessity for objective understanding and realism amidst technological advancements and global challenges, promoting a balanced view on progress and innovation. We’ve broken it down:
The quest for objective truth: The evolution of science is driven by the advancement of instruments, i.e. the transition from reliance on the human eye, which is limited and susceptible to more complex tools. These instruments expand human perception and progress but also vary in effect and selection. In the digital age, we must seek instrumental objectivity by questioning what we are seeing, ensuring that our eyes and our instruments see real truth and not merely its shrouded shadows.
This year has been filled with tragedy. War, death, terror, refugees from climate and conflict, political dysfunction, rising interest rates, inflation, indebtedness. While acknowledging the negatives, we should not lose sight of substantial scientific and technological advances. In the midst of negativity, there is potential for seeing how science, engineering, and entrepreneurial growth continue unabated. A renewal of focus on reason and science through instrumental objectivity is crucial: incrementally negative surprises seem less likely today than substantial positive surprises, especially as science produces compounding progress by creating new ventures. Looking ahead, there is a future shaped by scientists, engineers, and founders that is a more desirable place we all wish to live in.
Current economic developments and market dynamics continue to impact the VC industry. LPs have more options for yield in capital markets today, leading to a decline in venture capital inflows. Consequently, valuations, IPOs, M&A and exit valuations have fallen and VC deal activity and startup cash balances are crunched.
Unrealistic techno-utopian expectations overlook the limitations and challenges of technological progress. Unbridled technological advancement is not a cure-all. The present favors a near future with instrumental objectivity, as past optimism in the venture industry led to excessive funding of futuristic fantasies with no substance (case in point: WeWork). Money now will flow to the more probable, pressing and meaningful things. True progress streams from critical thinking, error correction, and a balanced understanding of technological capabilities.
There is a need for critical discernment in the digital age. Navigating disinformation and continuing the quest for truth. We must continue to combat disinformation and maintain open systems for error correction. Awareness is needed around the proliferation of generative AI models; there must be systems in place that trend towards truth and reality.
"Technology" originates from the Greek words "techne" (craft or art) and "logia" (study or discourse). Technology is thus the mastery of the scientific knowledge of tools, machines, and techniques to very practically make and do stuff that solves problems. The reality is that technology is an instrument through which we unveil objectivity and reality is the power to know.
The 2023 SaaS Funding Napkin (YouTube) - Christoph Janz
State of European Tech 2023 Report - Atomico
Colonizing Mars isn't a rocket problem - Elliot Hershberg
Peter Lee on the Future of Health and Medicine - Reid Hoffmann
Vibes vs. Data - Noah Smith
Slow-burn AI: When augmentation, not automation, is the real threat - Sangeet Paul Choudary
Crafting a compelling product vision - Lenny Rachitsky
Lessons on building a viral consumer app: The story of Saturn - Lenny Rachitsky
🇪🇺 Notable European early-stage rounds
ScorePlay, a Portugal-based AI-powered content manager for professional sports, raises €4.5M with Seven Seven Six - link
Ivy, a German-based API for instant bank payments, raises €7M with Creandum - link
Rever, a Spain-based return management software for e-commerces, raises $7.5M with GFC - link
Supercritical, a UK-based company building a carbon removal market, raises $13M with Lightspeed/MMC/RTP - link
AutogenAI, a UK-based generative AI tool for writing bids and pitches, raises $22.3 million with Blossom - link
🇺🇸 Notable US early-stage rounds
Foraged, a US-based marketplace for wild and specialty foods, raises $2.7M with Bessemer - link
Maza, a US-based fintech providing immigrants with a tax identity to build financial history, raises $8M with a16z - link
Heard Technologies, a US-based financial back office for therapists, raises $15M with Headline/GGV - link
Sound, a US-based music startup connecting artists and listeners, raises $20M with a16z - link
Bedrock, a US-based ocean mapping system, raises $25M with Northzone/Primary/Quiet - link
Captions, a US-based AI-powered video studio, raises $25M with Kleiner Perkins/a16z/SVA/Sequoia - link
Gardens, a US-based game studio growing the future of online social play, raises $31.3M with Lightspeed/Krafton - link
🔭 Notable later stage rounds
Volt, a UK-based open banking fintech, raises $60M with IVP/EQT/Fuel - link
Collective, a US-based fintech offering financial solutions designed for self-employed business owners, raises $50M with General Catalyst/QED/Gradiant - link
Render, a US-based cloud provider for apps and websites, raises $50M with Bessemer/General Catalyst - link
Nothing, a UK-based consumer tech company developing digital technologies such as smartphones, raises $96M with Highland/EQT/GV - link
Redpanda, a US-based streaming data platform, raises $100M with Lightspeed/GV - link
Typeface, a US-based generative AI application to create personalized content creation for businesses, raises $100M with Salesforce/Lightspeed/GV/Menlo - link
🖤 Heartcore News
We achieved a €15M first-close of our first ever dedicated Web3 Fund!! Our inaugural crypto fund is dedicated to protocols and their native tokens. Read more from Blockworks & Sifted who covered the story - our full thesis is outlined in Mirror.
Our Web3 associate Angelo was a speaker at the Blockchain Festival 2023 in Berlin.
Our Principals Paulina, Yohan and Björn attended Slush, where we hosted a founder dinner with Left Lane Capital.
Neoplants (the first generation of plants bioengineered to fight air pollution) was named by Fast Company as one of the companies in their “Next Big Things in Tech 2023” list - they were also featured in their “The 3 best international tech innovations of 2023” list.
Taster (delivery food for foodies) branched out in to franchise physical stores - 50% of these franchisees are fulfilling more than 100 click and collect orders per day, with 25% hitting more than 150.
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