Fall 2023 Community Update
Portfolio News, Reading & Writing, Obviously The Future, Mentions in the Press
Dear Friends of Avalanche,
We are excited to share recent insights and progress from across our community.
As always, please reach out if you are a founder working on an early stage company transforming how people learn, earn, or own.
Portfolio news
Genus AI announced their $6M Seed Extension. We are proud to be early partners.
Prisms VR and Anurupa release their Back to School Address
Anurupa is featured on the a16z podcast: The Calculus of Success
Laura Tierney, CEO of The Social Institute, huddled up with NBC News to discuss strategies for empowering students to navigate social media as they head back to school this fall. Catch the full convo here!
Boundless Life was featured in Business Insider. European castles, private chefs, and a startup school: These families are ditching the US to live the American dream abroad
Great read on How AI Improves VC Operations featuring Systematic Ventures on how they automate data collection to make analysis easier and faster. CEO Max Wolff mentioned they can do about 70% of the underwriting work for venture debt which is a huge win for lean venture funds.
Tether Education held a launch event for their ecosystem partners in Santiago, Chile. They are gearing up for a big country wide launch of school matching and selection.
Offered AI launched their Job Guarantee Program. They’ve already helped 15,000 job seekers apply for 126,000 jobs.
Acclinate was named one of 10 best tech startups in Alabama by the Tech Tribune and cited in a new market research report on AI in Clinical Trials for being a leader in the space.
Check out the new video that tells the story of why the founders of Acclinate, Del and Tiffany, are building their life’s work.
Thinking, Writing, Speaking
Featured
Our picks for 2023 EdTech Most Exciting Startups in Business Insider.
Conferences and Meet Ups
NY Techweek - We co-hosted an event on AI & Learning for NYTechWeek sponsored by Point72 Ventures. Over 500 people registered to attend. We were able to keep the group focused and showcased Deepak Sekar from Prof Jim and Dylan Gambardella from NextGen HQ.
AI+EDU conference hosted with EdTech Insiders. Katelyn presented on the investor panel along with investors from Owl, Reach, Workshop and ECMC. Over 500 people attended. The panel was written up here: AI is “expected” in edtech products – investors.
Obviously The Future - The Podcast
Obviously The Future is the home base of Avalanche VC's thinking on massive trends transforming how people learn, earn, and own.
In September, we launched the first season of our podcast to explore the massive trends that will shape our world in conversation with the trailblazers, non-conformists, and hidden experts who are building tomorrow, today.
Season 1:
The Formula For Greatness with Sir Michael Barber (AVC LP)
Empowering Parents: School Choice and Technology with Joe Connor, CEO & Founder of Odyssey Education (AVC Fund I)
The REAL AI Expert with Deepak Sekar, CEO & co-founder of Prof Jim (AVC Fund I)
The New Path to Homeownership with Catalina Kaiyoorawongs, CEO & Founder at LoanSense (AVC Fund I)
GovTech: Solving Last Mile Delivery with Saad Rizvi and Al-Hassan Hleileh, (AVC LP and Advisors)
Why Wisdom is in Short Supply with Dalglish Chew (AVC Partner & Coach-In-Residence)
The Friendship Funnel or how to solve loneliness and design IRL events for introverts with Nick Gray.
What we’ve been reading:
Learn:
How to make learning as addictive as social media. Luis von Ahn, founder of DuoLingo, TedTalk.
EdTech Market Update - Oppenheimer, November 2023. This is the most comprehensive institutional report on the public and private education technology market.
Americans' Trust in College Keeps Dropping. Just 36% of Americans said they have confidence in higher education.
Earn:
The Next Trillion Dollar Marketplace Will Put SKUs on Services: Why service marketplaces aren’t scaling and how they might get unstuck.
Own:
“Nonemployer Firms” are growing steadily and may gain even more tailwinds with AI. Not certain of the source, but cited in this tweet.
Employers to spend more on financial wellness programs despite rising costs
Venture Capital and Investing:
Seed Investing - WTF is Going on (Links to the deck and doesn’t require email). Where the opportunities are and what to avoid, from Sam Lessin.
Generative AI’s Act Two. From Sequoia. Why applications of generative AI technology that are embedded in B2B GTM may be the best bet.
First Round Ten Years Project. Great read on ten data-backed lessons from ten years of startup investing.
Thread on VenCap Returns: Data on 11,350 companies backed by 259 funds from 1986 to 2018.
Thank you.
Please always be in touch.
As always,
Katelyn, Dalglish, Eric, & Arvind