“One of the biggest issues I see with salesmanship in VC is that most pitches start with an awkward… ‘so should I start with a little about me and the fund I’m raising’. For most VCs, the default is to just start giving their canned stump speech and steamroll through the meeting.” So says Dave...
[Continue Reading]I recommend International College Counselors
For my daughter Peri‘s college research process, we needed some guidance. So we reached out to my old friend, Mandee Heller Adler, CEO of International College Counselors, and coauthor with me of To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear. Peri wrote, For my college applications, I had a daunting task of telling...
[Continue Reading]Mastra – prototype and productionize AI features
Mastra was our first investment out of Orange Collective Fund I, back in early 2025. And we’re very fortunate, because they are doing exceptionally well. Our first investment is a top candidate for a fund returner. Mastra is the TypeScript Agent Framework. It’s built by the team that brought you Gatsby, and allows you to prototype...
[Continue Reading]Tracking Portfolio Company Finances, Metrics, and Updates
How can you best track the progress of your portfolio companies, both to report to limited partners and also for your own allocation of time & resources? I summarize here the vectors I generically recommend you use for tracking portfolio company activity. Of course, every VC fund needs to customize their model based on their...
[Continue Reading]Building an AI Tech Stack focused on Y Combinator companies
One of the many reasons I’m so excited about the privilege to help build Orange Collective is that we are living in the future. Given that we are very tightly focused on investing in Y Combinator companies, typically pre-Demo Day, we are all-in on the unique YC ecosystem. We are rebuilding our tech stack from...
[Continue Reading]Search Funds and AI: Aone Partners Tech Stack Profile
We’re happy to share the latest in AltsTech’s series profiling how investment managers are using AI, tech, and analytics to generate alpha. We’re fortunate to interview Gelila Bekele, Founder of Aone Partners. David Teten: Please give us an overview of your firm. Aone Partners is a search fund partnership backed by 14 enterprise software CEOs,...
[Continue Reading]