My wife Luba Teten has extensive experience automating financial engineering processes at the intersection of business strategy, risk, and compliance. She has worked in Corporate Risk (market risk, credit risk, Tier 1 capital requirements) and Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. She is presenting next week at the TSAM New York asset management...
[Continue Reading]JETRO and Coolwater bringing Fund Accelerator Program to Japan VC ecosystem
Coolwater Capital, often referred to as the “Y Combinator for emerging venture capital funds,” has partnered with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to bring its program to the Japanese venture capital ecosystem. Over the last five years, Coolwater has built the most successful accelerator for emerging funds in the United States, having launched over 200 venture...
[Continue Reading]Databases of limited partners investing in emerging VC funds
I’ve collected numerous lists of allocators focused on emerging VC fund managers. Of course, I emphasize you’re not going to be very effective if you just bulk-email these allocators. Please do your background research and pitch each LP based on how you uniquely fit their criteria. I’ve met few emerging managers who had success with...
[Continue Reading]VC and Free Market Values
Liberty Ventures is a community “building the ecosystem of purpose-driven leaders committed to a free and prosperous future to build their businesses and so their impact.” I recently presented Coolwater Capital model to their members. Libery Ventures asked me how we align with their values. I responded: Two of our key values are innovation and...
[Continue Reading]Announcing launch of MiniVC: my AI avatar (free)
After some experimentation, I built and launched MiniVC, an AI avatar of myself. Check it out! It requires a subscription to ChatGPT Plus. You might ask: how is this different from off-the-shelf ChatGPT? It’s designed to draw primarily from my research, 2 published books, and over 100 public presentations at leading universities and finance/tech conferences. This...
[Continue Reading]What should VCs do with zombie companies?
Inevitably, some of a VC’s portfolio companies will become “zombies”: not dead, but not growing. They have some technology and revenues, but morale is low. The CEO is hinting he’d like to get into VC or otherwise find a soft landing. Finding a buyer is difficult, because the company is not exciting to anyone, including...
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