Bloks

Big news on the home front!

Many venture capital firms are looking at far fewer deals than they could be. After years of working with VCs, I see it every time… They tell me: “My plate is full. I’m already in discussions with 4 other companies. I can’t look at new deals right now because I’m too busy.” But AI tools have transformed what's possible in deal management. With the right ones, you could run 15 to 20 different company conversations in parallel, maintaining the same depth of analysis without increasing headcount. AI does 80% of the heavy lifting… …keeping track of all your conversations and allowing you to be more productive and focused on what matters. VCs today don't need to limit themselves to managing just 5 deals.

AI won't take over your business relationships. Because when it comes to interaction, you have to have intent. You need to be there, as a human being, creating that relationship. The preparation before? That's where AI is valuable. It goes to different sources to gather information on… - Past conversations - Who you're talking to - Their company background It also helps you dictate your objectives. After your interaction, AI comes in handy for follow-ups. We’ve found AI streamlines 80% of the work post-meetings. But the interaction itself? That needs you. Building relationships isn't about replacing the human element… It's about letting AI handle the work around it, so you can focus on meaningful connections.

Bloks is #hiring. Looking for someone to become our missing pillar on the go-to-market side.

Went a bit on a rant about my disdain for CRMs...

VCs spend countless hours on early-stage due diligence. Most firms have junior analysts go through and ask references a bunch of questions. It's a standard process… …but doesn't give you the full picture. When a company is early-stage, it's really about the people and spending time understanding them. One of the most effective ways to streamline the process? Getting senior folks to reach out to people beyond the reference list. Have them dig into the personality and aptitude of the individuals around the table. At this stage, that's what you're investing in. Understanding the team matters deeply, but it's only half the equation. Market dynamics play an equally crucial role: - Is this a growing segment in effervescence? - Will market momentum pull the company forward through growth phases? Of course, due diligence priorities shift as companies mature. With later-stage companies, you're… - Spending time on financials and past performance - Understanding potential pitfalls But for early-stage? Focus your time on what really matters: Understanding the people and reading market dynamics.

What’s the Best AI Note-Taking App for You in 2025? 🤔📓 AI note-taking apps have become essential for professionals, but not all apps are created equal. The biggest game-changer? Whether they work bot-free in the background or rely on bots joining your meetings. So, how do you choose the right one? It depends on your workflow, privacy needs, and how much collaboration you require. We break down the 5 best AI note-taking apps of 2025, covering everything from: ✅ Seamless integration into your workflow ✅ Discreet vs. bot-driven experiences ✅ Actionable insights and summaries ✅ Privacy and team collaboration features 👉 Ready to discover which app will take your productivity to the next level? Check out the full list here: https://lnkd.in/eF9Tmg5D Which type of note-taking app do you prefer: bot-free or bot-driven? Let us know in the comments! 💬 #ProductivityTools #AINoteTaking #TechInnovation #FutureOfWork #AI2025 #WorkSmarter

Finding promising startups before they hit the mainstream radar is getting harder every day. But there are a lot of AI startups out there working to solve this. Not building a product like we are at Bloks — but something different. They're trying to figure out how to get data from multiple sources: - Pitch books - Crunchbase - LinkedIn What are they looking for? Things that signal a company is ready for investment: - The growth of employee count over time - The number of employees being hired From there, they proactively outbound to these companies to say, "Hey, are you looking for funding?" The better firms have been doing this for many years already. They just built some stuff in-house to do that identification. But now, this is being productized by different startups. They're selling these tools to help organizations find promising startups faster. What used to be built in-house is now available to everyone. The advantage won’t be having these tools anymore—it’ll be using them as effectively as possible.

Venture capital, fundamentally, is about volume. A large deal funnel automatically means better results. All the busy work that a VC gets bogged down in subtracts from their ability to create volume and, as a result, revenue. Redundant work, like: - Taking notes - Updating records - Adding content into CRMs - Researching companies before meetings - Prepping endless briefings for colleagues With AI becoming as personal as it is, you need to be extremely intentional about eliminating as much of this as possible. Automate ruthlessly. Because when that happens, you… - Open up your capacity and productivity - Can review more deals and interact with more entrepreneurs - Have more conversations with founders and get more exposure to new market dynamics and trends Just by virtue of freeing up your time, you start connecting the dots you couldn’t see before. This is why we’ve built Bloks to handle it all: notes, CRM updates, research, and follow-ups—automatically. Try it free here: → bloks.app …and let me know what you think.

When you're looking at 100+ investment deals every week, you can't review them all equally (and you shouldn't). Most founders think their pitch matters most, but that's not where we start. The first thing we look for is simpler: Who sent this our way? A referral from someone in our network — someone we trust who's already vetted the company — that's gold. It instantly moves the deal to the top of our list. Then, we look at the founders themselves. Have they been there and done this before? Because we know repeat founders tend to have repeat successes. We're looking at their… - Track record as entrepreneurs - Previous experiences - Industry knowledge After checking these boxes, we start looking at all other requests, matching them to our investment thesis. AI tools come in handy to streamline the process— They do the legwork so we can quickly filter and respond to deals that truly fit our criteria. But at its core, deal prioritization isn't about fancy algorithms or complex frameworks. It's about trust and experience.