Underscore VC

One the best things about my job is being able to spend time just thinking about stuff. And when the topic is a once-in-a-generation (??) technology transformation like AI, it's really fun in the rabbit hole. Let me know what you think.

A generational transfer, fresh fund, and record-breaking dealflow are *just* how the year started! Learn how it played out and meet some of the bold early-stage founders we're backing with Fund 3: https://lnkd.in/eCV58spJ

There is optimism for the Boston startup ecosystem as we kick off 2025. Aaron Pressman at The Boston Globe shares more after speaking with local VCs Lily Lyman, Sarah Hodges, Rana el Kaliouby, and Adrian Mendoza.

A big thank you to James Orsillo, CFA from Underscore VC for hosting an insightful fundraising workshop for TiE ScaleUp! We always appreciate the frank and actionable advice the Underscore team shares with ScaleUp entrepreneurs, as well as their Boston bias! Please join us in thanking James. #authenticity #fundraising #venturecapital #accelerator #scale Adam Carter Lawrence B. ★ Rowena Kay Mascarenhas Purnanand Sarma Joseph F. Pramod Kalyanasundaram

Science-tasked AI requires an unfathomably large data access channel that is as diverse as it is controlled. That's why TetraScience teamed up with Snowflake to enable data science teams to work with scientific data in new ways, driving a scientific AI revolution. The partnership news follows on a string of recently signed partnerships between TetraScience and Google Cloud, Databricks and NVIDIA, each of which support the startup's ambitions to transform siloed, proprietary and unstructured scientific data so it can be used by engineers and scientists for AI and data apps to improve each step in drug development and manufacturing.

Big exciting announcement: I’m excited to share that I’ve signed the agreement for Grammarly to acquire Coda! And I’m honored to lead the combined companies as CEO. I share much more details on how this came about in my blog post, but as I chatted with the leaders at Grammarly, I realized that both companies have arrived at remarkably similar views of the future. One where AI will redefine every business application and workflow, reinventing productivity as we know it today into a place where humans and AI work together everywhere you get work done. Grammarly is an amazing platform — with over 40 million daily active users, I see Grammarly as one of the world’s most ubiquitous AI assistants. We have a broad roadmap of how we’ll bring the products together. First, we’ll be working on making Grammarly’s ubiquitous AI assistant even “smarter” and “more helpful” by adding the context of Coda Brain. And second, we’ll be working on unifying Coda Docs and the Grammarly Assistant to provide users with a flexible home for users to work. Longer term, we have much grander plans for how we’ll weave together our products to build the AI productivity platform for agents and apps. I think it will feel like a dramatic acceleration for the Coda product and mission, helping to reach millions of users and help redefine the future of AI-driven productivity. It’s an important milestone, a big transition for the company. I couldn’t be more excited about it! Read more at: https://bit.ly/49DVQGx

I had the chance to sit down with Caroline Hyde on Bloomberg News this week to talk about how the venture landscape is shifting with a "barbell effect." The market is bifurcating - multi-stage mega funds on one side and small specialized funds on the other. Different strategies with different business models. Multi-stage mega funds are capturing the bulk of LP dollars these days. This concentration has implications for founders, LPs, and smaller specialized funds. Founders are thinking more about alignment, and what "product" do they want at which stage of company building. LPs are thinking about diversification across these two 'venture products' within the asset class - as they have different incentive structures, return profiles, timelines, and capital strategies. Smaller specialized funds have to think more about differentiation and how to capture alpha (e.g. first time founders, non-consensus ideas, overlooked/under banked geographies, deep domain expertise, or unique value-add and networks). It's a competitive market out there for funds and for founders. The upside? Competition drives innovation and hustle. I'm curious how you're seeing the landscape dynamics?

Are you paying attention to TetraScience? This team is on fire! 🔥 Fresh off the back of announcing their strategic partnership with NVIDIA, today they've unveiled their Snowflake partnership. Patrick Grady shares more:

"There is a clear need for a startup that focuses on developing authentication solutions tailored explicitly to autonomous agents." Underscore General Partner Richard Dulude shares more and welcomes builders in this space to reach out:

🎉 Wonderment has joined forces with Loop to build the most customer-centric operations platform for eCommerce! A big congratulations to Wonderments founders Jessica Meher, Brian Whalley, and Wesley Abbey. At Underscore, we don't invest in startups; we invest in founders. And this founding team is a rare triple-threat. They’ve each worked at the intersection of eCommerce and marketing for over a decade, and their blend of expertise makes them an undeniable asset to Loop as they journey on together.