Flybridge

The Experimentation Machine is now available for pre-order! The winners of tomorrow will be founders who learn to marry the timeless methods of startup experimentation with the timely tools of the AI age. Drawing on decades of experience as a founder, investor, and teacher, I've written this book to show you how to: • Transform your startup into an AI-powered experimentation machine • Become a "10x founder" who achieves more with less • Find product-market fit faster by supercharging your startup experiments with AI • Scale without traditional overhead using AI as your co-founder Pre-order now to get exclusive bonuses: • Hardcover + Audiobook + Ebook bundle • Instant access to the first 3 chapters • Invitation to The Experimentation Machine Slack community • Access to the virtual launch event Plus, use the code 10XFOUNDER to get 10% off retail. I'm excited to share these insights to help founders build smarter and scale faster. The future belongs to founders who master AI-powered experimentation. Thank you for the support, and happy building! Pre-order now: https://buff.ly/48XSqhq

There is an ongoing debate about who will “win” the AI race in sales. Incumbents - like Salesforce - are keenly aware of the need to incorporate AI, but many are doing so in a way that is constrained to current SaaS offerings and user interfaces. This results in AI being layered onto existing products rather than fundamentally reimagining the functions and workflows these tools were originally designed to assist humans in completing. Over the last year+, we’ve seen the rapid growth of agentic systems going after supporting sales infrastructure products, like CRM (e.g. Attio), as well as specific functions of the sales process, like prospecting (e.g. Clay and 11x). These products are attacking legacy sales software and their co-pilots head on, and incumbents don’t have the headstarts awarded to them during prior tectonic tech shifts (e.g. vast resources, customer lock in via being the “systems of record” and deep expertise in human workflows). Airtable of 50+ Sales AI companies we’re tracking here: https://lnkd.in/etqWjW3s More thoughts below, please reach out if you're building in this space - Julia@flybridge.com

💡New episode of #DrivingAlpha! Chip Hazard of Flybridge Capital dives deep into high-conviction AI investing—unpacking how to identify founders who will shape the future of tech and why agentic AI is the next frontier. A must-listen for VCs & founders! 🎧 #AI #VentureCapital A special thank you to our sponsor, Affinity.co! Full episode: https://lnkd.in/eBg9EwKk

Today marks a pivotal moment in our mission to transform public safety. ForceMetrics has raised $22M in funding, led by Costanoa Ventures, with significant support from the Hobson Lucas Family Foundation (founded by Mellody Hobson and George Lucas), Govtech Fund, Flybridge, Stand Together Ventures Lab, and Growth Warrior Capital. This investment enables us to scale our platform, empowering first responders with real-time, life-saving insights that strengthen their ability to protect communities and make critical decisions in the moments that matter most. Discover more about our journey and the road ahead: https://lnkd.in/gBVK_4FY

I attended Flybridge Founders week alongside some of the fastest growing early stage start-ups and I would sum the conversations up with 1 word.... Tactical---> Here are 3 tactical learnings from Builders on the frontlines of growing early stage technology companies. Zach Shefska at CarEdge talked about leveraging youtube as video-first approach to growing a brand and ultimately generate demand with 'negative CAC'. After his talk, I had a great 1 to 1 convo with Zach on the approach to creating partnerships with other creators, as has a meaningful following on Youtube (only 20% of CarEdge, these guys are pros!) but we've been wrestling with this question internally. They had the same question at our scale and tried it all. Their conclusion, simply direct message from 1 creator account to another is the highest yield. No intermediary, no agencies, just an old fashion direct reach out. That tip saved me a lot of future experimentation and we've already put this into effect. Andre McGregor and the amazing team at ForceMetrics (quick break, Dad, AKA--Dr. Robert E.--you gotta share this with the folks you know in Law Enforcement Leadership positions, this company is making a safer world for all of us, end break) got very real about the Series A fundraising environment, and how you had to nail both the metrics and the storytelling to get it over the goal line. Andre McGregor also demonstrated his ability as a storyteller live, so it was a live example of what great looks like. Finally, on brand and in true Harvard Business School Professor fashion, Flybridge Co-founder Jeffrey Bussgang, led an interactive case study on 3 start-up with the founders in the room as a part of it, where a group of 50 operators collectively worked through the challenges they we're working through. The collective takeaway: Taking an AI-Native approach to company building within every vertical (not just your own product) has the power to led to an unforeseen levels of velocity. Thanks to the additional folks I was able to learn from this week including Nick Ornitz, Ashley Moser, Matt Mireles, Elias Torres, Tim Delisle, Jesse Middleton, Chip Hazard, Shiza Shahid, Christina Heggie, Pierre-Olivier Lepage, Julisa Salas, Will Greene, James Theuerkauf, Anada Lakra, Dennis Crowley, Emily Dong, Tom Mulvey, Michael Aiken, Brendan Cronin, Zachary Zaro, Hassan W. Bhatti, Paul Sizaire I was happy to provide a small amount of value back to this group by giving a talk on how Blitzy can dramatically increase product velocity. My calendar is full next week with follow up calls with folks who we're eager to learn more on how we will get their 6 month product road map completed in 1 month by leveraging Blitzy's solution. Message me if you're a product leader and want to do the same.

$350+ billion in transactions touched. 100M+ in capital markets terms indexed. Referenced daily by the best firms in the world. and… $22M Series A These are things I couldn’t have imagined writing when we launched the Noetica AI platform under 1.5 years ago. Our goal at the outset was clear: provide best-in-class capital markets insights and data to our customers and focus relentlessly on the product—no gimmicks, no marketing, no frills—function over form. This commitment, and the tireless effort of our incredible team, has led to a platform that has quickly become one of the most relied on data sources for deal data across the market. We’re humbled and energized to expand our ability to meet the demand for our platform with this new capital. Thank you Lightspeed, Bling Capital, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Flybridge, Company Ventures and The LegalTech Fund for the partnership. https://lnkd.in/erk4ByWS