Lerer Hippeau

Announcing the 2025 Lopez Fellowship - Applications open March 17th! I remember hitting that wall in my career where putting in more hours just wasn't cutting it anymore. I had been promoted, had recruiters calling occasionally, but what I lacked was the space to step back and intentionally design my path forward. What transformed my journey wasn't just working harder—it was finding mentors who believed in me, building a network of peers who challenged me, reading a lot, and investing in skills beyond my job description. (Including the mentor who suggested I take accent reduction classes—a story I told on How I Built This with Guy Raz). But I've noticed fewer professionals have access to this kind of guidance today, which is why five years ago I started the Lopez Fellowship. Our fellowship, underwritten entirely by the Hernan Lopez Family Foundation, helps ambitious, curious professionals overcome obstacles and go from 'good to great'. Through executive coaching, public speaking training, MBA-quality education, and meaningful connections, our Fellows develop the capabilities to transform their careers in the short, medium and long-term. What makes this program special? ✅ Personalized coaching with executive coach Cindy Shove ✅ Direct mentoring sessions with me and other industry leaders ✅ Public speaking training with John Koch ✅ Career assessment and LinkedIn review with Todd Gitlin ✅ Curated reading and MBA-quality courses through Section ✅ Access to our alumni network of nearly 30 accomplished professionals Who thrives in this program? 🔷 Rising stars of all backgrounds across tech, media, entertainment, healthcare, education, finance and other industries 🔷 Post-funding entrepreneurs looking to level up their leadership 🔷 In both cases, especially suited for individuals who've overcome adversity, have a track record of success and are passionate about growth. 🔷 Several qualifications apply (see website for details); most importantly, must be living and working currently in the US, have a bachelor's degree or higher, show proof of career progress How does it work? 🔘 Five months (May-September) of leadership development 🔘 Completely free (we just ask for your commitment of 3-4 hours weekly) 🔘 Primarily remote, with one in-person gathering in LA Applications for the 2025 cohort open March 17th through April 6th Want to learn more? Visit https://lnkd.in/etHShG2a Do you know any rising star who should apply? Please tag them in the comments.

Today, we released our first State of the AI Bots whitepaper that shows findings across sites on TollBit. The headline: Traffic from AI bots has a 96% lower click-through rate than traditional Google search. If AI chatbots aren’t sending traffic back, we think it’s only fair that websites ask what the Internet’s new economic arrangement is. We do believe the future of quality content and data can be bright as AI enables us to be more efficient. But only if we continue to incentivize the creation of it. 📈Full report here: https://lnkd.in/dPpV5TAb

🚀 NEW AllThingsXR episode is up! In this episode, I chat with Ross Finman , CEO of Augmodo. We discuss Ross's incredible journey from mapping the real world at Escher Reality and Niantic, to how he plans to revolutionize the retail industry with AI at Augmodo! https://lnkd.in/eGvmVDhB

Excited to announce the acquisition of Clockwork! Their machines have painted over 500,000 nails and scanned millions more. Our team are going to learn so much from their founders, Renuka Apte and Aaron Feldstein, as we look to launch 10Beauty this summer. https://lnkd.in/dwfxdrCn

Episode 370 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Toshit Panigrahi, Co-Founder & CEO and Olivia Joslin, Co-Founder & COO of TollBit: https://lnkd.in/e6eiWt_z There are going to be so many amazing benefits and advancements that are a result of the platform shift to AI. However, in this new world, many industries will need to go through radical transformation and the publishing industry is right in that mix. We even see some of these issues with VentureFizz, of course at a much smaller scale as compared to major publishers. For example, if you are searching for information about some startups in Boston, it’s possible that the results will include content from VentureFizz in the results from Google Gemini. While in one regard, it is great that Google views us as an authority on the topic, it does however eliminate the need for the consumer to come to our site because they likely have their question answered. It’s really not a major problem for us because of our business model, but it is certainly a major problem for publishers who count on pageviews for ad revenue. Enter TollBit, a two-sided marketplace for AI companies and publishers started by two alumni of Toast. The platform seeks to address the new economics of content creation in the AI era by reducing the legal uncertainties of scraping and protecting the health of the entire content ecosystem. The company recently announced a $24M Series A round of funding in October of last year which comes shortly after raising a $7M seed round in March of last year, as well. TollBit's investors: Lightspeed, S32, Lerer Hippeau, AIX Ventures, Sunflower Capital, Operator Collective 🔆, Liquid 2 Ventures, Checker Media, and BDMI. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:10 AI & the Media Industry 03:51 Olivia's & Toshit's Background & Professional Journey 12:48 Starting TollBit 17:46 The Details of TollBit's Platform 25:07 TollBit's Funding & Pitch Advice 31:06 TollBit's Business Model 37:27 The Importance of Advisors for Your Startup 39:12 Lessons Learned While Building TollBit 42:18 Hiring 44:11 App & Podcast Recommendations Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com. SVB contacts: Christopher Morrison, Alicia Fuller, Ben Maitland-Lewis, Hani Azzam, Hannah Donovan (Heyliger), & Lisa Puleo.

Today marks a great milestone for WeatherPromise as we are proud to announce our first global airline partner: JetBlue Vacations! Travelers booking packages through JetBlue will now be able to add a WeatherPromise to offer them peace of mind before lounging on the beach. JetBlue is a true innovator in travel and it's exciting to work with it to give customers seamless, worry-free trips. Together, we can continue to improve the experience for travelers and fulfill JetBlue’s mission of restoring humanity to air travel. Learn more about our latest partnership here: https://lnkd.in/e87ZSAtc JetBlue Travel Products, WeatherPromise, #travel, #weatherprotection #rain #climate #vacation #innovation #airlines

ICYMI, last month our CEO Kevin B. was featured on CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell: Overtime.’ In the segment, he shared how Guideline has grown to manage roughly $17 billion in assets by using technology to take the complexity out of 401(k)s for small businesses and savers and by integrating with strategic payroll partners. Watch the interview clip here: https://lnkd.in/gAGv-dNx For informational purposes only. This should not be considered financial, tax, or legal advice. Contact a financial professional to evaluate what retirement plan is best suited for your situation.