Origin Ventures

If you poll your neighborhood venture capitalist or software founder and ask, “what percentage of US GDP is software?” you might hear 30% or 40% or maybe even 50%. The answer is 10%. Services dominate our economy. 72% of US GDP or $20 trillion dollars a year is spent on services, and services are over 80% of household spend. Despite its overwhelming size, aside from some successful marketplaces, venture investors have placed few bets in pure services companies. There are two compelling reasons: 1️⃣ services businesses require labor that is expensive and reduces the gross margin percent, resulting in less cash to fuel growth and 2️⃣ scaling demands hiring more labor– a slow and expensive process compared to software companies. However, these obstacles are eroding because of artificial intelligence. 🧠 AI is making certain services businesses considerably more efficient by automating tasks and multiplying the productivity of the labor force. A Bain study estimates that professional services companies could reduce the cost of service by 41% using AI. Even if the improvement is only 20%, the savings comes close to paying for the entire US defense budget. That’s profound. Improvements in the 20 - 40% range result in a gross margin percent that rivals software companies in their cash efficiency. AI-powered services are also considerably more scalable, even when there is a meaningful labor component. This generation of services companies are less dependent on hiring, allowing them to maintain service levels as they grow with only modest labor input. The implications are significant. The largest segment of our economy which has been a venture capital desert, is now an oasis of opportunity. We think that we are at the dawn of many billion dollar “services as software” companies. Let’s also be clear: there will be large portions of the services economy where AI cannot or will not be able to automate. Your kid’s swim lessons are likely to need the same amount of instructor attention. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not looking to have an AI-powered haircut just yet 💇♂️. Nonetheless, the services economy is so vast, that crossing off major portions still leaves a lot of undiscovered country. We are particularly interested in professional services companies using AI to deliver services the traditional way. We think these companies will have an advantage because they will not require that customers change their behavior and they have distribution and customer data already. The auditor will deliver their services as they always have. The financial planner, the same. What changes is the degree of automation in the back office, which is insulated from the customer. If you are a founder building a services as software company, we at Origin Ventures would love to talk 📞. #startups #venturecapital #artificialinteligence #ai

It was a pleasure to moderate a NVNG Investment Advisors, LLC panel at Venture North last week. Thanks to Ty Findley Darrin Murriner and Ben O'Rourke for joining me to discuss how to avoid enterprise sales "Pilot Purgatory." Thanks to Grady Buchanan and Carrie Thome, CFA for the invitation! It was a super lively conference and it was great to see old friends and meet new ones.

Enjoyed seeing so many investors and friends at our annual meeting in Park City.  Discussed the seven new investments we made in the past year in energy storage, robotics, electrification, artificial intelligence, and consumer innovation.  Big thank you to the CEOs that presented: - Nate Walkingshaw discussed the Torus energy storage solution developed for commercial and industrial customers - ClearJet CEO Chris Guggenheim described the e-commerce delivery network the company has created using cargo capacity on domestic passenger aircraft. - Dan Caffee introduced Voze, the leading sales enablement software for field sales reps - Allermi CEO Shani Bocian Steinberg Bocian-Steinberg discussed her company’s personalized allergy relief, offered to consumers via a monthly subscription product. The formulations are based on more than 25 years of research and patient experience in the Stanford Medical system. Big thanks to my Origin Ventures colleagues that help make this happen every year. Great week! Steve Miller Bruce Barron Alexander Meyer Jason Heltzer Scott Stern Prashant Shukla Jacquie Marshall Siegmund Carolina G. Linda Watchmaker

At our startup Pie we are on a mission to defeat social isolation. According to the surgeon general, we are spending 24 fewer hours per month together than we were 20 years ago. This is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. We are building a social app to combat this problem. The job to be done is to make it easy to make friends. Our vision is for a world where doing things you enjoy with people you like should be as easy as calling an Uber. I am building Pie personally because I experienced the social isolation pandemic myself. As a new dad in a new city (Chicago), my life was filled with two forms of Greek love: eros (romantic love) and storge (parent/child love). But I was lacking in two others: philia (platonic love) and agape (the love of the tribe). I was digitally addicted. I felt frozen in amber. Here is my start with why: https://lnkd.in/gEa7WDXs This morning the The Wall Street Journal shared this exclusive story on our Series A round and our Chicago launch. The $11.5 million round was led by my friend and longtime collaborator Kirsten Green of Forerunner -- with meaningful participation from a mentor, friend and personal hero Ev Williams, cofounder of Twitter, and founding CEO of Medium. We were delighted that Jason Heltzer of Origin Ventures and Renata Quintini of Renegade Partners also participated meaningfully in the A. We're also grateful today to longtime investor Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures. My favorite quote in the article is from Ev: "Pie is competing for the time that people are off their screens—not on them." Our corporate motto is more social, less media. If you have a friend in Chicago who is looking for more in their social life, or if you are that person, our web and mobile app is here: https://plan.getpie.app/ My cup overflows with gratitude. Thank you to the IRL Pie team in Chicago that now is. Sam Burke Gustavo Casas Martha Glodz Beatriz de Souza Kauffmann Brittanie Jakubowich Hunter Husar Francisco Martinez Samir Mirza Bridget M. Thompson Thank you to the remote/hybrid Pie team that once was. Cofounder Jen Greenwood Halle Gold Eric Rubin Kishan Patel Rob Bruce Kinnara Anindita Ondřej Korol Daniel Pecher and Wolasi Konu Thank you to (some of) our Pie angels and advisors. Evan Sharp Scott Belsky Sam Yagan Tim Kendall Nikita Bier Marc Lore Monica Royer and my parents Usha and Charley Dunn. Thank you to OG Pie cofounders Erik Allebest, Alixandra Freedberg and Becca Harris Lewy. There is no pumpkin in this Pie without you, is there? Thank you to our counsel Megan Baier of Wilson Sonsini. And thank you Manuela Zoninsein. You are my inspiration and the most tenacious entrepreneur I know.

Today we are announcing that we have officially closed our $20M Series A funding round! The round was led by Infinite Capital, with participation from Hanwha Asset Management Co., Ltd., Cubit Capital, Origin Ventures, Industrious Ventures, Venn10 Capital, LP, and follow-on investors that include Lockheed Martin, Metaplanet, Liquid 2 Ventures, and TechNexus Venture Collaborative. This funding will primarily be used to: 1. Scale up production and operations to deliver on some very large aerospace and defense contracts in our pipeline. 2. Finish development of our megawatt-class machines. 3. Continue to improve the robustness and reliability of our core technology through endurance, thermal cycling, and accelerated aging testing. We couldn't have reached this point without an amazing group of customers, advisors, investors, partners, and most of all, everyone at H3X. While we're celebrating this milestone, we will not rest on our laurels and will continue to push at a relentless pace towards our mission of becoming the world leader in electric motors to enable sustainable aviation, decarbonize the marine and industrial sectors, and unlock next-generation electrified defense technology. For more on today's announcement, follow the link in comments.

🎉 We’re excited to share we’ve raised $5m in funding led by Index Ventures with participation from Origin Ventures, Divergent Capital, Chingona Ventures and an amazing group of angel investors. We’re building Hoop to be the next generation of task management powered by #AI. Today Hoop connects to Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, and email and captures tasks across all those tools to create one spot where you can manage everything. And Hoop never forgets or misses tasks! Sign up for early access today. Thanks to our investors, early users, and community for all your support. https://lnkd.in/gaA26ATS #ai #startups #fundraising #taskmanagement #productivity