Alex Capecelatro

AI isn't just powering software. BrightAI just raised $51 million to automate inspection and other hardware-based AI capabilities. As Alexa von Tobel, co-founder of Inspired Capital put it: “So many people are so focused on the future of digital AI, but we’re excited about this new layer of AI: the physical world AI.” We are in the early innings of a series of AI-fueled innovations! https://lnkd.in/enhmafvH

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Overlooked/Underrepresented Startups and Founders I hope apply to the Convoi Accelerator: Vertical Industry: Deep/Hard Tech 🤖 Hardware (robotics!) 🔨 Advanced manufacturing 🚀 Defense 🏔️ Climate Tech (someone fix the inversion!) 🔋 Energy (nuclear!) 💻 Cybersecurity 🧬 BioTech/Life Sciences 🏥 HealthTech 👵🏻 Elder/Aging Tech 🤳 Consumer AI "Wicked Problems" in society including: 🏠 Housing affordability ⛺️ Homelessness 🤑 Income inequality 🍎 Food supply/AgTech 💧 Water 🩺 Health care/health insurance 📚 Education 🧘‍♀️ Mental Health/Loneliness epidemic 🚗 Mobility (automobiles, public transit) Demographics: 👨🏻‍💻 Developer led startups 🙋🏻‍♀️ Female Founders Immigrant founders (I don't know what emoji I could possibly use here) 🎖️ Veterans 👨🏻‍⚕️ PhDs Zoom AMA sessions today, Monday and Weds. Link in comments!

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Management has been clear: 2026 may see slight margin compression as a full year of higher DevEx rates and infrastructure/safety investments catch up with bookings growth. But the intent is to prioritize long term genre expansion and platform durability, and then reestablish cost leverage beyond 2026 (notably in CY27), as the investments mature and the platform scales into a larger AI/infrastructure base. In Q3, Roblox already showed operating leverage in fixed costs while increasing DevEx; it also highlighted that free cash flow growth should meaningfully exceed bookings growth in 2026-a crucial indicator for longer term valuation support.

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C10 Labs Expanding into the New England AI and innovation ecosystem! C10 Labs and RIHub have partnered to accelerate the growth of applied AI startups across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The collaboration provides early-stage founders with shared resources, accelerator support, investor access, and mentorship in sectors like applied at the intersection of core sectors like health, energy, climate, biotech, and robotics. #AI #Startups #Innovation #NewEngland #VentureCapital. David Berlin Patricia Geli Beth Porter Marissa Flanagan

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🚨NEW EPISODE: Recorded live at FUTURE TITANS 2026 - Jeff Perry of Carta sat down with the iconic Seth Levine, co-founder of Foundry. Seth has been in venture for 25 years, built Foundry from scratch as an emerging manager himself, and has backed about 50 emerging manager funds through his fund of funds. He has genuinely seen every side of this table. They went deep on building Foundry, why VCs are in the influence business, not the decision business, and why the concentration problem in venture is not only bad for LPs, but also for the innovation ecosystem overall. And why Seth's new book, Capital Evolution, is so important for the future of America. 🎧 Links to listen... Apple: https://lnkd.in/ehQUQ2EM Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eU4FExpg

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Terra Innovatum and GSR III Acquisition Corp. File Form S-4 After Business Combination Announcement Advancing Public Listing. Transaction To Accelerate Terra Innovatum’s Pathway to Commercialization of Groundbreaking Micro-Modular Nuclear Technology by 2028. https://lnkd.in/eNpGF9bU

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Biosphere raised millions from Founders Fund and Lowercarbon Capital to Unleash Industrial Biomanufacturing at scale. Biosphere's cofounder Arye Lipman joined our latest podcast to discuss: - what is biomanufacturing - how Biosphere's UV bioreactors are 10x better than traditional bioreactors - what America with 10x cheaper biomanufacturing looks like - can we grow a steak without a cow? - is biomanufacturing "woke climate" or American Dynamism? - how Biosphere is working with the DOD - MAGA's view on biomanufacturing - Consciousness, dolphins and the CIA Check it out!

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Seed-stage fundraising requires differentiation. Grind Ventures found it at the intersection of three underserved markets Technology transfer from universities creates early-stage opportunities that most VCs miss. Defense and federal marketplace applications provide revenue visibility. Critical infrastructure sectors offer commercial scale. Focused Thesis - Dual-use technologies serving defense and 16 critical infrastructure sectors Technology Transfer - University research teams1-5 years old at $1-3M valuations Revenue Clarity - Federal marketplace provides structured procurement pathways Commercial Scale - Critical infrastructure sectors offer massive addressable markets   Geographic Focus - US-based companies with clear domestic advantages Stage Discipline - Seed investments with defined entry points and milestones The market rewards problem-obsessed founders with healthy margins and cash flow visibility. Dual-use technology delivers both. Which of these thesis elements resonates most with your investment approach? #VC #GrindVentures #ThoughtLeadership

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In hard-tech, the biggest moat isn’t a patent—it’s people! At Conduit, we quietly built one of the world’s most unique communities: a global network of over 200 engineers, operators, designers, supply chain veterans, and contract manufacturers—the Conduit Fellows. These are the men and women who have built, shipped, scaled the hardware and physical tech the world runs on. They’re the invisible force behind the devices in your hands, the sensors in your cars, and the machines on factory floors from Ohio to Shenzhen. They bring: 🛠 Decades of deep execution experience across product and manufacturing. 🌏 Access to global supply chains—from Tier 1 fabs in Taiwan to family-run suppliers in rural Europe. 🤝 Relationships forged in the real world, not just on pitch decks. This is Conduit’s edge (and our long term commitment). We don’t just aim to invest in physical technology. We build it. We de-risk it. We scale it. And we do it alongside the Fellows—those who’ve learned from the scars of failed pilots, lived through the pain of missed yield targets, and know what it takes to go from prototype to P&L. The future of physical AI, robotics, sensory systems, climate, and health-tech isn’t built in isolation. It’s built in community. That’s why we believe human capital is the most important infrastructure in hard-tech. If you’re building and investing the next generation of physical technology and want to be surrounded and supported by the best network in the world for execution—let’s talk. #HardTech #VentureCapital #ConduitVentureLabs #Hardware #Founders #EngineeringExcellence #ConduitFellows #SupplyChain #PhysicalAI #AIForTheRealWorld #PhysicalIntelligence #hardware (Meet some of our community > https://lnkd.in/ge6FK_cx)

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Calling emerging founders in advanced materials and applied AI: NYCEDC is supporting two opportunities for early-stage innovators in New York City: The Gotham Foundry Pitch Day and Commercialization Sprint for founders developing materials of the future The AI Nexus Accelerator Cohort for AI-first teams in bio, health, robotics, advanced manufacturing and more Both close March 27. Links to apply commented:

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🧬 This week’s Austin Bio & Health Roundup has funding, recognition, regional momentum, & new PitchBook healthtech data giving us a peek under the hood of the sector. 🧬 💰 Funding & Capital Signals Hello Patient, a conversational AI platform for clinics, closed a $22.5M Series A led by Scale Venture Partners and included participation from Austin-based 8VC, who also joined their seed round. You need to check out their announcement video. Alex is in top form! 🚀 Launches, Expansions, Milestones, and Wins A second piece of Hello Patient news. They launched their platform into veterinary practices as well. 📊 Data PitchBook published an Emerging Tech Research report on Healthtech VC Trends. In 1H 2025, healthtech startups raised $8B, putting it on pace to beat 2023 and 2024 and possibly 2022. Exits are at $4.9B, suggesting this could be the highest year since 2021. Top 5 subsectors over the last 12 months: • Telehealth: $3.2B over 174 deals • EHRs & Clinical Information and Analytics: $2.2B over 76 deals • Care Management: $2.2B over 113 deals • Operations: $1.7B over 84 deals • Analytics: $1.4B over 104 deals 🏆 Recognition Phantom Neuro featured in "25 Healthcare Devices I Fell in Love With" on David Shulkin’s blog. Shulkin is the former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle Houston: The Rice Biotech Launch Pad announced another investment, this time from Houston-based Carnrite Ventures. Houston funding Houston! What’s Next? 🤠 🚀 🦾 🧬

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Here's a counterintuitive truth: if you get sued for patent infringement, you should consider yourself lucky. It means you've built something valuable enough that competitors are worried. Most founders swing between two extremes: IP naive (ignoring patents completely) or IP obsessed (building patent fortresses instead of businesses). Both kill startups. After 20+ years in IP strategy, investing in deep tech startups, and now building a deep tech startup accelerator, I've seen the pattern repeatedly. The founders who succeed understand patents as competitive intelligence tools and business enablers—not substitutes for finding customers. New post breaks down the IP strategy spectrum and why the sweet spot matters more than most founders realize. 👉 https://lnkd.in/g2x5ssyJ

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💰That thought that all funding is smashed and gone in these times? Read about LabStart's program and squash that misinformation. Funding, positivity, and progress are here- be part of it-jump in, cuz the water is warm (and needs conservation, but that's a different convo 💧😉 ) TL;DR: SNAPSHOT: LabStart empowers entrepreneurs—including first-time founders—to commercialize breakthrough climate technologies with: 💲 Up to $100K in funding for entrepreneurs 🚀 Access to frontier climate technologies 🔬 Expert mentorship and guidance 🌎 A community of climate innovators Applications close July 7, 2025. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gSAg-KkU Tova Lobatz Kristy Drutman Jennifer Hanke Felix Antonio Padra Emily Alvarez Emily Chu Carolina Larrahona ImpactPHL Sustain SoCal Chloe R. Rebecca Shirey Green Standards Waste Not Consulting Ashlee Baker, TRUE Advisor Tova Lobatz SOCAP Global The Ecology Center Jonathan Zaidman Eliza Baron Kriss Kokoefer Amit Sharma AQUATRAX USGBC California #ClimateInnovation #ClimateEntrepreneurship

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X-SENTRY raised seed funding to commercialize extreme-condition SMR sensors, begin domestic and global validation, expand into glovebox sensor markets, and target international growth. https://lnkd.in/g7zXXExz

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Ecosystem support can accelerate a climate startup by years. Being selected for Google’s AI for Startups program and receiving an ACT Grant provided RenewCred with more than capital—it provided validation, mentorship, and technical resources. The ACT Grant specifically enabled us to build our DMRV (Digital Measurement, Reporting, Verification) platform for four key use cases: EV fleets, solar energy, biochar, and compressed biogas. From August to December, we’re launching one DMRV per month—momentum made possible by strategic ecosystem partnerships. For founders: seek programs that align with your mission and stage. The right support unlocks velocity. Listen to the full conversation on Breakout Podcast: https://lnkd.in/ef7ivfTx

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I’ve been working on the theory of why small, shippable factories are the perfect inversion to the centralized prefab factory model. It all collapsed into one line of math (credit to Gilles Retsin): Factory Efficiency = Usage × (Throughput × Product Value ) / ( CapEx + Deployment OpEx) The idea is that the closer you can drive Usage to 100 % while keeping the denominator tiny, the faster the flywheel spins.  A shippable microfactory tackles this by primarily focusing on a high Usage factor. Because the microfactory can be packed up afterwards and reused, its CapEx gets amortized over multiple projects, effectively raising its overall Usage across the year. If one project alone doesn’t fully occupy the factory, it can simply roll over to another job to maintain high Usage. Its CapEx is often an order of magnitude lower than a centralized factory (< $1M vs. $10-50M min), so the breakeven throughput is more achievable on a small pipeline of work. The real breakthrough here is portability. There is near-zero stranded capital and almost no idle time. To flesh this theory out, I wrote 3000 words on the topic for Brad Hargreaves and Thesis Driven. The article breaks down: - why “fixed factories, shipped goods” is being inverted to shipped factories, fixed goods - what a sub‑$1 M robotic cell does to CapEx per home versus a £45 M off‑site plant - early production/cost data on a shippable microfactory from Mollie Claypool, Gilles Retsin, Sam Baker and the Automated Architecture (AUAR) team - the hybrid reality of robots tackling the heavy structural components and human crews assembling faster and cheaper - technical constraints to pull this model off and future considerations on the optimal business model (own vs. rent) Major shoutout to Gilles Retsin for helping me pull this together. https://lnkd.in/eRTnbZPa

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Camber Creek led the $3.7 million Seed round for TwinKnowledge, which is tackling an important problem in the built environment. Construction projects get delayed and rework is required because of discrepancies across construction documents, submittals, requests for information, design, and other plans. TwinKnowledge’s AI Agents absorb structured and unstructured project data, surfacing and preventing conflicts before the work begins. We’re excited about our partnership with CEO Ivan Panushev and his team. #construction #AEC #AI #technology https://ow.ly/mBYX50VtaVG

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What do creative technologists build? At Baukunst, we’ve spent the last few years answering that question in real time. We are a collective of builders — operators, designers, engineers, and investors — committed to advancing the art of building at the frontiers of technology and design. We lead pre-seed rounds with conviction, often as the first institutional capital a founder takes, and we invest deeply in the messy, magical early days of company creation. This deck is the portfolio behind that philosophy, or rather that portfolio that has grown up out of it. We have chosen to champion these companies, and they chosen to co-create with us. These are companies built by creative technologists, founders who think in systems, design for real people, and push beyond the familiar. 

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I’m lucky to work alongside colleagues like Richard Fruehauf, who constantly push my thinking. His latest piece unpacks why U.S. robotics and drone manufacturing faces uphill economics, and how public policy can help turn the tide. One key takeaway: 232 tariffs on robotics imports could help reset the economics that are holding back U.S. investment and production. It’s a sharp perspective on how policy can shape the future of advanced tech here at home. Well worth a read: https://lnkd.in/edMPTQPQ Richard Fruehauf, Robert J. Szczerba, Michael Lutzky, Edward Ovando, Karl Sanchack, Herman Herman, Jeff Legault, Phil English, Richard Fruehauf, Ryan Aument, Michael Guido, Sheila Fitzgerald Sterrett, David McCormick

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