Aneri Shah

Hot take: if you have users and revenue, you should tell investors that. You’d be shocked by how many decks I see that seem like totally philosophical idea-stage decks, then when I ask the founder about traction, they give me numbers that are nowhere to be found in the deck. No traction is too small. One customer is worlds different from zero customers. If you have any customer at all that uses your product, likes it, and/or pays for it, you’re ahead of so many early-stage founders raising on nothing but a dream. If you want to make sure your deck doesn't short-sell you, we do free deck reviews here: https://lnkd.in/gTK_SN2R #startups #venture #VC #founders #tech #fundraising #pitching #investors

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So yeah – Capital One is acquiring Brex. Big number. Loud headlines. But the interesting part isn’t the card. Capital One didn’t buy a startup-friendly corporate card. They bought infrastructure. Brex quietly moved from “cards for startups” to something much closer to a horizontal spend + payments layer that actually plugs into real finance teams, real ERPs, real controls. That’s the asset. A product banks can distribute without rebuilding it from scratch. Inside the perimeter. On their rails. With their balance sheet. Now compare that to Ramp. Same market. Similar surface area. Very different outcomes (so far). Ramp is still priced as a growth company chasing category ownership. Brex is priced as a product that a bank can absorb. Neither is “wrong” – but only one of those is immediately acquirable. And yes, the irony is strong: Ramp’s founders previously sold a company to Capital One. You really couldn’t script it better. After closing Discover, Capital One now has: – a card network – distribution – underwriting – and a modern spend platform At some point you stop partnering and start owning. $12.3B → $5.15B looks rough if you freeze the chart in 2022. But this is still a real outcome for the founders, the team, and early believers. Brex looked written off more than once. Instead, it pulled off a quiet comeback and a very bankable exit. Guess you can’t Brex the laws of finance forever, eventually you have to Capital One-solid footing. ¯\(ツ)/¯

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Most people trying to break into VC are told to wait for a job to open up. Our VC in Residence program does not work that way. You bring the deals you are already seeing. We do the diligence and the funding. You build a portfolio with your name on it. Three ways in: Venture Scouts, source deals from your own network Dealflow Partners, bring deals at volume alongside our funding partners University Ambassadors, run LvlUp on your campus Every referral is tracked on your VCR dashboard, right through to funding status. When we invest in a company you brought us, you earn cash or equity on that deal. Scouts and University Ambassadors can now apply directly here: https://lnkd.in/eMm4U4zV #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #BreakIntoVC

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When most startups are still fumbling with pitch decks and half-baked MVPs, TrueMeter is already cashing checks for its customers. The San Francisco-based company just closed a $4 million seed round led by Ulu Ventures, with Pear VC, e2vc, RiverPark Ventures, Flex Capital, Sarah Smith Fund, Cyan Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, and a lineup of seasoned investors all backing the play. Steve Reale, Partner at Ulu Ventures, joined the board, a signal that this is more than a financial transaction, it's a vote of confidence from someone who's seen the game before. Founded by Stanford University alums Ali Sarilgan and Dr. Ozge Islegen-Wojdyla, Ph.D., TrueMeter came together with a rare mix of practical experience and deep technical expertise. Sarilgan learned the ugly truth of utility spend firsthand while managing energy costs across 3,000 GameStop stores, and later at McKinsey, where inefficiency isn't a case study, it's a recurring nightmare. Dr. Islegen-Wojdyla brings the academic and technical weight, a Stanford PhD in energy markets, teaching at Northwestern, and hands-on data science at Instacart. Together they turned #EcoTrove, the early version of the business, into a streamlined AI platform now designed to hunt down and eliminate wasted dollars at scale. And scale matters. The U.S. #commercialenergy market is a $500 billion annual bill, with $75 billion evaporating from suboptimal rate plans and billing errors. Since its March 2024 launch, TrueMeter has already delivered more than $3 million in verified savings across 500+ business locations. Companies like Yoshinoya America, FreshDirect, Studio, Misfits Market, and Local Kitchens aren't testing a hypothesis, they're stacking real savings onto their bottom lines. The technology hits where others wave their hands. AI-driven #electricity rate optimization that switches instantly to better plans. Collective gas procurement that turns volume into leverage. Automated bill auditing that finds "errors" before they become monthly losses. Real-time monitoring that flags energy theft and equipment inefficiencies before they drain budgets. And it all lands in one consolidated bill, with guaranteed pricing and zero upfront cost. In other words, TrueMeter doesn't sell savings, it guarantees them. This seed round fuels what's next: scaling #engineering, pushing the AI stack further, and accelerating customer acquisition across #restaurants, #retail, and #hospitality. One million multi-location businesses are stuck overpaying for energy, and TrueMeter is cutting directly into that problem. The investors didn't buy into a story. They bought into proof. #Startups #StartupFunding #EarlyStage #VentureCapital #SeedRound #AI #Energy #EnergyTech #Utilities #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem #Hiring #TechHiring If software engineering peace of mind is what you crave, Vention is your zen.

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An emerging VC manager's fundraising lessons... the first two funds are a grind. Now, we’re on our third fund, it feels like we’re almost over the hump, but fundraising never gets easy for most of us. I want to congratulate the emerging VC firms presenting at this year’s RAISE Global conference. As former RAISE presenters, and (soon-to-graduate) emerging managers, we thought we’d share this LP Translator, a lighthearted guide to decoding what LPs really mean during the fundraising process. Fellow GPs, which ones did I miss? 👇 The LP Translator 📣 "Let’s stay in touch.” Translation: We’re not interested. “We want to see your track record develop.” Translation: Either we don't believe in your strategy, or we’re focused on managers with more buzz. “We’re not allocating to new managers right now.” Translation: We’re not allocating to you right now. "Show us your deals so we can get to know you.” Translation: We’d like free co-invests if you get something hot. “We need to see more DPI before we commit.” Translation: We don’t really understand VC, but we’re pretending to. “We’re fully allocated for this year; check in early next year.” Translation: Next year we’ll still be fully allocated (just not to you). “Call us before final close.”  Translation: I’m too polite to say no at this time, so I’m kicking the can down the road. “Your fund is too small.”  Translation: Okay, that one might actually be true (for some LPs). “We went through your data room and want to meet face-to-face.” Translation: We’re genuinely interested, keep going! “Can you send us your LPA for signature?” Translation: Let’s go! 🚀 -------------------------- Fundraising is a long game, longer than we ever expected. We're now seeing how LP relationships are built across several funds, not several months. If they’re investing time to learn about you and your strategy, that’s your best signal of real interest. #emergingmanager #venturecapital #LP #RAISEGLOBAL

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I’m thrilled to share Earthshot Ventures most recent investment, Unlimited Industries! Unlimited is an AI-native construction company that both designs and builds. Its platform can generate and evaluate hundreds of thousands of design configurations in parallel, automatically identifying optimal layouts for cost, safety, and performance before construction begins. Why did we invest? Solving a real need we know well: Over the last decade, we have worked with hundreds of companies that are ready to deploy their technology, but struggle with slow construction timelines and cost overruns. Unlimited makes it feasible for emerging infrastructure companies to bring projects to life reliably and efficiently. Massive market potential: The EPC market is ~$800B. While this entire market is not addressable from day one, early adopters will pave the way for the mass market, enabling massive possible scale over time. Exceptional team: The company is led by Alex Modon, a repeat founder and multidisciplinary engineer. To accelerate the company, Alex teamed up with Tara Viswanathan and Jordan Stern, who previously built and scaled Rupa Health as the founder/CEO and first teammate respectively, from zero to millions in revenue before its successful nine figure acquisition in 2024. Software is eating the world, and AI will eat engineering: Software engineering is increasingly being augmented and automated by AI, aided by large repositories of coding data like Github. Other engineering disciplines will be transformed over time as analogous data sets are compiled and software encodes the operating principles of the real world. Companies that can create proprietary datasets, like Unlimited’s burgeoning catalogue of projects, will gain defensibility through data moats. Lastly, since a good portion of my network here consists of founders who could be customers of Unlimited and their investors, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say - hit me up if you’d like to connect with Unlimited to deliver your next project on time, on budget! Welcome to the Earthshot portfolio, Unlimited!

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