Dan Rua

Big milestone for Firmable. We’ve raised $14m Series A led by Airtree. Sales has moved through a few big waves: intuition-led, CRM-led, data-led. We’re now entering the next one – intelligence-led sales. The opportunity isn’t just better data. It’s turning that data into clear direction and action, without adding more work for sales teams. That’s what we’re building at Firmable: a foundation of trusted external data, layered with intelligence that helps sellers know who to focus on and when. Led by Airtree, this round supports our expansion across Asia and into the US – and accelerates the build-out of AI agents that take the admin work off sales teams so they can focus on what they do best. Proud of the team, grateful to our customers and investors. We’re just getting started. Read the exclusive in the AFR. https://lnkd.in/gr66uknb Leigh Jasper | Tara Salmon | Karthik Venkatasubramanian| Chester Thompson| Chath Widanapathirana

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Two weeks ago on Swimming with Allocators, we sat down with David Clark, CIO at VenCap, to talk about what decades of venture data can teach allocators. One takeaway that stood out: discounts don’t matter as much as people think in venture secondaries. Because venture is such a power-law asset class, outcomes are driven by exposure to a few massive winners. Whether a stake is bought at a small discount, or even a premium, often matters far less than the quality of the underlying company and its upside. Great conversation on venture returns, manager selection, and the nuances of how allocators should think about secondary investments. 👇 Link in the comments.

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Cohort 26 is here 🎊 Meet the quality minds bringing new insights into GTM strategy, fundraising, AI, branding, and more to the Hubble sphere: 1. Alana Sierra Mann — General Partner, Eleven Wall Ventures | Alana's insights into fundraising, AI positioning for enterprise buyers, and raising capital will take you to the next level. 2. Alon Even — Fractional CMO & GTM Advisor | Access Alon's knowledge from building and running GTM systems for B2B SaaS companies. 3. Anouk ter Haar — Partner at First Degree Capital | Turn your idea into a scalable reality with Anouk's blend of strategy, ops, brand, and technology. 4. Collin Groves — Partner at BDev Ventures | Get insights into Colin's wisdom from investing in 60+ growth-stage startups. 5. Erik Åkesson — Managing Partner at Erik Ventures | Erik helps people navigate stakes, failed teams, and more through his lens as a 3x founder. 6. Giulia Marzetti — Climate Change & Sustainability at Deloitte | Learn from Giulia and her background in systems innovation, engineering, and sustainable energy. 7. Heidi Annalia Dillon — Former CEO of Distill Ventures and now Board Advisor & Strategist | Executive Coach | and leader of Talent Acceleration from Seed to Scale.  Heidi's 25+ years of experience makes her the ideal advisor for disruptive CPG founders. 8. Ideja Bajra — Founder of Edvance AI | Ideja's human-centered approach to AI makes her an exceptional choice for similar founders. 9. Jason Mackey — General Partner, RavenRock VC | Jason is a powerful voice in fundraising strategy, capital architecture, AI-built systems, stakeholder alignment, and more. 10. Jessica Richter — Founder & CEO, Richter Advisory Collective | A standout in MedTech, Jessica brings insights across ops scaling, board-level strategy, and GTM. 11. Matt Shoss — GP, Dragonfruit Ventures | Get dialed-in advice for pre-seed /seed raising, founder storytelling, GTM narrative, social growth, and more. 12. Nick Katz — Founder at RAISE | In his own words, Nick helps make fundraising faster, sharper, and less painful. 13. Rosa Sangiorgio — Angel Investor & Startup Advisor | With 27 years of investing and capital markets, Rosa helps with fundraising, building investor pipelines, and more. 14. Sean G. — Founder, REX & BaseFEST | An expert in Federal GTM, Sean brings incredible insight across public sector GTM strategy, regulated enterprise comms, and more. 15. Tom Gorski — Co-Founder & CEO, Research | Tom helps people learn how to scale profit without hiring, evaluating digital acquisitions, and preparing a profitable business. 16. Yannick Kpodar — General Partner, Aventra Capital | Yannick is an incredible mentor for SaaS founder advice, venture capital, seed-stage investing, and GTM advisory for AI/SaaS startups. We're proud of the waves this group is already making. One conversation can change everything. Search their name → book the 1:1. 👉 www.hubble.social

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New blog just dropped 🧠 Most VC firms don't have a deal flow problem. They have a signal processing problem. Everyone sees the same launches, the same founder activity, the same market data. The difference isn't who sees more. It's who makes sense of it faster. We wrote about why signal to conviction speed is becoming the real edge in venture and what that means for how investment teams should operate. Link in the comments. Would love to hear how other investors and operators think about this.

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Startups rarely scale with disconnected teams. At QVS, architects, developers, designers, marketers, and GTM strategists work as a single unit. This eliminates handoff delays, improves decision cycles, and builds a consistent path from product build to customer acquisition. It’s execution without the usual chaos - and founders feel the difference immediately. Build with a team that moves as one. Explore QVS: qatalys.com/qvs #CrossFunctionalTeam #StartupExecution #GrowthEngine #VentureStudio #QVS

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A platform built to last. Ron Heinz of Origami Capital Partners' Oquirrh Ventures explains why 1Kosmos stood out as an investment opportunity, with its defensible architecture, real-world traction, and the ability to scale with demand. Read the full announcement: https://lnkd.in/dmme7nNX

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"Finding just one more great deal is what separates top quartile funds from the rest." - Eric Emmons, Managing Partner, MassMutual Ventures Leading VCs are expanding their deal pipeline with Affinity Sourcing. Dive into the top three use cases over on our blog: https://buff.ly/3J8ZAVH

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Early-stage VC is about conviction. Late-stage VC is about visibility. Series C+ companies have real customers, real revenue, and real plans to go public or get acquired. #HighCircleVentures #SeriesC #LateStageVC #SmartInvesting #VentureCapital #PrivateMarkets

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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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I’ve been talking with founders about how painful enterprise customization still is — even in 2025. David Dworsky and Gordon Ritter just put words to what we’ve been seeing: the age of point-and-click configuration is ending, and the next category winners will make customization conversational. For early-stage founders, this is the wedge: - Own one painful workflow - Capture the data - Build toward becoming a system of record If you’re building in this space, I’d love to hear how you’re approaching it. Link to the full article on this in the comments. 

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"In early-stage startups, your primary goal isn’t to perfect your GTM strategy immediately." DC Cahalane, Venture Partner at SVV (Sure Valley Ventures), has seen too many good products fail on go-to-market. He breaks down 5 red flags that quietly kill startups and shows how early GTM mistakes can slow you down, waste resources, block growth. Read on The Top Voices — link in comments.

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The latest Studio Stack newsletter dropped on Friday — and in it, I unpack why community is the most underutilized competitive advantage in most organizations but ESPECIALLY in the Venture Studio sphere. 💡 87% of leaders say community is critical to their company’s mission 📈 79% report it’s directly impacting business results Yet most studios still treat it like a side project. In the article, I break down what actually works in 2025: → Build where people already “play” → Force connection (because they won’t do it themselves) → Curate, don’t just collect 'If you’re serious about standing out in a sea of 1,000+ studios, this one’s for you. 📰 Read the full issue — packed with new frameworks, launches, jobs, and insights from Studio builders and thought leaders across the world. 👉 https://lnkd.in/eZ2AtsDy

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𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 Lucas J. Pols, GP at Pegasus, delivers critical wisdom for founders navigating the complex world of startup investment. He reveals that while ownership percentage isn't everything, board control is the real game-changer. Learn why strategic board composition matters more than pure equity stakes, and discover how founders can maintain their vision while bringing in vital outside investment. #Startup #VentureCapital #Founder

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The SMS interactions between brand & consumer contain incredibly rich context for 1:1 personalized commerce experiences. Postscript is the platform enabling such experiences. On this week's episode, Rishabh and I sat down with Adam Turner to explore how SMS evolved from an abandoned-cart afterthought to a 1:1 sales & marketing channel. We covered: - Category creation and the rise of the “SMS marketer” - Compliance and quality as product design principles - Moving from broadcast to conversational journeys - Building distribution in the Shopify ecosystem, then scaling a sales-led motion - Where AI has augmented vs reinvented both marketing products and teams Link in comments

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Fintech & Govtech funding momentum builds: IMTC and Govstream.ai secure fresh rounds Capital inflows into automation-driven startups remain strong: IMTC raises $12M Series A to scale fixed-income analytics Govstream.ai closes $3.6M Seed round for AI-powered permitting & compliance tools Investor appetite for regulatory-aligned SaaS and infrastructure innovation continues to grow—especially in digitizing public-sector workflows. https://lnkd.in/dDqSmEQS #StartupFunding #Fintech #Govtech #SaaS #AICompliance #DigitalIndia #VCNews #TechInnovation

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Startups: Still telling your investor story to your buyers? On this Marketing In The Now episode, Abby Borden of Inkwell GTM shares real-world tactics to help early-stage founders turn fuzzy pitches into laser-focused positioning, buyer-first messaging, and scalable marketing. Learn: 🧑 How to define your ICP early ⚙️ The difference between traction and excitement 💸 Smart, scrappy tactics to stretch your budget Tune in now 👉 https://lnkd.in/etMwXYXj #Startup #GoToMarket #MarketingStrategy #MarketingInTheNow #MITN David Reske

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"Just ask the founder" worked at $10M ARR. At $50M with PE oversight, it's a control failure waiting to be documented. Founder-led businesses run on trust, proximity, and instinct. That's powerful for early growth, but it doesn't translate to audit trails, delegation matrices, or repeatable approvals. After the deal closes, informal decision-making becomes your biggest exposure. Have you seen this friction play out post-deal? What founder-era habit has been hardest to systematize?

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