Mat Vogels 🏴‍☠️

"Hey Jeff, I don't know what types of investors I should be going after because the feedback so far from most meetings has been all over the place and I'm pretty f'ng confused! HELP!!!" Let me guess, you hit up one investor and they say that they have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Too much industry jargon. Not enough about the deal and more about the company/how the sausage is made... And then, I bet you get a different type of investor who says that your ability to explain something complicated in a simple and effective way is your gift... "Holly shit, you're absolutely spot on! So what the hell do I do?" Segregate and delegate. First you need to figure out if you are an opener, a nurturer or a closer. Opener is the first point of contact once they're in the funnel. They can uncomplicate the complicated and make investors feel comfortable and appreciated. The Nurturer then builds on that relationship and earns their trust. The Closer is more, let's get down to business and get this thing closed. For me, I'm a closer. Purely transactional, cut and dry. Most people appreciate that as they like to just get on with it and cut out the foreplay, but others, most others, want/require the "courtship". Can you do them all? Absolutely! Should you? Only if you feel that nobody else can do it better and you have the time and capacity. "Can I hire consultants for that stuff?" I guess you could, but you'd want to make sure that they are represented an your website as an employee with a title, even if you're paying them as a contractor. Investors always want to talk directly to the person/people in charge which is typically the CEO & CFO as they basically control the company. I hope this helps.

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Excited to join Midday Connect tomorrow to talk broadly about how investors actually think when evaluating founders and companies and what we think about Symphonic Capital! If you can't make it, I recently wrote about what we look for specifically—how we back AI companies closing gaps in healthcare, finance, and workforce. Written with stories from four of our portfolio founders. Read "AI as Infrastructure" here: https://lnkd.in/eDNqG7K2

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I’m Andrew Clark, founder of Summit Bullion. I am proposing a low-risk pilot for the State of Florida to hold allocated gold in U.S. depositories with daily public proofs, monthly CPA attestations, and scripted redemption drills—a modern, transparent version of a depository receipt in digital tokenized form. Title remains with the State at all times; no rehypothecation. Tokenized gold could help the transferability of physical gold to better align with Florida's new HB 999 (2025) program initiatives. Two reasons the timing is right in Florida: Legal-tender pathway: Florida enacted HB 999 (2025) recognizing gold and silver as legal tender (effective 2026), creating a clear policy signal for sound-money infrastructure. Tax treatment: Florida also removed the $500 threshold—all bullion sales are now tax-exempt—broadening market access and market depth in-state. Pilot mechanics (state first, retail later): Custody: Allocated bars in U.S. depositories; serial-numbered; dual control; insurance. Transparency: Public dashboard (circulating supply, bar lists, variance policy), auto-pauses on out-of-tolerance. Transfers: Instant on-chain transfers between approved state wallets; conventional wire/ACH rails remain as fallback. Redemption-first: Physical redemption remains the primary right; drills executed on a cadence to prove it. Income angle (optional, policy-gated): If permitted under Florida’s investment statutes, the State could provision limited liquidity to the regulated secondary market and earn a pro-rata share of transaction fees, without surrendering title to its metal. Parameters (caps, slippage bands, kill switches) would be codified, and all counterparties are KYC’d with provenance controls. Use cases we can enable in phase 2 (subject to the HB 999 timeline and agency adoption): Agency-to-agency transfers (treasury ops, escrow/permits). Vendor settlements via approved payment partners. Wallets for municipalities or state funds with policy guardrails. Blaise Ingoglia State of Florida City of Jacksonville

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Carta VC numbers are self reported by venture capitalists and can not be trusted. We talked with multiple VCs to validate this. They admitted it. The data is garbage. Fund performance metrics, portfolio valuations, DPI, IRR calculations. All self reported. All potentially inflated or, less often, deflated. All meaningless for making investment decisions. The industry is making billion dollar decisions based on fantasy spreadsheets. LPs deserve better. Emerging managers deserve better. The ecosystem deserves better. Where do you go for reliable VC data?

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