Stuart Coleman

🚨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

18

1 Comment

I spoke with Christien Louviere of BDE Capital about his journey from a $330mm exit to becoming an independent sponsor. Christien shared excellent insights for folks looking to partner with business owners, rather than buy sellers out completely. Below are a few of the topics we covered: - Why he moved from “zero-to-one” startups to a buy-then-build strategy - How Christien's background shaped a focus on growth vs. cost-cutting - Why 20–40% rolled equity is central to his deal structures—and how it builds trust with sellers - Using scenario analysis with AI tools to evaluate management teams and uncover hidden key-person risks - How to identify when a $3–5M EBITDA company truly has a middle management layer—or is still founder-reliant For anyone investing in or buying small businesses, Christien’s approach provides a fresh lens on growth, alignment, and deal structuring. 🎥 Watch the full interview here → https://lnkd.in/ekfkaiej 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e86Agx6V

33

8 Comments

Layer is tackling one of the most overlooked pain points for SMBs: accounting. They’re gaining real traction doing so. Emergence is leading their seed round to bring embedded, AI-powered accounting to the SMB software stack. Kevin Spain highlights what makes this team and product so compelling. 

18

2 Comments

EnerTech Expands its Innovation Platform Through a Partnership with Restructuring Company Steinberg Advisory “We are thrilled to have Steinberg Advisory as a partner on our expanded services platform. Howard and I have known one another for over 25 years and worked together at RBC Capital Partners earlier in our careers. Howard and his team have developed a platform of core services that will be a valuable resource for both our firm and our broader network of Corporate LPs and co-investors,” said Wally Hunter, Managing Partner at EnerTech Capital.

34

1 Comment

Construction and demolition (C&D) waste in the U.S. is an over $300 billion industry entailing millions of jobs. CurbWaste has been taking the industry out of the pen-and-paper age, and that’s why we are proud to invest in its $28M Series B. The round, led by Socium Ventures, builds on the $10M Series A we led at the end of 2023. Since then, CurbWaste has grown its customer base to about 150 haulers over 40 states and continue to scale three digit y/y revenue growth. Customers include leaders such as TKI, Capitol Waste and Super Waste. The comprehensive CurbWaste platform provides order and route management, live tracking, automated invoicing, and real time data reporting. The New York-based company will be using the new round to fund additional enterprise offerings and deepening its AI-powered automation. Curbwaste's founder & CEO, Michael Marmo, hails from four generations in the waste management industry which provides him with a degree of familiarity and expertise required to drive the industry into a new era. As Mike told @WasteDive: "We’re not a grow-at-all-costs business, we’re very much a customer-focused business. We’re asking companies to trust us with their business, and I take that very seriously." Congratulations to Mike and the CurbWaste team. Honored to be an ongoing part of the CurbWaste journey! Socium Ventures, TTV Capital, B Capital, Mucker Capital, John Onwualu, Lizzie (Guynn) Hartley, Patrick Harmon Lopez, and David Yang.

21

4 Comments

What does the "new era" of private equity look like? This week at PEI NEXUS, Bain & Company's Chairman of Global Private Equity Practice Hugh MacArthur recapped the firm's latest Global Private Equity Report. Hugh noted that firms will need to focus on what they do well in a “new era” for private equity. These sentiments echoed much of what Private Wealth Forum speakers, including Arax Investment Partners Founder and CEO Haig Ariyan, Laird Norton Wetherby CIO Ron Albahary, CFA, Ardian Managing Director, US Private Wealth Solutions Ava Mallin, and Citi Wealth Head of Private Equity and Real Estate Jeffrey Locke, shared on stage at PEI. This week's AGM Alts Weekly dives into what a "new era" in private equity might look like, connecting dots and data points from Bain & Company and McKinsey & Company's 2026 reports on the state of the private equity industry. Some key themes defined the takeaways from both reports: ➡️ Returns will not be a dime a dozen: Bain's punchline? "12 is the new 5." ➡️ Megadeals, big questions: 2025 witnessed an increase in global buyout deal value. However, just 13 deals of $10B or more contributed 69% of the growth in 2025, accounting for $274B of the global gain. ➡️ A K-shaped industry: Private equity appears to turning into a K-shaped industry, with “a subset of elite funds [being] on the upswing while everyone else muddles through.” ➡️ No fun in fundraising: McKinsey noted that core, closed-end fundraising has “become more competitive, selective, and time consuming.” ➡️ Continuation nation: There’s been a marked rise in continuation vehicle activity, but only represents less than 10% of exit value. ➡️ Mid-sized deals not so mid: Megadeal activity grabbed the headlines. But deal sizes $1-5B deals grew 29%. Growth in the $1-5B deal size segment could be encouraging for specialist buyout funds. There are some key questions for allocators to grapple with as they think about what private equity might look like in the future. 1️⃣ Do allocators believe public markets will continue to outperform private markets? 2️⃣ Will fundraising bounce back? 3️⃣ Can firms kick value creation into motion? 4️⃣ Are both GPs and LPs ready to handle how investors might look to exit evergreen vehicles? 5️⃣ For LPs, are they finding managers that have an edge? Read on for more👇 This week's Alt Goes Mainstream's AGM Alts Weekly, brought to you by DealsPlus, covers: 🗂️ AGM Index, an index that tracks the leading publicly traded alternative asset managers. 💻 Who is hiring: Senior-level positions from companies Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global Management, Inc., Ares Management, EQT Group, Blue Owl Capital, Franklin Templeton, Fortress Investment Group, iCapital, Goldman Sachs, Ultimus Fund Solutions, Krilogy, MSCI Inc. Subscribe👇 to see the latest trends & navigate this rapidly changing landscape as alts go mainstream. https://lnkd.in/eRKN25jy

26

3 Comments

I’m incredibly excited for Highmount to partner with the Voomi team. The HVAC supply market is massive and still largely offline, making it ripe for disruption by an asset-light, online marketplace model that has transformed so many other industries. We’re big believers in the team — visionary founders, a strong management team, and co-investors with deep operational experience (Rob Biederman, Asymmetric, Operator Partners) — and are grateful to be part of the journey ahead. If you’re in the HVAC ecosystem — from suppliers to distributors to contractors — I’d love to connect you with the Voomi team.

55

3 Comments

We are thrilled to celebrate Powerline’s $7M Seed round and our partnership with this exceptional team. Led by Matineh Eybpoosh and Julian Lamy, Powerline is solving the most critical bottleneck of the energy transition: the "Intelligence Gap." As global energy demand surges, the grid requires capacity that is both faster to deploy and hyper-efficient to operate. Powerline is proving that the answer lies in software-driven intelligence. Their AI platform — the Battery Co-Pilot™ — radically improves the unit economics of energy storage, converting batteries from passive backup into high-yield financial assets. They are already delivering measurable results across the energy lifecycle: Existing Installations: Retrofitting "brownfield" battery portfolios with an intelligence layer that captures missed revenue and manages market volatility. New Deployments: Providing the digital testbeds needed to scale global fleets with institutional precision, significantly shortening the path to ROI. Legacy Displacement: Delivering a cost-effective alternative to polluting "peaker-plants," which can cost up to $200/MWh more than an optimized Powerline fleet. While solar-plus-storage is now consistently 20-30% cheaper than new-build gas, the real victory is in how that hardware is managed. At J-Impact Fund, we focus on the massive value creation that occurs when technology turns energy scarcity into abundance. By shifting the grid from a model of expensive, finite fuel to one of persistent, harvested power, we unlock superior financial upside. For us, deep decarbonization is the inevitable byproduct of this superior economic model. Congratulations to Matineh, Julian, and the entire team—we are proud to be on this journey with you. #EnergyStorage #AIOptimization #VentureCapital #AssetManagement #SeriesSeed #FinancialAlpha

32

2 Comments

Proud to share that Greenfield Partners has led GoodShip’s $25M Series B, combining forces with our friends at Bessemer Venture Partners, Ironspring Ventures, Chicago Ventures, and FUSE! For anyone who has managed freight, the pain is familiar: scattered data, reactive decisions, and too many spreadsheets. GoodShip is building a modern operating system that brings planning, procurement, and performance into one place so transportation teams can act faster with measurable results. By unifying data across systems, teams get real-time visibility and clearer levers. GoodShip is already trusted by the leading enterprise shippers like Tropicana, WK Kellogg, McCain Foods, and KBX Logistics. “The freight industry is moving toward a new operating standard, with GoodShip at the forefront of this shift” says Itay Inbar. “GoodShip is redefining a trillion-dollar industry with a novel approach and rapid AI innovation - unifying procurement and visibility in a platform that’s already proving its value at enterprise scale across the world’s largest shippers.” The team, led by Ryan Soskin and David Tsai, brings deep freight experience and a builder’s mindset, and it shows in every customer conversation. Already, we are hard at work with the GoodShip team in scaling their go-to-market. Our shared goal is straightforward: help more shippers move from reactive decision-making to confident execution. This is the start of an exciting journey ahead. Congratulations to Ryan, David, and the entire GoodShip team—I’m grateful for the partnership and energized for what comes next! Itay Inbar Olivia Levine

129

6 Comments

PE Boards as a Differentiator (for portfolio companies) If you heard the Shore Capital episode on "Invest Like the Best" podcast - there is one interesting insight for PE firms. Board Composition: - each board is built like a sports team with complementary skills - operators, VOC, adjacent sector experts This is a true differentiator because most boards are not intentionally built like a high-performing sports team. Also, there is one particular operator profile every B2B portfolio company should have on its board: a GTM expert (i.e. former CRO). All B2B portfolio company board discussions consistently focus on sales and revenue growth, making this one of the most impactful board roles. All top decile PE firms have a GTM expert in-house as an Operating Partner specializing in GTM who joins board meetings to spot upside opportunities and help see around corners and mitigate risks. P.S. Relating to the GTM, sales, and growth side, there’s a well-known story about Michael Ovitz serving on the board of Gulfstream Aerospace while it was owned by the PE firm Forstmann Little & Co. Michael Ovitz said that he and other board members, like Colin Powell, were so focused on GTM they even got on the phone to help sell jets. It was an entirely GTM-focused board which helped turn around Gulfstream. #pe #privateequity

52

1 Comment

Clarence Chio and Kao ZC are the prototype of AI practioners you want to back. Builders who think in first principles, relentless about scaling efficiently, and as G2M-savvy as they are technical. Coverbase is building the autonomous intelligence layer for modern procurement, and we’re over the moon to support their next chapter. TPRM & procurement are easy functions to overlook, but they actually represents a key bottleneck, especially for regulated organizations. An efficient onboarding process isn't merely about assessing risk, it's about streamlining a critical path that allows a business to achieve its goals. Ensuring resilience and unlocking speed. How does a company bring in more AI use cases? How does it accelerate its partnership strategy? How can it improve decision-making cycle times in a dynamic environment? Coverbase is where I'd start!

21

1 Comment

Congratulations to Daniel Kultran and our portfolio company Claros on announcing its $30 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Red Cell Partners, with participation from Systemiq Capital, Aero X Ventures, Trenches Capital, and others. Advances in AI are massively increasing power demand on legacy systems and infrastructure, and every day there is more news about a bigger wave of data center buildouts. Power is, and will continue to be, the bottleneck for us to fully embrace all that AI has to offer. Claros is on a mission to refine data center infrastructure, optimize energy efficiency, and allow for sustainable high-performance computing. Since launching 13 months ago, they have developed an integrated voltage regulator to deliver power directly to processing units - improving chips' energy efficiency by 15% - and a DC-native power distributor to reduce AC/DC conversion losses by up to 50%. With more than 30% electricity being wasted before it even reaches a processor, Claros is building the solutions we desperately need. #Claros #RedCellPartners #ImpactThroughInnovation #SeedRound #Fundraise #AI #DataCenter #PowerDelivery #TeamsWin

5

Micro PE + Venture Rollups = A Built-In Disruption Hedge When pure-play SaaS multiples slow down, profitable “boring” businesses continue to thrive. Rolling up pool-cleaning companies or HVAC contractors can help offset the volatility of high-risk tech investments. Why this cushion matters: • Cash-flow first - rollups compound earnings regardless of valuation cycles. • Automation-resistant services - human presence is still required on-site, even if AI handles the bookings. • Different beta - lower correlation to consumer apps or frontier tech, leading to smoother LP returns. Tired of watching SaaS valuations whipsaw your portfolio? Curious about how a service rollup could dampen the swings? Drop a 👍 if you're interested in a deeper dive on disruption hedging with Micro PE.

26

4 Comments

**Exploring Strategic Bids in Emerging Tech** The recent bid from MicroVision to acquire Luminar's lidar business for $33 million underscores the competitive nature of technology acquisitions. As the landscape of venture capital evolves, understanding these dynamics can inform investment strategies. At ElevenX Capital, we believe that strategic acquisitions can be pivotal in leveraging market innovations. These moves not only enhance portfolio capabilities but also demonstrate the importance of evaluating emerging trends. What factors do you consider most crucial when assessing the viability of such acquisitions? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

2

Scaling your VC-backed startup? You may be missing critical financial expertise. While you focus on growth, the complexities of venture capital funding - cap table management, investor due diligence, financial forecasting - can derail promising startups. Most founders lack the deep financial knowledge needed to manage these challenges. The solution? Strategic fractional CFO support. Learn when and why to bring in fractional CFO expertise for sustainable scaling: https://lnkd.in/g8mXyMRH #VentureCapital #Startups #FractionalCFO

5

"The Cap Table for Founders: Guide to Equity, Control & Capital" Allie Singer, CPA of Allos Ventures helps us Demystify the Cap Table with this guide to equity, control, dilution, and fundraising. Founders: Read this before signing a term sheet. https://lnkd.in/eXstGUVP

2

Excited to finally share what we’ve been building over the past year. Today we’re announcing the first investment from ARKITEKT EQUITY. Over the past year, we have been closely observing the structural shifts occurring within semiconductor ecosystems. As manufacturing systems become more complex, the infrastructure enabling those systems becomes increasingly strategic. These environments demand operational clarity, coordination, and long-term alignment. ARKITEKT was built around a simple idea: durable value is created where frontier technology meets pragmatic execution. Our investment in BBTech reflects this conviction. This is just the beginning of what we aim to build at ARKITEKT EQUITY. Stay tuned! https://lnkd.in/g_pQiBZY

7