Will Zell

Wondering about the Nebraska ecosystem resources. See the attached chart below…and more to come!

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The practical application of AI to help manufacturers eliminate unplanned downtime is key to our current and future offering. We do not label ourselves as purely an AI company, as that is one component of our value delivery, but I can say we have a world class team of AI Engineers building incredible tech alongside a team of world class Condition Monitoring Engineers. I am bullish and excited to see how Central Ohio emerges as a global AI hub with Intel as an anchor. cc: Brian Graham, Seyed Mohammad Parvasi, Ph.D., Jaidev Krishnan, Matt Longhouse, Chris Berry

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There seems to be a misunderstanding on why/how AEC firms should acquire technology product companies. I have spent the last decade helping AEC firms figure this out. Foundational questions to be answered. - How do we monetize our innovation strategy? - How do we align innovation to provide a new product to existing markets AND/OR does the acquisition open a new market where we can provide our existing services? - Do we have the right culture to work with a team that is likely counter culture? - Do we know how to provide financial governance to a business model that we have no experience with? These are just a few.

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In 2013, Lori Torres felt an undeniable spark when she conceived the idea for Parcel Pending, a smart locker solution designed to tackle the package crisis in apartment buildings. Despite being the primary breadwinner in her family with a thriving real estate career, she took a monumental risk. She left her secure job, sold the family’s cherished home, and even persuaded her mother to risk her property for a loan. Within a year of these sacrifices, Lori had developed her first smart lockers. Her innovation soon caught on, with her lockers becoming a key solution for property management companies and residents. By the end of 2014, Lori’s commitment had not only secured her first major order but also attracted investors, setting the stage for tremendous growth. Within six years, Parcel Pending was sold for $100 million, turning her mother’s loan into a $1 million return and ensuring her family's future. Lori’s story highlights a key lesson for anyone seeking investors: truly committing to your vision can make a world of difference. By investing your own resources and security, you show investors just how dedicated you are to your idea. When you put everything on the line, it not only proves your commitment but also makes a strong case to potential backers. If you’re all in, it’s far easier to convince others to believe in your dream, and it could be the turning point in making it a reality. Are you prepared to go all in on your entrepreneurial dreams? Grab a copy of my book, “Thinking Bigger”, at the link below to read my personal experience chasing my dream and the advice I would share to anyone starting today. https://lnkd.in/dZpQYX6D #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #Startups #Investment #ThinkBigger

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Today, Ediphi turns 1!  I couldn’t be more proud of what this incredible team has accomplished in just one year. Let’s recap some key milestones: September 2023: Formed the entity to commercialize Ediphi October 2023: Officially launched our estimating and preconstruction product at Groundbreak in Chicago November 2023: Closed our seed round December 2023 - March 2024: Signed several ENR 400 general contractors after successful pilots March 2024: Closed our Series A In one year, we’ve grown from 5 to 35 people and continue closing marquee customers while driving our mission forward: empowering the people who plan the built world.Our vision for Ediphi is bigger and bolder than anything I've worked on to-date, and I have no doubt that what we’re bringing to market will transform preconstruction.Thank you to my cofounder Michael Navarro, our customers, investors, and especially our passionate team. Here’s to even more success in Year 2! 

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What's life look like in a future Smart City? My colleagues and I on the Forbes Technology Council provide a peek into the future (and some is already here). I speak to Smart Storage on the article but there is also a large play in using real-time video analytics for safety and law enforcement as well which isn't highlighted in this article. What else did we not discuss? Forbes Technology Council Red Summit Board Services & Advisory Daniel Riedel Usman Javaid, PhD Gladys Kong Vikram Gupta Ketan Anand Giovanni Punzo Tom Roberto Kaitki Agarwal Anar Mammadov Luke Wallace Sri Bhargav Krishna Adusumilli Yuriy Berdnikov Sarah C. James Stanger Roman Reznikov, PhD Sam Glassenberg Rohit V Anabheri #smartcity #autonomous #cognitive #geolocation #airtaxis #ai #ml #storage #genai #security #gigeconomy #healthtracking #wastemanagement #trafficmanagement #safety #parking #maintenance #robots #mobility

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Will autonomous vehicles pick up speed off-road? Overland AI and Potential are pursuing, military, mining, and other off-road applications. These use cases are more compelling because they represent large markets, they are not as regulated as passenger transport roads, and they can address labor shortages. As Alexei Andreev of Autotech Ventures added, "And if you remove people, you immediately get a reduction in your insurance premiums." I would expect to more autonomous investments like these. #logistics #supplychain #autonomous #investments https://lnkd.in/ePERXSea

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At 135 Madison, we specialize in transforming founders' visions into investor-ready memos and decks that secure meetings and get funding. We do this week-in-and-week-out with startups at all stages. When preparing for fundraising, developing an investment memo before diving into the pitch deck can be a wise approach for startups raising Series A and beyond. Stay ahead by being fully prepared to answer any questions investors may throw at you! Swipe to see a detailed comparison below. Find this valuable? Follow Peter Korbel for more! #venturecapital #startups #fundraising #entrepreneurship #investmentmemo #pitchdeck

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Part 2 from QED Investors. "How many Founders does it take to land a plane? None, they'll just pivot to a helicopter ride-sharing service." haha. Very well written part about what happens, when things don't turn out as planned. Very delicate topics that sadly, we all deal with eventually. So best to get smart reading this, and improve youe odds of "Landing the Plan"! https://lnkd.in/gCiRkrqx

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According to HP’s State of Construction Productivity survey, 66% of respondents believe technology can help combat the labor shortage and attract new talent. For too long, manual back-office tasks like managing tickets and processing change orders have been a major headache for project managers, causing delays and frustration. Thankfully, the last seven years have brought a promising wave of digitization as modern tools, like AI and data-rich mobile devices, offer accurate risk assessments, streamlined workflows, and newfound efficiency. The path to building tomorrow's cities better lies in reshaping construction tech. By leveraging innovation, we can overcome communicative and organizational challenges while driving the industry into a new era of progress. #ConstructionTech #AI #Innovation

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If the State of Michigan had just one more Pete Martin.... the entrepreneurial environment here would be the best in the country! Entrepreneurs! Dust off those pitch decks, buckle up, and get ready to scale because this year will be one you would regret missing if you aren't prepared. Special shoutout to Daniel Jefferies for passing along a dope pitch video by Michael Seibel to make sure that this fall is epic! Let's Go Michigan Entrepreneurs!!! Black Tech Saturdays, get those Black Unicorns ready for launch!!!! How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup: https://lnkd.in/g7uUbazd

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Well-written and sourced article describing what's going in seed-stage venture market. At 9point8 Collective we tend to orbit the seed-stage (both ideating and developing companies to reach seed and helping post-seed companies refactor and scale in anticipation of A) and for many companies it's a critical inflection point which determines their long term success or failure. The main takeaways I was able to gather: 1️⃣ Many startups that raised seed rounds in 2021-2022 are struggling to secure Series A funding due to tighter market conditions and increased investor expectations. 2️⃣ Seed investors are becoming more cautious, leading to longer diligence processes and a preference for startups with strong traction or experienced founders. As a result, valuations have stayed relatively high even as deal flow reduces. 3️⃣ Startups are adopting various strategies to navigate this challenging environment, including cutting costs, raising bridge rounds or convertible notes, and M&A/acqui-hires. 4️⃣ Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for both startups and investors in this new landscape, particularly for those who can adapt to the changing market conditions. Investors are accumulating dry powder -- and with rates on the decline -- will be looking to deploy into companies with stronger fundamentals than their 2021-2022 counterparts.

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Let's finally get rid off the "VC alphabet song" and redo the system to become more founder friendly. "The benchmarks set by funding stages are often arbitrary and not necessarily aligned with the actual development needs of individual startups." #vc #venturecapital #founder #fundraising #startups #fundingstages #funding #fundingrounds #pitchbook

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For PE portco's, vision ≠ financial targets. What's more likely to inspire and motivate the team in your port-co? → Target: "Achieve $100m revenue and $25m EBITDA by 2025." OR → Vision: "Heal and transform 100k lives by 2025." Ask yourself: does your value creation plan spell out the vision for the company? ▶️ #PrivateEquity #Vision #ValueCreation

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Are you a CPG #startup? Catch my interview with Dayton Miller of BFG Partners, a VC fund that invests in "better for you" consumer products. We cover a lot of ground in this podcast, including: +how founders can build relationships with investors +what does your startup's metrics need to look like to attract VC +typical expansion paths for CPG companies (e.g. D2C --> specialty retail --> mass retail --> club etc) as well as: +tips for emerging VC managers on raising their first fund (as well as how things change for funds #2 and #3) +how to be thoughtful and differentiated with your fund's thesis +what you need in your pitch materials package and more. BFG most recently raised $125 million for fund number 3 to back healthy food and beverage startups such as prebiotic soda OLIPOP PBC and cauliflower pizza crust maker CAULIPOWER. The firm invests from seed to series B with check sizes varying between $3 million and $5 million. Its previous two funds were $54 million and $108 million, respectively. Check it out, like and share :) Danke, Nathan

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I failed at team building at my first startup, and built a team that expanded Ruck into 4 states in 10 months. (This is for founders that didn't get that dream $5m pitch-only raise) Here are some important learning points: 1. Refrain from hiring for as long as possible - In the beginning, it is likely that you don't have enough work to even fulfill your own 40 hours a week. REAL work, not logo designing or "strategy" - I'm talking sales, prospecting, surveys, etc. YOU should be the driver behind all initial traction. Ruck made its first full time hire after 18 months. 2. The first hires should only be either dev or sales - Tech and sales are the only two categories of "trench work" in an early startup. 3. No managers. Until you hit $100k a month, avoid managers. All the dirty work is in engineering and sales. Also, try to get your first $50k in sales without engineers. 4. Only hire proven engineers - You WILL need to pay fairly in order to acquire a worthwhile engineer. You get what you pay for. So make sure you have a fool-proof way of assessing their skills. And without fair compensation, you might lose your engineer and be left holding the bag on an inaccessible tech stack. As a rough benchmark for UT: CS degree = $60k, and every 2 yrs of experience +$10k. These are on the lower end, but you are a startup founder, do the leg work to find good engineers to convert into vision disciples willing to take a 10% hit on salary. 5. Do NOT assign titles like "VP", "COO/CTO/CRO/C--" to non-founders. Use "Sales Lead", "Engineering Lead", etc. if you must. At the earliest stage, you are NOT qualified to hire industry rockstars. You don't have cash, reputation, or equity value to recruit top talent - reserve those titles for top talent later. This avoids title drama later on like asking an inexperienced C-- to step aside for a better candidate. You actually preserve relationships this way. And have that talk OPENLY with your hires. 6. EQUITY - STOP. Stop messing around with equity. The early team MUST be filled with visionaries. Your early equity is WORTHLESS - so it actually gives them no value and ONLY gives you a legal headache later on when team members leave the company (and they will). Instead, include a range of equity compensation TRIGGERED by a certain event, such as 1-year employed, or $2m raised, etc. and figure out the options agreement at the time of the trigger. This is also a good way to weed out "equity leeches" - people that jump from company to company to suck 1% equity. People end up not being motivated by equity - money talks. They got bills to pay. You also have more ability to enforce performance with a salary than equity. Go stipend only until you get funding. At Ruck, Shaun and I were unpaid for the first year basically. Build your company to survive, not to impress. Reiteration: this is for early startups by first time founders without initial big VC funding.

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Summary: New York-based startup GovWell is helping local governments streamline and automate tasks, such as building permits and code inspections, through its workflow system. It has raised $4.5 million in funding and aims to become the go-to provider for smaller and medium-sized government agencies. Key takeaways: Founders Troy LeCaire and Ben Cohen were inspired to create GovWell after seeing the stark difference in technology between Cohen's experience working at Uber and faxing building permits for his contractor father. The company's platform allows for customization without the need for expensive bespoke software, making it accessible for smaller government agencies. Despite competition in the government software market, LeCaire sees the potential for growth due to the massive scale of government expenditures and the importance of efficient and effective government services. Counter arguments: Some may argue that the government sector is not a lucrative market for software companies due to strict regulations and lower budgets compared to private companies. The competition in the government software market may pose a challenge for GovWell to become the top provider, as there are established players such as OpenGov with significant funding and acquisition by Cox Enterprises. #venturecapital #fundraising #startups

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Brett Renzenbrink Scott Jacobs Tyler Mantel Ryan Retcher Patrick Henshaw Sue Bevan Baggott Some highlights from the panel Funding AI powered startups Midwestern companies that overlook raising capital in the Midwest are overlooking opportunities We’re in a valuation reset period, and what happens on the coasts is invest across the board and see what sticks, whereas investors in the Midwest are a bit more conservative and wait for the excitement to burn off before investing 20% of the nations GDP is generated in the Midwest but only about 3% of venture comes from the Midwest… something is off there Focus on solution <> market fit more than product market fit One of the most powerful things we have in the Midwest is an abundance of midmarket companies that are easier to get We’re seeing valuations at 4-7x times revenue in the market right now #cincyAIweek

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