Daniel Chiou

Reflecting on another fantastic StartupAZ retreat in Flagstaff last month! I’m grateful to be a part of this incredible community that continually supports technology founders in Arizona. StartupAZ is more than just a network; it’s a powerful ecosystem of founders, mentors, and seasoned entrepreneurs who come together to uplift and propel each other forward. The monthly cohort meetings provide the kind of support and mentorship that makes all the difference in launching and scaling a technology company. This organization has been a game-changer for me personally, connecting me with like-minded leaders and providing the resources needed to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship. Being surrounded by other founders who are as passionate about innovation and growth as I am has been truly inspiring. Below is a video from our retreat, showcasing the spirit and energy of this incredible group of people dedicated to pushing the limits of what’s possible. Seeing how much we’ve grown and the impact we’ve had on Arizona’s tech landscape is both humbling and motivating. If you're a founder in Arizona or someone passionate about the startup ecosystem, I highly encourage you to get involved with StartupAZ. Let’s keep building, growing, and supporting the next wave of innovators right here in Arizona! #StartupAZ #FoundersSupportingFounders #ArizonaTech #Entrepreneurship #StartupCommunity #Innovation

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It is a great privledge to be backing Stella Garber for a second time, as well as her sensational co-founders Brian Schmidt and Justin Gallagher. It’s also great to working with Index Ventures again, too. One thing I have learned in my venture career is that humans are lazy, and software that does simple things can feel like magic. Hoop uses AI to automatically harvest to do items from all of your communication channels. Today it’s single player, and in the future it will be your whole team. Read more about why we invested: https://lnkd.in/geTy-kyZ

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118 VCs (one hundred eighteen!) are gathering in San Diego next week - to meet with 30 SD startups. But it's so MUCH bigger than just those 30 co's. It brings VCs back - when they see quality companies. It helps those who are next-in-line and adjacent. It enables us to send deal flow all year 'round. It attracts talent and other companies. It inspires entrepreneurship. Connect is working for SD. Together, we're building the best damn innovation ecosystem on the planet. Year over year. Five.Ten.Thirty.

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In PE, when you buy a company you're in business with the founders & the management team even though the PE firm owns the company. Success is a function of collaborative partnership & teamwork. PE firms that have this partnership philosophy are well positioned on the path to achieve top decile IRR. #pe #privateequity

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🚀 It’s a big day at Hoop! We’re excited to share we’ve raised $5m led by Index Ventures with participation from Origin Ventures, Chingona Ventures, Divergent Capital, and an inspiring group of angel investors. Two years ago, Justin, Brian, and I got together and started brainstorming. We had worked together as early executives at Trello for 7.5 years! We wanted to recreate the magic of the early days of Trello and respond to the epidemic of distraction we were seeing in the workplace. When I left Atlassian, I was in back-to-back meetings most days. Slack was constantly buzzing. My whole day was spent going between apps and praying I wouldn’t miss something important. I would wake up in the middle of the night remembering that DM I forgot to respond to. In an age of AI, this kind of mental fatigue across tools drains humans of our energy to do the work that really matters: the focused and creative work that comes when we can feel secure that we’re on top of all important work. Hoop is the product I wish I had. It connects to Zoom, Google Meet, Slack and email and automatically captures tasks for me using AI. It then centralizes everything in one spot so I never miss a task. Our vision is to rethink task management with an AI first principles mindset. There’s so much we can do now that we couldn’t have imagined back when we were building Trello. It’s an exciting time to be building in the space, and we’ve got a world class team taking on this challenge. Now’s the time to try Hoop out and let us know what you think! We couldn’t be more grateful for all the amazing support from our community, investors, and friends. Let’s go team! 👏🏼 Special thanks to our investors for all their belief and support - Damir Becirovic Neil Rimer Katie Shea Samara Mejia Hernandez Jason Heltzer Andy Dunn Wade Foster Linda Lian Michael Pryor Kristen Habacht Elizabeth Hall Barry Clark Nikita Miller Mihika Kapoor Jiaona Zhang (JZ) Maggie Adhami-Boynton Sonia Sahney Nagar Sean Harper Darren Murph Mike Arauz Job van der Voort Annie Duke Jay Simons Maria Christopoulos Katris Ezra Galston Sheel Mohnot Ilya Fushman #futureofwork #ai #startups #fundraising

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If you ask a PropTech founder what they most need help with today, introductions to qualified investors with capital would be No. 1, 2 and 3 on their list. With that in mind, I’m excited to share the news that Venture Connect from CRETI · Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation officially launched this week to help better connect PropTech founders with investors focused on the space. Props to CRETI managing director Ashkán Z. for spearheading this initiative and getting it live for the betterment of the entire PropTech landscape. With the platform live, founders can get matched with more than 200 venture capital investors (angel to Series A) based on their investment profile and thesis, including Alpaca VC, Era Ventures, Fifth Wall, JLL Spark, Navitas Capital, Nuveen Green Capital and many more. As I told Philip Russo of the Commercial Observer, I believe the CRETI platform will be a game-changer for the industry, which sorely needs new avenues helping founders succeed in bringing new ideas to market faster and more efficiently capitalized. Thanks to Philip for including my comments in the story. Details on Venture Connect below. https://lnkd.in/efpxDQkR #proptech #venturecapital

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1. What specific features or functionalities does Hoop offer that differentiate it from existing task management tools like Trello, Asana, or Monday.com? 2. Can you elaborate on how Hoop’s AI-powered solution addresses the workplace distractions mentioned in the post? 3. How does Hoop’s integration with communication tools like Zoom and Slack enhance its usability and effectiveness for users? 4. Are there any unique AI-driven capabilities within Hoop that set it apart in terms of task organization and productivity improvement? 5. Can you provide examples of how Hoop’s advanced automation and predictive task prioritization features benefit users in real-world scenarios? 6. How does Hoop’s vision for AI-first task management align with current trends in workplace productivity and collaboration tools? 7. In what ways does Hoop aim to revolutionize the task management space, particularly in terms of addressing the needs of modern work environments? 8. What strategies does Hoop have in place to effectively communicate its value proposition to potential users and investors amidst a competitive market landscape? 9. How does Hoop plan to leverage its recent funding round to further enhance its product offering and market presence? 10. Can you share insights into Hoop’s roadmap for future development and innovation, particularly in terms of expanding its AI-driven functionalities and integrations?

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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In a recent episode of The Expertise Economy podcast, I sat down with Johnny Page, CEO, and Matt Verlaque, COO, of SaaS Academy. Johnny shared a crucial insight for SaaS founders that challenges conventional wisdom 👇 "Many founders aim to delegate sales once they reach $15-20K MRR. This is often a critical mistake. We advocate for founders to remain deeply involved in sales for as long as possible." Why? According to Johnny, "No one can articulate the problem and solution more compellingly than the founder." Key takeaways from our discussion: > Founder-led sales drive stronger growth > Focus on consistent wins rather than quick handoffs > Clarify your customer acquisition strategy > Define your ideal customer profile precisely > Optimize your sales channel and offer > Maintain this focused approach for at least 12 months This strategy is the catalyst for transforming steady growth into exponential scale. For a deep dive into scaling strategies for your SaaS business, watch the full interview now: https://lnkd.in/dju-Be2u SaaS founders, what has been your experience with sales leadership? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. #sales #SaaS #SaaSAcademy #Scale #Startups #Podcast #Leadership

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After the first deep dive discussion w/ founders I often hear a comment "I wish I had heard about this alternative [to all-in must-become-a-unicorn] way to build a startup earlier as I have wasted years in pursuing the wrong thing". Our mission is that no founder would ever need to say that again as it is such a waste. Us preaching the gospel 1:1 just doesn't scale, hence we use mass media to multiply our efforts - that's how Gorillacast came to be. The 1st episode is out, featuring yours truly. "How can you know what food you like unless you taste everything" said a chef. How can founders make informed choices about the best strategy for them to follow unless they know of all alternatives? This might not be of interest to you but pls spread the word so that the founders who should hear it can find it. I have a dream!

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I recently saw this metric from Carta’s 1Q24 VC Fund Report, which is very concerning. DPI... is nowhere to be found in earlier vintages that probably should start showing DPI. Funding early-stage projects is great, but ultimately, these venture dollars need to exit their investments and pay back their limited partners. That’s where the metric Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI) comes in. While managing a fund, we get interim measures during the life of the fund (e.g. IRR, MOIC), but ultimately, “you can’t eat IRR.” If you want to build a lasting venture capital organization, you need to start showing DPI for your fund. Keep in mind that this is traditional VC data from Carta, and is not strictly crypto venture. Crypto venture tends to get liquidity earlier (tokens) and things tend to go parabolic sooner (faster, more unicorns) - but I’d wager that the data here is somewhat similar for Crypto VCs… Not as much DPI as there should be from these earlier vintages. Read the full article, as well as a recap of all the crypto fundraising rounds for August, here: https://lnkd.in/g3eVJ-iF

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AMPLE update : Juniper Ventures Signs up to AMPLE Marketplace AMPLE : B2B Marketplace for Fresh Food. Impact Investment. See https://buff.ly/3W32D7p Steve Thomas - CEO/Co-Founder of AMPLE provides an update on a most recent business partnership: "...Juniper Ventures, which supplies over 23,000 meals daily to students in the London Borough of Newham, has become a keen buyer on the Ample Marketplace. Incorporated in April 2018 from the council’s catering and cleaning service, Juniper aims to operate with the social aspects of the local authority but with the business acumen and autonomy of the limited company that it is. Michael Hales, chief executive of Juniper Ventures and vice-chair-elect of LACA, said: “It is shocking that in the UK we waste 13m tonnes of food every year. As a hospitality business we are determined to do all we are able to help reduce this figure....".   Read the full update. https://buff.ly/3WnGEar REMINDER Ample Marketplace is a new B2B channel for unsold fresh food integrating e-commerce, logistics, and digital marketing. Ample is the UK’s first smart marketplace for wholesale food (with expansion plans for the US, EMEA and APAC). Ample creates value by shortening the supply chain, giving more control to sellers and value for buyers.  AMPLE is a portfolio company of XSS Capital. Join us on this investment journey? DM me for more info. #e-commerce #logistics #Impact Investing

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