OneSixOne Ventures

Twice a year we give a lot of help to a few founders. Applications for spring '23 cohort are open now!

[Saif Ishoof 3️⃣☕️5️⃣ @saif305]

Best thing I saw all week wasn’t on my feed. It was in a room.

Miami Innovation Academy, Week 5 @NortheasternMIA

@pablo_casilimas from @161ventures breaking down w/ @Rania___305 how to raise when all you have is a story.

Founders locked in!

Demo Day is going to be 🔥

[Jordan @SirJordanBaker]

I rarely talk about my story here.
At the age of 14, I ran away from home.
I dropped out of high school.
I floated through life in my late teens and early 20's with no real purpose.
And then I learned of the wonderful world of start-ups.
An ecosystem where you are rewarded for your drive and not just your background and accolades. This changed the entire trajectory of my life.

Since then, I have been committed to giving opportunities to driven people who may not have the connections, prestige, or capital to make their dreams come true.

I am honored to speak to founders at Harvard University this month alongside my brother Shivang Raisurana.

This will not be a talk about "what your pitch deck should look like" or "founder market fit". This will be a real peek behind the curtain as to how investors (and other founders) truly evaluate YOU as a founder before even thinking about your company.

If you are a founder who wants advice, guidance, intros, or whatever, never hesitate to reach out.

[Jordan @SirJordanBaker]

Excited to be moderating the one and only @mattmcilwain during his keynote speech tomorrow at our @161ventures event tomorrow

As always, shoutout to our sponsors @SiliconVlyBank , @innodata

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

⚡️Fastest way to spot AI slop:
You can tell no human edited it.

🔎Founder takeaway: AI should amplify thinking, not replace it. Humans still ship vision and taste.

#AItools #productthinking

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

AI won’t replace taste, judgment, or storytelling. ✨

🔎Founder takeaway: AI can generate infinite content. Only humans make people care. Craft still wins — especially when paired with leverage.

#AI #storytelling #founders

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

😷Pandemic lesson: communities built on buildings disappear.

Communities built on relationships survive.

🔎Founder takeaway: your network should outlive locations. If it doesn’t, it was never real.

#communitybuilding #founders

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

Genius is equally distributed. Opportunity isn’t.” 🌍

🔎Founder takeaway: most founders don’t lack talent — they lack access. If your city doesn’t have operators or investors, build the room yourself.

#entrepreneurship #ecosystem

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

⏩The AI startups winning right now aren’t flashy.
They quietly turn 15 minutes into 15 seconds.

🔎Founder takeaway: if you can show clear before vs after, distribution solves itself. Demos > decks. Always.

#AIstartups #SaaS

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

If your AI pitch starts with “we use AI,” stop. 🤖

Founder takeaway: customers buy outcomes, not models. Lead with cost ↓, time ↓, accuracy ↑. AI is the engine — business impact is the product.

#AI #B2B #product

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

📈Scaling lesson: you can’t make every decision — but you can define how decisions get made.

🔎Founder takeaway: hire people who solve problems without permission. Process scales after values, never before.

#scaling #operators #founders

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

Culture isn’t a values slide.

Culture is decisions made when no one’s watching. 👀

🔎Founder takeaway: the moment “that’s not my job” becomes normal, speed dies. Early teams win with default ownership.

#leadership #startupculture

[Ed Sim @edsim]

The agent future isn’t one execution model.

It’s bursts and marathons.

Stateless and stateful.

That’s why a new agent-native platform had to be built from first principles

Congrats @jhaynie @rblalock @agentuity!

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

Every pitch deck says “this is a unicorn.” 🦄
Investors don’t fund projections — they fund momentum.

Founder takeaway: show a metric moving (churn ↓, time ↓, revenue ↑). Hype expires. Proof compounds.

#startuplife #VC #traction

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

Most early startups fail because they build to fundraise instead of to sell. 😬

🔎Founder takeaway: fundraising is a tool, not the job. Customers create leverage. Revenue creates options. The best rounds happen when you don’t need the money.

#fundraising #founders

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

Founders don’t need more networking events.

They need warm customer intros, early hires, and investors who answer texts. 📲

Founder takeaway: community isn’t vibes, it’s infrastructure. If your ecosystem doesn’t create outcomes, build the room yourself. 🏗️

#startupcommunity

[whurley @whurley]

My man @DrGrasshopper says those in the know should go. So I'll see you all there.

https://t.co/fQ1kpUmioT

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

AI will kill jobs—and create new ones 🤖⚖️

Every tech revolution does.

WEF: AI creates 97M new roles by 2027, even as others disappear.

The edge isn’t AI itself.
It’s judgment 🧠, context 🧭, and critical thinking.

Use the tool. Don’t outsource your brain.

#FutureOfWork #AI

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

If you want a company that lasts 10+ years ⏳
build belief—not just software.
Great products feel inevitable.

Bain: companies with strong loyalty grow 2.5× faster

If leaving your product feels painful 😣
you’re doing it right.

#Brand #CustomerLove

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

Education is the real AI opportunity 🎓

Most companies don’t know how to use AI safely—not whether to use it.

Gartner: 80% of enterprises fail to scale AI due to data & governance issues

Winners won’t build flashiest AI ✨
They’ll make AI usable 🛠️

#AIAdoption #B2B

[OneSixOne Ventures @161ventures]

AI adoption isn’t blocked by technology 🤖
It’s blocked by fear 😨

Fear of job loss
Fear of change
Fear of breaking things

Deloitte: 60%+ of enterprises delay AI due to org resistance, not capability

Founders who remove fear unlock demand 🔓

#AI #Enterprise