Ground Up Ventures

We want to be your first investor. It's never too early to start a conversation, but it might be too late. Find us @starkupnation @corymoelis @jordanodinsky

[Jared West @jared_western]

Announcing the Western Chemicals $4M Pre-Seed Fundraise!

We are now building the WORLD’S FIRST vertically integrated duckweed-to-ethanol plant capable of producing 10,000+ gallons of fuel-grade ethanol annually.

Wastewater-to-fuel at planetary scale starts NOW!

[Connor Sweeney @_ConnorSweeney]

I’m thrilled to announce Baba, The American Healthcare Company.

Baba connects older adults and their families with dedicated advocates who can coordinate their care. Our advocates are nurses and social workers who have worked at the front lines of the healthcare system for decades, and who can get folks the resources they need.

This company was born of a family tragedy and has grown to support thousands of families across every corner of the country.

[Cory Moelis @CoryMoelis]

One of our first investments ever from @GroundUpVC.

@minnasong is as hard-working and passionate as anyone I have ever seen and watching her build @elise_ai from the very beginning has been an incredible learning experience that I am eternally grateful for.

I am so excited to see what's next. With this new cash, and the start of their healthcare product (in addition to their already rapidly growing real estate product) the sky is the limit!

Go Minna and team! 🚀🚀

[Jordan Odinsky @jordanodinsky]

Agentic commerce is about to take over the internet... but who gets left behind?

Winners & Losers
Winners:
- Platforms with structured data & distribution (Amazon, Walmart, Shopify)
- API-native infra providers (payments, logistics, orchestration)
- LLMs owning user relationship
- New DSP-style aggregators for long-tail retail

Losers:
- Independent brands without integration into agent ecosystems
- SEO/SEM-heavy marketing strategies if agents bypass open web

We go into the details of this next big trend in our latest industry deep dive.

[NEON @neonrated]

Traumatized by TOGETHER? Get free couples therapy.

Now through August 3rd, upload a photo of your opening weekend TOGETHER ticket to https://t.co/1DHvYRZhsr & redeem a free couples therapy session, courtesy of OurRitual.

TOGETHER opens Wednesday: https://t.co/iQFn49F50C

[Avi Moskowitz @MoskowitzAvi]

Thrilled to announce @PrettyDamnTweet's $25M Series A led by @PeakSpanCapital, with Moneta VC and @TLV_Partners participating.

Special thanks to our early supporter & advisors: @codyplof, @YonatanMandelba, Jack Freeman, @starkupnation, @jordanodinsky, @aryehMaxx, @obviceo, @eliweisss and too many others to list.

Really proud of what @LiranErez and I have built here so far and can't wait to scale things up!

🔗https://t.co/kDFbg7w0h6

[joelcpanderson @joelcpanderson]

Not all drones are equal. Electronic countermeasures alone won't protect us—basic mods can defeat million-dollar systems. Kinetic defense isn't comfortable to discuss on U.S. soil, but it's critical. Broke this down on @CNN's NewsNight with @abbydphillip. #newjerseydrones #cuas

[joelcpanderson @joelcpanderson]

🚨 Mystery Drones Over NJ: A Domestic Security Gap We Can’t Ignore 🚨

I’ve been on @CNN , @NewsNation , @CBSNews , & @BBCNews discussing the thousands of unidentified drones over NJ. Rumors are swirling—foreign adversaries, secret U.S. ops, even aliens. The truth? Their origin matters less than our defenselessness to any drone with malicious intent.

Drones are here, now—and without urgent action, we risk real harm.

Dive in 🔽 (1/6)

[Philip Johnston @PhilipJohnston]

Excited to announce @LumenOrbit's $11M Seed round, which fuels our plans to build huge data centers in space🚀 We’re launching our first satellite mid-next year and are now hiring exceptional engineers, so reach out if that sounds like it’s for you!

Huge thanks to our Seed investors @NFX, @YCombinator, @fuse_vc, @468Capital, @Nebularvc, Massive Tech Ventures, Soma Capital, Ground Up Ventures, @dnxventures, Orange Collective, Sterling Road, Ventioneers, @janleike, @RichAberman, @kul, @ZaouiEmmanuelle, Joe Lallouz, Jeff Arnold, Benjamin Bryant, Prashant Suryakumar, Robin Choy, and more! 🙏🙏

@adioltean @ezrafeilden 🙌🙌

[Jordan Odinsky @jordanodinsky]

The internet for kids today is a minefield and it's time for the experience to be reimagined.

That's why we're pumped to back the HelloWonder team.

Taking from their experiences at Google, Disney, and Amazon, they're on a mission to build a new browser + operating system for kids and families, powered by AI.

If you have young kids, I highly recommend downloading the beta... my kids have been hooked for months :)

https://t.co/Hv4dZAI82A

[Jordan Odinsky @jordanodinsky]

Thrilled to lead @zeromarkinc's seed round with the amazing @KTmBoyle — couldn't ask for a better founder, team, mission, or group of investors.

From the United States to Israel, ZeroMark will equip our soldiers with the tools they need to defend against the sophisticated threats of tomorrow and make them untouchable on the battlefield.

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱

[ZeroMark @zeromarkinc]

We’re thrilled to announce that ZeroMark has raised $7M in seed funding to bring our 'Handheld Iron Dome' tech to market and flip the script on small drone threats by making our defenders untouchable.

Led by @KTmBoyle of @a16z and @jordanodinsky of @GroundUpVC, with participation from @AnorakVentures, @EmpireStateDev, @LudlowVentures, @balajis, and @soona.

Details: https://t.co/aK77sqTPmQ

[Ground Up Ventures @GroundUpVC]

Happy Valentine's Day to Our One True Love: Founders

If you're starting a company and looking for your happily-ever-after, you know where to find us 😉 😘

[Navot Volk @NavotV]

אנחנו ב Groundup עושים ארוחת ערב ל Future Founders.

אתם second timer או exectuive? ורוצים בעתידל בנות משהו או מחפשים שותפים.
האירוע הזה בשבילכם.
כמובן זה סודי!
What happens in future founders stays in future founders.

מעניין? (זה אירוע ממש קטן)
https://t.co/AAYHRn24j3

[David Stark @starkupnation]

Congrats to @AttarZiv @GlassImaging on the $9M+ funding round and welcome to @GVteam (@ejn and @hhua_) who led the round.

@GroundUpVC was the company's first investor when we led the pre-seed on day one and we are as excited as ever for what's to come.

If you have experience in optics, computer vision or machine learning and you want to work on the cutting edge of advancements in neural Image Signal Processing, reach out.

https://t.co/miZ3ze6vMN

[Avi Moskowitz @MoskowitzAvi]

*record scratch*
yo, @iamshackelford & @AaronJNosbisch -

I GUARANTEE we’ll get your sales super high (minimum $60,000 revenue uplift)

We even wrote and rapped over a classic 90’s hip hop beat to show you we’re serious and give you a taste of what we can do for you (the checkout, ops, and delivery growth, not so much the rapping, we’re still working on that)

If you’re still not sure just ask the guys at Obvi, Harney’s, Allfresh Seafood, Ghia, Jones Road Beauty, Levain’s and others about it

Let’s hop on a 15 minute call and let me personally SHOW you how we can help (beyond adding insurance to checkout)

And if I fail to deliver on my promise, I’ll donate $420 to your favorite charity (and of course, your money back)

Sound fair?

Let’s do it

[Ground Up Ventures @GroundUpVC]

There's so much SEO fluff posing as startup advice out there that finding quality content has become quite difficult.

So we have put together a curated library to make it easier for you to find legit advice.

We're launching it on Product Hunt today, and it would be really awesome to get your feedback:

https://t.co/JN17BAuGdM…

Thanks!

[Ground Up Ventures @GroundUpVC]

Hello, my name is Asher Sesser, and I'm The Flash.
Ground Up wanted to interview me, but I was too busy. So they spoke to my dad, @BenjaminSesser, about his startup instead:

1. Hey Ben, what was the pain point that inspired the creation of BrightHire?

Hiring is the most important activity to get right to ensure your organization's future success, but the process is very often haphazard, manual, and rife with bias.

Our platform is a game-changer for hiring. It’s an AI-powered interview platform that streamlines the entire hiring process with real-time interviewer guidance, AI-generated interview notes and candidate highlights, and new talent insights for consistently better and faster hiring.

2. What are two things you wish someone had told you before you started your company?

– The highs are never as high as you think, and the lows are never as low as you think.

– There is no 1 way to be successful.

3. What did your biggest professional failure teach you?

Focus on controlling the controllable.

4. Which resources have you found particularly helpful on your journey?

• Endurance (the Ernest Shackleton voyage)

• SaaStr blog posts

• Talking to peers

5. What has been your most effective growth channel?

LinkedIn. It's where our buyers congregate, and they lean heavily on their networks and social proof when considering new investments.

6. What's one piece of software that your business couldn't function without?

“Slack... and BrightHire :)”

7. How did you go about securing your first round of funding, and what advice would you give to others seeking venture capital?

Once we had sufficient traction, validation, and the sense that this could and should be a venture-backed business, we ran a tight, time-bound process.

--

Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom, Ben.

– Follow @BrightHireAI to make your hiring process more efficient with AI.

– Follow us, @GroundUpVC, for more interviews and tips for founders.

– And follow Asher Sesser for tips on running at incredible speeds, time travel, and fighting supervillains.

[Ground Up Ventures @GroundUpVC]

Refine Intelligence just launched with $13m in seed funding to transform anti-money laundering by "Catching the Good Guys.”

Learn more: https://t.co/2uv9YvH0Ct

Let’s go 🎉

[Ground Up Ventures @GroundUpVC]

5 tips for founders from Navot Volk, our new Venture Partner:

Meet @NavotV. Before joining Ground Up, he held key positions at Wix and was the Managing Director at Microsoft for Startups. We asked him for a few tips.

1. Navot, what’s the most important thing to include in your pitch deck that most founders overlook?

"Show us your most significant achievement. We want to know that you can think big. A venture is much more than just a business idea."

2. What red flags might cause you to reconsider investing in a startup?

• "The way the founders talk to each other."
• "Lack of focus on the product."
• "When they have all the answers to all of the questions."

3. What’s the best way to validate a startup idea?

"There are no shortcuts or hacks – show it to users or potential users and get their feedback."

4. What are some non-traditional metrics you look for when evaluating a potential investment?

"I always ask:
• Why are they doing what they are doing?
• Would they want to do it for the next 10 years?"

5. Which book or podcast – aside from your podcast, Weekly Sync 😉 – offers the most value for founders?

”My favorite three are:
• All-In (Podcast)
• The One Device by Brian Merchant (Book)
• Build by Tony Fadell (Book)”

6. Bonus: What’s the best lunch spot in Tel Aviv?

"Kosher: Bladi Shook. Non-Kosher: Aharoni in Sharona."

Thanks, Navot. We're really happy to have you with us!

P.S. Do you know a better lunch spot in TLV? Give us your recommendations👇