Heath A. Butler

Venture Investor @MercuryFund | Passion for Educating, Empowering and Enabling Entrepreneurs and Investors | Blog:

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

@codewithimanshu Money

[Mercury Fund @mercuryfund]

Which crypto companies are lining up for IPOs in 2026? In a new DL News article, @sjolewis notes that the companies moving toward public markets share two priorities:

They will be built on:
✔️ Strong risk and compliance foundations
✔️ Infrastructure that connects traditional finance and on-chain markets

🔗 Find out @dlnews’ six most anticipated crypto IPOs (including Mercury portco @BitGo!) 👉 https://t.co/D4dwIFQ2g4

[Mercury Fund @mercuryfund]

SaaS fundraising has changed.

In a new @cartainc article, @bgarrou explains why the rules founders followed for the past 15 years no longer apply as AI reshapes how software companies are built and taken to market.

The shift is showing up in the numbers. Median SaaS seed valuations hit $19.8M in Q3 2025, with Series A medians at $60M, both new highs.

Read the full article here: https://t.co/b5juDTrSQU

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

@kimberlywtan RPOs will definitely be unbundled by AI!

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

@johnarnold Great post @johnarnold, I wish more influential people like you understood this point!

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

In wake of George Floyd's murder, there was an outpouring of contributions to racial equity orgs. Today, most funders have returned to their previous giving patterns, creating a mess for nonprofits that assumed this funding would sustain. Philanthropy's response to the moment misunderstood how change happens.

Most leaders working on racial equity tell the same story: in the second half of 2020, they couldn't answer the phone fast enough. Every funder was looking to donate to racial justice aligned orgs. Some orgs saw their fundraising expand by multiples. It was never easier to raise money.

With bank accounts flush and a sense this was a unique opportunity in history, nonprofits aggressively expanded. Many orgs were small and had not lived through a wave of funding like this. It was not known that much of the interest was ephemeral.

Most new donors wrote one check in 2020. Sometimes they wrote another the next year. More institutional foundations generally wrote 2 or 3 year grant terms. Either way, most of the surge of donations (though certainly some funders have endured) ended within 3 years. By now, orgs have spent most of that. My understanding is most racial equity orgs are cutting budgets and shrinking today. The one-time surge of money, while beneficial at the time, created a mess for nonprofits to navigate.

Problems that were generations in the making don't get solved in one or two years. They take decades. Slow, incremental progress creates large change. To paraphrase, people overestimate what can be achieved in one year and underestimate what can be achieved in ten.

The philanthropy consulting group Bridgespan studied 10 major, national policy advances over the past century. On average, those big policy victories came from at least 40 smaller wins over 25–30 years.

If funders want to make progress in any movement, it takes committed funding. It's not fund this for 2 years, then move to a different topic and fund that for 2 years. That doesn't work and isn't helpful to grantees, particularly when everyone else is doing the same thing at the same time. Success on any policy issue requires patience.

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

@Mercury portfolio company CEO, @web3aj provides great insights on what he believes prepared him to launch his startup...required listening for non-technical founders!

[StartupHeat @StartupHeat]

Great example of the skillset required to 'derisk' your startup venture, great job @web3aj!

[Mercury Fund @mercuryfund]

Sneak peek! @iamheathanthony & @texasvc discuss the current economic environment’s impact on fundraising in this clip from Ep. 3 of “Go Slow to Grow Fast.”

[Mercury Fund @mercuryfund]

Great coverage of @medefyhealth’s exponential growth by @tulsaworld, featuring insightful quotes from CEO Matt Scovil about the difficulties many employees face in navigating their healthcare benefits. @Iamheathanthony

https://t.co/nd7Dj7M2bD

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

My partner, @TexasVC provides good insight on the state of venture. I only wish some of the companies raising money understood what this means for their future round...

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

@TexasVC 🤔

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

@breakfastclubam https://t.co/nOWNoPzXMh

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

Life is more fragile than we realize...great perspective and good for thought!

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

Great to see this in NOLA!

[newtralgroundz.com @NewtralGroundz]

Anthony Mackie, the New Orleans-born actor known for his role as the Falcon in the Marvel comics movie franchise, has bought 20 acres in New Orleans East where he plans to start a movie studio

[Samantha Lewis 🇺🇦 @sjolewis]

We aren’t seeing the best innovators.

Calling that 1st round of #startup funding a "friends and family" round assumes that #entrepreneurs have a network w/ capital. Let’s break down that barrier to entry and start calling it what it actually is—a Launch Round. (A thread)

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

Team LISNR has defined the future of #ultrasonic data transfer technology! https://t.co/i5HpCQ6O47

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

Congratulations to @EnergyCrisp and the entire Benson Hill team on a successful SPAC merger! Super excited for my partner, @dan_dfjm, on this exit! https://t.co/vWAvIfomJo

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

Excited to support @AWPSPORTS & Jaylon L. Smith and their vision for such an impactful mission! https://t.co/ntWMK0qneE

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

#futureofwork https://t.co/DE7DmytMQX

[Heath A. Butler @HeathAButlerVC]

Interesting insight from CNBC! https://t.co/YvGkH9ch3G