After 8 years of shipping hardware as a founder, I'm super excited to announce Anvil's next chapter!
Anvil Robotics has raised $6.5M led by hard-tech veterans Matter Venture Partners with participation from @humbavc, @vsodera , @spacecadet , @Position_VC
Ran an insurance brokerage. Lived every workflow it takes to run one. Built the fix.
Introducing @cara__ai — AI platform for insurance brokerages
Excited to announce our $8M seed led by @kearnyjackson
We also raised a $250M Series B with Sequoia, Spark, and friends. Still getting started, just with a bit more fuel in the tank.
https://t.co/nGITsyaEuj
Today, I’m proud to announce the official launch of my second startup F2 (@F2aiHQ), alongside a $10M equity round. We've been building towards this day for 2 years, since Arc's AI team incubated F2 within its private credit marketplace. 🧵
Dear friends, I am incredibly honored to finally unveil what we've been working on in stealth: Accordance.
When Finsam and I first started our journey bringing AI out of the research lab, we discovered an industry filled with some of the most thoughtful, principled professionals we'd ever met: tax and accounting practitioners who became our teachers, our guides, and ultimately our partners.
As our entire team spent thousands of hours over the last few years climbing the learning curve, what we've discovered is that we're solving something much bigger than we initially realized. We began to see what keeps everyone up at night, and it wasn't what we expected. 75% of senior accounting professionals are retiring in the next decade, with only a 50% replacement rate. Meanwhile, regulations multiply and edge cases explode in complexity. The profession isn't just facing a labor shortage - it's facing an expertise crisis.
That's when it clicked - our mission at Accordance matters more than we ever imagined. Most people think "AI for accounting and tax" means automating routine work - but we're doing the opposite. We're building the smartest tax & accounting AI that can handle the most sophisticated advisory work - the stuff that normally takes decades of experience. It's letting junior staff punch way above their weight and giving seasoned experts superpowers they've never had. We're not replacing professionals; we're amplifying their expertise at the exact moment the profession needs it most.
The outcomes we're seeing are remarkable. But none of this would have been possible without our world-class team that sharpens iron with iron, our supporters who've been with us every step of this journey, and every professional who opened their doors and trusted us with their most complex challenges.
We're grateful to have you on this mission with us.
PR is one of the biggest black boxes for startups and one of the most misunderstood growth levers.
How do you actually get covered in outlets like TechCrunch or Forbes?
When does PR make sense and when is it not?
How do you build reporter relationships before you launch?
This episode demystifies the PR black box ◼️
@jennydhe is the Founder and General Partner at @Position_VC , an early-stage venture fund that helps startups craft strategic comms from day one.
She led comms at Square, has placed hundreds of startups in top outlets, and knows exactly what makes a narrative newsworthy (you’ll learn this from her in the epi).
She breaks down, step-by-step, how to nail your launch, earn credibility, and avoid the most common PR mistakes founders make.
Key takeaways from the conversation:
1️⃣ PR is about distribution with credibility.
Focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time.
2️⃣ Set a clear goal before any launch.
Hiring? Fundraising? BD? Your PR approach changes depending on what outcome you're optimizing for.
3️⃣ Positioning comes before PR.
You must know your “why,” your ICP, and what makes you different or no story will land.
4️⃣ Your story is your strategy.
Reporters want memorable, emotional, founder-driven narratives.
5️⃣ Not all news is newsworthy.
A good story is: (1) timely, (2) impactful, (3) relevant to the outlet’s audience.
6️⃣ Match your story to the right outlet.
If your product sells to dentists, TechCrunch may not be where your audience is.
7️⃣ Warm relationships win pitches.
Build trust with reporters before you need them. Offer data, connect dots, be useful.
8️⃣ Exclusives are common (and often expected).
Many top reporters won’t take your story unless they get it first.
9️⃣ An interview isn’t a guarantee.
You still need to nail the call with crisp soundbites and a clear, compelling arc. Otherwise, it may not get published.
🔟 Success = the right message, in the right outlet, reaching the right people.
Define this before you ever hit send.
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🎧 Tune in and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen by searching "The GTMnow Podcast."
💡 @GTMnow_ is the media brand of VC firm, @gtmfund . Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.
🚨 Huge congrats to @Position_VC portfolio company @WorkWhileAI on their $23M Series B to transform hourly work! 🎉
👥 1M+ workers
💸 $5K+/mo in extra earnings
🎤 Shifts at the Super Bowl, Eras Tour, Comic-Con
Read more in @agarfinks story here:
https://t.co/mOy9FVgQQT
Our AI founder dinner last night was stacked with everyone from AI veterans to young founders bootstrapping to millions in ARR. One founder was shocked to learn texts used to cost 25¢ (Feeling old!😂)
🚨We’re expanding to support physical goods. Businesses innovating across industries will now be able to leverage Anrok’s comprehensive approach to tax compliance.
Software and tech companies are expanding into the physical realm, while “traditional retail” is embracing digital innovation. Both need tax systems built for this new reality.
Read more about our vision for the future and how you can sign up for early access: https://t.co/BeFhphP6sv
Accounting is the bedrock of business, and taxation the foundation of governance.
Excited to announce our work with @OpenAI to build something unprecedented: AI that masters all tax & accounting regulations globally while reasoning with expert domain knowledge using OpenAI’s Reinforcement Fine-Tuning.
Working with OpenAI’s team and our in-house tax experts, we’ve achieved a 40% improvement over base models with Reinforcement Fine-Tuning—significantly outperforming all other leading models on TaxBench.
When we first invested in @sesame 2 years ago, I knew @brendaniribe & @_apkumar were onto something big. Today they unveiled the first step: Maya & Miles, expressive AI companions built for seamless, human-like interaction. https://t.co/EYCfDU8zMZ
We’re thrilled to announce that Agora has acquired @boardroom_info, one of the oldest and most trusted governance platforms in crypto.
This marks a major milestone in our mission to make good governance the standard for all protocols.
We’re thrilled to announce a strategic investment of $30M from @databricks, @SKTelecom, @SnowflakeDB , @HubSpot Ventures, & In-Q-Tel! Welcoming Yoon Kim as our President & CSO, we’re looking forward to partnering with leading data platforms. Ready to push boundaries and continue delivering value to end customers utilizing video! https://t.co/sqon1BglyX
Super excited to announce our $19M Series A led by @ericvishria / @benchmark!!
Radiologists play Where's Waldo? with medical images on super-hard mode all day. We're building the first AI Radiology Resident so radiologists work faster and easier.
https://t.co/Gj0WM5dlCs
🎉 So fun co-hosting an incredible GP/LP Dinner in NYC with @CharlieNYC and @CindyBiSV last night!
Huge thanks to everyone who joined. Interested in the next one in SF, LA, Austin, or beyond? Let us know who we should invite to the next one!
🎉Honored that @Position_VC has been selected from nearly 900 funds for the #RAISEGlobalSummit! Excited to connect with top LPs, GPs, and industry leaders shaping the future of venture capital. See you @raiseconference! 🌍🚀https://t.co/92K4yGL0pV