Rising Tide Partners

Investing in communities.
Building the future.

[Neal Bloom @NealBloom]

Fresh off a panel at TEVCON on what VCs are actually funding in defense tech.

Wrote up the key takeaways below 👇

[Neal Bloom @NealBloom]

This week ~20 of us - already backing Natilus - walked into a hangar in southern San Diego.

Not to observe. To help accelerate.

The future of flight is being built in places you wouldn’t expect.

Step Inside at the link below

[TechCon Global @TechCon_Global]

𝗔 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗖𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗖𝗮𝗹!

We’re excited to welcome @RisingTidePtr as an official partner of 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗖𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗖𝗮𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝗲𝗴𝗼.

Rising Tide Partners believes the best investments come from strong relationships, not just pitch decks. Their mission is to build a powerful ecosystem where successful founders return as LPs, co-investors, and advocates, creating a flywheel that helps the entire startup community grow together.

At TechCon SoCal a leading investment and innovation conference, founders, venture capitalists, investors, and tech leaders gather to discover promising startups, explore new investment opportunities, and build meaningful partnerships that drive innovation forward.

If you're looking to connect with investors, grow your network, and be part of the startup investment ecosystem, this is the place to be.

🎟️ 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁 → https://t.co/drUEvgbEcy
📲 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 → https://t.co/qK8fPBSRrg

#TechConSoCal #StartupInvestment #VentureCapital #InvestmentConference #TechConGlobal

[Neal Bloom @NealBloom]

Inside the legendary San Diego Wind Tunnel last night with defense & hardtech founders.

World-class assets already exist here.

The opportunity? Connect them. 🚀

[Neal Bloom @NealBloom]

Big congrats to @seasats on their $20M Series A to scale production of small uncrewed surface vessels.

Maritime autonomy is entering its inflection point and @RisingTidePtr is proud to support the Seasats team as they scale from deployments to sustained production.

[Neal Bloom @NealBloom]

Huge moment for the @NatilusAero as they announce their $28M Series A & reveal the evolved HORIZON EVO passenger aircraft.

This team is reshaping what aviation can be - for freight, defense, and now commercial travel.

Honored to be along for the journey. Let’s fly!

[Neal Bloom @NealBloom]

Early-stage investing isn’t about perfect metrics.
It’s about when conviction forms before the spreadsheet works.

Talking about that (honestly) at @TechCon_Global SouthWest in Austin.

Feb 13
Day Zero → Series A.
Texas Spirit Theatre.
1:45 PM.

Let’s get into it.

[TechCon Global @TechCon_Global]

⏳ 𝟮𝟴 𝗗𝗔𝗬𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗚𝗢 | 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀.

Building ecosystems that scale. 𝗡𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗺, Managing Partner at @risingtideptr, is joining the TechCon SouthWest stage! A staple in the tech community, Neal is an expert in creating the environments where startups thrive.

Community is the heartbeat of innovation. 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗖𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 is more than just a conference; it is a year-round catalyst for the Austin tech scene, culminating in this two-day summit where we celebrate the creators and the builders of our regional ecosystem.

📍 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻, 𝗧𝗲𝘅𝗮𝘀 🗓 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟭𝟮–𝟭𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
🎟 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆: https://t.co/drUEvgcc26

#EcosystemBuilder #StartupLife #TechConSouthWest2026 #VentureCapital #InnovationConference #TechConGlobal

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

@Turbinetraveler Most excited about your future order of the @NatilusAero Horizon

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

@taylorasilveira @nvidia Go Taylor!

[Rohan Paul @rohanpaul_ai]

Helion energy is building what will be the world’s first commercial fusion power plant, scheduled to be finished in 3 years.

Great interview by Lex Fridman with David Kirtley (CEO of Helion).

Most power plants are heat engines. You burn fuel or run fission, boil water, spin a turbine, and get about 35% electricity while the rest leaves as waste heat. Helion flips the flow. The fusion reaction makes charged particles that push back on a magnetic field tied to a capacitor bank, so you get direct electricity instead of a steam loop. That path can reach about 85% efficiency from fusion energy to electrical output, which means less conversion gear and tighter control over power delivery.

🧪 How the machine works

A giant capacitor bank drives coils that both accelerate and squeeze plasma. Two plasmas, deuterium plus helium‑3, are launched from opposite sides and collide in the center. By rapidly reversing the magnetic field in about 1 microsecond, the plasma self-organizes into a field‑reversed configuration that traps itself. Then the machine compresses it hard. Fusion happens, new charged particles appear, and their pressure pushes the magnetic field so the system dumps energy back into the capacitors. It is pulsed, up to 100Hz in tests, so each shot is a clean measure of input versus recovered electricity.

🛡️ Safety and waste

There is no chain reaction. The device only holds about 1 second of fuel at any time, so stopping the drive stops fusion. X‑rays and some neutrons exist during operation, so you use shielding and standard controls, similar to particle‑accelerator facilities. When the pulse stops, the radiation source stops.

🖥️ Why data centers care

The output is high‑voltage DC sitting on capacitors. You can invert to AC for the grid, or route DC with fewer conversions into rectifier buses for racks. That cuts losses and simplifies backup. The company is targeting 2028 for a first grid-tied plant for a large buyer, which lines up with growing AI power needs.

🧩 What is still hard

Helium‑3 is scarce on Earth, so you must produce it or source it. This fuel also likes higher temperatures, roughly 200M-300M degrees, so the pulsed magnets and power electronics must be very fast and very tough. Stability is managed by giving the plasma enough “spin” and length so it behaves like a fast top that stays upright, plus thousands of synchronized switches that fire with microsecond timing.

If this architecture keeps showing pulse gain and high‑efficiency recovery, you get a compact generator that skips steam, feeds a capacitor, and delivers clean power in the exact format modern compute wants.

[Alex Bouaziz @Bouazizalex]

We grew to $1B ARR faster than Stripe, Salesforce, and Palantir, while being 100% remote

This was a combination of a lot of luck, focus and an excellent team

Looking back, I can our team's success boils down some key principles I'm sharing in a 700-word long post:

I hope that it will help every startup as much as it helped us:

1. Everything is sales.
Recruiting is sales. Fundraising is sales. Retaining your best talent is sales. Dating is sales. And sales is sales.
A founder’s effectiveness = (technical skill × ability to sell).

2. You need to be in the details.

The best founders can zoom all the way in and out. If someone tells you to “scale yourself” by pulling back too early - they’re wrong.

Being in the details is important to understand what org structure best fits your company's goals. Every 'in the weeds' founder designs their org structure from first principles.

Jensen: 40 direct reports,
Elon: Engineers in charge of everything,
Jobs: Creative Dictatorship with Directly Responsible Individuals.
Zuck: The first growth-hacking team with @chamath

Founders not in the details forget what makes their products great and eventually recede into designing a standard org with standard departments which lead to standard results.

3. Your company's fate is 70% sealed by the first 20 hires

Ben Horowitz: "I got this advice like 27 times. They said 'Look, here's the key: Hire A players:' and I was like ok yeah, my plan was to hire a bunch of morons but now I'm going to hire A players" The hard part isn’t intent, it’s judgment.

The problem is you can't spot a top 1% engineer if you're not a top 10% engineer yourself. This applies to everything.

Your definition of great is just what you've seen. Founders have some blind spots. Technical founders usually build bad marketing orgs. Sales-focused founders sometimes build mediocre product teams. You need the right eyes to be able to spot genius. Ego aside, bring on a technical expert and have them vet talent for you. Your first hires are your culture, your standard, your work environment. They are the company. Get the first 20 hires right.

4. Live with your customers.

You can’t know what’s working if you’re not talking to them - all the time.
Be where they are: WhatsApp, calls, DMs, in person. The closer you are to customers, the fewer mistakes you make.

"The customer is the boss. They can fire everybody by choosing to spend their money elsewhere." - Sam Walton

5. Be extremely responsive.
If I reply in 30 seconds, what usually takes a day gets done in hours.
What takes hours gets done now.
Speed compounds.

6. Your TAM is limited by your imagination, not by the market.
Constantly rethink the pod, find other big issues that need solving and are valuable, and solve them exceptionally well. We went from contracts ($100M) to Employer of Record ($300M) to Payroll ($200M).
Each 3x'd the TAM.

7. Never run out of cash.
The only way a business dies is by running out of cash.
Profitability = power. You call the shots, not investors.
You can always act in the company's long-term interest because you know you are safe.
We reached Series A after spending <10% of our seed.
We have been profitable for the last 3 years.

Cash discipline buys freedom.

8. Over-index on angels early.
Angels are your best shot at making important people care - when it matters. They might not be involved day to day, but when you really need help, they’ll show up. If you don't know how to solve a problem, you should know at least a person who knows the person who can.

Pick the right ones, and time your asks well.

9. There's always something out there that can kill your company.
Your job is to de-risk the company. Capital, talent, and products are all a small part of a larger effort to de-risk your startup and build an enduring business. Covid-induced work from home grew our payroll and EOR business. And it seemed like RTO might kill it. But we were prepared. If you worry, you won't have to worry.

10. Stay focused.
Fundraises, competitors, headlines - all noise.
Focus on your customers. Focus on your product. Keep executing.
In the long run, the most relentless team wins.

11. Trust your instinct.
If something feels off - it probably is. Dig deeper.
Courage in your convictions matters, especially as the team grows.
Don’t let “performative democracy” slow you down.

As long as you’re in the seat, lead decisively - and unapologetically.

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

@VinnyLingham @X Thanks Vinny. Real Neal Bloom here with my business account. @X let me know how to connect. I have emails in to X Support from [email protected]

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

Hey it’s the real Neal Bloom here since my @ NealBloom has been hacked and is shilling crypto.
But also peep that engagement! I’m not even mad. I’m impressed!

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

Vote for San Elijo Joint Powers Authority &amp; help them receive an Orchid for Public Architecture from the @SDAFinfo for their Water Campus Improvement Project! 💧 Vote here: https://t.co/G3f5MO5eHK.
@CASA_CleanWater @cwea @ACWAWater

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

Happy #FlushSmartDay! Thanks to the “Do Not Flush” symbol, there’s no more guess work when disposing of wipes. Always look for the symbol on wipes packaging to avoid clogs. Visit the Responsible Flushing Alliance (@FlushSmart) to learn more! https://t.co/wLfHvh3EzO

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

We remember and honor those who have lost their lives in military service. #MemorialDay

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

We loved helping @SFID Santa Fe Irrigation District celebrate 100 years by the designing the new logo on all their trucks. 🚛 You may have seen them in your neighborhood! Check out the logo below.

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

Learn more about the women-owned businesses making up a growing number of companies in Carlsbad and across the country 📈 Featuring @MammaChia and @preemadonna! More in our blog for @Carlsbadbiz here: https://t.co/flzsGDTS6W #WomensHistoryMonth

[Rising Tide Partners @RisingTidePtr]

Happy Valentine's Day!