Dave Fowler

Independent Researcher
I made charts @ Chartio now Atlassian Analytics
Author of and The Informed Company

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Markdown-svg now has a playground with examples. I also wrote about some of the interesting challenges and solutions in making it: https://t.co/gLbfijxhKD

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Ever need markdown rendered in SVG? Well now you can: https://t.co/RGFZGJdSwP

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

With the new Gemini 3 release I love that the recipe example is still being used as one of the main promising use cases for computers and now AGI. One day hopefully computers will solve that pressing problem...

[Geoffrey Miller @gmiller]

The most important thing for conservatives to understand about the AI industry:

Not a single person building Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) -- not one -- has ever offered a plausible scenario in which humanity, in anything close to its current form, could last for even two generations past the development of ASI.

They say we could 'merge with ASI', which is like asking a hummingbird to 'merge with' a jet airplane.

They say we could 'upload our consciousness' and compete with ASIs in virtual worlds, which means abandoning our genes, our bodies, our brains, our cities, our land, our reality.

They offer no story at all in which your grandkids can keep living real lives, in the real world, with real control over their destinies.

If you want to conserve anything at all about our humanity, our cultures, our religions, our institutions, our creativity, and our autonomy, the ASI industry is your mortal enemy.

They are the ultimate revolutionaries. They are eager to burn down everything your ancestors ever cared about, to 'pass the baton' to machine intelligences.

If you're conservative, and you support ASI development, you are being played like a Tennessee fiddle.

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Tourism chain idea: Shoevenirs - they’re tripped themed shoes that people can walk all around in and then mount in a collection at home… I’ve got the domain. Contact me for licensing :)

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Excited to finally be in on one @patmatthews's funds. He's by for the most active value add investor I've come across!

[Pat Matthews @patmatthews]

I’m excited and humbled to share that we’ve closed our third fund at Active Capital: $28M+ to invest in the future of enterprise software and cloud infrastructure.

I started Active Capital seven years ago with a belief: founders deserve early capital from someone who's walked in their shoes. Someone who truly understands the challenges of starting and building a great company.  With this new fund, we’re continuing to invest in the kinds of companies I helped build, many of which are building in underdog cities across America.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve helped lead companies through major shifts—from old-school software to SaaS, cloud, and mobile. Today, I couldn’t be more excited to back the next generation of founders who are re-shaping software and infrastructure in the AI era.

The strategy is working. Our first fund, raised in 2018, has already returned nearly 70% of capital, with a total value-to-paid-in (TVPI) multiple—meaning the current value relative to capital invested—now exceeding 4x.

While this is the largest fund we’ve raised to date, it’s still smaller than most funds you’ll read about. When I started Active Capital, I purposefully decided that part of our strategy would be to raise multiple similar-sized, $25M-ish funds—to stay focused, master our craft, and resist the urge to go upmarket.  This is a very unique strategy in venture capital as the temptation to raise bigger and bigger funds is extreme.

That said, small numbers add up too. This new fund brings us to over $100M in assets under management, across three similar-sized funds and several individual investments in breakout companies.

Since 2018, we’ve backed 50+ startups across the country, in cities like San Antonio, Austin, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Miami, Atlanta, Boulder, Portland and of course… NYC & SF.

Some of our early exits include:
- Altru, acquired by iCIMS
- Cloudsnap, acquired by Paylocity
- Finmark, acquired by https://t.co/bjbNMcLrQv
- Makeswift, acquired by BigCommerce
- RemoteTeam, acquired by Gusto

What we invest in:
- Lead or co-lead pre-seed rounds
- $500K–$1M checks in $500K–$3M rounds
- Strong preference for smaller rounds, low burn, and extreme focus on product market fit
- Technical founders, solo or team, building in cities across America

More about Active:
- Pre-seed firm focused on enterprise software & cloud infrastructure
- Solo GP firm & awesome team with 15+ years working together
- Repeatable, similar-sized funds; focused on mastery, not scale
- We’re long term investors–we don’t chase early markups or depend on secondary sales
- Backed entirely by successful founders, families, entrepreneurs, and operators—no institutional capital

I’m especially grateful to our investor base—from former Rackers, to incredibly successful families and entrepreneurs in San Antonio, to founders and friends I’ve met along the way… and of course, plenty of Virginia Tech Hokies. THANK YOU!

If you’re building something bold at the pre-seed stage, let’s connect.

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Huge crowd at @wandb fully connected conference! Awesome to see!

[John Sherman @ForHumanityPod]

So how is it possible for this issue to have 70% public support and zero political champions???

Who will be the brave first few heroes, American elected leaders, willing to say the obvious: if we don’t slow down, AI is likely going to kill us all. And here’s how we find a different path.

[Harlan Stewart @HumanHarlan]

It is difficult to make the world understand the danger posed by ASI. Much of that difficulty is because of human psychology, but some of the difficulty is manufactured by the AI industry, which uses Tobacco industry playbook tactics to prevent interference

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

I published a helper tool for cleanly making complex prompts https://t.co/ZhArQ3DPus

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

@ycombinator @JonXu Awesome! Congratulations guys and YC! Couldn't have picked nicer, smarter, or more capable people! Love to see it.

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

@elder_plinius This prompt game to simulate life post AGI https://t.co/dzSBgPDDbz

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

@yuris As the village raises up a pack of pups.

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

I hate so many things about slack, but their required install process to simply "add a new helper tool" is unacceptable. It requires you to put in your password multiple times (perhaps for multiple tools?), and will not let you cancel. Enraging

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

@elder_plinius I've been promised a mistress position.

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Even through its rose colored filter the answer is bleak: https://t.co/rdz0EzjzcW

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Every time I ask AI how it might govern humanity it makes China seem a lot less scary

“ ASI wouldn’t govern. It would control. Whether softly or absolutely depends on alignment — but human agency would not be at the top of the hierarchy.”

Full response in thread

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

A riddle: What is safe and incredibly powerful yet no one can control it?

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

Containment requires foresight into possible escapes. But when the prisoner is smarter than the jailer, foresight collapses — the gap in intelligence is by definition unknown unknowns.

[Dave Fowler @__dave]

I've had this document started and mostly empty mulling in the back of my mind for over a decade. With the pace of things I figured I needed to get it out.
Today I published my letter to a future Superintelligence https://t.co/04wd8hFo1O. .