Jason Chen

partner @contrary | prev 2x founder turned early-stage investor

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

Congrats to @markiewagner and the @PoeticHQ team!

Has been a blast spending some time with them these past few months. True n of 1 company and team.

[Markie Wagner @markiewagner]

Introducing @PoeticHQ: a new AI system that executes complex multi-hour tasks with 99%+ accuracy and 10x fewer tokens than agents.

We raised $50M at $500M from Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, First Harmonic, and Genius Ventures to build AI that does complex work inside Fortune 500 companies without hallucination.

While code is too brittle, agents are too unpredictable. The work that runs the global economy - anti-money laundering, fraud investigations, underwriting - needs extreme accuracy.

So we built a new kind of software that pairs the flexibility of AI with the predictability of code.

When the world stays the same, Poetic runs fixed code: fast, cheap, identical every time. When the world changes, Poetic uses AI to regenerate its approach and find its way back to the objective.

In one year, we went from zero to an eight-figure run rate as a team of four.

Since then, we’ve scaled the team and executed the highest-stakes processes at AIG, SoFi, and Chime. At SoFi, a large US bank, Poetic reached 99%+ quality on fraud investigations in five weeks.

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

@markiewagner @PoeticHQ Amazing! It's been so fun spending time with the team these past few months. Congrats on all the progress :)

[Andriy Mulyar @andriy_mulyar]

hiring a growth engineer at @nomic_ai

the job: build agentic systems that get us in front of every built environment company in the U.S. (~20k companies). orchestrate agents to automate non-spammy outbound, ad campaigns, linkedin touchpoints, events, seo — all wired together.

i've personally been building our internal gtm system myself from scratch the last 6 months with very impressive results - time to scale!

this isn't a marketing role. it's engineering role where your measured output is qualified customer calls and sign ups.

if you like low latency feedback loops between prompt and customer demand surges this might be the role for you.

link: https://t.co/mr8rxxkrqm

[Leonard Tang @leonardtang_]

https://t.co/Nnh5OuLfxM

[Nomic @nomic_ai]

Today, we're launching AEC-Bench — the first open, multimodal agent benchmark for construction.

196 tasks across real construction documents. Full agent harness. Automated evaluation. Apache 2.0.

We benchmarked Claude Code, Codex, and our own agent. Here's what we found 🧵

[Josh Pacini @joshpacini]

Thank you to our investors for supporting Valinor in our mission to use AI to transform clinical trials, which are the core bottleneck to drug development.

The work ahead is clear: partner with drug developers to bring better medicines to market faster by making every clinical trial smarter, more targeted, and more likely to succeed for patients.

Now back to work!

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

They're hiring! More details here:
https://t.co/TksbcePfBX

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

Real innovation in agriculture (AI or otherwise) requires bridging a massive data gap. Orchard does this, and so much more.

Today, they've built the trusted OS for modern farms all over the country.

Congrats @charliewu and @orchard_robots on this deserved milestone!

[Charlie Wu @charliewu]

I'm excited to announce our $22M Series A here at Orchard!🍎

Here @Orchard_Robots, we’re securing America’s food supply by building the AI farmer that automates our nation’s farms.

Our mission is to make farming profitable, efficient, and sustainable again.

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

@charliewu @orchard_robots Congrats!!

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

Contrary’s VP program continues to be the very best place to accelerate your path in startups and tech.

If you’re a builder looking for others who share your ambition and drive, the VP program is for you.

Apply today!

[Contrary @contrary]

Contrary Venture Partner applications are now open!

If you're a builder on campus, interested in investing in exceptional startups, and want to be part of one of the most selective communities in tech, apply now.

Contrary invests and works directly alongside exceptional founders to build enduring companies, from seed to scale. With this approach, we’ve been fortunate to back iconic companies like Ramp, Anduril, Zepto, and many others.

Our Venture Partners are great builders and future founders who become the go-to resource for others on campus. As a VP, you’ll learn first-hand what it takes to build and invest in exceptional companies, from taking part in investment decisions to sitting in on fireside chats with seasoned founders and investors.

Best of all, you’ll be joining and learning from the best community in tech. Most VPs go on to become venture-backed founders, early engineers/operators, or investors, and enjoy the support of Contrary’s network for life.

Read more here: https://t.co/tLY2e2vvvX

Apply here by Sept 14th: https://t.co/JAbdu7XhT7

If you're looking for more information or want an opportunity to ask questions, we're hosting our National Info Session on the evening of Wednesday, Sept 3rd. See you there!

RSVP here: https://t.co/AYSJStCaKH

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

@danielreidcahn Congrats on launch!

[Daniel Cahn @danielreidcahn]

I’m excited to announce Ash by Slingshot AI, the first AI designed for therapy backed by $93M in funding from the world’s top mission-driven investors.

[Neil Parikh @neilparikh]

They said it couldn't be done.
They said it *shouldn't* be done.

We tried anyways.

Today we're launching Ash, the first AI designed for therapy, and announcing $93M in funding from @radicalventures @ForerunnerVC @a16z @felicis @trailmixvc @joinsequel and many more.

We've had 50k people using it, with pretty transformative results. Here's my co-founder @danielreidcahn telling our story. Link to Ash below.

[Dylan Parker @djacksonparker]

First tweet ever. Hopefully the Series C won’t be the second.

@_MomentHQ has raised a $36M Series B led by @indexventures to automate the $150T fixed income market.

We're also announcing our partnership with LPL Financial, the largest broker-dealer in the U.S.

Our team automated bond trading at Citadel and Jane Street - now we’ve assembled a world-class team to power every mission-critical workflow in fixed income.

Thanks @PaigeSmithNews for the write-up in @business, and to @a16z, @lightspeedvp, @Venrock, @neo & @contrary for the continued support.

And welcome, @janatindex to the board.

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

A fantastic read from @CoryBAnderson and the @Contrary_Res team on the past, present, and future of America's electrical grid.

Coauthored with @alexstratmoen and @AryanAfrouzi, who are working hard to fix it!

[Contrary Research @Contrary_Res]

1/ America’s electric grid was once the marvel of the industrial age.

Now it’s aging, brittle, and cracking under the pressure of EVs, extreme weather, and two-way power flows.

This is the story of how we got here—and why we need to build an “energy internet” 🧵

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

Learn more here: https://t.co/YPTZm8mWE8

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

I’m thrilled to announce we’ve led @voltraenergy's pre-seed.

Breakthroughs in energy technology across batteries, nuclear, solar, wind, and more speak to the potential for resource abundance and meaningful progress in energy production.

Energy demand, spurred on by rapid innovations in AI and the push to increase domestic industrial production, is expected to grow faster than ever before.

But against this backdrop is aging infrastructure and an electrical grid that is ill-prepared to handle the increased load.

The average current age of US transmission lines is 40 years old. Many of the country’s power transformers are at or beyond their expected lifespan. Put simply, the grid is old and vulnerable.

To fix this, we obviously need to build new infrastructure. But that is costly, time-intensive, and mired in political and regulatory complexity. To supplement this, and to ensure that we can prepare for tomorrow’s energy demands today, we also need better software that is not built for Windows Vista.

Enter Voltra. Their lofty goal is to build the operating system for the electrical grid - a unified platform that allows any energy-related asset to seamlessly connect and work together. Most solutions today are asset- or company-specific, and very few speak or work together. Voltra aims to change that.

They are launching today with their first product, Charge.

Built for electric vehicle charging, it has intelligent load management, real-time grid coordination, and a unified API across multi-vendor hardware and systems. More important, it provides access to the thousands of physical assets and vendors that will serve as the foundation to a more intelligent grid.

Congratulations to @alexstratmoen and @AryanAfrouzi and the whole Voltra team!

Also - no joke - I got a power outage while drafting this last night. We need to fix this!

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

@alexstratmoen Excited!

[Jason Chen @jchen623]

@AryanAfrouzi Excited!

[Ted Feldmann @tfeldmann]

The diamond drill rig for mineral exploration was first tested in Minnesota in 1890 and hasn't seen a fundamental innovation since 1953.

We @durinmining built a remotely operable drill rig in 4 months. Our next version will be autonomous.

Testing begins in Nevada next week.