Jesse Buckingham

Founder @ Vooma (YCW23). Building the ai-powered quote to cash platform logistics. ex @bain, @stanfordGSB, @alpineinvestors

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

We got quoted for $6.7M for a 30 second Super Bowl ad slot. We said f*!% that and made our own. I present:

The Fox of Freight Street.

Turning the chaos of your freight brokerage into a money printing machine.

Vooma: the ai platform for logistics.

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@anything huge

[Anything @anything]

Introducing Anything Max: Vibe Coding that's leaps above Lovable and Bolt

We've raised money at a $100M valuation and built what we believe is the future of vibe coding.

We asked 100 vibe coders to build their apps side by side on Lovable, Bolt, and Anything Max and they rated Anything Max the winner across all 3 categories - accuracy, design, and 'overall'.

Here's why:

• Full-stack control: Max can test backend hooks, branch database states, and debug issues, because Anything owns the full infrastructure.

• Max can load up your app in its own browser and click on all buttons like a human tester to find all edge case bugs, then trace the bug across the stack - could be a frontend, backend, or a database issue (only we can do this, read #1) and autonomously fix it with 97% accuracy.

Lovable and Bolt build prototypes, but Max users are building production-ready apps and already charging money for them.

Blake built a gut biome app to $10K run rate
Anthony built a referral tool to $20k in revenue
Yuri built a suite of apps doing $40K

Build your app with Max: https://t.co/haQw8s04mB

--------------------------------------------

We're hosting a $100K Hackathon to help people grow their app to $10K MRR.

- We'll teach you everything we know about growing to 1M users.
- You'll have 30 days to build a real product in public and get paying customers for it.

If you do it well, you can start the New Year with a functioning business.

Retweet and comment “LFG”, and we’ll send you a $100 discount code and the link to participate

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@benspringwater Congrats on the launch

[Ben Springwater @benspringwater]

Introducing Halo — the habit app with an AI coach.

It's like James Clear in your pocket.

Turn your good intentions into life-changing habits.

Now available on the  App Store:
https://t.co/wKnBzK6U4v

[LGAjots @LGAjots]

What if shopping felt like Pinterest, but worked?

You can now vibe shop for your home — and our AI saves you hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars.

So proud of the team that made this real.💪

https://t.co/RUeDJuKyc3

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

Grateful for the opportunity @GrahamCWeaver and others provided to me!

[Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag]

My conversation with @GrahamCWeaver, the founder of Alpine Investors.

Graham built this large private equity firm by buying companies and handing them over to ~27-year-old CEOs. He tells the entire story of the firm here.

Enjoy!

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:37 Alpine's Three North Stars
7:33 The Power of Choice & Determination
13:33 Early Career
21:45 Founding Alpine
29:36 Core Beliefs and Talent Development
35:47 Building a Platform Company
39:02 Talent and Training Programs
44:15 Employee and Customer Engagement
47:26 Financial Outcomes & Return Strategies
50:43 Supporting Young CEOs
58:13 Teaching at Stanford
1:05:31 Coaching and One-on-One Meetings
1:08:18 Executive Coaching
1:11:19 Defining Personal Growth and Courage
1:18:41 Lessons from a Slot Machine Business
1:22:43 Balancing Work and Personal Life
1:29:21 The Future of Private Equity
1:32:29 The Importance of Seeing the Best in People
1:38:10 The Kindest Thing

[Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag]

My conversation with @GrahamCWeaver, the founder of Alpine Investors.

Graham built this large private equity firm by buying companies and handing them over to ~27-year-old CEOs. He tells the entire story of the firm here.

Enjoy!

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:37 Alpine's Three North Stars
7:33 The Power of Choice & Determination
13:33 Early Career
21:45 Founding Alpine
29:36 Core Beliefs and Talent Development
35:47 Building a Platform Company
39:02 Talent and Training Programs
44:15 Employee and Customer Engagement
47:26 Financial Outcomes & Return Strategies
50:43 Supporting Young CEOs
58:13 Teaching at Stanford
1:05:31 Coaching and One-on-One Meetings
1:08:18 Executive Coaching
1:11:19 Defining Personal Growth and Courage
1:18:41 Lessons from a Slot Machine Business
1:22:43 Balancing Work and Personal Life
1:29:21 The Future of Private Equity
1:32:29 The Importance of Seeing the Best in People
1:38:10 The Kindest Thing

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@create_xyz @neondatabase the create team keeps shipping big, week to week. congrats on this launch

[Anything @anything]

You can now add @stripe payments to your Create app

• add in 2 mins. it's seamless.
• prompt how it should work
• turn your app into your next revenue stream

Launch your product. Get rich (maybe)

Comment 💸 and we'll help you get your first MRR

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@create_xyz @stripe This is epic, nice work

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@craft_ventures @IndexVentures @thacarta2 Link to Freightwaves article: https://t.co/kPvKREqLon

Link to blog post: https://t.co/R772KTUqNQ

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

It’s a big day for Vooma.

We’re thrilled to announce that Vooma has secured $16.6M in Seed and Series A funding from @craft_ventures , @IndexVentures , and other leaders in the logistics industry.

@thacarta2 and I started Vooma to empower the women and men who keep America’s economy running. We want to give them the best AI tools to win and execute more freight.

Everyday logistics operators are bogged down by hundreds of repetitive tasks that distract them away from building relationships and solving complex problems.

We believe we can change that.

So today we’re also announcing Vooma Agents – a first of it's kind multi-channel AI platform built for logistics. It’s the foundation for building autonomous agents with freight expertise that can execute complex workflows across email, voice and text. We’re also introducing Vooma Voice, which gives Vooma Agents the ability to make and receive calls - critical to many freight workflows.

We’re grateful to our customers, partners, Voomers and investors for believing in our vision, especially @HOFCapital, @Definition_Cap, @OperatorStackVC, @Soma_Capital and @ycombinator who participated in the round.

We’re just getting started. Let’s Vooma! 🚀

Shoutout to Grace Sharkey and @FreightWaves for covering the news.

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

Huge update from the @create_xyz team

[Marcus Lowe @marcus_lowe]

create’s new chat assistant

now, anyone can create software:

• chat to build
• ask questions
• everything from UI to APIs, dbs and AI
• instant changes w/ fast AI code gen
• live on the web in 1 click

available now at https://t.co/6TFMATcobU

[Marcus Lowe @marcus_lowe]

create’s new chat assistant

now, anyone can create software:

• chat to build
• ask questions
• everything from UI to APIs, dbs and AI
• instant changes w/ fast AI code gen
• live on the web in 1 click

available now at https://t.co/6TFMATcobU

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@failingbuild Congrats on the launch gents! Shipping fast as always - this looks awesome

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@dhruvamin @create_xyz Link please!

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@dflieb Congrats Dave!

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

@Tisoga @ycombinator The content available for free is first class. You can apply a lot of the principles yourself and get value

[Jesse Buckingham @jessebucks]

A lot of founders reach out and ask - is @ycombinator worth it?

363 days now from our W23 demo day my confident answer is - yes, it is.

In my opinion YC has the best IP in the world on early stage company building.

There is no institution that has played a role in helping more teams go from nothing to something.

They’ve distilled that experience into concrete, no bullshit, tactical advice that they dish out at scale. The partners are direct and honest, often to an uncomfortable extent.

There’s no letting you off the hook. If things aren’t working, they’ll tell you. If you’re focused on things that don’t matter, they’ll tell you.

Someone said building a startup is like throwing yourself off a cliff with parts and trying to build the rocket mid flight.

Only you can build the rocket ship. But YC tells you timely stories of how the thousands of startups before you either crashed or found flight before hitting ground.

Here’s the advice that helped us most:

-> Focus on the 90/10 solution. Figure out the key features that can drive the most value. Then build those. Ship it, fast.

-> Get real commitments from real customers. Not ‘I’m’ interested’. Not design partnerships with no real skin in the game.

-> Focus on early adopters. Even if your idea is good, most companies won’t work with early stage businesses. Find the ones that will.

-> Focus on talking to customers, building. Not talking to investors. The best thing for investors is traction - focus there.

It’s not just the advice though. There’s no better way to drive urgency and pace of action and decision making than running the gauntlet of YC with other talented founders with the looming threat of demo day lighting a fire under your behind.

Should you worry about the dilution? IMO, no.

Startups are pretty binary. Either you build a valuable business or you don’t. If you can substantially shift your odds to being something versus nothing, that’s a good trade.

And the support from YC didn’t stop at demo day - we still meet every couple months with Gustaf and it’s always impactful time.

Big continued thanks to @gustaf, @dflieb (our visiting partner) and all the @ycombinator partners for their support.

To the founders in the W24 batch presenting tomorrow - go crush! 💪