Mark Peter Davis

Managing Partner @Interplay: Venture Capital + Accelerator + Studio + Multi-Family Office

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

Venture studios are quietly becoming one of the most effective models for company creation, but most people still don't understand what happens inside one.

For this podcast episode I sat down with @AndyBilinsky, Partner at Interplay leading our Studio, to break down exactly how we build companies from the ground up.

During our conversation, we covered:
- What a venture studio actually is and how it differs from traditional VC
- Why we research industries deeply before ever writing a business plan
- The role of operating partners as true co-founders
- Why second- and third-time founders are choosing to build with a studio instead of going solo
- How Interplay went from 3 new companies in Q4 2025 to targeting 10+ in 2026

Big thanks to Andy for pulling back the curtain on how we build. Grateful to have him here at Interplay.

[Interplay @interplay]

US manufacturing output is rising. Headcount is not. Q1 2026 BLS: factory productivity +3.6% — 5x the rest of the economy. Output up, hours down. That's the AI/automation story showing up in government data.

https://t.co/m0d2Vk82Pm

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

US manufacturing PMI: 52.7 in April — 4 straight months in expansion.

Factory construction: $189B SAAR — 2.5x the pre-CHIPS baseline.

Soft and hard data agree. That is rare. https://t.co/szrCVIZsZI

[Rory O'Reilly @RoryOReilly]

We’re excited to announce that @KnotAPIs is now available within @Q2_Software.

For years, credit unions and community banks have faced the same challenge: delivering the modern experiences customers expect without the engineering resources of the largest institutions. That gap has made it increasingly difficult to compete for top-of-wallet.

Today, that changes.

The 1,000+ credit unions and community banks running on Q2 can now enable Knot’s CardSwitcher™ with just a few clicks. Cardholders can seamlessly set their card as the default payment method across Amazon, Netflix, DoorDash, Uber, and many of the merchants that drive recurring and everyday spend.

Huge thank you to the team at Q2 for partnering with us. We believe the future of banking belongs to the institutions that make it effortless for customers to choose them, and we’re proud to help bring those capabilities to financial institutions of every size.

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

The elevator pitch is dead.

For years, founders have been coached to cram their entire business into a 60-second monologue, in case they corner a VC in an elevator. That's not how real conversations work — and it's not how investors decide what to look at next.

When I meet a founder and ask what they're working on, I want a normal answer. One sentence. "We're helping people do X by offering a service that does Y." If I'm interested, I'll ask questions. If I'm not, I'll say so and we both move on.

A canned, rapid-fire pitch doesn't make me lean in. It makes me wonder why you're talking at me instead of with me. The founders who actually raise well speak plainly about their business, answer questions directly, and send a clean executive summary afterward. The pitch isn't a performance. It's the start of a conversation.

If you're prepping to fundraise, throw out the script. Be able to explain what you do in plain English, and trust the investor to ask for the rest.

From The Fundraising Rules — the chapter on getting the meeting.

[Interplay @interplay]

"VC is back" is a misread. Q1 2026 hit an all-time record — and 43% of it was one round (OpenAI, $122B). Strip out four AI labs and the other 5,996 startups split what was left. There are two venture markets right now. Most founders live in one of them. https://t.co/SCii6noWeN

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

B2B procurement is getting a complete overhaul.

Not incremental improvement. A full rebuild of the stack, from the agents executing purchases to the ERPs integrating them to the payment rails settling transactions.

@navya_prab breaks down where the opportunity is for investors and builders: https://t.co/4CeJb5UnRt

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

Most founders treat fundraising like a finish line. It isn't. It's a pit stop.

You stop racing for a few weeks. Fresh tires, souped-up engine, the right advisors on board.

If the raise doesn't make you faster after, you ran the wrong play.

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

You can have a great team, a real problem, and a working product — and still fail because you're not in a big enough market.

Market size isn't just a slide in a pitch deck. It's the single biggest factor that determines whether a startup can return a venture fund.

We covered the key criteria for evaluating whether your idea is big enough — market size, scalability, venture potential, and whether the pain is real:
https://t.co/KcfqE3jQm1

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

Most VCs fund <1% of what they see. That means 99 of every 100 founders hear no — and founders take their company personally. It's their baby.

A successful VC has to tell 99% of parents their baby isn't the one. Don't take the no personally. The math forces it.

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

The biggest mistake founders make with their board: they treat the meeting like a status update.

Good board meetings flip the ratio. 45 min on KPIs, two hours on the one strategic problem you're actually wrestling with.

That's where boards earn their keep.

[Rory O'Reilly @RoryOReilly]

We’re excited to announce that @KnotAPIs is now live with @CashApp.

The Cash App Card is one of the largest debit card programs in the United States. With Knot's CardSwitcher™, Cash App cardholders can instantly add their card across the merchants they use most, including Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Uber, and 100+ more, without ever leaving the app.

Cash App has always focused on creating intuitive financial experiences. Knot builds on that by driving activation and spend for Cash App, reducing churn and abandoned carts for merchants, and giving users a frictionless way to use their Cash App Card.

We’re proud to power an even more seamless Cash App Card experience and excited for what’s ahead. More to come.

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

Keep in mind - they'll only be better tomorrow. Humanoid robots have arrived.

[Figure @Figure_robot]

We taught two F.03 robots to clean a room and make a bed in under 2 minutes - fully autonomous.

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

Don't lose sight of the rate of change. Perfection is right around the corner.

[SONIA @S0N_IA_]

este ha sido el progreso de la IA en los últimos 3 años 👀

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

If 1) Full Self Driving (FSD) is safer than human drivers (see chart) and 2) FSD is only available in Teslas.

Then is choosing to buy a non-Tesla comparable to choosing to buy a car without a seat belt?

cc @elonmusk @Tesla

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

Humans keep most of their attention focused on the short-term stories (gossip, politics, conflicts) that will largely be forgotten in time. We tend to pay very little attention to the long-term narratives that will define mankind.

The scaling of humanoid robot production is one of the most significant developments to be watching.

Check it. Your world is changing. 👇

cc @adcock_brett @Figure_robot

[Figure @Figure_robot]

Today we’re giving an update on ramping F.03 production at BotQ

In the last 120 days, Figure scaled manufacturing 24x - from 1 robot/day to 1 robot/hour

We will manufacture 55 humanoid robots this week

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

@maddiehalla @zsims Sounds like a recipe for a good marriage.

[Mark Peter Davis @mpd]

This is extremely cool. It seems to be one of those moments when all of the incentives align and good happens…

cc @zsims - you married up…

[Maddie Hall @maddiehalla]

1/ @OctopusEnergy is backing Living Carbon with $500M to reforest degraded land and remove CO₂ across North America. This major project financing comes with an additional ~$13M investment in our carbon business.

Living Carbon is putting low quality land back to work. Our innovative reforestation turns low quality land into thriving forests faster to remove carbon or produce sustainable forest products.

Read more about it in today’s @WSJ (link in the comments) →