Alex Sherman

AI is changing what “scale” actually means. In CTech by Calcalist’s 2026 VC Survey, Haim Bachar and Lee Ben-Gal share how we’re seeing the scaling metric shift - from headcount growth to output per person. This isn’t about doing more with less. It’s about building companies differently from day one - and rethinking how success is measured. See the full article below 👇

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A short example on how we position Oss Most VC platforms are built “outside-in” — scalable, portfolio-wide, and VC-centric by design. But founders don’t need more generic resources. They need embedded execution. At Oss, we work “inside-out.” We sit next to the founder. We help shape narratives, structure thinking, and translate capital market strategy into execution. Take something as simple — and as critical — as an investor deck. Before Oss - The founder builds solo. - The VC gives an hour or two of feedback. (Highly valuable) - The founder iterates again. - Good deck… but slow, inefficient, not written in VC language With Oss - We build narratives and structure. - The founder becomes the conductor, not the builder. - VCs contribute where it counts. - The result? A world-class deck — faster, sharper, and written in the way VCs make decisions We’re building Oss in the gap between what VCs offer, and what startups are able to implement. Because when it comes to fundraising, execution is everything. And execution is what we do. The image below exemplifies this. A VC Platform is like a gym. All the machines are there for self-service. You can get amazing results if you know what you're doing. Oss is like having your trainer with you at the gym. Takes care of your nutrition, routine, form, and most importantly... will make sure you get the results you're looking for.

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🔥 Why We Built MVP — and the Power of Collective Investing When Elan Adler 🩻, Founder & CEO of OneImaging, asked why we decided to build MVP… the truth is simple: Working with Jason Parrott and Manny Menendez Menedez has been a blast 🙌 —and we’re constantly on the lookout for founders who drive real cost savings for employers. 💼💡 We raised $850K from 80+ investors across the digital health industry for Oneimaging. That collective support wasn’t just financial—it came with deep industry knowledge, intros, and strategic insight. 🤝📈 Our MVP members helped evaluate the opportunity and delivered incredible intel. 🧠✨ Watch Here: https://lnkd.in/d5AnVx8n Listen here: https://lnkd.in/ga_TNNnZ

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HealthVC x Lusha: Unlocking Smarter Fundraising and Sales Workflows We’re thrilled to announce our newest partnership: HealthVC has teamed up with Lusha to bring next-gen data and prospecting tools to founders, fund managers, and operators across our community. Lusha recently launched a powerful suite of AI-powered features that redefine how go-to-market teams research, prospect, and convert. Now those capabilities are coming to HealthVC Pro subscribers. ✨ With this partnership, you’ll be able to: Surface real-time, accurate, and compliant B2B contact data Use AI Prospecting Chat to instantly uncover new investor or customer leads Tap into CRM-triggered recommendations to stay one step ahead Turn insight into action with Sales Streaming, Lusha’s smarter, connected selling framework. But Lusha’s superpower isn’t just the AI; it’s that the AI sits on top of best-in-class data. That means every signal, every recommendation, and every lead is not just fast, it’s trustworthy. At HealthVC, we’re building more than a newsletter; we’re building the operating system for venture, and this partnership helps our members move faster, pitch smarter, and close better. Available now to all HealthVC subscribers, link in comments.

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Q1 2026 was the 'largest venture quarter ever' – I was back on CNBC yesterday with Ian King and Ben Boulos discussing what this means for my two home turfs – pre seed & europe 1) 60%+ of the volume was driven by MEGA-rounds (OpenAI at $122b, Anthropic $30b, xAI ($20b), Waymo ($16b) – and we are not seeing anything close to these rounds in europe (yet!) 2) there's a bifurcation in venture which will need new nomenclature – we can't keep calling a company raising $100b+ a startup using the same word as two people in a garage raising a $1m pre-seed 3) this leads to a bifurcation of funds – few funds (almost only US ones) are equipped to fund the mega rounds, the rest are spending their time in the application layer 4) pre-seed in the application layer is benefitting greatly from the mega-rounds – they are funding capex to build the railroad tracks which these companies run on – leading to companies like Lovable, Legora, Cursor, etc experiencing unprecedented growth with (comparatively) less capital than this would have needed in the past 5) the structural issues for europe persist – fragmented markets, regulation, etc – but the one I'd highlight the most that we can *all* change is that we are risk-averse buyers, we need our larger companies to take bets on startups earlier, it shouldn't be easier for a swedish company to get US clients than german ones, but today it is 6) the power law rules in VC – I continuously feel pushed to be a europe-supporter, but the biggest outcomes will be where the biggest market, most talent and most capital is available – and today this is the US by a wide margin which is why they have captured the largest winners in each of the last technology waves and are doing so again today in the AI era the question is whether this cycle can be different for europe thanks to global decoupling and sovereignty focus, or whether we'll have the same outcomes with some mid-sized application layer outcomes here and all the generational companies coming out of the US back to building 🌋

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Emerging VC Manager's who are Fundraising? Here's What Steffen Risager Would Say As a 1st-time emerging VC manager raising your fund, one of the best pieces of advice comes from Steffen Risager (former LP/CIO, now with FundFrame). Here's what he'd likely tell you: 🎯 Raise on Credibility, Not Excitement LPs aren't buying your pitch deck—they're buying trust in your process. Steffen's framing around private markets emphasizes structured decision-making and reducing bias, which means your fundraising should reflect discipline, not improvisation. 🔑 4 Questions LPs Need You to Answer Clearly Why you? What's your track record, network, and unique edge? Why now? What's the market opportunity that justifies this fund today? Why this market? What's your thesis and how is it focused (not broad)? Why is your edge durable? What can you do consistently that others can't copy? 🏗️ Show Process, Not Just Hustle Your sourcing advantage Your decision-making process How you support portfolio companies post-investment Reserve management and follow-on strategy Speak in evidence, not adjectives. Prior outcomes, network quality, founder access, pacing discipline, and a believable follow-on plan matter more than grand claims. 💡 The Executive Summary Steffen's core insight: your job is to prove you can create value at the ownership level—not just source interesting deals. LPs care about execution, discipline, and repeatable decision-making. For a first-time manager, that means: ✓ A narrow, focused fund strategy ✓ A tight, repeatable process ✓ Explicit boundaries on what you won't do ✓ Clear explanation of post-investment support ✓ Institutional, simple, consistent materials Bottom line: Raise on credibility. For an emerging VC, that means fewer grand claims and more proof you can make good decisions consistently.  

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New blog post: Over the years, I’ve had countless “how do I break into VC?” conversations. Most start with a tactical approach — but the real question is about motivation, fit, and self-awareness. My latest Cap Table for Two post explores a simple framework for reflecting on whether venture capital aligns with your skills, interests, and values.

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How to appear in our '20 American value creators in PE'? a. It's free of charge - not an advertising book b. You need to have solid / verified value creation capabilities (GP-Score certification is a must) c. Apply directly or through a LP d. Only GPs can appear, not service providers Applications are opening tomorrow Jan 15. The final selection of the 20 will be performed by friendly LPs - and ourselves (we may disclose LP names). Note: the guidebook will be available primarily to LPs in Europe and the GCC area.

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There's this funny thing about humans - we are intellectually lazy. Given the opportunity, we will always try to understand new things in the context and comfort of old things. We're doing it to preserve mental energy, but it can gate us from fully embracing innovation. Some are better about this than others, but we're all vulnerable to it. We're seeing this in real time with venture-building, specifically the way we categorize the various operating models and financial utilities that apply to early-stage value creation: Many just use the term "#VC" to encompass anything related to startups: building, funding, and operations. When you reference something more specific, the first instinct will often be to lean on a heuristic, and assimilate the term to one we already understand. For example, if you mention the #VentureStudio model, your counterpart may relate that content to #accelerators or #incubators. So how do we create space for powerful new innovation to be understood on its own merits? Here's how I think about it: 1. Define the thing you're discussing in two ways: first what it is, and then what it isn't. 2. Find a way to get your counterpart to assert the distinction themselves. 3. Slow down - moving forward without shared reality isn't really progress. When you're framing something new, setting the baseline takes as long as it take.

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PLG, speed to $100M ARR is all the rage from founders and VCs these days But need to remember, the lower the friction to onboard the easier to switch so time will tell who can embed themselves into deeper workflows or data-based moats like memory SLG takes more time, super expensive but if done right can be super sticky and more durable in LT There are ways to scale insanely fast once you get past the super hard first 15-20 larger deployments, reseller networks, cloud marketplace, etc but does take way more time And yes, time to value needs to be insanely fast no matter which model Just tradeoffs to think about in GTM, cost, time but goal should be build a durable LT business years out, not just speed to revenue Many ways to get there

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In VC, the word “boring” is a cop-out. It’s often code for: ➡️ “I don’t understand this opportunity.” ➡️ “I don’t think this could be big.” ➡️ “This doesn’t sound like what other VCs are excited about right now, so I’m afraid to take the first bet.” Let’s be real: most people aren’t actually doing the work to understand. They’re filtering for familiar signals. Big TAM slides. Buzzwords. A flashy founding story that makes them feel smart for saying yes. And when something doesn’t match that pattern? They call it “too niche” or “too boring” and move on. But some of the biggest returns come from the exact places everyone else writes off: -The category that looks “crowded” until you realize no one’s solving the hard part. -The unsexy workflow that every enterprise team is duct-taping together. -The overlooked founder who’s been in the weeds for 10+ years and knows exactly where the leverage is. If it looks boring to you, that might be a you problem. Because the best founders don’t filter for interesting. They solve what needs solving. And that’s where real opportunity lives. #venturecapital #startups #founders #earlystage #vc #DaringVentures

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I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb

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VCs aren’t scared of traction — they’re scared of momentum that doesn’t scale. In a market where overall venture fundraising is at decade lows and capital is concentrated in fewer hands, investors are much more selective about where they deploy dollars. PitchBook data shows venture fundraising slowed significantly through 2024, with far less capital flowing into early-stage companies than in prior boom years — and LPs allocating more to established managers and proven winners. 👉 What matters now isn’t just traction — it’s evidence of durable, repeatable demand and a scalable distribution model. Investors increasingly look for founders who can show: ✅  Customer behavior that reliably predicts future revenue ✅  A distribution channel that’s repeatable, not just “one big deal” ✅  Momentum backed by actual spend or retention, not seasonal spikes The founders who succeed today are those who talk less about potential and more about validated mechanics — how demand actually manifests, how customers stick, and how dollars flow predictably through the business. 👇 If you’re a founder building in 2026, we’d love to consider you for funding LvlUp Ventures! 👇 👍 Like this post 💬 Comment your company name and a one-liner ✅ I’ll DM you with the next steps to get you in front of our Investment Committee! #VentureCapital #Startups #Fundraising #VC #Founders #StartupGrowth #EarlyStage #PreSeed #SeedStage #VentureFunding #CapitalAllocation #ProductMarketFit #GTM #ScalingStartups #StartupStrategy #FounderAdvice #VCInsights #LvlUpVentures #Founder #Fundraising

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Two weeks ago on Swimming with Allocators, we sat down with David Clark, CIO at VenCap, to talk about what decades of venture data can teach allocators. One takeaway that stood out: discounts don’t matter as much as people think in venture secondaries. Because venture is such a power-law asset class, outcomes are driven by exposure to a few massive winners. Whether a stake is bought at a small discount, or even a premium, often matters far less than the quality of the underlying company and its upside. Great conversation on venture returns, manager selection, and the nuances of how allocators should think about secondary investments. 👇 Link in the comments.

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As a VC or founder, you should be focusing on consumer. GPT, Claude, Lovable, Cursor all have one thing in common. Their growth was led by the individual consumer. AI unlocks massive value for individual consumers, in a sense that it disintermediates expertise and intelligence, and changes content interaction and buying behavior. Still, the focus of YC and most VC’s is still on ‘vertical AI’ which doesn’t require a massive leap of logic from the Vertical SaaS gold rush of the past decade. I get that vertical AI will unlock massive value and may be an easier wedge, but I’m yet to see anyone even remotely interested in the possibilities unlocked for consumers. AI has unlocked new content interaction possibilities, new ways to manage personal knowledge, and new behavioral patterns are already emerging. Consumer has been out of vogue for the past 3-4 years now, and now with consumer purchasing power increasing, right now may be the best time to build / grow a business. 3-5 years from now when consumer is the flavor of the month, it may be too late to dislodge the ones who’ve built on conviction and clarity today. Side note: I understand that the chat interface is still the preferred UI, but does no one else find it just a bit clunky / inconvenient? Some food for thought. 😏

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Public software is down 40% in 12 months. The selloff has been indiscriminate. Companies hitting their revenue targets are getting hammered alongside the ones that deserve it. The market isn't distinguishing between well-positioned and poorly-positioned software companies.   That will change. When it does, the companies left standing will be the ones with moats that matter in a world where agents do more of the work.   The Emergence partnership spent yesterday debating a question I think every founder and investor should be asking (and, judging by my LinkedIn feed, it seems they are...):   Which software moats actually survive in an AI era?   Here's the spectrum we landed on (from least to most defensible):   1. Workflow   Pre-Claude, getting humans to do their jobs inside your software was a powerful moat. But if agents are doing the work, who cares about the human workflow? Cursor vs Claude Code is the canary in the coal mine: one owns the workflow, the other just executes—and developers are increasingly choosing execution over process.   2. Integrations   MCPs are rapidly commoditizing the glue between systems. Being the connector used to be a moat. Soon, it'll be a utility.   3. Data repository   Static repositories are table stakes. Owning customer data matters less than understanding what to do with it.   4. System of action   Now we're getting somewhere. If your software touches money, customers, or real-world outcomes (think Gusto or Shopify), ripping it out is genuinely painful.   5. Full context   The most important new moat in AI. Understanding how a full task gets done across systems, knowing what a user needs across many different sources. This is what agents need to be useful, and the companies that own it become indispensable infrastructure. But it's young and unproven. If context becomes portable (the way integrations are being commoditized now), this moat could erode too.   6. Brand   The moat that survives every platform shift. Trust compounds over time and can't be replicated by a new entrant with better tech. When everything else gets commoditized, the vendor you trust still wins.   7. Network effects   The most underappreciated moat in AI, and potentially the most enduring. But not all network effects are equal. Workflow-based ones (more humans in the tool) are vulnerable. Data and trust-based ones (every user makes the product smarter) actually accelerate with agents. LinkedIn, Doximity, and Slack all still have this. Relatively few AI native companies have prioritized it...yet.   --   The bottom line: Seat-based pricing and workflow stickiness were the backbone of the last era. Both are eroding. The next era rewards companies tied to outcomes, context, and trust.   If you're a founder, stress-test your moats against this spectrum. If your primary defense is "our users do their jobs in our software," you have work to do.   Because the world is moving towards selling outcomes, not software.

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🚨NEW EPISODE: Recorded live at FUTURE TITANS 2026 - Jeff Perry of Carta sat down with the iconic Seth Levine, co-founder of Foundry. Seth has been in venture for 25 years, built Foundry from scratch as an emerging manager himself, and has backed about 50 emerging manager funds through his fund of funds. He has genuinely seen every side of this table. They went deep on building Foundry, why VCs are in the influence business, not the decision business, and why the concentration problem in venture is not only bad for LPs, but also for the innovation ecosystem overall. And why Seth's new book, Capital Evolution, is so important for the future of America. 🎧 Links to listen... Apple: https://lnkd.in/ehQUQ2EM Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eU4FExpg

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