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Articles by Christian
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What Does the BI & Analytics M&A Environment Look Like?
What Does the BI & Analytics M&A Environment Look Like?
Technology M&A continues its torrid pace to beat 2014 levels. Within tech M&A, business intelligence and analytics…
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Christian Czentye reposted thisChristian Czentye reposted thisEveryone's chasing the same AI bets. Ashley Gautreaux is betting on the boring ones. After seven years at Tesla—scaling from 1,000 to 100,000+ employees, launching into 20 countries—she moved to Charlotte to start CreativeCo Capital. Her thesis: the biggest AI opportunity is in roofing, waste, govtech, self-storage. The industries nobody glamorizes but everyone needs. Her framework: bootstrap-minded founders with $1-3M ARR, product-market fit, and profitable traction. "VC returns without VC risk"—the founder has de-risked the hard part. CreativeCo invests capital + studio (product/engineering) + go-to-market advisory. Weekly founder touchpoints. Operational support, not just checks. The insight: these "boring" industries are ready for vertical AI. One platform for roofing. One for waste. One for govtech. Massive markets. Real defensibility. She learned to identify great people at Tesla (Elon's framework). She learned M&A lens from global integrations. Now she applies both to founder and company evaluation. We sat down with Ashley to talk about bootstrap-minded investing, vertical AI in essential industries, and where the real opportunity is hiding. Full interview on the Carta blog. #VentureCapital #VerticalAI #BootstrapMinded
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Christian Czentye shared thisGreat shout out to our portco Churnkey by Nathan LatkaChristian Czentye shared thisCleaning up a bunch of my SaaS subscriptions. Wild to see how much market penetration Churnkey has Almost every subscription I've cancelled has used the Churn Cancellation Flow Impressive Baird Hall, Nick Fogle
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Christian Czentye shared thisThrilled to share that CreativeCo has invested in Madison AI, the AI agent platform for local government operations. Huge congrats to Erica Olsen and the entire team. Full story here: https://lnkd.in/eD-Zmpfc This marks our sixth GovTech investment since 2020. Grateful to all the founders, investors, and public-sector partners pushing the GovTech ecosystem forward. cc: Travis Parsons | Ashley Gautreaux | Artem Orlov | Cooper Levin | CivStart | CivStart Ventures | Anthony JamisonChristian Czentye shared this🌟 Big News at Madison AI and a Huge Thank You to Our Community The past two years have been an incredible blur of building. Building a product we believe in. Building a team I am endlessly proud of. And building real momentum around a vision to change how local government gets work done. Watching this team step confidently into our next chapter has been one of the greatest joys of my career. I am excited to share that we have secured new funding to maintain this momentum. I also want to give some heartfelt shoutouts to the people who have been true partners on this journey: ✨ @Travis Parsons and Christian Czentye from CreativeCo Capital. Your belief in our mission and steady guidance have meant the world. ✨ Tom Spengler. Thank you for being a trusted thought partner and champion of what we are building. ✨ Geoff H. from BarronKent Ventures. Your insight and support continue to push us forward in the best ways. ✨ Rachel Stern from Govtech Ventures. Your partnership and encouragement have been invaluable as we chart this path. ✨ + So many GovTech greats. We are so humbled that you have chosen to believe in us. And a very special thank you to Washoe County, Dave Solaro, P.E., RA, and Behzad Zamanian. You did something most governments would not have dreamed of. You co-founded this with us and co-built it from the ground up. Your courage to innovate made Madison AI possible, and you will always be the catalyst for everything we’re building. Plus, our first adopters and partners at the City of Reno (Jackie Bryant), the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe Co. (Amber Bowsmith), and City Of Chanhassen (Matt Unmacht), who have been with us since the beginning. To our customers, thank you for believing in what AI can do for government and for your commitment to creating real change within your organizations. Your trust and curiosity drive us every day. This funding powers our next stage of growth. We’re scaling our team, strengthening our platform, and staying focused on building AI that truly supports local government teams. We’re still building, and the future is bright. I’m grateful for everyone on this journey with us. We’re just getting started.
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Christian Czentye shared thisCreativeCo has closed our third early growth equity deal in Fund III, investing in Atlanta-based ProLine, a vertical AI + SaaS platform for roofing contractors. Thrilled to back founders Ancel John Briley and John DeLaurier. Check out our blog post for all the details - https://lnkd.in/e-54t_YX cc: Travis Parsons | Ashley Gautreaux | Artem Orlov
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Christian Czentye reposted thisChristian Czentye reposted this🚀 Meet the powerhouse investors behind Seed The South Capital Summit’s Big Pitch! Our Investor Selection Committee—comprised of some of the Southeast’s top tech investors—will be hard at work reviewing applications and selecting the 10 finalists who will take the stage at this year’s Big Pitch. Their expertise, insight, and commitment to early-stage founders help make this event a launchpad for Charlotte’s next big success stories. A huge thank you to this incredible group: 🔹 Mark McDowell | Ashley Gautreaux | Brandon Shelton 🔹 Kathryn Watts Burlingame | Lister Delgado | David Jones 🔹 Joe Mancini | Tobias Walter | Greg Brown 🔹 Christopher Langford | Nikin Shah | Matt Dunbar 🔹 Brittani Roberts | Steve Hasty We can’t wait to see who they select! Who will take the stage? Stay tuned! 👀 #SeedTheSouth #BigPitch #TechInvestors #CLTstartups #VC #AngelInvesting
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Christian Czentye shared thisAt CreativeCo, we’ve always been big believers in what Justin Adams and the Aiwyn team have been building. Congratulations on your recent financing round—it’s exciting to be in such esteemed company! cc: Ashley Gautreaux, Travis ParsonsChristian Czentye shared thisIt’s a milestone moment for Aiwyn! 🙌 Thanks to the support of KKR and Bessemer Venture Partners we’ve raised $113M to accelerate innovation for CPA firms everywhere. This funding will help us build on the solutions you already trust—like payments and collections automation—and evolve into the industry’s first universal client experience platform. Our goal? To empower firms to focus on what matters most: their clients. We’re grateful for KKR and Bessemer’s partnership and their shared belief in our mission to transform the future of CPA firm operations. #AI #Automation #CPATech #AccountingTech #KKR #Bessemer 📖 Check out the press release: https://hubs.li/Q030bk9p0Aiwyn Secures $113M in funding from KKR and Bessemer Venture Partners to Revolutionize Firm Operations and Tax Technology for Leading CPA FirmsAiwyn Secures $113M in funding from KKR and Bessemer Venture Partners to Revolutionize Firm Operations and Tax Technology for Leading CPA Firms
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Christian Czentye shared thisCreativeCo is #hiring. Know anyone who might be interested?
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Christian Czentye shared thisWe're pleased to announce that CreativeCo has invested $2M in swivl, the AI leader for self storage operators founded by Mason Levy, Rodolfo Ramirez, Kyle Hall and Chuck Reina. Read our blog post for details - https://lnkd.in/e5-Km2xj We're very excited to join the swivl team and start helping out! cc: Ashley Gautreaux, Travis Parsons, Artem OrlovCreativeCo invests $2.0M in swivl, the AI leader for self storage operatorsCreativeCo invests $2.0M in swivl, the AI leader for self storage operators
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Christian Czentye shared thisWe're excited to announce that CreativeCo has invested $1.5M in retention automation leader Churnkey, a fast-growing, super capital efficient Charleston-based SaaS business. We're thrilled to be partnering with such an amazing founding team - Nick Fogle, Scott Hurff, Rob Moore, and Baird Hall. Read our blog post for details: https://lnkd.in/eYuJkAEe CC: Travis Parsons | Ashley Gautreaux | Artem OrlovCreativeCo invests $1.5M in Churnkey, the leading retention automation platformCreativeCo invests $1.5M in Churnkey, the leading retention automation platform
Christian Czentye replied to a comment
2mo
David Spitz awesome. Thank you. Can't wait to see the details!
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisConstruction hasn’t adopted technology quickly because builders hate change. For a long time, the technology just wasn’t that much better. When a text message, whiteboard, or phone call does the job, adding another platform doesn’t create much value. That’s changing. The opportunity with AI isn’t to give construction teams more software to manage. It’s to give them back the 50–60% of their week that can disappear into estimates, bid comparisons, coordination, reporting, and searching for information. Better tech shouldn’t create more work. It should do the work. 🎬 Watch the full episode: https://lnkd.in/ev4nM_Xn 📘 Build your own AI estimator with our free guide: https://lnkd.in/eSD9arRm
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked this"Against the myth and the rhetoric, it is possible to build safe, secure, credible, environmentally conscious AI. It's not magic. It's just hard work." I said that on a panel last week with Mike Quealy, James Ha, Dustin Haisler, August Sun Chen, Mike Wons, Tyler Masterson, and I keep coming back to it. City managers are carrying two pressures at once. The demands on their teams keep growing, with more records requests, more council prep, and fewer people to do it. Meanwhile the headlines about AI keep getting louder and scarier. Here's what I want every local government leader to hear: you don't have to operate from fear. The concerns are real. Control, data sovereignty, trust, energy use. And every one of them has an answer you can ask for. Here are the questions I'd start with. 👇
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisa16z’s pitch to LPs: venture deserves more money. And, funny enough, megafunds, they suggest, are have “earned” that incremental capital. They’re right that companies are building enormous businesses while still private, and LP allocation models were built for a smaller industry. But the analysis they use to sell the 'case for megafunds' doesn’t actually support that argument. 1) The headline “5% of VCs generate 90% of returns” comes from a study of individual investors’ cumulative profit dollars over their tenure. It doesn’t tell an LP nearly anything about fund returns (see point 2). 2) That metric rewards size and length of tenure. A $1B 10-year track record at 1.2x is more "successful" than one $5M check at 40x. And of the paper’s six tests linking past investor success to net fund returns, only one finds any non-zero relationship. 3) Access matters. So do price and fund size. As Venky G. Ganesan put it, you can be right about the company and still be “wrong about the price by a factor of ten.” We take the argument apart, point by point and chart by chart, in our new essay. Read our latest here: "Venture Is Not an Asset Class, It Is a Handful of Charts" https://lnkd.in/gBCSevji
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisThere is absolutely no harm or danger in scanning a rotisserie chicken or exposing it to an LED light. This concern stems entirely from a viral internet joke. The rumor started because of a viral video featuring a Costco shopper named Dave, who went to the checkout lane wearing a custom T-shirt printed with the barcode for a Costco rotisserie chicken. He insisted that the cashier scan his chest instead of the chicken, claiming he didn't want the checkout scanner's LED lights to "poison" or "contaminate" his food. SafeGrocery store scanners use completely harmless, low-power LED lights or weak visible lasers to read barcodes. 1. No Radiation: These lights do not emit ionizing radiation (like X-rays or gamma rays). They cannot alter the molecular structure of your food, leave behind any residue, or make the food toxic. 2. Everyday Exposure: The light from a grocery scanner is no different than the light hitting the chicken from the store’s overhead light bulbs, your kitchen lights, or your smartphone screen. If you want to be mindful of your health when buying a pre-cooked chicken, food safety experts suggest focusing on real factors rather than checkout lights: 1. Temperature & Time: Bacteria multiply quickly if chicken drops into the "danger zone" (between 40°F and 140°F). Always check the packaging timestamp and pick a chicken that hasn't been sitting out for more than four hours. 2. Plastic Packaging: Some health advocates note that letting hot, oily foods sit in plastic bags or containers for long periods can cause small amounts of plasticizers to leach into the food. If this concerns you, transfer the chicken to a glass dish as soon as you get it home.
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisWhat happens when passion meets deep, domain-specific knowledge? You get total mastery. In this clip from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 4-year-old science prodigy Brielle accurately breaks down complex historical and scientific achievements: • Antoine Lavoisier: Named oxygen and hydrogen, proving oxygen’s vital role in combustion. • Daniel Bernoulli: Formulated the fluid dynamics principle explaining aerodynamic lift and airplane flight. • Galileo Galilei: Discovered fundamental concepts of motion, friction, and drag. • Isaac Newton: Formulated the law of universal gravitation and mathematical modeling for planetary motion. • Robert Hooke: Pioneered microscopic cell discovery (and noted the historical ambiguity surrounding his portrait!). Watching someone communicate intricate technical principles with total clarity and enthusiasm is a great reminder of why early curiosity and strong STEM foundations matter so much. When you truly understand a subject, you can explain it simply no matter your age. What’s a complex concept in your industry that you love breaking down for others? #STEM #Leadership #ContinuousLearning #ScienceCommunication #Innovation
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisAndreessen Horowitz has a message for up-and-coming tech talent: Don’t drop out of school to start a company; come do school with us instead. The storied venture-capital firm is investing $35 million in an unaccredited San Francisco-based two-year alternative to traditional college for students ages 16 to 22. Though named the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, the school will operate as an independent business led by Gagan Biyani, co-founder of the ed-tech platform Udemy. Some of the heaviest hitters in tech are serving as founding partners: Anthropic, Google, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and OpenAI, among others, will provide access to software and compute, and open their offices for learning purposes. Read more: 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/4hFvSYL
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisInc. Magazine profiled us this week, and in the process I learned a stat I’m really proud of. Churnkey is the first South Carolina software company to crack the Inc. 5000’s top 200 in a decade. What I liked most about the profile was that it focused on how we got here. At the height of the pandemic, our last company, Wavve, had a major churn problem. We spent tens of thousands on consultants, got a stack of reports, and still couldn’t move the needle. So we tried something simpler. We asked people why they were leaving. There was always a reason, and often something we could do to keep them. Churn dropped, and we started to realize cancellations were only part of the problem. Revenue was disappearing in other ways too, often without the customer ever choosing to leave. That insight became Churnkey. Five years later, we’ve helped subscription companies recover more than $500 million in revenue that otherwise would have been lost. The full profile is below.
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisLast night, NVISIONx had the pleasure of bringing together financial services CDOs and data leaders, friends, and partners for a memorable dining experience at Steak 48 in Charlotte during the CDO Exchange BFSI. The conference creates a great setting to talk about data, AI, governance, and risk. But some of the best conversations happen after the sessions end, when we can connect more personally, exchange ideas, and strengthen the relationships behind the work. A special thank you to Charles Wolter, Shannon (Lieberg) Lockaby, Dian Xu, aka “The Data Queen,” Reagan, Luette Kanas, Jesse Mauser, Jill Delgado, CPA, CA, Diego, Matt Lewis, Denise Villa, Kevin Moran, Aayeesha Essue and everyone who joined us and made the evening so memorable. And a big thank you to our partners at High Point and Ellipsis. We truly value what we’re building together and the shared belief that trusted data is foundational to everything that comes next. Great people. Great conversations. Stronger partnerships. Context matters! #NVISIONx #CDOExchange #DataGovernance #DataLeadership #DataStrategy #TrustedData #BFSI
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Christian Czentye liked thisChristian Czentye liked thisTonight we kick off one of our most important events of the year — our annual CPA.com / AICPA Executive Roundtable! Over 40 tech companies and firm leaders will be convening for two days in our New York Headquarters. Many will be represented by their CEO founders. The level of investment and transformation has never been higher, and over the next year we will likely see more change than we have seen in the past 10 years. Nearly 30% of the companies will be first-time attendees. We will discuss how AI and these tech solutions are creating new capabilities to enable the shift to advisory and deliver higher value across all practice areas. Driving better client value and outcomes vs. just efficiency gains is an important north star for both firms and the tech community. It should be an electric few days! See the full list of companies attending in comments and below logo image. I look forward to hosting this meeting with AICPA CEO Mark Koziel CPA, CGMA. Thanks to Michael Cerami, Vishal Thakkar and Vendela Hale for bringing this all together.
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