Jeff Yolen

Seth Levines’s new book, co-authored with Elizabeth MacBride, became a bestseller in its first week, a sign that many people sense the rules of capitalism are shifting in real time. I sat down with Seth, Partner at Foundry and cofounder of Pledge 1%, to discuss Capital Evolution and what it means for investors and founders. We cover the shift away from shareholder-first thinking, his concept of “dynamic capitalism,” and why restoring upward mobility is critical to an ownership economy. He also shares his perspective on today’s venture landscape, why transformational waves like AI and quantum often create bubbles that are more feature than bug, and what’s next for him after decades of investing and firm-building. Listen to Episode 502 of The Full Ratchet for the conversation. The link to the full episode is in the comment section below.

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Is your accelerator actually worth it? Most are not. 60 to 80% of U.S. accelerators have negative value-added. Data presented at the Endless Frontier Labs Demo Day at #NYUStern put a number on it. Meaning most founders walk away worse off than if they had never joined. The cost is real | Equity given away | Months spent | Attention pulled from building A few programs do move outcomes. Acquisition rates. Revenue. Long-term valuations. But they are the exception. So treat it like you would treat an investor. Get references. Talk to founders from past cohorts. Ask hard questions. The diligence goes both ways. We say the same to every company that pitches Nodenza. Interview us. Understand how we add value beyond capital. We welcome it. Hat tip to Endless Frontier Labs for the great work— worth following if you are not already. Deepak Hegde Khoa M. Raul Garza Mark Flynn Kaitlin Gawkins Priyanka Shah Nikki A. Matt Myers, Ed.D. Carlos Medina, PhD Cassandra Houghton Nic Solano #VentureCapital #Founders #Accelerators #LifeSciences #EndlessFrontierLabs

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🚨 The “Big Beautiful Bill” just passed—and it could be the most consequential climate rollback in U.S. history. ⚡️ Wind and solar tax credits are set to phase out years earlier, threatening over 70% of planned clean energy projects. 🚘 EV and battery incentives are being slashed, stalling adoption and investment. 🛢️ Fossil fuels, LNG, and permitting reforms are prioritized, reversing much of the momentum from the Inflation Reduction Act. 📉 An estimated 330,000 clean energy jobs could be at risk, while U.S. competitiveness in climate tech may falter just as global rivals double down. In this rapidly shifting landscape, evaluating what is ahead of the industry would be very critical. 🔔 Join Us for an Exclusive Webinar | July 8 @ 6:30 PM PST Navigating Clean Energy Funding: Insights from Former DOE Leadership 🔔 Vectors Capital is thrilled to host a 30-minute power session + live Q&A with Victor Scott Kane, Former Deputy Director of Commercialization at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Whether you're a climate founder, corporate innovator, or investor, this is your chance to hear directly from DOE leadership on how to strategically position for upcoming funding opportunities and policy shifts. 🎯 What You’ll Learn: ✅ Insider tips on DOE funding strategy ✅ Navigating grants, cooperative agreements & prize competitions ✅ Practical guidance for successful applications ✅ Implications of the new Senate bill for innovation, investment & industry partnerships 🗓️ Tuesday, July 8 🕡 6:30 PM PST 📍 Virtual | Zoom link upon registration 👉 Register Now: https://shorturl.at/cgBIf Let’s unpack what’s next for the climate innovation ecosystem—together. #climatetech #policy #DOE #energytransition #cleantech #venturecapital #grants #non-dilutivefunding #cleanenergy #webinar #BigBeautifulBill

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The Cone of Uncertainty Dario Amodei’s recent conversation with Andrew R. Sorkin at the NY Times Summit was the most intellectually honest performance from an AI leader I have seen this year. When asked how to think about today’s massive spend in AI, Dario described what he calls the “cone of uncertainty". Anthropic grew ~10x every year over the last three years and is likely to end this year at $8-10B in revenue. Dario made it clear that another 10x ($100B) next year is unrealistic at this scale, and that revenue will more likely land somewhere between $20-50B. Building data centers and securing compute has 1-2 year lag, so the decision on how much compute to buy has to be made before you actually know what demand will look like. This creates two symmetrical risks. 1) Underbuy and you lose customers to competitors 2) Overbuy and you lock in massive fixed costs that revenue may never cover The buffer between these two failure modes lies within the cone of uncertainty and is heavily influenced by margins. At ~80% gross margins, $20B of compute could (theoretically) support ~$100B in revenue. But no frontier model today is anywhere near that. At lower margins (especially negative margins), the buffer collapses quickly. Minor forecasting errors can become existential. Enterprise focus helps narrow the cone because revenue is more predictable and margins are more stable. Now imagine the same dynamics under a consumer business model --> the cone becomes much wider, and the risk of misallocation increases materially. Whenever uncertainty is extreme, the risk of overextension rises with it. Add intense competition and geopolitical pressure to move fast, and the incentive to push the upper bound of the cone becomes overwhelming. This is the core tension in frontier AI right now. Some will manage it well. Others will probably not.

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Company building in energy is shaped by early decisions that compound over time—how capital is structured, how technical risk is absorbed, and how teams prepare for scale well before it arrives.    Much of my work with founders centers on navigating those choices as deep science becomes real businesses. The details differ across power, materials, and industrial systems, but the challenge is consistent: building companies that can operate, adapt, and grow over long horizons.  You can see that work taking shape across the Breakthrough Energy portfolio. https://lnkd.in/eXd72trE

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The latest Studio Stack newsletter dropped on Friday — and in it, I unpack why community is the most underutilized competitive advantage in most organizations but ESPECIALLY in the Venture Studio sphere. 💡 87% of leaders say community is critical to their company’s mission 📈 79% report it’s directly impacting business results Yet most studios still treat it like a side project. In the article, I break down what actually works in 2025: → Build where people already “play” → Force connection (because they won’t do it themselves) → Curate, don’t just collect 'If you’re serious about standing out in a sea of 1,000+ studios, this one’s for you. 📰 Read the full issue — packed with new frameworks, launches, jobs, and insights from Studio builders and thought leaders across the world. 👉 https://lnkd.in/eZ2AtsDy

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Interesting tidbit from the Women in VC Summit at Half Moon Bay. You wouldn’t necessarily think Deep Tech / AI and Consumer investors have much in common—beyond being founder-first. But post-2021/2022, the convergence is real. Across stages and sectors, the shift is toward: • Disciplined unit economics • Proof over possibility Whether it’s consumer or deep tech, the bar has moved from credible possibility to credible execution (credit to deep tech investor Kelly Chen for the phrasing). What that looks like in practice: - Deep Tech diligence → customer calls, pilots, real demand pull - Consumer diligence → channel checks, repeat purchase, retail velocity Different inputs. Same question: does the product actually work? The punchline for founders: everyone is underwriting outcomes now—not narratives. #WomenInVC #VentureCapital #Fundraising #UnitEconomics #StartupExecution #DeepTech #ConsumerVC

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More great insights from Montauk Capital and Evan Caron on the extraordinary risks, and opportunities, at the intersection of energy and the real estate industry.

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"My favorite CEO comes in, and the first ten minutes of the meeting is actually psychotherapy." We are excited to welcome Paul Martino, Managing Partner at Bullpen Capital, for Episode 2 of Charting the Course. A nine-time founder and veteran investor, Paul brings a unique perspective on the "post-seed" gap—backing founders who build in categories and geographies that others often ignore. To Paul, being misunderstood isn't an obstacle; it's often an early signal of opportunity. Full episode drops this Friday - follow to be notified. #ChartingTheCourse #VC #Startups

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From the beginning, we believed Lumana was building much more than a smarter surveillance tool. Lumana's platform reflects the next evolution in video intelligence — physical AI. This approach enables systems to go beyond basic detection capabilities to understanding context, infer intent, and deliver real-time insights that improve safety and operations at scale. Further, we decided to take the longer and more difficult direction of building a whole new generation and fully featured Video Management System (VMS). With the company’s $40M Series A, led by our friend Peter Wagner from Wing Venture Capital and our seed partners from SCAPITALVC, we’re doubling down on a platform that’s already proving its value in the real world. We are serving now close to ten thousands enterprise cameras in production! Founders like Sagi Ben Moshe bring a rare mix of vision and execution to the table. From our earliest conversations as an EIR at Norwest, it was clear that Lumana had the potential to reshape how organizations use video. Congratulations to the team on this well-deserved milestone. https://lnkd.in/gwHdaGPZ

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Hexcel Adds Independent Director in Deal With Activist Investor "Hexcel added a new independent director to its board in a move that avoids a potential proxy fight for the aerospace materials company with activist investor Vision One Fund. "As part of an agreement between the two sides, Vision One will withdraw their nominees to the board that were to be voted on at the company's annual shareholder meeting. Vision One will also support Hexcel's board nominees, and agree to certain standstill restrictions and mutual non-disparagement provisions, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. "The new director, former Kaman Chief Executive Officer Neal Keating, was appointed effective Tuesday." Keating's experience in aerospace may make him an ideal director choice. Yet from a bigger picture perspective, I wonder if this settlement is the right move for investors. More and more activist campaigns are settling rather than running the full process of a proxy fight with typically a greater number of directors nominated by the activist. Hopefully, activists are becoming like the public company boards they battle, i.e. more focused on reaching consensus than big results. #governancearbitrage #proxyfights #corporategovernance #activistinvesting #valuecreation https://lnkd.in/gazBUGFp

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Most founders have no idea their state government wants to write them a check. When Jess Lynch I started building FoundersEdge - a pre-seed fund built by founders, for founders - we thought we had a pretty good handle on the funding landscape. I'm based in Massachusetts, she's in Connecticut. We knew about MassVentures. We knew about Connecticut Innovations. We knew our backyards be we had no idea of the extent of funding available to founders. As we dug into the ecosystem, we kept stumbling onto state-level programs we'd never heard of - direct investment funds, co-investment vehicles, fund-of-funds programs, accelerator grants — spread across nearly every state in the country. Some writing checks as small as $50K. Others going up to $5M. Many specifically targeting pre-seed and seed stage companies in technology. Almost nobody talks about these. They don't show up in the usual "how to fundraise" threads. VCs rarely mention them. And founders are leaving real money on the table. So we did what any slightly obsessive operators would do: we built a spreadsheet. Thanks for the assist Claude! We compiled every state-level venture and startup funding program we could find. It's not perfect, and we're still adding to it, but it's already one of the most comprehensive lists we've seen. We're making this list available because we believe the best thing founders can do for each other is share access. That's the whole thesis behind our fund, and it starts with something as simple as making sure people know what's out there. Drop a comment or DM and I'll share the full list. And if you know a founder raising capital or an emerging fund manager who could benefit from this, tag them below.

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Welcome back to #MathMonday. It's pretty clear to us at Veteran Ventures Capital that we're back in conflicts of attrition—something many of us thought was buried in the dustbin of history after the "precision" war against #Iraq in 1991. Two things drove that home this weekend. 1. The exchange rate is breaking #math. Robert #Magyar Brovdi, Commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, recently put a price tag on the new way of war: roughly $878 in matériel to kill a single Russian soldier. The exchange ratio is a staggering 400 Russians lost for every one Ukrainian (according to Brovid). Drones now account for 70–80% of all battlefield casualties on that front, and FPVs alone struck 33,019 Russian troops in December 2025—the first month verified Russian losses from Ukrainian drones exceeded Russian recruitment. Some context on how unprecedented those numbers are: - #WWII U.S. Army Ordnance estimates: ~25,000–50,000 small-arms rounds per enemy combatant killed. - #Vietnam: cited figures climbed past 200,000 rounds per kill. - #British heavy AAA early in the V-1 campaign: roughly 2,500 shells per rocket downed—before the proximity fuze collapsed that ratio to around 100. The cost-per-casualty curve has been bending the wrong way for eight decades. #Ukraine just bent it back—violently. That's why it's a good thing the U.S. is sending more soldiers into Ukraine to learn from them firsthand. 2. Even the "losses" are wins. Ukrainian milbloggers have begun counting it as a kill when an FPV is destroyed by an incoming missile—on the logic that both pieces of hardware are gone, and the exchange still favors them. Makes sense when the Russians have to expend a $100K missile to take down a $1K drone. They're right, and the self-reflection of that math is sobering. We're firing $3M+ Patriot PAC-3 interceptors at $35K Shaheds, resulting in us running a ~100-to-1 deficit—and the Middle East burned through 800+ PAC-3 MSEs in three days in last year's engagement. Unknown what a good unclassified estimate for the current conflict, but it's a big number. Two takeaways: 1) As I've said often, the old adage needs an update. "Amateurs talk tactics, experts talk logistics" should now read: Amateurs talk war, experts talk supply chain. Ukraine is producing over 8 million FPVs per year. Russia claims up to 19,000 drones per day. Whoever scales their factories—and protects them—wins. 2) Cheap defense at single-digit percentages of offense cost is a brand-new kind of deterrent. Being on the wrong side of the cost curve may look good in the short term, but it's really a depletion race to the bottom of your own checkbook. The strategists, operators and investors who internalize this shift first will own the next decade of defense. #MathMonday #VeteranVenturesCapital #DefenseTech #DroneWarfare #AsymmetricWarfare #DefenseInvesting #NationalSecurity #FutureOfWarfare #MilitaryInnovation #SupplyChain

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What if your projections mattered less for the numbers…and more for what they reveal about how you think? At nextNYC’s recent Pre-Series A Offsite, we hosted a full day of panels designed to give founders a window into how investors really think. In this clip from our Projects & Hockey Sticks panel, moderated by Brian Raphael of Propeller Industries, Nicole Naidoo of Telescope Partners explains why financial projections aren’t about perfect accuracy, they’re about alignment. It's less “get the numbers right” and more “make sure we see the world the same way.” The model is a conversation starter, not a scorecard and when founders and investors are grounded in similar assumptions, that’s where trust begins. Thanks to our sponsors Propeller Industries, Foley Hoag LLP and Fonzi AI for helping us bring this offsite to life! #nextNYC #PreSeriesA #VentureCapital #StartupFundraising #FinancialModeling #FounderAdvice #EarlyStageStartups

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Exciting News! Avra van der Zee is joining us as General Partner! Hard tech is really hard at the earliest stage, which is why we do things differently at HAX. As well as investing money, we have built infrastructure with physical labs, complete with scientists and engineers, all run with operational rigour to create the best outcomes. The core HAX team of Ji Ke, Susan Schofer and Andrew Gollach are investors who’ve spent decades in the trenches, doing exactly what our startups need to do. And now that team gets better with Avra joining. Avra was part of the core team at JUMP bikes (SOSV investment) and helped create a great outcome for SOSV with the sale to Uber. At Elemental Impact, she helped create a world-class platform for climate founders and invested in some fantastic companies. Lots of exciting stuff to work on together — including the HAX Plasma Forge in Princeton, a public/private partnership bringing cutting-edge plasma research to commercial reality and much much more. Welcome (back) to SOSV!

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Thrilled to share the launch of Criticality, a $65M fund built to back founders solving hard, high-leverage problems at the intersection of technical complexity and real-world urgency. Criticality builds on the foundation we’ve laid at Antler - applying our conviction-driven approach to companies at Seed & Series A. The fund is sector-flexible but applies a deep tech lens to each opportunity, targeting non-obvious, high-leverage problems from the earliest stages of company formation. Grateful to the New Mexico State Investment Council for their support in anchoring Criticality. More to come soon from Cash Allred & I.

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Who will win in the world of agentic AI? Hear Vista Equity Partners Founder, Chairman, and CEO Robert F. Smith discuss who has the right to win in the world of agentic AI. Watch the entire conversation on Alt Goes Mainstream here: https://lnkd.in/eTQ3vPpK

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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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🚨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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