Co-founder Colin Anderson will be live on @TBPN at 1 p.m. PT today. Don't miss it - tune in!
Morning. On today’s show:
– US takes 10% stake in Intel
– What government equity means for the semiconductor race
– Colin Anderson (ex-Palantir CFO)
– @darrenrovell (cllct)
– @trumansacks1 (Cubby)
See you all on the stream.
Friends & Family Capital retweeted
today marks a special moment - I'm beyond excited to announce wordware's $30m seed round led by @sparkcapital (followed by @felicis & @ycombinator)
for decades, coding was the only way to create in our digital world. but AI is changing everything - it thinks in beautiful shades of grey, not just 1s and 0s. with this shift, we saw an opportunity to reimagine who gets to build.
there are 30 million software engineers worldwide, but we've always believed that creativity isn't limited to those who can code. wordware is for the next 500m builders - the dreamers, experts, and innovators who've been waiting for their moment to create AI Agents (check out the video for our definition of what that means 😂)
it's been quite a journey to get here. 3 years full-time with my brilliant cofounder (@bertie_ai), a decade in the AI space, countless failed experiments with transformers, major pivots, sleepless nights, and 100-hour weeks that tested everything we believed in.
but today, I want to pause and celebrate what our incredible team has achieved:
- 350k builders bringing their AI visions to life
- 10 million people running agents built with wordware
- amazing clients like instacart, runway & metadata
- breaking @ProductHunt's servers (sorry, not sorry!)
- raising one of the largest seeds (if not the largest) out of @ycombinator
we still have mountains to climb, but watching our community build things we never imagined possible... that's what keeps us going.
what makes wordware different? we've turned English into a programming language for AI. no coding bootcamp required - if you can express ideas clearly, you can build sophisticated AI solutions.
our take on reimagining the development stack as a full-stack os for building AI:
- unified notion like IDE
- built-in tools for rag, speech-to-text, image gen, data analysis, scraping & more
- proper engineering concepts for power users (loops, conditionals, function calls, code execution, version control)
- open source community: fork, share & customize AI solutions
once you're done iterating, deploy as an API to power your AI backend or utilize your AI agent as a workflow
to our incredible team who made this possible - thank you
to the believers who backed us (@nabeel, @paulg, @AstasiaMyers, @vladm, @dessaigne, @azeem, @benparr, @MattPRD, @bentossell, @blader, @brownthings, @collinmathilde, @kul, @soleio , @DanWestgarth, @barticz, @tomik99 & many more) - thank you
thinking about that AI workflow, product feature, or full-fledged AI company? let's chat: wordware.ai
ps: we're hiring across all roles! join us in rebuilding how humans create with ai: jobs.ashbyhq.com/wordware.ai
Key Takeaways from the Q3 2024 Market Conditions Update:
· Uplift in deal activity with a long tail of investors
· Longer time between rounds with a median of two years
· Over a third of new rounds are flat or down rounds
· Backlog of almost 400 companies may need capital
· Investor demand for strong core business models
The Friends & Family Capital Market Conditions Update features metrics that we track internally on companies raising capital at valuations ranging from $1 Billion to $10 Billion.
This is one of the assets we review with founders, CEOs, and CFOs in our network as they prepare for their growth rounds.
The summary report is available for review here:
docsend.com/view/cgcpy3yix4w…
"The most effective investment we can make right now is in unmanned vehicles. They're more cost-effective than anything else we can buy. They've been used to great effect and we remain the world's software superpower, so we can fly them more effectively than anyone else.”
In this conversation with CEO of @SwarmAero , Danny Goodman shares his vision for the future of the West and its allies and the pivotal role of technology in our ability to succeed against the next generation of challenges.
youtu.be/EU--oT29lK0?si=QbK5…
Dive into how Peregrine redefines the landscape of public safety through innovative software solutions.
Colin Anderson, founding partner at Friends & Family Capital, joins @ScottMcGrew on the Sand Hill Road hashtag#podcast to explore advancements at the intersection of technology and public service and Anderson’s history with the Peregrine team.
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1Ia…
“I think it's fair to say we're facing a software crisis in aerospace."
In this conversation with Phillip Buckendorf, CEO of @AirSpaceIntel, he discusses the challenges, and potential solutions, for managing an increasingly complex yet essential airspace. Watch the full interview from Foresight 2024.
To build the technology of tomorrow, founders must predict the innovation needed to transform critical industries. Friends & Family Capital supports these founders on their journeys.
Introducing: Foresight
Join our series of chats with founders tackling today’s toughest challenges.
First up: ideas to improve flight safety, revolutionize accounting with AI, and enhance defense with AI-powered drones featuring @AirSpaceIntel @numeric_io and @SwarmAero
Watch now: youtu.be/rIeXg6vyWR8?si=r6xv…
The 2024 Enterprise 30 is here. Thanks to @Wing_VC for inviting us be part of the in-depth evaluation process.
Congratulations to all new #ET30 companies – including a few of our own!
axios.com/et30-2024#ET30list
Exciting collaboration with @TheArenaAI and @AMD . Congrats team!
I couldn’t be more excited to announce our collaboration with @AMD.
Over the past year @TheArenaAI has developed and deployed Atlas – the world’s first AI hardware engineer at AMD, a leader in high performance and adaptive computing.
The AMD team is using Atlas to enhance next-generation GPU performance optimization.
Atlas dramatically accelerates time to market for a new chip by reimagining chip development in an AI-native way. Beyond chips, Atlas can provide reliable testing, timing and debugging for any complex hardware.
According to AMD’s Chief Software Officer, Andrej Zdravkovic: "Atlas helps streamline the manually-intensive and lengthy process of configurating and testing today's complex GPU technologies, giving our engineers a leg up in maximizing the optimizations for next-generation products."
Arena is proud to collaborate with forward-thinking enterprises like AMD, and we are deeply inspired by how our customers use our products to rethink human-machine collaboration for their most critical operations.
Read the full press release here: prnewswire.com/news-releases…
Learn more about Atlas here: arena-ai.com/atlas
How will you price your next round? Lessons learned from the journey of 45 high-growth technology companies over the last five years.
Friends & Family Capital retweeted
HADRIAN DEEP DIVE DOCUMENTARY
It covers:
- Competition with China
- The massive $117 million Series B
- Why America must win space race 2.0
- How to combine manufacturing & software talent
- Why an Australian is fixing American manufacturing
Congrats to @VerkadaHQ on this well-deserved recognition!”
Congratulations to @eastdakota and the team at @Cloudflare as they cross $1 Billion in annual revenue and join the software Revenue Unicorns!
linkedin.com/pulse/cloudflar…
Congratulations to @Box as it crosses $1 Billion in annual revenue and joins the software Revenue Unicorns!
linkedin.com/pulse/box-joins…
Congratulations to @elastic as it crosses $1 Billion in annual revenue and joins the software Revenue Unicorns!
linkedin.com/pulse/elastic-j…
Deal volume and median markup hit 5 year low.
Read more in the Q1 2023 Growth Round Update here:
linkedin.com/posts/friends-a…
Friends & Family Capital retweeted
Two great minds 🧠+🧠 = incredible advice for founders. We paired Colin Anderson (an advisor to @airtable and former CFO of @PalantirTech) with our general partner @maxgazor. Here’s a recap of their discussion. cc @friendsfamcap #CRVVC #PowerToThePerson medium.com/crv-insights/crvp…
Is My Cash Safe? 10 Principles That Helped Secure @PalantirTech's $1 Billion Cash Balance
linkedin.com/pulse/my-cash-s…










