Paul J. Springer

Why we invested: Gratsi Wine 🍷💸 We led the seed round of Gratsi back in November of '22. At the time, they had zero distribution and their ecommerce revenue was modest. But we were blown away and ultimately decided to partner with the team for a few key reasons: 1. Metrics and efficiency: the underlying metrics of the business were unlike anything we've seen in the space. Gratsi's ability to acquire and retain customers (online and in retail) is unrivaled. 2. Potential for premium boxed wine: we remain convinced that premium boxed wine will continue to become one of the most important categories in the wine space. The volume, margin, and customer experience implications are massive. 3. Founder vision and execution: Stephen Vlahos has been executing relentlessly against his vision since day 1. As we met and got to know Stephen in the early days, it quickly became obvious to us that he would stop at nothing in his mission to build one of the most important wine companies in the world. It's been an amazing two years for Gratsi since we invested and I'm incredibly proud of what the team has accomplished. But I'm perhaps even more excited for the years to come. This team is truly just getting started. Exciting times ahead for Gratsi and the team! cc: Top Shelf Ventures Noah Slakter Jason Sherman

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Big announcement below! 👇 Let's talk about the current state of GP-LP affairs: 🤯Emerging VC managers have absolutely exploded over the past 5 years. 📈 At the same time, more and more data has surfaced that shows that emerging VC firms tend to outperform larger, established firms. 🤔 All of this has made it intriguing but tough for LPs to know where to direct their attention. 🛍 GPs frequently meet LPs at conferences who are window shopping but not committed to the asset class or emerging managers. 🧾 And both crews get overwhelmed by transactional convos. So Sydney Paige Thomas and I created Abundance. Abundance is a private, nomination-based retreat for active LPs and top emerging GPs to form new experiences together and build lasting relationships. Why Abundance? Abundance is knowing that there is more than enough for more than one to succeed. And a single win within a community is a win for the community itself. The journey of an emerging VC manager from 1st close to final close or Fund 1 to Fund 2 is (1) communal and (2) requires an abundant mindset. LPs look for structure and confidence to feel comfortable investing in early VC firms. Yet many of the feeds we scroll and conferences we attend reinforce inherent power dynamics and transactional thinking, which allows scarcity mindset to creep in for emerging GPs. Some of the best events I’ve attended have been intentionally non-transactional, e.g. Camp Hustle, Recast Summit, and other GPs’ AGMs. The fundraising success stories we see usually involve a community (usually of other GPs & LPs) coming together to support and open doors for the emerging GP. We designed Abundance to be an immersive gathering that fosters these connections. Starting tonight, ~100 GPs and LPs are descending upon Seattle for the inaugural Abundance retreat. This has been under wraps for months and I can’t wait to see it come to life! Thanks in advance to our awesome sponsors who were the earliest believers in this vision: Sydecar, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Gunderson Dettmer, & Zelda Ventures. And shoutout to my dad Ed Illig for logo design & Halle Kaplan-Allen being the first sponsor to say yes 🤩 Presented by The Council Capital & Symphonic Capital.

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Big news in grocery retail M&A: Albertsons Companies has officially called off its USD 25 billion merger with Kroger, more than two years after announcing the deal. The decision follows rulings from state and federal judges blocking the transaction on antitrust grounds. In response, Albertsons has reaffirmed its standalone strategy and - for good order - filed a lawsuit against Kroger alleging the company failed to use "best efforts" and take "all actions necessary" to get the deal over the antitrust line. It's not uncommon for parties to get litigious when deals fall apart, but Albertsons (and its shareholder Cerberus Capital) seems pretty peeved about this one, having spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" 😨 seeking approval for the merger. A key nuance lies in the merger agreement's language: all the antitrust-related performance obligations in the agreement are based on a "reasonable best efforts" standard *except* for the clause relating specifically to Kroger’s obligations, which are held to the stronger "best efforts" standard—a small but significant distinction. It's unlikely this situation will be resolved anytime soon, but it will be interesting to see how it develops.

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Eka Ventures enjoyed co-hosting a roundtable with Erevena on building brands for consumer and B2B companies We where fortunate to hear insights from scale up leaders Roxanne Nejad Iona Carter and Viktoria Tchoudakov. Thank you to Estia Ryan and Flo Bown for organising Key insights included: 1. Trust is the foundation of good brands: Viktoria Tchoudakov mentioned the value of Trustpilot to IWOCA's scale whilst Iona Carter focused on Plum Guide's "Michelin Star" inspired certification for properties 2. Organic is key: “When looking to drive organic growth through content, we focused on three themes: education for the user, demonstrating our values, and humour” – Roxanne 3. Tracking brand awareness is tough and can be expensive - but has a value to investors

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What do you do when a radical new technology puts your main product right in the crosshairs of disruption? Listen to David Okuniev — co-founder of Typeform | Ask awesomely — discuss the challenges of innovation within existing structures. David shared a game-changing insight: Radical innovation is really, really difficult to do inside your own product. He emphasized the need to break free from the constraints of familiarity and embrace change from outside the box. Henrik Werdelin and I have both seen our fair share of this in our respective careers. What struck us most was how David leveraged structure to overcome the innovator’s dilemma. By creating a culture of experimentation and providing space for bold ideas, he propelled Typeform beyond incremental improvements. What other hacks have you seen or employed to help your organization overcome the innovator’s dilemma? Share your stories below! 👇 And if you want to dive deeper into our conversation, click the link in the comments to catch the full podcast episode!

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When we asked CPG founders who they wanted at Founderland... Their answer was clear: People who can help them grow their business & achieve their goals. Specifically: - The top retailers - The most founder-friendly investors, and - Other founders they can learn from and share with This conversation that I'm hosting at Founderland is a perfect representation of this group, plus one BIG bonus. We're also including Joel Toledano and ChargeUp.ai which is one of my favorite tech companies that is supporting consumer brands today. They automate the retail deduction and chargeback process for brands, saving them an insane amount of time and money. Such a cool co. Excited to teach, share and connect...and get some deals done, while of course having lots of fun. Joel Toledano Jen Zeszut Kim Coffin Deb Conklin

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Have you ever noticed that the word Uber is both a noun and a verb? I have spent years studying shared economy, supply chain and logistics. The first and last mile space has proven profitable and lucrative but also fickle and unpredictable. And I love it. In the world of Yahoos and Googles, Ubers and AirBnBs, a person could argue that branding has very minimal impact on the potential success of a company. I have also spent years studying branding, marketing, product management and customer experience. People love all-inclusive. Sometimes when you're dealing with consumers, a little bit more goes a long way. In WebVans defense, while I'm sure they had the most advanced inventory management system, at the time, I'm sure they didn't have automated storage and retrieval, they didn't have the 5G ecosystem, they didn't have RFID and IOT, they didn't have shared economy and they obviously believed, like Jeff Bezos, that because they had figured out how to deliver a book to your door, they could innovate the entire supply chain. And I love the tenacity. They tried to create an all inclusive customer experience. But like, what happens when the name just kinda sucks? Is it possible that the plateau is being caused by a crappy name? Why would people think Cost Plus is a company that would give them a discount on pharmaceuticals? Why would people think WebVan or GoPuff is the best solution for getting things delivered? Branding is part of the customer experience. It's where the brand loyalty begins and creates the potential for evangelism. Don't forget that part.

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Specter is on 🔥 Shipping again this week with Landscapes and Historicals! 🚢 🗺️ Landscapes: Identify market trends, assess competition, and refine your strategy with our powerful new market mapping tool. Use Recommended Landscapes, built by Specter or replicating market maps from top investors and insiders—or create your own custom market maps. 📈 Historical Growth Charts: You asked, we delivered—2 years of historical data across key metrics! Spot long-term trends, track seasonal patterns, and benchmark companies like never before. 💡 Want to learn more about these new features? Check them out here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e_9nKvXa

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Ready to play big? Unlock the billionaire playbook: Start with an Aged Shelf Corporation and master the art of influence WITHOUT ownership. 🏦✨ If you want to learn more. Click here to sign up for my next free webinar ⬇️

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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It was a real honor to interview Brad Burnham co-founder of Union Square Ventures and partner Placeholder on the history of hype cycles in technology and the value they bring to capital and market formation. Brad has had tremendous success across decades investing at the frontier - when it was the frontier/ before it was obvious. Crypto is still the underdog and his views on the opportunity and its nuances are prescient. Specifically it is both a technical and financial innovation which can lead to excess volatility and a unique muscle as it relates to being a venture manager. But the returns are real. And the innovation is real despite some of the the common narratives. No one debates the breakthrough applications in AI at M13 we have been very active. It is also very clear that incumbents have massive data and distribution advantages which can make it challenging to find the right pockets to invest. AI is on its own hype cycle and as always the best teams (typically with contrarian takes) win. Very exciting times to be a venture investor.

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We are so excited to announce our investment in Raechel Lambert, Bernard Kobos, and Ryan Lambert and their company, River Platform Company. River is a platform that empowers brands and influencers to build large-scale, in-person communities. To date, the platform has hosted over 2,000 events with 3,000 crowdsourced hosts and 55,000 attendees across more than 15 cities worldwide. We like to think of it as the operating system for community management. If the Catholic Church were founded today, it would use River to coordinate its global activities. No kidding. Jason Calacanis, the American internet entrepreneur and investor known for his All-In podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya, David O. Sacks, and David Friedberg, saw their potential early on. So did Balaji Srinivasan, Bryan Johnson, Tim Ferriss, and many others. We met the River team six months ago and have been incredibly impressed by their big-picture thinking, relentless hustle to connect with the right people and flawless execution. And as if that wasn’t enough, working with them is an absolute pleasure. These guys are a source of renewable energy. We’re proud to be part of this journey alongside wonderful co-investors like Blue Wire Capital, Blockwall, Solana Foundation, very early Ventures, and LAUNCH. Congratulations to the entire River team on this exciting milestone! We know firsthand that when things seem effortless, it’s because a tremendous amount of hard work went into making it happen. Want to join or host an IRL community event? Head over to getriver.io. #getriver #community #blockchainfounderscapital #startup #venturecapital #creatoreconomy

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Worth reading: The Cost of Anticompetitive Pricing Algorithms in Rental Housing What is interesting here is the shift toward coordination at scale, which Teddy Roosevelt (Republican) referenced in his new nationalism speech in Osawatomie, Kansas - on August 31, 1910. The absence of effective state, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise. We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity, when exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows. . . . We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary. No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar’s worth of service rendered—not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective—a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate. Link: https://lnkd.in/gPrYK_ni --- "Pricing algorithms may help landlords and building managers set prices that are more responsive to market conditions, which could increase market efficiency in a competitive market. But the algorithms can also facilitate price coordination, which decreases market efficiency by harming competition. Small yet coordinated landlords can act as if they are a single dominant landlord, and use their collective market power to increase profits by setting higher prices." https://lnkd.in/gVzcZbzW

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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ex Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at Stanford this week. Lots of nuggets here, but most interesting for the near term, Schmidt believes in the next year AI is set to make a big leap forward. He predicts AI will combine three important features: 1. Vast knowledge retention (1 million token models) 2. Text-to-action capability 3. Personal AI agent fleets While the full impact is unknown, everyone may soon command their own AI teams. Here's an example: Imagine you're developing new quantum computing algorithms. Your AI assistants could: - Continuously scan and synthesize global quantum research papers - Generate novel algorithm ideas based on this knowledge - Simulate and test these algorithms across various quantum architectures - Automatically document findings and prepare draft papers - Identify potential collaborators and draft outreach emails All initiated by a command like "Advance our quantum algorithm research." This could dramatically accelerate R&D cycles and scientific breakthroughs.. https://lnkd.in/eJbg6cnD #frontiertech #AI #futurefrontier

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Learn a bit more about our DNA and how we operate at Acurio Ventures from Kate Cornell

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Darden Restaurants recently reported its quarterly results, showcasing resilience amidst a challenging environment. While Olive Garden faced a decline in same-store sales for the second consecutive quarter, Darden's overall performance remained steady, with earnings per share surpassing expectations at $2.65 and revenue reaching $2.96 billion. Looking forward to fiscal 2025, Darden projects a promising outlook with expected earnings per share between $9.40 and $9.60 and anticipated net sales of $11.8 billion to $11.9 billion. The company's LongHorn Steakhouse segment notably reported a 4% increase in same-store sales, underscoring Darden's effective management and operational strength. With plans to invest $550 million to $600 million in capital expenditures, Darden is poised to enhance its offerings and maintain its competitive edge in the market. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/eFgDC97p #hospitality #restaurants #technology #innovation Branded Hospitality Ventures Angelo Fama Jr. John Espy Dave George Daryl L. Cunningham Lisa McDowell Robert Anderson Ali Charri

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