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This newsletter curates a selection of posts featured on the website each week.

Investment Themes, Theses, & Outlooks

• Our Thesis on Spatial Computing (Andrew Murphy, MP @ Deepwater)

• Five themes shaping fintech from three VCs globally (Alex Lazarow, MP @ Fluent Ventures)

• Seurat and the Opportunity in Vertical AI (Rex Woodbury, MP @ Daybreak)

• Splashy returns in water investing? (Julien Lepleux, Principal @ Bleu Capital)

• Bullish on digitizing the hospitality industry (Dhruv Sane, VC @ Malpani Ventures)

Industry Developments & Analyses

• The 2024 State of Fintech Report (F Prime)

• State of the Cloud in Q4 (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street VC)

• Challenges of Promising DNA and RNA-based Therapies (Earlybird Team)

• Will Direct Air Capture Ever Be Affordable? The Rise of DAC 3.0 (Torben Schreiter, Partner @ Extantia)

• 5 Reasons Robotics Is The Next Multi-Decade Trend To Watch (Chris Smith, MP @ Playfair)

• Big Tech killed the internet — blockchains can help revive it. (Chris Dixon, GP @ A16Z)

• How are open-source foundation models ever going to make money? (Ryan Shannon, VC @ Radical Ventures)

• Is private equity going to come to digital health’s rescue? (Christina Farr, Principal @ OMERS)

Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating

• Closing Time: Lessons from a Series of Startup Shutdowns (Micah Rosenbloom, MP @ Founder Collective)

• When Product Usage is Actually a Bad Thing (Ben Yoskovitz, Partner @ Highline Beta)

• Let’s Talk About Repricing Stock Options (Dharmesh Thakker & Jason Mendel, Battery Ventures)

• The state of B2B contracts in 2024 (Kyle Poyar, Partner @ OpenView)

• The 13 Commandments of Customer Success (Sammy Abdullah, GP @ Blossom Street VC)

• How Do I Build a Usage-based Sales Compensation Plan? (Mark Regan & Joe Morrissey, A16Z)

Additional Reads

• Payfac in 1,000 words (Matt Brown, Partner @ Matrix)

• SaaS 3.0: Why the Software Business Model Will Contine to Thrive in the Age of In-House AI Development (Ascend Team)

• Big Tech's Year of Efficiency (Tanay Jaipuria, Partner @ Wing VC)

• Protocol Network Effects in AI (Akash Bajwa, VC @ Earlybird)

• AI agents as a new distribution channel (Kojo Osei, VC @ Matrix)

• The Agent Economy and Economic Growth (Rob May, Partner @ AI Operators Fund)

• How AI Will Usher in an Era of Abundance (Anish Acharya, GP @ A16Z)

• AI Design Patterns (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Theory)

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