Rose Wang

I keep hearing this from founders at Pre-Seed -- we are dilution sensitive. Why? Not much is built yet. You don't have a ton of leverage. Optimize for BEST PARTNERS + SPEED TO CAPITAL. Then you execute, create a lot of value and THEN you can be more sensitive to dilution.

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27 Comments

Over the past few years, fundraising has become significantly tougher, especially for smaller funds. This, unfortunately, is the case even for VCs delivering solid returns. In my recent Crunchbase piece, I talk about how emerging managers can survive (and even thrive!) in a challenging fundraising environment. I discuss why the process today is more about familiarity than performance, and highlight places where managers should look for capital that others ignore. Check out the full column via link in comments. Curious to hear from other managers who have recently raised successfully. Which part of this rings true?

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4 Comments

Consolidation is creating compounding chaos. Every acquisition adds another tech stack. Another CRM. Another portfolio system. Another layer of complexity. Most aggregators just absorb the mess and move on. Jim Dickson didn't want to repeat that cycle. When he launched Elevation Point, he built an accelerator—not just another roll-up. That means taking control of data from day one and putting it to work in a compounding, impactful way for partner firms. We're honored to be their data infrastructure partner. Already deep in the build—connecting Practifi, Salesforce FSC, Addepar, Orion, Goldman Sachs FICC and Equities and everything in between into one unified layer and a world class application and workflow layer. Real-time dashboards. Automated workflows. Data that compounds value instead of chaos. This is what intentional growth looks like. Excited for what's ahead with Jim and the entire Elevation Point team. 🔗 ThinkAdvisor coverage in comments

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12 Comments

I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb

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14 Comments

PSA to seed and early-stage founders: stop worrying about competition. I’ve spoken to hundreds of late-stage founders, and they all say the same thing. The biggest mistake they see at the early stage is founders obsessing over who else is in their space. When you are pre-PMF, comparing yourself to other buzzy AI startups is a distraction. They already have a defined GTM motion, some level of product-market fit, and a playbook to execute. Their “big new feature” might just be about expanding revenue or building parity. You’re still trying to land your first 10 paying customers. Here’s the truth: 1. Worry about competitors only when you actively lose a deal to them. THESE ARE THE COMPETITORS TO WORRY ABOUT. 2. When a customer chooses someone else, they will usually tell you why. Nine times out of ten it’s not the reason you think. It’s rarely a missing feature. More often it’s pricing, brand trust, or timing. 3. Competitors often move in completely different directions. OpenAI went after consumers, while Anthropic leaned into enterprise and APIs. Playbooks diverge fast. 4. The only real roadmap at the early stage is customer pain. Every conversation, every demo, every user insight. Talk to as many customers as possible. If you spend your time trying to copy what competitors are doing, you will always be a step behind. If you spend your time talking to users, you’ll know exactly what to build next. The path to PMF isn’t found on Twitter threads about “AI competitors.” It’s found in the feedback from the 5 people actually using your product every single day.

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10 Comments