I help founders get ready and connect with investors • Seasoned entrepreneur • Building tech startups for 25yrs (zero→£mil ARR, twice)

With 30 years in startups, I now run the Gipity AI Dev Studio: Expert help to launch your MVP in 30 days. www.gipity.com

𝐌𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲... 👇

1968 BC (Before Computers): Born into analogue world

1982-86: Discovered computers! Vic 20, BBC micro, ICL 2900 mainframe & more

1986-89: Computation degree, UMIST (University of Manchester, Institute of Science & Technology)

1989-99: IT consultant/project manager: Logica, IBM, Reuters, Bankers Trust & Deutsche Bank

1994-97: first side hustle: scuba diving instructor & own London dive school

1996: published first website & first ever disk-mounted website on a UK magazine cover

1999: developer/project manager at 2 early London digital agencies

1999: vision/architect/investor. created first UK under-a-tenner domain name business, Easily

1999: built+launched early/successful dot-com: domain/email/web hosting ISP

1999-2001: ceo. managed growth from 0 to 2,000 daily domain sales & 30+ staff in under 2yrs

2000: invented the web-based DNS dashboard for domains

2000: created early no-code solution for one-page websites: £100k ARR

2000: highly commended "Entrepreneur of the Year": European E-commerce Association E-business 2000 awards

2001: 64th in Sunday Times "Top 100 pre-IPO e-businesses in Europe" E-League

2001: ran one of the first successful web affiliate schemes, generating 40% of rev

2004: hit 400,000+ domain registrations, 30,000+ websites & 40,000+ email accounts

2004: 3,500 commission earning affiliates & word of mouth to 100,000+ customers

2004: negotiated successful multi-million pound dot-com exit/sale of Easily

2002: vision/investor. launched one of the first ever B2B mobile text marketing services: SMS Expert

2007-11: early digital nomad: B2B Saas startup from beach/desert

2007-19: ceo. ran leading text marketing B2B Saas: zero to multi-million turnover

2007-19: cto/architect. developed 850k lines of code & supported 1mil daily transactions/API calls

2020... consultancy/advice/support for early-stage tech startup founders

2022... helping hand-picked founders find the right investors

• 2018: vision/architect/investor/cto...
Clickacall: instant video calls from anywhere with single click
Nearevo: proximity discovery for internet of things
Scan+Click: contactless business cards
Secly: personal online security

• 2021 l2o: supporting next generation of startups
• 2022 Venture Cards: all startups, in one place • connecting the right founders and investors

• 2024 The Gipity AI Dev Studio: Expert help to launch your MVP in 30 days

Steve Procter

After 30 years in startups, with the last 5 helping other founders, I've realised there are other more established businesses out there. Who knew! Apparently, some even have actual budgets to get stuff done 🤣

So, as much as I love founders, it's time to spread my wings and help build apps, tools, AI agents and lots more useful stuff for all these other exciting companies and business people. (founders still very welcome, obvs)

And of course, doing it all using my new found love of AI-assisted development for speed and power. Plus 44 years of coding and engineering experience to guide things along the way.

A year ago, tech cost the earth to create, and developers would take 3-6 months to give you something basic. But with AI, the world has moved on.

What kind of app, internal tool or AI agent could you use today to save a tonne of time and money in your business?

DM, or comment below. I'll provide a free evaluation to get things started.

I’ll build your AI agents & apps | 44yrs in tech | Exited founder (0→£mil * 2)

"Code" is sooooo old fashioned. I've got an old web app I built 10 years ago. just got 1 client who uses it these days. I only think about it for 10 mins every year when I send him an invoice.

A server update created a bug today. I had to go into the code and debug. It was really, really weird - not seen this code in over 5 years.

It felt like walking through a museum.

Did people really used to write this weird language called "code" to make their computers do things in the olden days.

Startup ideas that are too early are brutal. I've been there several times and got the t-shirt. Quite literally, as back in the noughties, printing t-shirts and business cards, and paying for fancy logo designs before you'd even launched was just what you did.

But I'd never put a founder off trying if you have a mad idea in your head.

Because very often, nobody really knows. After 30 years in startups, I've realised that timing is just plain weird.

Something can appear in the zeitgeist on a random Tuesday that wasn't there last week, and will be gone again if you don't launch for another 3 months.

The difference now is you don't need permission, investment, or 6-12 months to build and test it.

It has never been cheaper or faster to build a small, real app and put it in front of people.

Don't overthink it. Cut it down. Ship something real. Then let the market slap you (gently) across the face and tell you what it thinks.

Your gut matters. But the market is the only judge that counts.

If you're sitting on an idea right now, stop polishing it and let's get the first real version built and launched.

You never know.

I heard a very powerful line yesterday, by Olivia Moore at a16z:

"Humans Are for Ideas, AI Is for Execution"

As long as we, as individuals and societies, hold to this belief, then we will continue to have purpose.

The moment we start letting AI take control of the creative juices, it's game over.

Pure chat-based GPT usage in businesses will begin a steady drop. AI agents are where it's at - always on, always working for you, 24/7. Not just politely responding if you ask it stuff, otherwise sitting silently in the corner.

What are AI Agents and Automations? To answer, let me ask you a question:

If you are a business owner, consultant, operator or founder, what's one recurring job you'd like taken off your plate?

Something repetitive, annoying, time-consuming, easy to get wrong, or just plain old boring.

• Not "run my whole business".
• Not "take over my entire marketing outreach".
• Not "do everything".

One thing.

If you claim to love every single task you do (really?), ask a colleague or your assistant. I bet there is something.

That "something" is the best way to understand what an Automation is:

It's simply a workflow that you already have in your business, and currently driven by a human. You know the steps or can easily define them, and you have instructions, a system, and a set of tools that execute them.

And that's what we can automate using technology, removing or hugely reducing the need for that human involvement at every time-consuming step. By the way, these tech-driven automations often don't require AI.

An AI Agent on the other hand, takes your automation and does a lot more. It can execute your workflow with its own judgement. Driven by AI means you can give it an objective, let it figure out the steps (within constraints), use tools, and adapt when things change.

Neither are magic robots. They're just tools (AI-powered or not) that can sit in the cloud, connect to the right systems (docs, email, calendars, call transcripts, your CRM or other internal systems, or whatever), and take over the mundane in your business.

A few years ago, they were out of reach of many small businesses. But with AI-assisted development, experienced builders can now create these at a much lower cost and faster than ever before.

For now, it is likely they will still be overseen by a human supervisor. But think of the hours saved every single week, and imagine what you or your team could do with that time back.

Yes, you can make AI a grand vision. But in the real world you and your business occupy, it often starts with one annoying task that quietly drains your time and energy.

Tell me the task you want to get rid of, and I'll tell you if it's actually a good candidate for tech automations and AI agents.

Vertical AI Investor / Stage: Pre-Seed / Seed / Regions: US & Israel

Serial exited founder/operator, 30+ pre/seed angel investments with top decile markups and real DPI. Now focused on the future of Vertical Ai and Deep Tech across the US and Israel, seeking the most ambitious founders to change the world.

MBA from Columbia Business School and previously served as Managing Director of New York Venture Partners (NYVP), one of the most active NY family offices directly investing in early-stage startups. They were the first checks into Pinterest, Tommy Johns, comiXology and dozen mores.

Trace Cohen

I built an interactive dashboard comparing VC fund performance across Thrive, a16z, Founders Fund, Lightspeed, Insight, Khosla, and Tiger Global.

49 funds.
Net TVPI. DPI. IRR.

After putting everything side by side, the pattern was hard to ignore:
Scale compresses returns.

When funds were smaller, multiples were meaningfully higher.
As fund sizes increased, TVPI and IRR consistently trended down.

This is not a critique of any one firm. These are some of the best investors of the last two decades. It is simply math.

A $300M fund can generate a 4x outcome with a handful of breakout companies.

A $5B+ fund needs multiple multi-billion dollar outcomes just to move the needle. That changes behavior. It changes entry price. It changes ownership targets. It changes risk tolerance.

And most importantly, it changes the return profile.

What stood out most:
• Earlier vintages and smaller vehicles tended to show stronger TVPI
• Larger, later-stage oriented funds showed tighter dispersion and lower multiples
• DPI timing matters more than headline IRR
• Unrealized markups can mask true performance until cycles turn

The industry loves talking about AUM growth. LPs often anchor to brand, access, and scale.

But scale comes with structural tradeoffs.

If you are allocating capital, the real question is not “who is the biggest?”

It is: Where is the strategy most structurally advantaged?

Sometimes that means smaller funds with sharper focus.
Sometimes it means early concentration over late diversification.
Sometimes it means accepting volatility in exchange for true asymmetry.

The dashboard makes one thing clear:

Venture returns are not linear.
They are capacity constrained.

Curious what others see in the data. Full dashboard here:

https://lnkd.in/eFV4MZn3

Vertical Ai VC / 38k followers / Memes / Family Office / Tech Startups

Updated my investment portfolio page - what do you think!?

Vertical Ai VC / 39k followers / Memes / Family Office / Tech Startups

graphical user interface, text, application

Most founders spend all their time thinking about how to raise.

Very few spend enough time understanding how raising actually works.

And that’s where a lot of value gets lost.

At pre-seed and seed, fundraising isn’t just about getting the highest valuation or the biggest check. It’s about structuring a round that sets you up to win over the next 18–24 months.

The first mistake: optimizing for valuation over everything.
A higher price feels like success, but it comes with expectations. If you raise at a price you can’t grow into, you’re not winning—you’re compressing your future options. Flat rounds, down rounds, and broken momentum usually start here.

The second mistake: raising the wrong amount.
Too little, and you’re back in market before you’ve created meaningful progress. Too much, and you dilute early while increasing the pressure to deploy capital efficiently before you’ve found real product-market fit. The right amount is enough to hit clear, value-inflecting milestones—not just survive.

Third: not understanding dilution and ownership.
Every round is a trade. What matters isn’t just today’s percentage, but what you own at exit. Founders who don’t model this early often wake up later realizing they’ve given away far more than expected.

Fourth: ignoring terms.
Valuation is only one part of the deal. Liquidation preferences, pro-rata rights, participation, board control—these things shape outcomes just as much, if not more. Two term sheets at the same valuation can lead to very different results.

And finally: not understanding the signaling game.
Who you bring onto the cap table matters. The right investors don’t just write checks—they help you get to the next round, bring credibility, and create competitive tension when you need it most.

Fundraising isn’t a moment. It’s a sequence.

Each round sets the constraints for the next one.

The best founders don’t just ask, “How much can I raise?”
They ask, “What structure gives me the highest probability of building a great company from here?”

Because the goal isn’t to win the round.

It’s to still be in control when the outcome actually matters.

New York is about to make a $28.5B mistake #QSBS

NY Senate Bill S8921 would tax startup gains that are tax-free federally and in most states. Retroactive to Jan 1, 2025.

The data on what's at stake:

1. $28.5B in NYC VC investment in 2024 (2nd in the US)
2. $174.5B in startup exit value over 6 years
3. 809,000 ecosystem jobs, $291B in economic output
4. A founder with a $10M exit would owe $1.48M in new state/city tax
5. NY already lost $111B in AGI to interstate migration over the past decade
6. The feds just EXPANDED QSBS benefits. NY wants to eliminate them.
7. NJ just adopted QSBS conformity. NY would move against its own neighbor.

I built a full research-backed analysis with interactive stress testing (not perfect but good enough to show the impact and make a point)

valueaddvc.com/ny-qsbs

VCs swarming a top Ai startup trying to fund it 🦅🥗

99% of advisor slides in pitch decks do more harm than good.

That sounds harsh, but it’s how most investors actually think.

At pre-seed and seed, when we see a long list of “advisors,” the default assumption isn’t value. It’s decoration. It often reads like participation trophies rather than signals of real support.

Why? Because most advisors are not actually involved.

They might take a call once in a while. Maybe they give occasional feedback. But they’re not in the trenches helping you hire, close customers, refine product, or navigate hard decisions. And investors know that.

So when a deck leans heavily on advisors, it can raise the wrong question:

“If this is so strong, why aren’t these people actually investing?”

That’s the real signal.

If someone truly believes in you, understands the business, and has the ability to help meaningfully, they usually find a way to get on the cap table. Even a small check carries more weight than a big title on an advisor slide.

There are exceptions.
A small number of advisors genuinely move the needle. They open doors that wouldn’t otherwise open. They help you win customers, recruit key hires, or shape critical strategy.

But those are rare. And when they exist, the value is obvious in how you talk about them. Not just who they are, but what they actively do.

The mistake is thinking names create credibility.

In reality, credibility comes from traction, insight, and execution.
Not from a list of logos or titles at the end of a deck.

If you have real advisors who are deeply involved, show that through outcomes.
If you don’t, it’s better to say nothing at all.

Because in early-stage fundraising, signal matters.

And most advisor slides just aren’t signal.

The founding team is the first product a startup ships.

Before there is revenue, before there is product-market fit, before there is even a real product, there is a group of people making decisions under uncertainty. How they think, how they work, and how they respond to pressure will define everything that comes next.

Investors like to talk about markets, timing, and technology. Those matter. But at the earliest stages, most outcomes are driven by the team. Not just pedigree, but behavior. Not just resumes, but judgment.

The best founding teams share a few characteristics.

They move with clarity, even when the path is not obvious. They can disagree without breaking trust. They divide responsibility without losing accountability. And they have a shared standard for what “great” looks like, which compounds over time.

Importantly, they are not identical. The strongest teams are often asymmetric. Different skill sets, different perspectives, different instincts. What matters is that those differences are aligned toward the same goal, not pulling in opposite directions.

Most teams look good when things are working. The real signal shows up when things are not. Missed targets, broken product, lost deals. This is where you see how decisions are made, how communication holds up, and whether the team can adapt without fracturing.

Early-stage investing is, in many ways, underwriting that moment before it happens.

Because markets change, products evolve, and strategies get rewritten. The one constant is the team. And in the long run, that is usually what determines whether something becomes durable or disappears.

One of the biggest mistakes founders make in early-stage fundraising is trying to sound “normal.”

Polished. Broad. Accessible. Safe.

But at pre-seed and seed, investors aren’t looking for normal.

They’re looking for the professor.

The founders who stand out aren’t just pitching a product. They’re teaching you something you didn’t know before you walked into the room. They have a level of depth, clarity, and conviction that makes you feel like you’re getting a compressed education on a market, a problem, and a future that hasn’t fully formed yet.

That’s what an unfair advantage actually looks like in a pitch.

It’s not always about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about having earned insight. Maybe you’ve spent years inside the problem. Maybe you’ve built in the space before. Maybe you know the buyers, the constraints, the edge cases, the reasons prior attempts failed.

You see around corners because you’ve already been there.

When a founder operates at that level, the dynamic shifts.
The conversation becomes less about “convincing” and more about “understanding.”
Investors lean in because they’re learning, not just evaluating.

On the flip side, when a pitch stays surface-level, it creates doubt.
If you sound like anyone else could be building this, investors start to believe that anyone else probably will.

And that’s a hard place to win from.

The best founders make it obvious why they are the team.
Not through hype, but through depth.
Not through buzzwords, but through earned perspective.

You don’t need to know everything.
But you need to show that you know more than almost anyone else about this.

Because at the earliest stages, we’re not just underwriting an idea.

We’re underwriting who we believe will figure it out.

Startups testing their own products 🎲🎲🎲

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The Battle

Steve Procter

Trace Cohen

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Steve Procter's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreSteve Procter's LinkedIn Performance