NVTC Newsletter No. 8
Have no fear; the weekly newsletter is here! For those new here, welcome to the NVTC weekly newsletter. Here you’ll find recent updates from the tech world, insightful articles related to startups and highlights from NV portfolio companies.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURES ⚡
🧠 Asking the Right Questions – Fellow NVTC member Mariano Pennini, a software engineer who left Bloomberg for fintech startup Spade, responds to questions about his switch from big tech to startup and the how/why around that decision.
🤝 Feeling more curious? – Tory Nelson, NVTC member with 20+ years of data-world experience and currently building a system for forest restoration at Vibrant Planet, will be answering your questions for next week’s newsletter.
⭐ Shaking off the Shortage – A secondary marketplace for semiconductors and new tech for organ transplants.
⭐ Like a Sponge – What do Spongebob and urban planners have in common?
⭐ Narwhal Street – The new VC firm on the block.
📈 Reddit Highlight – 1 month. 50k dollars. Pay back the debt and turn a profit. What do you do?
GET TO KNOW NVTC 🤝
This past week, we asked you all to send over any questions you have for fellow NVTC member, Mariano Pennini. To recap, Mariano is a software engineer with software development experience at Paypal, Tile, and Bloomberg LP and recently joined YCombinator-backed startup Spade. Read through Mariano’s responses to your questions below:
What most influenced your decision to make the switch from Bloomberg (a large tech company) to Spade (an early-stage startup)?
I left Bloomberg to join another big tech company with a solid pay raise and more benefits. Two weeks before I was set to begin my new gig, my offer was rescinded due to volatility at the company. I found out over email. Shocked, I gathered myself and over the next weeks began to prepare for interviews and to dedicate some serious time to thinking about how I wanted to spend the next few years. Those few weeks of unemployment helped me recognize that I was prepared to weather instability after all. After some introspection, I decided that now was the perfect time to introduce a new type of position into my career path and join a small team. Spade ended up being a natural fit due to the technology, the domain and most importantly, the people!
What draws you to working in the fintech sector?
Fintech and New York City go hand in hand, so that’s certainly a part of it. There’s such a deep talent pool of other engineers and operators and that’s really exciting to be around. Whether it’s at an after hours event or on a lunch break, you’re bound to run into someone in the industry and it’s that kind of spontaneity of interactions that I really enjoy.
How has your role transformed as a software engineer at Spade compared to Bloomberg?
I’ve shifted from having one focus in a specific domain to picking up a breadth of skills across DevOps, serverless machine learning infrastructure, and front end design, to name a few. I’ve also intimately felt the outsize impact that my work can have on the outcome of the company at large, and although that role comes with an added level of responsibility, I’ve found it to be profoundly rewarding. As an early engineer, I’ve noticed that my actions and my projects have the ability to really shape the culture of our engineering team and I’ve found that to be a source of pride for me.
What questions did you ask of the Spade team to build confidence that this startup would be a good investment of your time and "career-years," and be a good fit for your particular skills and interests?
Going into my interviews, I first tried to understand the business as well as I could by asking questions about runway, revenue streams, governance, etc. Next, in my technical chats, I made sure that I could really contribute in a significant way from day one. Spade handles a massive amount of data, so I knew that my data engineering projects from Bloomberg would prove valuable for the company. I think this is really important to focus on because you often don’t have as much time to research as many solutions as you might at a bigger company. So in the beginning, it really helps if you come in with solutions that you’ve worked with in the past so you can truly hit the ground running. Once I was confident that I understood the problem — and why Spade’s solution was better than the rest — I set about getting a deeper insight into the C-suite as people. I asked about their mentors, their backgrounds, and their ambitions. I went through several rounds of these talks, some on my request, and I even spoke to an investor in the company. After these chats, I felt confident that even if things didn’t go as planned down the line, it wouldn’t be because I didn’t believe in leadership or in the business. And that’s all I needed to make a decision.
Is there anything else you would like to share with NVTC? Any questions you wish we asked?
Hit me up on LinkedIn or via email (marianopenn@gmail.com) if you’d like to chat more! I like to work in person in Flatiron so if you’re nearby don’t hesitate to reach out to grab a coffee.
For next week:
Tory has over 10 years of experience in product management and over 20 years of experience in the data world at companies including BAE Systems, Guidewire Software, Facebook, Lyft, and currently Vibrant Planet. Vibrant Planet uses data and cloud-based technology to prepare communities and ecosystems for climate change.
Tory manages the company’s Land Tender project: an operating system for forest restoration for which the company just raised $17M in a seed round. Tory has deep expertise across data applications, from infrastructure to visualization to analysis and insight generation.
If you missed out on asking questions for this week’s Q&A, don’t worry! You have another chance to participate in next week’s newsletter. Reply to this email with any questions you have for Tory Nelson.
NV PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHT 🎢
With changing economic conditions post-global shutdown, semiconductors are only semi-available. Experts predict supply chain challenges will continue through 2023 or 2024, further exacerbating the semiconductor shortage. Moov aims to alleviate some industry pressure points by offering a risk-free secondary marketplace for used semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
So what’s the special sauce? Moov offers a guarantee program for renting equipment in which unsatisfied purchasers can return equipment to Moov for a full refund. Moov is the first company in the sector to offer this type of guarantee. Equipment is verified prior to transaction, providing purchasers a secure and confident secondary market option.
The best part? Customers rarely need the refund. Moov boasts a 99% customer satisfaction rate, serving over 8000 companies. In June, Moov surpassed $3 billion in active listings. You can check out some opportunities to get involved with Moov here.
NEWS & ARTICLES 📖
Climate change is pushing cities to the extremes. Recent years have seen flooding like never before, in cities such as New York City, Seoul, Cologne, and more. Urban planners are investigating new ways to design cities less like rain jackets–whisking water away to avoid accumulation–and more like sponges. Think more green spaces and huge dirt bowls, which are significantly better at absorbing than concrete.
Kaley’s Comment: We already have some examples of successful sponge cities. Vienna uses underground planters to capture heavy rainfall, filter it, and supply urban trees with clean water. Zhuhai has invested heavily in sponge city infrastructure since 2016, including porous concrete and asphalt, green roofs, bio-retention basins, and vegetation buffer zones. What’s the catch? Sponge cities are expensive. The average cost is $15-20 million dollars per square kilometer. For Manhattan, it would take roughly $1.1 billion dollars to spongify the city.
Hospitals and insurance companies are seeking out voice biomarker technology to identify in real time if someone they’re chatting with is anxious or depressed. This will be useful for identifying problems on the spot and monitoring patients remotely. Behind the scenes, the tech doesn’t analyze what you say but rather how you say it.
A new climate-tech investor, Propeller, is on the hunt for underwater unicorns. Founded by HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan and longtime CRV partner Devdutt Yellurkar, the venture firm will back and incubate startups at the ocean-climate nexus, including areas like ocean carbon removal, algae packaging, and offshore wind.
As it turns out, wealth does not exempt a nation from shortages. The United States continually struggles to provide transplantable organs for patients in-need. With steady intrigue around CRISPR, it’s important to analyze other potential therapies, from tissue engineering to genomics and beyond. Quick-growing company LyGenesis is developing a non-invasive solution: tricking the patient’s body into growing “organoids” that act like blood-scrubbing potatoes in the lymphatic system.
Kaley’s Comment: LyGenesis recently began its first human trials with 12 adults with end-stage liver disease. This came after seeing success in pigs, mice, and dogs. The concept is so groundbreaking because the organoids become mini livers that compensate for the existing dead one.
STARTUP SNIPPETS 🔮
Ambr: a pre-seed company that will track employee working habits to mitigate burnout
Traction: Ambr is collecting new hires and raising its first round of funding
Netmaker: software orchestrating the networking revolution by connecting servers in different locations on one virtual overlay network
The raise: $2.3 million dollars
AI company Generally Intelligent launched out of stealth.
The raise: $20 million, including contributions from GPT-3 former engineering lead Tom Brown
Sensat: a platform to replicate physical footprints in the digital sphere for infrastructure companies
The raise: $20.5 million in Series B funding
REDDIT HIGHLIGHT 📈
An interesting mental exercise from a Reddit user:
Could the OP be asking for embezzling advice? Strong maybe. It’s still a fun challenge.
A couple intriguing answers:
OUTRO
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