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March 23, 2023

When I look at all the startups I’ve built or backed during my career as a founder and investor, I’ll admit they can seem a bit disconnected, covering everything from social to robotics to genomics to gaming. But as I reflect on my investments, on my own startups, and on how I want to spend my time moving forward, I’ve realized that many of those seemingly disparate dots are connected through a concept that I’m calling foundational [open] ecosystems — and the companies they spawn.

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December 13, 2022

As a seed investor, I’m always thinking about how to find the next unicorn before they’ve even built a product. Recently, I’ve realized that I’m looking for a new category of founder, which I’ll describe as “low code, higher go-to-market” — founders who may not have exceptionally strong technical chops, but make up for it with their strength in areas like sales, storytelling, and fundraising, as well as deep knowledge and connections in specific industry verticals.

Of course, it’s always been valuable to have someone with those skills leading a startup. (And we’re grateful to Alloy’s Laura Spiekerman for recently sharing so many relevant go-to-market insights with our founders.) But in the past, those teams would still need a technical co-founder. Now, many of them can get started without one, even if they can’t code at all.

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November 22, 2022

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October 20, 2022

Eniac ❤️ New York tech

October 20, 2022

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August 18, 2022

The art of the #dopepass

August 18, 2022

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March 24, 2022

As Hadley noted in a recent tweet, one big danger facing startup founders is the premature belief that you’ve found product-market fit.

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March 10, 2022

Yes, we know there’s something a little mysterious — or even frustrating — about the Eniac website: You can learn about our team and our investments, but you won’t see a list of who led which deal, or all the boards each partner sits on.

This isn’t an oversight, and we’re not doing it to be secretive. Instead, it’s a key piece of the Eniac strategy, one that our partners put in place when the firm was founded in 2010.

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February 28, 2022

Welcome back to Ask a Seed VC, Eniac’s advice column on startup fundraising. Today’s question comes from a founder who we’re leaving anonymous:

We don’t have money anymore in our company, we are doing bridge funding and preparing for a pre-seed. We are creating a prototype and a community of 370 creators. Many VCs I have found are seed. Is it worth it to apply anyways or better concentrate only on angels?

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February 3, 2022

#PitchandRun has come a long way in the last few years — something I’ve been reflecting on after Ryan Deffenbaugh joined us for a recent run and wrote about it in Crain’s New York.

Why put pitching and running together? We started the group in 2019 as a way for founders and investors in New York’s tech community to speak freely, get to know each other, get feedback, and PITCH (!) outside of a four-walled conference room, all while getting exercise. We were partially inspired by Hot Ones on YouTube — we’re not quite as extreme, but we also believe that when a little sweat hits the brow and heart rates increase, so does the conversation.

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