CM Weekly: AI in Education, Getting to PMF, Series A Crunch, Pre-Seed Rounds
Chris McCann's weekly newsletter on technology, startups, and venture capital.
Written by Chris McCann, General Partner @ Race Capital. More about me.
🗞️ Interesting Reads
How Microsoft thought about OpenAI in 2019, when they were considering to make their large investment in the company.
Where enterprise AI is heading in 2025. TLDR: Compound systems and greater need for observability & eval.
How generative AI in development tasks is changing how software engineering is being taught in schools.
Hard lessons on what it takes to get to product market fit.
Many startups pivot, and when they do this is a good benchmark for what a typical pivot looks like.
The "graduation rate" from a seed round to series A is around ~12%, the lowest its been in 5+ years.
Getting a series A done in today's market is a case of increased expectations, although most startups have not achieved true "product market fit" by series A, just a might higher degree of certainty of PMF.
A report on pre-seed rounds. TLDR - SAFE's are the most common instruments in pre-seed financings, most pre-seed rounds are around $1M, and the typical valuation cap is $8-$10M.
🔥 Startup Jobs
By Company: Databricks, GoodNotes, Zeet, Polysign, Opaque, Lightning Labs, OtterTune, and more
By Role: Engineering, Data Science, Product, Design, Operations, Finance, Legal, and more
By Location: SF Bay Area, New York, London, and Remote
Browse more open roles across our portfolio at Race Capital's Portfolio Job Board.
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