Grace Isford
@graceisford
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Partner @Lux_Capital investing in the future 🚀 | board @ecorner (STVP) previously @canvasvc @stanfordwib @joinhandshake @stanford
New York, NY
Joined June 2013
On Tuesday, @Lux_Capital hosted its 2nd annual AI Summit in NYC - bringing together over 150 of the top CEOs, industry experts, researchers & builders in one room. 🗽🚀. THREAD⬇️
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1/ Big News! Today I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve joined @Lux_Capital in their NYC office to invest in technology companies shaping the future 🚀 .
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nyc marathon ✅. no race quite like nyc - running through all 5 boroughs w/ electric crowd energy made me very grateful to call this city home!! . huge shoutout to the crowds, music, friends & family who kept me going 🏃🏼♀️
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1/ THE WEB3 WORLD 👾. Today I’m excited to publicly share my WEB3 WORLD deck - read it and see it here 👇.
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Today I’m thrilled to announce @Lux_Capital's NYC AI Directory & NYC AI Map - 2 resources for the burgeoning AI talent ecosystem. READ MORE👇. NYC AI Directory: NYC AI Map:
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Thrilled to announce the launch of Lux Capital 8 - our single largest $1.15B vehicle to back the most AMBITIOUS founders solving the world's most pressing problems from first $100K to last $100M 💫.
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Thrilled & so grateful for this exciting milestone - especially thankful for the founders we work with & learnings from the rockstar @Lux_Capital team. Excited to partner with the next generation of technologists inventing the future in the computational sciences & beyond!💡🚀.
8/ @graceisford promoted to Partner. Grace first graced our presence earlier this year and got off to a fast start adding a jolt of positive tenacious energy and an immediate investment impact.
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A very exciting day for @runwayml - announcing a $141M funding round bringing a ton of firepower onboard @google @nvidia @salesforce & continuing to build the future of the *multimodal* AI creative economy .
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headed back from a week spending time in the Parisian tech & VC ecosystem - here’s what I learned. hint: paris is buzzing 🇫🇷.
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1/ APIs are nothing new. but it seems like they may be having their heyday in 2020. I wrote about my framework for evaluating standout API-first companies and why the very best companies give their users “superpowers” . read it here 👇.
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I’ve been diving deep into the Web3 rabbit hole - and thanks to friends, readings & investing myself I’ve learned quickly 🙏. Hoping to pass along SOME of my learnings below to help others understand 1) what Web3 is ✨ & 2) how to think about segments of the landscape . THREAD 👇.
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I’ve chatted with 50+ researchers, entrepreneurs & industry experts from companies like @huggingface @runwayml @MosaicML @Stanford @StanfordCRFM on the AI infrastructure & application landscape - here’s what I’ve learned. THREAD 👇.
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incredibly energizing @Lux_Capital & @tcg_crypto Women x Web3 brunch this AM — 24 women crushing it 👾👑 . co-hosted w/ the amazing @gaby_goldberg ✨
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Very excited & grateful for the next chapter building and learning with founders & colleagues at @CanvasVC! . just getting started 🚀.
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lots of exciting events this spring in NYC. @runwayml RNA AI research night.Pydata NYC .@southpkcommons demo day .@Work_Bench enterprise tech meetup.@SiliconVlyBank Empire State of AI .@EricNewcomer NYC x AI Summit . I’m also hosting a few private dinners - dm to join! 🙌🗽.
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Excited to announce that @Lux_Capital is leading the $30M founding round of @SakanaAILabs 🇯🇵. @hardmaru @YesThisIsLion & Ren Ito are building nature inspired AI foundation models, launching a state of the art research lab in Tokyo, Japan. Read more 👇.
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Continue to be impressed by the growing French engineering & AI ecosystem ↗️. views from the @huggingface Paris office 🤗
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Incredible week in Tokyo with the @SakanaAILabs team. They’re just getting started (& they’re hiring!) 🚀🗼🌱.
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friendly reminder that @Lux_Capital portfolio companies are hiring for all roles in NYC, SF, Boston, LA, Paris, London, Tokyo + more!!. dm me if you are looking for your next thing and happy to put you in touch 🤝🤗.
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1/ Excited to launch the API-First Directory today, a growing record of API-first companies across enterprise & consumer industries & announce my API-first pricing framework!. READ IT & SEE THE API-FIRST DIRECTORY HERE 👇.
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Thrilled to announce @SakanaAILabs’s first launch (< 2 months after seed funding!) of 3 SOTA evolutionary AI foundation models for the Japanese market. @SakanaAILabs challenges the current paradigm of costly model development w/ resource-efficient, evolved models. THREAD👇🇯🇵.
Introducing Evolutionary Model Merge: A new approach bringing us closer to automating foundation model development. We use evolution to find great ways of combining open-source models, building new powerful foundation models with user-specified abilities!.
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Thrilled to announce @Lux_Capital is leading the $5M seed round of @getreflex - a platform to build web apps in pure python. READ MORE 👇.
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NYC >> . dm to join future dinners with the best technical builders in NY in 2025 💥🗽.
Nyc AI dinner, episode 5 ✅ with @graceisford and @Lux_Capital !. Founders and operators from @modal_labs, @sunomusic, @AIatMeta, @southpkcommons, etc. But mostly importantly - some great hot takes:. -IDEs will be defunct within 3 years.-AIs with personalities should be banned
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future is bright ☀️ . awesome @Lux_Capital NYC dinner with an incredible group of builders discussing everything from blockchains to batteries 💡
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theme I'm excited about in 2024 --> VERTICAL AI . hint - it involves large datasets . 💸 LLMs x fintech (e.g. @CorisInc ).🧪 LLMs x sciences - biology, chemistry, physics.🏭 LLMs x manufacturing, supply chain, defense.
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bagels x LUX tmrw @ 9 am in Madison Square Park . We’ll be gathering to talk all things frontier AI research in NYC 🍎🗽. See you there!!.
📢We're organizing an AI bagel gathering this Thursday morning at Madison Sq. Park in NYC. Bagels sponsored by @Lux_Capital . DM me or @graceisford if interested. (and yes, we're calling it bagels & lux 🥯+🤖=❤️).
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have added new 30+ NYC AI companies to the list + map TODAY since publication. NYC is booming. add to airtable here 🤗
Today I’m thrilled to announce @Lux_Capital's NYC AI Directory & NYC AI Map - 2 resources for the burgeoning AI talent ecosystem. READ MORE👇. NYC AI Directory: NYC AI Map:
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Thrilled to announce @Lux_Capital is co-leading the $3.7M seed round of @CorisInc, the first risk platform to leverage LLMs at scale alongside friends @CharleyMa @MahdiRazaMR @ExponentCap . READ MORE 👇.
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Greetings from Cornell Tech for the first ever NYC AGI Hackathon!! . Over 600 applicants and a full room ready to get started 👍
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Today was a very special day - lucky to have brought together @Lux_Capital portfolio cos, researcher luminaries and enterprise company leaders in 1 room discussing CUTTING EDGE technology in AI 👇
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Early growth leaders dinner in NYC 🗽.@Lux_Capital @ExponentCap . many fun discussions: .1) what is growth 📈.2) why overrelying on metrics is dangerous.3) self serve vs top down.4) working w/ founders. dm me or @CharleyMa to join next! Early GTM, growth, eng, product up next :)
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NYC Operator Dinner - gathering of 1st biz hires/early GTM leaders @ NYC startups 🗽. @tryramp @modal_labs @togethercompute @recurrency @TheArenaAI @calypsoai @knockapp @floxdevelopment . A dinner series @Lux_Capital hosting w/ @CharleyMa @MahdiRazaMR 📈🚀 . dm to join next one!
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NYC 📈.
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Thrilled to announce $LUXDEX - the first ever investment index tracking publicly traded NYSE companies + publicly traded crypto assets . Read more on Axios & below👇.
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THRILLED to announce @togethercompute's $20M seed financing led by @Lux_Capital - building the ML cloud of the future making AI accessible to anyone, anywhere. Welcome @vipulved and @togethercompute's all-star research team @HazyResearch @ETH_en to the @Lux_Capital family - read.
We’re excited to announce our $20M seed round of funding to empower innovation and creativity by providing leading open-source generative AI models and an innovative cloud platform that makes AI accessible to anyone, anywhere.
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1 spot left for first business hire/early GTM leader dinner I'm co-hosting next week in NYC. Have a great group established of AI x devtool x fintech cos . cc @CharleyMa @MahdiRazaMR . who should we invite? .✅Must be NYC based .✅First or second person shaping the GTM team 🚀.
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First @SlushHQ in cold, windy, slushy Helsinki 📍. Teamed up with @Thom_Wolf @huggingface 🤗 @KunleOlukotun @SambaNovaAI @ravmattu @dealbook to discuss the future of open source & the geopolitics of AI. Thread 🧵
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hosting dinner for folks ideating in fintech x LLMs in NYC in May -- dm me if you are ideating in space and want to join!.
This release made me and @graceisford start talking about new products tinkering at the intersection of AI x finance. To our surprise, there aren't a ton. We're hosting a small Inspired Cap x Lux dinner next month for those who are. DMs open if this is interesting to you.
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Future dinners will include 1st growth, marketing, engineering hires, chief of staff + more. Capping groups at 12 to maximize discussion, debate & insights sharing. only prerequisite? NYC based 🗽.
NYC Operator Dinner - gathering of 1st biz hires/early GTM leaders @ NYC startups 🗽. @tryramp @modal_labs @togethercompute @recurrency @TheArenaAI @calypsoai @knockapp @floxdevelopment . A dinner series @Lux_Capital hosting w/ @CharleyMa @MahdiRazaMR 📈🚀 . dm to join next one!
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Huge congrats to Lux family co @MosaicML on its acquisition to @databricks and to my teammate @Farshchi for partnering with Naveen (twice!) from the earliest stages👇🏼🚀.
1/ Two amazing companies: @databricks and @MosaicML plan to join forces to empower everyone to train their own AI models, imbued with their own data. Here is a story of the journey thus far, and what's ahead of this great partnership🧵:.
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1/ Automation without boundaries. Thrilled to announce @CanvasVC has led the $21M Series A of @RobocorpInc alongside existing investors @benchmark @slow @firstminutecap & new investors @salil @haystackvc + announce I'll be joining the board!!. Read more 👇.
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5+ of my girlfriends have bought crypto for the first time in the last week & I’m very proud and excited! . if you want to invest for the first time & need help hit me or @hello_we3 up ✨💸.
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1/ Thrilled to announce @Lux_Capital’s seed investment in @choose_tactic - helping businesses track, trace and reconcile crypto transactions at scale . Why we’re excited… 💸.
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@LangChainAI NYC meet-up on fire 🔥. discussing an AI powered future - LLM corporate lobbyists, multi agent apps & ML model accessibility 👩🏼💻🤓🤖
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Thrilled to be included alongside incredible friends & investors 🔥. @Jillwillnyc @aashaysanghvi_ @hchelkowski @alanaagoyal @AlexandraSukin @courtneyzchow @HeckDawit @nancysxiao @almostcmb @MayaBakhai @gaby_goldberg @michellernie_ @emily__man @morgan_blumberg + many more!.
NEW: @BusinessInsider's annual list of the rising stars of #VentureCapital is here! These 71 investors are the up-and-coming dealmakers landing hot term sheets with big name startups that you should keep on your radar in 2023:
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Very special to host the @stanfordwib crew @Lux_Capital NYC today!! . Visited my first VC firm & scored my first internship with the program, excited to see what this brilliant group accomplishes! 🚀✨
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unexpectedly signed up for the nyc marathon 🙃 . 12 weeks to race day, training plans & tips appreciated!.
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A really exciting milestone for @SakanaAILabs today:.💸$100M in funding.🤝Deep partnership with @nvidia .🗼Continuing to solidify its standing as the leading AI research lab in Tokyo, Japan .just getting started 🚀.
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these ladies are building the FUTURE!! . of AI/ML x healthcare x space x bio x blockchain & beyond 💫💪🏼🦸♀️
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Thrilled for @Lux_Capital portfolio co @FactoryAI announcing its Series A led by @sequoia with SOTA benchmarks on autonomous agent performance 📈💻.
THE MACHINE THAT BUILDS THE MACHINE. Today we are excited to announce the latest updates from Factory and the next steps in our mission to Bring Autonomy to Software Engineering. Droids are autonomous systems that solve problems for engineers. Not just in demos. Not just in
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Thrilled to unveil @Lux_Capital portfolio company EvolutionaryScale with the launch of ESM3 - a generative language model for programming biology. Emerging from stealth $142M in fresh funding & a rockstar team, inventing the future of biology 🧬🚀.
We have trained ESM3 and we're excited to introduce EvolutionaryScale. ESM3 is a generative language model for programming biology. In experiments, we found ESM3 can simulate 500M years of evolution to generate new fluorescent proteins. Read more:
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Thrilled to unveil @MavenAGI, a reimagined customer support experience platform emerging with $28M in funding from @Lux_Capital @M13Company @e14fund & @OpenAI @stripe @HubSpot execs! 🪄. Read more with their @OpenAI case study 🧵.
We’re coming out of stealth mode to fix customer support with AI Agents. See our full announcement for the complete story #MavenAGI
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We are SO lucky to have brilliant @davidkmyang join the @Lux_Capital team to supercharge our efforts at intersection of life sciences x techbio x AI/ML x BEYOND 🚀🌱. say hello & get to know him if you don't already :).
Thrilled to share that I’ve joined the Lux Capital team! Looking forward to continue backing and building transformational life sciences companies.
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this HEADLINE & this incredible group of women - makes me energized to do the job everyday!! 📈💪🏼. honored to be included alongside my amazing @Lux_Capital teammate @deenashakir, close friends & wonderful humans @caseyaylward @Jillwillnyc @anniecase1 @Maureenclue + many more!.
At least 27 women in venture capital rose to partner or higher in 2022. We have the full list. Notably, a number of women launched their own funds, and @lightspeedvp hired five female check-writers. Cheers ladies 🥂
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happy to be a part of the **great migration** to nyc 😊.
They want to be a part of it: VCs are flocking to New York like never before. Here's what's driving a great migration in startup capital to the city that never sleeps (on dealflow).
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great group @ the NYC AI hackathon this weekend - thx to @contrary @betaworks @Lux_Capital for hosting & an awesome crew of builders 👩🏼💻⌨️🤗. working til 4:30 pm today. stop by!
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front cover Forbes Japan featuring @SakanaAILabs 💥.
「Sakana AIって実際何をやってるの？」とForbesにとことん聞いていただきました。創業者３人で受けた一番のロングインタビューです。ぜひ感想など教えていただけたら嬉しいです。.
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long NYC 🗽🚀.
I'm excited to publish @SiliconVlyBank's blogpost on Empire State of AI: New York's Dynamic AI Community: Thank you @BSchech from @PrimaryVC and @graceisford from @Lux_Capital for contributing to this article. SF has long been known as "Cerebral Valley",.
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Long NYC x AI x OSS 🤗🗽❤️. Incredible night of technical panels debating data, LLM stack, who will win OSS & more 🚀. @huggingface @nomic_ai @lvdmaaten @kchonyc @srush_nlp @leland_mcinnes @SanhEstPasMoi
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a very successful bagels & lux (lox) - excited to run it back soon and kudos to @bagelsAI for making it happen ✨❤️🥯.
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Incredible evening bringing fantastic group of builders & investors at the intersection of frontier tech for a @Lux_Capital dinner in Paris -- data & AI, space, healthcare, crypto, climate & much more!!. Big shoutout to @RoiStartup for helping organize 🇫🇷✨
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🚨next WED 🚨. come hear from brilliant researchers @lvdmaaten @srush_nlp @kchonyc @leland_mcinnes Y-Lan Boureau & the @nomic_ai @huggingface teams to discuss latest research developments in AI in NYC 🗽. RSVP below -
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Awesome to chat with @CarolineHydeTV @EdLudlow @technology re NYC as the next big AI hub 🗽. Featuring Lux cos @runwayml @huggingface @togethercompute & more!.
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Thrilled to share the latest Securities podcast on a few whirlwind weeks in AI, including: . 1️⃣first-ever AI film festival 🎬.2️⃣why LLM “knitting” matters .3️⃣typescript vs python in AI.4️⃣AI hype vs crypto hype.5️⃣role of cloud players & AI assistive loops. give it a listen 👇🏼🎧.
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compelling graph mapping internet vs crypto users - still SO early in adoption cycle w/ inevitable bubbles/winters/hiccups coming Web3’s way. I’d argue crypto growth rate will slant higher but w/ greater volatility & dependency on stronger crypto infra to facilitate growth 📈
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2/ I’ll be focused on investing in web3, data infrastructure and AI/ML applications especially in financial services & healthcare - expanding Lux’s already stellar portfolio . @ftx_app, @Anchorage, @huggingface, @AppliedInt, @benchling, @mavenclinic, @AlifeHealthLab, @tryramp.
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NYC @southpkcommons malleable interfaces demo night 🗽💭 . packed house re future of AI x apps/ecommerce/cameras/canvas/voice/lore & more…. h/t @gopalkraman for gathering a great crew!
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Leigh Marie is one of the best, feel lucky to learn and work with her & excited for her next chapter 💪🏼✨.
I’m excited to share that I’m joining @KleinerPerkins as a Partner to invest in the next generation of history-making founders, esp. those working on infrastructure & ML applications. I’ve long admired KP's investing strategy & portfolio, and am thrilled to be part of the team!.
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HUGE congrats to @togethercompute on their $102.5M (!!) Series A. @vipulved & team are best in class. And they're hiring! Reach out if you're looking to join a rocketship or adopt the most performant AI cloud to build & develop open source & custom models ⚡️🚀.
We are excited to announce our $102.5M Series A funding lead by @kleinerperkins with participation from @nvidia, @emergencecap, and many of our seed investors. This funding will help us build a comprehensive AI cloud platform for developers everywhere.
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lucky to be an investor + friend to so many folks @tryramp -- watch out for this rocket ship as it soars to new heights & as always, enjoy @packyM's fantastic narrative chronicling the growth 🚀💸.
Today, @tryramp is announcing a new round at an $8.1 billion valuation. It crossed $100 million in recurring revenue faster than any SaaS or fintech company in history. That's just the first act. It has a Google-sized opportunity ahead of it.
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NYC run club! watch out for @wolfejosh on the west side highway 🏃🏻💨.
Went from barely ever 🏃🏃 to seeing my V02max drop 📉to getting inspired esp by Lux partner @graceisford and now running 10k every other day! . Biggest hack? .Told myself:" I'm a runner now!"
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Reardon is an incredible technologist, serial founder and visionary leader -- lucky to have him join us @Lux_Capital!.
1/ 🚨 Big News: Thomas Reardon is joining us as a Venture Partner! From helping build Internet Explorer at Microsoft to founding Lux fam co CTRL-Labs (acquired by Meta), he's been reshaping human-computer interaction. Read our full piece here:
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8/ NET - very excited about the future of the Paris tech ecosystem - think we will only continue to hear more about france esp in the software infra worlds of data/ML & crypto/fintech with cutting edge technology & design. à bientôt!.
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If you haven’t heard about @ethelsclub, check it out! Couldn’t be more excited to support Naj and her team to make her vision a reality @najjmahal @nickabouzeid 💫💫
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@OpenAI @Meta @huggingface @MosaicML @Azure 6/ in summary: .✅access to GPUs matter.💾proprietary data = moat.⌨️infra margins compressing.🕵️evaluation is unsolved prob.🤗open vs. closed tension. what did I miss? re hardware, fine tuning & beyond. READ MORE:
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6/ At @Lux_Capital, I’ll be writing checks from pre-seed to growth out of our seventh $1.5B fund globally!. So if you’re building or brainstorming the FUTURE in these spaces, let’s talk - dms are open :) - my new email is grace@lux.vc.
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1/ Excited to share my perspective on the CRYPTOGRAPHIC foundations of Web3 + OPPORTUNITY in web3 infra . special s/o to @shomikghosh21 for the feature in his awesome Software Snack Bites newsletter . A THREAD 🧵.
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1/ Wrote about some of the problems brought to light by #COVID19 and opportunities they present for VC investors to work together to solve them. Read it here 👀:
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NYC AI x ART demo night. Incredible group of NYC based artists x engineers x curators x visionaries building at intersection of creativity x AI. the future is bright ✨🌈
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Thx @Techcrunch for feature on my journey into crypto infrastructure and the inherent challenges + opportunity to grow adoption & trust in web3. read to figure out why security & critical enterprise infra platforms represent the biggest opp in crypto 🤓.
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“Women’s health is human health is population health” . @deenashakir dropping wisdom @FortuneMagazine 🔥
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nyc !!.
OH this AM from someone tied this YC Batch:. "Most YC founders are moving to NYC after demo day". Long NYC.
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🚨 AGI HACKATHON in NYC this weekend 🚨. sponsored by @Lux_Capital w/ special appearances from portcos @runwayml @MosaicML + many others!. will be there all day Sunday + judging! stop by ✨.
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this group is INVENTING the future ☄️.
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Thrilled to partner with @hwchase17 & the @LangChainAI team! 🚀 . They're just getting started (and they're hiring!!).
Exclusive: LangChain, the popular open source AI startup, has released its first paid product, LangSmith, today. CEO Harrison Chase tells me @forbes the tool is used by 1,000 teams with a waitlist of 80,000. He also confirms a $25M round led by Sequoia.
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A ton of fun to chat with longtime friend @MollySOShea @sourceryvc on what computational sciences mean🧠, including .-Why I'm bullish on NYC 🗽.-Sourcing & diligence taking "technical risk" 👩💻.-State of AI agent & infrastructure investing 🤖.
Computer Science is 'So Hot Right Now' 🔥. Deep dive on NYC AI & the @Lux_Capital portfolio w/ Partner @graceisford - the youngest Partner in the firm's history. We get into:.- Runway’s $1.5B Valuation.- How HuggingFace Makes Money?.- NYC AI > SF.- How to Source Great Companies.-
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Go @breeves08!! one of the industry's best :) . Lucky to learn & work with him everyday!.
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A best-in-class team with a best-in-class product - @runwayml @c_valenzuelab and team are relentless innovators and formidable opponents reimagining the end to end creative workflow 🎬🔥.
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