Venture with Grace

Manmeet Singh Bhasin is a technology entrepreneur and VC. He is currently the founder of a stealth-mode startup and was the founder and managing partner of PGV Fund 1 from January 2022 to March 2025, a venture capital fund investing in AI/ML and blockchain early-stage companies. Before that, he was the founder and CEO of Dataguise, a company focused on data privacy and security, which was acquired by PKWARE for over $100 million. Earlier in his career, he worked in engineering and technology management roles, including at Oracle Corporation.Topics:

• The evolution of data privacy and security technologies over the last decade
• The impact of regulatory changes on data privacy and startup innovation
• Key trends and emerging opportunities in AI, ML

#venturecapital #venturecapitalist #vc #startup #startups #entrepreneur

Conor Brennan-Burke is the founder of Hyperspell (YC F25), which builds memory and context infrastructure for AI agents. Before starting Hyperspell, he helped scale software products to over $50M in ARR and advised on more than $1B in private equity and M&A deals. He’s a repeat founder with experience across five countries and a focus on making AI systems more capable and useful in the real world. Hyperspell is also featured on Smart AI 100 list as one of the most promising early stage ai companies. Disclosure: Grace is an investor in Hyperspell. Topics:

• Building Memory for AI Agents
• The Future of Agentic Systems
• The Next Interface for Work

#AI #Agents #YC #Founders #Startup #VentureCapital #TechInnovation #ArtificialIntelligence

Lari Hamalainen is a Senior Partner at McKinsey. In the past he has led McKinsey Digital in Northern Europe and Northeast Asia and served as managing partner for McKinsey’s Finland office.Lari’s passion is to help companies build new businesses while renewing their existing business models. He comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has from a young age been involved in building technology businesses and helping organizations better adapt technology to their needs. Over the last 15 years at McKinsey Lari has helped numerous organizations build new services, channel models, and set up digital attackers. He has also been the Chief Transformation Officer at a major technology company supporting them in their renewal journey. Recently, Lari has also been a front-runner in driving artificial-intelligence- and analytics- related thinking and in advising companies on how to best utilize the technologies at scale.Topics:

• The Rise of Agentic AI
• McKinsey’s GenAI Strategy
• Enterprise Transformation

#GenAI #AgenticAI #McKinsey #QuantumBlack #AITransformation #EnterpriseAI

Allen Wang is the cofounder and CEO of Ditto AI, a dating matchmaker built for college campuses that eliminates swiping and texting, using AI to get users to in-person dates without the usual app friction. After dropping out of UC Berkeley, Allen started Ditto AI with Eric Liu to help a roommate find a girlfriend before graduation—a story that quickly evolved into a VC-backed startup, raised from top investors including Gradient Ventures and various tech leaders and well known founders. Topics:

• AI and Innovation in Social Apps
• Growth, Marketing, and Network Effects
• Founder Journey and Leadership in a Gen Z Startup

#DittoAI #AllenWang #AIStartup #DatingAppRevolution #GenZFounder

Mahi de Silva is the Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of Higgsfield AI. Higgsfield is the AI-powered Cultural Engine for creators and marketers to amplify engagement and monetization In the new Attention Economy. Prior to that he was the Co founder and CEO of Amplify.ai. Amplify.ai is a global leader in Conversational AI, having delivered more than 10 billion interactions with more than 500 million people around the world. Higgsfield AI was also featured on our Smart AI 100 List among the top early stage AI companies. Topics:

• AI Video Technology & Platform Evolution
• Creator Economy Disruption
• Building and scaling AI startups

#GenerativeAI #CreatorEconomy #AIVideo #HiggsfieldAI #CreatorAI

Tony Conrad is a Partner at True Ventures. He worked with amazingly talented founders, operating teams from companies like Automattic (WordPress), ZERO Longevity Science, Modern Animal, Blue Bottle Coffee, Sweetgreen, MakerBot, Voiceflow, Giftshop, Cast, Bumo, Typekit, Pluralsight, Connectifier & Holey Grail Donuts. He also co-founded about.me & Sphere, both acquired by AOL. Tony is a personal investor in Slack, Automattic, Lowercase Capital, Cygni, Ghia, Empirical Spirits, International Smoke, Saltwater Oyster Depot, Elk Fence, flour+water pizzeria, flour+water, Trick Dog, Samovar and August. He is a board member of Flour + Water Hospitality Group, the Tony Hawk Foundation and formerly a T40 National Co-Chair of Technology for President Obama.Topics:

• What's overhyped in AI? What's underhyped?
• Building Community & Network Effects
• Craft Businesses That Scale

#StartupCommunity #NetworkEffects #AITrends #VentureCapital #FounderJourney

Vivek Krishnamurthy is a Partner at Commerce Ventures. At Commerce Ventures, Vivek focuses on tech-first opportunities in FinTech & InsurTech – as well as where these two categories intersect with other verticals. He works closely with a number of CV companies, including Bureau, Canary Technologies, Flueid, Mudflap, Zeal and Zentist. Vivek was previously a member of the investment banking team at Financial Technology Partners where he worked on ~$1B of private capital raises, M&A, and IPOs for FinTech & InsurTech companies like GreenSky (Acq’d by Goldman Sachs), Marqeta (MQ), Yapstone, Enservio (Acq’d by Solera) and others. Along the way, he’s also spent stints working on credit portfolio management at GE Capital and airplane economics at Boeing. Topics:

• Macro FinTech/InsurTech Trends
• The current M&A environment & IPO readiness for FinTech/InsurTech
• Vertical AI agents in financial services and insure tech

#FinTech #InsurTech #VentureCapital #AIinFinance #EmbeddedFinance

Adam D’Augelli is a Partner at True Ventures, a leading early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2005. With a foundational mission to empower entrepreneurs at the initial stages of company creation, True has partnered with over 1,050 Founders across more than 500 companies. The firm’s 12 funds have been a part of seven IPOs and over 60 acquisitions.Adam joined True as an analyst in 2010, immediately after graduating magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in science and a master’s degree in finance. Adam currently serves on the NVCA’s Board of Directors. Adam has led True’s investments in Splice, Pendulum Therapeutics, Deep Genomics, Kettle, Radiant Graph, Dinamo Bio, The Nuclear Company, SuppCo, Howie, and others currently in stealth. His notable past investments include HashiCorp (NASDAQ: HCP), TripleLift (acquired by Vista Equity), Ring (acquired by Amazon), Runscope (acquired by CA Technologies), and Moleculo (acquired by Illumina).Topics:

• The State of the Seed Market 2025: Why this is the best—and hardest—time to be a seed investor

• Abundance vs. Scarcity: How compounding innovation across AI, biotech, and blockchain is reshaping early-stage opportunity

• Building for the Next 30 Years: Why the future of venture belongs to investors with clear differentiation and conviction

#VentureCapital #SeedStage #TrueVentures #FrontierTech #AIInnovation

Soham Mazumdar is a serial entrepreneur and technology leader, currently the Co-Founder and CEO of WisdomAI, an AI-powered data insights platform that helps enterprises query their data using natural language. Previously, he co-founded Rubrik, where he served as Chief Architect and helped scale the company to IPO. Soham also co-founded Tagtile (acquired by Facebook), led core search infrastructure at Google—earning the prestigious Founders’ Award—and held engineering roles at Facebook. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and UIUC, he was named an IITK Distinguished Alumnus and a Silicon Valley 40 Under 40 honoree. Throughout his career, Soham has been at the forefront of cloud, security, and AI innovation.Topics:

• AI’s Role in Enterprise Intelligence
• From Zero to IPO
• The Shift from BI to AI-Assisted Insight

#VCPodcast #AIStartups #EnterpriseAI #TechFounders #Rubrik #WisdomAI

5Moritz Sudhof is the Co-founder and CEO of Bigspin. He additionally sits on the AI Task Force for the International Coaching Federation, specifically focused on the impact of artificial intelligence in coaching. Holding a BS and MS in Computer Science from Stanford, Moritz has authored influential research on emotion and politeness in language and collaborated on AI research with institutions such as Stanford University, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and the Federal Reserve.Passionate about using AI to foster empathy and understanding, Moritz led development of the first AI-enabled employee engagement solution as Chief Data Scientist at Kanjoya and then Principal Data Scientist at Ultimate Software (now UKG). Most recently, Moritz co-founded Motive Software, a company dedicated to helping organizations leverage language data to better understand and support their people. Moritz served as CEO until BetterUp acquired Motive in 2021. He's most excited to participate in building a future where AI responsibly helps every person become their best.Topics:

• AI, Coaching & Human-Centered Intelligence
• Future of Work & AI Enablement
• Building & Scaling Responsible AI Startups

#AI #ResponsibleAI #FutureOfWork #HumanCenteredAI #LeadershipDevelopment