There’s no such thing as an August slowdown at Daring Ventures, and we’re excited to share what we’ve been up to for the last month!
GP Updates From Maddi & Joe:
We took advantage of the August lull to increase our reach across all channels to share Daring Ventures anywhere and everywhere and emphasize how incredible our founders are.
Expect to see even more of us both online and in-person as we’ve got a full slate of events coming up for the fall, both in NYC and on the road.
Being first-time fund managers comes with a lot of ups and downs, and we remain in awe of the people in our corner cheering us on through both the highs and the lows (S/O Heather Hartnett at Human Ventures).
Fundraising Updates:
Strong engagement with LPs in all stages of our pipeline
Substantially increased engagement at the late stages with both institutional LPs & individuals now in our data room
We are still confident in our ability to hit our first close at $7,000,000 by EOY
We’re committed to rewarding our earliest LPs for their deep trust & partnership
Where You Can Help:
LP introductions! Please feel free to forward this email along to anyone who might be a fit.
Our fundraising deck: https://invest.daringventures.vc/fundraising
Maddi & Joe will be in LA from September 10th - 17th. Is there someone we should meet up with while we're in town?
Are you interested in seeing the deals we see? Fill out our deal flow questionnaire for a tailored round-up of the opportunities that hit our desk!
We’re always open to constructive criticism, feedback, or anything else that we should know. Life is a series of freshman years, and we’re always trying to learn.
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to us if there is any way we could be helpful to you; supporting our ecosystem is truly what we enjoy the most.
Warmly,
Maddi Holman & Joe Alalou
Your two GPs
Portfolio and Operations Updates
Operations Updates:
We continue to actively source deals, meet with founders, and maintain a robust pipeline to fulfill our promise that we’re a turnkey operation.
In August, we added 8 companies to our active pipeline.
NeueHouse, our coworking space, closed it’s doors this month so we look forward to hosting y’all for coffee in a new space. Will keep y’all posted on where we land.
Portfolio Highlights
Hostie: AI customer experience platform for restaurants
Partnered with Yelp to enhance the waitlist experience through AI. Read about their partnership here.
Hostie was featured on CNBC! Check out the clip here.
Hosted a Hospitality Happy Hour in San Francisco with over 90 guests!
Helped the Stinking Rose Group manage 24,000 calls through their virtual concierge, which led to over-the-phone bookings increasing by 117% in the first month. Read about how they did this here.
Created a blog post differentiating their product from Slang, a general-purpose voice automation platform. Read more about this comparison here.
Posted a short clip of an interview with one of their design partners, Flour+Water Hospitality Group. Check out the clip here.
Adding new product features for August including scoring. The AI can now give a rubric for what Hostie believes makes a great call.
PraxisPro: AI-powered intelligent backbone for the future of life science commercialization
Signed a strategic partnership with a global life science services company. The company has more than 10,000 employees across 35 countries. This partnership gives PraxisPro the opportunity to scale past just commercial organizations.
3 major partnership announcements coming in the next 60 days.
Hosting their first in-person scoping session to finalize revenue share, timelines, and joint go-to-market plans in order to continue to bring value to their customers.
Steer: All-in-one influencer marketing solution built for consumer service brands
Recently brought on an Advisor that is an OG within the affiliate marketing space. Excited to share more once they announce who has joined!
Integrated with Boulevard to add their brands as potential Steer customers (services over 5,000 businesses).
Will be kicking off their pre-seed raise mid-fall.
Beagle Labs: AI platform that empowers insurance carriers to underwrite homeowners and commercial property policies up to 10x faster with significantly fewer errors
Signed $1.6M in new contracts and expansion into commercial properties.
Inspected over 12,000 properties to date, averaging 4 days per inspection.
Executed over $4M in auto adjusted premiums to date.
Organizing a few Beagle community and launch events for new products toward the end of 2025. Stay on the lookout for more details on these events through their website!
Can’t Get Enough Daring Ventures?
Upcoming Speaking / Events
9/9 - 9/10: NY Venture Summit
9/15 - 9/17: SuperReturns US West (Los Angeles)
9/16: We’re hosting a private dinner in Los Angeles for folks investing in or building in sports, media, or entertainment. We still have a few spots available so email Maddi ([email protected]) or check out the Luma event if you’re interested in coming or know someone who might be!
9/18: LvlUp Founder & Investor Networking Event (NYC)
9/23: We're hosting a yoga class for a select few of our investor community here in New York. We will be back with pics from "Downward Dog Daring" in Madison Square Park!
9/25: We're partnering with Morrison Foerster (MoFo) for their PopUp NYC series. MoFo will be announcing the venue a week before...catch us on a rooftop somewhere in Manhattan to close out the real end of summer!
Out of Scope: Our creative outlet. It’s a blog about venture capital, except when it isn’t, which is most of the time.
Other Media Appearances
Behind the Scenes
Snack of the Month! Maddi has a knack for running into founders of delicious food brands (PopDaddy was the first).
Stuzzi is a premium Italian hot sauce created by hospitality veteran Carla Rza Betts (winemaker) and acclaimed chefs Ethel Hoon and Jakob Zeller (Fäviken - Zagat top ten world's best restaurant) in partnership with Casa Komos Brand Group (creators of Komos Tequila, Superbird, and Doladira).
Though Stuzzi falls out of our investment thesis (CPG), we have made intros for the team to pure CPG investors. Carla was so thankful that she sent Daring a batch of Stuzzi. Now that’s hot!
Stuzzi delivered for the team! Shout out to Carla Betts!