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Ten years ago, investing in US supply chain and manufacturing tech felt like swimming against the tide. Non-consensus, long sales cycles, hardware risk — most VCs stayed away.Today? We’re in the middle of a reindustrialization moment. And Jackie DiMonte, co-founder of Grid Capital, explained it better than anyone on my recent podcast:Reindustrialization isn’t just a policy slogan. It’s the collision of two forces:Platform shifts: AI and automation have finally made the ROI undeniable for manufacturers who once saw tech as “nice to have.”People shifts: 2.5M boomer-owned businesses are changing hands, often to digital-native operators who see software as default, not optional.Add in geopolitics, the CHIPS Act, COVID supply shocks — and you get momentum that’s reshaping how and where America builds.The data proves it: new construction spend for manufacturing has tripled since 2020, peaking at $240B before settling near $225B. Even “slowing” looks like an entirely new baseline.And startups? They’re no longer fringe players. There are 30x more industrial tech unicorns today than a decade ago. That means the talent base, the alumni founders, the playbooks — all of it has multiplied.Jackie’s key advice for founders: don’t chase the big, vague transformation pitch. Anchor yourself in a control point — one measurable ROI use case that proves value in months, not years. That’s how you break through risk aversion and win adoption in industries built on caution.The vibe has shifted. Industrial tech isn’t the overlooked cousin of SaaS anymore. It’s where some of the most durable, meaningful companies of the next decade will be built.We talked about her LinkedIn posts on the reindustrialization topic that continue to gain traction recentlyThe U.S. continues building new manufacturing capacity, and critically in electronics (Link)Despite the headlines—AI, robotics, reindustrialization—most of U.S. manufacturing is still moving in the wrong direction (Link)Over the past decade, the number of billion-dollar industrial tech startups have grown 25x (Link)Jackie was a thoughtful guest, and we managed to cover a lot of ground in just 30 minutes. I think you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as I did — links below to listen in!Connect with us:Jackie DiMonte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdimonte/Grid Capital: https://www.gridcap.com/Rohit Yadav: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohityadav23/

The most puzzling thing about Blitzhire acquisitions isn’t that they’re expensive.It’s that they’re deliberately inefficient.Billions flow through structures that make zero financial sense—unless you’re one of a handful of AI giants racing at breakneck speed.Here’s the playbook Villi Iltchev unpacked on TheOnePoint Podcast:▪️ Instead of acquiring the company, buyers pay billions for a non-exclusive license to its IP (exclusive would trigger regulators).▪️ Then they layer on billion-dollar retention packages for founders and researchers—sometimes valuing a single engineer at $100M.▪️ Finally, they leave nine-figure sums on the balance sheet so the “shell” company still looks alive to antitrust eyes.Grossly inefficient? Absolutely. Hundreds of millions get burned in taxes and leakage.But for the Googles of the world, time matters more than money. They don’t want regulators dragging a deal out for a year while rivals stack AI talent.Blitzhire is the new acquihire—but only for the top 3–5 labs with trillions at stake. For everyone else, the M&A market remains sluggish, IPOs aren’t “closed” but repriced, and SaaS exits are harder than ever.It’s corporate Darwinism in slow motion: survival velocity for the giants, stagnation for the rest.Topics that we covered (00:00) Episode intro and guest introduction – Villi Iltchev of Category Ventures(00:48) What is Category Ventures? Fund size, focus, and thesis(01:54) Why Villi started Category – solving the “subscale VC” problem(04:46) Category’s ability to lead rounds and bring certainty for founders(05:49) Emotional side of running a new VC firm in a frothy AI market(08:28) What is a Blitzhire acquisition? Origins and mechanics explained(13:48) Structuring Blitzhire deals – IP licenses, retention packages, and keeping shells alive(16:19) Why Blitzhires are grossly inefficient but deliver speed(17:10) Will more Blitzhire deals happen? Comparing AI to the mobile war(20:13) Acquihires then vs Blitzhires now – from $1M per engineer to $100M per researcher(21:59) The state of IPOs and why pricing, not access, is the issue(25:30) M&A dynamics: why big buyers prefer large targets, not smaller SaaS firms(27:15) What’s next for Category Ventures – building brand and reputation over timeSocial linksVilli Iltchev: https://www.linkedin.com/in/villi04/Category Ventures: https://www.categoryvc.com/Rohit Yadav: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohityadav23/

Until recently, “venture capital in India” was shorthand for consumer apps, low-cost data, and billion-user TAM slides. Payments, e-commerce, food delivery. Then came a different kind of story.Leo Capital.In just a few years, it has built four funds and is actively investing across the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, and, of course, India — and stitched together a thesis that quietly rewires how Indian talent gets backed. They call it Global Indian Alpha.On paper, that phrase looks like branding. In practice, it’s a structural edge.➰ Consider LambdaTest. Seeded when it was just a concept, now $50M+ ARR with an AI-driven pivot executed in six months.➰ Consider Atoa Payments. Inspired by UPI in India, applied to open banking in the UK, cutting merchant fees in half.➰ Across the portfolio, 70+ companies spanning India, the US, and Europe.None of this is about chasing hype cycles. It’s about building a platform that can diligence a founder in San Francisco on Monday and their co-founder in Bangalore on Tuesday — in person, not just on Zoom. Few funds can do that.The Indian startup story most outsiders know, changing but is still largely domestic: consumer scale, policy tailwinds, IPO windows.What Leo is showing is the second chapter: India not as a market, but as a global talent engine. 40M diaspora, second only to the US in unicorn founder count, now building cross-border companies from day one.This isn’t the cliché of “India is the next China.” It’s the less flashy, more durable reality: capital efficiency honed in Bangalore, scaled in Silicon Valley, monetized in London.Venture capital usually talks in abstractions — “moats,” “founder love,” “operating edge.” What we’re seeing here is rarer: an actual playbook that converts India’s talent diaspora into measurable portfolio outcomes.The punchline? In venture, as in software, the real narrative inversion doesn’t happen when you shout louder. It happens when you quietly build the muscle others haven’t yet noticed.Great chatting with Shwetank Verma from Leo Capital.Two of his quotes stayed with me:“The more you do this kind of cross-border investing, the more you build that cultural muscle.”“We felt that there was nobody really playing for this global India play.”

Noah Lichtenstein has a simple but sharp take on venture right now:Capital is commoditized. Edge comes from operators.The irony is hard to ignore. Venture used to pride itself on sourcing the next big thing before anyone else. Now? Most funds are chasing the same deals, and the only real differentiator is whether a founder wants you in the room.Crossover’s bet is that founders want people who’ve been there. The ones who scaled Databricks, Instacart, Perplexity, Lattice. Operators turned investors who act as magnets for the next generation of builders.But underneath the narrative are some uncomfortable truths Noah calls out:Aggregation of capital: 79% of venture dollars last year went to just 30 firms. Call it the “Blackstonification” of venture — giant funds hoovering capital while returns concentrate in a few hands.Family offices’ dilemma: everyone wants direct startup access, but without asymmetric information you’re usually “the last to know.” If Sequoia just preempted the round, why would you get the invite?Too many emerging managers: post-ZIRP, everyone wanted to spin up a fund. The harsh reality? Unless you’re in the tiny sliver of outlier funds, you’d be better off in the S&P 500.Portfolio construction as strategy: writing 25K angel checks doesn’t prove you can win allocations when the check needs to be $1M+. Moving up the pyramid is brutally hard.So where does this head? A few downstream consequences Noah sees:(1) Specialization beats generalization. Unless you’re Sequoia or Benchmark, the generalist VC is in decline. Right to win now means domain expertise + operating scars.(2) Data as a filter. With exposure to ~1,000 seed-stage companies, Crossover tracks 120+ data points to find the 10–15% worth leaning into. Signal in the noise becomes survival.(3) Excellence compounds. Their dinner series brings billion-dollar founders, seed-stage builders, and even pro athletes into the same room. No agenda — just a flywheel of ambition and ideas.Venture may not be “dead,” but it’s undeniably reshaping. Scale sits at the top, but edge lives at the bottom — with the operators, networks, and small funds that still feel like craft.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what really drives systemic change in venture — not lofty slogans, but the small, structural choices that compound into outsized impact.At Alma Angels, a few patterns keep showing up. They look tactical in the moment, but in hindsight, they’re transformative:▪️ Measure impact in deals, not press.A traditional syndicate might do 5–15 investments a year. Alma Angels did 68 last year alone. Scale matters.▪️ Start at the cap table.Wealth at the early stage is created as a founder or as an investor. If women aren’t in those positions, they’re locked out of the biggest driver of wealth creation.▪️ Design away bias.Instead of one syndicate lead deciding, every deal is open to all members. With 550+ angels, bias gets diluted and different kinds of companies get a shot.▪️ Community is capital.The biggest value-add isn’t always the largest check. Founders point to Alma angels as the most helpful on their cap table — doors opened, not just money wired.▪️ Broadening who gets funded compounds returns.Women-founded businesses deliver 78% ROI vs. 31% for all-male teams. Less capital, more creativity, faster profitability — the math is on their side.▪️ Play long-term games.This isn’t about a single round. It’s about building 10,000 angels backing 1,000 companies every year — and generating $1 trillion in women-led wealth by 2050.The lesson: systemic change doesn’t happen in headlines. It happens in repeated behavior, in how capital is allocated, in who gets the chance to build.

Series A used to be the “first real round.” Today it looks more like the old Series B.The shift is measurable. Median Series A round size in the U.S. has climbed into the $15–20M range — nearly double a decade ago. Meanwhile, the so-called jumbo Seed ($5–9M) has taken over the slot Series A once occupied. Labels changed, expectations escalated.What does that mean in practice?1. ARR thresholds are blurryThe old heuristic — $1M ARR → ready for A — is now dangerous. In crowded spaces, 8–10 companies can all show similar traction. Investors hesitate to pick and instead wait for clearer breakout signals.2. Decks as filtersFunds see hundreds of decks each month. Overloaded “consulting decks” kill momentum. One idea per slide, ≤15 slides, and a single killer proof point up front (graph, team, or contrarian market insight). The goal isn’t to inform — it’s to qualify.3. Execution velocityFollow-on times have compressed. A compelling wedge gets copied in weeks, not years. Founders that raise A’s today typically show:Rapid multi-product expansion (not just a single line of business)Fast team scaling (5–6 strong hires in year one vs. none)Enterprise adoption signals (household logos early)4. Narrative as segmentationInvestors don’t just need to believe in you — they need a reason you’re different from the other nine credible players. Market segmentation (e.g. auto shops vs. data labelers in AI hiring) turns noise into thesis. Without it, your story blends in.5. Process mathExpect ~40 investor meetings to close a Series A. Preparation runs ~1 month (story, deck, data room) followed by ~1–2 months of meetings. Underprepared founders rarely get a second chance.The pattern is clear:Round labels shifted up one notch.Growth rates inflated by outlier AI cases distort benchmarks.Execution signals now matter more than raw ARR.Series A hasn’t vanished — it’s just priced, sized, and judged like yesterday’s Series B.Glad that Samit Kalra joined and shared all these insights. As he aptly said - “Execution beats theoretical moats.” and “It’s just so hard to raise right now that you might as well give it your best shot.”Samit’s Founder’s Handbook is also a treasure.Specially the chapter on How to Nail Your Series A Deck - https://1984.vc/docs/founders-handbook/series-a-deck

One of the most surprising “turnaround” stories right now isn’t a brand. It’s a region: Europe.For decades, Europe played the background track in geopolitics — comfortable under Pax Americana, importing cheap energy, outsourcing security, and letting its industrial base thin out. That era ended the moment Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.And suddenly, the continent that perfected managed scarcity is being forced to rediscover risk, scale, and hard power.Here’s what’s happening:Defense tech isn’t taboo anymore. A generation of founders who once refused to sell to defense are now asking, “How can we help?”Series B is a kill zone. Hardware + defense startups can vibe through Seed and A, but by B you’re burning millions per test flight. Patient capital, debt, and government R&D aren’t optional — they’re survival.Industrial resilience is cool again. Rare earth alternatives, AI-driven factories, logistics automation. The “boring” verticals are now the battlegrounds for sovereignty.Family offices are back in the spotlight. They’re not just LPs chasing returns. They’re shipping, automotive, and manufacturing dynasties looking for foresight and strategic intelligence.The bigger story? Venture is no longer apolitical. Every investment is now a bet on sovereignty, resilience, and who gets to write the next chapter of the global economy.This isn’t just about chasing IRR. It’s about whether Europe chooses to be a buyer of future technologies — or a builder of them.As Henry Palmer of Lightridge put it: the mission is simple — rebuild capacity to create wealth, and defend democracy.Not your average VC pitch.Social LinksHenry Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henryjpalmer/Rohit Yadav: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohityadav23/Rethinking Venture Capital Report: https://www.rethink.bigbook.vc/Key chapters in the podcast discussion(00:00) Episode intro and context on geopolitics in venture capital(02:36) What is Lightridge and its mission of industrial resilience & security(03:29) Why Henry started Lightridge after Amplifier Ventures(04:20) Differentiating specialist vs. generalist VC funds(06:30) Portfolio highlights from Amplifier: Terminal, Hive, Isembard(08:09) The European Ambition Institute and its role in shaping strategy(09:58) From Pax Americana to a multipolar world: geopolitics reshaping Europe(17:48) Can Europe achieve technological sovereignty or remain dependent?(20:18) How family offices view geopolitics, venture, and strategic industries(24:20) Defense tech in focus: dual-use vs. defense-specific innovations(28:55) Beyond defense: opportunities in materials, logistics, and advanced manufacturing(32:27) Misconceptions in defense investing and the “Series B kill zone”(38:01) What’s next for Lightridge and its mission ahead

For decades, venture capital’s edge came from being in the room.The right dinners, the right syndicates, the right backchannels.But are those edges are eroding!? Companies stay private longer, DPI is suppressed, and capital pools are more crowded than ever. Selection risk is up, liquidity is down, and “alpha” doesn’t look like it used to.If yesterday’s advantage was network and knowledge arbitrage, today’s may be something different: data arbitrage.The idea is simple but radical: what if you could reconstruct the invisible graphs behind venture—who co-invests with whom, where talent migrates, which circles spot signal first? What if benchmarks weren’t generic Cambridge tables, but dynamic peer sets tailored to each segment? What if diligence cycles compressed from weeks to days, powered by proprietary models fused with LLMs?At that point, a fund-of-funds is no longer just a fee layer. It starts to look more like an operating system: allocator, co-investor, and analytics engine in one. A platform that doesn’t just access networks, but maps them before anyone else walks in the room.And that raises a deeper question: when networks and judgment can be modeled, does gut feel still rule VC—or are we watching the first serious attempt to systematise private markets bringing it a lot closer to hedge funds?That’s the bet being made by Level VC and its founder, Albert Azout.💥 “We want to be the best quantitative investor in the private markets.”As Albert puts it: “We’re trying to build the most sophisticated data flywheel in private markets.” And a lot of their tools are available to their portfolio funds and companies - that’s an instant value add.This is venture reimagined — not by instinct alone, but by infrastructure.Bonus feature: A rare inside view of their system and how they are mixing tech+AI+data to build a revolutionary platform.

In 2024, India’s startup IPO market was on fire.Thirteen new-age tech companies — from Swiggy to Ola Electric — went public raising around US$3.4 billionBut 2025 looks different.As Anoop Menon (Principal at Chiratae Ventures) told me on TheOnePoint Podcast, the IPO engine has shifted gears. Not because of India’s fundamentals — which remain strong — but because founders and boards are asking the harder question: “Are we truly IPO ready?”Here’s what that readiness really means:🔹 Predictable revenue & profit trajectories, quarter after quarter🔹 2–3 quarters of EBITDA-level profitability before listing🔹 Discipline in forecasts & communication to analysts🔹 Governance standards that can withstand public market scrutinyThe lesson? IPOs are not just about access to capital. They are about earning public trust.And in this cycle, we’ll likely see stronger, more resilient ones.The exciting part? Anoop expects 25–30 new venture-backed IPOs over the next 2 years. And not just consumer names — but fintech infrastructure, consumer tech.Interestingly, Anoop also shared that more Indian SaaS firms, previously U.S.-domiciled, are flipping back to list in India. Why? Because demand is strong, valuations are fair, and domestic + foreign institutional investors are eager for differentiated tech assets.🎧 We unpacked the macro factors, institutional pricing pressures, and why some global SaaS companies are even flipping back to India to list here.,

🔥 Excited to announce the launch of TheOnePoint — Sharp Takes.A new, punchier podcast format that is shorter, sharper, and yet impactful.And in the first episode, we talk about a touchy and overlooked topic – VC’s legal fees 💸Most startup founders don’t realize they’re paying for something they shouldn’t. Yet… 99% of VCs still include it.As Auren Hoffman (GP at Flex Capital) shared with me on the podcast, this isn’t just a small line item.It can eat up 1–3% of a round and drag out closings by weeks.👉 Imagine closing a $2M round and watching $50K evaporate straight into opposing counsel’s pocket.It’s an outdated artifact in term sheets, which is:🚫 Investor unfriendly (why should other investors subsidize one VC’s lawyer?)🚫 LP unfriendly (hidden fees eroding returns)But founders can push back. And some funds (like Flex Capital, etc.) are already proving it’s possible to run deals without burdening the founders.🎧 We broke down why this clause exists, why it’s toxic for founders and LPs, and what a more founder-friendly future might look like.And this is just the start — every episode of Sharp Takes will cut through the noise to surface the ideas, perspectives, and shifts that matter most to founders and investors.Social Links: Auren Hoffman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/auren/Flex Capital: https://www.flexcapital.com/Rohit Yadav: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohityadav23/The Big Book of VC: http://bigbook.vc/