The Insanely Fast Wave of Octant Bio
Why a hot startup open-sourced their most in-demand technology during COVID19
Octant Bio, an Ulu portfolio company, uses synthetic biology to advance computational drug discovery. They are developing a database of how new drugs act on multiple targets or disease pathways to identify new compounds to fight complex […]
Managing Risk in a “Risky” Environment
Venture investing has always been based on a healthy understanding of and appetite for risk. Even during the long bull expansion that ended in the first quarter of 2020, success [...]
How to be an Ally in a Diverse Community (part 2)
With the pandemic and the uprisings profoundly affecting minority communities across the country, people go to work everyday and may have no idea that their colleagues of color are undergoing [...]
Only Justice Will Heal Our Wounds
This pandemic is a kaleidoscope of images, a swirl of feelings for many of us, especially among people of color who, according to ABC News, are 3 or 2.5 [...]
Rever: Empowering Frontline Workers
An Ulu Ventures Interview with Errette Dunn CEO/Co-Founder Rever Rusty Dornin, Ulu Ventures: We are pretty excited about Rever and just made an investment. It's an improvement AI software [...]
Emerging from the Fallout
As the nation attempts to kickstart the economy and re-open safely, the fallout from the shutdown is becoming more clear, exposing the devastation in vulnerable communities. But researchers, entrepreneurs, [...]
Building a Bridge for the Underserved
Over 65 million Americans are underbanked, and either use limited banking services, or are forced to use expensive alternative financial services like Western Union, Green Dot, and others for cash [...]
Calling all grassroots innovators!
Grassroots efforts driven by people passionate to help the most vulnerable in unusual ways. Just when times seem bleakest you'll see stories about researchers discovering that llamas on one farm [...]
We need to prepare for the future of work
Concerns about the future of work and getting help for underserved communities hit hard by the economic downturn are on the forefront of this week’s column as unemployment hits the worst [...]
Safeguarding the World’s Energy Infrastructure
Buzz Solutions ensures our digital lives have power by helping utilities analyze their infrastructure to detect faults, to highlight areas of risk, and to generally improve the reliability and safety [...]
Potential Progress on the Pandemic Front
Scientific research makes advances in the battle against the pandemic......volunteers offer themselves as research subjects to advance the cause of finding an effective vaccine. UCSF leads a global effort to [...]
Revolutionizing How Corporate Debt is Managed and Sourced
On a good day, managing liquidity and accessing capital are top three topics for company CEOs and CFOs. In the current environment, it’s either number one or number two. Cerebro [...]
More relief, more pivots, more help for seniors…and a little love and happiness
Making sense of the latest $480B package once again has many startup founders, small business owners, and even hospitals, on pins and needles to see if they will receive the [...]
Let’s Get Direct Relief to the Most Vulnerable Now!
It's evident that government assistance alone is not enough to fill the massive need of those without work and income, or who face additional challenges due to their age, health [...]
Time to make, innovate, donate, volunteer!
As the weeks unfold and Americans continue “sheltering in place”, many entrepreneurs, researchers, business leaders and others have increasingly recognized that governmental response can be inconsistent and unpredictable. There are [...]
Adversity and Sometimes a Little Empathy Lead to Innovation
With the President’s signing into law the CARES Act on Monday, including the Paycheck Protection Plan that will provide billions of dollars of loans to small businesses, there’s hope that [...]
Entrepreneurs Mobilizing Against COVID-19 #2
What does the CARES Act mean for entrepreneurs? The stimulus package will provide $350b in small business loans to help with covering expenses for 8 weeks. Loaned funds spent on [...]
Entrepreneurs Mobilize Against COVID-19
Globally, we have embarked on the most challenging and stressful journey in recent history. The negative news and chatter can be overwhelming. We want to call attention to many hopeful, positive [...]
Seed Stage Misconceptions
As an early stage investment firm, we’ve encountered even sophisticated limited partners who have common misconceptions about seed stage. Those misconceptions can lead to investing capital in less [...]
The Four Pillars of Digital Asset Valuation
One of the puzzles associated with investing in “Digital Assets” is figuring out a rational and defensible means for valuing them. It’s a challenge for individual investors and an [...]
Clash of the Titans
Visa’s announcement it intends to acquire Fintech superstar Plaid is just the latest example that the larger Fintech space has fully entered what I call the “Clash of the [...]