Greetings all, I hope your November is going well. 👋

I released another episode of Ventures this week (Ep. 158). From my car - driving through the mountains - I talk through a number of updates with my for-profit and nonprofit work…i.e. Prota Ventures, our second fund, how we get operationally involved in our portfolio companies, and who we serve.

As an example during the episode, I discuss my involvement with AI Layer, which is a new company providing “AI Inference as a service (AiaaS)”, which leverages an upcoming Web3 protocol (named “6079” - a reference from the book 1984) that will be decentralized and widely available next year.

Finally, I talk about updates - and my volunteering involvement - with Impact Stream and Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST).

Check it out: Fall updates: Prota Ventures, AI Layer, Impact Stream, and REST

I want to give a special shout-out as well to International Literacy and Development (ILAD), which is a close partner of Impact Stream’s. I’ll be interviewed briefly at their online event this Sunday at 6:30pm CST. Learn more and RSVP here.

Founders 

If you are building a new venture-scale company (i.e. a “startup” intending to grow big and fast), then you likely need money to grow. The problem is - of course - that getting access to this money is extremely hard.

If you think of it in terms of supply and demand, then the “supply” of cash (from angels/VCs/etc…) is much, much lower than the demand from founders looking to grow their companies.

So - as a VC myself - I can tell you that lining up a strong team, with a solid financial model in place, and a huge “pipe” of potential customers that are clamoring for your product (demonstratively via contracts, LOIs, and/or testimonials!) is the best way to land venture capital.

At Prota Ventures, what we do is bring multiple forms of capital to early stage founders to make it a no-brainer for VCs to invest. Learn more and reach out to us here.

Investors

Yes, investors like good “deal flow” to co-invest in, but I’ve found that the co-investing experience itself is often what investors (especially angel investors) like to buy into. The herd mentality amongst VCs/angels can be aggravating for founders, but there’s a significant opportunity here to network closely with us at Prota if you are curious in investing multiple forms of capital into startups. If you fit this profile, reply and hit me up. I’d love to talk with you about opportunities.

Talent

We’ve built an internal app within Prota to help connect talent to job opportunities within our network. If you’d like to join our beta - contact us here. We recognize that creating a vibrant community of talent that is available to work for cash/equity in startups in our portfolio helps everyone succeed.

Donors 

I’d love for you to consider Impact Stream, REST, and/or ILAD for your year-end giving. You can learn more about them in the links I provided here, but my personal ask is that you join me in considering donating. I’d love to jump on a call with you to share more about why these are important organizations for me. Hit me up on LinkedIn and let’s connect.

Have a great weekend!

~Will