Alex N.

We invest at Pre-VC and Pre-Seed, and then help our founders find a Seed round when they're ready. Here are 27 Seed investors that we *know* are active right now. Blue Moon Bonfire Ventures Chingona Ventures Flying Fish Partners Foothill Ventures Great North Ventures ground game HealthX Ventures InsurTech Venture Partners KCRise Fund Las Olas Venture Capital Leva Capital Maven Ventures Monte Carlo Capital Moonshots Capital OneSixOne Ventures Oval Park Capital Pixel Perfect Ventures Range Ventures Revolution SNAK Venture Partners Startup Capital Ventures Supernode Global Susa Ventures Trilogy Equity Partners True Ventures True Wealth Ventures

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I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb

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California just handed cities a new enforcement tool to track your Airbnb. SB 346 took effect January 1, 2026. Now any California city can demand that Airbnb and Vrbo turn over detailed information about every listing: addresses, booking nights, and compliance status. This isn't theoretical. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have been waiting for exactly this kind of authority. If you operate STRs in California, the compliance conversation starts with your registration. Is it current with each municipality where you operate? Does your listing display the correct permit number? Local occupancy limits vary significantly by city, so what flies in San Diego might get you fined in Santa Monica. Then there's the tax question. Platforms collect state lodging taxes automatically, but many local taxes are still your responsibility to remit. Documentation matters when audits come knocking. The broader trend is clear. 2025 saw more states tighten platform accountability. Louisiana now requires Airbnb and Vrbo to collect and remit sales tax as accommodation intermediaries. New York counties are building registries with detailed booking data requirements. Here's what I'm seeing with STR operators who stay ahead of this: they're using AI to handle the communication burden that compliance creates. Automated guest messaging about local quiet hours, occupancy limits, parking rules. Compliance gets you legal. Automation gets you sane. The operators who survive 2026 won't be the ones who ignored the regulatory shift. They'll be the ones who got compliant and then freed themselves from the operational weight of staying that way. Is your STR portfolio ready for January audits? And more importantly, is your communication system ready to support the guest experience while you focus on the business side? If you're curious what AI-assisted guest communication looks like for STR operators, I'm happy to walk through it. Drop a comment or send me a DM.

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Every #VentureStudio GP knows some portfolio bets won’t hit. That's expected - and it's one of the reasons studios are such a powerful vehicle for innovation. And while a venture's failure might be what's visible to the outsider, what keeps them up at night isn’t failure at the venture level — it’s failure at the systemic level within the studio. One bad entity design. One IP misstep. One governance gap. That’s how studio operations fall apart. We break down how to spot (and fix) these cracks before they turn into fault lines in our latest paper, "The GP Dilemma" - DM me and I'll send you a copy!

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After 2,500 closed transactions, Andy Allaway (CEO of Empire Flippers) has seen it all. During the company’s early days, Empire Flippers was focused on small online businesses, but has grown to support a broad range of acquisitions. Here are a few takeaways from our conversation: 1️⃣ Verify the buyer can replace the seller – Multiples compress fast when the owner works 40-50 hrs/week or holds unique know-how. Price in a professional salary and make sure buyers expect (and are able) to work full-time post close. This is especially true when pricing a business based on SDE vs. EBITDA. 2️⃣ Protectable IP drives pricing power – In SaaS, review the code repository (or find someone who can); in e-com, check trademarks, brand registry and traffic diversification. Weak protection can often result in less sustainable earnings. 3️⃣ Transparency helps close deals – Most busted deals trace back to surprises in diligence. Both buyers and sellers who share openly and communicate clearly build credibility and trust with one another. 4️⃣ Match skill set to business model – Buying a paid-traffic-driven store without marketing chops is like inheriting a CNC shop you can’t operate. Buyers need to fit the business and value creation strategy - and have the right people supporting them. Even if e-commerce or SaaS isn’t your lane, Andy lays out transferable advice every small business buyer and investor should keep in mind. Full episode below: 🎥 Watch → https://lnkd.in/eJVPUvJF 🎧 Audio → https://lnkd.in/eUvsASDZ

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Resale is one of the fastest-growing sectors in commerce, but scaling it is complex. Product intake, authentication, pricing, and listing are still largely manual, slowing growth and limiting margins for retailers entering the resale space. HAMMOQ Inc. solves this by automating resale operations. Their AI-powered platform handles product listing, content generation, pricing optimization, and marketplace management, enabling retailers and recommerce platforms to scale sustainably and profitably. At Silicon Road Ventures, we invested in Hammoq because they’re powering the operational backbone of the circular economy, making sustainability not just a value, but a viable business model. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gyeuJgu9 Discover the exceptional founders who are forging the future of commerce: https://lnkd.in/gyikTJ3c #PortfolioCompany #CircularEconomy #AI #RetailTech #Automation #Recommerce

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