Jeffrey Housenbold

I’ve spoken to over 2 dozen MDs at PE firms I can confidently say that the arb of figuring out how to implement Vertical AI at portfolio companies is very real right now It will fundamentally change underwriting for those who can do it predictably and unlock generational returns. Most are aware they need to act. Very few have.

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Curious about how venture studios can drive climate innovation? Discover their role in nurturing eco-friendly startups and fostering sustainable solutions. Learn more: https://buff.ly/lJ2vfHJ #ClimateInnovation #Sustainability

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The last 90 days have been a wake-up call for anyone watching the space. M&A activity is heating up in agri-fintech and broader #agtech, driven by large strategics, startups + now a wave of private equity platform builders who see the category as ripe for roll-ups. Recent moves include: Proterra Investment Partners acquiring AcreTrader, pairing $3.4B+ in AUM with a farmland investment marketplace already connected to 44,000+ acres ConnectedFi absorbing Conduit, doubling down on embedded financing for ag retailers and manufacturers Growers Edge acquiring FarmTest, adding field-level validation tech to its warranty-backed financial products Bonsai Robotics acquiring Farm-ng, uniting AI-driven autonomy software with modular ag robotics hardware Miraterra Technologies Corporation acquiring Trace Genomics, combining soil DNA analytics with spectroscopy for full-spectrum soil health insights John Deere acquiring Sentera, bolstering its precision ag portfolio with advanced aerial imaging, analytics, and sensor technologies after the company raised $68MM FarmOp Capital selling $250M in farm loans to The Carlyle Group, expanding origination capacity and unlocking more capital for independent row crop farmers 🧐 But the real story is buying patterns Beyond the usual strategics — TELUS, Ever.Ag, the ag chem giants, and the OEM crowd — a new class of buyers is moving in. Valstone and a cohort of Constellation Software Inc.–style consolidators are laser-focused on agtech. These are operators that buy niche B2B platforms, hold them forever, and quietly stack returns through precise capital allocation and operational rigor. The ag value chain is built for their model: a fragmented tech stack, sticky customer relationships, and recurring revenue streams that can be scaled and cross-sold with minimal churn. And they’re not alone. KKR, TA Associates, Banneker Partners, and other PE heavyweights are sizing up the category as their next major play — using the post-2021 valuation reset as an entry point they may not see again for a decade. For them, this isn’t a downturn; it’s the perfect moment to buy quality assets, consolidate the landscape, and set the stage for long-term dominance. 📉 Why now? Many venture-backed agtechs have great products and market share but lack the runway to scale. PE sees an opening to consolidate point solutions into broader platforms. The shift from “growth at all costs” to sustainable profitability aligns perfectly with the PE operating model. 📈 What’s next? Over the next 12–18 months, expect: 1️⃣ Platform roll-ups in farm management, fintech, robotics & analytics 2️⃣ Cross-pollination of agronomy, finance & automation capabilities to control more of the farmgate value chain 3️⃣ Long-term hold strategies where PE operators build quietly but relentlessly in the background The era of disciplined, PE-driven consolidation has begun—and the new players entering the space aren’t here for quick flips. They’re here to own the category

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ZEC on Solana can be private again. Quick primer: Zcash is a privacy coin. Wrapped ZEC on Solana acts like a normal token, not the private coin people expect. Attention has jumped. ZEC is up 380% recently, so bridges rushed to bring it to fast, cheap rails. The catch: most wraps show balances and history to the whole world. That breaks the point of ZEC. If everyone can see balances, the asset feels foreign on Solana. Privacy should travel with the coin, not stop at the bridge. Encifher offers a fix. It re-wraps ZEC into an encrypted asset, eZEC, so balances and transfers stay hidden while still working with Solana apps. FHE means compute on encrypted data. Here’s the simple model. Your eZEC balance lives as ciphertext held off-chain in a data layer, while Solana keeps small pointers on-chain. Math proofs confirm each move without revealing amounts. Keys are split across a group, like a treasure chest that opens only when trusted parties agree. No single party can peek, and single-use accounts break linkability. Private swaps already plug into a leading DEX. My take: asset-level privacy will beat wallet-level tricks on big chains. When privacy sits inside the token itself, it composes cleanly with DeFi and keeps UX simple. Here’s my quick check for a “private” token: 1. Are balances hidden on-chain. 2. Can you swap it in normal DeFi apps. 3. Is linkability blocked with single-use accounts. If I’m wrong, it’s because wallet UX or compliance rules force teams to water this down and users fall back to public wraps. For newcomers: think of eZEC as ZEC’s privacy, restored on Solana’s speed. Same coin, but with secrecy that survives the bridge. That blend is why I’m watching this space closely.

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Micro, Meso, and Macro: How Start-ups Are Shaped Start-ups do not operate in isolation. Their formation, growth, and survival are shaped by influences operating at three levels: micro, meso, and macro. Understanding how these layers interact is central to explaining why some ecosystems mature coherently while others remain active but fragile. The micro level sits closest to the venture. It includes founders, teams, internal governance, early customers, product discipline, and execution capability. These factors directly affect how decisions are made and how quickly learning occurs. Evidence across entrepreneurship research shows that micro-level strength matters, but it functions within constraints it does not control, such as regulation, market access, and capital structure. The macro level defines those constraints. Regulation, capital markets, labour mobility, infrastructure, education systems, and national development strategies shape what types of ventures can realistically form, scale, and exit. Publicly available ecosystem research indicates that consistent policy signals, regulatory clarity, and credible exit pathways are associated with more durable entrepreneurial activity, independent of individual founder talent. Between these two sits the meso layer, which acts as the system’s connective tissue. Accelerators, incubators, venture studios, universities, angel networks, corporate innovation units, and ecosystem builders translate macro intent into micro-level action. This layer influences selection, norms, and narratives. Its impact is indirect and therefore harder to measure, and public data on its effectiveness remains limited. Ecosystem reports and commentary suggest that misalignment most often appears at the meso level. When early-stage logic is applied indiscriminately across all phases of venture development, later-stage needs such as governance maturity, institutional readiness, and exit infrastructure can remain underdeveloped. Activity increases, but structural depth does not always follow. Takeaways Micro capability, meso translation, and macro structure are interdependent, not interchangeable. Most ecosystem distortion emerges when the meso layer exceeds or confuses its role. NSR is reflected when each layer acts within its remit and reinforces, rather than replaces, the others. https://lnkd.in/eGfBW_KN (Papi & Laado) SVC - Misk Foundation - Ministry of Economy and Planning - MEPsaudi -theGarage - Startup Studio National Technology Development Program - Public Investment Fund (PIF) #Venturecapital - KAUST Core Labs - National Development Fund (NDF)

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Seed fundraising hasn’t gotten easier. After reviewing thousands of early-stage companies, one pattern is obvious: most founders don’t fail at seed fundraising because their idea is weak — they fail because they misunderstand how seed rounds actually get done. 👉 That’s why we put together the LvlUp Ventures Guide to Seed Fundraising. It’s not a hype piece. It’s the exact mental model we see strong founders use when they raise efficiently and get back to building. Some of the core takeaways: 🔹 Raise when you have momentum you can explain, not just a polished deck 🔹 Size your round to buy 12–18 months of real progress — not optionality theater 🔹 SAFEs and notes are tools, not shortcuts; understand how they compound dilution 🔹 One committed investor changes everything — momentum beats perfection 🔹 Speed and clarity matter more than squeezing every last point of valuation 🔹 The goal isn’t “winning the round” — it’s setting up the next phase of the company This is the guide we wish more founders read before starting outreach — not halfway through a messy raise. 👇 Question for founders raising right now: What’s been hardest for you — getting in touch with investors, structuring the round, or keeping momentum once conversations start? 👇Want the Full LvlUp Ventures Guide to Seed Fundraising? 👍 Like this Post 💬 Comment “Fundraising” ✅ I’ll DM you the guide and share next steps to get reviewed by LvlUp’s Investment Committee and our 25+ VC partners. #Fundraising #VC #Startup #Seed #EarlyStage #VentureCapital #StartupFounders #Founders #RaisingCapital #Startups #SaaS #Tech #CPG #B2B #Entrepreneurship #BuildInPublic #FundraisingTips #VCInsights

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I don’t like what Carl Fudge is saying here but it’s unfortunately true. My last startup, Vungle, was a victim of its positioning as an adtech + gaming company. We had low multiples as a result. Investors hated the category due to so many previous failures. We tried to position ourselves as our own category many times (user acquisition platform, and also infrastructure for video) but we only confused investors further as a result. In the end, we embraced the dreaded adtech + gaming positioning but tried to explain we were structurally different because we had higher gross margins and were profitable — not great either. In the end, we were bought by PE at an industry standard, EBITDA multiple, which is a real tragedy as we were very disruptive at the time. I still wonder to this day if we had better positioning, maybe we would have sold for more than $780M?

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This piece from Morgan Beller and Daniel Museles gets at something important — the social, emotional, and market forces that push founders to optimize for the present instead of building for the long term https://lnkd.in/dTVSd7-Q

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Hot take: lot's of #LP's are growing underwhelmed with traditional venture investing. 💰 Fees are high given the level of engagement with the company operators. ❓ Access is opaque - LP's are unclear on the portco operations and outcomes. Outcomes are scattered - power law investing can certainly work, but many feel that venture capital investing is just a numbers game. There's another way. I'm biased, but I think it's better: #VentureStudios as an asset class. They blend: 🤜 🤛 Control and ownership 💡 Thematic focus 👬 Partnership with operators Studios offer a fund-like structure — but with more alignment, higher value conversion and less noise. If you're interested in understanding more about the studio model, we have resources to share. Please reach out and let's connect!

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Trying something new this week - a studio industry roundup with my take on what matters. The studio model is no longer an experiment being run in a handful of places. It is infrastructure being built across geographies, sectors, and institutional types. 5️⃣ stories from the past seven days:  1️⃣ OSS Ventures hit a EUR 40M first close on a EUR 75M follow-on fund -- capital raised specifically to back the 30 companies their studio created since 2019. The "build then fund" lifecycle is maturing. B'More Venture Studio with a similar thesis: studio operations first, then dedicated capital to scale what's working.  2️⃣ Delta40 raised $20M from 54 investors across 13 countries to launch Africa's first integrated venture studio and fund. The LP base is almost entirely DFIs and foundations. Impact capital is discovering the studio model as a deployment vehicle, something I seeing across geographies (conversations with Michael Bob Starr and Damias McDonald this week alone) 3️⃣ Start Holdings launched Start.vc out of NYC and Barcelona after a $200M EV infrastructure exit. Another operator-turned-studio-founder. This is the pattern we see quite often in our work at 9point8 -- experienced operators like Jason Goldsmith who've built and exited deciding the studio model is how they want to build next.  4️⃣ UBC HATCH admitted 10 new deep-tech spinouts for Winter 2026 -- mostly climate tech. University venture builders are quietly becoming one of the fastest-growing segments. Follow Evan Allen and Jaimie Testai to keep track of its rapid evolution.  5️⃣ The INVEST Act is advancing through the Senate. If passed, it expands qualifying VC fund size from $10M to $50M and loosens general solicitation rules for accelerator and university events. For studio-funds -- and for folks in the The Venture Studio Forum community tracking policy -- this could be the most significant capital formation legislation since the JOBS Act. If this roundup format is useful, I'll keep it going. What other noteworthy news hit your desk this week, and what stood out to you?

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Thrilled to share the launch of Criticality, a $65M fund built to back founders solving hard, high-leverage problems at the intersection of technical complexity and real-world urgency. Criticality builds on the foundation we’ve laid at Antler - applying our conviction-driven approach to companies at Seed & Series A. The fund is sector-flexible but applies a deep tech lens to each opportunity, targeting non-obvious, high-leverage problems from the earliest stages of company formation. Grateful to the New Mexico State Investment Council for their support in anchoring Criticality. More to come soon from Cash Allred & I.

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