Monica Enand

👩🏫 Faculty buy-in is the missing link in many EdTech rollouts. Tools fail not because of the tech—but because faculty weren’t included, trained, or trusted as partners. 💡 Adoption starts with alignment. 👉 How do you secure faculty buy-in for new initiatives? Read more: https://buff.ly/tcltnMb #HigherEd #Faculty #EdTech #Leadership #Innovation

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What’s old is new. Funny to watch VCs flood back to out-of-favor business models—hardware-enabled software, marketplaces, consumer tech—which are now viewed as more defensible because AI can't easily replicate physical infrastructure, network effects, or brand.

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Layer is tackling one of the most overlooked pain points for SMBs: accounting. They’re gaining real traction doing so. Emergence is leading their seed round to bring embedded, AI-powered accounting to the SMB software stack. Kevin Spain highlights what makes this team and product so compelling. 

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Company building in energy is shaped by early decisions that compound over time—how capital is structured, how technical risk is absorbed, and how teams prepare for scale well before it arrives.    Much of my work with founders centers on navigating those choices as deep science becomes real businesses. The details differ across power, materials, and industrial systems, but the challenge is consistent: building companies that can operate, adapt, and grow over long horizons.  You can see that work taking shape across the Breakthrough Energy portfolio. https://lnkd.in/eXd72trE

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I spoke with Christien Louviere of BDE Capital about his journey from a $330mm exit to becoming an independent sponsor. Christien shared excellent insights for folks looking to partner with business owners, rather than buy sellers out completely. Below are a few of the topics we covered: - Why he moved from “zero-to-one” startups to a buy-then-build strategy - How Christien's background shaped a focus on growth vs. cost-cutting - Why 20–40% rolled equity is central to his deal structures—and how it builds trust with sellers - Using scenario analysis with AI tools to evaluate management teams and uncover hidden key-person risks - How to identify when a $3–5M EBITDA company truly has a middle management layer—or is still founder-reliant For anyone investing in or buying small businesses, Christien’s approach provides a fresh lens on growth, alignment, and deal structuring. 🎥 Watch the full interview here → https://lnkd.in/ekfkaiej 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e86Agx6V

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A friend at a large U.S. utility recently described her role as "getting every megawatt I can." That pretty well sums up the state of electricity today: thanks to the rise of AI and electrification, utilities are pulling out all the stops to expand capacity. Meanwhile, we built a grand total of 300 miles of new high voltage transmission lines in the U.S. last year. So what to do? Primarily, get more out of existing lines. Which is why I'm excited that we at Energy Impact Partners are partnering with Niall Coogan and the team at AssetCool by leading their Series A financing. AssetCool's proprietary line coating lowers the temperature of a conductor, allowing it to transmit up to 30% more capacity at a cost roughly 1/10th that of reconductoring. It's a no-brainer value proposition, hitting the market just when its needed most. https://lnkd.in/gZnnqFnM

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