🦢 Robert Lancer

We’re excited to share that our fund has invested in Cerebras Systems. Artificial intelligence is entering a phase where infrastructure matters as much as algorithms. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, the demand for scalable compute to train and run increasingly complex models is growing exponentially. Cerebras is building technology designed specifically for this new era of AI. Their breakthrough approach centers on wafer-scale computing — a radically different architecture built to handle large-scale AI workloads with greater efficiency and speed. Instead of stitching together thousands of smaller processors, Cerebras developed a single, massive AI processor designed to simplify how large models are trained and deployed. What impressed us most about Cerebras is their bold rethinking of AI compute architecture and their focus on solving one of the most important challenges in the AI ecosystem: enabling organizations to run large AI models faster and at scale. As AI moves from experimentation to mission-critical enterprise deployment, the infrastructure powering these systems will become increasingly important. We believe Cerebras is well positioned to play a meaningful role in shaping that future. We’re excited to support the team as they continue to push the boundaries of AI infrastructure. #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #DeepTech #Infrastructure #Investing

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Worth paying attention to... Anthropic vs. Cursor. While Cursor was paying Anthropic hundreds of millions in API fees to power its AI code editor, Anthropic seems to have studied exactly what developers wanted, then launched Claude Code to "eat" their biggest distribution partner. The result. Claude Code hit $1B ARR in just six months and has already surged past $2.5B, proving that when you're a "wrapper" startup, you're often just paying your provider to learn how to replace you. Keep an eye on Cursor layoffs...

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Lucend Raises $3.3 Million in Seed Round Lucend (formerly Coolgradient), a New York–based data center optimization startup, has raised $3.3 million in a Seed round. #AI #TransparentAI #DataCenterOptimization #AIPlatform #EnterpriseAI #SaaS #SeedRound #Funding https://lnkd.in/gQca5rRf

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“In a very binary sense, Metronome made self-service at Anyscale possible.” That’s Matt Weber, Software Engineer, reflecting on Anyscale's expansion into new revenue channels. As the team added PLG and cloud marketplaces (AWS, GCP, and Azure), their manual billing setup couldn’t support the volume or complexity. Reporting, reconciliation, and manual workflows were slowing them down. With Metronome as their billing foundation, Anyscale unified every revenue motion on one platform and accelerated growth across the business. They launched self-serve billing end-to-end, brought AWS, GCP, and Azure marketplaces live in under three weeks each, and freed up three engineers and a PM from dedicated billing work. 🎉🤝 Big congratulations to the Anyscale team on the expansion—this is what it looks like when innovative product and modern monetization infrastructure come together. Read the full story at the link in the comments.

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JFrog’s Earnings Leap: Hopping Past Wall Street’s Cloud Rev Forecasts (and Competitors) – ( $FROG $SPY ) https://lnkd.in/gE_hMhKQ JFrog showcased impressive growth in Q3 2025, combining software innovation, cloud momentum, and AI advancements #JFrog #EarningsLeap #FROG #CloudGrowth #DevOps #DevSecOps #AI #SoftwareSecurity #RevenueSurge #MarketLeaders #TechnologyStocks #InvestorConfidence #FinancialResults #QuarterlyEarnings #GrowthStock #SoftwareSupplyChain #Innovation #WallStreet 

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GraphQL seems declarative, but has procedural depth-first execution? Challenged at previous GraphQLConfs via Federation's distributed exec, Grafast's plans, and Wundergraph's breadth-first exec; this year, check out Airbnb's "Rethinking GraphQL Execution": https://lnkd.in/e7yJtcuw

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EQUITYZEN & FORGE GLOBAL "A flurry of recent acquisitions may mark a structural shift in how traditional financial institutions approach private share trading. Morgan Stanley’s announcement that it will acquire EquityZen on 10/29 and Charles Schwab’s acquisition of Forge for $660mm (~5.3x 2026E sales) on 11/6 may signal that incumbents are no longer content to simply partner with independent marketplaces. Rather, they are moving to own them outright, integrating pre-IPO investing into their broader wealth offerings. The suggestion is that private share distribution is emerging as a valuable differentiator. Large financial institutions are betting that controlling the client relationship—particularly with high net worth investors—creates a channel to scale private share distribution. Secondly, scale and data appear to be emerging as competitive advantages. Marketplaces with deep order flow and transaction history can generate pricing and valuation intelligence (like NPM’s Tape D product) that smaller players cannot. To us, the deals also signal a broader verticalization of private market infrastructure. We expect a continued trend towards tighter integration across the stack—combining tender administration, cap table administration, secondary trading, data, and wealth distribution into unified platforms. The result, in our view, over time will be fewer, larger incumbents in private markets that dominate liquidity and pricing power. Will consolidation continue? Our crystal ball is cloudy, but interest in the asset class is clearly robust.  Beyond banks, other theoretical acquirers include large broker dealers and wealth managers, both of which could integrate private share trading to offer differentiated wealth products. In addition, traditional asset managers, many of which are already expanding into private credit and venture secondaries, could pursue acquisitions.  Finally, certain fintechs could look to integrate private market liquidity into their platforms." Nasdaq Private Market

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Boston's startup scene rarely breeds subtlety, but Jellyfish built a quiet revolution under the radar. Founded by Andrew Lau, Philip Braden, and David Gourley, the same trio that turned Endeca Technologies into a $1.1B Oracle acquisition, this Boston crew isn't chasing trends. They're rebuilding how engineering leaders think. Their mission is direct: make every #engineeringleader a business leader. Not a manager of sprints, but a strategist who can read code like a balance sheet. That focus sharpened in July 2025 when Jellyfish published The Jellyfish AI Impact Framework: A Practical Guide for R&D Leaders Navigating the Hybrid AI-Human Era, a move that may redefine how AI's value gets measured. Lau, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained technologist with LoopIt and Nanigans stripes, leads the charge. Philip Braden, Princeton University brain and Endeca's first product manager, brings the discipline of product truth. David Gourley, University of California, Berkeley grad, HTTP co-author, and Endeca's founding CTO, still codes like the future depends on it. Add Krishna Kannan, Head of Product with a Williams College + BU pedigree, and Ryan Kuchova, Head of Strategy & Ops and author of the Framework itself, and you've got a leadership core fluent in both systems and storytelling. By May 2025, Jellyfish data showed 51% of pull requests involved AI, up from 14% in June 2024. That's a 260% surge in 12 months. Every exec could feel the shift but couldn't prove the payoff. Boards wanted ROI. CFOs wanted #transparency. R&D teams were caught between intuition and inspection. The AI Impact Framework answered with structure, grounded in insights from 300+ engineering leaders and 20K+ developers. The Framework maps 3 dimensions, #Adoption, #Productivity, and #Outcome. Who's using AI. Where it accelerates velocity. How it reshapes cost and throughput. It's the microscope for the AI era, measuring how tools like GitHub Copilot, Amazon Q, Gemini, Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf actually influence business performance. Vendor-agnostic by design, it turns fragmented tool chaos into one signal of truth. Jellyfish didn't just drop a report, they backed it with the weight of partnership. As Gold Sponsor of the 2025 DORA report, they didn't join the conversation; they authored the language for it. With 500+ #enterprise customers and nearly 100K engineers, from Mastercard to ZoomInfo, Toast to PagerDuty, the company's no longer just an analytics layer. It's the connective tissue of modern engineering management. 90% of teams now use AI coding tools, yet few can measure impact. Jellyfish is giving them the lens. The next evolution of software won't be human vs. machine, it'll be measured by the ones who can see both sides clearly. #AI #EngineeringLeadership #EngineeringManagement #Data #DataDriven #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem #TechNews If software engineering peace of mind is what you crave, Vention is your zen.

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Internal platforms should boost productivity, not slow teams down. At InfoQ Dev Summit Boston (June 9-10), discover how senior engineers are building developer platforms that work in the real world: 🔹 Travis Gosselin, Distinguished Engineer of Developer Experience @SPS Commerce: Building a developer portal that truly empowers 🔹 Erin Doyle, Founding Engineer @Quotient and Instructor @Egghead: Creating empathy-driven platforms teams actually want to use Learn how to reduce friction, streamline workflows, and enable developers to ship faster, without adding complexity. Find out more and register: https://bit.ly/4iYz1QS #DeveloperExperience #PlatformEngineering #InternalTools #DevEx #SoftwareProductivity #InfoQDevSummit

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BREAKING: Ramp just published its list of top software vendors for February 2026 (Spend data, no opinions) 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐬 (breakout growth vs size) AI infrastructure dominates. Cerebras, Runware, Modal, Crusoe, Novita. This is teams locking in the plumbing early. 2️⃣ 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐬 (new customers added) Mostly generative AI. Anthropic, Cursor, ElevenLabs, Replit, OpenAI. Tools that sit directly inside daily workflows.

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GPU Cloud investment is surging. But are providers truly innovating, or just struggling to balance costs? Mirantis CTO Shaun O'Meara takes the Main Stage at the Xcelerated Compute Show in New York to break down the state of the GPU Cloud market and the critical shift from commodity Bare Metal services to high-value, specialized offerings. Unleashing GPU Cloud Economics 📅 Monday, March 23 | 9:30 am - 10:00 am | Main Stage Catch Shaun at our booth right after. Come with your questions! Or book a meeting in advance: https://buff.ly/osmgfLA

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