Scott Roen

NYC Catalyst Fund II applications now open! New York City Economic Development Corporation expects to allocate $25 million to NYC Catalyst Fund II and make commitments up to $5 million to each Investment Fund selected by the Program. Impact areas of focus include (i) Diverse Entrepreneurship, (ii) Economic Mobility, and/or (iii) Innovation Sectors. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis across several submission deadlines, beginning on January 30, 2026. Full details here: https://lnkd.in/een6a3GD

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The TL;DR of why early stage startups are struggeling to raise 👇 This and the fact that intrest rates are (still) high so LPs get solid, safe, returns by keeping their money in the bank instead of gambling it on new(er) VCs.

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🚀 Secondaries Are the New Frontier of Liquidity TL;DR The U.S. VC secondary market hit $61.1B in annual deal volume in Q2 2025. With IPO timelines stretching 12–15+ years, secondaries are no longer a side market they are becoming the backbone of venture liquidity. 💡 The Opportunity Unicorns are staying private longer, creating unprecedented demand for alternative liquidity. Secondaries offer access to elite late-stage companies while providing liquidity for employees and early investors. The infrastructure is catching up fast: SPVs, tender offers, and secondary trading platforms are building the pipes for a new era of private-market liquidity. ❓ Why This Matters For decades, IPOs defined venture capital’s big win. But today: IPOs are fewer, later, and concentrated in only a handful of sectors. Secondary trading channels are stepping in as the bridge repricing assets, creating transparency, and allowing institutions to participate earlier. What was once opaque and gated is now becoming structured, scalable, and investable. 💰 Implications for LPs & GPs LPs: Secondaries are evolving into a strategic allocation, providing earlier exposure to winners, portfolio diversification, and quicker liquidity. GPs: Partnering with platforms and structuring liquidity events is no longer optional it is a competitive edge for retaining talent and managing cap tables. 🌇 The Future of IPOs & Secondaries Secondaries aren’t replacing IPOs they are reshaping the path to liquidity. As trading channels mature and scale, secondaries will become a permanent, institutionalized asset class, redefining how private markets deliver returns. At Inspire Global Ventures, we believe companies building the infrastructure for this market will be some of the most important enablers of the next decade of venture investing. 👉 Come join Inspire Global Ventures at #SFTechWeek, where we’ll be diving deeper into the rise of secondaries and the tokenization of private assets two trends transforming the future of capital markets. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ge-XB8bd #VentureCapital #LiquiditySolutions #PrivateMarketInvesting #SecondaryMarketTrends #InvestmentOpportunities #FinancialInnovation #FutureOfFinance #TechWeek2025 #AssetTokenization #InstitutionalInvestors #Secondaries #IPOs #VentureInvesting #LP #GP #Tokenization #SFTechWeek

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Founders are under pressure to chase short-term signals. These are important, but you need long-term strategy. This essay from @Morgan Beller and @Daniel Museles breaks down why that’s happening: https://lnkd.in/dUQciuMt

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How do you turn AI uncertainty into ROI? Last quarter, a mid-sized NYC tech firm faced stalled innovation and decision fatigue. Their leadership team was overwhelmed by conflicting AI automation options. We stepped in with a cognitive audit, mapped their bottlenecks, and designed a private AI agent system tailored to their workflows. Within weeks, project delivery times dropped by 27%, and decision cycles became days, not weeks. Curious how a cognitive science-led approach can unlock your team’s next breakthrough? Let’s talk about your challenges. (If you’re navigating complex tech decisions, I’d welcome a direct message or connection.)

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Agentic AI is a total game-changer for financial services institutions (FSIs) and it's already reshaping how FSIs create value, grow revenue, and deliver customer experiences that are nothing short of fantastic! FSIs that have adopted agentic AI are seeing impressive results, like a 15% increase in revenue within the first year and accelerating their time to market four to five times faster. Learn how this technology can transform your organization and empower your employees to focus on what they do best. Check out the full guide to see how your institution can get a first-mover advantage and start the journey to an AI-powered future. #AI #AgenticAI #FinancialServices #Innovation #Salesforce

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There are two schools of thought around agentic commerce... Some anticipate a full press push into digital opportunities around LLMs, and others think this could be a means to revisit key opportunities around the in-store model. Here are a few thoughts from our last programmatic advertising conversation... ▶️ Retail media fragmentation and emerging channels such as in store audio reflect incremental diversification of budgets. (Marc Walkin good trends to follow!) ▶️ Buyers noted increased demand for in store audio and continued complexity across retail media networks, where advertisers must manage multiple agreements, reporting structures, and thresholds. ▶️ LLM integrations with retail platforms were viewed as potentially streamlining workflows over time, but not displacing DSP infrastructure in the near term. ▶️ Travel was cited as a more natural early fit for LLM commerce than general consumer goods, reinforcing the uneven pace of AI driven commerce adoption. Looking to join conversations like these? Reach out to either Lauren LaRezza or myself.

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In 1832, competing London banks solved a problem that had nothing to do with accounting, and everything to do with building an "architecture for trust" between rivals. As AI agents prepare to negotiate across organizational boundaries, we face a strikingly similar challenge. Honored that @Fortune chose to feature the work Salesforce’s President & Chief Legal Officer Sabastian Niles and I have been doing together on this topic. Agent-to-agent trust architecture sits right at the intersection of AI research and law. With its focus on #EnterpriseAI, Salesforce is poised to solve this challenge, and Fortune recognized why that matters now. Read more: https://bit.ly/4spc27e #EnterpriseAI

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Strong take, Eric — especially on portfolio readiness. What we’re seeing Brightrose Ventures mirrors this: buyers are leaning in again, but they’re doing so with far more discipline than in prior cycles. Readiness isn’t about a glossy story — it’s about operational credibility. Across more than 40 M&A transactions, we’ve seen that the assets that move fastest (and command confidence) are the ones that have already done the hard work: rebuilt lean, scalable GTM engines, clarified unit economics, and re-established control of the P&L. Clean financials matter, but so does a clear line of sight from strategy to execution. In this market, “operational value creation” isn’t a slide — it’s evidence. Evidence that growth is repeatable, margins are intentional, and leadership knows where the business is headed over the next 12–36 months. Liquidity windows open and close. The teams that treat readiness as an operating discipline — not a pre-sale scramble — are the ones best positioned to act when timing matters. #privateequity #portfolioreadiness #PEstrategy #2026Outlook

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The Wall Street Journal spotlights how leading enterprises are escaping pilot purgatory and moving AI into production. Proud to support that work at Bristol Myers Squibb and New York Life Insurance Company, two of the most forward-thinking AI innovators in life sciences and insurance. https://gag.gl/RlVScc

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