Latest news with #SlowVentures
Yahoo
11-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Slow Ventures cuts first check from $60M creator fund into woodworking founder
Slow Ventures' Creator Fund has invested $2 million into Jonthan Katz-Moses, a popular woodworking content creator with around 600,000 followers, nearly 75 million video views, and his own line of woodworking tools. This marks the first investment for Slow's $60 million Creator Fund since its launch in February. The fund looks to help creators launch businesses, under the belief that what made them successful influencers is what can also make them a good founder. Speaking to TechCrunch, Slow Ventures partner Billy Parks, the lead investor on the deal, said the role of creators has greatly changed in the past decade or so, from creators mainly focused on media and brand dollars to those now focused on building real, 'off-platform,' businesses. 'The pandemic accelerated direct-to-consumer growth for many. But the real signal is in the ones who've maintained and grown past that boom, which shows they can build something lasting and sustainable,' Parks said. He said a good creator-founder thinks like an entrepreneur, 'not chasing fame but building real businesses that they own and control.' This is where Katz-Moses came in. His videos help teach woodworking, and he's since expanded into selling his own tools and accessories to his audience. He has a team helping with business development, operations, and of course, creating YouTube content. Slow's investment will help support the business and other content creation endeavors. Katz-Moses went into woodworking after being violently assaulted one night in 2010. In a video posted to his channel recently, he recounted the story, saying he woke up in a pool of blood, surrounded by police officers and paramedics, gasping at his marred appearance. His injuries were severe: A broken eye socket and gashes needed 80 stitches. He said it was the happiest moment of his life because, at the very least, he was alive. Shortly after that, he went into woodworking, deciding it was time to chase his dreams and leave behind anything unfulfilling. He bought a camera and started posting his creations to YouTube, amassing a loyal following in the process. But as his business and persona grew, he found himself facing the common challenges founders face, such as inventory management for his tools business and paying himself a salary. Katz-Moses was one of 700 applicants to Slow's Creator Fund and told TechCrunch it was exciting when Parks reached out to learn more about his business. 'Billy Parks from Slow reached out to me in March to let me know he'd like to meet,' Katz-Moses told TechCrunch. 'When we visited him in his 30,000-square-foot shop in Santa Barbara, we were blown away by his serious and long-term commitment to the brand and building a scaled business,' Parks told TechCrunch about why Slow picked Katz-Moses. Parks said Slow wants to partner with creators early in their journeys so it can give them support when it will have the most impact in helping them grow. (It's already made deals with a few creators, independent of this fund). Slow's Creator fund is a showcase of how firms are looking to invest more in the Creator economy and find ways to work with influencers, as such creators become new business mavens. (Other creators have looked to raising venture capital to support their careers, as well as their peers.) Parks said Slow wants to work with creators that operate in clearly defined spaces, rather than broad entertainment, teaming up with those with an engaged community and authority in their craft. 'That combination makes for businesses with strong foundations and durable growth,' Parks continued. It's not unlike how investors already vet their founders. Since the investment, Katz-Moses has hired product developers, filed patent applications, looking at new products to build, and is hoping to share more educational content around woodworking. 'The goal is to post across all major platforms,' he said. 'But our primary focus will always be YouTube.' 登入存取你的投資組合
TechCrunch
11-08-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Slow Ventures cuts first check from $60M creator fund into woodworking founder
Slow Ventures' Creator Fund has invested $2 million into Jonthan Katz-Moses, a popular woodworking content creator with around 600,000 followers, nearly 75 million video views, and his own line of woodworking tools. This marks the first investment for Slow's $60 million Creator Fund since its launch in February. The fund looks to help creators launch businesses, under the belief that what made them successful influencers is what can also make them a good founder. Speaking to TechCrunch, Slow Ventures partner Billy Parks, the lead investor on the deal, said the role of creators has greatly changed in the past decade or so, from creators mainly focused on media and brand dollars to those now focused on building real, 'off-platform,' businesses. 'The pandemic accelerated direct-to-consumer growth for many. But the real signal is in the ones who've maintained and grown past that boom, which shows they can build something lasting and sustainable,' Parks said. He said a good creator-founder thinks like an entrepreneur, 'not chasing fame but building real businesses that they own and control.' This is where Katz-Moses came in. His videos help teach woodworking, and he's since expanded into selling his own tools and accessories to his audience. He has a team helping with business development, operations, and of course, creating YouTube content. Slow's investment will help support the business and other content creation endeavors. Katz-Moses went into woodworking after being violently assaulted one night in 2010. In a video posted to his channel recently, he recounted the story, saying he woke up in a pool of blood, surrounded by police officers and paramedics, gasping at his marred appearance. His injuries were severe: A broken eye socket and gashes needed 80 stitches. He said it was the happiest moment of his life because, at the very least, he was alive. Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $600+ before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW Shortly after that, he went into woodworking, deciding it was time to chase his dreams and leave behind anything unfulfilling. He bought a camera and started posting his creations to YouTube, amassing a loyal following in the process. But as his business and persona grew, he found himself facing the common challenges founders face, such as inventory management for his tools business and paying himself a salary. Katz-Moses was one of 700 applicants to Slow's Creator Fund and told TechCrunch it was exciting when Parks reached out to learn more about his business. 'Billy Parks from Slow reached out to me in March to let me know he'd like to meet,' Katz-Moses told TechCrunch. 'When we visited him in his 30,000-square-foot shop in Santa Barbara, we were blown away by his serious and long-term commitment to the brand and building a scaled business,' Parks told TechCrunch about why Slow picked Katz-Moses. Parks said Slow wants to partner with creators early in their journeys so it can give them support when it will have the most impact in helping them grow. (It's already made deals with a few creators, independent of this fund). Slow's Creator fund is a showcase of how firms are looking to invest more in the Creator economy and find ways to work with influencers, as such creators become new business mavens. (Other creators have looked to raising venture capital to support their careers, as well as their peers.) Parks said Slow wants to work with creators that operate in clearly defined spaces, rather than broad entertainment, teaming up with those with an engaged community and authority in their craft. 'That combination makes for businesses with strong foundations and durable growth,' Parks continued. It's not unlike how investors already vet their founders. Since the investment, Katz-Moses has hired product developers, filed patent applications, looking at new products to build, and is hoping to share more educational content around woodworking. 'The goal is to post across all major platforms,' he said. 'But our primary focus will always be YouTube.'
Business Insider
08-08-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
NYC tech workers feel 'politically homeless.' They think abundance ideology is the answer.
New York City is in crisis. A pocket of the city's tech community thinks it has the solution. They're looking to abundance, a fast-rising ideology that says the way out of urban decay is to build: more housing, more transit, more clean energy, and more tech. It's a Yes-In-My-Backyard worldview aimed squarely at a city drowning in sky-high living costs and rising waters. The city is screaming with an unfocused angst, said Andrew Staniforth, the cofounder and CEO of construction tech startup Assembly OSM, during a "Tech for Abundance" panel Wednesday night in Midtown Manhattan. "I think that's creating a bit of a weird identity crisis for New York, and especially for tech — is this the right place to be building?" Staniforth said. The abundance movement is carving out its own political identity for people who no longer feel represented by Democratic or Republican policies. New York is a de facto one-party city, Slow Ventures principal Yoni Rechtman told Business Insider. Abundance, on the other hand, is a philosophy that tech workers across political lines can get behind. Some 100 people across New York's tech scene, founders, Big Tech workers, and venture capital investors, joined Wednesday's Tech for Abundance event, hosted by Lux Capital and Company Ventures alongside the nonprofit Abundance New York. Lux Capital research partner Laurence Pevsner said the firm and its co-sponsors had envisioned maybe a few dozen people would want to attend. Instead, over 700 people requested admittance. Abundance advocates are pushing for policies like congestion pricing for New York City traffic, rolled out in January, and changes to the city charter to make it easier to build more housing, a vote that could appear on New Yorkers' ballots this November. Its proponents also have loftier hopes, like ridding Manhattan's streets of their unsightly scaffolding, an effort without an end in sight but plenty of passion behind it, if the hearty applause from the Tech for Abundance audience is any indication. "Clearly, so many people in tech feel politically homeless, and so many New Yorkers believe their city can be better. But going from that vision to action is hard," Pevsner told the audience. The emerging movement is "giving political power and a voice to all of us who want to build a city of abundance in the place we love and call home." Shaina Horowitz, the director of program innovation and acceleration at The New York Climate Exchange and a Tech for Abundance panelist, said New York benefits by evading a San-Francisco-style tech bubble, which helps its entrepreneurs bring more diverse ideas to the table. But it also means New York needs to mobilize its tech community to continue to compete with the Bay Area — and to secure the city's future. "This city can't afford not to move with urgency, whether we're talking about the talented people moving out of the city or the infrastructure crumbling before our eyes," she said. The politics of plenty Abundance liberalism, as the philosophy is often called, has been steadily gaining traction over the past five years. Vaughan, who cofounded Abundance New York last year, said she saw a huge uptick in interest in March when Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson released their book Abundance, which describes the movement as a "call to renew the politics of plenty." "It feels like an antidote to some of the partisan insanity at the federal level, to be more positive and solutions-oriented around a finite and important set of issues," Rechtman said. The Tech for Abundance panelists discussed their respective approaches to some of New York City's most critical constraints, including a lack of affordable housing, government bureaucracy, and an inadequate climate change response. Assembly OSM uses tech for modular construction of high-rise buildings, though the company has run into multiple roadblocks with local government policies, Staniforth said. Lux Capital-backed Conductor AI, cofounded by panelist Zachary Long, is working to automate government approval processes to break down some of that bureaucracy. And The New York Climate Exchange, as Horowitz explained, is building a physical campus on Governors Island to power more climate research, education, and jobs. Abundance agendas typically center on increasing housing supply, a different stance on the same concern that's been a cornerstone of Zohran Mamdani 's platform as New York City's leading mayoral candidate. Mamdani has drawn national criticism, as well as support, for promising to freeze rents on some apartments in response to the city's housing crisis. Vaughan said that while rent freezes don't fit with abundance ideology, when she and other Abundance New York members had dinner with Mamdani in February, she felt he was open-minded about considering other policy solutions to affordable housing, like easing the construction of new homes. "We're really pragmatic about building relationships with different candidates and elected officials. They could be super far leftist, but if they agree with us on key parts, we'll work with them on it," she said. Abundance New York hasn't tried to wrap its arms around every hot-button issue, however. When New York-based serial investor and founder Esther Dyson asked the panel about disparities in healthcare, childcare, and education, its participants didn't take a side. When Long admitted he didn't have a solution, Dyson replied, "Well, Tech for Abundance needs one." Vaughan told BI that the abundance movement has historically stayed away from planting flags in healthcare, education, and policing, in part because people can find clear policy stances on those issues in the Democratic and Republican parties. But she also worries that engaging with such controversial issues, at least at this stage in Abundance New York's life, "would split this coalition we're trying to build." That coalition is growing. About 4,000 people have signed up for Abundance New York's newsletter, and roughly half of those people are considered "members" by engaging further, like by volunteering or donating, Vaughan told BI. Abundance New York joins multiple other organizations similarly pushing for the "more is more" mindset, including Abundant New York, a super PAC affiliated with the nonprofit Open New York, which advocates for increasing housing supply. Rechtman sees the movement's goals as critical for the survival of New York's startup ecosystem. "Cost of living and quality of life issues make it harder to build a company in New York," he said. "If New York wants to continue to be an important startup market, we have to be able to attract people here and to retain them. You can't do that if it's not an affordable place to live."
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rails Raises $14M From Backers Including Kraken to Launch Crypto Exchange
Crypto exchange Rails has raised $14 million in a token sale to launch its trading platform combining self-custody and high-speed execution, the company said in a press release Wednesday. The company raised $14 million in a token sale to investors in April this year, and $6 million in a seed round that closed in January 2024, the firm said. Investors include Kraken, Slow Ventures, CMCC Global, Quantstamp and Round13 Capital, the company said. Rails said it is designed to solve crypto's core trade-off: speed versus security. The platform enables users to retain custody of their assets while accessing performance traditionally reserved for centralized exchanges, Rails said. 'Our hybrid model delivers the best of both worlds,' co-founder and CEO Satraj Bambra, said in the release. 'Users get the transparency of on-chain custody without giving up speed." Rails will support trading for major crypto assets, the company said, and will leverage zero-knowledge proofs and Merkle trees to validate trades securely. The platform will deploy exclusively on Kraken's layer-2 network, Ink, to boost transaction speed and reduce costs, the company in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Axios
14-02-2025
- Business
- Axios
Slow Ventures raises $60 million seed fund for creators
Slow Ventures began making seed-stage investments in creators three years ago, allocating around 10% of its flagship funds. Now it's raised more than $60 million for a dedicated creators fund that appears to be the first of its kind. What they're saying:"In the early 2000s you had all these kids building apps, and professional VCs said, 'That's cute,'" explains Slow Ventures partner Sam Lessin. "When we go to VCs now about creators, they say the same thing. Which means they're going to miss out again." How it works: The fund will focus on creators who've become authorities on niche areas, such as automotive or gardening, rather than on celebrities or athletes. It will invest for a 10% stake in a holding company, and has a right of first refusal to invest in spinout businesses (e.g., restaurants, merchandising, shows, etc.). The holdco receives all founder equity in any spinouts. The pitch for creators is that they can get investible capital to expand their businesses, in a way they can't necessarily do via social media revenue alone. Limited partners include MIT and the University of Michigan. Zoom in: Slow scours YouTube for potential investments, believing it's the only serious platform for monetization. If a creator's focus is on TikTok or Instagram, it might work for them but likely becomes a filter for Slow. "We need to know that they're actually entrepreneurs, people with the sort of DNA who'd be going into Y Combinator if they weren't doing this," says Slow investor Megan Lightcap. "There's so much more data than we're used to on other sorts of seed investments," she adds. "These people have a public presence and you can actually see how they're engaged with their communities, and we can do Bain-style analysis on their verticals." The bottom line: The creator economy will be venture capitalized.
