Mercedes Bent

  • FMB 15: How Founders Choose Investors

    This is an extension of my #FMB “Founders are Made, not Born: How Founders Become Learning Animals” series. Originals based on research at Stanford: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII. Extensions: Parts 7, 8,9, 10,11, 12, 13, 14. During fundraises, founders often ask how to choose investors. I’ve met 1,000+ of investors and been part of dozens of boards.…

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  • FMB 14: The Anatomy of a “Why Now”

    See the original linkedin post. This is an extension of my #FMB “Founders are Made, not Born: How Founders Become Learning Animals” series. Originals based on research at Stanford: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII. Extensions: Parts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. One of…

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  • Search is at War

    Defensibility in the Age of AI Search Search is at war. LLMs are quickly changing how consumers search. A lot is at stake, including the market caps of 2 of the top 5 most valuable companies in the world. Google (GOOG: $1.9T market cap) and Amazon (AMZN: $2.04T) each dominate different types of search: knowledge…

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  • Consumption v. Creation Breakthroughs and How AI Can Revive Consumer Social

    It’s been nearly a decade since a major social platform broke through — you can argue the last was either TikTok which bought Musically in 2017 (and then spent billions on acquisition), or Discord (200M MAU), founded in 2015.  But the time may be now. The newest wave of AI has created a perfect storm…

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  • Consumer Products and the Utility v. Entertainment Tradeoff: Be Fun, Be Essential, or Be Nothing

    I constantly see really smart people launch consumer products, get little to no reception, and wonder why. There are a ton of possible culprits.  One common one I see is that their product lacked a captivating hook that chooses a side: to be singularly entertaining or provide extreme utility.  It is my strong belief that…

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  • NIM Innovation: A Lending Mental Model

    Foreword: I’ve long been a mentor of startups in the Entrepreneurship and VC class at Stanford. Recently I was hosting several GSB students from the class who were working on a lending startup, and we got to “whiteboarding.” Well, napkin writing. I shared my lending mental model with them and realized I’ve never encapsulated it…

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  • How AI is changing the rules of Consumer Engagement

    AI is changing the rules of consumer engagement. Many formerly dependable tactics for building consumer tech products are changing. Operators will need to “re-learn” how build consumer tech in the world of AI. Across our consumer portfolio companies and externally, here’s a snapshot of where I’m seeing key areas of change: 🔹 **Acquisition**– Who the…

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  • Founders must be Chief Judges of Talent (FMB Part 13)

    Founders wear many hats. One role I consistently see less well understood is that they’re the “Chief Judge of Talent” for their startup. This C-suite “role” is possibly the most important role a founder needs to embody. It requires founders to have a strong nose for triple-A talent. Not B+, not A-, but A++. Not…

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  • Great Pitches are an Energy Transfer (FMB Part 12)

    This is an extension of my #FMB “Founders are Made, not Born: How Founders Become Learning Animals” series. Originals based on research at Stanford: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII. Extensions: Parts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. After listening to thousands of pitches, a few common themes stand out about great ones: The common knowledge that great fundraisers have…

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  • Fintech 2024: Innovation meets consolidation

    Originally posted January 31, 2024 on LSVP website AI will continue to drive the industry forward in new directions, while some high-flying startups may be in for a rough landing For Fintech, 2024 will be a year of both consolidation and innovation. AI-driven solutions will continue to propel the sector forward, making significant advancements in…

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