Mercedes Bent

  • Digitizing Voice Buttons

    In the movie Arrival, there’s a scene where Ian reads from Dr. Louise Banks’ book: “Language is the foundation of civilization,” she wrote. “It is the glue that holds people together. It’s the first weapon drawn in a conflict.”  Arrival is based on Ted Chiang’s “A Story of Your Life” which is about the difference…

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  • 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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  • The Hierarchy of Metrics

    Metrics are not all made equal I’m on the board of a startup where, a few weeks ago, our board group chat got into a fun debate over text. It wasn’t about product direction or hiring plans, but about metrics. Ranking metrics. One of the founders shared this metrics snapshot and asked, “which metrics should…

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  • Lightspeed’s Edtech Portfolio

    Part II of my 2021 Edtech Outlook. Part I here In Part I, I wrote about where we’ve been and where we might be going in edtech. I thought I’d take a step back and share how we look at edtech at Lightspeed and how some of the trends we’re interested in have made it into…

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