Standard Metrics (@metrics_co) has raised a $20M Series B led by 8VC (@8vc) to accelerate innovation in the private markets! Trillions of dollars of economic activity in the private markets still run on spreadsheets, email threads, and PDFs. This critical ecosystem remains surprisingly analog and inefficient despite financing many of the world’s most innovative companies. This problem matters. A better-functioning innovation economy would lead to new big technological breakthroughs, life-saving medicines, jobs, and game-changing new products. AI expands both the urgency and the scope of this opportunity. New AI models have fundamentally changed how data can be organized, analyzed, and acted upon, and they are beginning to drive rapid software adoption in an industry that has historically lagged behind. We believe AI-native infrastructure will reshape the private markets over the coming decade. Two years ago, we bet our company on the idea of building the AI-native portfolio management platform for venture capital and private equity. That was the single most consequential decision in our history: it led us to create the first MCP server in our space, launch an AI-driven document processing service, and build cutting-edge agentic reporting and analytics tools. Today, we’re proud to support more than 150 investment firms who collectively manage over $400B, along with more than 10,000 of their portfolio companies. 30% of the Forbes Midas List are customers of Standard Metrics. But we’ve still only scratched the surface: we work with roughly 1% of active global VC/PE firms. We’ve raised roughly $50M to date. Most of that capital has come from our customers. Investors in this round alongside 8VC include Salesforce Ventures, Spark Capital, January Capital, First Trust Capital Partners, Socii Capital, Kindergarten Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, and more. It’s been an honor to partner with some of the world’s most forward-thinking investors on this journey. Thank you so much to our team, customers, investors, and supporters. We’re just getting started!

This was one of the best interviews of the year. Takeaways I shared with my team from @davidsenra x @lulumeservey: - Simplify your message so it spreads. - Having a strong, compelling mission is key to "going direct." You are building a movement, and you need to believe in yourself and your mission first before others do. Going direct allows you to communicate more clearly than filtering through layers of journalists, editors, etc. - When you're talking about your company, focus on the human story and how people will benefit; less on the product, more on the benefits it will have for people. - Fake engagement with social media is worse than low engagement because people see it and think everything you're doing is fake. We are inundated with fake BS, and it's even more important now to stand out. - Lean into what makes you distinctive. There's a shortage of originality in the world. Don't use templates. Don't take shortcuts.

I don't get car sick working on my laptop in the back of a @Waymo because it drives so smoothly It's quite a cozy little office Sometimes if I'm not in a rush, I wish my Waymo would just drive around a little more and let me keep cranking

Growing companies expect to see annualized revenue increase month over month. The news story here seems to be that OpenAI's net new annualized revenue added in July was higher than in all of Q2. Impressive acceleration. The more you know. 🪄

Hearing a lot of people saying "load bearing" out loud these days Good example of how LLMs will increasingly start to influence the human language Honestly not loving it, but it's definitely happening

Super fun BCV Fellows dinner last night with the one and only @levie. We chatted about all things enterprise agents, open source/ China, and where AI is creating more work instead of automating it. Lots of debate, and a great evening!

This was so much fun! Ron, Ryan and I were fortunate to work with @ryanjdaniels in the early days before he knew what Crosby would become. The son of 2 law professors, Ryan was born to start this company. He was early to the idea that AI would transform services, and made a bet about commercial contracts as the place to start that turned out to be correct. Crosby offers a radically better value prop of speed and quality to their customers, which resonated instantly with the fastest growing AI companies. They are pioneering the playbook of the neofirm, and they have built an incredible team in NY!

The last major innovation for lawyers was Microsoft Word in the 1980s. @crosbylegal is changing that with a law firm built around AI agents and human lawyers working side by side. Instead of billing by the hour, they charge by the contract, so getting faster aligns incentives. That single change is why hyper-growth companies like @cursor_ai and Clay made Crosby part of their legal team from day one. @ryanjdaniels breaks down how the model actually works in the newest Outlier Briefing.

Most Rule of 40 discussions focus on public SaaS companies. @metrics_co instead analyzed 1,377 venture-backed private companies, and the results were interesting: • Only 27.9% cleared Rule of 40 • Nearly 90% got there through growth • AI companies continue operating differently • Operating profiles change significantly over time Full summary in today’s newsletter. #VC# #VentureCapital# #RuleOf40# #SaaS#