MBA Ventures

The Irony Leaving Berlin #IdentityWeek to go to Amsterdam Identity week, I couldn’t board the plane and lost my flight because of a name mistake on my boarding pass. Yes I had to use my passport to buy the ticket. And Yes the card I paid with is under my name. Customer service team aside, (who couldn’t fix it on time or even at the counter)🤯, it comes down to THIS: #Identity (some proof of who you are) and #trust (do they believe who you say you are) are frequently disconnected and require unnecessary, constant verification against the #asset/good (like this ticket). ✅At Blerify we are solving this problem. Our tech enables identity & assets to flow together, under your control, on one channel. Log in + Sign + Transact with your wallet. That easy. easyJet Have you ever faced a similar issue with identity verification? Signatures count too. Comment below!!⬇️

We did it, friends! We won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2024 - more than 1,200 attendees and 300 financial institutions were represented. How did we get here? 1. Solve a REAL PROBLEM: After months of quietly working with more and more banks the verdict is in - we have proven a huge opportunity to improve SBA, USDA & small business lending and Cascading AI (YC S23) has over night become the new technology leader, as the first AI-native Loan Origination System beating legacy systems. 2. Build something PEOPLE WANT / NEED: Investors often ask me what things we want to build next - the truth is we don't build what WE want, the last 6 months of development were 100% focused on solving one loan officer & underwriter problem after another. Here are some examples: - 63% of loan applicants apply outside of banking hours (nights and weekends), so we built an AI Loan Assistant that can respond to inquiries around the clock - 80% of loan officer time is spent chasing applicants to collect documents and complete a loan file, so we built a secure applicant portal and 40+ integrations to pull together a rich loan file with 0 effort for the loan officers - now, as we are seeing up to 10x increases in full loan applications, the next 2 challenges are clear - automate loan servicing (portfolio mgmt., payments, annual risk reviews) and allow easy deposit account opening in one smooth Casca flow (we already collect 90% of the necessary data and banks really want to grow deposits alongside their loan portfolio) 3. BE BOLD: Many people told us that our ideas were big - maybe too big for a young company. But we were convinced - AI has changed the game - not only will smart banking leaders replace all legacy banking software with AI-native systems, we can also use AI ourselves to develop 10x faster than people ever could. I am incredibly excited for the future of lending and the future of banking. A huge THANK YOU to my amazing co-founder, Isaiah Williams, our brilliant team, investors, partners, customers and everyone who has been hyping us up over the past few months! Justin Norwood, Serhii Nechyporchuk, Elliott Chong, Ahmad Akhrass, ilana stern, Sarah Smith, Nik Milanović, Ryan H., Bankwell, Jaimin Desai, This Week in Fintech, The Fintech Fund 🚀, Clocktower Ventures, Peterson Ventures, Simon Taylor, Angela Strange, Jonathan Awad, Jelena Zec, Finovate, Greg Palmer, Gordon Brott, Bill Merz, Jocelyn W., Rian I., Olga Chumanskaya, Saffron Quinn #loanorigination #software #lending #ai #sba #fintech #ycombinator #startup #stanford #finovate

29% of US-based unicorns have at least one MBA founder. MBA Ventures continues to back both student and alumni founders exclusively from top MBA programs.

🌐 The kommu Cross-MBA Network is more than just a platform; it’s your home away from home throughout your MBA summer internship and beyond. Join a dynamic community where over 250 verified MBAs connect to share and book stays with ease. Ditch the MBA sublet spreadsheet. Book directly through kommu for summer internships, semesters abroad, or weekend escapes. Still plan to share your place on the spreadsheet? No problem—just add your kommu profile link. It’s a far better way to showcase your home and find common connections than through a shared Google Doc. The kommu network is a lifelong asset, helping you list your space and avoid the sunk cost of an empty home while you're traveling. Our most engaged hosts hail from the consulting and tech sectors, recouping their sunk rent by listing their homes through kommu while they are away for over 40%+ of the year. Take the next step in trusted home sharing. Tap the link on your mobile and apply to join today: https://lnkd.in/gW2ruiEj #kommu #CrossMBANetwork #SmartLiving #Networking #MBAJourney #TravelWithTrust #summerinternship2024 #summerinternship

😎 Last week we hosted at HEC Paris our first European MBA pitch startup competition. 📢 A huge shout-out to the 4 startup finalists, selected from +100 applicants, who presented their pitches: - 💺 Flameplace, co-founded by Alexey Lukyanov, IE Business School MBA, and Ivan Codjebas, is a Europe-based workspace for the global interior industry. -  👨⚕️OXKAIR, co-founded by Yousif K. Hanna, MD, Edouard T. Blais, and Mahir Onat Topal, all Saïd Business School, University of Oxford MBAs, is a US based end-to-end AI workflow platform for physicians to save time, address fragmentation, and improve outcomes. - 🥑 Freshify (stealth), founded by Undralbat (Ogi) Enkhbayar, Cambridge Judge Business School MBA, is a Japan based platform to streamline food supply with smart technology, reducing waste and connecting restaurants directly with suppliers. - 🖥 Kalavai, co-founded by Carlos Fernandez Musoles and Annie Wang, both Cambridge Judge Business School MBAs, and Adam Tomkins, is a UK based marketplace for compute, built from consumer devices to bring AI access to everyone. 🏆 Huge congrats to Kalavai who won our $50k investment. 🙏 Also, a huge thanks to Nicolas Jin, founding partner at First Bridge Ventures for being a judge, as well as to the incredible team of MBAT: Sebastian Molter, Anshika Gupta, and Shogo Kodama for co-hosting the event, and to The ORCA Network for being our partner for the event. #venturecapital #earlystage #startups

🚀 We are excited to announce our recent investments from the past few months! For more details, see below. 🛒 Jupiter, co-founded by Chad Munroe and Anuraag Nallapati, both Stanford University Graduate School of Business MBA graduates, is a US-based creator-first recipe and grocery shopping platform. Using Jupiter, creators host stores where they share and monetize recipe content, maximize brand partnerships, and build community. Stage: seed. Notable co-investors: Y Combinator, NFX, Khosla Ventures. 📜 Marveri, co-founded by Connor Acle, Harvard Business School MBA graduate, and Samuel Bosch, is a US-based generative AI tool for law firms that reviews every legal document to ensure hidden issues are found and addressed, saving law firms months of work. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: Sequoia Capital Scout fund, Tectonic Ventures. 🍷 Just Enough Wines, co-founded by Jessica Hershfield and Kaitlyn Lo, University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business MBA graduate, is a US-based consumer drinking product delivered in the form of pleasure-forward, perfectly portioned, consciously canned wine. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: Larry Bloch. 💻 HackerPulse, co-founded by Gleb Braverman, and Alberto Scherb, Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business MBA graduate, is a US-based hiring platform that helps software engineers to showcase their skills using AI-powered profiles. Stage: pre-seed, Notable co-investors: Antler. 🥕BetterBasket (YC W24), co-founded by Leon Zhang, Wharton MBA, and Vagelis Viskadouros, is a US-based end-to-end pricing solution for grocers - the Bloomberg for food and beverage prices. Stage: Seed. Notable co-investors: Y Combinator & the co-founder of Youtube.

📢 Last call to MBA founders in Europe raising capital to apply to our Startup Pitch Competition that will take place May 9th in Paris!

🌟 Y-Combinator Guide To Seed Fundraising 🌟 This Guide Includes: 1. Why Raise Money? 2. When to Raise Money How Much to Raise? 3. Financing Options Convertible Debt Safe Equity 4. Valuation: What is my company worth? 5. Investors: Angels & Venture Capitalists 6. Crowdfunding 7. Meeting Investors 8. Negotiating and Closing the Deal 9. Negotiations 10. Documents You Need 11. How Does VC Fundraising Work? 12. A Brief Glossary of Key Terms   ~~~~~ ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost it so your network can learn from it, too. And follow me, Fazlur Shah for more content like this. #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #investing

🔊 Calling all MBA founders to apply to our Paris Startup Pitch Competition where the winner will receive a $50k investment from us. Some key info: - Organizing competition in partnership with The HEC Paris MBA Tournament ("MBAT"), the largest gathering of MBAs in Europe with 1,500+ MBA students from 15+ business schools attending HEC Paris’s campus for 3-days of competitions, networking, and social activities & The ORCA Network, the innovation platform connecting entrepreneurs to funding, resources, and investor networking. - 5 finalists will be selected to pitch in-person at HEC Paris Campus on May 9th - Eligible teams MUST have at least one MBA founder (currently enrolled or graduated) - Applications are open until April 28th - Panel of experienced judges will award the $50K investment with a live audience - No startup is too early! Apply using the link below. Feel free to drop any questions in the comments. Applications: https://lnkd.in/dudC7UXD More info of MBAT event: https://lnkd.in/d8Wg3zHG 🙏 Thanks Sebastian Molter Anshika Gupta Shogo Kodama for setting this up. #venturecapital #earlystage #startups

🙏 Thanks Tania Babina for inviting us to join Columbia Business School's Entrepreneurial Finance class, where we spoke about the state of the VC market as well as MBA Ventures.