New year. New leadership. New noise to cut through.
The ‘how’ we noise-cut is changing.
Multimodal comms is here.
Expect more direct-to-audience content, short-form video, and launches via GIFs.
Expect less cancel culture.
From climate resilience to cancer detection, it’s a privilege to help the bravest founders communicate.
- BurnBot is fighting fires with fire. The company revealed its RX2 controlled-burn machine, which works 10X faster than humans alone.
- Fruistist tapped VSC to make blueberries the next apple as seen on CBS’s Good Day Sacramento.
- BrightAI emerged from stealth and has quietly achieved $80M in revenue by bringing physical AI to sewers and pest control.
- After 10 years of pioneering geospatial property intelligence, CAPE Analytics announced its acquisition by Moody's. Congrats to VSC alum Kayvan Farzaneh on building a category-defining brand.
Founders Go Direct
In 2025, building your own audience isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a survival skill.
Whether it’s starting your own video podcast, guesting on others, or upping your game on social media with bite-size video content, VSC’s DTA (direct to audience) platform is driving millions of views and tens of millions of dollars of deal flow.
We’ve helped leaders 10x their engagement with video thought leadership and short-form podcast strategies that cut through the noise. The playbook is simple: authenticity, consistency, and leveraging every channel to build a brand that can thrive even in a fragmented media landscape.
The question isn’t if you’ll invest in founder-led communications this year—it’s how.
But wait, there’s more…
- Xaira Therapeutics has been recognized as one of LinkedIn's Top Startups of 2024 and included in Fortune's 50 AI Innovators list.
- Co-founder David Baker received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering contributions to protein development.
- AI-powered coding assistant Codeium is enhancing developer workflows with its new Windsurf project, and the world is taking notice. Codeium was recognized as one of Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech as well as one of Forbes’ Next Billion Dollar Startups.
- Brigit, a leading financial health technology company, was acquired by Upbound Group for $460M. Read more in Axios.
- Pangea, the health-tech company revolutionizing care delivery, was also featured in Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech for its work in democratizing precision oncology.
- VSC's very own Maggie Philbin joined our client Branshield on the Today Show to discuss the rise in online scams and how brands like Brandshield are detecting brand abuse online.
- College-focused social networking app Fizz continues to scale as the largest community of its kind.
- If Apple made a baby monitor, it’d be Harbor, one of TIME’s 200 Best Inventions.
- Modular EV battery-swapping pioneer Ample received a $25M investment from Mitsubishi to accelerate the adoption of its revolutionary charging approach.
- AI models are what they eat: better data leads to better outcomes. Encord closed a $30M Series B for its AI data development platform and they’re already helping companies build high-performing multimodal models. ZDNet has the story on their new toolset aimed at simplifying the creation of complex generative AI systems.
- Pebble, the startup bringing RVs one step closer to an electric future, had their product, Flow, named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. This year at CES, they revealed their Production Intent Design of the Pebble Flow, which will hit roads later this year.
- CNBC featured BrandShield’s ability to identify fake Ozempic.
- Discord Early Backer Peter Relan is back with MathGPT, which uses GenAI to help community college instructors make mathematics more accessible with AI-driven, cheat-proof tutoring, and teaching assistance. More from KTVU and Forbes.
- Erewhon is adding Prenuvo’s whole-body MRI scans to its lifestyle membership, bringing two of the most popular wellness brands together.
VSC Ventures loves dirty, dusty and dangerous industries.
We zig while the valley zags.
Meet our latest investment, Ruck.
Ruck is the 'Doordash for construction supplies'. Connecting local vendors (lumber, roofing, flooring, etc.) to general contractors (GCs) via a network of runners — drivers who own a pick-up truck and want to make $35-40/hr delivering product.
On a deeper layer, Ruck is making every vendor's inventory AI-searchable to allow GCs/construction pros to price, reserve/order, and schedule products for delivery in real time.
We see a clear opportunity for Ruck to become a real category creator in the multi-billion dollar construction commerce space. VSC Ventures invested in Ruck's seed round alongside lead investors SNAK Ventures and Animo, as well as Goldhouse, Hustle Fund, and Vitalize.
VSC Ventures held its first annual meeting for LPs to share our insights and previewed our plans for Fund II.
And Silicon Valley’s Ping Pong Champ Is…
100 players entered the arena, but ultimately Tolga Kart of Third Dimension AI and James Detweiler of Felicis Ventures emerged victorious.
Special thanks to our partners at Mayfield, Silicon Valley Bank, Fiduciary Trust International, Prenuvo, Aescape, Cambium, and Agrovision for helping to make the event a smashing success.