Unusual Ventures

🚨 Attention students from Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, and beyond. Only ONE WEEK left to apply for the Unusual Ventures University Academy! I’m excited to be leading this year’s Academy, with an incredible lineup of mentors ready to help you achieve product/market fit and accelerate your startup’s growth, including: -Jyoti Bansal (Sold AppDynamics to Cisco for $3.7B) -John Vrionis (Managing Partner at Unusual Ventures and Stanford Lecturer) -Lars Albright (Two successful 9-figure exits to Steve Jobs at Apple and Mastercard) -Sarah Leary (Co-Founder of Nextdoor) -Britt Jamison (Head of Product at OpenAI) …and many other accomplished founders, operators, and investors eager to share their expertise and help you succeed. 10 teams will be selected to participate, each receiving an uncapped SAFE investment, up to $750K in credits and discounts, and hands-on guidance and coaching from the best of the best. Learn more and apply here by February 28th: https://lnkd.in/e2YEkJ7Q

Attention Student Founders: applications for the Unusual Ventures University Academy are closing soon. Why should you care? Unusual Ventures Academy offers student founders the opportunity to learn critical components of the journey to Product Market Fit - from founders, investors, and operators who have dedicated their professional lives to mastering this craft (Jyoti, John, Lars, Andy, Sarah, Don, Britt, Bethany, Doug, Penny, and more). The Academy does not guarantee success, but it will most definitely improve your odds and accelerate your journey to Product Market Fit. 10 teams will be selected to participate, each receiving an uncapped SAFE investment, up to $750K in credits and discounts, and hands-on guidance and coaching from the best of the best. Applications are due February 28th! Application link is in the comments. Hope to see you there! https://lnkd.in/e5aTZvTh

In 2023, Dr. Tanguy Chau and Michael Ulin — co-founders of Paxton — had developed an early prototype of their product but faced unexpectedly long sales cycles and a growing sense that something wasn’t quite right. The applied to Unusual Academy and as they put it, "𝗨𝗻𝘂𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘅𝘁𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻." In Unusual Academy, Michael and Tanguy: 1️⃣ Discovered the right market for their product 2️⃣ Found customers who had "a clear burning pain point" that their product could immediately solve 3️⃣ Pivoted to a PLG strategy focused on legal practitioners who could adopt and pay for their product quickly. Read our entire case study on how Paxton built its legal AI product: https://lnkd.in/eaQRj7We

What if you had the chance to learn from top founders and investors? Student founders, we have a unique opportunity for you. Applications for the 2025 Unusual Academy: University Edition are now open. This program is designed for student founders who are passionate about exploring their startup ideas. Details: - We provide $25K in funding to each participating team that we select. Over the course of two months, we’ll work closely with you and your team, offering hands-on guidance as you navigate the same process successful founders use to build thriving startups. - Participants will join an exclusive founder community of over 500 builders. - Participants will work alongside 10 other founding teams, and engage in 3 daylong workshops. - Learn from industry experts like: John Vrionis, Sarah Leary, Lars Albright, Don Faul, Andy Rachleff, Doug Regner, Britt Jamison, Bethany Coates, Penny Foster and myself. Deadline to apply: Friday, February 28, 2025 Learn more: https://academy.unusual.vc

𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘐 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥! As Unusual GP Lars Albright explains, 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜-𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿, there are several critical factors to consider in order to find product-market fit (PMF) and scale effectively. Read his entire article to learn more: https://lnkd.in/em-piqUi

If you've recently started a company you likely have an insight you believe the market will love once you build the product. But what if you're wrong? What if people aren't desperate for WHAT you have in your mind? What if your product insight is correct but WHO you're selling it to needs to change? How can you learn an approach to testing the desperate WHAT and WHO before you get too far? Unusual Ventures Academy teaches new founders this better than any other place I know of. Just listen to Michael Ulin and Dr. Tanguy Chau, the founders of Paxton, describe their learnings from UV Academy during my recent interview. Applications are now open. Link below in the comments.

Happy Sunday! Today is a great day to apply to Unusual Academy! Applications are now open to 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀! https://lnkd.in/g3pDZNfH As part of Unusual Academy, you will: 1️⃣ Receive an 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗔𝗙𝗘 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 $𝟳𝟱𝟬𝗞 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘀 + 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 from John Vrionis and Jyoti Bansal. 2️⃣ Join an 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟱𝟬𝟬 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. 3️⃣ Dive into the 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗴𝗼-𝘁𝗼-𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜-𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀. 4️⃣ Work alongside and learn from 𝟭𝟬 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀. We look forward to reviewing your application! For more information, visit our Academy page! unusual.vc/academy

“Vertical integration, meaning specific subject matters that people know a lot about, is where you’re going to see the most value extracted.” Jordan Taylor, Vizcom cofounder, spoke to Forbes’ Steven Bertoni about the current state of AI.