Flybridge

One of our portfolio companies, fiveonefour, just published a deep dive with ClickHouse on building a metrics layer that works for both developers and AI agents. The insight: if your metrics are typed code in your app, coding agents build them correctly and runtime agents serve them reliably. Worth a read if you're building analytics on ClickHouse. https://lnkd.in/ePNSemkv

Our GP, Jesse Middleton, just shared a piece worth reading. His thesis: in a world of commoditized software, the last defensible moat might be the trust of a five-year-old. Jesse makes the case for a new category: vertically integrated, editorially driven, AI-native media, and why now is the moment it becomes possible to build. Legacy players like Netflix and Warner Bros. are retreating from original kids' content at the exact moment AI removes the production ceilings that once made high-quality, responsive media impossible. The insight worth sitting with: taste can't be prompted. The editors, writers, and child development experts who know how to build trust with a specific audience are currently sitting inside organizations cutting budgets. That's not a problem — that's a talent opportunity. At Flybridge, one part of our thesis is Native AI for Human Potential. This piece is a window into exactly why. Read Jesse's full post here: https://lnkd.in/eiXri9Km

🚀 Pelgo just launched. It’s Day 1, all over again. After years of buildings companies, you would think launching a new venture would feel like business as usual. It does feel that way. But business as usual in this case means feeling excited, humbled and a tad bit nervous. Experience hasn't given me all the answers; it's simply taught me to be more comfortable with the questions. 🌄 The Adventure Ahead Joining me on this adventure is my co-founder, Frank D’Souza. Frank previously co-founded and led Cognizant, a Fortune 500 company with $22B in revenue, and Recognize, a PE fund with $3B in AUM where he remains a managing partner. He’s also a NJ guy, and that’s probably why we get along. I’m also so happy and humbled that there are many familiar faces from my previous companies around the office. The band is starting to get back together. ❓ The Questions We're all reading the same headlines. Will AI destroy jobs? Will AI create jobs? Who's helping those displaced transition to new jobs? What happens if even half the predictions come true? Decades ago, staying at one company for your whole career was normal. Today, it’s rare. With AI accelerating change, what will feel truly unusual is staying in one industry, without making multiple career pivots along the way. ❗ What We’re Building Pelgo is a full-service career transition agent. We are relentlessly cratering the cost of high quality support - reskilling, job matching, and career navigation to ensure it’s available to everyone, not just executives. Everyone from the C-suite to the factory floor to lecture halls around the world deserves a champion in their corner during life's big shifts. 🙏 A Quick Thank You To the mentors and friends who have reached out: thank you. Your support is the secret sauce my spreadsheets can’t account for. The road ahead won’t be a straight line, but I’m ready to build something special. 🔨 Pictured is the hammer from our NYSE listing and on it is my favorite card. I keep them together and they’re a great motivator for journey ahead.

Voice AI is becoming a $40B+ market, and production readiness is the real bottleneck. The space is already ~$10B+ today and growing 20–30%+ annually as enterprises move from pilots to real deployment. But scaling voice systems with the reliability, customization, and control enterprises need is still hard. That’s why we’re excited about VoiceRun and the closing of their $5.5M seed round, led on our side by Flybridge GP Chip Hazard and featured in TechCrunch yesterday. Boston-based Founders Nicholas Leonard and Derek Caneja are building the infrastructure layer for enterprise-grade voice agents designed for scale, deep customization, and real production use. We’ve seen a lot in this category and have made some Next Wave investments tackling specific verticals. We think Nick and team have unlocked something truly differentiated. Flybridge Venture Partner Dorothy Chang recently caught up with Nick to discuss why building voice AI that actually works in enterprise environments requires deeper control and flexibility. You can see the full convo here: https://lnkd.in/ewHExwUt

At Flybridge, we’ve always believed that great companies are built within strong ecosystems and that investors, founders, and operators each play a critical role. That’s why we created Next Wave NYC, a pre-seed fund that brings together some of NYC’s most dynamic founders, operators, and community builders to help source, support, and champion AI startups at the earliest stage. Today, we’re excited to welcome a new group of partners to the Next Wave NYC team: • Teddy Solomon, co-founder of Fizz • Chloe Ho, Head of Startup GTM at Anthropic • Brian Benedict, co-founder of Arcee • Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Hopscotch Labs, Foursquare & Dodgeball • Brett Perlmutter, founder of Bulletpitch • mallory contois, Head of Growth at Maven & founder of Old Girls Club They join an existing group of exceptional partners, founders and operators from companies like OpenAI, NVIDIA, Chief, and others, including Andrew Yeung, Celestine Maddy, Cherae Robinson, Cheryl Campos, Chris Brown, Dave A. Salvant, Hassan W. Bhatti, Julia Cohen, Khaled Kteily, Lindsay Kaplan, Marc Manara, Mike Swift, Rebekah Rombom, Shai Goldman and Songe LaRon. Since launching last spring, Next Wave NYC has invested in companies such as CrewAI, Goodword, Sent, ESAI, Originalis, Superposition, Falcon and InPress. Between now and next summer, the fund will make another dozen $50,000 pre-seed investments. If you’re an AI founder building in NYC and raising a pre-seed round, reach out through one of the Next Wave NYC investment partners or pitch directly at https://www.nextwave.nyc/

What separates good CEOs from generational founders? Flybridge GP Chip Hazard joined David Politis on the Not Another CEO podcast to share hard-won insights from 30+ years in venture capital. Chip spent years as a partner at Greylock before joining Flybridge, where he's invested hundreds of millions across 70+ companies—including MongoDB, Firebase, Stackdriver, and Nasuni. Flybridge was one of BetterCloud's first investors, and Chip has been a trusted partner to David for over a decade. Chip's formula for identifying generational founders: Domain expertise + obsession + self-belief + unconventional thinking That rare combination is what he looks for—and what sets apart founders who build lasting companies. Links to listen to the full episode in the comments 👇

🚀 #SFTechWeek Spotlight Christine Tsai will be speaking at 100 Women in AI: The Celebration, hosted by XFactor Ventures, on a powerhouse panel: “Backing the Future: The Women Betting Big on AI.” She’ll be joined by: 💡 Caroline Duffy (Cowboy Ventures) 💡 Dorothy Chang (Flybridge) 💡 Joanna Lichter (Emerson Collective) 💡 Monique Woodard (Cake Ventures) 💡 Aihui Ong (i-we) (XFactor Ventures) What opportunities do they see and how is AI shaping the future of the venture? RSVP here to find out: https://lnkd.in/eyfYznqM #SFTechWeek #WomenInAI #VentureCapital #500Global TECH WEEK by a16z

We broke the mold during this years founders week and had a room full of AI creators join us for movie night. The shorts and how folks are using AI for storytelling, animation, music storyboarding and more was really incredible. Huge thanks to Machine Cinema and Tiffani Lee Joseph for the collaboration and to each filmmaker who shared the workflows, story, and inspiration behind the work.

We're knee-deep in Founders Week 2025 but want to take a moment to celebrate Tony Haile and the entire Filament team for coming out of stealth today!

👋 West Coast, we’re coming for you! The #SFTechWeek calendar is live, and we’re excited to bring the 100 Women in AI Celebration to San Francisco. 🎉 Alongside XFactor Ventures, LinkedIn Women in Product, and Rho, we’ll honor the remarkable women shaping the future of AI — founders, investors, researchers, and operators. The evening will feature: ✨ An all-women investor panel on the future of AI companies 🍷 A wine reception by women-owned Une Femme Wines 🤝 Opportunities to connect with leaders across tech, academia, and business Join us in celebrating during SF Tech Week → https://lnkd.in/eyfYznqM #100WomenInAI #WomenInTech #AI