Dave Zinman

I first invested in SendCutSend in 2021, and I've been incredibly bullish on what CEO Jim Belosic and the team have been building ever since. Their combination of revenue, growth, and profitability is simply unheard of in the manufacturing tech space. One of these days, the American Dynamism VC crowd is going to realize the best company in their industry is based in Reno, NV.   At the core of SendCutSend's model is software-powered innovation and an ethos of democratizing manufacturing. In the past, you had to order 1000s of parts to get a manufacturer's attention. SendCutSend will let anyone order one part at an extremely competitive price with fast shipping. The word "disruption" is overused in startup land. But SendCutSend is a true disruptor.   Of course, many manufacturing startups think they have an amazing product. But if you look at the record of startups in the space, it's been dismal. The biggest commonality of the failures? Lack of demand. It's one thing to build an amazing 3D printer or a neat manufacturing service on the moon. It's another thing to attract enough customers for the business model to work.   As a VC, you can kind of take for granted basically unlimited digital demand. If it's ones and zeros, there's an unquenchable desire among the 6b+ people who are online. Develop novel, delightful software, for example, and you can instantly have demand.   But you can't do that in manufacturing because everything needs to be physically built, which takes time. It all has a lot of dependencies and supply chains to account for. You can't just build a cool mousetrap and expect to massively catapult demand.   SendCutSend has cracked manufacturing's hardest problem: creating demand. (Not to mention, they've done it by raising a measly ~$6m of VC!) They have a sneaky-genius strategy: they are the first manufacturing startup to execute a truly bottom-up, PLG-style GTM. The product is still the most important thing, but their GTM is amazing. If you look at SendCutSend's Instagram or Jim's Twitter or LinkedIn, you'll see what I mean.   And their results speak for themselves. They've been profitable for years, they're approaching 100 on the Rule of 40, and their customers love them as much as any other company in our portfolio. This is especially impressive when you compare it to what's happening elsewhere in manufacturing tech right now, where startups are raising hundreds of millions, burning through it, then crossing their fingers.   SendCutSend is easily the most underrated startup in manufacturing, and might be one of the most underrated in any industry.

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I spoke with Bay Area founders, engineers and product leaders about the rise of “vibe coding” and what it could mean for tech jobs in San Francisco and beyond. My latest for the San Francisco Business Times. https://lnkd.in/eHqkRs6H

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Every hire, product feature, and GTM experiment is a capital allocation decision, most teams just don’t call it that. I’m kicking off a 3-part series on capital allocation for founders, operators, and finance leaders with a simple question: ➡️ Will the next $1 you deploy become worth more than $1? Series overview Part 1: defines the core concept + the math Part 2: where capital goes + how to measure whether it’s working Part 3: AIMS framework for communicating allocation decisions to management teams and your board Part 1 (attached here) lays the practical foundation: 🔹 The $1 invested test and ROIIC vs. hurdle rates (scoreboard vs. decision lens) 🔹 A lightweight “investment brief” to evaluate bets (GROW / BUILD / BUY) 🔹 The small metric toolkit that translates finance into operating decisions (NPV / payback / ROIIC / incremental margin) 🔹 Early-stage proxies when DCF inputs are unknowable (burn multiple + revenue quality) 🔹 Operator “vital signs” to spot drift early (profit engine, leverage, cash conversion, optics) Series Roadmap ✔️ This series (Parts 1–3): breadth-first. shared, lightweight framework to define value creation, choose decision-grade metrics, and communicate tradeoffs clearly ✔️ Next series: depth-first. momentum drivers + operational decisions that need near real-time measurement to spot drift early and course-correct fast Read Part 1 here and Part 2 and 3 on substack. Next Series will be out next week. 💰 What’s one bet you’re funding right now, and how will you prove it’s working?

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Hiring VPs of Sales still makes or breaks startups, but AI has rewritten what a winning leader must do. In my evaluations I look for AI-savvy, data-native operators who build blended human+AI teams and still carry quota. This piece outlines 10 practical tests and red flags I use when hiring for 2026. See how.

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Peter Diamandis says the only durable career path left is entrepreneurship. His Moonshots channel runs a four-line banner across the top: Go Big. Create Wealth. Impact the World. Be Bold. He's right. He's also describing half the problem. The half he names is the demand side — AI collapsing the white-collar middle, the career ladder dissolving, the honest answer to anyone under forty: build your own thing or be built around. The half he doesn't name is the supply side. Telling people to start a business is hollow if starting one still takes a year, a developer team, a dozen SaaS subscriptions, and a payroll. That's the gap. Go big. Solo founders historically couldn't go big — one person hits an operational ceiling around $1M–$5M and is forced to choose between hiring a team or staying small. The agent layer changes that math. Dozens of autonomous agents handling the work a department used to do. Create wealth. Wealth requires leverage. The widest wedge in commerce history is now one operator commanding an operating system that executes across every catalog, cart, checkout, and support ticket at machine speed. Impact the world. Reach used to mean distribution deals — shelves, app stores, marketplaces, intermediaries. An AI agent shopping on behalf of a buyer in Mumbai doesn't browse storefronts. It calls a federation. If your store is on it, the agent finds you. If it isn't, you don't exist. Be bold. Boldness is cheap when the downside is small. The cost of starting a business on ComOS is a $500 Mac mini and a weekend. Boldness gets easier when being wrong stops being expensive. Diamandis is selling ambition. He's right to. But ambition without infrastructure produces burnout, not businesses. The would-be founders hearing the message run into the wall five steps in — I have an idea, I have energy, I have boldness, and now I need a team, a stack, a checkout, an ops layer. ComOS is the supply side of that thesis. The operating system that makes go-big-create-wealth-impact-the-world-be-bold a Tuesday afternoon decision, not a five-year plan. The demand for entrepreneurship is at a generational high. The supply of infrastructure to support it finally caught up. Go big. The ceiling is now an OS, not a headcount. Link in the comments. #ComOS #Entrepreneurship #AgenticCommerce #SoloFounder #MoonshotMindset

I’m thrilled to share Earthshot Ventures most recent investment, Unlimited Industries! Unlimited is an AI-native construction company that both designs and builds. Its platform can generate and evaluate hundreds of thousands of design configurations in parallel, automatically identifying optimal layouts for cost, safety, and performance before construction begins. Why did we invest? Solving a real need we know well: Over the last decade, we have worked with hundreds of companies that are ready to deploy their technology, but struggle with slow construction timelines and cost overruns. Unlimited makes it feasible for emerging infrastructure companies to bring projects to life reliably and efficiently. Massive market potential: The EPC market is ~$800B. While this entire market is not addressable from day one, early adopters will pave the way for the mass market, enabling massive possible scale over time. Exceptional team: The company is led by Alex Modon, a repeat founder and multidisciplinary engineer. To accelerate the company, Alex teamed up with Tara Viswanathan and Jordan Stern, who previously built and scaled Rupa Health as the founder/CEO and first teammate respectively, from zero to millions in revenue before its successful nine figure acquisition in 2024. Software is eating the world, and AI will eat engineering: Software engineering is increasingly being augmented and automated by AI, aided by large repositories of coding data like Github. Other engineering disciplines will be transformed over time as analogous data sets are compiled and software encodes the operating principles of the real world. Companies that can create proprietary datasets, like Unlimited’s burgeoning catalogue of projects, will gain defensibility through data moats. Lastly, since a good portion of my network here consists of founders who could be customers of Unlimited and their investors, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say - hit me up if you’d like to connect with Unlimited to deliver your next project on time, on budget! Welcome to the Earthshot portfolio, Unlimited!

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A fantastic discussion with Glenn Oken, Dan Herr and Matt Rooney on the evolution of a dedicated BD team in private equity. The conversation explores how deal sourcing has transformed over his 30+ year career, examining what truly drives credibility in the market, the importance of empowering genuine decision-makers, and his journey to co-founding one of the first operationally focused private equity funds in the lower middle market. #DealSourceryPodcast

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The San Francisco Business Times uses data from Camber Creek portfolio company VTS to show a resurgence of demand for office space in San Francisco spurred by the proliferation of AI companies. #realestate #technology #AI https://lnkd.in/evBD789q

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This week on Vermilion Cliff Notes, I sat down with Tori Seidenstein, CEO and Co-founder of Tadata, to talk about what it really takes to build in the middle of the AI shift. We covered a lot: why MCP is the new connectivity layer, how executives are scrambling to keep products relevant, and why open source + community are rewriting the GTM playbook for dev tools. Tori has one of the sharpest perspectives I’ve heard on how developer adoption really happens in this market. Full conversation linked below →

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Seth Levine nailed it! The concentration problem isn't just a GP pain point... it's choking innovation. When capital pools around the same 20 funds, emerging managers and founders get shut out. Love that he's using his platform to call this out. Foundry has backed 50+ emerging managers. That's the diversification the ecosystem needs. This is exactly why Carta exists — making capital allocation visible and accessible. Capital Evolution hits at exactly the right moment. Thanks for having us Daniel Dart. Team Carta loves the community of FUTURE TITANS you have built 🚀

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We recently sat down with Front's CEO, Dan O'Connell, at our SCALE event in SF to talk all things 'sales.' While we covered a lot of ground, one thing he reminded us of is that "founders and CEOs must always be involved in sales. Not only is it crucial for aligning teams, but there is no better feedback than speaking directly to customers." And it extends much further than just learning. It is a strategic advantage in closing deals, building culture, and staying up to date with what is happening at the front of your business. For more on his talk, why founders should never fully step away, including actionable takeaways, click that button below. A big thank you to Vivek Gutheti and our partners at Pilot.com for their support in helping make these insights and our SCALE EF event happen, to Thomas Lee Young for helping pull it together, and the awesome team at Entrepreneurs First for co-hosting and allowing us to use their space! READ FULL POST HERE: https://lnkd.in/eEU-hz5T

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Nice insights Alok Chanani in the Forbes Tech Council piece - nails why blame starts creeping in during hyper-growth. I've watched those cracks appear in a few high-growth companies (including when setting up in new regions). The laser focus that got them there can dilute fast, and suddenly the human urge to "feel safe" inside your own silo bubbles up—ending with everyone defending their patch. Tough nut to crack, no doubt. But if the Founder and leadership team stay locked in on #sharedownership , focus on the same joint outcomes , trust and be transparent - we've got a real shot at smashing it and keeping that one-team edge. Btw, massive congrats on the continued and stellar growth BuildOps , #unicorn status, new East Coast offices, Forbes Best Startup Employers for the fourth year running - Killing it! 🚀 Link to the article in Alok's comments for those that haven't read it . #TemplateForGrowth #HighGrowth #CompanyCulture #GrowthMindset Saad Siddiqui

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What do Roblox, Anduril, CrowdStrike and Apple all have in common? None of them looked like obvious winners from the start. But they built something far bigger than anyone expected. We call these companies Modelbusters. Modelbusters either reveal a market that’s much larger than anticipated, or expand into new product lines so effectively that they break out of their original category entirely. We’re talking about modelbusters now because we believe AI is creating many more of them. AI may be the defining platform shift of our time. It’s changing how products are built, how they’re distributed, and how buying decisions get made. It’s creating new consumer experiences, new workflows, and entirely new business models. Platform shifts often create new winners. AI is no exception. Today’s most ambitious companies will grow faster and become bigger than anything we’ve seen before. In the new Andreessen Horowitz Growth Substack, Santiago Rodriguez Lebrija and I unpack what makes a modelbuster, why they matter, and how to know if you’re building one. In the first edition, I break down modelbusters. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ggJMTsiB

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Founders are under pressure to chase short-term signals. These are important, but you need long-term strategy. This essay from @Morgan Beller and @Daniel Museles breaks down why that’s happening: https://lnkd.in/dUQciuMt

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A few weeks ago, we brought the Origin Ventures community of LPs and 80+ portfolio company executives together in Park City for our Annual Meeting and CXO Summits. In our annual meeting, we covered the Origin Ventures VI investment themes: ⚡🖥️🔒AI Infrastructure (e.g. compute, power, quantum, language models, security) 📦💿🔗AI-Native Software (e.g. logistics, supply chain, sales, operations, consumer) 🤖🛰️🚀AI Frontier Tech (e.g. robotics & autonomy, defense, electrification, space, materials & manufacturing) We featured Origin Ventures VI CEOs from: Torus fresh off its $200M financing led by Magnetar Voze integrating AI into its sales enablement roadmap for field sales AudioShake scaling 5x YoY with enterprise partners across AI and media & entertainment The next day, portfolio company leaders exchanged ideas in three forums in three iconic locations:  - CEO summit  - Builders Summit (engineering and product) - GTM Summit (sales and marketing) The highlight is an unforgettable dinner at Blue Sky Ranch—an evening of conversation, connection, and community with our LPs and execs together. We are grateful to our LPs and our execs who make it a great week of learning. 👨‍🏫  

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San Francisco’s tech scene is evolving rapidly, but with growth comes complexity. It’s a city where passion meets pressure, where innovation walks hand in hand with burnout. As founders and leaders, it’s crucial to rethink how we balance wealth creation with well-being. Building a company on sleepless nights isn’t sustainable. Let’s champion startup cultures that celebrate mental health as fiercely as market share. Because true success is holistic. #HealthInTech #StartupCulture #SanFrancisco #MentalHealthMatters #WealthAndWellness #EntrepreneurLife #Innovation

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Big milestone for Firmable. We’ve raised $14m Series A led by Airtree. Sales has moved through a few big waves: intuition-led, CRM-led, data-led. We’re now entering the next one – intelligence-led sales. The opportunity isn’t just better data. It’s turning that data into clear direction and action, without adding more work for sales teams. That’s what we’re building at Firmable: a foundation of trusted external data, layered with intelligence that helps sellers know who to focus on and when. Led by Airtree, this round supports our expansion across Asia and into the US – and accelerates the build-out of AI agents that take the admin work off sales teams so they can focus on what they do best. Proud of the team, grateful to our customers and investors. We’re just getting started. Read the exclusive in the AFR. https://lnkd.in/gr66uknb Leigh Jasper | Tara Salmon | Karthik Venkatasubramanian| Chester Thompson| Chath Widanapathirana

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Today is the due date of California’s Fair Investment Practices' first annual demographic report, and my team at Fabric VC is proud to report on our 100% diverse-led portfolio. 🎉 We look forward to seeing other funds like ours changing the paradigm in VC, and will be calling out those whose numbers look far different than ours to start making intentional choices to create a more diverse VC system. #FIPVCC

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