Helen Fu Thomas

🚀 Universities -- are you ready to unlock the true potential of your campus innovation ecosystem? The venture studio model is rapidly transforming how universities turn research, talent, and IP into real-world impact-but it’s not for the faint of heart. 🔍 Venture studios go beyond accelerators and incubators. They act as company creators-systematically building, validating, and launching startups. But here’s the truth: 👉 The studio model is powerful-but also complex. 👉 It demands clarity of vision, deep integration with university assets, and rigorous execution. The stakes are high, and the path is tricky. 📄 If you’re considering a venture studio, start with the right questions. Our latest guide “37 Essential Questions to Assess Your University Venture Studio,” is a practical framework to help you: 1️⃣ Evaluate alignment with your university’s mission and strategic goals 2️⃣ Design sustainable funding and governance structures 3️⃣ Build processes for idea sourcing, validation, and spinout 4️⃣ Attract and incentivize top entrepreneurial talent 5️⃣ Establish robust metrics and accountability for long-term success Studios are not “one size fits all.” Customization to your institution’s unique strengths and context is critical. And disciplined, data-driven design beats hype. The most successful studios are built on rigorous planning, transparent KPIs, and a willingness to learn and adapt. Ready to explore what a university venture studio could look like for your institution? 👇 Comment for the guide and let’s start a conversation. #VentureStudios #UniversityInnovation #Entrepreneurship #TechTransfer #StartupEcosystem #Commercialization

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#TheTenYearFixedTerm. It drives the entire startup ecosystem. Here’s how. Week 4 of “Venture Capital” at the Santa Clara University School of Law. LPs don’t want to be trapped in an illiquid venture capital fund forever, paying annual management fees. How can they get out? There is a secondary market for those interests, but it’s primarily opportunistic, and targets desperate sellers. So without a structural endpoint, they could be trapped forever. And there is: the 10 year fixed term. On that anniversary, subject to possible but limited extensions, the fund must terminate and wind-up, distributing its final assets to its investors. Seems benign, but the impact is massive! 1️⃣ Our #VC and #startup culture is defined by SPEED. Startup-to-growth-to-liquidity, as quickly as possible. Market dynamics are most certainly relevant, and prevalent. But there’s a structural driver as well: yes, the 10 year fixed term. If you are going to fully harvest your fund in 10 years, you need to front-load your investment activity (to ensure that your portfolio companies have at least some time to grow and ripen). So VCs race to deploy their capital within the first 5 years. But that’s not all - they then apply pressure on founders to drive toward exit. Which in virtually all cases, is M&A (sale of the company). The need for LP liquidity within 10 years drives the need for startup speed. 2️⃣ #AgencyCosts refer to the inevitable conflicts-of-interest that arise when one party (the agent) is tasked with acting on behalf of another party (the principal). In the #VC context, the ultimate principal is the #LimitedPartner, and their agent is the #VentureCapitalist. Limited partners want big returns, and liquidity. But what’s to stop the VC from diverting focus (and capital) toward an unending lifestyle instead? In other words, people have their own agendas and motivations. Always. So how does this principal, here, ensure that incentives are aligned and agency costs minimized? Yep. The 10 year fixed term. By dramatically limiting the space for self-dealing by creating a brief window of active existence, the VC is forced to focus on getting to liquidity. They simply do not have the opportunity to selfishly create an endless, self-perpetuating empire underwritten by the limited partners. Bracketed with their carried interest, the VCs are incented to focus on big returns in a concentrated period of time. Exactly what the LPs want! I was on the road this week, and so I recorded the lecture for the students. I normally can’t provide access to my lecture recordings, because they live behind university firewalls, but this week I bootlegged it and uploaded them to my YouTube channel. If you are interested, this lecture (broken into 3 segments) is available there for free - no agency costs in sight! #DWProf

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The Headline family is experiencing incredible momentum, and today our portfolio company DeepIP is announcing a $25M Series B, bringing total funding to $40M.  This is the kind of company that doesn’t just add AI to a workflow, but it sets the standard for an entire category. The momentum speaks for itself: 1️⃣ 10x ARR growth in < 18 months 2️⃣ Trusted by 400+ law firms and leading corporate IP teams globally 3️⃣ 2M+ chats on the DeepIP platform We’ve had the chance to back FX (Francois-Xavier) L. and Edouard D., leading their Seed round with Headline. Watching them take on a problem as complex and high-stakes as patent work has been genuinely impressive. And working with them has been an absolute pleasure: these 2 are coupling very high ambition and humility. Tech built in Europe, but opening the US office very early and FX starting a life in NYC with his family with 0 hesitation in order to build a global category leader in the IP industry. What convinced me early is still what stands out today: patent teams don’t need another standalone AI tool. They need something that fits the way the work actually happens: documents, long-running matters, multiple stakeholders, and zero room for sloppy context handoffs. Big congrats to the whole DeepIP team + Korelya Capital, Balderton & Serena Proud that we’re doubling down at Headline and continuing the support for what’s next!

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Today we Lightspeed are excited to announce the industry-first formal partnership with 𝐒𝐤𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐚𝐛 to support the next generation of entrepreneurs & technical leaders at University of California, Berkeley. Many of the most consequential AI-native startups of our generation were founded by students, postdocs, faculty, and alums of UC Berkeley, including OpenAI, Databricks, Perplexity, Skild AI, ReflectionAI, Physical Intelligence, and more. Sky Computing Lab has followed in the footsteps of predecessors Berkeley RISE Lab & AMPLab to push technical research & commercialization across both AI/ML infrastructure and applications. Generational startups often begin within the walls of academic institutions like UC Berkeley, but the research funding landscape (in particular tied to NSF) is shifting, and the impact is already visible: fewer grants, slower timelines, and heightened urgency to commercialize. On behalf of Lightspeed, James Alcorn & I are honored to partner with Ion Stoica, Joseph Gonzalez, Dawn Song, and the Sky leadership team with a commitment of capital, network, and startup resources to ensure Berkeley's next wave of entrepreneurs has the platform and partners to build industry-defining companies. UC Berkeley College of Engineering UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS) #UCBSkyComputing #BerkeleySky #UCBerkeley https://lnkd.in/etDTiBzC

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The latest UPCEA report, The Future is Now: Essential Conversations for Building Tomorrow’s University Today, captures exactly where higher education is heading — and why our partnerships at Riipen are focused on helping institutions get there faster. UPCEA highlights a few urgent truths: - Students are making choices based on ROI and career outcomes - Credentials need to be stackable and connected to real career progress - Institutions must strengthen collaboration with employers to keep programs relevant - Professional, Continuing, and Online (PCO) units will lead the way in innovation At Riipen, we see this shift every day in our partnerships. Together with universities and colleges, we’re building industry micro-credentials combined with project-based work experiences - helping learners demonstrate skills, helping educators make curriculum more applied, and helping employers find talent ready to contribute on day one. By connecting industry, education, and learners through authentic projects, we’re helping institutions turn these UPCEA insights into scalable, measurable action. You can read the full UPCEA report here: https://lnkd.in/gxw7iSh2

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#GenerativeAI on ENGAGE XR is a powerful new tool that allows you to build #immersive worlds by simply speaking to our in world #AI agents and verbally commanding them to create your world. This is our next big leap towards creating a #holodeck type experience for our ENGAGE #education and #enterprise users. All #AIGenerated objects are stored in the ENGAGE cloud file manager and can be used for multiple applications within ENGAGE or downloaded for use with external programmes. Generative AI features are hosted within our #AIBuilder on ENGAGE which already allows users to create their own AI powered characters using Meta’s #Llama and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This first version of Generative AI includes the ability to generate #VR ready #3D models, images and #skyboxes which are 360 spherical images for use within #virtualreality devices. We have also packed a lot of additional enhancements into AI Builder with the ability to set custom 3D models for your AI character to fetch, better integration with ENGAGE features so your AI characters can trigger experiences and search the live web asynchronously. Finally we have added #multilingual 0.1 support enabling you to interact with your chosen language or enabling you to design experiences for language learning. Our 4.1 update is out next month but feel free to reach out below for more information or click on this link to contact us https://lnkd.in/ebZJWZcz

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They’re finally talking about it. This Q3, CEOs named partnerships as one of their top priorities. This right alongside AI, market share, and new products. Not next year. Not “someday.” Now. They’re realizing that growth doesn’t just come from what you build. It comes from who you build it with. For years, partnerships were treated like side projects. Now, the smartest CEOs see them for what they are: the only sustainable path to scale, resilience, and relevance. So yes, they’re talking about partnerships this quarter. But those of us who’ve been building them all along know this is just the beginning. Follow for more on how real partnerships get built and how to make yours actually work. Bloomberg’s CEO Radar Report (in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) ) highlights this shift. CEOs are finally recognizing that partnership strategy is no longer optional. It’s essential. What’s holding most partnerships back? Is it trust, timing, or execution? #StrategicPartnerships #Leadership #BusinessDevelopment #GrowthStrategy #EcosystemThinking #GregWade Scott Galloway Harvard Business Review

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When most people hear “Silicon Valley,” they immediately think of world-changing tech giants like OpenAI. And while California remains at the forefront of innovation, the story doesn’t begin and end in the Valley. A recent report from The Brookings Institution highlights that San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles are now among the nation’s top hubs for AI. Los Angeles, in particular, stands out. With powerhouse industries spanning entertainment, aerospace, fashion, tech, defense, and tourism, L.A. has the perfect mix of creativity and technical expertise. In today’s AI world, success comes from blending disciplines and reimagining problems — something this city does better than almost anywhere else. As an L.A. native and business owner, I’ve always been inspired by the true diversity of thought here. It’s exciting to see the rest of the world finally recognizing that Los Angeles is not just participating in the AI revolution — it’s helping to shape it. What do you think makes a city a magnet for AI development? #AI #BusinessLeadership #LosAngeles

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