Laura Gaffney

AIO is the new competitive edge for most industries. But in aesthetics? It's the new foundation. And honestly, it makes perfect sense. Aesthetic decisions aren't impulse buys. They're deeply researched, trust-dependent choices that hinge entirely on recognizing genuine expertise. Which, plot twist, happens to be exactly what AI was built to excel at. But here's where it gets interesting (and a little ironic): most aesthetic practices are completely invisible to AI. All that expertise, those flawless results, those years of training? It exists in operating rooms and consultation spaces, not in the digital formats AI actually reads. Meanwhile, practices that figured out how to "speak AI" are getting recommended left and right. Are they necessarily better surgeons? Not always. Do they understand the new rules of the game? Absolutely. It's like being the most talented chef in the world but forgetting to put up a sign on your restaurant. Patients are hungry, AI is the new food critic in town, and right now it doesn't even know you exist. So I know you want to show up in those answers. Your patients deserve to find you, and frankly, you deserve to be found. The question is: how do you make AI your biggest advocate? Stay tuned. I'm about to show you exactly how to turn AI into your most effective patient acquisition tool. #aesthetics #aestheticmedicine #plasticsurgery #dermatology #aestheticnurse #plasticsurgeon #medicalspa #medspa #aestheticdoctor #digitalmarketing #AI #artificialintelligence #cosmeticmedicine #cosmeticsurgery

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I recently sat down with David Prosser at Forbes to discuss how we, at AAF Management Ltd., have strategically positioned ourselves to ride — and invest through — the current AI wave. The conversation came at a meaningful inflection point for us: just days after announcing 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘹𝘪𝘴 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥, a $55 million early-stage hybrid vehicle anchored by Mubadala Capital. Over the past decade in venture, I’ve seen the industry evolve through extraordinary macro shifts — the rise and fall of online-native e-commerce brands, the boom and bust of biotech, and the irrational exuberance of the ZIRP-era liquidity that fueled a historic valuation run-up, followed by a painful but necessary reset. Each cycle has followed a familiar pattern: euphoria → over-investment → correction → consolidation → compounding. And every cycle reinforces the same truth: 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. So, are we in an AI bubble? The honest answer: it depends which asset class you mean. As I said in the interview: “It’s really a story of two different worlds. A handful of very large private companies have been flooded with liquidity and seen huge valuation increases — but that’s not been the experience of small start-ups raising their first $1M to $5M.” Because most investors follow momentum, we’re seeing overzealous valuations in public markets (e.g., NVIDIA) and late-stage private names (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI). But in early stage, while Seed valuations have crept up, most AI startups raising $1–5M rounds remain sensible. We see AI as a once-in-a-generation platform shift, not a passing cycle. Through The Axis Fund, we’re intentionally positioned to capture both beta and alpha across this paradigm: Beta — via our 20% fund-of-funds allocation, giving us exposure to the next wave of category-defining AI companies: • Decagon – AI for customer service (backed by Andreessen Horowitz ) • ElevenLabs – AI voice and language models (backed by ICONIQ) • Sanas – AI-powered voice translation (backed by Insight Partners) • Legora – Legal AI for the EU (backed by General Catalyst) Alpha — by cherry-picking the most promising companies across Pre-Seed to Pre-IPO. Our AI thesis is clear: • 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫: Agentic workflows driving automation, efficiency, and error reduction. • 𝐒𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: Libraries, tools, and data systems enabling scalable model deployment. • 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐈 > 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐀𝐈:  Founders solving real, high-value problems in fintech, healthcare, SaaS, and industrial tech. • 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Founders who think globally and execute precisely in their markets. We will stop talking about AI as a category the way we stopped talking about cloud or web protocols, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵. 👇🏽 Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/ejwREwEe

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Even the most skeptical voices are starting to acknowledge the value of LLM generated code. Not as a replacement for deep expertise, but as a practical tool for acceleration, exploration, and iteration. When someone as famously disciplined about code quality as Linus Torvalds publicly acknowledges that AI generated code can be useful, it signals a shift worth paying attention to. The takeaway is not that AI writes better software than humans, but that good engineers are learning where and how these tools create leverage. https://lnkd.in/eFbNFqYN

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What an honor to attend the Bridging the Gap for Greater Investment event hosted by Preetha Ram, Reut Lazo & CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen), alongside an incredible group of women VCs, founders, and healthcare leaders. The headline stat is still sobering: only ~2% of venture funding goes to women-founded healthcare companies. But what made this gathering different was that it didn’t stop at the statistic. As both an investor and a founder, what stood out to me was the intentional structure of the room: - Women VCs clearly articulating what they’re prioritizing for 2026 - Women founders pitching real businesses, real traction, real solutions - Open conversations about what it actually takes to become investor-ready, not just pitch-ready Thrilled to see my portco Raekis AI pitch, led by the incredible Dr. Nipa Diwanji-Sheth, and also to see cool innovations like ZERObrush. A massive shout-out to Preetha Ram of Pier 70 Ventures, Reut Lazo of WOMEN x AI (WxAI) and CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) for thoughtfully including Sage and Veda products for the conference giveaways. It meant a lot to see women supporting women-built brands, and grounding the room in care, not just capital. And to the women who pitched: your companies, clarity, and conviction were the real highlight. Building in healthcare is hard. Building as a woman in healthcare is harder. The quality of work in that room reinforced why this gap isn’t about lack of innovation, it’s about access. If you’re a woman building in healthcare: keep going. If you’re an investor: keep showing up, and keep listening. That’s how the numbers actually change ❤️ #jpm #sf #jpmorgan #changethestatistic

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**Grammarly’s ‘Expert Review’ Lacks True Expertise** Grammarly’s new feature aims to elevate user writing through insights from notable thinkers. However, the effectiveness may hinge on whether the available feedback genuinely reflects expert-level scrutiny. At ElevenX Capital, we advocate for a blend of data-driven insights and genuine expertise in both product development and investment strategies. As investors, identifying authentic value in offerings is key. How do you assess the quality of resources when making investment decisions? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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🌟 Grateful to Speak at CAIS (Series C): Women in Product & Innovation 🌟 I had the privilege of joining Jacqueline Koerner, MD of Funds Product Management at CAIS, last month for an intimate conversation with an incredible group of women across product, operations, and tech in general. For those who may not know CAIS, it is one of the fastest-growing fintech platforms in the alternative investments space. They’re building the infrastructure that gives financial advisors access to alternative products with the same ease and transparency as traditional assets, no small feat. Being welcomed into a room of such sharp, curious women building the future of fintech was an honor. Jacqueline guided our conversation through: ✨ Career Through-Line From startups to venture, consulting, and now enterprise AI at Adobe, the red thread has always been solving scaling problems: systems, people, partnerships, and the messy middle between vision and execution. ✨ Startup → Scale-Up Lessons Having supported 27 companies through growth stages, one thing is universal: scaling breaks non operational companies. Setting yourself up Day 1 for scale is easy, just need to do it. Tech and product teams win when they embrace structure, cross-functional clarity, ruthless prioritization, and the courage to evolve their operating system. ✨ What I’m up to at Adobe I’m focused on how AI delivers real value in content performance and retail media, and being a community builder at heart pushing partner ecosystem acceleration. National Retail Federation starting this weekend will be a true hub for these topics and looking forward to connecting with folks in Ad Tech there. The hype cycle is loud but the practical applications are already transforming marketing workflows and customer engagement. ✨ Skills for an AI-First Future - Product managers and operators will thrive if they master: - Systems thinking - Cross-functional cadenced communication - Comfort with ambiguity - Experimentation and iteration at Speed - AI-powered workflow design ✨ Personal Brand My personal brand wasn’t planned, it emerged by showing up consistently across communities, giving before asking, and sharing the journey with honesty. My biggest advice: start before you feel ready, be generous, and stay human. Folks prefer seeing and learning about the messy, not the perfect. ✨ What’s Inspiring 2026 feels like a year of convergence: AI maturity across industries, startup innovation now more needed by Corporates than ever, and global collaboration coming together in ways we’ve never seen before. And personally, it’s the rooms like this one that energize me the most.  Supporting and pushing the curious to take their next stretched step. Thank you, Jacqueline, Olivia Turi and the CAIS team for creating such a thoughtful space for women building the future. Here’s to more conversations that elevate, empower, and accelerate us all. 🚀 #innovation #technology #venturecapital #startups #careers

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Pinterest is a publicly traded company (PINS) owned by a mix of institutional investors (like Vanguard, BlackRock), public shareholders, and its founders, including CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann, co-founder Evan Sharp, and early investor Paul Sciarra, with large firms holding significant stakes, but it is a widely held stock. Key Owners & Investors: Founders: Ben Silbermann (CEO, Chairman) and Evan Sharp (Chief Product Officer) still hold significant shares. Paul Sciarra, another co-founder, also retains a large stake. Institutional Investors: Major players like Vanguard, BlackRock, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price are large shareholders, holding significant portions of the stock. Public Shareholders: As a public company, a large portion of Pinterest is owned by individual investors and the general public. 

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A week after launching Avant, the news cycle wrote my pitch deck for me. Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs, and General Atlantic just announced a $1.5B joint venture. The mandate: deploy Claude across their portfolio companies — a dedicated consulting arm, purpose-built to embed AI into the operating businesses those funds own. A lot of GPs are about to read this and get it wrong. They will think, wow I can raise the valuation of my companies by embedding them with AI. They'll go straight to the companies they own and ask "why aren't you using AI?" — without looking in the mirror. Then they will dump thousands into unprofitable AI tools that are used poorly or not at all. AI tools without strategy and training are useless. The funds in this article have spent 3+ years and unlimited resources trying to implement AI internally, and they're only now reaching the point where they can create real value for their portfolio companies. So where is the value? Start with your fund's internal operations. Speed up your processes with automation to win more deals. Spend on the right tools and use them strategically. Then advise your PortCos and operators on how to do the same. It's what Avant helps customers do every day.

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Today we begin the next chapter of Archy, supercharged with $20M in Series B funding led by TCV (Austin Levitt, Morgan Gerlak), with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners (Kent Bennett, Maha Malik), CRV (Murat Bicer), Entrée Capital (Saul Levin, Avi Eyal), and dentist customers who believe in our mission. The problem is clear: Dentistry is facing a severe staffing crisis while being held back by decades-old software cobbled together with a hodgepodge of add-ons. Practices are drowning in administrative work that pulls focus away from patient care. Our solution: World-class, all-in-one software powered by AI agents that automates the busywork, eliminates the inefficiency, and gives dentists their time back. In the last year, we've grown 300% and now process well over $100M in payments annually. Archy is already saving midsized practices 80+ hours every month, time that can be spent treating patients instead of wrestling with software. This funding accelerates our day one mission: building the tools that let dentists and their teams do what they do best, treat patients. The great Mary Ann Azevedo at Crunchbase breaks the news: https://lnkd.in/gbZs_az7 P.S. If your dentist is still struggling with antiquated software, they (and you) deserve better. Tell them about Archy.

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David Luan, VP of Agents and Head of Amazon’s SF AI Lab, is leaving Amazon just two years after joining through the acquisition of Adept. During his tenure, he scaled agent research, advanced RL work, and helped launch Nova Act to compete with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. His reason? With AGI “so close,” he wants to focus fully on building new AI capabilities. Another early bet from a leader who previously shaped AI at OpenAI and Google. Read on! https://lnkd.in/eFgjWk7W #ArtificialIntelligence #AGI #AILeadership #GenerativeAI #TechLeadership #FutureOfAI #AIStartups #Innovation

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Today Arc announces our $10.76M Seed led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Adverb Ventures, Broadway Restaurant Group, LLC, United Talent Agency, Sarah Friar, Saumil Mehta, Henry Delouvrier, Mike G, and Josh Schwarzapel Ali Hussain and I started Arc to help local businesses harness AI in a way that benefits customers, employees, and the businesses themselves. This belief that all boats can rise with AI is the cornerstone of Arc. There are 200,000 drive-thrus in the US serving 15M meals a day and employing 3 - 5M people. We often think of them as giant corporations, but 70 - 80% are locally owned franchises that are important parts of their communities. Yet the drive-thru experience today is still powered by 1950’s technology that serves no one well. Long lines, rushed ordering, garbled audio, and multi-tasking employees all get in the way of these businesses delivering not just food, but hospitality. Today, alongside our fundraising, we are announcing the launch of Arc’s drive-thru platform. Powered by our proprietary AI voice ordering system, our platform lets operators manage their drive-thru with the precision, measurability and curated experience of a modern digital channel. The result: delighted guests, larger orders, and happier employees. And this is just the beginning.

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Excited to share that Exaforce has raised $125M in Series B funding, bringing total funding to $200M. What drew me to Exaforce is simple: AI is fundamentally reshaping both the scale and sophistication of cyber threats, while simultaneously raising expectations for what security teams must deliver.  Legacy architectures were simply not designed for this moment. Many companies are layering AI on top of dated platforms.  Exaforce approached the problem differently by building around a real-time security knowledge graph that enables AI agents to reason across identities, cloud activity, permissions, files, code, telemetry, and events with full context. The result is a platform designed to help security teams operate at machine speed against increasingly AI-powered adversaries. The team here is exceptional, and I’m incredibly excited for what’s ahead with our customers, partners, and broader ecosystem.  Grateful for the early collaboration and engagement across the industry, including teams at CrowdStrike, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Okta, Zscaler, and others as we continue building. And if you are wondering, we are #hiring. 🚀 #Cybersecurity #AISecurity #ZeroTrust #SecurityOperations #PartnerEcosystem

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It was great to see Red Krypton Chairman Mitch Stoller quoted in the New York Times regarding the growing importance of AIO and GEO. As direct search traffic continues to decline, this remains a significant area of focus for our clients. Red Krypton currently works with several innovative global brands to address these challenges, including Google Fiber, Bain, Atlas Gas & Oil, Cirque du Soleil, and Jefferies. https://lnkd.in/eqHgCyP6

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Had a 30-minute masterclass on real estate investing with Riaz Taplin, founder and CEO of ArtHaus Partners (formerly Riaz Capital), a workforce housing developer in the Bay Area. 🤓 Their platform is valued at around $1B with $325M - $350M in investor capital raised. Under his leadership, the company expanded from 88 units to 4,000 units, residences, and beds in operation and development. He started young— at 16, and professionally by 21. With 20+ years in the game, he’s mastered how to read the market and create opportunities that help investors maximize and protect their capital. Interesting how their platform delivers twofold value. 1/ Bridge the Bay Area’s middle-class housing gap. 2/ Deliver steady, tax-advantaged returns for investors. Other things I learned from our convo: ↳ Going solo in real estate = betting everything on one property. You miss out on diversified, steady gains from scale and expertise. ↳ Calling real estate a disaster = missing the nuance. Some classes, like multifamily housing, stay strong even when others crash. ↳ Investing without a tax strategy = giving away returns. Take advantage of tax provisions such as a 1031 exchange. Huge thank you to Riaz for sharing his wisdom! 💚 We talked about how to read markets, scale without overexposure, create impact while building wealth, and more! If you’d like to catch the full conversation, I'll drop the link in the comments. 👇 And please send some love to Riaz. He’s doing incredible work bridging the Bay Area’s middle-class housing gap while helping investors grow sustainably. 🦁🚀

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How do you turn AI uncertainty into ROI? Last quarter, a mid-sized NYC tech firm faced stalled innovation and decision fatigue. Their leadership team was overwhelmed by conflicting AI automation options. We stepped in with a cognitive audit, mapped their bottlenecks, and designed a private AI agent system tailored to their workflows. Within weeks, project delivery times dropped by 27%, and decision cycles became days, not weeks. Curious how a cognitive science-led approach can unlock your team’s next breakthrough? Let’s talk about your challenges. (If you’re navigating complex tech decisions, I’d welcome a direct message or connection.)

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San Diego-based Manifold (AI Detection and Response platform) has raised $8 million in seed funding; lead backer Costanoa Ventures, along with several institutional investors including Cherry Ventures, Rain Capital, Modern Technical Fund, and angel investors.

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What does it really mean to be building a Consumer AI-native product today? BBG Ventures continued its Breakfast Series with a convo on Consumer AI co-hosted with Factorial, Lightspeed, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Stellation Capital (thanks SVB!) We were joined by two forward thinking AI-native builders - Dennis Crowley at Hopscotch Labs and Anna Bofa at Crate - and got into the hard stuff: what's valuable or just a feature; what does real personalization look like; what makes a product a no-brainer for user adoption; what are the new moats, and what are VCs looking for when they invest early? Our top takeaways below - weigh in with your thoughts! ✨ What’s newly possible vs. what’s newly trivial. AI makes a lot easier—but only some things more valuable. The best builders are distinguishing between products that unlocks new user behavior, that are meaningfully differentiated (possible) and features that simply make things easier - or could be built in a weekend (trivial). VCs are looking to invest in the former. H/t Matthew Hartman for this frame. 🧠 Is personalization the VIBE N of 1 personalization is the holy grail - but it's about more than prediction, it's about empathy. It's about building memory over time—capturing user tone, goals, and intent—and creating a vibe match that makes the product feel intuitive and emotionally aligned. That’s what builds trust, repeat use, and brand equity. Crate is doing this by collecting implicit signal, and Hopscotch's Beebot through its ambient "pop in your airpods" approach. Which brings us to ... ⚖️ The product "effort spectrum" Every product lives somewhere on the no → low → hard effort spectrum. AI-native experiences need to be closer to the "no-effort" end of the spectrum - a value exchange and clear payoff for little work. Put another way, friction is the enemy of frequency. 🧱 Moats are the same but different Fundamental moats remain the same, but network effects, proprietary data etc, but they get more exciting because of feedback loops and real time user data - for each interaction and related improvement. Hot take related to personalization from me: maybe the vibe match becomes the moat? 📊 What VCs are looking for at Seed vs. Series A At Seed, the VCs in the room Matthew Hartman Peter Boyce II and BBG Ventures are backing founders with a deep POV on behavior, training loops, and interface design. We prize organic growth and WOM. By Series A, investors like Michael Mignano Danielle Lay are looking for continued organic growth, strong retention and stable user cohorts, real engagement depth, customer obsession and proprietary data We're investing in Consumer AI! If you're building something newly possible and you believe in wow moments; if you’re working on n of 1 personalization and the vibe match with less work users come talk to us. Full post 👉 https://lnkd.in/geFief5D Claire Biernacki Susan Lyne

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