Atento Capital

We recently hosted the Atento Capital Portfolio Retreat—a two-and-a-half-day event in New York City designed to forge meaningful relationships between our portfolio founders and NYC investors, industry experts, and fellow entrepreneurs. With a focus on engagement and growth, we curated every session to maximize impact. We kicked off with an inspiring panel discussion, "How I Built This", Brian Rudolph, Rom Cohen, Liya Shuster-Bier, Ariela Safira, Rema Matevosyan. Moderated by our Managing Director and Co-Founder Will Gray, CFA, the conversation delved into the founders’ journeys and key lessons learned. From there, the energy carried over to a dynamic happy hour at the stunning Company Ventures space, where Tulsa’s talent met with NYC founders, operators, and VCs. We followed the happy hour with a private dinner at Upland where our founders had the opportunity to break bread with a group of amazing investors. Day two was all about learning and sharing. The morning workshop, Trust in Action: Aligning Product Vision with Customer Experience, led by Sam Dix and Prag Anand, encouraged founders to dive deep into how their product vision connects with customer needs, and provided a platform for peer-to-peer feedback. Following the workshop, founders engaged in one-on-one meetings with relevant investors and business development leads, expanding their networks even further. The evening took us to a private dinner hosted in partnership with Resident Hospitality, which was more than just a dinner—it was a curated culinary experience! 🍷 With a private chef and sommelier guiding us through a series of exquisite dishes and wine pairings, the night turned into a space for open dialogue, thoughtful reflection, and forging new partnerships in a truly unique setting. From there, we headed to the Comedy Cellar for a classic New York experience. The final day featured a panel on Navigating Corporate Waters: Strategic Partnerships and Customer Engagement for Startups, where corporate innovation experts Ryan J. Piela, Taylor Buser, Jennifer Agran and Karen Hui-Ying Wang shared practical strategies for landing major customers and navigating corporate relationships with moderator, Perfecto Sanchez. We wrapped up the sessions with When and How to Scale Your Technical and Product Teams, led by Igor "Iggy" Moliver, offering valuable insights into scaling efficiently. And, of course, what better way to conclude than a delicious food tour at Market57 in Chelsea? The founders had the chance to relax and continue building connections in a more casual setting. The Atento Portfolio Retreat was a tremendous success. We are incredibly grateful to all who participated and helped make this retreat a truly memorable experience. A huge thank you to my team Naomi Cervantes, Vondell J. Burns and Kumbaya Okorie for their amazing work and dedication to the event and to all the friends and colleagues from former lives that came out to support!

🚀 The past two weeks have been nothing short of incredible, and incredibly busy! 💪🏻 Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in an amazing retreat with the Atento Capital portfolio, where we connected with fellow startup founders, engaged in insightful panel discussions, and met top-tier investors in NYC. It was an invaluable experience that reinforced the importance of building a strong, supportive community. 🗽 This week, we took part in the NYC Climate Week, immersing ourselves in events dedicated to tackling the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. We had the chance to meet with investors, colleagues, and friends who share our passion for creating disruptive solutions and driving impactful change. ⚡️ These experiences have been inspiring and energizing, and I’m excited to see what’s next as we continue to build meaningful connections and drive innovation forward. #startups #networking #sustainability #innovation #climateweek #nyc #bybug

NYU Tulsa is making a splash! Shoutout to the incredible NYU summer interns featured in this video Moorea Swango, Charan Kandasamy Raja, Sara Sharma, Charlie Norbury, Melody Jiang, Rex X., Chloe Stone https://lnkd.in/eY8SzgCW

We’re thrilled to welcome Raj Doshi to the april leadership team as President and COO! Raj brings invaluable experience from his role as Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Blucora, overseeing revenue responsibilities for TaxAct and Avantax. april has already integrated into dozens of platforms, including Chime, Dayforce, and Gusto, and we're on track to become the first new national e-file provider in 15 years offering a legitimate alternative to an outmoded industry. Raj's focus will be scaling the company’s embedded partnership model to financial providers and expanding april’s reach, affirming our ambition to make a better tax experience accessible to all Americans. Link to the full PR in the comments. Join me in welcoming Raj to the team!

🎉 Today is a historic day for Tulsa – a region redefining tech innovation and securing the U.S.’s global tech leadership. Today the U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded approximately $51 million to the Tulsa Hub for Equitable and Trustworthy Autonomy (#THETA), a consortium led by Tulsa Innovation Labs and 75 partners. For more information please visit: https://lnkd.in/gJ844xUs Tulsa is one of just 12 Tech Hubs awarded funding out of the 31 regions to receive “Tech Hub” designations last fall. See a complete list of winners here: https://lnkd.in/gKdsqPMz With a legacy shaped by aerospace and manufacturing, Tulsa is pioneering the future of innovation. This award will make Tulsa the world's destination to develop, test, manufacture and deploy trustworthy and equitable autonomous technologies. Tulsa will leverage this award to advance innovations critical to the future of economic and national security and bring forth new job opportunities for all Tulsans. The funding will support the following six projects: ❇️ Increasing coordination on commercialization strategies among universities and the startups they support; ❇️ Building a state-of-the-art testing and simulation environment–with a focus on cyber and data management–for companies, researchers and regulatory entities to address barriers to commercial adoption;   ❇️ Developing programs to identify opportunities for manufacturers in trustworthy and equitable autonomous systems supply chains and build out a manufacturing demonstration center where small companies can scale their capabilities;  ❇️ Creating an AI Center of Excellence to expand opportunities and increase exposure to technology for underserved communities;  ❇️ Expanding workforce programs to align training with industry needs, provide upskilling, and offer on-the-job training opportunities; and  ❇️ Establishing governance structures to execute projects, pursue additional funding and drive the Tech Hub’s strategy.   We are thrilled to receive this investment that will spur economic growth in the Heartland and secure Tulsa’s leadership in #autonomoussystems, #cybersecurity and #defense technologies. #Tulsa #TechHubTulsa #EDATechHub #TechHubs THETA was co-led by a steering committing including Black Tech Street, Cherokee Nation Businesses, L3Harris Technologies, Madison Strategies Group, NORDAM, Oklahoma State University, Osage, LLC, PartnerTulsa, Radius Capital Ventures, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa Community College and TEDC. Thank you to all of our coalition partners, the EDA and every Tulsan who made this possible.

After two short years of exceptional revenue growth and achieving operational profitability, Volt is proud to announce our $3 million seed fundraise led by Mercury Fund with participation from Atento Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Stout Street Capital, and Yellow Rocks!   We are excited to continue to scale our category-defining developer suite to help software companies manage the complexities of large-scale text messaging and significantly reduce the engineering hours spent on the upkeep of internal infrastructure. With this new funding, we will further enhance and accelerate our product development and strategically expand our team.   We encourage you to read our press release here: https://lnkd.in/dAk_J72K    #SMS #MessagingOperations #Software #CommunicationsTechnology

This week, the Atento Capital team hit the Big Apple (NYC) to attend BBG Ventures' Annual General Meeting. BBG Ventures is an early-stage, generalist fund focused on startups with a female or diverse founder. This was my first time traveling for an AGM, and I wanted to share some insights and takeaways that stood out to me: Investors had a lot to say about sought-after founder qualities and here are some common ones that stood out: 💡 Curiosity: Always seeking to learn and explore. 🙏 Humility: Staying grounded and open to feedback. 📖 Continuous Learning: Continuously evolving and improving. 🏅 Coachability: Willingness to take advice and grow. 💪 Scrappiness: Resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges. Investors were leaned in on the latest trends: - Thematic Research-driven funds are becoming more prevalent. - Market exits have been quiet, leading to larger portfolios to manage. - Despite market corrections, the most resilient founders remain, demonstrating their ability to adapt and thrive. - Higher quality companies have adjusted their burn rates and are actively raising funds this year. Some common advice founders get is to build relationships with investors BEFORE a raise so investors gave some tips on how to navigate those convos: 1. Only engage with a few LPs (2-4) who have a specific interest in your project. 2. Be prepared to share numbers and keep the meeting focused. 3. Know when to start raising by setting milestones and be comfortable saying “no” to meetings until then. Some of my favorite quotables: - “If the founders can’t sell it, no one else will be able to sell it.” - “It's not always about taking risks. Successful entrepreneurs are actually great at mitigating them. Test and learn.” - "Our team took the first 6 months of the year to upskill in #AI, reflecting its growing importance in the industry." These insights underscore the dynamic and evolving nature of the #VentureCapital landscape. It's crucial to stay adaptable, continuously learn, and strategically navigate the market. Huge congratulations to Nisha Dua and Susan Lyne for leading the charge on such an impactful summit. We got to hear from the likes of Beatrice Dixon (excited to get you to Tulsa), Neil Blumenthal, Charles Hudson (excellent moderator), James Joaquin, Martha Stewart and more! I even got to reconnect with my old friend Holyn K. and laugh at how we both ended up in VC. I would be remiss without acknowledging the incredible work done by Drew Silverman on putting together the summit. Event planning is no small feat and the icing on the cake was the thoughtful swag bag featuring products from the female founders in the portfolio. You really left no stone unturned. Excited to continue to collaborate on future change making programming. #BeAtento #BBGAGM2024 #Summit