Fall Update - and a new look!
What we learned about disrupting the status quo in legacy industries from Matt at Adaptive, a new look for BBGV's newsletter, and Max Home's $5M seed round.
Founders, funders, and friends - we’re heading into the fall season feeling inspired by the wave of founders back in market after the summer.
But first an update and unveil: we’ve moved over to Substack! Field Notes by BBG Ventures is our new “newsletter meets musing” spot. Expect notes from the frontlines of founder (and fund) building - founder stories, operator wisdom, pulling the string on investment theses, and playbooks for starting out. You’ll also find the occasional rant about what’s newly possible in AI and newly exciting in not-AI. Yes, we invest in not-AI things too. You’ll hear from us on a more regular cadence and we aspire for it to be valuable enough that you’ll stick around as a subscriber.
MaxHome raised a $5 million seed round led by Fika Ventures, which will help the company further develop its AI-native operating system designed for residential real estate. We’ve been proud to support founder Divya Aathresh and the team since pre-seed and welcome Fika to the group. – Read More
Togethxr welcomed WNBA all-star Angel Reese to its ownership group. Reese joins a new wave of athletes – including Michelle Wie West who was announced as an investor in May – working to spotlight the impact of players who are pushing women’s sports forward. – Read More
In August, we teamed up with Construct, Avid Ventures, and NVP to host a breakfast conversation with Matt Calvano, founder and CEO of Adaptive. The conversation focused on tactical strategies for disrupting the status quo in legacy industries.
Adaptive is an AI-powered financial management platform for construction. What started as a simple accounts payable tool is now a full-stack accounting system used by over 600 contractors.
Matt told us about when his team ran the books for a handful of builders in Austin to understand customer pain points, early wins with SMBs, and how to structure engineering teams for current product fixes and innovation. Check out the key takeaways from the breakfast in our Substack post—AI in Legacy Industries: Customer Discovery, Nailing GTM, and Navigating Product Expansion. For those of you building or investing in Legacy Industries check out Part Two of that series: How Trunk Tools is Reshaping Construction End-to-End.
What We’re Talking About:
New research shows that AI is reshaping the workforce—but it’s complicated: AI is Eliminating Jobs for Younger Workers (Wired)
Companies with the right product at the right cultural moment: The Alchemy of N of 1 Consumer Companies (Headline)
The deep behavioral shifts shaping consumer trends: Beyond the Trend: Turning Insights into Industry Leaders (Forerunner Ventures)
What We’re Reading:
Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, in which author Dan Wang posits that the United States is a ‘lawyerly society’ that excels at obstruction while China is an ‘engineering state’ dedicated to technological supremacy - where the outcomes can be significant but the impact on people’s lives challenging.
More Portfolio Company News:
Anthill published a report focused on improving the retention of frontline workers. It includes practical tips for identifying why workers leave and the role of AI in solving the worker retention puzzle. – Read More
Evvy’s founders published an op-ed in Fast Company which details the ways in which women are being left out of medical research. To advance Evvy’s mission, you can join their Equal Research Day campaign here to help demand equal research funding for women. – Read More
Millie’s Anu Sharma was named a 2025 Most Influential Minority Executive in Healthcare by Fierce Healthcare. The honor recognizes leaders who had a uniquely impactful influence on the healthcare industry in the last year. – Read More
Oova launched its perimenopause and fertility hormone tracking platform, which achieves 99% accuracy compared to blood tests. The tool can present to users predictable connections between hormone fluctuations and symptoms including hot flashes, insomnia, and mood changes. – Order Your Kit
Out and About:
Nisha joined Precursor Ventures’ Pre-Seed Bootcamp in NY —a high-energy day with 30 early-stage founders learning the ropes of the path from idea to pre-seed. Nisha joined Rob Go (NextView Ventures) and Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures) where they shared real talk on building investor relationships, navigating early-stage fundraising, and standing out in a crowded market.
During Climate Week, we reveled in BBGV portco Planet FWD’s PlanetHAUS, an interactive consumer experience designed to showcase what sustainable living looks like - with conversations about making the (climate) revolution irresistible. Nisha and Supercircle CEO and Co-Founder Chloe Songer (another BBGV portco) discussed in waste management for the textile industry, the hair on fire problem for retailers and brands and how to drive ROI as a climate tech company.
Work at a BBGV Company:
Head of Operations at Evvy, closing the gender health gap
Director of Logistics and Operations at Starface, building the optimistic acne treatment for a new generation
Senior Product Manager and Senior Product Designer at Topline Pro, serving up business management tools for solopreneurs
Senior Product Manager at Upwage, creating economic opportunity for hourly workers
Senior Software Engineer at Zola, reinventing the wedding planning and registry experience
Product Manager at Maxhome.ai, tackling the complexities of a real estate transaction
A new job board at Togethxr, reshaping the women’s sports industry.