📰 Founder Collective Newsletter

LeBron James, 11-Year WHOOP User, Becomes Global Ambassador
"LeBron James started using a Whoop fitness tracker more than a decade ago and credits the device for helping him stay healthy as the 41-year-old begins his 24th NBA season.

"James has yet to miss a day of data collection for 2026, maintaining a 100% wear rate throughout the year. He also ranks among the top 10% on sleep efficiency across Whoop's entire member base, according to data shared by the company." [Bloomberg]

General Medicine Raises $120M Series B Led by a16z for Healthcare Store
"General Medicine, started by the founding team that built PillPack and Amazon Pharmacy, is an online marketplace where customers can search, compare and buy care, see insurance and cash prices before deciding, and get guidance from a licensed clinician." [Fierce Healthcare]

Walmart Taps General Medicine for Its Better Care Services Marketplace
"[TJ] Parker, General Medicine CEO, says the partnership with Walmart will bring its healthcare shopping experience to a much larger audience. About 150 million customers shop at Walmart each week through its U.S. physical and online channels." [Fierce Healthcare]

Altro Health Raises $7M to Build the Infrastructure for Wellness Services
"Altro Health, a platform that lets personal trainers, gyms and medspas offer their clients peptides, GLP-1s, hormone therapy and lab testing, has raised $7 million in seed funding as demand for at-home peptide and hormone injections hits new highs.

"'Direct-to-consumer brands are fighting over the same customers, so we went after something bigger,' said Andrea Corleto, a Harvard MBA grad and Altro's founder and CEO." [Athletech News]

Read Amanda Herson on why healthtech is having its 'ecommerce moment'.

Keld Emerges From Stealth to Build the Marketplace for AI Work
"Most companies have very little visibility into what they're actually getting. [...] Keld connects every AI dollar to real business outcomes and gives companies a smarter way to buy inference." - Dave Otten, Co-Founder/CEO [LinkedIn]

Join the Keld Atlas private beta.

Suno Is One of Just Seven Companies on All Three of a16z's Top 50 Consumer AI Lists: By Revenue, Web Traffic, & App Use
The seven include "three model companies (ChatGPT, Claude, and Suno), two AI-native applications (Perplexity, Photoroom), and two incumbents who have added AI (Canva, Notion)." [Andreessen Horowitz]

Aranya Named a Fast Company Next Big Thing in Tech
"Aranya's open-source operating system ClusterdOS can cut GPU cluster setup time from weeks to under 48 hours, and it continues to monitor the system. [...] Aranya, which emerged from stealth mode in early 2026, is already deployed across more than 3,700 GPUs." [Fast Company]

NYSE Names Baselayer One of 2026's Most Notable Series A's
"The New York Stock Exchange picked Baselayer as one of the 50 most notable series A's of the year! [...] 2,300+ financial institutions trust Baselayer. And tonight the NYSE put our name on that screen." - Jonathan Awad, Co-Founder/CEO [LinkedIn]

Explore new Agentic Identity Suite.

Reservoir Earns Front-Page Profile in The Boston Globe
Longtime reporter replaces his gas water heater with Reservoir: "We're likely to cut our home's carbon emissions without paying a financial penalty. Better yet, no one in my family so far has complained about running out of hot water — even when both showers are going." [The Boston Globe]

+ Clair wins Best Payroll Offering in Tearsheet's Power of Payments Awards.

+ AirOps expands to EMEA with a London team, helping brands like Spotify and Skyscanner win in AI search.

+ Shield AI Co-Founder and President Ryan Tseng sits down with The Washington Post to talk AI pilots, next-generation aircraft, and deployments from Ukraine to Taiwan.

+ Socure launches mobile driver's license verification with Samsung and Google, backed by device, behavioral, and identity signals.

+ Talos brings live Kalshi prediction market trading to institutions, alongside the crypto assets they already trade on its platform.

+ Formlabs launches Form Studio 1, its first consumer 3D printer, at $699.

+ Thanks becomes Kodo, launching a customer delight platform powered by Pulse AI customer profiles.

+ Ezeebit brings WalletConnect Pay to South Africa, letting hotel guests pay with stablecoins from 700+ wallets.

+ Uber expands into corporate catering with its $2.3B acquisition of ezCater.

+ Shellworks' plant-based Vivomer packaging can now be dropped off at 800+ UK stores, including Boots and Harrods, to be given a second life as an alternative to trash or home composting.

Founder Collective Ranks #15 on Odin's Top 50 VCs by Value Created List
Odin recently published a list of the Top 50 VC Firms by Value Created, ranking firms by consistency-adjusted value per dollar of capital at risk. In their words, "Most rankings of venture firms reward unicorns or private valuations. [...] This ranking asks a narrower question: for each dollar a firm put at risk, how much value did its investments create in companies that went on to list in the US?"

We're honored to see the remarkable work of the founders in our portfolio being recognized. Like most projects of this nature, the data is imperfect (published transparently here), but we commend the exercise and are excited to see more efforts to call attention to the differences between valuations and exited value.

As we wrote in our study of the 500 largest startup exits of the last 25 years this summer: Unlike markups and paper valuations, DPI doesn't lie.

Watch: Micah Rosenbloom on The Full Ratchet With Nick Moran
"Micah analyzed the 500 largest VC exits over the past 25 years and uncovered some surprising results. We discuss why smaller funds can outperform, why VCs shouldn't follow the herd, when to sell secondary, and whether venture capital is losing its identity." - Nick Moran [LinkedIn]

Watch on YouTube // Listen on Apple Podcasts // Listen on Spotify

CamelHack 2026: Amanda Herson in Conversation with Suno Co-Founder/CEO Mikey Shulman

Dave Bisceglia and Amanda Herson were thrilled to spend a weekend with some of the most impressive student builders across Harvard and MIT. There were 500+ applicants for the intimate 50-spot event series.

It was an extra special treat for Amanda to be joined in conversation with our portfolio founder Mikey Shulman, Co-Founder/CEO of Suno, for a wide-ranging fireside chat.

Amanda Herson: "Why aren't more people building consumer-facing businesses? That question from Mikey Shulman at our panel this weekend has stuck with me.

"He asked the room of student founders to raise their hands for their category. Cyber, infrastructure, and robotics are all the rage. But the whole world is shifting. There's a generation of consumers who are about to drastically change how they shop, eat, parent, learn, live - how they interact with the world. Where are the founders solving their needs?

"My take: we are spending so much time on the cool technology that we're forgetting to be obsessed with the customer. So it was a particular joy to chat with a customer-obsessed consumer founder by chance who's totally crushing it."

Hackachusetts: 700+ Students, 9 Campuses, $30k in Prizes

We strongly believe that when you put ambitious people in a room together, incredible things happen. Last weekend, we were honored to support Hackachusetts, the first statewide hackathon, and grateful to Dave Bisceglia and Melody Na on our team for helping bring this idea to life.

We opened our first office in 2009 right here in Harvard Square, with a front-row seat to some of the most brilliant innovators in the world. It's energizing to see that talent band together for a day dedicated to what we love most: building.

Dave Bisceglia: "I had the chance to help judge the final pitches and hand out awards, and came away even more excited about the next generation of builders coming out of Massachusetts."

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