Good day. Last week we asked what advice people give founders who want to pivot and rethink their startups’ focus or product. Here are some responses, edited for length and clarity.

Matthew Kinsella, managing director at Maverick Ventures: For early-stage founders, my advice would be to treat every customer as a “design partner,” elicit feedback on the tactical parts of the product, how they’re actually using the product, and overall, the problem the product is solving. These insights early on will help founders find their product direction and focus, and they should course correct based on that feedback. For founders in a later stage of their company [$10 million-plus in annual recurring revenue], it’s going to be harder to shift focus or make major product changes. They need to ask themselves if “the juice is worth the squeeze.”

Galina Ozgur, vice president of platform at H/L Ventures: True leadership is often tested through these changes. The way a pivot is managed by the leadership team can profoundly influence whether it’s embraced as a constructive shift or seen as a setback. Founding teams need to articulate the pivot’s rationale transparently, be quick to gather buy-in from all stakeholders involved—both team and board—and deliberate in setting clear, achievable milestones for their product and sales teams.

This week’s question: It’s the home stretch of 2023. In some years, venture investors have done a flurry of deals in December. In other years, they’ve gone into hibernation for the year’s final month. Is this December shaping up to be a dealmaking dud or an opportunity to place some final bets? Please email responses to vcnews@wsj.com.

And now on to the news...

War tests startup. Chen Avni, co-founder and chief product officer of startup Venn, hasn’t shaved for more than a month in solidarity with the hostages kidnapped by Hamas and Israel Defense Forces soldiers battling in the current war. Avni’s boss, Venn co-founder and chief executive Or Bokobza, was until recently one of those fighters. Bokobza, an IDF reserves officer who was in Israel when Hamas invaded the country on Oct. 7, immediately reported for duty and was deployed to rout out the terrorists that day. In Bokobza’s monthlong absence, Avni took over running Venn from its New York headquarters, while coping with personal grief and an urge to join his IDF unit.

• Similar situations are unfolding across many Israeli-founded startups both in Israel and elsewhere as leaders and staffers run their businesses while many of their colleagues leave for active duty. All of them want to make sure the soldiers have jobs to return to when the war is over. Read the full story. 

Advent International is acquiring U.K. financial technology firm myPOS and has set up a dedicated European platform focused on small and micro merchants, WSJ Pro Private Equity reports. The Boston-based firm established AI Circle Bidco Ltd., a payments and technology platform, to serve small businesses in Europe, a group that traditionally account for a large share of jobs and economic output but that tend to have a tougher time accessing capital.

Washington’s latest curbs on the export of high-performance chips to China are beginning to bite. Alibaba on Thursday said it had scrapped its plan to spin off and list its cloud-computing division, citing the impact of the export controls that took effect late last month, The Wall Street Journal reports. The restrictions “may materially and adversely affect” the cloud business’s ability to offer products and services and to perform under existing contracts, Alibaba said, adding that it would focus on the division’s growth.

Funds

Menlo Ventures raised $1.35 billion in new capital that will be invested across the firm’s 16th flagship venture fund and third Inflection fund, with a mandate to back artificial intelligence startups.

People

GV named Roni Hiranand as principal based in the firm’s London office. He was previously at Bace Capital and Vectr Ventures.

Life science-focused Red Tree Venture Capital appointed Jeremy Caldwell as a partner. He was most recently chief executive officer of Inception Therapeutics.

Element Energy, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based battery management technology startup,  completed an $111 million funding round consisting of $73 million in Series B equity from Cohort Ventures and others, alongside $38 million in debt.

Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal project developer, raised a total of 75 million Canadian dollars (about $55 million) in Series A funding. The round includes the conversion of a C$17.7 million seed note and C$57.5 million in new capital co-led by Brightspark Ventures and Whitecap Venture Partners.

Ingenious.Build, a Nashville, Tenn.-based startup specializing in project management software for real estate development and construction, closed a $37 million Series A round co-led by Morpheus Ventures and Navitas Capital. Investors including Koch Real Estate Investments, American Family Ventures and JLL Spark Global Ventures also participated in the round.

Ninety, a cloud-based business operating system, secured $35 million in Series B financing led by Blue Cloud Ventures.

Vulcan Cyber, a cyber risk management platform with offices in Tel Aviv and Palo Alto, Calif., added $34 million in Series B financing from Ten Eleven Ventures and others to close the round at $55 million.

Upway, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based e-bike marketplace, scored $30 million in Series B funding led by Korelya Capital.

Keychain, a New York-based manufacturing platform for the packaged goods industry, raised $18 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Lynx, a developer of artificial intelligence software that detects and prevents fraud and financial crimes, fetched $18 million in Series A funding. Forgepoint Capital led the round, with Managing Director Leo Casusol joining the company’s board. 

Dwellsy, a Los Altos, Calif.-based residential home rentals marketplace, closed an $11.5 million seed round led by Ulu Ventures.

Switch Maritime, a startup developing electrified zero-emission ferries, grabbed $10 million in Series A funding led by Nexus Development Capital. The company is based in San Francisco and Jackson, Wyo.

Every, a San Francisco-based back office stack provider for startups, emerged from stealth with $9.5 million in seed funding led by Base10.

Radicl, a Boulder, Colo.-based startup providing cybersecurity technology to small-to-medium-sized businesses, added a $9 million investment led by Paladin Capital Group.

Venture capitalist Laura Deming first became interested in extending human life as a child. At age 14, she was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but left after her sophomore year to start a venture capital firm called Longevity Fund. Here are excerpts from Brian Gormley’s interview with Deming for the WSJ Special Access podcast: 

WSJ Pro: You founded the Longevity Fund in 2011 and have now co-founded Age1 to continue financing longevity startups. Could you tell us what longevity means to you and what you are looking for in an investment?

Laura Deming: The core thing for me is giving people agency over how long and how well they live. Often people will think that longevity is all about eliminating the concept of death, or doing something really extreme. But I think for me, it’s all about just giving people individually the choice over how long and how well they live.

WSJ Pro: I know you like to work with founders and founder-led companies, including people who have taken a non-traditional path in entrepreneurship. I was hoping you could talk about why that is important to you, and why do you see it as a key to success in this industry?

Laura Deming: I think doing things traditionally works well, or doing things in a way that’s very plug and play works well if there’s already an industry that exists. But the whole point of longevity is, we’re building this for the first time. We’re figuring out how these drugs will work, we’re figuring out how these companies will be built, we’re figuring out how the regulatory landscape will look. And I think to navigate that, you really need people who, A, care a lot about the mission, and B, are just super scrappy, super able to think from first principles.

🎧 Listen to the full interview.

More from WSJ Pro:

• Walgreens wants the corner drugstore to become an online delivery hub.
   
• A California law to collect diversity data from venture funds could potentially apply to a wider pool of assets and asset managers. 
   
• EY picks Janet Truncale as its global chair as the accounting firm looks to put its failed split behind.

• Apple to support messaging standard, easing Google conflict over green text bubbles
   
• Cruise suspends employee share program, citing need to revalue business
   
• Hyundai to be first automaker to sell new cars on Amazon
   
• AI risks force corporate privacy officers to expand oversight

• Fintechs push Mexico interest rates to 15% in battle for savers (Bloomberg)
   
• X rival Bluesky hits 2 million users, says federation coming ‘early next year’ (TechCrunch)
   
• 1 in 10 teens already use ChatGPT for school. Here’s how to guide them. (Washington Post)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

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