Most staffing firms operate on a simple formula. They sit between companies and talent, mark up rates, and make money by adding more billable headcount rather than by improving how work gets done. Pricing is usually opaque, so neither side fully sees who earns what or how much margin sits in the middle. Senior AI-enabled engineers are some of the most difficult and expensive roles to hire and oftentimes, a significant slice of what the client pays never reaches their pockets. Remotely is a platform that helps startups with access to top-tier global engineering talent, seamless hiring, and improved retention. They use a lean, AI‑driven model and transparent pricing. The company charges a fixed monthly fee, and 100% of salary goes to the engineer.

Co-founder Jose de Cabo has been building companies with the same core team for more than 15 years. He and Pau Sabria met at Columbia Business School and moved to New York as first-time founders, where they built and scaled Olapic to a successful exit. After Olapic, they created Clara Partners, a holding company that now houses Remotely, as well as Clara Ventures, a community‑driven VC that supports immigrant founders landing in the U.S. Through that journey, they met their other two Remotely co-founders, Pau Suris and Sebastian Alvarez, who both grew out of earlier roles at Olapic into long-term partnerships. Together, the team brings a long shared history of building, scaling, and shipping products across multiple companies and continents.

They will be hosting a live webinar on Monday, April 20, where they’ll dive deeper into how they are using AI agents at Remotely.

Register Here!

Why Remotely and why now?

When we were building our first company, Olapic, we experienced the pain of scaling high-quality engineering teams in a fast‑growing tech business. We solved the problem by working with exceptional Latin American talent. What stood out was not just talent quality, but also how naturally teams worked together. Shared time zones, clear communication, and strong ownership made collaboration feel easy from day one. For us, it was the difference between hiring people and building a real team. We’re now building to provide a solution at scale with transparency and better alignment for both companies and developers. The timing matters because AI is fundamentally reshaping how work gets done, moving away from headcount-heavy services toward smaller, high-leverage teams powered by software and agents. We’re building Remotely from the ground up for that new reality.

What’s Remotley’s North Star?

Our North Star is using the smallest team possible to run the highest‑quality operation with as much AI and operational leverage as we can. When you strip away the overhead that traditional staffing companies carry, you can pay developers more, charge customers less, and everyone stays longer. We think most of this industry is going to get rebuilt around that idea in the next five years.

How does Remotely inspire “customer love”?

VCs and PEs introduce us to their portfolio companies without us asking. (Many Everywhere portcos already partner with Remotely). Customers refer us without us asking, and that only happens when the experience is good. We have 8,000+ senior developers in our network, so we can move fast. We obsess over developer quality and client fit the same way a product team obsesses over user experience. When a developer isn’t working out or when a customer needs to scale, we move fast. Speed and quality compound over time, and that’s what turns a vendor relationship into a partnership.

The other thing is we don’t have lock-ins. No contracts forcing people to stay. So the bar to keep customers is higher. When they stay for three years and keep growing, that tells you something.

What’s on the horizon for Remotely?

We’re building an advisory board of executives who built and sold massive IT services companies, people who ran multi-billion dollar businesses. When they hear our team size relative to how many developers we manage, they can’t believe it. They see us as the young guys playing with AI, and we see them as people who’ve built at a scale we haven’t reached yet. Bringing those two worlds together is how we build something much bigger than a staffing company. We have the ambition to build the next-gen IT services business.

What makes you a unique founder?

I’ve been through the full cycle: management consulting, founding, scaling, an exit, and now building again from scratch. But the thing that probably makes me different is the immigrant founder lens. My co-founders and I came from Spain and figured out New York as first-time founders. We were lucky it worked. Now through Clara Ventures, we’re helping the next generation of founders from Spain and Latin America do the same thing. We run a WhatsApp community for immigrant founders, help with immigration, make angel investments, and do intros. We used to be the young ones. Now we’re the old guys, soon with grey hair, and that’s actually pretty great.

Fun fact:
My wife and I are both entrepreneurs building our businesses from the mountains in France, while raising five young children.

Listen to Dylan Lew with Scott Hartley, on the Venture Everywhere podcast: Setting the Ecotone. Now on Apple & Spotify. Check out to all our past episodes here!

In episode 114 of Venture Everywhere, Scott Hartley, managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, talks with Dylan Lew, co-founder and CEO of Ecotone Renewables, a company replacing traditional waste hauling with on-site biodigesters that convert commercial food waste into a locally distributed organic fertilizer. Dylan shares how building and operating an early digester that broke down constantly pushed him to rethink the entire food waste system from the ground up. He discusses how Ecotone is rewriting the economics of food waste management, turning what businesses write off as a disposal cost into a revenue stream and a locally sourced fertilizer supply chain.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Using state food waste bans to landfill as a distribution accelerant.

• Building a decentralized grid of on-site digesters over centralized facilities.

• Upcycling commercial food waste into a locally distributed organic fertilizer.

• Expanding from digester hardware to AI-powered waste intelligence with Athena.

• Sequencing a multi-sided business from digester manufacturing to retail fertilizer.

If you liked this episode, please give us a rating wherever you found us. To learn more about our work, visit Everywhere.vc and subscribe to our Founders Everywhere Substack. You can also follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter for regular updates and news.

RSS Link

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:04 VO: Everywhere Podcast Network.

00:00:14 Jenny Fielding: Hi, and welcome to the Everywhere Podcast. We’re a global community of founders and operators who’ve come together to support the next generation of builders. So the premise of the podcast is just that founders interviewing other founders about the trials and tribulations of building a company. Hope you enjoy the episode.

00:00:32 Scott: Hi, everybody. I’m Scott Hartley, co-founder and general partner at Everywhere Ventures. I’m super excited to have here, today, Dylan Lew, who’s normally based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, founder and CEO of Ecotone Renewables.

00:00:46 Scott: Dylan’s working on some really fascinating stuff around food waste management, turning nutrient-rich foods that come off of restaurants primarily into reusable fertilizers and really helping solve the global fertilizer crisis that we’ll talk a little bit about today, pioneering a new method of doing this at scale.

00:01:05 Scott: So Dylan, thank you so much for being with us today on the podcast and we’d love for you to tell a little bit about your background. You guys started Ecotone straight out of college, made all the lists, the 30 Under 30s for people really innovating in circular economy. But maybe walk us through that decision to start Ecotone, the market opportunity that you saw and how you got started.

00:01:26 Dylan: Definitely, and thank you, Scott, for having me on the podcast today as well. I’m the CEO and co-founder here at Ecotone. My background is much more on the technical engineering side. Studied material science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon, got my bachelor’s and master’s there. And then was working for both NASA and GE Renewables, helping them manage their fleet of hardware systems.

00:01:49 Dylan: For GE, was doing failure analysis on their 55,000 operating wind turbines around the world. Every time one of them broke or collapsed, they’d send my team all the broken parts to figure out what went wrong and how we prevent it for the rest of the fleet.

00:02:04 Dylan: Really, really helpful experience as we are also building, deploying, and operating a fleet of hardware systems that are software-enabled. But for us, instead of wind turbines, it’s on-site biodigesters for commercial buildings and kitchens.

00:02:17 Dylan: We did start this while we were still in school, which is a lot to do at the same time. But I do think it was really helpful to have those first three years of the company’s life in this bootstrapping R&D phase.

00:02:31 Dylan: We actually started more as an operator. We asked and we got a custom order for a small scale digester and it was really difficult to operate. The 40-hour a week job was breaking multiple times a week and not actually running well. So we had a few key epiphanies early on.

00:02:49 Dylan: First of all, we think we can build a more reliable system. And the second piece is the automation and really the opportunity that we saw in the market of food waste management and fertilizer, which combined is over a $280 billion global market opportunity.

00:03:06 Dylan: And we saw that there was this gammacing of… you have waste management solutions that are sending all the waste typically to landfill, and you have really expensive fertilizers that are getting shipped from international countries, shipped to the US and to our farmers.

00:03:21 Dylan: There’s no interconnection of that supply chain. That’s where we saw a really interesting opportunity to create what I almost call a vertical integration play in the food waste solution space, where we are doing it all.

00:03:35 Dylan: We manage the food waste, we upcycle it into fertilizer. We actually then distribute that fertilizer to retail stores and farmers directly. That’s where we’re capturing a lot of value across the chain and also then sharing that with our customers and partners along the way.

00:03:50 Dylan: Hopefully that gave you a little bit of context in how we initially started and saw some of the opportunities in this space.

00:03:57 Scott: It’s fascinating because it’s a two-sided problem that we’re all learning about maybe for the first time with the global crisis in the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz and the choking of global supply chain. Obviously, a lot of natural gas that goes into fertilizer production comes out of the Middle East.

00:04:14 Scott: With the global shipping routes shut down currently, I’ve just been reading about how China has really limited the export of some of the main components in fertilizers, therefore shooting the cost of fertilizer through the roof. Obviously, a lot of farmers buy these on contracts six months in the future.

00:04:31 Scott: Now, fertilizer manufacturers are reneging on those contracts under force majeure, and this stuff is happening simultaneously—not buying corn and pushing the price of crops through the floor.

00:04:42 Scott: So all these global supply chain levers that are moving as a result of conflict shed light on how integrated this global supply chain is. What’s so interesting is you may be taking a step back and talking about this two-sided marketplace where you have huge demand for fertilizer from US farmers and anybody that’s tilling land and cycling crops, contrasted with this urban development dense centers with restaurants with food waste.

00:05:09 Scott: Everybody’s walked their dog through the back alley behind a restaurant and you see the dumpsters and you see the biofuels and the storage of all of the offshoots of urban development in restaurants.

00:05:19 Scott: Tell us a little bit about the ZEUS system and what you guys have built and how you’re integrating that into large restaurant chains. I guess, the first part of the problem is offloading this food waste and how big of a problem is this? And then how you guys are then plugging that into this fertilizer market as you talked about.

00:05:37 Dylan: Very high level. The ZEUS digester is an easier and cheaper way to manage food waste. And it also, especially for businesses in the 11 US states now that have food waste bans to landfill, it helps these businesses meet new compliance requirements.

00:05:52 Dylan: The ZEUS digester is basically a fully automated anaerobic digester. It operates very similar to how our stomachs use. It’s a form of biomimicry. You’re basically using nature’s superpowers, but helping to do that in a condensed and faster way.

00:06:08 Dylan: For us, it is using trillions of different bacteria, fungi, microbes in a stomach tank to basically break down the food waste, turn it into an actual liquid organic fertilizer that we call soil sauce.

00:06:21 Dylan: Right now, our flagship product is the ZEUS digester. It’s an on-site biodigester for commercial kitchens and buildings, not just restaurants. We actually do all commercial kitchens: hotels, hospitals, corporate offices, schools, municipalities as well, are all market verticals that we currently serve today.

00:06:39 Dylan: It’s basically a trash chute on the outside of a shipping container where you dump your food waste in the trash chute, you walk away, and system takes care of the rest.

00:06:49 Dylan: Inside the box is where all of our advanced technology is that processes all of the food waste, produces the fertilizer. We hire local artists that decorate the outside to make sure it really fits in with the local communities where we deploy.

00:07:02 Dylan: The real key is really that automation piece. We’ve developed what’s called the PLC and HMI. Without getting too much into the weeds, it’s the brains of the system that lets us control and monitor these digesters fully remotely, help send our service team as needed.

00:07:19 Dylan: We also have a really advanced data analytics system as well that we’re about to be publicly launching in a few weeks too. Little sneak peek is that’s gonna be called Athena Waste Intelligence. Pairs very well with our Zeus digesters.

00:07:32 Dylan: It’s basically using camera sensors that are taking photos of the food waste, running it through a machine learning and AI program that’s basically tracking and detecting exactly what’s being wasted.

00:07:45 Dylan: These systems are not just upcycling food waste, but they’re also helping to reduce food waste of the source and food purchasing costs, which can be $50,000 to $100,000 a month, especially for some of these larger operations.

00:07:58 Dylan: Today, people have three different vendors to do this. They have a waste management vendor. They have a data analytics vendor. They currently aren’t really doing anything with any byproducts or fertilizers. Our goal is really to provide a really firm key solution that handles everything in one.

00:08:14 Scott: I love the references to Greek mythology. A lot of people are probably familiar with the backyard composters where you collect your banana peels and whatnot. And you maybe throw your food waste into a drum that you mix in sawdust and turn it every once in a while.

00:08:29 Scott: And it emulsifies and turns into a soup that you can then use in your garden. You guys are basically taking that same principle with much more technology, much more analytics, and doing this at scale for large commercial kitchens.

00:08:43 Dylan: Exactly right. What we’ve learned along the way, one of the keys in operations that we’re solving is odor and pest issues, is, especially in the summer months, food waste either sitting in a dumpster for a few days before pickup or in compost collection bins, which is definitely better for the environment, but operationally is still pretty difficult.

00:09:04 Dylan: For a hospital, for example, they cannot have flies going around or odor issues or complaints coming from their dumpsters. Being able to have fully self-contained airtight, watertight tanks, and pipes even within the shipping container really enables the system to actually reduce and eliminate a lot of those pest and odor issues, which are very typical for food waste.

00:09:27 Dylan: There’s this business piece, which we saw first, of making sure we’re reducing waste hauling costs. We’re helping to reduce purchasing costs as well along the way. But there’s also this operational piece of making sure that their operations are easier, cleaner, and faster.

00:09:42 Dylan: For those that are familiar with typical backyard composting, our digesters are basically eight times faster than that process. So instead of multiple months, it’s constant input and output that if you track up a banana peel thrown in to when it comes out as soil sauce, it’s about two or three weeks.

00:09:57 Scott: Wow. It’s amazing. For those of us who’ve may lived 11 years in New York City, we’re very familiar with the summer odor from the dumpsters and food waste.

00:10:06 Dylan: Exactly.

00:10:07 Scott: Maybe talk a little bit about these 11 states that have these requirements of no food waste in landfills. That’s an interesting development where there’s a carrot and a stick and some regulatory compliance aspects. Is this a trend that you’re seeing expand out? Are these 11 states the early leaders and then you see this continuing across the country?

00:10:29 Dylan: Definitely do. There are some states like Pennsylvania where they’re trying to pass similar regulations, but I think is gonna be… a little bit of a long haul to make it happen. There’s some amazing organizations that are really pushing that forward.

00:10:42 Dylan: It’s been interesting to see pretty much every year you see either new states adding these types of regulations or existing states reducing the threshold of who’s included. How they usually roll these out is they’ll have, let’s say, a three or five year rollout plan where they’ll start the regulation of it’s really only large producers.

00:11:01 Dylan: It’s people producing 5 to 10 tons of food waste a week. Those are the only ones that need to find a solution to their food waste that avoid sending it to a landfill. Then they usually stagger it down year over year where then it reduces to one ton a week, half a ton a week, or even less.

00:11:18 Dylan: A good example of that is Washington State actually, who just in January reduced their threshold to anyone producing 500 pounds a week or more. I think they counted it in gallons, but people don’t really understand what gallons typically look like for food waste. So the pounds, I think, is a more helpful metric.

00:11:36 Dylan: But that basically is every food service business. Every restaurant, school, commercial office building, hospital are now legally required to find either compost hauling or an on-site waste management solution like our ZEUS digesters.

00:11:50 Scott: And is that because of greenhouse gas emissions of food waste in landfills like methane? Or do you know what the rationale behind this regulation is?

00:11:59 Dylan: There’s a lot of different reasons that come into play. Honestly, one of the biggest drivers of this is landfills are filling up and starting to get capped. We are losing out on landfill space. There’s not much left in a lot of regions in the country.

00:12:13 Dylan: They’re really trying to make sure we’re intentional of diverting certain waste products out of landfill, trying to extend those lifetimes. Food waste is one of the biggest levers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions globally.

00:12:25 Dylan: For reference, food waste is 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s just wasted food waste rotting. That’s not even accounting the production and transportation of all the food.

00:12:35 Dylan: Even though people are complaining about Taylor Swift on her jet or all these people flying around, food waste rotting is double the impact of all aviation globally. Just to put that in perspective of the impact that this has.

00:12:48 Dylan: That’s what’s been driving us very early on, to be very excited about solving this problem, is this is really what helps us create global positive climate impact. States are approaching that on a similar perspective of a lot of states have these climate or carbon reduction goals.

00:13:05 Dylan: Reducing food waste into landfills is one of the biggest levers to pull that. It’s also very practical of what they’re doing, again, of whether landfills are filling up. Sometimes a lot of these states and cities are paying really high waste hauling costs to ship these to other states or countries sometimes as well. It’s also a way to actually improve business operations for a lot of facilities.

00:13:27 Dylan: Some states offer some incentives as well to switch over. I’ve seen Austin, Texas has something in place that’s been effective. But it is really helpful to see. We’re never gonna see that at a federal level anytime soon, but states are definitely taking some really practical next steps and options to keep food waste out of landfills.

00:13:45 Scott: It’s a fun action item. Rather than complain about jet traffic to Davos in January, maybe vote for your local compost bill. That’s fascinating. Talking a little bit about both partnerships on the commercial kitchen and restaurant and hospital and school side. I know that you’ve got a really exciting partnership in development with inKind and groups of restaurants.

00:14:08 Scott: Talk a little bit about that on the supply side and then how you guys package and take the soil sauce and then have a bit of a demand side as well, probably from farm communities and groups that want to buy this fertilizer as an alternative, to this heavy reliance on global supply chain and obviously probably more expensive fertilizer that’s less natural.

00:14:30 Dylan: For the digester side of the business, we work directly with a lot of these businesses. So we do just direct outbound campaigns. We’re starting to see a lot more inbound leads as well, which is really exciting to see.

00:14:42 Dylan: At the same time, a lot of my personal time and efforts are really put towards a lot of these more strategic long-term partnerships. So we basically have four or five of those in the works today.

00:14:52 Dylan: And the most up and coming one is with inKind, who is a large financier of restaurants across the country. They help make restaurants and food more affordable for consumers, help restaurants also invest in their own infrastructure and business operations, which is pretty incredible to see.

00:15:08 Dylan: We’ll be launching our fully mobile off-grid ZEUS digester out in Denver, Colorado at the end of this month for multiple restaurants to test the unit out, see if they like it or not before committing to a permanent installation.

00:15:22 Dylan: It’s been interesting. We’ve seen this mobile and off-grid ZEUS digester as a huge unlock for our sales process from start to finish, ‘cause it lets people, again, try a system out, really see if it works the way we say it will.

00:15:36 Dylan: Yes, it really is really easy for your staff to just dump their waste and walk away. And then it makes that decision process a lot easier. So we’ve seen it pretty much cut that sales cycle length in half, which has been pretty incredible.

00:15:49 Dylan: We actually have two different mobile off-grid systems in the work. We have a East Coast one that’s already been touring around the East Coast. Our engineering team is building another one in two weeks. So they’ve been very fast. And that’s gonna be the one that’s going out to Denver, Colorado, and then staying out on the West Coast throughout the end of the year.

00:16:09 Dylan: So that’s been really exciting to see that we’ve seen this coast-to-the-coast expansion that honestly follows some of those state regulations and high waste hauling bills, which go hand in hand. So we see the California, Denver, Colorado, Pacific Northwest has really high waste hauling fees. They also have these existing food waste bans to landfill. Same with the Northeast US. That’s been our two main expansion areas.

00:16:34 Dylan: For this soil sauce, it’s been really interesting to see. So, we’ve done very extensive field trials with this at this point, just to see how does this compare to synthetic fertilizers on the market.

00:16:45 Dylan: If anyone’s familiar with a compost tea, it’s a very concentrated version of that. Very low macronutrients, very high micronutrients, available carbon metabolites. We’re still trying to figure out what makes it work so well, ‘cause with these field trials, we basically saw 14 to 22% yield improvements compared to not using it on corn, soy, and potatoes so the major staple crops.

00:17:08 Dylan Our fertilizer expert… I think his theory is that it really is the available carbon and the metabolites, ‘cause it’s a very different approach to supplying nutrients and microbes to the soil and plants than is typically done.

00:17:22 Dylan: So most farmers and commercial ag, you basically dump nitrogen on the soil very intentionally. They map it all out. It’s all in terms of pounds per acre. But the plants are uptaking all that.

00:17:34 Dylan: So that’s where we also see a lot of issues of nitrogen leaching into our waterways. That’s where we get these toxic algae blooms, whether that’s local or regional. In the Gulf, we see that pretty often as well. There’s a lot of issues right now happening, just the fertilizer industry.

00:17:48 Dylan: And as you said, fertilizer prices have spiked 25% in the past two weeks. 40% of the world’s sulfur goes through the Strait as well. So we’ve seen those prices pretty much double, too. That’s where you see in the fertilizer space, this whole issue of international supply chains that are very volatile that if anything goes wrong, those prices completely destabilize.

00:18:13 Dylan: At the same time, the actual use case of these products isn’t actually the best way to be providing nutrients to the plants. That’s where we’ve seen a very unique opportunity with soil sauce where we can be a really low-cost fertilizer that’s saving farmers money compared to synthetic fertilizers.

00:18:29 Dylan: We’re also then not dumping nitrogen on the soil. So you’re actually reducing a lot of that water runoff issues. And at the same time it’s produced locally, so you’re not worried about shipping this from Russia or Ukraine or China. It’s produced at your neighborhood restaurant or from the hospital down the street.

00:18:46 Dylan: That’s really where we’ve seen really stable and reliable hyper local supply chains that we’re creating. We create these mini hubs in our operating regions. So yes, we work with local farmers and community gardens that use the soil sauce directly.

00:19:01 Dylan: It’s been interesting. We’ve actually seen a ton of traction and interest on the retail side. We actually just launched in 24 Giant Eagle store locations. These are large grocery stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana region.

00:19:15 Dylan: Last month, they just expanded to add another dozen stores. Focused on their highest performing stores first, then planning to roll out to all 200 grocery stores pretty much by the end of this month.

00:19:27 Dylan: That’s been super exciting to see that the retail space has actually seen a ton of commercial growth. That’s for house plants and gardens for people to have a very easy to use sustainable fertilizer.

00:19:39 Scott: I need that for my own 20 plants that I have.

00:19:41 Dylan: I love it.

00:19:43 Scott: I’m always taking my coffee grinds and various things and Googling what would be a good addition to the soil. Obviously, enough finite plants that then uses all the nutrients in the dirt and you got to refresh it from time to time.

00:19:55 Scott: We have an LP, a good friend of mine, founder of a company called Farmers Business Network based in Omaha, Nebraska we should connect to you with, because they’re basically providing all the raw supply materials for commercial ag in the form of three or four hundred million dollars a year of sales, fertilizers, all these things.

00:20:14 Scott: I think what a lot of people don’t recognize in the commercial ag space is the planning that goes into each harvest and the six to nine months before that you’re buying features or you’re basically investing in fertilizer.

00:20:27 Scott: To your point, these supply chains are insanely long. Prices can move dramatically. And that in addition to the weather and the yield of the crops and the price per bushel of corn, all of these things come in tandem and determine if you have a great year or a not so great year.

00:21:43 Dylan: And it really all comes down to input costs and what you can sell your product at. The yield improvements really help bridge some of those gaps. But I think exactly as you said towards the beginning of this is that’s where a lot of farmers today are getting pressures of increased costs on inputs and actually pretty stable costs on the actual crops themselves. So they’re not really able to bridge the gap between those two.

00:21:07 Scott: Taking a step back just as a founder building a relatively complex business in the form of hardware, material science, selling into ag, maybe walk us through just the genesis of the business and obviously coming straight out of school, what have been the biggest challenges.

00:21:25 Scott: And obviously we invested three years ago, you’re probably more than four year in. What’s been some of the surprises that you’ve encountered over these last four years?

00:21:34 Dylan: It’s a lot to take on in one company. And it’s been a super exciting and interesting challenge. That’s probably the biggest challenge on its own is just the complexity of the market and the business and trying to figure out all these moving parts.

0021:48 Dylan: What we have found personally to be super helpful is the sequencing of all this. We don’t have to figure it out right away. There’s certain pieces of the business and milestones along the way that we have to hit.

00:22:00 Dylan: And we use OKRs, so just objectives and key results to really be very clear on what we are going to get done every year. And then we have a endlessly growing backlog of things that are of interest at some point we want to tackle, but intentionally postpone and put down. So that, instead of dropping the ball on certain things, we’re intentionally placing that down and pick that up at a later date that’s needed.

00:22:22 Dylan: For us specifically, how that looked is really focusing on the digesters first. It’s making sure that we’re building a reliable system, building a sales process that can scale and is repeatable so that you start to build a supply for the soil sauce.

00:22:37 Dylan: Right now we’re at that inflection point where we’ve really built that repeatable manufacturing, deployment, and sales process for the systems. We’re starting to see a lot more traction on the soil sauce side. Definitely taking some advantage of that and starting to really invest some time and effort and resourcing to making sure that that part of the business is successful.

00:22:56 Dylan: But I think, biggest challenge overall is trying to take on a lot all at once. And we also do all of our own manufacturing in a house. That’s how we have really tight control over quality of our products and services.

00:23:09 Dylan: Something that I always keep a very close eye on is really matching pace our production schedule with our sales schedule. Making sure that we ramp both up in tandem together, that’s definitely a big challenge to try figuring out.

00:23:21 Dylan: But I think over the years, we’ve really gotten into a good pace and intuition on when we need to push the levers and the buttons with additional manufacturing technicians or sales reps. At this point, we also know metrics and outputs of what we get from those investments at a company level.

00:23:38 Scott: If you were to look out five, ten years, I imagine becoming the de facto natural fertilizer brands in the form of… say, a Miracle-Gro that’s derived from food waste, from urban kitchens. Do you have the north star of where you think you’d like to take the business?

00:23:56 Dylan: Overall business goal is global climate impact and world domination of food waste solutions. It’s really true. Today we’re focused on the US market, but we’re even starting to see a lot of international business opportunities.

00:24:10 Dylan: We started working with Compass Group Canada. Compass Group is one of the biggest food service providers in the world. They have 50,000 locations that they service. I think over that at this point. That’s where we’ve seen a ton of opportunities, not just in the US, but globally too.

00:24:25 Dylan: I think a really great example is Island Nations in the Caribbean and in the Pacific as well, where right now they pay not just a truck to pick up their waste, but a boat. It’s immense cost to haul waste outside.

00:24:39 Dylan: They also are seeing a big resurgence in really trying to reclaim a lot of native recipes and local crops and trying to rebuild their food systems because a lot of these populations have basically been relying on international exports for actual food.

00:24:57 Dylan: 90% of a lot of these islands are imported food rather than stuff that’s grown locally. That’s a really good example of areas where we see long-term, where we can be providing a lot of value tapping into these existing problems and potential solutions of very high waste falling costs and really a strong desire to improve local soil health and the food system resilience as well. That’s the big picture for the company.

00:25:24 Dylan: For the different product lines as well, for the digesters, we definitely do see additional product SKUs coming out. Right now, it’s a single one-size-fits-all ZUES digester, but whether it’s smaller systems, larger ones, ones that fit inside the building is what our team is currently working on.

00:25:40 Dylan: We actually are about to deploy a system for the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opening up July 4th. So this will be our first inside the building digester, which is a brand new capability, especially for hotels, restaurants, places, offices that don’t have room outside of the building to actually have an inside the building solution.

00:26:01 Dylan: And for the soil sauce, pretty similarly as well. Right now, it’s a single brand of soil sauce and type of it, but most fertilizers have a blooming version, a flowering version, a growth stage for the plant fibers, which is basically just different MPK ratios.

00:26:18 Dylan: Additional products SKUs, international distribution as well of soil sauce too, but again, produced locally. That’s the whole point of our distributed grid of these digesters is you don’t need to ship it, the soil sauce, to a farmer across the world or a country. You actually have a local production hub that you can tap into.

00:26:38 Scott: Not only that, but you have a beautiful ZEUS machine that’s painted with local graffiti and local artists. Which I absolutely love what you’ve done in Pittsburgh to really ensconce them into the urban fiber and actually improve neighborhoods and communities with what would otherwise look like an ugly dumpster.

00:26:55 Scott: One of my last questions, I had the chance to have lunch many, many years ago with the founder of Allbirds, the shoes. And what he said is that people on the front end say, I wanna buy these shoes because they’re sustainable business and they’re coming from New Zealand sheep fibers and recycled plastics. But when we actually hold people at the point of sale, the real drivers of purchase behavior are they look cute and they’re affordable.

00:27:20 Scott: A lot of businesses may have the broad desire to do better for the world and save food waste, but probably the brass tacks that comes down to the economics of the carrot and the stick of there’s either regulatory compliance that they have to stick with or the cost of getting rid of that food waste is astronomical.

00:27:39 Scott: How do you guys think of the unit economics of installing these systems, maybe the revenue share around the production of soil sauce on the back end and basically turning this from a cost center of a business into maybe a revenue driver?

00:27:53 Dylan: You’ve hit the nail on the head of this is exactly the flipping of the script that we’re doing today. Most people see food waste as waste. They see it as a cost center. All they do is pay to have it all the way and that’s it. That’s exactly what we’re actively doing today: is turning that into an income and revenue driver for their business.

00:28:12 Dylan: What that does on a unit basis for our partners is increases, provides a little bit of revenue from the soil sauce, we collect and resell that they don’t need to do anything. They’re also reducing their waste hauling bills.

00:28:24 Dylan: So we’re usually saving businesses at least a few thousand dollars a year net, which is really exciting to see that… yes, this is a great solution for the environment and it’s easy to use, but the main driver, exactly as you said, is making sure this makes financial sense for their bottom line, which we’ve been able to prove out. That’s really the big unlock for us is making sure that’s really what helps us scale globally.

00:28:47 Dylan: One of the biggest things that we figured out pretty early on in the company’s development is equipment financing to help with that. We actually finance these digesters for our customers. We work directly with a bank subsidiary that does equipment financing.

00:29:01 Dylan: What that does is it basically turns what is usually an equipment purchase or capex expense into just an ongoing operating expense, which is immediately offset from reduction in waste hauling bills. There isn’t some 24, 36-month ROI. It’s immediate cost savings as soon as you switch over to ZEUS digester.

00:29:21 Scott: Amazing. My last question for you, and this is something that we think a lot about, is not being contrarian for contrarian sake, but predicting where you think future consensus is going and building something that skates ahead of where market trends are.

00:29:35 Scott: Everybody has frameworks that generally lag based on heuristics of past things that have happened. As an entrepreneur, it’s really your job to think about the future, think about where the world is going and make a bet that is something that you have to stick with for many years.

00:29:51 Scott: The question is: within the industry, within the expert pundits of this domain, what’s something that you guys took an approach that was different or fundamentally at odds with, or these folks would disagree with, “Hey, this is not going to work. You guys are never going to be successful.”

00:30:07 Scott: But you guys drew the line in the sand and you said, “We’re going to do it anyway.” ‘Cause I think a lot of great businesses like yours, it takes a high conviction founder, the blend of both stubbornness to continue to go in a certain direction.

00:30:19 Dylan: Very stubborn indeed.

00:30:21 Scott: And the ability to listen to feedback. It’s always that dance of humility and grit and perseverance. But what’s one major maybe industry norm that you guys have gone against or disagreed with that you think that you’re right and the rest of the market is wrong.

00:30:37 Dylan: I think the main one is this concept of centralized versus decentralized waste processing. I don’t think the market is necessarily right or wrong. Ultimately, we need both.

00:30:47 Dylan: But I think this idea of on-site decentralized waste processing systems just isn’t out there. It just doesn’t exist. The only thing we have today are these large centralized landfills, large centralized composting, or anaerobic digestion facilities. Those exist already.

00:31:04 Dylan: But they’re $50 million at a minimum to build. They take 5 to 10 years to get permitting, financing, actually constructing, get it operating. That’s where we maybe do agree with market consensus is there is a really large lack in waste processing infrastructure, specifically for food waste.

00:31:23 Dylan: We know we only have a limited amount of time to make impact for greenhouse gas reduction, also to divert food waste from landfills to keep those operating and make sure they don’t fill up. And so I think that’s where we’ve seen a very unique opportunity in the market of moving quickly.

00:31:40 Dylan: That’s why our bet is on-site solutions. That’s really where we disagree. Yes, sometimes you have to haul it. You don’t have any room. That’s the only option and that works well. And that’s why we still need these large centralized facilities. But a lot of the time, it’s actually better, cheaper, and more reliable to have an on-site digester solution.

00:32:00 Dylan: For us, it’s digesters. You can pick other options or technologies if you want to. But I think this idea of a decentralized grid of these systems is very unique. We’ve started to show people it actually does work.

00:32:12 Dylan: We had all these huge snow storms and power outages over the winter and we’re operating. We are not waiting for a truck to get through the snow and for the driveway or road to get plowed. For an operating business, that’s difficult. They can’t deal with mountains of food waste just sitting there waiting.

00:32:30 Dylan: That’s where we’ve started to show the market that by being on site, by being decentralized, it’s actually a superpower in reliability, is you never need to worry about missed pickups or refused pickups or something going wrong. It’s 24/7/365. You dump your food waste in the trash chute.

00:32:49 Dylan: That’s been exciting to see that it’s starting to work in this space. I think there’s other models and industries where they’ve done this as well. But I think for waste specifically, that really hasn’t been done before. It has always been these large centralized facilities.

00:33:02 Dylan: The financing and construction piece, it also is a permitting benefit. By being on site, you’re actually typically falling under permit by rule exemptions for states. We’re deploying these systems. I think our last system deployment was two weeks from contract signed, to system on site operating and processing their food waste.

00:33:22 Dylan: Because as soon as you start hauling food waste from one facility to another or to one centralized facility, that’s where you need these like large state permits. They’re not super expensive, but they take a while. And again, that’s the thing we don’t have time for. We don’t have time to sit around and wait for permit approvals.

00:33:37 Dylan: And so I think that’s where… initially that was a pretty large bet that the market disagreed with. We started to show that it works well and it actually enables us to scale a lot faster than a lot of other options out there on the market.

00:33:51 Dylan: My perspective is we need both. You need to build more of these centralized facilities. That’s what gets you huge capacity improvements, but we also need these smaller and faster solutions to fill in gaps in the meantime.

00:34:04 Scott: I love that. That’s such a well way of articulating agreement with just the broad gap in the market and the supply for these facilities, but then the contrarian bet to build out a more decentralized way of handling food waste.

00:34:18 Scott: In the quick lightning round that we have to wrap up the podcast, we got a couple of questions for you. What’s a book that you’re currently reading or a podcast that you’re enjoying?

00:34:28 Dylan: Oh, I think a book that I recently read and I’m due to reread soon, very opinionated as you can tell by the title is called, The Man That Broke Capitalism. It’s about the former CEO of GE and his approach of just prioritize shareholder returns above everything, above employees, above staff, the environment, the communities that you serve. It shows the results of it, of what happens when you build that system.

00:34:57 Dylan: I’m personally very interested by that. We actually founded Ecotone as a public benefit corporation. So we have a triple bottom line of positive investor returns and very strong revenue growth, but also positive social and environmental impact as well. So that’s been I think one of the most interesting reads most recently. That was from our IP attorney who’s a former GE engineer as well.

00:35:20 Scott: Amazing. If you could live anywhere, I know you’re in Florida currently and otherwise in Pittsburgh, what would be on your number one place to live?

00:35:30 Dylan: Oh, that’s a tough question. I feel like at least if we’re talking about a year or two, maybe not indefinitely. Long-term, I have to be close to family. So that’s the Northeast, New York area.

00:5:41 Dylan: But short term, I’d maybe say Spain. I’ve been studying Spanish for a while. I’ve always wanted to live in a Spanish speaking country. So I think that would be one, maybe for more personal reasons that I’d be very interested in.

00:35:55 Dylan: Half my family actually lives in Australia, but I think that’s a little too far away and my mom and dad would not be very happy if I was completely on the other side of the world.

00:36:06 Scott: And finally, what’s your favorite productivity hack as a busy CEO traveling, building a complex business? You have any secrets for us out here?

00:36:15 Dylan: Not like a super complex one. It’s really just time blocking is mine. One of my friends taught me maybe four years ago or so at this point. It’s just been a huge unlock for my productivity.

00:36:27 Dylan: Especially as a founder, as a CEO and executive, you get pulled in a lot of directions. Brain switching from sales to manufacturing to engineering to operations has a bit of a toll. So I think the time blocking helps reduce that.

00:36:42 Dylan: You can combine or have half a day that’s just sales or just engineering or just operations, switches that at task switching lag. It also really is just a way to live through your prioritization.

00:36:55 Dylan: We all talk about brutal prioritization of what is urgent and important and needs to get done now. I found that as one of the most effective ways to make sure that I’m blocking off time to complete the things that are both urgent and important. And again, intentionally postpone things that might not be.

00:37:12 Scott: Amazing. Dylan, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Where can listeners find you if they want to reach out or learn more about Ecotone?

00:37:21 Dylan: We’re on all socials at Ecotone Renew and our website is ecotonerenewables.com. Has a ton of information on our digesters for specific business types on soil sauce. You can order soil sauce right there as well if you want. You can also learn a little bit more about the company and mission as well there.

00:37:40 Scott: Amazing. I’m gonna pick up my soil sauce today.

00:37:42 Dylan: I love it.

00:37:43 Scott: Thank you so much and we’ll talk to you soon.

00:37:46 Dylan: Thank you so much for having me, Scott. Appreciate it.

00:37:50 Scott Hartley: Thanks for joining us and hope you enjoyed today’s episode. For those of you listening, you might also be interested to learn more about Everywhere, where a first-check pre-seed fund that does exactly that invests everywhere. We’re a community of 500 founders and operators, and we’ve invested in over 250 companies around the globe. Find us at our website, everywhere.vc, on LinkedIn, and through our regular founder spotlights on Substack. Be sure to subscribe, and we’ll catch you on the next episode.

Read more from Dylan Lew in Founders Everywhere.

Managing seized assets is a complex and often overlooked part of law enforcement and financial crime. Asset Reality is focused on solving that problem by bringing structure and transparency to how these assets are handled.

In a recent Techstars profile, Aidan Larkin, founder and CEO of Asset Reality, shared how the company is addressing inefficiencies in the seizure and recovery process. Governments and agencies frequently deal with a wide range of assets, from physical goods to digital currencies, yet the systems used to manage them are often fragmented and manual.

Asset Reality’s platform is designed to centralize and streamline these workflows. By providing a unified system, it enables agencies to track, manage, and ultimately recover value from seized assets in a more organized and efficient way.

Larkin’s background in law enforcement shaped the company’s direction. Having experienced the challenges firsthand, he built Asset Reality to address gaps in visibility, coordination, and accountability across asset management processes.

The need for this type of infrastructure is growing. As financial crime becomes more sophisticated and digital assets become more common, agencies require tools that can keep pace with the evolving landscape. Managing cryptocurrencies, in particular, introduces new layers of complexity that traditional systems were not designed to handle.

Asset Reality is positioning itself at the intersection of technology and law enforcement, helping agencies modernize how they approach asset recovery. By improving processes and increasing transparency, the platform supports better outcomes for governments and the communities they serve.

The Techstars profile highlights a broader shift toward digitizing critical but underdeveloped areas of public sector operations. Companies like Asset Reality are bringing modern software solutions to spaces that have historically relied on outdated systems.

For Larkin and his team, the mission is clear. By making asset management more efficient and accessible, they are helping unlock value that might otherwise remain lost within complex legal and operational processes.

Read the full article on Techstars

Startups are often encouraged to move quickly from one fundraising milestone to the next. Each round is seen as validation, momentum, and progress. But moving too fast can create pressure that compounds over time, especially when valuation begins to outpace traction.

Scott Hartley outlines how this dynamic often leads to one of the most difficult outcomes in venture: the down round. When companies raise ahead of their metrics, expectations increase faster than the business can support. Eventually, that gap has to close, and when it does, it can result in dilution, complex terms, and strained investor relationships.

The article introduces what it calls the “Billy Madison approach” to fundraising. The idea challenges the conventional push to advance as quickly as possible. Instead, it suggests that founders should remain in their current stage longer, using that time to mature, and build strength before moving up.

The concept draws from the idea of “staying back a grade” to become the strongest in the class, rather than the precocious student skipping grades. In startup terms, this means continuing to operate at Pre-Seed or Seed while outperforming the expectations tied to that stage. Rather than stretching to meet the demands of a higher round, companies position themselves as leaders within their cohort.

This creates both strategic and practical advantages. Companies that exceed expectations and key metrics at their stage often have stronger leverage when they do raise. They are able to negotiate better terms and avoid unnecessary complexity that can come with larger, premature rounds.

The piece also emphasizes the importance of optics. Even small differences in raise size and stage name can shift how a company is perceived. A round that moves slightly beyond typical Seed levels can bring Series A expectations, changing how performance is evaluated. Managing that boundary carefully allows founders to control both narrative and trajectory.

Beyond optics, the approach reinforces fundamentals. Taking more time at the current stage allows founders to refine product, build a repeatable sales motion, define customer base, and develop a clear understanding of unit economics. These elements become critical as companies scale and face higher expectations in later rounds.

The takeaway is not to avoid raising capital, but to align fundraising with readiness. Growth should be supported by traction, not just ambition. By pacing rounds thoughtfully, startups can build stronger foundations and move forward with greater confidence when the time comes.

Read more on Scott Hartley’s Substack.

As &you expanded across markets, its financial infrastructure began to show strain. What started as a fast-growing healthcare platform quickly ran into the realities of operating across borders.

Opening bank accounts took months. International transaction fees cut into margins. Spending across entities was fragmented across tools that were not designed to work together. As the business scaled, finance became a bottleneck.

Led by Emil Eriksen, &you set out to solve this by rethinking how its financial operations were structured. The goal was not just efficiency, but building a system that could support growth across multiple markets without added complexity.

By adopting Airwallex, &you consolidated accounts, payouts, cards, and spend management into a single platform. The shift allowed the company to operate with a more unified and scalable financial layer.

The impact was immediate. Account setup timelines dropped from months to just 48 hours. International transaction costs were reduced by 80 percent. Card spend became more efficient, with measurable savings at scale.

For Emil and the team, the difference was not just operational. It changed how the company approached expansion. Finance moved from being a constraint to becoming an enabler of growth.

The broader takeaway reflects a common challenge for startups operating across borders. As companies scale internationally, fragmented financial systems can slow progress. Infrastructure that is designed for global operations from the start becomes a competitive advantage.

For &you, aligning its financial stack with its growth ambitions has created a more durable foundation. As the company continues to expand access to healthcare for Filipinos and beyond, the systems supporting it are now built to scale alongside it.

Learn more at Airwallex

Making data make sense is one of the biggest challenges in modern finance. Financial institutions process millions of transactions every day, from card swipes and online checkouts to recurring subscriptions and bank transfers. But much of that data is messy, inconsistent, and difficult to use. Spade brings clarity to that complexity by enriching transaction data in real time by adding structure, accuracy, and intelligence at every layer. Spade helps banks and fintechs better understand transactions, reduce fraud, and deliver smarter customer experiences. They recently raised a $40 million Series B to deliver a full data and AI platform for payments intelligence, expand the team and meet growing demand from financial institutions and fintechs that rely on Spade’s foundational enhanced transaction data to power AI initiatives. They are currently hiring, so check out their careers page if you want to join the team building the platform that will define the future of finance.

Co-founder and COO Tess Bloch, brings a deep operational background in fintech. Her path into the industry began early, when she cold-emailed Venmo as a college freshman and landed an internship at the fast-growing payments company. She even took time off from school to work there full-time, an experience that laid the foundation of her career in financial technology. After graduating, she joined McKinsey, where she focused on payments, followed by a brief stint in politics, before moving to Pinwheel and helping scale the team from 10 to 100. It was there that a mentor introduced her to co-founder and CEO Oban MacTavish, who was solving a problem she’d seen throughout her career: poor-quality transaction data slowing innovation. Tess took on her first founding role and helped create the team that now enriches billions of transactions each month for category-defining fintechs and Fortune 500 banks.

What’s Spade’s North Star?

Our North Star is to become the default intelligence layer for transaction data. We have two core pieces: our best-in-class merchant metadata layer and our data and AI platform, which helps financial institutions use that data across use cases like AI, analytics, authorization decisioning, and user experience. Ultimately, every financial institution and fintech that touches transaction data should rely on Spade as foundational infrastructure.

Tell us about a recent milestone that Spade crushed.

We recently closed our $40 million Series B, led by Oak HC/FT, with Andreessen Horowitz, Flourish Ventures, Gradient Ventures, NA Ventures, and Y Combinator participating. Leading up to that, we saw 470% year-over-year growth and reached 1.9 billion transactions processed daily, so it’s been a period of pretty massive scale.

What’s on the horizon for Spade?

We’re focused on expanding beyond transaction enrichment into a full data and AI platform for payments intelligence. AI-driven processes are the direction the industry is moving in, but those systems are only as good as the data underneath them, so I think Spade is going to become the default data and intelligence layer that makes that transition possible. It’s really the first step for every financial institution on an AI journey. We’re growing fast and looking to double our headcount this year. We’re hiring across the board so check out our careers page!

How has your background influenced your approach to building Spade?

I come from an operator background, so I never expected to become a founder. I used to associate founders with a “win at all costs” mindset that glorified burnout and a 9-9-6 culture, which never aligned with how I wanted to lead. That perspective has shaped me deeply: I believe empathy is a competitive advantage, and it informs how I hire, make decisions, and build our culture. I don’t believe in compromising on values to hit numbers. I feel incredibly lucky to be building the kind of company I always wanted to see: one rooted in care, ambition, and sustainability, alongside people I deeply respect and want to keep growing with.

Any favorite books?

I love The Field Guide to Global Payments by Sophia Goldberg. She’s another fintech founder and she’s amazing. We give it to all new team members, so I definitely want to plug that.

Fun fact:
I worked as a field organizer in Iowa on Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign in 2019. It was the hardest job I’ve ever had, and it gave me a firsthand perspective on what it’s like to live in places where access to healthcare, banks, and financial resources is more limited.

From the archives! Listen to Venture Everywhere podcast episode 12: Radicle Proof in the Pudding on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and explore all our past episodes here!

Betting on Non-Consensus, and Finding Mis-Priced Assets

One of the tensions every venture capital manager feels is:

1. How do I remain disciplined to my thesis and entry price?

2. How do I not miss truly asymmetric venture-scale outliers?

I always say in the short run discipline matters, but in the long run your job as a venture capitalist is provide accretive capital to unseen opportunities that pre-date market consensus, and that in turn, will afford you outlier performance and make your limited partners money. Asymmetries in returns come from two things:

1. Finding consensus before the market

2. Harvesting under-priced assets, where price < intrinsic value

One empirical observation we’ve had at Everywhere Ventures over the last 8 years, and I saw during my prior 7 years investing at Mohr Davidow Ventures and founding Two Culture Capital, was that our biggest outliers were always “in the tails.” They were in the periphery of what we said that we did. “We don’t do consumer,” but we were the first check into Pair Eyewear, which has gone up 100x since we invested. “Markets like Algeria are too small,” but we returned 100x on Yassir when it became the Super App of Francophone Africa, and the Maghreb. “Hardware is hard,” but we saw Umbra build Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites and catapult to a billion dollar valuation and massive profitability. “Data centers in space is a crazy idea,” but as cost per kilogram continues to fall with SpaceX, Benchmark validated our early bet by marking up that position 100x and turning Starcloud into a unicorn in 17 months, the fastest ever in Y-Combinator history.

Part of investing in the tails is that firms operate on conviction. Generally to do something truly out of the box, one partner on the team has to feel it viscerally, be unable to sleep, keep bringing up the idea at partner meetings until the rest of the team eye rolls and says “ok fine, if you love it so much you should just do it!”

Every deal requires a “burden of proof” to get done. Diligence. Calls with customers. Reference checks on the team, the cap table, the co-investors. But when one partner is going farther out into the tail, that burden of proof has to go up. You have to prove with unreasonable conviction that you want to make the investment anyway. Despite convention, despite disagreement, despite consensus opposition. Great deals are not lukewarm, they are polarizing. And if you’re an entrepreneur and some people don’t absolutely hate your idea, or think you’re crazy, you’re not swinging big enough.

The second truth today is that venture capital is no longer a cottage industry like it was when I was a kid in Palo Alto, when soccer dads played with Palm Pilots and talked about personal computing and the rise of DotCom opportunities. Back then there were 20 firms on the map, and there was not a glut of capital chasing the same opportunities. The frontier of the “tail” moves. The Internet was a tail bet in the mid 1990s. The social web was a tail bet in the mid aughts. SaaS was a tail bet in the early teens. Web3 was a tail bet in the late teens. Perhaps space or Cis-Lunar economy is a tail bet today.

What’s clear is that frameworks lag reality, as I’ve written about before. Heuristics of what worked last year are most certainly NOT what will work this year. Part of this means that a glut of capital is chasing a lagging consensus, and therefore any potential alpha is “priced in.” When I called my friend Clay Bavor when he started Sierra AI, he said “sure write a check, but Sequoia’s doing it at a billion.” Clay and Bret Taylor are exceptional, and Sequoia was already pricing in value at a billion. There is still certainly alpha in that company, as it’s a rising AI juggernaut, but that’s not the game we play at Everywhere Ventures. We’re primarily investing outside the Valley, and looking for asymmetries in the tails, and mis-priced assets, where there are undiscovered, yet exceptional founders, who have a mismatch of price to value.

In a consensus deal value is priced in. In the example above, the price may be nine, but the value is ten. The value capture to the investor is one. Outside of key industries, in first-time rounders, and in remote geographies, the delta between price and value is higher. In non-consensus deals (for the above reasons) price may be four when value can still be ten. This delta of six is the potential non-consensus upside, the alpha.

At Everywhere Ventures we ourselves are a non-consensus firm. We’re bicoastal, we’re very early pre-seed, we primarily invest outside of the Bay Area gold rush. But what we believe is that our network of 1,000 founders as LPs and portfolio CEOs give us unfair access into these tails via compounding network effects in venture capital. And because we constantly evaluate “where the tail is,” whether sector, geography, or founder archetype, we’re focused on finding these mis-priced assets in the market. We write three times more checks than firms our size, and we return capital. We’ve charted to the top decile every fund, every cohort, every year for the last decade.

Venture capital is an evolving game, but the lessons above hold true. Always.

As Latin America’s fintech ecosystem evolves, the focus is shifting from rapid expansion to sustainable business models. Radar is navigating that transition by aligning growth with profitability, according to reporting by Contxto.

At the center of this shift is Herbert Schulz, CEO and co-founder of Radar, who is steering the company toward a more disciplined operating model. After a period where startups across the region prioritized scale, the environment is now rewarding efficiency, stronger unit economics, and clear paths to profitability.

Radar’s strategy reflects that broader change. The company is focused on building solutions that help organizations improve operational visibility and streamline financial processes, while also ensuring that its own growth is sustainable.

The article highlights how the fintech landscape in Latin America is entering a new phase. Capital is more selective, and companies are being measured not only by growth metrics but by their ability to generate long term value. For Radar, this has meant refining its approach, optimizing operations, and focusing on the fundamentals of the business.

Schulz emphasizes the importance of discipline in this environment. Rather than pursuing growth at any cost, the company is prioritizing efficiency and product value, ensuring that expansion is supported by strong operational foundations.

This shift is not unique to Radar, but the company’s trajectory reflects how leading fintechs in the region are adapting. As markets mature, the ability to balance growth with profitability becomes a defining factor for long term success.

For Radar, the focus on sustainability positions the company to navigate changing market conditions while continuing to support customers with tools that improve financial operations.

The broader message from the article is clear. The next phase of fintech in Latin America will be shaped not just by innovation, but by execution and resilience.

Read the full article on Contxto

A recent feature in the Daily Mail spotlights how users of Equ are achieving meaningful weight loss results by focusing on simple, sustainable lifestyle changes.

The article highlights a growing number of Australian women who have reported losing weight over several weeks by following routines guided by the app. Rather than relying on restrictive diets or complex programs, Equ centers its approach on intermittent fasting and habit formation.

The platform provides structure around meal timing, daily routines, and behavioral consistency. By simplifying decision making, it helps users stay on track without feeling overwhelmed. This emphasis on repeatable habits is a key reason many participants are able to maintain progress over time.

Accessibility is another factor driving adoption. The approach does not require specialized equipment or extreme lifestyle changes. Instead, users are encouraged to make practical adjustments that fit naturally into their daily lives.

The article also points to a shift in mindset. Users are focusing less on short term results and more on building routines they can sustain. This long term perspective supports consistency and reduces the likelihood of reverting to previous habits.

While the feature focuses on individual outcomes, it reflects a broader trend in health and wellness. Digital platforms like Equ are moving toward simpler, habit based frameworks that prioritize sustainability over intensity.

As more people look for realistic approaches to improving their health, solutions that combine structure with flexibility are gaining traction. Equ’s growing visibility highlights the demand for tools that make consistency easier to achieve.

Read the full article on Daily Mail

Startups face immense pressure to quickly race through fundraising rounds, often seeking the next milestone as soon as possible. It’s believed that reaching the next milestone signals progress, validation, and perhaps, an increased likelihood of success. But this race to fundraising validation is both a red herring, and actually can hamstring a company by ratcheting up the post-money valuation (which I’d also consider a “hurdle rate” for where the company needs to raise going forward). We’ve all heard of the “down round,” and this happens when valuation outpaces traction.

“Down-rounds happen when valuation outpaces traction for too long, when emotional buy of ‘vision’ is eclipsed by the rational buy of ‘traction.’”

Of course there can exist a period of time where the Steve Jobs “reality distortion field” enables a startup to raise at valuations significantly higher than might be logically justified by key performance indicators (KPIs), or traction metrics, but eventually the music stops. The music stops fast, due to macro whims, changing investor opportunity cost, or even “animal spirits.” And when it does better have the metrics to support your valuation, or the dreaded “down round” can come down like an anvil on your cap table, creating pay to plays for investors, and founder dilution. As this outcome is unsavory for all existing participants in the cap table, seasoned investors should know this, and not push companies to raise too big, too fast.

I often tell founders of what I call the “Billy Madison approach” to startup fundraising. What I offer is an entirely different strategy—one that encourages startups to delay advancing to the next round until they are truly ready.

This approach draws inspiration from the movie character Billy Madison, who repeats a school grade to become the biggest and strongest in his class (and also of course, partly because he is aiming to prove to his father that he can graduate from high school, but we’ll leave that aside). Similarly, startups can benefit from staying in their current fundraising stage longer, allowing them to grow stronger ahead of the expectations that come with every new round, specifically at Series A, B, and C.

The Benefits of “Staying Back a Grade”

In the context of fundraising, the Billy Madison approach advises startups not to rush into becoming a Series A or Series B company until absolutely necessary. By remaining at the Pre-Seed or Seed longer, founders gain the flexibility to develop their business at a more deliberate pace. This strategy allows them to build a solid foundation, ensuring that their KPIs and metrics are consistently ahead of what is typically expected at their current stage. One example of this I often see is when a high velocity pre-seed company perhaps has the opportunity to raise $7M or $10M. While there are certainly advantages to taking an incremental $3M, the cost of that is the round shifting optically from a “Large Seed” round to a “Series A.” I’d currently demarcate that line between Seed and A at around $7-8M. Therefore the benefits of accepting the $7M round are “staying back a grade,” and therefore like Billy Madison, being the biggest kid in the grade, with the most money and metrics.

Optical Advantages

One of the main advantages of this approach is the ability to manage the optics of fundraising rounds. By not advancing too quickly, startups can create the perception of being more advanced relative to their peers in the same round cohort. In Billy Madison speak, you’re the biggest, strongest kid in the grade. You’re not smallest kid subject to bullying, and peer pressure, like can happen when you skip grades. This can be particularly beneficial when it comes to attracting investors, as it demonstrates that the company is not only meeting but exceeding the expectations associated with its current stage. This methodical progression can lead to more favorable terms and conditions when the time does come to move to the next round. Terms are ratchets, and if you get beyond plain vanilla into the Baskin Robbins 31 flavors of non-standard term sheets, in most cases, there’s no going back. You can’t undo that.

Strategic Growth

The Billy Madison approach encourages startups to focus on strategic, ideally product-led growth rather than rapid advancement at all costs. By taking the time to refine product, expand true, repeatable customer base, and tighten the business model with a deep understanding of unit economics, customer acquisition cost, churn, retention, how to grow ACVs, startups can ensure that they are truly ready for the challenges and opportunities of the next fundraising stage. This approach reduces the risk of overextending the company and allows for more sustainable growth.

Conclusion

In summary, the Billy Madison approach to startup fundraising advocates for a more measured and strategic progression through fundraising rounds without the ego-driven, alluring Sirens of big rounds and TechCrunch fame before your business is solid. By staying in their current stage longer, startups can build a stronger foundation, manage the optics of their growth, and ensure that their KPIs consistently exceed expectations. This strategy not only positions them for success in future fundraising rounds but also sets the stage for long-term growth and sustainability.

If in doubt, and you can call what you’re doing a Pre-Seed, do it. If you must call it a Seed, accept it. Don’t flip the switch to Series A or B until you absolutely have to, because the stakes are higher, expectations less forgiving, and board more developed. Capitalizing the business is important, but doing so in a measured way, always asking the question “how can I be the biggest, strongest kid in the grade?” because no one wants the pat on the back for being precocious, when it means you get beat up.

For more thoughts on fundraising and valuations, see my prior post on the Goldilocks Valuation Matrix, and the trade-offs of dilution, runway, and hurdle rates, and how every pitch, no matter what stage, requires selling both Vision and Traction.

Scott Hartley is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Everywhere Ventures.

Work is changing! The world is moving away from resumes, job titles, and traditional employment, and towards skills, outcomes and independent work. Millions of creatives are being forced to adapt in real time, but traditional hiring platforms weren’t built for where the future of work is headed. Existing freelance marketplaces often take hefty commissions, while job boards and professional networks still prioritize credentials over real capability. Contra bridges that gap by giving independent creatives a commission-free platform where they can showcase what they can actually do, connect directly with clients, and thrive in a new era of work defined by flexibility, ownership, and AI. As that future continues to evolve, Contra is expanding its role with the launch of Contra Labs, the first frontier data and evaluation lab for creative AI. They’re building the creative layer for the next generation of AI tools and helping ensure human creativity continues to lead as the technology evolves.

CEO Ben Huffman is a professional creative turned startup founder. Contra is his second venture and he teamed up with co-founder and CTO, Gajus Kuizinas, through On Deck. They quickly realized their visions aligned. Gajus had been developing a similar concept focused on engineering skills and analyzing private code to show what someone could actually do. Together, they combined creative experience and technical expertise to build a platform that helps independent creatives get more creative, do more work they love, and take control of their careers.

What inspired the creation of Contra?

I started Contra in 2020, with our first official launch in 2021, after realizing work was shifting from resume-first to skill-first. I had already used a bunch of freelance marketplaces, and when the platform I relied on got shut down after an acquisition, it made me think there had to be a better way. Then COVID accelerated everything, and it became obvious that remote work and freelancing weren’t just trends. They were the future.

What’s Contra’s North Star?

Our North Star is the amount of earnings for independent creatives. We want people using Contra to make as much money as possible. And with AI changing everything, we’re now focused on helping our users stay relevant and making sure Contra keeps them ahead of where work is going.

Tell us about some recent milestones that Contra crushed.

• We celebrated our 5th year anniversary.

• We recently crossed over $250 million in total user earnings for over 1.5M creative professionals. That’s huge.

• We rolled out an all-new payments suite.

• We just launched Contra Labs, the first frontier data and evaluation lab for creative AI. It’s the eval layer for creative AI, helping AI tools and teams understand quality the way creative experts do.

What sets Contra apart?

We’re commission-free, which is a major difference from freelancer marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. Compared with job boards like Indeed or network-based platforms like LinkedIn, we’re more focused on verified work outcomes. We show what you can actually do, not just where you’ve worked. Contra is also a three-sided network: independents, clients, and partnerships with companies like Figma, Framer, Webflow, Lovable, and Replit.

How does Contra inspire “customer love”?

I often hear people say that Contra has changed their lives. We received over a thousand responses and nearly 3,000 comments on a recent launch thread, and many of them came from power users sharing real stories. A lot of that feedback comes from people in emerging markets or people who lost jobs and found a new source of income through Contra.

Any favorite books?

I recently read The Expectation Effect, which I thought was fascinating because it shows how what you expect can shape how you feel and what outcomes you get.

Fun Fact:
I was a professional creative before startups. I worked as an audio engineer and wrote music for brands like Sony. That gave me empathy for Contra’s community, because I’ve been in the creative world and also on the business-owner side.

Listen to Kenzie Butera Davis with Jenny Fielding, on the Venture Everywhere podcast: Maro of the Minds. Now on Apple & Spotify. Check out to all our past episodes here!

In episode 113 of Venture Everywhere, Jenny Fielding, General Partner at Everywhere Ventures, talks with Kenzie Butera Davis, founder and CEO of Maro — a platform providing early intervention and risk detection for youth mental health in K-12 schools. Kenzie shares how a personal family experience pushed her from nonprofit and venture work into building the infrastructure schools were missing. She discusses how Maro challenges the entrenched belief that mental health has no place in the classroom, instead unifying universal screening, family communication, and care coordination into one system that identifies struggling students before they fall through the cracks.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Deploying universal screening to close the gap between first symptom and treatment.

• Building school-based infrastructure to bridge families, health plans, and providers.

• Navigating parent consent and data privacy in K-12 health adoption.

• Leveraging state screening mandates as a distribution accelerant.

• Expanding from screening tool to full-stack school and health system network.

If you liked this episode, please give us a rating wherever you found us. To learn more about our work, visit Everywhere.vc and subscribe to our Founders Everywhere Substack. You can also follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter for regular updates and news.

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00:04 VO: Everywhere Podcast Network.

00:00:14 Jenny Fielding: Hi, and welcome to the Everywhere Podcast. We’re a global community of founders and operators who’ve come together to support the next generation of builders. So the premise of the podcast is just that, founders interviewing other founders about the trials and tribulations of building a company. Hope you enjoy the episode.

00:00:32 Jenny: Welcome everyone to Venture Everywhere, where today we’re very excited to have Kenzie, the founder of Maro, a platform that provides early intervention and risk detection for youth mental health.

00:00:44 Jenny: I love the mission of Maro, focusing on children, which I feel have been overlooked in some way. So excited to jump in there. But I’d love to start with, tell us a little bit about yourself. Give us a little bit of background, Kenzie, as we learn more about the company.

00:01:00 Kenzie: I have a huge passion for working with startups. It didn’t start off that way. I used to work in the nonprofit space. So I spent quite a bit of time working for policy and advocacy organizations, education, and then did a short stint in direct service as well, where I was working for a rape crisis and domestic violence shelter that served women and children in 16 counties in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area.

00:01:26 Kenzie: I really loved that work, but generally in the work that I was doing, felt frustrated because a lot of our funding was earmarked for specific needs that were determined by the grants that we were receiving. And they weren’t always applicable to the actual needs of the people that we were serving. And so there was this innate tension to the work.

00:01:49 Kenzie: I applied for an internship with an accelerator program, something that we have in common. So I got this internship with The Company Lab, is what it’s called, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. So quick aside, Chattanooga was the first area in the country to get The Gig. So we’re the fastest internet in the nation. We get a shout out in Ironman 3.

00:02:10 Kenzie: And so we built this incredible accelerator program around that notion. Brought founders into the city to build the early days of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. I got to benefit from that and get a lot of exposure to early stage companies through this accelerator program. It was very early. Precursor to the Techstars and YCs of the world.

00:02:30 Kenzie: Through the nature of working there for a few years, I built a relationship with one of the board members, and she ended up bringing me on to work for her venture fund. It’s called the Jump Fund. They invest early stage, pre-seed through Series A and women-founded businesses.

00:02:47 Kenzie: I just got a lot of exposure to what it looks like, what it takes to build an early stage company and get off the ground. We did quite a bit of work in education and healthcare as well. So I was already personally really interested in that side of the work and just got the professional education to back it.

00:03:04 Jenny: I always tell people that an accelerator is this amazing training ground because of the volume. I spent almost eight years at Techstars and it was just reviewing not dozens or hundreds. It was literally like thousands of applications and pitches.

00:03:18 Jenny: So I think it’s a great transition point for many people that don’t necessarily have exposure to entrepreneurship. The accelerator is such an interesting onslaught of entrepreneurship. I love that you ended up there and that maybe informed your trajectory of being your own founder now.

00:03:35 Kenzie: And I think people would be surprised at how many pivots you could fit into a 12-week period. So you see a lot of what the startups are going through in those early days.

00:03:45 Jenny: So then tell us about the early days. Obviously, everything that you just described is the perfect confluence for this company – your experiences with not-for-profit, with communities, with all those things. Was the idea like, you woke up one morning, you’re like, this is what I need to do? Or was it more of a slow burn, you’re figuring out where the opportunity set was?

00:04:05 Kenzie: It was more of a slow burn. I wrote an academic thesis during my junior and senior year on the implementation of healthcare in schools. I was looking at sex education at the time, but pivoted to mental health in my personal research post-academic thesis after seeing it up close and personal.

00:04:25 Kenzie: I had a younger family member who was really struggling. She ended up in and out of inpatient hospitalization for suicide attempts. And I was so surprised because I feel like I’m super close with her. We have a great relationship. And I didn’t believe that I didn’t know that she was dealing with what she was dealing with.

00:04:46 Kenzie: It was a big wake up call for me to start looking at how do you more systematically track when kids are struggling, if they’re private, or if they don’t have the language to put around the things that they’re experiencing. I just started deep diving into what ultimately I found was screening and learning more about how screening takes shape in K-12 schools.

00:05:10 Jenny: Give us a little color on the early days of the company. I’m sure you’ve experienced some twists and turns along the way. So tell us about getting the company off the ground in those early days and then fast forward to maybe where things are now.

00:05:24 Kenzie: I would say what really put us in the map in the early days, early career experience was we pitched at ASU GSV, which is the world’s largest education conference. So they used to have this massive pitch competition where they bring in… over 900 companies from 60, 70 different countries.

00:05:45 Kenzie: It’s a multi-round pitch competition from application to the original pitch, and then you have to make it to the final. And we won. The final competition is at the Radieshell Amphitheater in San Diego. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was there, which was very cool. I’m a very short person, and he’s not, so being backstage with him was pretty funny.

00:06:07 Kenzie: But Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America, spoke. And so we kind of had this really incredible opportunity where we were just sharing this vision that we had for what youth mental health could look like in schools. The final winner is selected by educators.

00:06:22 Kenzie: And that’s what put us on the map. We were able to close our pre-seed round and hit the ground running from there. And then now, we’re really starting to figure out how we expand beyond mental health in schools to partner with health plans, providers, families, and the school systems.

00:06:39 Jenny: What do you find the most challenging part about working in this space? Obviously, there’s some regulatory things, there are some traditional cultural things. What’s super challenging, would you say, about the space in general?

00:06:52 Kenzie: With screening, it’s actually pretty controversial. It’s very evidence-based. We do screening in so many other areas of healthcare, and it’s preventative. If you actually do go see a therapist or even in pediatric office settings, a lot of times they will do mental health screening now.

00:07:10 Kenzie: But bringing this to the masses has been more controversial than I originally anticipated. What that means from an operational standpoint is just there’s a lot of trust to build.

00:07:21 Kenzie: The only way to really do that is through data to show, hey, this population got better because we identified kids who are struggling that maybe weren’t on your radar. We did that without overburdening your school system or overburdening a broader health care system. We only refer, on average, 2% of students out to external care. The rest is usually feasible to be managed by the school, which is really incredible.

00:07:50 Kenzie: So there’s that piece. And then there’s the parent communication piece as well, which is we want to equip schools with all of this information about parental rights. You, as a parent, absolutely have the right if you want to choose whether or not your child is screened at school.

00:08:06 Kenzie: And just making sure that people don’t feel like, oh, there’s this scary company that’s going to come in and screen my student. That’s not what it is, but that can be people’s perception until they engage with the materials.

00:08:18 Kenzie: And so I think that’s been one of the harder challenges of building specifically within K-12 schools, where they are often a politicized place for healthcare, and then specifically within screening.

00:08:29 Jenny: You’ve used that term before, building trust with the community. So can you talk a little bit more about how you’ve been able to do that? The education part and conveying that this is optional, but any other methodologies you’ve learned along the way for building trust with those communities?

00:08:45 Kenzie: It’s all about collaborating with the district. They know their families and what they need the best and just being really transparent. We tell you the questions that your child would be asked if you consent to screening. We make it really easy for you to opt in or out. We try to be as clear about what that process looks like. So the transparency piece.

00:09:06 Kenzie: And then, in terms of the collaboration with the schools, it’s really just customizing all of the communication and making sure if there is a question that you know your parents are going to want to know, let’s pull that out of the FAQs. So instead of sending 40 FAQs, we’re sending this really custom 5 or 10 that we know are most relevant for your community.

00:09:24 Kenzie: And we’ve seen this play out. For example, we see this a lot in our rural communities. I’m from Montana. All my family’s in Tennessee and Mississippi. I have a huge heart for rural healthcare. And that tends to be where we run into the most questions about privacy and student data. And so we’ve just been really thoughtful about how do we make sure that parents don’t feel blindsided when we implement screening.

00:09:47 Jenny: Talking about opportunities, which also can be challenges, sounds like some of the states are implementing their own compliance mandates. And so that could be an accelerant for you or potentially the other way. So I think, people listening, there’s a lot of this that is collaborative with government as well.

00:10:09 Kenzie: Illinois is a really good example of this. They have recently passed legislation to require screening for grades 3 through 12. They did a wonderful job. They did a landscape analysis. They talked to educators. They went to communities. The policy is informed by all of this community feedback. And they have a phased implementation plan. So it’s not all happening at once.

00:10:33 Kenzie: What we’re doing for schools that are adopting us in Illinois is we’re saying we recognize that no matter how informed this policy is, implementation is still really scary and it’s hard when you are under-resourced as a school. We’re going to take that off your plate and here’s how we do that specifically.

00:10:49 Kenzie: So I think there is a huge opportunity in screening alone. And then there’s this bigger opportunity that we’re growing toward, which is there’s still a lot of missing infrastructure when you go to implement… or I guess as a family, when I go to engage with intersection of the health system and the school system. And so as we grow, that’s where we think we can play a really big role.

00:11:12 Jenny: Walk us through a little bit of where you are today. I think I read somewhere that you’re in more than 60 schools. What does the future look like for you guys?

00:11:22 Kenzie: Currently, we’re serving just over 70,000 students and growing, especially with the Illinois accelerant there. So we are primarily in Illinois and Northern California, although there’s nothing stopping us from serving students in any other state.

00:11:35 Kenzie: We’ve been really focused. You know the startup mantra, start small. And we did. We started small with just screening and just focusing on mental health and building relationships with schools.

00:11:48 Kenzie: We are seeing significant evidence of product-market fit with this tooling. Now, we’re growing toward this bigger opportunity, which the vision has always really been. There’s this network effect that you can build if you have distribution of schools, if you can really own that channel, you can reach families and you can build trust with families.

00:12:11 Kenzie: That’s something that’s really hard for health plans and providers to do. And so you create a lot of value by being that intermediary. As we’re growing, there’s a lot that we’re doing in stealth right now that we’ll be able to share soon from a product line standpoint, but it really is about building that infrastructure so that families engaging with the school system and health system don’t meet points of friction.

00:12:34 Kenzie: Just one really specific example of that is if you’re trying to share your immunization records at the beginning of the school year so that your child can compete in sports or just generally attend school.

00:12:47 Kenzie: That’s something that is a huge pain point. Really annoying and requires a lot of manual effort, believe it or not, in this day and age. That’s a prime example of a high friction pain point that involves all of those parties where we can play a role.

00:13:00 Jenny: Since you worked in an accelerator, you obviously know the value of mentorship and surrounding yourself with more than capital. So can you talk about how you got that support around you as you were building, especially in the early days?

00:13:14 Kenzie: Two very specific people come to mind in my early days, and I will shout them out. Jessica Millstone, she really took me under her wing. We were her first investment out of that fund. I met her in one of my very first presentations in New York, pitching the concept. She’s just been someone who has mentored me all along the way, now sits on our board.

00:13:35 Kenzie: And then, Dr. David Adair was also one of our earliest investors. He is a maternal fetal health doctor and supported a lot of high-risk pregnancies and just has worked with a lot of young women who, often, their health issues are coinciding with mental health concerns.

00:13:53 Kenzie: He was just a big believer from day one and has always been a sounding board every time we have challenges. And he also runs a venture firm on the side, so it’s a great combination. So I feel like I’ve received just a lot of people who are willing to be there through the pivots.

00:14:07 Jenny: So speaking about your supporters, what’s an idea that experts in your field say that you disagree with. So what’s the common parlance and you’re just like, I don’t think that’s right?

00:14:19 Kenzie: Mental health experts will not say this. This is more on the education side, but there are a lot of folks in academia who just don’t see a place for mental health in schools.

00:14:29 Kenzie: The argument is that if you’re a teacher or an academic counselor, your role should be purely academic and that time spent away from an academic orientation in the classroom is not time well spent and that the health system is there for health or the school nurse is there for health, but the classroom time is just for the class.

00:14:50 Kenzie: There is a growing body of research to show that specifically anxiety and depression are the number one student self-reported barriers to academic progress. That’s from a certain national survey of 220,000 students conducted by Youth Truth.

00:15:07 Kenzie: We see evidence of this as it relates to adverse childhood experiences and trauma. We see it as it relates to some levels of social, emotional learning as well.

00:15:16 Kenzie: So there really is a growing body of evidence that we are hoping to contribute to to say, hey, actually, the 5, 10 minutes that it takes to universal screening, although it is taking that out of advisory period or what have you, it’s worth its weight once you see how students progress post receiving an intervention… screening plus intervention.

00:15:37 Jenny: I get why people thought that in the 60s, but mental health seems to be the biggest issue these days across categories, adults and children. We had a school nurse at our school. Let me tell you, that was where you went when you wanted to like get out of your math test.

00:15:51 Jenny: There wasn’t much happening there. I don’t think that’s changed in many places. That’s crazy that people still think of the separation between students thriving at school and their own mental and physical well-being. That’s insane.

00:16:06 Kenzie: It’s challenging for sure to still see this difference. When we’re going to implement in schools and realize, hey, there is quite a bit of education that still has to be done. There’s a lot of opportunity there.

00:16:18 Kenzie: We’re going through the Georgetown Thrive Research Program right now, working with their researchers to actually develop our own body of research around this and show that mental health can improve attendance, can improve certain academic factors related to grades and graduation.

00:16:33 Kenzie: One of the areas where even if you don’t see eye-to-eye between, for example, us and a school administrator that you can start to align is school safety, because that’s so intertwined in mental health.

00:16:46 Kenzie: Students are committing acts of violence or if they are harming themselves. If you meet someone who doesn’t agree, that’s a problem. They probably shouldn’t be working in the school system.

00:16:57 Jenny: When people think about you, what do they think is your superpower? I love this question because, especially as founders, we have to wear a lot of hats and be multidimensional, but if people kind of distill it down to that thing that you’re really great at, that you’re known for. Your passion and your mission here is so clear, but what’s the thing that people say, yeah, Kenzie’s amazing at that?

00:17:19 Kenzie: It’s been two things. One has helped me as a founder and one that has helped me as a leader of my team. So when I say founder, I mean really fundraising, which is storytelling.

00:17:29 Kenzie: The benefit of working for an accelerator program is you hear a lot of pitches. You also pick up on a pattern. And so I coach entrepreneurs now on this. One of the things is I try to coach them to go against the grain of the pattern because people tune out without even realizing they’re tuning out if you don’t trip them up on what they’re expecting to hear.

00:17:48 Kenzie: That’s been a really fun skill set for me to refine because I’m an absolute theater kid and I’ve enjoyed that part of the work.

00:17:55 Kenzie: But I think what I’m learning as I make that transition from founder to CEO and I’m leading the team is connecting the dots between the bigger vision and the day-to-day work and feeling really comfortable navigating policy and painting the picture for our health plan, who are receiving this new product line that we’re building out.

00:18:19 Kenzie: Versus been jumping into a call with one of our school counselors who’s just working to smoothly implement universal screening in their school. That’s been an absolute requirement from the past year of being a founder.

00:18:32 Jenny: I guess my last question before our speed round is what does success look like for you personally and for the company?

00:18:39 Kenzie: Success for the company near term is our mission, which is to eliminate the average 11 year gap between first symptom and treatment in youth mental health.

00:18:49 Kenzie: Over time, it’s what I keep hitting at with regard to just making sure that when parents are engaging with the school system and the health system that they’re not running into friction that makes them stall, not receive the access to care that they need. On a personal front, I just had a baby so being a good mama.

00:19:10 Jenny: I love it. Well, congratulations on that. Okay. speed round. So these are just very fast answers to the questions before we wrap up. Is there a book that you’re reading, a podcast or some media that you’ve been having fun with or excited about?

00:19:23 Kenzie: Honestly, aside from the news, most of what I’ve been reading is very specific blogs about healthcare interoperability and some of the latest policies coming down the line with regard to individual access to health records.

00:19:36 Kenzie: If anyone listening happens to be nerding out over that subject, one of my favorite new blogs is from a startup called Fast and Health and their founder, Jason, writes great content. And then Brendan Keeler, of course, has a blog called Health API Guy. Your other investment, Nirvana, I’m sure they read that all the time.

00:19:56 Jenny: If you could live anywhere in the world for just one year, where would it be and why?

00:20:00 Kenzie: There would be some European beach just because Europe and it’s warm.

00:20:05 Jenny: Favorite productivity hack these days?

00:20:07 Kenzie: We’ve been doing a lot of coding with Claude and experimenting with that to create internal products, both personally and professionally. Just give a really quick example. I know this is a speed round, but we had a client the other day give us a potential hurdle we could run into.

00:20:22 Kenzie: In a day and a half, I was able to spin up a tool that completely solved that for them. And so it’s just amazing, the speed to which you can respond to challenges that come up versus just throwing something on an agile roadmap that you hope you eventually get to.

00:20:37 Kenzie: And then I’m using it personally, too. Like the things that takes the most time on the weekends is meal prep for the family and going through the Pinterest board. And so I’m creating an app that does all of that for me.

00:20:48 Jenny: Where can listeners find you?

00:20:51 Kenzie: Just LinkedIn or you can reach out on our website, which is www.meetmaro.com.

00:20:58 Jenny: Well, thank you so much, Kenzie. This was so fun to get to know you a little bit more and your journey and your company is very inspiring. It seems like you definitely have founder market fit. Best of luck and talk to you soon.

00:21:09 Kenzie: Thank you so much, Jenny.

00:21:12 Scott Hartley: Thanks for joining us and hope you enjoyed today’s episode. For those of you listening, you might also be interested to learn more about Everywhere. We’re a first check pre-seed fund that does exactly that, invests everywhere. We’re a community of 500 founders and operators, and we’ve invested in over 250 companies around the globe. Find us at our website, everywhere.vc, on LinkedIn and through our regular founder spotlights on Substack. Be sure to subscribe and we’ll catch you on the next episode.

Read more from Kenzie Butera Davis in Founders Everywhere.

Financial data is abundant, but not always usable. Spade is focused on solving that problem by transforming raw bank transaction data into structured, actionable insights.

According to Axios, the company has raised $40 million in new funding to expand its platform and support growing demand from fintech companies and financial institutions. The investment reflects increasing interest in tools that can make financial data more reliable and easier to interpret.

At the center of the company is Oban MacTavish, CEO and co-founder of Spade. His focus has been on addressing a common challenge across financial services. Transaction data often arrives unstructured, inconsistent, and difficult to categorize, making it harder for companies to build accurate financial products.

Spade’s platform standardizes and enriches this data, allowing companies to better understand spending behavior, categorize transactions, and power services such as underwriting, fraud detection, and financial analytics. By improving data quality at the infrastructure level, the platform enables more precise decision making across a range of financial use cases.

The demand for this capability is growing alongside the expansion of fintech. As more companies rely on transaction data to power products, the need for clean and consistent data becomes increasingly important. Without it, even well designed applications can struggle to deliver reliable results.

Spade’s approach is to sit within that data layer, helping financial institutions and fintech platforms operate with greater accuracy and confidence. The company’s tools aim to reduce ambiguity in transaction data, allowing teams to build and scale products more effectively.

The funding highlighted by Axios signals broader momentum around financial data infrastructure. As fintech matures, companies that improve the underlying quality of data are becoming critical to the ecosystem.

For Spade and its leadership, the opportunity is clear. By making transaction data more usable, the company is helping define how financial services are built on top of it.

Read the full article on Axios

Financial planning and analysis has long been defined by spreadsheets, manual processes, and fragmented systems. Cube is working to change that by bringing structure, automation, and real time visibility to how finance teams operate.

The company is led by Christina Ross, whose path to founding Cube began in the CFO seat. After years of managing financial operations firsthand, Ross experienced the inefficiencies that many finance teams still face. Rather than accept those limitations, she set out to build a platform designed around how teams actually work.

In a recent Forbes interview, Ross shared how that experience shaped Cube’s approach. Finance teams are highly skilled, but often constrained by outdated tools that slow down workflows and limit visibility. Cube’s solution is to integrate directly with existing spreadsheets and data systems, allowing teams to maintain familiar processes while gaining the benefits of automation and collaboration.

This approach reflects a clear philosophy. Instead of forcing companies to replace their entire tech stack, Cube enhances what is already in place. By doing so, it reduces friction and supports faster adoption, particularly among teams that rely heavily on spreadsheets for planning and reporting.

The timing aligns with broader changes in the market. As businesses face increasing pressure to operate efficiently and make data driven decisions, the limitations of traditional FP&A processes are becoming more apparent. Finance teams are expected to deliver insights more quickly, often with fewer resources, making modern infrastructure increasingly important.

Cube is part of a wider shift toward treating FP&A as a strategic function rather than a back office task. With improved data access and more dynamic planning capabilities, finance teams can play a more active role in guiding business decisions.

Ross’s journey also reflects a broader trend within technology. Operators who have experienced problems firsthand are building solutions grounded in real world needs. This perspective brings a level of clarity and practicality that resonates with customers facing similar challenges.

For Cube, that foundation continues to shape its growth. By aligning closely with how finance teams already operate, the company is helping modernize financial planning without adding unnecessary complexity.

Read the full article on Forbes

Iona is preparing to launch Ireland’s first commercial drone delivery operations later this year, aiming to radically reshape how packages move across the country. Founded by French entrepreneur Etienne Louvet, the company has already secured nearly €4.5m in investment and is designated as a high potential start-up by Enterprise Ireland.

The idea came from a personal pain point. During Covid, Louvet watched his grandmother struggle to get medicines in rural Brittany. A year later, he founded Iona. Originally based in London, the company relocated its operations hub to Shannon, which is a strategic move driven by Brexit, Ireland’s supportive regulatory environment, and the influence of Manna founder Bobby Healy, who encouraged Louvet to make the leap.

Unlike Manna’s multi-copters that drop packages from the air, Iona’s drones land and deliver from cargo compartments. The company is targeting B2B logistics. Think parcel deliveries between Cork and Shannon in 45 minutes, shopping drops to islands off the South-West, and priority pharma packages. Iona has already partnered with EireComposites in Galway to produce drones locally and is in talks with major carriers including DPD and An Post.

Iona’s Sonnet drone carries packages up to 10kg, with an XL version handling 20kg deliveries. The long-range model is designed for 100-200km routes. The company is building a control tower at Shannon that will serve as the logistics hub for European operations. And unlike consumer-focused drone delivery, Iona is taking a pragmatic approach: multiple deliveries to central pickup points rather than individual backyards, keeping costs down and impact low.

Ireland offers a compelling use case for drone delivery: remote islands, rural areas, and a government drone initiative supporting talent development. Louvet sees this as Europe’s chance to lead globally in the sector, with local production and a complete supply chain that can’t be offshored. “We have a unique opportunity in Europe to re-industrialize,” he said.

The company is currently hiring and expects to grow from five to 15 employees in 2026, depending on how quickly commercial operations scale. With the Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI) as a partner and Shannon as the base, Iona is positioning itself to change not just parcel delivery, but emergency medical supplies, offshore platform logistics, and industrial operations across the region.

Iona aims to sign its first customers and begin operations by the end of 2026. The company is negotiating with partners in the Galway and Shannon area, including offshore wind farms and shipping groups. If successful, Iona could become the infrastructure layer for a new era of logistics, one where drones are as common as delivery vans, and remote areas are no longer at a disadvantage.

Read more on Irish Examiner

Ayana Therapy is a digital mental health platform focused on providing culturally responsive care for marginalized communities. The platform connects users with licensed therapists who understand diverse cultural backgrounds, offering personalized support through virtual therapy sessions designed to improve access, trust, and outcomes in mental healthcare.

https://www.ayanatherapy.com/

Spotlight

2021-05: Founders Everywhere: Eric Coly

Podcast

News

Donna has officially launched its AI assistant for SAP Sales and Service Cloud, extending its capabilities to support field teams in a more seamless and intuitive way.

The update focuses on simplifying how sales and service professionals manage their work while on the move. Instead of navigating multiple tools or manually updating systems, Donna supports users before and after customer interactions, allowing them to stay focused on the conversation.

Led by Nicolas Christiaen, Donna is designed to act as a proactive assistant. Before meetings, it provides coaching and context to help teams prepare. After meetings, it handles administrative tasks within SAP, keeping pipelines updated and forecasts accurate without requiring manual input.

A defining feature of Donna is its screenless experience. Field teams do not need to rely on dashboards or interfaces to manage their workflows. The assistant operates in the background, enabling users to focus entirely on their customers while ensuring that systems remain up to date.

This approach shifts how time is used throughout the day. Travel time between meetings becomes an opportunity for preparation, and follow up tasks are handled automatically after interactions. The result is a more continuous and efficient workflow.

The launch reflects Donna’s focus on reducing friction in enterprise software. By embedding AI directly into existing systems like SAP, the platform aligns more closely with how field teams actually work.

As organizations continue to look for ways to improve productivity without adding complexity, Donna’s screenless model highlights a different direction for sales and service tools.

View the original announcement on LinkedIn

Adonis has announced a $40 million Series C, marking a significant step forward in its mission to modernize revenue cycle operations across healthcare providers.

At the center of the company is Akash Magoon, co-founder and CEO, who has focused Adonis on addressing persistent challenges faced by provider groups and health systems. Revenue cycle teams are navigating rising claim denials, constant changes in payer policies, and increasing pressure to operate efficiently with limited resources.

Magoon shared that these challenges are not isolated. They are recurring across organizations, pointing to structural inefficiencies in how healthcare payments are managed today.

Adonis is building its platform to act as a partner to these teams. The goal is to help providers identify risks earlier in the process, resolve issues more quickly, and ultimately ensure they are paid accurately for the care they deliver. By improving visibility and workflow efficiency, the platform supports better financial outcomes without adding operational burden.

The company’s growth has been shaped by close collaboration with its customers. Provider groups and health systems are increasingly looking for solutions that can keep pace with the complexity of modern healthcare reimbursement, where delays and denials can significantly impact operations.

The Series C round includes support from a range of investors, reflecting continued confidence in Adonis’s approach. The funding will help the company expand its platform and deepen its impact across the healthcare ecosystem.

Magoon also emphasized the role of the broader team behind Adonis, including co-founder Aman Magoon and the company’s leadership group. The milestone reflects not only financial backing but also the collective effort to build a long term solution for healthcare providers.

As the demands on healthcare systems continue to grow, improving the efficiency and reliability of revenue cycle operations is becoming increasingly important. Adonis is positioning itself within that shift, focusing on helping providers navigate complexity while maintaining financial stability.

With new capital and continued momentum, the company is entering its next phase of growth with a clear focus on execution and long term impact.

Read more in the official announcement via LinkedIn

Every company with software has vulnerabilities, and the question is who finds them first. Penetration testing, or pentesting, is the practice of simulating real-world cyberattacks to find and fix security weaknesses before they cause real damage. It’s a critical part of keeping software safe and a common compliance requirement, but traditional security tools and human-powered pentests are often slow and expensive. They run after software is live, leaving dangerous windows of exposure. Pensar provides continuous penetration testing using AI agents, integrated directly into the software development process so vulnerabilities are caught as code is being written, not after it goes live. Their platform pairs AI with certified human experts to deliver both speed and trustworthy oversight. They recently closed a seed round led by Basis Set Ventures to scale the platform and keep pushing the boundaries of automated offensive security.

Co-founders Kerem Proulx and Kyle Bhiro met on the first day of college and have been building together ever since, starting their first company as 19-year-olds selling ML software to Long Island manufacturers. Kerem brings extensive experience in cybersecurity and risk management, having built and trained models to quantify cyber and model-driven risks at Barclays. Kyle has a strong track record as a tech entrepreneur and security & developer community builder. After one of their habitual $10 bowl lunches, they decided they had been watching AI accelerate both software development and cyber threats from the sidelines far too long, and now was the time to go all-in. They quit their jobs on the same day, cashed out their savings, and set out to build the security infrastructure they believed the industry urgently needed. With Pensar, they’re rewriting the rules of security and putting their pen to good use.

What’s Pensar’s North Star?

Our North Star is simple, find vulnerabilities and get them patched as fast as possible. To do so, we are building at the frontier of what LLMs and agents are capable of in offensive security (offsec). Our customers trust us to keep them multiple steps ahead of threat actors, who themselves are using AI to scale their attacks. This means our product has to push the boundaries of what’s possible in offsec to identify critical attack vectors and patch them as early as possible.

Our continuous testing product has discovered and patched critical vulnerabilities in mission critical apps that both scanners and traditional pentesting firms missed. A recent enterprise customer, a broker‑dealer managing over $100 billion, told us they’d only pay us if we found at least one critical vulnerability their existing tools and human pentest missed. Our agents found three in a single application and helped remediate them quickly.

What sets Pensar apart from competitors?

A lot of tools live “to the right” of production. They automate traditional pentests or run scanners after everything is deployed, which still leaves security lagging behind the speed of modern development. We integrate as far “left” as possible into the developer workflow, so developers can run audit‑grade pentests continuously as they ship code with AI - with security teams configuring the policies and checks. This enables Pensar’s vision of self-securing software - where AI agents write code, open a pull request, Pensar pentests the changes at runtime, and confirmed vulnerabilities are fed back to the coding agent for remediation before pushing to production. This type of runtime security testing is the missing piece to what we call the software dark factory - a system that autonomously writes, reviews, tests, and deploys software without the need for humans to manually review code.

We also combine AI agents with human pentesters. Certified experts review findings and reports, and they audit the agent itself, so customers get both scale and expert oversight. We’ve open sourced our core pentesting agent, Apex, which runs from the command line. Human pentesters use it in real-world assessments, and with their permission, those learnings help us make our models smarter and improve the product in ways generic LLM‑based tools can’t. Apex recently outperformed the two leading open-source offensive security tools in a benchmark across 60 modern, defense-enabled web applications and the video went viral on X.

Tell us about some recent milestones that Pensar crushed.

• We recently closed our seed round, led by Basis Set Ventures with Everywhere Ventures and others participating, giving us fuel to further scale our offensive agents into the enterprise.

• We landed our first major enterprise customer (a broker‑dealer with over $100 billion under administration) where we deployed Apex into a sensitive enterprise environment with great results.

• We hired the former head of AI from another New York cybersecurity company to lead our efforts in pushing the frontier of autonomous offensive security - leveraging the data we get in the wild to improve our own models and agents.

What makes Pensar a must-have vs a nice-to-have?

We ask our customers: do you trust the code that claude or codex wrote? With Pensar, you can confidently answer that question. Using runtime validation of AI generated code, the green checkmark in your CI can actually mean something - enabling teams to actually benefit from the speed and continuous nature of coding agents without sacrificing security and safety.

Once a customer, whether an enterprise or hypergrowth startup, sees at least one of the critical findings (and the speed of remediation) from our system, they convert.

How has your background influenced you as a founder?

Kerem: I was a handful as a kid, endlessly questioning everything, and got into breaking things early on. My dad worked in intelligence and was a network security engineer after his time in the Airforce. He taught me to break into and understand systems as a kid. I grew up overseas where my parents were deployed - never quite assimilating with other kids (which I didn’t mind). I eventually learned to play life on hard mode - doing difficult things others would not as I realized it gave me an advantage. Eventually I would learn to love the struggle, and it led to my belief now as a founder in cultivating asymmetries in all things (information, talent, product, capital, etc.).

Kyle: I have a very New York story. My parents are immigrants. My mom worked in the Twin Towers and my dad, an electrical contractor for the new World Trade Center. From a young age, my dream was to build something meaningful in New York City. My early startups, including the first one I built with Kerem, taught me the skills and conviction to tackle bigger and bolder problems with each iteration, leading to our ambitious focus with Pensar.

Fun Fact:
Kerem: I have an opinionated and highly coveted list of rice bowl spots in the city ranked by dollar-per-calorie and overall vibes.

Kyle: I run one of the largest in-person engineering communities in New York and co-host one of the largest AI demo series in the country.

Listen to Allison Lee with Jenny Fielding, on the Venture Everywhere podcast: The Ultimate Revive-al. Now on Apple & Spotify. Check out to all our past episodes here!

&you (often stylized as &you) is a health-tech company that provides a data-driven, holistic approach to individual wellness. The platform helps users track, manage, and optimize their health by integrating biometric data, lifestyle habits, and personalized coaching.

https://andyou.ph/

Spotlight

2026-03: Founders Everywhere: Emil Eriksen

Podcast

2025-07: Venture Everywhere Podcast: Emil Eriksen with David Ronick

News

2025-06: &you Is Building Southeast Asia’s Most Trusted Healthcare Platform, Backed by Global Investor Interest

2026-02: &you Is Redefining Healthcare in the Philippines - and Everywhere Ventures Is in Its Corner