Alex Kinnier

Introducing one of our newest port cos, Veritus Agent, by the one and only Joshua March who previously founded Conversocial and SciFi Foods and whom I've known for 15+ years since my Facebook days. As Voice AI improves, there are a number of industries ripe for disruption including collections. Always excited for more innovation in these legacy fields. https://lnkd.in/gjJTVKM3 #startupinnovation #ai #fintech

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Became obsessed with understanding marketplaces over the past few months...what's that saying "history doesn't repeat itself, but It often rhymes" 😅 Seems like most founders building marketplaces don't realize the core reason they fail. After analyzing marketplace failure patterns and talking to 10+ failed marketplace founders, the data is clear - and honestly brutal. The #1 reported reason I could find for marketplace failure: lack of supply (not lack of demand) When marketplaces fail to solve the chicken-and-egg problem: • 90% of two-sided marketplaces that fail cite supply generation as the primary issue • Marketplaces need to achieve "liquidity" (enough supply to satisfy demand) or they die • Without a critical mass of supply, customers lose interest and never return What goes wrong? Found several layers of explanation. The surface one is "marketplaces are hard." Cold start problem, chicken-and-egg, network effects. Feel that's obvious. Going a layer deeper. Here's what it seems actually kills them: most marketplaces prioritize the wrong side first. Industry data shows that successful marketplaces (Uber, Airbnb, Outdoorsy, etc.) spent almost all their early resources on supply, not demand. Why you might ask? Because supply either stimulates demand on its own, or word of mouth provides enough demand to utilize the existing supply. But it doesn't work in reverse - demand without supply just seems to create frustrated users who leave. Looking at marketplace success patterns: • Uber: Hired drivers by the hour in SF to guarantee supply before demand existed • Airbnb: Organized meetups in each new city to recruit hosts before opening to guests • Outdoorsy: Found supply (RV owners) was 5X harder than demand—once they got supply, demand came 5X faster and cheaper • Etsy: Direct face-to-face recruitment of vendors at craft fairs before platform launch The pattern is clear: solve for supply first, manually if needed. Going deeper, the real issue? Most founders come from ONE side of the marketplace. They build for what they understand (usually demand/buyer experience...guilty myself 👋) rather than what's actually harder to get (usually supply). Most marketplaces try to build both sides simultaneously or focus on the easier side first. Both approaches fail because they never achieve liquidity. At DTConnect, spent 8 months manually connecting founders before we even built v0.1 of our current platform. Painful? Yes. But we're still here. Saw most marketplace founders skip this step because it doesn't feel like "tech company" work. Data shows what happens when you do. #marketplaces #b2b #startups #founders #bootstrap

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One of my agentic commerce predictions for 2026 in this recent Forbes piece: Matt Nichols, General Partner at Commerce Ventures, notes that the mechanics are already in motion. Looking ahead, he predicts that this year, "Agentic commerce transaction volume reaches meaningful levels as consumers advance from research to buying on AI platforms. 2026 will be the year that transactions are completed in these platforms." To this prediction, Nichols adds another: retailers will be forced to build "super-feeds" specifically for AI platforms. “These data feeds may involve monetary transactions that could include payments to AI platforms or payments to the retailer/brand (depending on balance of power).” https://lnkd.in/g65RAerA

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🌱 Way beyond Offsets: Insetting is Collaborative Supply Chaining Half of Earth’s land is tied up in agriculture. Only 1% or so is regenerative. Our soils are still by and large running on empty. And yet, the greatest lever we have to heal ecosystems and future-proof supply chains sits right beneath our feet. We’ve spent decades outsourcing impact. Now, a new model is emerging...insetting where companies invest inside their own value chains. It’s not just better accounting. It’s a rewilding of responsibility. A return to relationship. 🔁 Insetting embeds action in farms, forests, fisheries. 📊 It offers visibility as transparency breeds trust, and trust scales change. 🌱 It builds anti-fragile supply chains by investing in regenerative ag, water cycles, biodiversity, and human dignity. 💰 It aligns incentives, turning suppliers into collaborators, not cost centers. 🌀 It’s bioregional by design being rooted in place, shaped by context, resilient to disruption. As we told the Financial Times nearly two years ago: “Now you’ve gone from planting trees in a country you probably haven’t visited… to incentivizing your suppliers to make key changes.” This isn’t just climate strategy. It’s strategic regeneration. 📖 FT: Is Carbon Insetting the Next Big Thing?: https://lnkd.in/ekDaxxYX 📰 Bloomberg: ‘Insets’ Are the New Offsets: https://lnkd.in/eTf9dNaw

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I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb

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