Michael B. Gilroy

Fintech firm Mercury hits $5.2 billion valuation after funding round, up 49% in 14 months cnbc.com/2026/05/20/fin…

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We're proud to sponsor the 2026 @CNBC #Disruptor50 - the boldest venture-backed innovators turning ambitious ideas into companies that matter. As the world's largest exchange, NYSE knows what it takes to scale. So do they. #D50 cnbc.com/2026/05/19/202…

Today, we're announcing A* III, a $450 million early-stage fund. We started @A_StarVC with the simple idea to be a founder's first believer. We are generalists by sector, but specialists in the stage and craft of seed investing. We partner with founders before there is consensus, before there is traction, and often before there is even a product. We are not organized around a market thesis. We back exceptional builders and follow them into the most important categories. That matters because seed investing has changed. It is more crowded, more visible, and increasingly transactional. Too often, firms use seed to secure an option and then wait for proof before investing real time and attention. Seed has become a market of access. We believe it should be a market of conviction. We built A* around a different model. We commit early. We show up before external validation, deploying both time and capital from day zero to help founders find their first customer, make an early hire, or work through the decisions that define the company. We are selective at the start and concentrated over time. We partner with a small number of founders and deepen our commitment as their companies take shape. The best outcomes come from knowing where to go deep and having the discipline to do it. This approach has led us to companies like Ramp, Decagon, Whop, Cape, Simile, Paraform, Watney Robotics, and Mercor. We're grateful to the founders who have chosen to build with us and to the limited partners who have backed us. With this fund, A* manages over $1 billion in assets less than five years after launch. Our job remains what it was on day one: back exceptional founders early and be the partner they need when it matters most.

Anduril's @mttgrmm is in a long-running war with "wildcat" secondary markets who have “absolutely zero respect” for founders and investors. "How many investors in America think they own a chunk of SpaceX when they're actually funding their ex-roommate's boyfriend's coke habit in Miami?" "The SpaceX IPO will be very interesting. This is going to be a situation where the tide goes out, and there's going to be a lot of people without trunks on." "There was this one situation of someone slinging an offer around that was an SPV into another SPV that was buying a chunk of an early investor's holdings. There are layers and layers of fees and carries on top of that, at a price per share that was something like 70% above what the last round traded at. It's just an insane thing. They're pitching access to a deal they don't have." "There was a recent indictment announced in New York around a case where someone was out slinging Anduril SPVs that did not have access to Anduril, and the guy was just pocketing the cash. He was just indicted and arrested at JFK." "This isn't a blanket comment that all secondaries are bad. They're not. There's a category of these people who just have no respect and are basically just fraudsters and hucksters."

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton cracked the SportsCenter Top 10 with this crossover last night. After the Liberty win, @OwenPence and I asked Jonquel Jones and Betnijah about that highlight.