Formation

We're building the community I wish I had, a space for early employees to share experiences, ask the weird questions unique to them, and just hang out. Our NYC Chapter Launch event is on Tues, June 9th hosted by yours truly, @lmushin, @yrechtman, and our friends @jpmorgan. Apply to attend here! luma.com/bo6qilkj

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.

Mortgage lending has lost its way. It’s one of the most manual, fragmented, and costly workflows in financial services for everyone involved. We’re building toward a self-driving mortgage: a world where lenders can spend less time pushing files and more time building trust with borrowers. Our approach is simple in principle, but powerful in execution: an agentic AI copilot that coordinates the full loan lifecycle, from origination through closing, removing bottlenecks and accelerating every step along the way. Today, we’re announcing Balerion AI and our $6M seed round led by @kleinerperkins , alongside @formation_vc , @BoxGroup , and an exceptional group of operators and investors to realize that vision. If you’re a lender who wants to move faster and operate smarter while handling more volume, or if you’re excited by the AI engineering and infrastructure behind a self-driving mortgage, we’d love to talk. axios.com/pro/fintech-de…

Mortgage lending has lost its way. It’s one of the most manual, fragmented, and costly workflows in financial services for everyone involved. We’re building toward a self-driving mortgage: a world where lenders can spend less time pushing files and more time building trust with borrowers. Our approach is simple in principle, but powerful in execution: an agentic AI copilot that coordinates the full loan lifecycle, from origination through closing, removing bottlenecks and accelerating every step along the way. Today, we’re announcing Balerion AI and our $6M seed round led by @kleinerperkins , alongside @formation_vc , @BoxGroup , and an exceptional group of operators and investors to realize that vision. If you’re a lender who wants to move faster and operate smarter while handling more volume, or if you’re excited by the AI engineering and infrastructure behind a self-driving mortgage, we’d love to talk. axios.com/pro/fintech-de…

Loan origination for the future. $6M backed by @kleinerperkins, @formation_vc, @BoxGroup. World-class team of operators. If this resonates with you, DM me and I’d love to find a way to partner for the long-term. balerion.ai

Loan origination for the future. $6M backed by @kleinerperkins, @formation_vc, @BoxGroup. World-class team of operators. If this resonates with you, DM me and I’d love to find a way to partner for the long-term. balerion.ai

Today, we introduce Oratomic. We are on a focused mission to build the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computers and unlock their transformative applications. Quantum computers offer a fundamentally new way of understanding and interacting with the physical world. Our recent scientific advance finds that Shor’s algorithm is possible with as few as 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits: arxiv.org/abs/2603.28627 Our team integrates world-class expertise in quantum error correction, neutral atom systems, artificial intelligence, and optical engineering. We are working together to make fault-tolerant quantum computing a reality. To learn more about Oratomic and our team, visit oratomic.com