The Venture Codex

Participated · Series L · Feb 2026

Databricks operates a cloud data platform and AI products, with its core cloud data warehouse generating $1.5 billion of its annualized run-rate revenue and growing 100% year-over-year. The company reported a $7 billion annualized run-rate revenue figure while growing at roughly 80% and being cash-flow positive. Databricks launched Lakebase in June 2025, which has reached a $100 million revenue run-rate, and its AI chatbot tool Genie is described as highly popular. The company maintains a roughly 100-person AI research team and faces multi-billion-dollar cloud commitments with major hyperscalers. Databricks has been active on the M&A front, acquiring companies including Electric (PGlite) and AI cybersecurity firm Panther, and it says it plans to continue investing in AI and acquisitions while remaining open to a future IPO.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2024

SmartLabs provides resourced, enterprise-scale laboratory environments and resourcing solutions, including multifunctional R&D spaces, vivariums, process development and pilot-scale suites, and cGMP capacity under one roof. The company operates facilities on both the East and West Coasts to support companies of all stages and sizes. Its offering is designed to let customers launch, scale, and shift as programs and projects evolve by co-locating R&D infrastructure with manufacturing solutions. That co-location is intended to facilitate collaboration and improve access between R&D and manufacturing players. SmartLabs recently raised capital and plans to use the proceeds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. No revenue or user metrics were provided in the article. SmartLabs provides flexible, tech-enabled lab and office spaces (LaaS) that are customizable for research groups from fewer than 10 to more than 200 people and include multifunctional R&D spaces, vivariums, process development and pilot-scale suites, and cGMP capacity. The company bundles infrastructure, services, and a proprietary operating platform (SmartLabs OS) to let tenant companies launch, scale, and shift programs rapidly without sacrificing IP. In September the company launched SmartLabs OS v4.0, expanding a platform first introduced in 2016. SmartLabs operates four locations in Massachusetts (Kendall Square, East Cambridge, Boston Landing, Seaport) and one location in South San Francisco. The company says member teams can save as much as 45% in the first three years by using its integrated resources and that its centers support dozens of programs across cell and gene therapies and personalized genomic medicine. SmartLabs plans to use new funding to accelerate growth and scale operations to 2 million square feet within five years.

Participated · Series D · Aug 2022

Overtime is a NYC-based company that builds new sports leagues aimed at the next generation of sports fans and athletes and operates digital-first brands OTE (basketball) and OT7 (football). It leverages short- and long-form digital content across basketball, football, soccer, gaming and sneakers to engage a community of over 65 million followers. Its content receives more than 2 billion video views each month. The company monetizes through sponsorships, brand relationships, e-commerce, licensing and media rights. It intends to use the funds to grow OTE and OT7, create new sports leagues, expand e-commerce and web3 verticals, and continue investing in content. Overtime is led by CEO and co-founder Dan Porter and President and co-founder Zack Weiner, and has raised more than $250m in total funding. Overtime is a New York–based digital sports network that produces short-form action videos—primarily featuring high-school athletes—for distribution on social platforms. Its content is distributed across Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and other social outlets. The company also sells branded apparel. Overtime's videos are viewed more than 1 billion times a month. Co‑founders Dan Porter and Zachary Weiner say they are developing new ways to engage and entertain the next generation of athletes and fans. Since inception the company has raised capital to scale its content and distribution efforts. Overtime is a NYC-based sports network that produces short-form and longer-form video content for younger sports fans across platforms like Snapchat and YouTube. The company uses technology, new platforms, and new formats to deliver highlights, 20-minute episodes, and longer-form series covering sports, lifestyle, and music. It operates a platform for young storytellers who film, produce, and edit content full-time, with a youthful point of view informing the programming. Led by CEO Dan Porter, Overtime plans to use the new funding to invest in content production, build out the team, and pursue international expansion into Europe, Asia and Africa. The company has over 55 employees in New York City. Financially, Overtime raised $23M in a Series B, bringing total funding to date to more than $35M. Overtime creates digital-first sports content tailored to younger viewers, focusing on storytelling around rising high-school and college athletes. Its videos appear across multiple platforms (notably YouTube) and the company has app features that let users follow specific players. Overtime emphasizes a platform-agnostic distribution strategy and has two programming deals with Comcast and NBC. The startup combines user-generated clips, curated highlights, and editorial storytelling to reduce traditional television production costs. Many Overtime videos rack up hundreds of thousands of views and the company reports that 95% of its views occur on mobile devices. It recently raised $9.5 million to fund growth and community-building for a next-generation sports network aimed at young fans.

Participated · Series E · Jan 2021

Premise Data operates a cyber-physical market intelligence platform that combines machine learning with human intelligence to collect and analyze real-time data from a curated global network. Led by CEO Maury Blackman, the company serves customers via a blend of automated and human-sourced inputs. Premise intends to use the new funds to expand its platform capabilities and grow its global network. The company completed an $85M Series E financing and has now raised more than $150M to date. As part of the round, new board members will join the company. Premise maintains offices in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. Premise operates a mobile-app-driven economic data platform that tasks a distributed network of contributors to photograph and document local economic and humanitarian conditions. The company manages roughly 25,000 contributors across 32 countries and supplies customers such as the World Bank, United Nations, Gates Foundation, Bloomberg and Standard Chartered with granular, place-based observations. Its product combines platform and app development, data science, contributor ranking and an anti-fraud team to ensure data quality. Premise has about 40 employees split across engineering, network management, and growth/sales operations, and has paid out close to $3 million to contributors over the last 18 months. Contributors typically earn $100–$120 per month and observations pay roughly $0.06–$0.40 depending on difficulty; the company plans to grow headcount to the low 60s by year end and to the low triple digits by the end of next year. The board includes Chamath Palihapitiya and Larry Summers, and Valor Equity Partners’ Antonio Gracias is joining the board following the new investment. Premise builds a next-generation economic monitoring platform that combines online scraping from roughly 20,000 e-commerce sites with a distributed on-the-ground mobile workforce to collect price, availability, quality, and other metrics. The company offers products such as a Global Inflation Monitor and a Food Security Monitor and exposes data via an API for customers and developers. Premise tracks 25 food staples across 25 cities in markets including India, China and Brazil and has built item-level indexes and charts that customers use to predict inflation and resource imbalances. Its mobile contributors upload photos and metadata (price, location, store, time/date) via iOS and Android apps; many of these workers earn about $20–$40 per week. Customers include Bloomberg (which redistributes Premise data via terminals), financial services firms, corporations and governments. The company was founded by David Soloff and Joe Reisinger and recently completed a funding round, bringing its total financing to date to $16.5 million.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2018

Evolve is a Denver, CO–based vacation rental hospitality company led by CEO Brian Egan. It manages over 19,000 homes across more than 750 markets. The company has generated more than $2 billion in rental income for its owners. Evolve raised $100M in funding in a round led by Durable Capital Partners. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach. This latest round brings Evolve’s total funding to $235 million. Evolve operates a tech-enabled vacation rental management platform that handles marketing, bookings and provides homeowners the option to configure on-the-ground services via a vetted network of local partners. Founded in 2011 by CEO Brian Egan, the company manages a portfolio of more than 9,000 properties across over 500 markets in North America. To date Evolve has secured over $350m in rental income for its owners. The company reported triple-digit annual growth and aims to use new capital to support that growth and enhance its core offerings. Evolve is focused on further developing its technology-enabled services platform to scale operations and homeowner services. Its model combines centralized marketing and booking with local service options for property owners. Evolve operates a tech-enabled rental management platform focused on marketing and booking vacation properties while offering owners the option to configure on-the-ground services. The company currently services more than 4,000 properties in over 500 markets across North America and has secured over $150m in gross bookings for its owners. It plans to use new funds for expansion and continued development of its services platform. Evolve has raised $23m in total funding to date. The platform combines marketing, booking and optional local services to drive owner bookings and revenue. The company was founded in 2011 by Brian Egan and Adam Sherry and is based in Denver, Colorado. Evolve provides a full-service vacation rental management product that creates listings optimized for online booking performance, promotes properties on major marketplaces and its own site, responds to traveler inquiries seven days a week, secures bookings online and offline, and handles pre- and post-stay guest communication. The company currently services more than 2,000 vacation rental properties across North America and has booked over 55,000 trips since launch. Evolve plans to use new capital to expand its team and to fuel marketing efforts aimed at the estimated 10 million vacation homeowners in North America. Financially, the company reported a $5.5M funding round and has raised $12M in total to date. The service targets homeowners who want an end-to-end solution for generating rental income without managing day-to-day operations themselves. Evolve was founded in 2011 by Brian Egan and Adam Sherry and is based in Denver, Colorado. Evolve Vacation Rental offers a white-glove service to help homeowners list and market vacation properties online. The company conducts phone consultations, gathers property information and photos, writes SEO-friendly copy, and lists properties across HomeAway, VRBO, FlipKey and its own site. It handles inquiries, takes payment, uses online rental agreements to eliminate faxing, and runs A/B split tests on listings. Evolve does not provide on-the-ground services like cleaning or maintenance but helps homeowners contract those services. Homeowners pay no upfront listing fees; Evolve takes a 10% fee only if it rents the property. Founders Brian Egan and Adam Sherry were early employees at Exclusive Resorts. The startup closed a $530,000 seed round last May from angel investors including Kevin Willer, Andrew Houser, and John Anderson.