Collaborative Fund

If you're interested in how brands, behaviors and value creation blur, read along as Zach and I dig into how culture and capital intersect in unexpected ways. First up: blueberries. Read more at https://lnkd.in/eaBiYicm

Gratitude is an attitude. While it’s easy to think about all that is wrong with the world, it’s important to not take for granted all the blessings we have. So during this week of Thanksgiving, here are some reflections I shared with our Just Ice Tea team about what I’m thankful for. I am thankful for our consumers – people who decide every day to spend their hard-earned money to seek out our products, even if they may be a little harder to find. We are energized every day by the positive feedback we hear from fans, whether it’s someone who just discovered the delights of organic bottled tea or a former Honest Tea fan raving about being reunited with their beloved Mango White, or someone who gained inspiration from a bottle cap quote at just the right moment. I am thankful for our retail partners – brokers, distributors, retailers, restaurants who make the decision to carry our teas. They play a crucial role in our effort to democratize organics, plus they are (almost always!) fun people to be around. I am thankful for our supply chain partners – from the Fair Trade USA farmers and their communities, to our bottling plants and packaging suppliers— their commitment to quality and organic practices makes them key allies in our mission work. I am thankful for our family members and life partners who support us in this work. They help us stay motivated, process challenging work dynamics, and (occasionally) indulge us when we restock a beverage cooler while on vacation. I am thankful for the pristine ecosystems where our tea, sweeteners and fruit juices are grown. Our ingredients are sourced from some of the most magical landscapes in the world, and organic and regenerative farming helps protect nature’s abundance. I am thankful for our investors – dozens of individuals as well as forward-thinking firms like Collaborative Fund and S2G Investments, who share our vision and allocate the resources needed to help us achieve it. I am thankful to live in a nation where despite all its scars and bruises, our system of free enterprise allows us to come together to build something powerful and impactful. I am thankful to each member of our team - a dynamic combination of diverse talents, dreams and backgrounds. They devote thousands of hours of hard work that can be intense, frustrating, exhausting and occasionally tear-inducing. Over the course of the year, there are hundreds of moments where they put in extra effort to get that incremental cooler placement, to offer one more sample with a smile to gain a new customer. When you put it all together, I am thankful to be able to do purposeful work – to wake up every morning and know that what we do makes a difference. And that when we do it as intended, we nourish our consumers, the planet, our supplier communities and serve all our stakeholders.

🚀California Energy Commission (CEC) Awards Anthro Energy $𝟓.𝟓 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 to Establish Advanced Electrolyte and Battery Cell Production in California!     ⚙️The competitive PowerForward program funds expansion of California manufacturing for batteries and related components that support the transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) – a critical step toward building a resilient U.S. battery supply chain and revolutionizing the energy storage industry.    🔋This funding accelerates the growth of Anthro’s recently opened Alameda, CA facility, which can produce over 100 MWh of advanced electrolytes and 10 MWh Li-ion battery cells annually for applications in consumer electronics, defense, zero-emission vehicles, and beyond!    🇺🇸 We are honored to receive continued support from the State of #California and to establish Anthro as a leading player in the ongoing effort to strengthen the U.S. supply chain and manufacturing base.    Check out the full press release: https://lnkd.in/gC8ZCeSh #startup #CEC #batteries #EV #electrolytes #california #domestic #manufacturing #criticalmaterials

Marketing isn’t just about reach — it’s about resonance. In this post, Morgan Housel explores how subtle, thoughtful marketing can move the needle in the long run. Link to Substack in the comments.

It's exhilarating to see Endolith featured in The Wall Street Journal. Rhiannon Hoyle's piece sketches the story of how biology and AI can help solve one of the biggest challenges in the energy transition: copper supply. From EVs to AI-data centers — large swaths of our economy depend on metals the world is running out of. Endolith is redefining how we source them, using biology and data to recover copper from material once written off as waste. Their platform uses AI-guided microbes to recover copper from mineralized waste, creating new supply for a more resilient future. We at Collaborative Fund are honored to be a part of this next chapter — proud to support the company as they raise a $13.5 million Series A. Huge congratulations to Liz Dennett, PhD. and the team, and to Squadra Ventures and all the other investors helping make it possible. #Endolith #SeriesA #MiningInnovation #DeepTech

If you'd like to hear more about the story of Speak, check out today's Forbes cover story: https://lnkd.in/greaACk6 We announce a new revenue milestone and Rashi Shrivastava covers why we think Speak is a unique solution in the marketplace. As much as everyone likes to talk about their AI powered features, Speak's secret sauce is just as much in our learning methodology which we call the Speak Method. The last generation of digital language learning solutions made learning fun through gamification. But the problem is unless you're learning a language the way humans have always learned their first language (through speaking!) all you'll be left with is a bunch of memorized vocabulary and grammar with no fluency. Speak was developed from the ground up to be different. We've spent years honing a method that centers around getting you comfortable speaking from day 1. And it's incredible to hear from so many of our users who can now speak fluently in a new language after using Speak for a year or so. If you haven't check it out yet, we've launched a ton more languages earlier this year and we hope to rapidly expand to most languages by next year. I'd love to hear your thoughts! And as always, if you're interested in joining the journey, please reach out or visit our careers page.

Starbucks didn’t mean to become a bank. But when you preload your app, that $25 balance becomes a deposit—and suddenly Starbucks is holding more cash than 85% of U.S. banks. That’s how innovation usually happens: not through rebellion, but through design. One subtle product decision creates a regulatory blind spot. Then a new norm. The same playbook that made Starbucks a “coffee bank” made Uber a “transportation network” and now powers AI models like Sora—tools that rewrite the rules faster than regulators can even define them. Technology runs on curiosity and caffeine. Institutions run on committees and calendars. The gap between those two clocks might be the defining force of our time. The challenge isn’t stopping innovation. It’s making sure the people writing the future still feel accountable to the ones living in it. Read the full essay: The Coffee Bank and the Speed of Change https://lnkd.in/dsKvFknR

Pretty fun weekend surprise! Collaborative Fund portfolio company Parallel landed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times Business section! I’ve always loved trains. They’re the quiet heroes that keep America moving -- carrying food, cars, toys, and everything else across the country. So seeing this story about a team of former 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐗, 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐥𝐚, and 𝐑𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐧 engineers reinventing the freight train feels a little magical. Parallel Systems is building small, electric trains that can drive themselves. They run on batteries, move super quietly, and talk to each other so they stay perfectly in sync while they carry huge containers. It’s a simple idea: make rail freight flexible enough to compete with trucks. If they succeed, it could unclog ports, reduce emissions, and give the country’s logistics network a big upgrade. I like ideas that seem small but contain a big shift in assumption. The assumption here is that progress only happens in new domains. But sometimes the things most ready for reinvention are the ones sitting in plain sight. Caroline Petrow-Cohen, Abe Yokell, Sophie Bakalar, Matt Soule

𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 Sometimes the biggest changes in how we feel come from things we rarely think about. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to pay closer attention to the spaces that shape how I feel. Not just the gym, but the home. We often talk about diet, exercise, and sleep as the foundations of health. But there’s another piece that’s easy to overlook: 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. That realization started with my colleague Matt Kaufman, who met Nat Martin, the founder of Sunday Lighting, and introduced his new company to our team. From the first conversation, it was clear Nat was rethinking something most people take for granted. For years, lighting has been about decoration. Sunday Lighting treats it as healthcare. The company’s circadian lighting helps people feel happier, sleep better, and live healthier by syncing indoor light with the body’s natural rhythm. It’s science meeting design in a way that feels effortless. You don’t have to change your habits. The environment around you just starts working in your favor. At Collaborative Fund, we believe the most valuable products of the future will help people feel better without asking for more time, effort, or discipline. Sunday Lighting is a perfect example of that idea brought to life. We’re proud to have led the pre-seed round in Sunday Light, alongside Will Ahmed, the incredible founder of WHOOP, who shares our belief that technology can quietly make life healthier and happier. Curious to hear, how much thought have you given to the light in your home?

In a world where every moment can be recorded and remembered, what happens to forgetting? The End of Forgetting explores how memory, data and culture collide—and why this matters for how we build products, companies, and meaning. https://lnkd.in/ewSn6s3q