8 Highlights from Collaborative Fund’s 2025 Annual General Meeting
We recently gathered our community of partners, founders, and LPs for our Annual General Meeting — a candid conversation designed to sharpen our collective focus.
Our primary goal was to think out loud about how timeless principles — like compounding, human behavior, and cultural shifts — are interacting with the immediate, breakneck pace of technological change. Here are some insights, edited only for clarity, that capture the texture of that dialogue across AI, consumer evolution, and the future of energy.
1. “The average seed round in 2011 was $750k. I saw last week there was a hundred million dollar seed round.”
Craig Shapiro’s opening remarks framed how the exponential growth in seed size underscores a shift in founder ambition and investor appetite for risk. For founders, it means the bar for “seed stage” maturity is vastly higher; capital is abundant, but now the pressure is on for rapid, de-risked execution and proof of concept to justify the early valuation. We’re constantly looking for founders who can deploy this scale of capital with the efficiency and frugality of the prior era.
2. “Your doctor’s job is not to optimize your health. Their job is to provide sick care.”
Robby Wade, Founder and CEO of Rythm Health, highlighted the core insight driving our investment thesis in biomarkers and personalized health: that there’s a massive, unmet consumer need for proactive health optimization (longevity, performance, etc.) that the traditional “sick care” system simply isn’t designed to meet. This creates a monumental market opportunity for D2C health tools and services like Rythm and Whoop that are centered on education, accessibility, and continuous data feedback.
3. Authentic community is the new distribution moat.
In a post-paid-media world, partner Andrew Montgomery reminds us that community is the most valuable form of distribution: “The members spend something like 10 times the amount that a traditional customer spends with Bandit.” Bandit Running’s success, driven by fanatical members who spend significantly more than regular customers, proves that building a hyper-engaged, authentic community before or alongside product launch creates an unstoppable flywheel and high retention that meta-spend simply can’t replicate.
4. Biomarkers turn invisible health processes into actionable data.
“They turn invisible processes in the body into things that are useful for disease, diagnosis, drug development, health optimization, and lots more.” Matt Kaufman defined the utility of biomarkers, providing the foundational argument for our health thesis. The true value of a biomarker is its ability to convert complex biological signals (like grip strength or cholesterol) into simple, useful proxies that drive better decisions. This shift — from guesswork to continuous, measurable feedback — is the engine of the consumer wellness economy.
5. “Electrolytes are the secret limiting factor that’s holding battery performance back, and today there is zero electrolyte production in the United States.”
David Mackanic, Founder & CEO of Anthro Energy, drove home the critical nature of the battery supply chain. This zero domestic production highlights a dual challenge: a national security risk and the core technological bottleneck holding back next-generation battery performance. Companies that solve this “secret limiting factor” with a technology that doesn’t just improve performance but also secures domestic manufacturing capacity for the core materials needed to power the electrified economy will be the ones that win.
6. “As an investor I’m not worried about AI replacing jobs, but as an individual and member of society I am.”
Sheetal Sharma articulated the complex reality of AI’s economic impact in a conversation with Sophie Bakalar: “If the models continue to scale and have the capabilities the most bullish people believe, they will definitely replace what people do today by and large.” The massive productivity benefits for businesses (the investor’s view) are clear, but the speed and scale of this human capital replacement create social upheaval we are currently unprepared for. This dual-sided impact requires investors and leaders to think beyond simple efficiency metrics and plan for societal transition.
7. Convenience is a catalyst for change.
Robby Wade from Rythm shared how “Convenience is generally king. That’s why Amazon is so successful. That’s why Instacart is having this success… Getting things to the home is really important.” The seemingly small act of reducing friction (e.g., at-home testing, one-click services) is the initial catalyst for market upheaval. As Partner Andrew Montgomery drove home, “Innovation often starts as convenience and ends up reinventing the rules.”
8. “[Our thesis] is a bet on a belief that long-term, humans want things that are better for the world. But at our core, we are naturally self-interested.”
Referencing Collaborative Fund’s Villain Test, Craig encapsulates our core thesis. The most successful businesses are those that align profit with progress — delivering a product that is better for the customer (more convenient, healthier, safer) while also driving a positive outcome for the world. This principle is durable across cycles, technologies (AI, biotech, energy), and market flavors, making it the bedrock of our decision-making.
The ideas that drive the next 15 years are surfacing right now, and we invite you to engage with us as we continue to refine this evolving conversation.