Specter Monitor #159 🎇

Specter Monitor is a data-driven newsletter for investors interested in learning about the latest market trends, signals, and opportunities. Our audience includes some of the most legendary VC investors in the world. We’ll work hard to bring you actionable insights into what’s happening in today’s markets while celebrating data-driven wins and predictions. ✨

🔮 Talents of the Week

Specter monitors real-time global talent movements to spot investment opportunities before anyone else.

🪄 Predicted: Lyndon K. Brown (US, 2023): Co-Founder and CEO at Prequel

Prequel - Get ahead of software failure

Your real-time problem detection and resolution platform, powered by the global engineering community.

Get ahead of software failure

Description: Prequel provides a platform for running and building intelligent problem detectors, preventing incidents with community-driven problem detection.

Prev. Experience: Lyndon K. Brown co-founded Prequel.dev in June 2023, where he currently serves as CEO. Previously, he was Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Pondurance for 2.5 years. Brown held the position of Vice President at Mandiant (acquired by Google) and Verodin (acquired by FireEye Mandiant). His earlier roles include senior leadership positions at Endgame (acquired by Elastic). Brown spent the first 10 years of his career as a Computer Engineer in the U.S. Intelligence Community. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and an M.S. in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Total Funding: $3.3M / $3.3M Latest Seed on 12-2024.

Notable Investors: Andrew Morris, Jonathan Oberheide, Monica Sarbu, Operator Partners, Runtime Ventures, Shay Banon, Work-Bench.

👻 Opportunity: Adrian Aoun (US, 2024): Founder at Stealth Startup

Adrian Aoun - NewCo | LinkedIn

Experience: NewCo · Location: San Francisco · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Adrian Aoun’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members.

LinkedInAdrian Aoun

Prev. Experience: Adrian Aoun is currently the Founder of a stealth startup, a position he began in December 2024. Previously, he was the CEO and Founder of Forward from 2017 to 2024, where he spearheaded the development of innovative healthcare technology like the CarePod. Before Forward, Aoun held several roles at Google, including Special Projects for CEO/Founder Larry Page from 2014 to 2016, and worked on Google AI from 2013 to 2014. He also founded Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet/Google company, in 2014. Aoun has been an active investor and advisor to startups since 2010, with investments in over 300 companies including Anduril, Stripe, and Airbnb. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California.

🎱 Strategic Signals

Specter analyzes the online and social activity of leading investors and industry insiders to predict upcoming funding rounds and acquisitions.

🪄 Predicted: Decart (US, 2023)

Decart - The First Real-Time Generative AI Open World Model

Dedicated to democratizing consumer AI through innovative, cost-effective solutions. Founded in 2023 and backed by Sequoia Capital and Zeev Ventures, Decart has developed a revolutionary platform that enhances GPU efficiency for AI model training, making advanced AI tools accessible to a broader audience. Decart is disrupting the gaming and entertainment industries by allowing users to create immersive experiences from simple text prompts.

The First Real-Time Generative AI Open World Model

Description: Decart is an AI research lab that focuses on creating foundational generative interactive models that are accessible in real time.

Total Funding: $53M / $32M Latest Series A on 12-2024.

Notable Investors: Benchmark, Sequoia Capital, Zeev Ventures, Doron Alter.

👻 Opportunity: Memex (US, 2024)

AI agent for research and engineering on your computer

Use OpenAI and Anthropic to write & execute code, analyze data, and search the web with LLMs — locally on your computer.

Description: Memex is a LLM-driven engineering co-pilot that runs as a local app on your computer.

🍒 Cherry-Picked Companies

Specter tracks the performance of millions of companies and identifies the ones who are likely to increase in valuation.

🪄 Predicted: Basis (US, 2023)

Basis

AI agents built specifically for accountants

Description: Basis develops AI agents that assist accountants by automating accounting workflows.

Total Funding: $37.6M / $34M Latest Series A on 12-2024.

Notable Investors: Better Tomorrow Ventures, Daniel Gross, Jeff Wilke, Michele Catasta, Lenny Rachitsky, BoxGroup, Avid Ventures, NFDG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Azeem Azhar, Amjad Masad, Clem Delangue, Jeff Dean, Jack Altman, Claire Hughes Johnson, Larry Summers, Adam D’Angelo, Nat Friedman, Douwe Kiela, Aaron Levie, Kyle Vogt, Noam Brown.

👻 Opportunity: Risotto (US, 2023)

Risotto - IT help desk automation in Slack

Discover Risotto, your AI-powered IT co-pilot to streamline IT support within Slack. Risotto automates ticket management, answers common questions, and handles software requests. Save time, money, and improve security with Risotto.

IT help desk automation in Slack

Description: Risotto provides AI-Powered IT Support.

Total Funding: $500K / $500K Latest Seed on 02-2024.

Notable Investors: Pioneer Fund, Y Combinator.

That’s all for this edition of Specter Monitor!

Stay tuned for the next updates and feel free to share with your friends.