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: Sylvain Dubois (EU, 2024): Co-Founder and CEO at Vertical Compute
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 186 Days
Description: Vertical Compute is a deep-tech semiconductor startup committed to advancing how data-intensive workloads, like generative ai, are processed.
Prev. Experience: Sylvain Dubois co-founded VerticalCompute in July 2024, where he currently serves as CEO. Previously, he worked at Google for nearly 4 years, most recently as Advanced Technology Sourcing for Google Cloud infrastructure. Before Google, Dubois was Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Crossbar Inc. for over 6 years. He also held roles at Spansion (now Cypress Semiconductor) as Technical Marketing & Business Development Manager, and at Texas Instruments as System-On-Chip Hardware Architect. Dubois holds degrees from ESIEE Paris and Universidad Pontificia Comillas.
Total Funding: $20M / $20M Latest Seed on 01-2025.
Notable Investors: Eurazeo, Xange, VCT Vector Gestion SA, and imec.
👻 Opportunity: Ben Standefer (US, 2024): Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
Prev. Experience: Ben Standefer is currently working on a stealth startup as Founder & CEO since November 2024. Previously, he was a Staff Software Engineer at Dropbox for 3 years, where he worked on transforming Command E into Dropbox Dash. Standefer co-founded and served as CTO of Command E from June 2017 until its acquisition by Dropbox in November 2021. Before that, he was an Engineering Manager at First Round Capital, where he built and led the in-house engineering team. Standefer's earlier roles include Product Manager at Urban Airship and Engineering Manager at SimpleGeo (acquired by Urban Airship). He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin.
🎱 Strategic Signals
Specter analyzes the online and social activity of leading investors and industry insiders to predict upcoming funding rounds and acquisitions.
🪄 Predicted: Andrew D'Souza (US, 2024): Co-Founder and CEO at Boardy
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 305 Days
Description: Boardy is an AI super connector who introduces you to valuable people in their network who you should meet.
Prev. Experience: Andrew D'Souza is currently the Founder and CEO (aka Creator and Mad Scientist) at Boardy, a position he started in March 2024. Previously, he co-founded and led Clearco (formerly Clearbanc) for over 9 years, serving as Co-founder & CEO, then Co-founder & Executive Chair, and now as a Board Member. Before Clearco, D'Souza was President at Nymi for over a year. He has also held advisory roles at companies like Kik Interactive and served on the boards of organizations such as C100. D'Souza holds a degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and has been actively involved in the tech startup ecosystem as both an entrepreneur and investor.
Total Funding: $8M / $8M Latest Seed on 01-2025.
Notable Investors: Creandum.
👻 Opportunity: Jacob Sansbury (US, 2024) Founder at Stealth Startup
Jacob Sansbury
Prev. Experience: Jacob Sansbury is currently working on a stealth startup as Founder since December 2024. Previously, he held roles at Robinhood, including Head of Agentic AI and Technologist through AI. Sansbury was the Founder and CEO of Pluto, an AI-powered investing platform, which was acquired by Robinhood in July 2024. Before Pluto, he worked at NVIDIA as a Technical Lead and Senior Software Engineer for GeForce NOW. Sansbury's earlier experiences include positions at Saleae, Inc. as a Software Engineer and at Bridgewater Associates as a Security Software Engineer. He holds a degree from the University of Maryland.
🍒 Cherry-Picked Companies
Specter tracks the performance of millions of companies and identifies the ones who are likely to increase in valuation.
🪄 Predicted: Overland AI (US, 2022)
3 Months Growth: Web: -58.2%; Team: 48.3%; Social: 22.2%
Description: Overland AI is a manufacturer and developer of autonomous navigation for off-road autonomous vehicles.
Total Funding: $42M / $32M Latest Series A on 01-2025.
Notable Investors: 8VC, Ascend, OUP (Osage University Partners), Overmatch Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Shasta Ventures, The CAPROCK Group.
👻 Opportunity: Continue (US, 2023)
6 Months Growth: Web: 105.7%; Team: 125%; Social: 30.4%
Description: Continue is the open-source autopilot for software development built to be customizable and continuously learn from development data.
Total Funding: $2.1M / $2.1M Latest Pre Seed on 11-2023.
Notable Investors: Lisha Li, Florian Leibert, Julien Chaumond, Heavybit, 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.
