Jason Engelhardt

Pre-seed isn’t dead. But it has  changed.   Carta just published their Q3 2025 State of Pre-Seed, based on data from 10,000+ companies, and it explains why so many founders feel fundraising is harder and what to do about it. What this report is (credibility + caveat). This is aggregated, anonymized Carta dataSAFEs and convertible notes covering Q1 2021 through Q3 2025, with a snapshot date of Nov 12, 2025. Not advice, but it’s a useful market thermometer. Trend #1 — Pre-seed cooled in Q3Q3...

Joel Stevens National Managing Director - Bernstein “More Than Money: A Family Office Built for Business Owners”  outlines how Bernstein Private Wealth Management  positions itself as a long-term partner to founders—aiming to support decisions before, during, and after  a liquidity event, not just manage investments once cash arrives. The paper emphasizes three core ideas: A modern “family office” model built around the realities of ownership. Bernstein describes integrating investment...

Today I want to share something a little more personal. Not a highlight reel. Not a polished announcement. Just the honest truth about what it feels like to build Silicon Beach — and what it really means to create something from nothing. Because building an innovative startup… building a venture studio… building a community… is not easy. It’s exciting, yes. It’s meaningful, yes. But it’s also hard. When people hear the words “startup ecosystem”  or “venture studio,”  they often picture...