Vertical AI Deep Dive with OMERS Ventures

Cloud Returns | A SaaS Investing Podcast

Our Guests: Marissa Moore, and Taku Murahwi of OMERS Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in Series A-C companies with a first cheque size between $5-25M.

Episode Topics:

• OMERS Venture’s investment criteria.
• Type of founders Marissa and Taku prefer.
• How does OMERS Ventures conduct due diligence on a company founder?
• Overview of Marissa’s “The Green Room”, a “safe space for founders to practice their pitch, risk-free, in front of current investors and subject matter experts.”
• Marissa’s advice for how founders can improve their pitches.
• Deep dive into the Eight Core Factors in OMERS Ventures' AI Deep Dive Report.
• How does unstructured and industry-specific data affect AI’s effectiveness?
• Marissa’s insights and strategies from successful companies to gain the trust of their customers.
• The rationale behind the degree of high-stakes decision-making factor.
• How long it will take for a AI-native company to move from seed funding to Series A, factoring in the development timelines needed to refine an AI product and scale?
• Is the Net Promoter Score bar higher for an AI company than a traditional software company?
• Which industries are more or less suitable for vertical AI solutions based on the Vertical AI Deep Dive Report?
• Great habits Marissa and Taku learned from someone in OMERS Ventures portfolio.

Resources:

OMERS Ventures Vertical AI Report: https://airtable.com/appcfwQFbRedHquqo/paghteBojIXj9d72g/form

About Cloud Returns by Cloud Ratings:

Cloud Returns covers ALL types of software investing, whether seed, venture capital, growth equity, private equity, debt, and the public markets.

Our host - Matt Harney - is active on Twitter @saasletter and writes "SaaSletter", an investing-oriented SaaS newsletter on Substack.

https://cloudradio.cloudratings.com/

https://twitter.com/SaaSletter

https://www.saasletter.com/

About Cloud Ratings:

Cloud Ratings is a customer outcomes-focused, data-driven software research analyst firm. We exist to allow organizations to make more confident, lower-risk software purchasing decisions.

Our Cloud Ratings Category Reports combine user reviews with verified vendor data to impartially identify leading software products. Recent report examples include: Board Management Software, Account-Based Marketing Software, Cap Table + Equity Management Software, Lead Routing Software, and Sales Training + Onboarding Software.

Built upon investigative customer interviews, our True ROI Reports quantify and provide 3rd party validation of a software product’s business value.

https://cloudratings.com/