.png)
As we head into summer at Roble, we’ve been thinking deeply about what makes one AI-native startup stand out from the rest.
Our webinar on June 18th is based on Sergio’s Stanford course and will cover the main aspects of early-stage diligence that are the most crucial for predicting startup success.
If you haven’t saved your spot already, come join us.
The Latest From Our Founders
PORTFOLIO NEWS AND UPDATES
We’re thrilled to officially welcome Potato AI to the Roble Ventures portfolio!
At Roble, we back founders building software that makes work—and in this case, science—more human, more efficient, and more ambitious.
Potato AI is doing just that: co-founders Ryan Kosai and Nick Edwards reimagining life sciences R&D through AI agents that can read papers, design experiments, and execute them with reproducible results. In an industry notorious for long, expensive trial cycles, they’re reducing timelines and costs by orders of magnitude.
Potato has already partnered with academic powerhouses like MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Harvard, and Berkeley, and recently announced its participation in a groundbreaking AI initiative with publishing leader Wiley.
[ Read More ]
Hyperbound was a sponsor at the Gartner CSO summit in Las Vegas, where they spent almost the entire conference giving back-to-back demos.
They also recently announced a partnership with CoachEm and refreshed their office in South Park Commons so it now reflects the scale of what they’re building:
Holly has been hitting the road. Fresh off a series of meetings with state and county governments (and podcast appearances), the team is gearing up to onboard a new wave of public sector customers. They were also recently featured by Harvard Innovation Lab, reflecting on the journey so far.
As Holly scales its AI-powered job design platform for local government, they're also expanding the team; now hiring a Software Engineer and GTM Manager to help build the future of public workforce planning.
Lens Into a Human-Enabled Future
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
Sergio represented Roble Ventures at the SomosVC Emerging Manager Showcase, which served as an opportunity to showcase high-potential Latino/a-led firms.
And at Bridge Funding Global’s annual summit in San Francisco, he presented to family offices on how to get started in venture investing:
He also attended Allocate’s Beyond Summit in Carlsbad, the main takeaway being the promise that lies in early-stage venture for capturing AI’s upside.
What Keeps Us Up at Night
KEY RISK FACTORS
By Sergio Monsalve
Throughout periods of significant societal change—Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution, the proliferation of the Internet, and now AI—the age at which people become productive has gradually increased.
With each wave of change, new technologies have demanded more advanced skills and longer preparation. In the AI era, the demands are not just rising, they are transforming. Today’s workers must learn to collaborate with intelligent systems, interpret complex outputs, and apply sound human judgment in real time. Technical literacy is no longer enough. The ability to adapt, think critically, and make decisions in a fast-evolving environment is becoming the new entry-level skill set.
We’re already seeing today’s college grads caught in the crossfire of lagging pedagogy, facing bleak job prospects and career stalls as they enter a workforce that no longer needs them.
This shift puts legacy education models—from traditional colleges to workplace learning to trade schools to professional organizations—under real strain, with the MBA feeling it the most. As an alum of Harvard Business School, I know the impact an MBA can have, but today I feel it’s becoming increasingly obsolete; an AI could likely complete the program on my behalf if I enrolled today.
If education wants to remain viable for preparing entry-level workers, it must move faster. It needs to integrate AI directly into its curriculum, break from degree-based models, and become a flexible, lifelong learning platform that helps leaders not just manage companies, but reinvent them entirely.
[ Read More ]
What Caught Our Attention
NEWS AND RESOURCES
Sam & Jony introduce io (YouTube, OpenAI)
The Future of U.S. AI Leadership with CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei (YouTube, Council on Foreign Relations)
Anthropic Economic Index: AI’s Impact on Software Development (Anthropic)
Top Lean AI Native Companies Leaderboard
Cursor CEO: Going Beyond Code, Superintelligent AI Agents, And Why Taste Still Matters (YouTube, Y Combinator)
For more on what caught our attention just in the past week, check out David’s “This Week in AI and Cloud Software”. Read and subscribe here.
About the author
Roble Ventures is a future-of-work focused fund investing in technologies that enable people, teams, and organizations to achieve their most ambitious work.
