Dear reader,
In each issue we spotlight:
startups that are actually worth your attention,
break down what featured angels and investors are really looking for,
share events that are worth leaving your laptop
Oh, and because no good dealflow comes without a side of drama, expect a sprinkle of spicy tech tea to warm up.
Startup Spotlight: EasyAudit
One Line Pitch: EasyAudit helps companies achieve SOC 2 + ISO 27001 (and more) in half the time, using AI agents that generate the controls, policies, and evidence needed to get audit-ready fast.
Raising: $1.5M. Use of funds: scale to $5M ARR by EOY 2026; ship 100+ integrations (to increase switching costs); secure 10+ accelerator partnerships (YC, Techstars, LAUNCH, etc.)
Team: Christian Khoury (Co-Founder & CEO) | ex-Deloitte Risk Advisory; Aidan Slack-Watkins (Co-Founder & CTO) | previously founded VEITA.ai; deployed AI for clients with $1B+ ARR; Reuben Smith (Lead Engineer) | previously founded VEITA.ai; Luc Gaylie | Founding AE; Merisa Fourie | Customer Success; Tyson Graham | Head of GTM
Why yes: Real early revenue + mid-market ACVs, strong “replace a hire + shrink timeline” ROI story, and a credible lock-in strategy via integrations.
Why pause: This is a crowded category (Vanta/Drata/Thoropass/Secureframe/etc.). The make-or-break is whether “auto-generating evidence” consistently holds up under auditor scrutiny without turning into a services-heavy workflow—and whether they can win distribution against incumbents with massive brand power.
Link / Contact:1 Check out the deck or contact the founder here: [email protected] or +1(416)-276-2837
Interested in getting featured? Apply here.
Tech Tea:
AI-detection tools flagged the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence as over 95% “AI-generated,” fueling skepticism about how dependable these systems really are. The result quickly went viral online, with experts pointing out that the document’s structured, legal style mirrors the kind of formal, repetitive phrasing detectors often associate with large language models.
Doxing-As-A-Service is a new business model, offered by hackers to customers willing to pay for highly sensitive personal data held by tech companies in the United States. “This took all of 20 minutes,” Exempt, a member of the group that carried out the ploy, told WIRED.
More Perfect Union, working with Consumer Reports and the Groundwork Collaborative, ran a 5-month investigation into grocery pricing and uncovered a striking finding: Instacart is allegedly using AI to show different people different prices for the exact same items. Instacart says the price differences are just random experiments. But the reporting found a patent portfolio outlining sophisticated customer-segmentation techniques to ensure you pay as much as possible.
The opposite of #brainrot is #husband. The Washington post analyzed 121k videos to undestand what “kind of user” you are and what is being fed to you. You may never make it to the other side of TikTok but just so you know: the opposite of #trump is #barbie.
And yes, it finally happened. The Kardashians have been caught using AI-generated scenes in their show. That's “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" to completely humanless shows on TV/streaming platforms.
Featured Events in LA:
December 16, Mahjong, Mocktails & Menopause with Club Peridise Founder Annie Vovan, PharmD — We’ll gather for a casual sit-down dinner, guided conversation with me, and then we’ll have fun playing Mahjong. My events are meant to create new relationships and new possibilities for your life.
December 17, First Resonance × Topgolf: HardTech Mixer — Join us for a First Resonance evening designed to bring together LA’s HardTech, communities, all while enjoying games, networking, and good food at Topgolf El Segundo.
December 17, Startup Cafe: Venture Accelerator at UCLA Anderson — Trish Halamandaris returned to UCLA Anderson in 2017 as the Executive Director of the Venture Accelerator at UCLA Anderson to initiate and build the accelerator platform, programs, and strategic partnerships.
December 18, Rock the Machine — Join celebrity artists in an evening of classic rock and resistance. As big tech pillages content and rights, a few are standing up.
December 18, Community Holiday Celebration — This relaxed Christmas celebration brings together our Venture Building Program participants, SmartGateVC founders, investors, AESA members and supporters, STEM Community and the wider Hero House community for a cozy evening of connection and cheer.
Serendipity*:
I am putting together an VC/Investor Lounge event in February. Reach out if you’re interested in collaboration.
*Interested? Hit reply and I’ll connect you.
Reverse Pitch: Milessa Lowrie
Milessa is an Oregon Sports Angels member and a former U.S. diplomat
Thesis: Sports-focused investing, a clear bias toward sports-powered impact and founders who can navigate complex stakeholder ecosystems
Stage&Check: Seed / pre–Series A; Typical first check $100k–$1M.
Geography: U.S.
Contact: Best is a warm intro via OSA members/founders;
How he helps:
Milessa brings “hard-to-teach” leverage: real diplomatic experience (stakeholder wrangling, human-rights/policy lens), plus direct work with athletes/leagues on charitable and advocacy initiatives—useful if you’re selling into sports ecosystems or building sport-for-good rails.
Red flags: If you’re raising for any of the following, you’re likely wasting cycles with OSA (and by extension, with her OSA-driven filter): NFTs, teams/leagues/athletes, event-based businesses, or sports venues/physical locations. Also: non-US HQ.
Fast-pass: Sports product / experiential / tech with early traction (MVP or early revenue), seed or pre–Series A, and a crisp “why now.” Impact infrastructure in sports (fundraising + philanthropy tooling, athlete/community activation platforms, measurable social-good outcomes).
Notes: She’s explicitly described as an investor + board member of Pledge It (sport-powered fundraising) and is “looking forward to applying that experience to angel investing.” 2
Interested in getting featured? Fill out this form.
Featured Events U.S.-wide
SF
December 16, Built on Bedrock: Gen AI Trends & Predictions — Our panel of experts will cover the top trends of 2025 in Gen AI, including Agentic AI, as well as their predictions for 2026. Featuring Anamitra Banerji, Managing Director, Afore Capital; Barath Chari, Partner, Wilson Sonsini; Sam Lisowski, Sr GenAI Sales Leader, AWS
December 17, Forks & Folx + Unplug & Play Collective - Holiday Party! — Join Forks & Folx and Unplug & Play Collective for a very special holiday dinner collaboration to end the year the right way - in community and collaboration.
December 18, Convex Holiday Party and Sync-up — Come in your favorite fancy outfit or an ugly holiday sweater to the Convex Holiday Party. Sync with your favorite backend team as we prepare for the end-of-year holiday season.
NYC
December 16, For the Firsts: First Year Celebration — Expect an evening full of intentional conversation in an inviting space as you network with NYC’s most ambitious professionals and innovators.
December 16, NYC Holiday Builder Social (TON + AWS) — Join TON US Hub + AWS for a holiday networking party welcoming builders, founders, engineers, and projects into the growing TON Mini App ecosystem.
December 19, Founders & Investors Holiday Gala by Madeline & Co. × Light DAO (NYC) — The Light of Strategy is a night to connect with 150 of NYC's best innovators, the ones building differently, founders who lead with purpose, investors who play the long game, and artists who remind us why it all matters.
December 22, NYC B2B: AI Founders & Investors Meetup — NYC B2B is the premier community for B2B Founders, Operators, and Investors in NYC. NYC B2B often hosts happy hour events for founders, builders, and investors based in NYC.
Austin
December 17, Austin Hardtech & Austin Robotics: Joint Holiday Mixer @ Central Machine Works — The soft launch showed the appetite for this community, and we want to keep that momentum moving into the new year. Central Machine Works sits inside a converted machine shop, which makes it a fitting home for a night with founders, robotics teams, manufacturers, and partners who make physical goods.
December 19, Coffee + Coworking: Year-End Reset — Join us for our special Year-End Reset edition of Coffee + Coworking, an escape for founders looking for a productivity boost before the holidays.
December 18, Coffee Tasting w/Cold Cycle Coffee (founders) — This week, we've got an encore special edition of our founder coffee tasting. Monika, Sam and Bruce, the founders of Cold Cycle Coffee, are joining us.
Lingo of the Week — “etiquette school”
SF is buzzing with awkward interactions at events and Sam Lessin from Slow Ventures (open their landing page to see why) decided to do smth about it. They hosted a 3-hour etiquette course for techies. Basically teaching how to be a decent human “.. which includes basic communication skills like remembering to ask questions rather than droning on yourself”.
Aww. The adults are finally learning how to be adults.
1 Disclaimer: This newsletter is for information only and is not investment, financial, legal, or tax advice, nor an offer to buy or sell any security. Do your own research and consult a professional; you’re responsible for your decisions and past performance isn’t indicative of future results.
2 This reverse pitch is compiled from public sources (Forbes, Valkyrie’s site, and Beth’s own posts) and is not reviewed by Beth. Use it as a founder-oriented cheat sheet when deciding whether to reach out.
