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- Yard Call - July '25
Yard Call - July '25
Two new commitments, and an inside look at how Daniel underwrites founders & opportunities
Ryan Mitchell & Daniel Dart
July 02, 2025
Coming to you the first Wednesday of every month the Yard Call is your monthly update on what we’re up to at Rock Yard Ventures — podcasts, perspectives, events, investments, you name it!
If you’re building something great or investing in the same spaces, reach out to Daniel or Ryan - we’d love to chat!
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This Month’s Headlines:
Welcoming — Sygaldry & Photonium!
We’re excited to announce our ninth and tenth commitments out of Fund I.
First, let’s talk about Sygaldry!
We’re incredibly excited to work with Chad Rigetti and Idalia Friedson and to support them as they build quantum-accelerated AI servers to exponentially speed up training and inference!
Curious to learn more about Sygaldry and the company’s vision? Watch Chad Rigetti’s Bloomberg interview below.
We’d also like to welcome Photonium to the Rock Yard family!
We’re thrilled to partner with Jennifer Song and Adam Mhatre as build a platform to automate the optomechanical workflow with AI for seamless concept-to-production-build.
Check it out below!
🚨If you have something you want featured next month — let us know!
{ EVENTS } ROCK YARD EVENTS Cool events, courtesy of the Rock Yard team! More info coming VERY soon! OTHER EVENTS Some other interesting stuff going on: Austin, TX New York, NY | { READS } Some good reads from the last month: For Founders |
New Blog Post — Underwriting Founders & Opportunities Part 1
Have you ever wondered how VCs assess founders and investment opportunities?
Check out the first installment of Daniel’s four-part blog series on Substack:
In this first installment Daniel talks about his approach for assessing founders, considering their background, character, adaptability, personal obsession, and learning practices — among other factors.
For Daniel, it’s not enough to have a great idea or resume, you need to have all the intangibles and strengths to help you persevere and win.
And don’t forget to subscribe HERE so you never miss a piece!
Spare Parts
Interesting odds and ends from the last month.
Where You Can Find Us
Here’s the latest info on where the team will be traveling in the coming months. If you’re around hit us up!
W/o July 20 / New York
Daniel will be in town for some events!
That’s it for now! ‘til next time.
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