Your Window Into the Innovation Economy

AI doesn’t just change interfaces — it rewrites cognition. The companies that embed into daily routines and earn behavioral lock-in will become the next category-defining platforms. This is our thesis on why experience ↔ behavior fit creates the modern moat.

In the world of venture capital, our reality is governed by a mathematical principle that defies the intuition of the broader financial markets: the Power Law. While traditional equity investors often cite the “80/20 rule,” venture capital operates on a far more extreme distribution, typically closer to 95/5.

This curated selection of 100 ventures from AV’s portfolio of over 1,600+ current and historical investments represents the names our 10 venture teams are most excited to spotlight. These companies were selected for their variety, innovative impact, performance, and upside potential.

Give innovation. We’re pleased to present our community with a selection of innovative products and services from some of our portfolio companies. We hope you and your loved ones enjoy a wonderful holiday season.

The Problem With the Story We’ve Been Sold Silicon Valley loves a certain image: the hoodie-wearing college dropout who changes the world before being allowed to rent car. There’s even a fellowship that pays kids under 23 to quit school and start companies. The message? Younger is better. Here’s the problem: it’s just not true. Middle-aged founders crush young ones when it comes to building high-growth companies — it’s not even close. And I’m one of them. At the age of 49, I started Alumni Ventures, recently valued as a unicorn.*

A 10th grader opens her phone after practice. For pennies a day, an AI tutor watches her solve two algebra steps, spots the exact misconception, and rewrites the next problem on the fly — no waiting, no shame, faster progress. Now put that next to the classroom we’ve known since 1925: one teacher, 30 students, one pace. That gap represents the once-in-a-century opportunity to rewire a $6 trillion global education and training market with AI. Alumni Ventures wants to invite you to be part of that opportunity. We’re launching the AV Education 2.0 Community & Syndicate so you can back the first winners across K‑12, higher‑ed, workforce, and language learning to take advantage of this AI revolution.

In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find that a petri dish of Staphylococcus cultures had been contaminated — an accident that led to the discovery of penicillin. Ninety years later, in 2018, Japanese scientists accidentally altered an enzyme and found it could break down plastic significantly faster. What connects these seemingly unrelated moments isn’t meticulous adherence to the scientific method. These “happy accidents” weren’t born from controlled, procedural experimentation. Instead, they reflect how scientific breakthroughs often emerge from veering off course, driven not by protocol, but by the curiosity, intuition, and creativity that define human discovery.