Accel

"Think of any multibillion-dollar European tech company today, and it's likely Accel was involved in its inception." Thank you to Fortune and Ryan Hogg for featuring our Founder Factories report on the cover of your European edition—and for telling the story of Accel in Europe. Accel first opened its London office in 2000. It'd be another five years before Europe had its first unicorn exit with Skype. Back then, there were questions about whether the region would ever be able to build billion-dollar companies. Fast-forward to today, and the answer is a resounding yes. Europe and Israel are home to over 360 unicorns today, proving that the region is uniquely poised to cultivate exceptional companies. Our report, developed in partnership with Dealroom.co, demonstrates how this growth was driven by a phenomenon we call the "founder factory" effect. In essence: great companies beget great companies. You can read the whole report here: https://lnkd.in/eDv9mHJd

A proud moment for all of us at Accel as our partner, Prashanth Prakash, receives the Padma Shri award. Through his decades-long journey—from backing bold founders to shaping public policy—Prashanth has shown what it means to lead with vision, humility, and purpose. This honor recognizes not just his pioneering role in India’s startup ecosystem, but also his deep commitment to social good, climate action, and nation-building. Congratulations, Prashanth. Your work continues to inspire all of us in the #AccelFamily and beyond.

In my mid-20s, I walked out of the ER with nothing but a printout that said: “Follow up with a specialist.” I had no diagnosis, no answers, and no next steps. Just a laundry list of debilitating symptoms that were dismissed by a system that didn’t know what to do with someone like me. What I needed wasn’t more referrals — I needed a care model built for complexity. For root causes. For people who don’t fit neatly into a box. That’s why we built WellTheory. Today, I’m proud to share that we’ve raised $5M in new funding and launched our powerful AI platform — including our proprietary Care Hub and Care Scribe — that are changing the way autoimmune care is delivered. We’ve equipped our Care Team with tools that reduce admin time by 65%, surface personalized insights, and free them up to focus on what matters most: caring for patients. Because when you’re living with an autoimmune disease, care shouldn’t feel like another job. It should feel like someone’s finally in it with you. This next chapter is about scaling our impact across employers and health plans, and building the infrastructure autoimmune patients have always needed (and deserved). A warm welcome to our newest investors Samsung Next, Opal Ventures, and Up2 Opportunity Fund, and thank you to our longtime partners Accel, BoxGroup, and OVO Fund for continuing to believe in this mission. And thanks to Sindhya Valloppillil at Forbes for the thoughtful feature on what this next chapter means for WellTheory and for the future of personalized care for autoimmune disease. https://lnkd.in/ghCNsf-m

Last week, I spoke at SaaStr on a fireside chat with Accel's Sara Ittelson on how we grew Decagon from 0 to 7 figures in ARR in a year.   With Sara's experience at Uber, Faire, and Accel, we shared some great insights into what it takes to grow your brand efficiently.   Without giving too much away, here are some of the topics we touched on. 1. How to figure out what your customers really need If you don't take the time to know your customer, you'll never build a product people actually need. So, start with research before you build. Then do founder-led sales so you can be as close to your customers as possible. Finally, include continuous validation and iteration to make sure your product evolves with your customers' needs. 2. Why intentionality when building your team will make or break you Your team is everything. If you have the right people by your side, they'll understand your vision and push you in the right direction. Choose the right co-founder(s), be intentional about when you build your exec team (you may not need so many cooks in the kitchen at the start), and most importantly, don’t compromise on core principles. 3. How to build your product with speed and intentionality Execute everything you do with intention. That includes identifying whether to be in-office or not, your team structure, etc. Prioritize the right tasks aggressively and know your market (including the competition). This way, you'll know what to build, who's going to help you build it, and you can act quickly. Thank you Sara for joining me and thank you to SaaStr for having us!

Welcome to a Very Brief Short Report: (kinda) short listens on the biggest ideas in tech right now, from Accel’s Vas Natarajan and Sara Ittelson. This Week’s Five Takeaways: 1. The energy is snapping back to San Francisco. Tech talent dispersed during the pandemic. Lately, we're seeing an uptick in teams collaborating five days a week, right here in SF. 2. As switching costs ease, data becomes less of a moat. Portability is easier than ever. When platforms can quickly gather—and, more crucially, use LLMs to make sense of—enterprise data, businesses need to consider how else they can drive retention. The pain of migrating simply isn’t enough to get a contract renewed. 3. A lot of talented people are founding right now. It’s an exciting time to build, with AI lowering barriers to entry and powering rapid scale. It’s also more competitive than ever. A slick demo and a world-class team are the default assumptions—you need to bring an additional edge, like a distribution advantage or a discerning sense of taste. 4. Build vs. buy is coming to consumers. Enterprises with massive developer teams have always had the option to simply build custom solutions. Vibecoding gives end-users this option, too. 5. Creativity is in a moment of “IKEA-fication.” AI means everyone’s a medium-level creator. But there’s real hunger for products and experiences that feel deeply human. Make something that feeds people’s craving for connection and authenticity, and you can command a premium price point. 🔊 Listen to the whole episode in the links below!

🔥 The Truth About Netflix Culture: What You Won’t Find in the Slide Deck🔥 Here’s the thing about iconic cultures: They sound great in theory. They’re a lot harder in practice. On a live episode of the TruthWorks Podcast with Accel Ventures, Patty and I pulled back the curtain on what it really took to build and scale the Netflix culture — and how it doesn’t happen overnight. We talked about: ⚔️ The uncomfortable decisions 🧭 The leadership trade-offs 🚪 The freedom to leave — and interview 💡 And why, despite all of it, I’d still bet on freedom and trust any day! If you’ve ever wondered how much of the Netflix culture is hype… and how much holds up — this episode is for you. 🎙️ Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gcZZ2f2y And tell me: would you thrive in a culture like this? Patty McCord Peter Clarke Accel editaudio #TruthWorks #NetflixCulture #LeadershipWithoutFilters #Accel #leadership #TheRealStory #BuildTheFuture #scaling

It’s easy to get excited about product features. But when you dive straight into the weeds on your demo calls and don’t share the larger narrative—why you built this and why it matters—you miss what makes customers care enough to buy. Tines co-founder and CEO Eoin Hinchy’s advice to other founders: invest in telling your story from day one. In our latest episode of Spotlight On, Eoin chats with Luca Bocchio about: why Tines leaned into design and CX from day one, staying open-minded about how customers use your product, and hiring to complement your strengths and weaknesses as a founder. Full episode here: https://lnkd.in/e9zfWgHQ

Data can no longer be your only moat. Ten years ago, the switching costs from one product to another were so high that customers were locked in for the long haul– even as they sometimes grew dissatisfied with the product itself. The cost and time to switch products are rapidly eroding. How should companies compete now? According to Supabase's Paul Copplestone: embrace data portability. 💡 His rationale: continually competing for their customers forces them to deliver a better overall product. Check out our latest episode of Spotlight On, featuring Paul chatting with Accel partners Arun Mathew and Gonzalo Mocorrea about: ➡️ How they manage a fully distributed team with one meeting a week ➡️ How to avoid the trap of "playing startup" ➡️ The fact that, yes, they did name their company after a Nicki Minaj song Full episode here: https://lnkd.in/e4fsXGPt

3D character animation, now as easy as an upload thanks to Jonathan Jarvis and the Cartwheel team. https://lnkd.in/eFuP7Gyf

You’ve trusted us to make quoting and spreadsheeting easier, faster, and more collaborative. Today, we’re bringing that same power to the most complex part of placement. Medical is now live on ThreeFlow. Built for brokers and carriers, designed to simplify the complexity of quoting and presenting fully-insured medical for mid-to-large markets. No more tedious workflows. No more manual data entry. Just faster, smarter, and seamless quoting. Discover fully-insured medical on ThreeFlow: https://lnkd.in/gX2PRbvx #BenefitsPlacement #PlacementMadeEasy