# agentsite-static-version=020d9687-3d8c-4f8f-a3e2-7770d0b3ee35
# work-bench.com

> AI-optimized mirror of work-bench.com containing 239 pages totalling 190,758 words of clean markdown content, structured data, and semantic HTML. Original source: https://work-bench.com. Last updated: 2026-10-15T08:21:45.125Z.

Each page is available as HTML (with JSON-LD structured data) and Markdown (text-only, ideal for LLMs and RAG).

## Homepage

- [Work-Bench | NYC’s B2B seed fund for founders with enterprise ambitions](/content/site-root.html): Work-Bench is New York’s B2B software seed fund, backing the founders building the next generation of applied AI and infrastructure software. (434 words)

## Articles & Blog Posts

- [Work-Bench | Pre-Product Market Fit: What It Means to Ideate & Validate an Enterprise-Ready Product](/content/post/pre-product-market-fit-what-it-means-to-ideate-validate-an-enterprise-ready-product.html): As Seed-stage investors at Work-Bench, the startups that we source, invest in, and support have not yet reached PMF - the point at which they have multiple paying customers who love their product and a consistency in growth. (1,645 words)
- [Work-Bench | Distilling The Composable Data Management System Manifesto](/content/post/distilling-the-composable-data-management-system-manifesto.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source on April 18th, 2024, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. Subscribe here! (851 words)
- [Work-Bench | GTM Tactics You Need To Scale in Marketing, Sales, Product & Professional Services](/content/post/next-nyc-gtm-tactics-you-need-to-scale-across-marketing-sales-product-professional-services.html): We wanted to get into the nitty gritty GTM tactics these operators have used and proved-out on their journeys to scaling successful enterprise startups. (2,262 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Defining AI Security Company Is Still Up For Grabs](/content/post/the-defining-ai-security-company-is-still-up-for-grabs.html) (1,322 words)
- [Work-Bench | Application Automation: The Past, Present and Future](/content/post/application-automation-the-past-present-and-future/index.html): The world of automation is rapidly evolving. Recent advancements in AI are fundamentally changing the way we work, and have already instilled new behaviors and expectations for enterprise-grade products. (2,276 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Rise of the Agent Runtime](/content/post/the-rise-of-the-agent-runtime/index.html) (3,535 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Sales Playbook That Turbocharged Outreach from $0 to $200M ARR](/content/post/the-sales-playbook-that-turbocharged-outreach-from-0-to-200m-arr.html): Our November NY Enterprise Tech Meetup focused on a topic we’re particularly passionate about at Work-Bench: enterprise sales and go-to-market tactics. (1,383 words)
- [Work-Bench | Rewriting Infrastructure Primitives for Agents](/content/post/rewriting-infrastructure-primitives-for-agents/index.html) (1,820 words)
- [Work-Bench | July NY Enterprise Tech Meetup: 6 Lessons on Building in an AI-Everything Era](/content/post/enterprise-ai-lessons-graphite-superblocks/index.html) (1,693 words)
- [Work-Bench | Seed Investor Models: Incentives & Biases Exposed](/content/post/seed-investor-models-incentives-biases-exposed/index.html): With Y Combinator Demo Day upon us, ‘tis the season of $2M on $20M cap SAFEs. While many investors have been vocal against such raises, YC Partners generally stand by them and even YC founder Paul Graham is vocal with his defense. (1,544 words)
- [Work-Bench | Software Observability and Debugging](/content/post/software-observability-and-debugging/index.html): The market for software observability and debugging continues to evolve owing to the range of tools and modern technologies that are re-thinking how it can be done reliably. (1,744 words)
- [Work-Bench | The NY Enterprise Tech Meetup Turns 10!](/content/post/the-ny-enterprise-tech-meetup-turns-10/index.html): It happened in the blink of an eye — the NY Enterprise Tech Meetup (NYETM) has turned 10 years old. (1,648 words)
- [Work-Bench | Applied AI and the LLM Adoption Curve](/content/post/applied-ai-and-the-llm-adoption-curve/index.html): There are two ongoing, but divergent trends afoot in enterprise software that are taking up a lot of airspace for companies building in Applied AI, and while these trends might not be so different from how software companies have historically been founded, they feel more palpable today than ever before. (1,305 words)
- [Work-Bench | Security For Enterprise Startups To Scale & Sell](/content/post/security-for-enterprise-startups-to-scale-sell/index.html): In this post, I set up useful guardrails that early stage (Series A or earlier) startups should consider when building their security programs that I’ve gathered from experts in the security community and elsewhere. (1,404 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Agentic Systems – October & November 2025](/content/post/the-state-of-agentic-systems-october-november-2025/index.html) (884 words)
- [Work-Bench | Opportunities in Data Centers & Next-Gen Networking](/content/post/opportunities-in-data-centers-next-gen-networking/index.html): Recently, Zac and I have been exploring areas where venture scale opportunities could emerge in next-gen networking and infrastructure. So, we brought together a group of founders, data center developers, energy brokers, server providers, and Fortune 500 customers to discuss ideas and trends shaping the industry. (1,104 words)
- [Work-Bench | Next NYC Spotlight: Selling an Open-Ended Product](/content/post/next-nyc-spotlight-selling-an-open-ended-product/index.html): Retool was designed around the belief that software has been built the same way for the last two to three decades, requiring specialized training and expertise from developers. (993 words)
- [Work-Bench | Systems of Action: The Next Era of Software](/content/post/systems-of-action-the-next-era-of-software/index.html) (1,098 words)
- [Work-Bench | Mastering Open-Source GTM with Vercel, Grafana, and Apollo GraphQL](/content/post/mastering-open-source-gtm-with-vercel-grafana-and-apollo-graphql.html): In an era where many companies use open source as a foundation to win over the developer community, nailing a go-to-market strategy that monetizes a product is important to successfully scale the business. (975 words)
- [Work-Bench | Optimizing Log Costs](/content/post/optimizing-log-costs/index.html): With growing concern around conserving budget, tech teams are identifying their largest areas of spend and how best to optimize their stack. (1,341 words)
- [Work-Bench | Engineering BYOC: Enterprise Startups Share Their Playbooks](/content/post/engineering-byoc-enterprise-startups-share-their-playbooks.html): In this interview series, we dive into how enterprise software companies approach Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) deployments. (1,690 words)
- [Work-Bench | Open Source Playbook: Proven Monetization Strategies](/content/post/open-source-playbook-proven-monetization-strategies.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. (729 words)
- [Work-Bench | Enterprise Startup Founder Survival Guide with David Politis, Founder of BetterCloud](/content/post/enterprise-startup-founder-survival-guide-with-david-politis-founder-of-bettercloud.html): We first met David Politis, Founder and former CEO of BetterCloud, over 10 years ago at our NY Enterprise Meetup. Fast forward and he took the very same stage at our recent meetup to talk through his top, hard-learned lessons. (1,551 words)
- [Work-Bench | Generative AI’s Path to Enterprise Adoption](/content/post/generative-ais-path-to-enterprise-adoption/index.html): Over the past year, we’ve seen the hype cycle of Generative AI takeover. For many founders, Large Language Models (LLMs) have removed the barrier to experimenting with ML workflows, making it easier than ever to hack together a prototype and get started. (1,697 words)
- [Work-Bench | Scaling Product from 0 to IPO with Kevin Wang, CPO of Braze](/content/post/scaling-product-from-0-to-ipo-with-kevin-wang-cpo-of-braze.html): Our April NY Enterprise Tech Meetup (#NYETM) featured a fireside chat with Kevin Wang, Chief Product Officer at enterprise Saas customer engagement platform Braze. (1,130 words)
- [Work-Bench | Scaling from 1 to 10 to 50 Customers: Lessons from Okta CEO Todd McKinnon](/content/post/scaling-from-1-to-10-to-50-customers-lessons-from-okta-ceo-todd-mckinnon.html): A new year means 9 full years of hosting the NY Enterprise Tech Meetup (NYETM) and a new epic lineup of 2021 speakers. (1,017 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Founder Spotlight: AuthZed Co-Founder & CEO Jake Moshenko on Building for Developers](/content/post/work-bench-founder-spotlight-authzed-co-founder-ceo-jake-moshenko-on-building-for-developers.html): AuthZed is a true story of the Work-Bench community coming full circle. (845 words)
- [Work-Bench | Insurance’s AI Moment](/content/post/insurances-ai-moment/index.html) (1,138 words)
- [Work-Bench | Cloud Infrastructure: Articles I'm Reading This Week](/content/post/cloud-infrastructure-articles-im-reading-this-week/index.html): In this post, GitHub embraces Copilot, a move that acknowledges AI's transformative impact on developer workflows. AWS introduces S3 Express One Zone, targeting startups with promises of reduced latency over costs. (983 words)
- [Work-Bench | 🌎 Mapping out the Future of Compute](/content/post/mapping-out-the-future-of-compute/index.html) (1,241 words)
- [Work-Bench | Our Investment in Prequel](/content/post/our-investment-in-prequel/index.html): When we first met Lyndon Brown and Tony Meehan, the co-founders of Prequel, we knew their passion for solving real-world problems in software reliability was palpable, and their deep expertise was one of a kind. (978 words)
- [Work-Bench | Enterprise Tech Operator Masterclass: How to Launch a Demand Gen Campaign on a Seed Dime](/content/post/enterprise-tech-operator-masterclass-how-to-launch-a-demand-gen-campaign-on-a-seed-dime.html): We’re excited to introduce our new event series brought to you by our NY Enterprise Tech Meetup — the Enterprise Operator Masterclass! (1,630 words)
- [Work-Bench | Why NYC Enterprise Software Is Stronger Than Ever: 2024 NYC Enterprise Operators Retreat Recap](/content/post/why-nyc-enterprise-software-is-stronger-than-ever-2024-nyc-enterprise-operators-retreat-recap.html): At Work-Bench, our dedication to community is at the heart and soul of everything we do as enterprise software investors. (503 words)
- [Work-Bench | Foundation Models & the Path to Enterprise Adoption](/content/post/foundation-models-the-path-to-enterprise-adoption/index.html): One of the investment themes I’ve been researching has been around the applicability of foundation models for a wide variety of tasks and the opportunity that it represents for the enterprise. (1,398 words)
- [Work-Bench | #Infrasummer: Highlights From Our Best Summer Yet](/content/post/infrasummer-highlights-from-our-best-summer-yet/index.html): Inspired by the Developer Tooling and Infrastructure boom in NYC this past decade and our continued search for the next generation of startups in the space, we hosted what we called “Infrasummer,” a summer blitz of themed events and content. (511 words)
- [Work-Bench | Living Up to the Hype: How To Enable Hypergrowth with PLG with Snyk, MongoDB, Elemental & Pace](/content/post/living-up-to-the-hype-how-to-enable-hypergrowth-with-plg-with-snyk-mongodb-elemental-pace.html): After 2 years of virtual Meetups, we finally closed out of Zoom and got back to action at our first IRL NY Enterprise Tech Meetup since the pandemic! (1,044 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Founder Spotlight: RippleMatch’s Andrew Myers on Redefining Hiring](/content/post/work-bench-founder-spotlight-ripplematchs-andrew-myers-on-redefining-hiring.html): Early career hiring is a pain point that most of us have felt first hand (or will feel) at some point in our lifetime. (1,234 words)
- [Work-Bench | Apache Arrow DataFusion - A Primer](/content/post/apache-arrow-datafusion-a-primer/index.html): Apache Arrow DataFusion is a query engine built by Andy Grove, designed for building robust data-centric systems. Developed in Rust, a language known for its performance and memory safety, DataFusion serves as a foundational component for processing extensive datasets. (686 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Create a Predictable Top-of-Funnel Engine for Growth](/content/post/how-to-create-a-predictable-top-of-funnel-engine-for-growth.html): As Seed-stage enterprise software investors, we’ve seen time and time again early-stage teams focus all of their time and energy on moving prospects down the funnel that, when they finally come up for air, they find their top-of-funnel pipeline has dried up. (956 words)
- [Work-Bench | Security Dashboards For Everyone Else](/content/post/security-dashboards-for-everyone-else/index.html): As ransomware and major vulnerabilities run rampant, security has remained a high priority for organizations even during the recent downturn. (994 words)
- [Work-Bench | PLG & the Evolving SaaS Billing & Pricing Infrastructure 🌊](/content/post/plg-the-evolving-saas-billing-pricing-infrastructure.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. Subscribe here and never miss an issue! (808 words)
- [Work-Bench | Chronosphere: Founding Story with CEO Martin Mao](/content/post/chronosphere-founding-story-with-ceo-martin-mao/index.html): Chronosphere is a cloud-native observability platform designed for devops teams operating in a cloud native world. (1,596 words)
- [Work-Bench | How To Build a Hand of “Defensible Cards” To Set Your GTM Apart](/content/post/how-to-build-a-hand-of-defensible-cards-to-set-your-gtm-apart.html): While enterprise buyers continue to be under intense scrutiny, early-stage enterprise startups have held a relentless commitment to navigating this demanding landscape. (1,532 words)
- [Work-Bench | How Ramp & Figma Built World-Class Products](/content/post/how-ramp-figma-built-world-class-products/index.html): Our November NY Enterprise Tech Meetup (#NYETM) took a behind-the-scenes, real talk look at how Ramp and Figma have become such product powerhouse, generational companies. (1,155 words)
- [Work-Bench | Modern Data Warehouses Expanding Horizons for New Data Architectures](/content/post/modern-data-warehouses-expanding-horizons-for-new-data-architectures.html): The movement towards real-time streaming infrastructures is finally crystalizing. In the last 3 years alone, I’ve observed a growing number of startups and products... (916 words)
- [Work-Bench | Building with Serverless: A 2022 Review](/content/post/building-with-serverless-a-2022-review/index.html): For this article, we’re defining “serverless” as an application built using a suite of managed deployment and infrastructure services from a cloud provider like AWS, GCP, or Azure. Our focus is on truly serverless deployments that use some combination of the following. (1,985 words)
- [Work-Bench | Uncovering the Top Challenges and Opportunities in CI/CD](/content/post/uncovering-the-top-challenges-and-opportunities-in-ci-cd.html): A core area that we track at Work-Bench is the adoption of DevOps and what the transition looks like in practice for large enterprises. (996 words)
- [Work-Bench | Decoding Product-Led Growth: Top Tactics To Master the User’s Product Journey from GitLab, Figma & Airtable](/content/post/decoding-product-led-growth-top-tactics-to-master-the-users-product-journey-from-gitlab-figma-airtable.html): Fall has officially arrived and we kicked off the season with an NY Enterprise Tech Meetup talking about a go-to-market motion making more noise in the enterprise sales world than ever before: Product-Led Growth (PLG). (1,028 words)
- [Work-Bench | #LFGNYC2022! 125 NYC Enterprise Operators, 10 Tactical Talks, 1 Epic Day](/content/post/lfgnyc2022-125-nyc-enterprise-operators-10-tactical-talks-1-epic-day.html): As enterprise software investors at Work-Bench, community is deep in our DNA. For the past 9+ years, we have been building a center of gravity for all things enterprise in New York City. (420 words)
- [Work-Bench | 6 Tactics on How to Fuse Product & Enterprise Sales for PLG Success](/content/post/6-tactics-on-how-to-fuse-product-enterprise-sales-for-plg-success.html): At Work-Bench, we know customers are like oxygen for early-stage startups. (1,756 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Spotlight: Kelley Mak on Building Customer Trust](/content/post/work-bench-spotlight-kelley-mak-on-building-customer-trust.html): Given “business development” is such a trendy buzzword in the VC industry these days, we wanted to hear how Kelley differentiates and leverages a customer engagement strategy beyond transactional BD for better pre- and post-investment support at Work-Bench. (752 words)
- [Work-Bench | RippleMatch Raises $23.5M to Fuel Early Career Recruiting Platform](/content/post/ripplematch-raises-23-5m-to-fuel-early-career-recruiting-platform.html): I am thrilled to announce that our Work-Bench portfolio company RippleMatch has raised a $23.5M funding round led by Invus Opportunities. (573 words)
- [Work-Bench | Courier Health Raises $50M Series B from Oak HC/FT](/content/post/courier-health-raises-50m-series-b-from-oak-hc-ft/index.html) (1,225 words)
- [Work-Bench | Data Science Notebooks & the Opportunity Ahead 📓](/content/post/data-science-notebooks-the-opportunity-ahead/index.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. Subscribe here and never miss an issue! (1,113 words)
- [Work-Bench | Fundraising Milestones To Cross the Seed to Series A Chasm in Application Software](/content/post/fundraising-milestones-to-cross-the-seed-to-series-a-chasm-in-application-software.html): At Work-Bench, we are laser focused on investing in the top enterprise software startups at the earliest stage and working with them to grow into the category defining companies of tomorrow. (957 words)
- [Work-Bench | Startup Marketing from $0 to $100M in ARR with Jeff Yoshimura, CMO & Chief Experience Officer at Snyk](/content/post/startup-marketing-from-0-to-100m-in-arr-with-jeff-yoshimura-cmo-chief-experience-officer-at-snyk.html): This month, we were excited to host Jeff Yoshimura for a keynote at our NY Enterprise Tech Meetup. (586 words)
- [Work-Bench | Dear Enterprise Startups, Not All Customer Intros Are Equal](/content/post/dear-enterprise-startups-not-all-customer-intros-are-equal.html): These Are the Doors You Should be Knocking On (852 words)
- [Work-Bench | GovWell Raises $25M Series A From Insight Partners](/content/post/govwell-raises-25m-series-a/index.html) (948 words)
- [Work-Bench | Data & Distributed Ecosystems: Articles I’m Reading This Week](/content/post/data-distributed-ecosystems-articles-im-reading-this-week.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source on November 17th, 2023, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. Subscribe here! (712 words)
- [Work-Bench | Signals From Exceptional Founders](/content/post/signals-from-exceptional-founders/index.html): In the past six months, Work-Bench has met with hundreds of founders and pre-founders building in enterprise software, SaaS, Developer Tools and Infrastructure at the Seed stage or earlier. (347 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench 2022 Community & Events Roadmap](/content/post/work-bench-2022-community-events-roadmap/index.html): Community has been rooted in the Work-Bench DNA from day 1 and for years that meant in-person events in NYC. (728 words)
- [Work-Bench | Transforming Data Manipulation in Python Through the Convergence of SQL and DataFrames](/content/post/transforming-data-manipulation-in-python-through-the-convergence-of-sql-and-dataframes.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. (734 words)
- [Work-Bench | Platform Engineering – An Idea Whose Time Has Come In Enterprise Data Operations](/content/post/platform-engineering-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-in-enterprise-data-operations.html): “CIO Perspectives” is a white paper series by Mark Settle that explores top-of-mind technical issues confronting today’s IT leaders. Mark is a seven-time CIO, a three-time CIO 100 award winner, and a two-time book author. (333 words)
- [Work-Bench | Introducing cofounders.nyc: The best way to meet your NYC-based cofounder & early team members](/content/post/introducing-cofounders-nyc/index.html): The city’s become the second-largest tech hub in the US thanks to IPOs from companies like Datadog, MongoDB, AppNexus, Braze, and more while a number of Unicorn startups and tech-enabled Fortune 500s call NYC home. (364 words)
- [Work-Bench | How Should Enterprise Startups Navigate Today’s Changing Seed World?](/content/post/how-should-enterprise-startups-navigate-todays-changing-seed-world.html): As the late stage investing landscape becomes more and more chaotic, the battleground for VCs has largely shifted to early stage. Today, there’s more institutional capital than ever chasing Series A’s from firms like Tiger Global and Insight Partners in addition to traditional Silicon Valley VCs. (1,099 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Real AI Opportunity in Financial Services](/content/post/the-real-ai-opportunity-in-financial-services/index.html): Much like the internet, the PC, and the semiconductor, AI is too consequential to stay confined to one sector. Every industry will look measurably different in ten years, and AI will deserve much of the credit. (942 words)
- [Work-Bench | Not All Software Is Created Equal](/content/post/not-all-software-is-created-equal/index.html) (2,279 words)
- [Work-Bench | ​​Highlights From Our 2023 Womenterprise Summit](/content/post/highlights-from-our-2023-womenterprise-summit/index.html): We recently returned with our iconic Womenterprise Summit - the only conference exclusively dedicated to celebrating women in enterprise software! (511 words)
- [Work-Bench | Join Our Growing Team as a Researcher](/content/post/join-our-growing-team-as-a-researcher/index.html): We are searching for an endlessly curious mind who lives and breathes enterprise technology. Someone who looks at a new developer tool and immediately wants to understand how it fits into the broader ecosystem. (667 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Elevate Your Enterprise Event Strategy](/content/post/how-to-elevate-your-enterprise-event-strategy/index.html): As we step into 2025, one of the most critical aspects of annual planning for enterprise software startups is mapping out a successful events strategy. With the rapid evolution of marketing trends and tools, what does a high-impact event look like in the year ahead? (618 words)
- [Work-Bench | How To Price Your Product at Seed](/content/post/how-to-price-your-product-at-seed/index.html): As Seed-stage enterprise software investors, go-to-market is the #1 thing we work with our portfolio on day in and day out. Early-stage founders often dedicate significant time to the development of their company, such as product roadmap development, achieving product-market fit, and defining sales motions. (578 words)
- [Work-Bench | Next NYC Spotlight: Marketing for Marketers](/content/post/next-nyc-spotlight-marketing-for-marketers/index.html): While many naysayers will tell you that focusing on weekly goals can bog you down in the weeds and make you lose sight of long-term goals, Ryan quickly learned that “the person who hits the weekly target, hits the quarterly target, and so on.” (893 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to build a scalable customer acquisition system](/content/playbooks/how-to-build-a-scalable-customer-acquisition-system.html): This Enterprise Playbook outlines how to build out an early Marketing function, including how to build a customer acquisition “system,” scale it over time, and then measure success that aligns with weekly revenue goals. (108 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Best Prepare an Enterprise Sales Pipeline Review for Your Investors](/content/post/how-to-best-prepare-an-enterprise-sales-pipeline-review-for-your-investors.html): As enterprise investors here at Work-Bench, investing at Seed II stage, we are obsessed with all things go-to-market and working alongside our founders to refine their early GTM and sales engine. (549 words)
- [Work-Bench | Hiring Strategy for your First Sales Hire](/content/playbooks/hiring-strategy-for-your-first-sales-hire/index.html): Define a successful hiring strategy beyond founder-led sales with our First Sales Hiring Playbook. We outline best practices for compensation, sourcing, and candidate assessments for BDRs. (85 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to build a value-based calculator](/content/playbooks/how-to-build-a-value-based-calculator/index.html): Our Value-Based Pricing Calculator creates a structured process to calculate your ROI and thus pricing, so that your sales team is set up to be confident in how they articulate value to customers and quote a contract value to prospects. (46 words)
- [Work-Bench | COVID-19 Edition](/content/playbooks/covid-19-edition/index.html): Our tactical COVID-19 Sales Guide pulls together top resources and serves as a starting point for sales teams trying to answer: “How do we think about enterprise sales during the pandemic?” (33 words)
- [Work-Bench | Community Strategies to Grow Open-Source Businesses](/content/playbooks/community-strategies-to-grow-open-source-businesses.html): Building an open-source business requires founders to become familiar with their target developer ecosystem, spread awareness, and cultivate a community. This Playbook outlines 3 proven community strategies to grow an open-source business. (38 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Key to Leveraging Founders’ Deep Domain Expertise](/content/post/the-key-to-leveraging-founders-deep-domain-expertise.html): There is a great line about exceptional founders that resonates with who we invest in at Work-Bench: “This person has thought about this problem more than anyone else.” (531 words)
- [Work-Bench | Chamelio Raises $26M Series A From Entrée Capital](/content/post/chamelio-raises-26m-series-a-from-entree-capital/index.html) (386 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Built AI](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-built-ai/index.html) (858 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Build a Scalable Customer Acquisition System](/content/post/how-to-build-a-scalable-customer-acquisition-system.html): Marketing is often seen as a black box. With endless channels to tackle (content, events, outbound emails, and ads, to name a few), where should early-stage enterprise startups even begin? (266 words)
- [Work-Bench | 3 Acts of Growth: Lessons, Patterns & Mistakes from a 3x Entrepreneur](/content/post/3-acts-of-growth-lessons-patterns-mistakes-from-a-3x-entrepreneur.html): The founder journey typically comprises of conquering product-market fit, go-to-market fit, and then scaling. (1,613 words)
- [Work-Bench | A Primer on Detection Engineering](/content/post/a-primer-on-detection-engineering/index.html): Security has always been top of mind for infrastructure leaders and 2023 is no different. Cyber threats are becoming more complex and sophisticated, with an increasing number of attack vectors. (1,249 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 2H 2020 Funding Report](/content/post/the-state-of-enterprise-tech-in-nyc-2h-2020-funding-report.html): We’ve been investing in enterprise tech startups since our launch in 2013 and for the past several years, we’ve been tracking our local NYC enterprise ecosystem’s growth. (343 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Runhouse](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-runhouse/index.html) (1,020 words)
- [Work-Bench | Next NYC Spotlight: Determining Hex’s Flavor of PLG](/content/post/next-nyc-spotlight-determining-hexs-flavor-of-plg/index.html): Despite recent advancements in the modern data stack, data work is still fragmented across tools and stakeholders. Recognizing this gap in 2019, Hex was built as a data science and analytics collaboration platform to better serve this need. (1,511 words)
- [Work-Bench | An Ode To Operators: Introducing Work-Bench's Next NYC Network](/content/post/an-ode-to-operators-introducing-the-work-benchs-next-nyc-network.html): As an enterprise software VC firm, our mission has always been to find, fund, and support game-changing enterprise software founders, at the earliest stage. (243 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Petra Labs](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-petra-labs/index.html) (958 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in Streamdal](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-streamdal/index.html): We’re excited to announce that we led Streamdal’s $5.4M Seed round with participation from Crosscut Ventures and Verissimo Ventures. (942 words)
- [Work-Bench | Programmable Compute, the Next Big Thing in ML Infrastructure?](/content/post/programmable-compute-the-next-big-thing-in-ml-infrastructure.html): The data and machine learning landscape has transformed over the past five years. With cloud data warehouses like Snowflake and Databricks revolutionizing the management of data across distributed systems... (1,731 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Flock AI](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-flock-ai/index.html) (1,141 words)
- [Work-Bench | CloudQuery Raises $16M in Fresh Funding](/content/post/cloudquery-raises-16m-in-fresh-funding/index.html): We're thrilled to announce that CloudQuery has raised a $16M funding round led by Partech. (256 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Spring Health](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-spring-health/index.html): We’re excited to announce Work-Bench’s investment in Spring Health’s $6M raise alongside a top group of investors including Rethink Impact, BBG Ventures, and the Partnership Fund for New York City. (818 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 1H 2022 Funding Report](/content/post/the-state-of-enterprise-tech-in-nyc-1h-2022-funding-report.html): We’ve been investing in enterprise tech startups for nearly a decade now and for the past several years, we’ve been tracking the local NYC enterprise ecosystem’s growth through a series of Enterprise Tech in NYC Funding Reports. (242 words)
- [Work-Bench | Digital Wake Management](/content/post/digital-wake-management/index.html): ‍Digital Wake Management (DWM) is a concerted effort to discover and delete personal information (PI) scattered across the Internet. It’s an ongoing exercise in digital hygiene designed to eliminate information that no longer serves a useful purpose or is inaccurate, whether such information was knowingly shared or created by third parties without an individual’s consent. (443 words)
- [Work-Bench | From Augmentation to Automation: How AI Is Reshaping Work and Creating New Opportunities to Build](/content/post/from-augmentation-to-automation-how-ai-is-reshaping-work-and-creating-new-opportunities-to-build.html) (1,031 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Pace](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-pace/index.html): We’re excited to announce our investment in Pace’s $5M Seed round, alongside AlleyCorp, and other great angel investors. (901 words)
- [Work-Bench | Next NYC Spotlight: A PM’s Journey UpMarket](/content/post/next-nyc-spotlight-a-pms-journey-upmarket/index.html): We caught up with Sanjay Padval, Group Product Manager at Vanta, who has been a part of the team since 2021 to get his perspective on what this journey has been like building and scaling products from startups all the way to enterprise customers. (1,212 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Work-Bench’s CEO-in-Residence: David Politis](/content/post/announcing-work-benchs-ceo-in-residence-david-politis.html): It is with tremendous excitement that we share the newest addition to our Work-Bench team: David Politis, as CEO-in-Residence. Please join us in welcoming David to the Work-Bench team! (486 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Chamelio](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-chamelio/index.html) (1,056 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in Pronto](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-pronto/index.html): The Future of Ecosystem Management (703 words)
- [Work-Bench | Re-Imagining the Next Generation of Workplace Collaboration Tools](/content/post/re-imagining-the-next-generation-of-workplace-collaboration-tools.html): “CIO Perspectives” is a white paper series by Mark Settle that explores the top-of-mind technical issues confronting today’s CIOs and IT leaders. (459 words)
- [Work-Bench | Next NYC Spotlight: Building a World-Class Sales Team](/content/post/next-nyc-spotlight-building-a-world-class-sales-team.html): In 2018, Persona entered the game to become the identity layer of the internet. While they’ve been continuously expanding their talent and improving the product, it’s been imperative for the team to refine their GTM. (657 words)
- [Work-Bench | Founder <> VC User Manual](/content/playbooks/founder-vc-user-manual/index.html): This Q&A document is designed to help teams learn (and appreciate) the quirks of each individual, including how to best encourage them, provide feedback, etc., in order to accelerate collaboration. (35 words)
- [Work-Bench | 7 Pre-Seed Enterprise VC Firms Led by Women](/content/post/7-pre-seed-enterprise-vc-firms-led-by-women/index.html): As enterprise Seed investors at Work-Bench, we continue to forge a path for women in enterprise software. In honor of Women’s History Month this March, we’re excited to highlight seven Pre-Seed firms led by women and investing in the earliest stages of enterprise and SaaS startups. (680 words)
- [Work-Bench | 3 Proven Community Strategies to Grow Open Source Businesses](/content/post/3-proven-community-strategies-to-grow-open-source-businesses.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. Subscribe here and never miss an issue! (1,511 words)
- [Work-Bench | Breaking the 5% Ceiling: 17 Female Enterprise Founders Who Have Raised a Series B](/content/post/breaking-the-5-ceiling-17-female-enterprise-founders-who-have-raised-a-series-b.html): Happy International Women’s Day! There is a lot to celebrate today as more efforts, organizations, platforms, and networks exist than ever before in supporting female entrepreneurs and founders, and dedicated to enacting change and inclusivity for the VC and tech ecosystem. (867 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in ShiftRx](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-shiftrx/index.html): We’re excited to announce that Work-Bench led ShiftRx’s $3.5M Seed Round, with participation from Inflect, Tau, and Opal Ventures to further their mission of building an AI Healthcare Staffing Platform. (709 words)
- [Work-Bench | Experiments To Find a Winning Developer Acquisition Strategy](/content/playbooks/experiments-to-find-a-winning-developer-acquisition-strategy.html) (8 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Snapshot: Areas Primed for Opportunity in Procurement](/content/post/work-bench-snapshot-areas-primed-for-opportunity-in-procurement.html): The Work-Bench Snapshot Series explores a particular topic we’re digging into from an investment standpoint. (738 words)
- [Work-Bench | Catalyst Merges with Totango](/content/post/catalyst-merges-with-totango/index.html): We’re excited to announce that our portfolio company and the leading customer growth platform Catalyst has merged with a top enterprise customer success software Totango to build a next-generation customer success powerhouse that revolutionizes the post-sales motion! (204 words)
- [Work-Bench | How To Handle VC Inbound After Raising A Seed Round](/content/playbooks/how-to-handle-vc-inbound-after-raising-a-seed-round.html) (10 words)
- [Work-Bench | Integration, Not Output: What Practitioners Are Saying About AI in Construction](/content/post/integration-not-output-what-practitioners-are-saying-about-ai-in-construction.html) (586 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of FSI Compliance](/content/post/the-state-of-fsi-compliance/index.html): Over the past few years, Financial Services Institutions (FSIs) have undergone a significant transformation in compliance and risk management. (1,838 words)
- [Work-Bench | Better Products Don't Always Win: How To Package & Distribute For a Competitive Edge](/content/post/better-products-dont-always-win-how-to-package-distribute-for-a-competitive-edge.html): Founders often tell us they're just a few features away from outpacing their competitors. However, our “not-hot-take hot-take” is that features alone usually aren't enough to secure competitive enterprise deals. (330 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment In Common Fate](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-common-fate/index.html): We’re excited to announce our investment in Common Fate’s $3.1M Seed round, alongside Haystack and Essence VC. (620 words)
- [Work-Bench | 3 GTM Tactics Every Enterprise Founder Needs To Survive Today’s Market](/content/post/3-gtm-tactics-every-enterprise-founder-needs-to-survive-todays-market.html): Nailing go-to-market (GTM) as a startup is hard. But nailing GTM as an enterprise startup in a down market is exceptionally harder. (1,336 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment In Catalyst](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-catalyst/index.html): For the past five years at Work-Bench, we’ve built an enterprise tech community that brings together thousands of “suits and hoodies” through 200+ events a year, which has enabled us to connect and collaborate with countless talented people and companies throughout the NYC ecosystem. (907 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment In VISO Trust](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-viso-trust/index.html): We’re excited to announce that we led a $3M seed round in VISO Trust, with participation from Sierra Ventures and Lytical Ventures. (725 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment In SeeMetrics](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-seemetrics/index.html): Security metrics for everyone else (564 words)
- [Work-Bench | 5 Experiments To Find a Winning Developer Acquisition Strategy](/content/post/5-experiments-to-find-a-winning-developer-acquisition-strategy.html): For this Work-Bench Masterclass, we hosted Martin Gontovnikas, General Partner and B2B Growth Advisor at HyperGrowth Partners and former SVP Marketing and Growth at Auth0. (1,134 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Create a Predictable Top-of-Funnel Engine for Growth](/content/playbooks/how-to-create-a-predictable-top-of-funnel-engine-for-growth.html): Early-stage teams often focus all of their time and energy on moving prospects down the funnel that, when they finally come up for air, they find their top-of-funnel pipeline has dried up. (96 words)
- [Work-Bench | Is There Still Room in the Cloud Security Market?](/content/post/is-there-still-room-in-the-cloud-security-market/index.html): While the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided for businesses, one of its main legacies is how it ushered in a tidal wave of accelerated digital transformation. (1,025 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our $100M Work-Bench Fund 3](/content/post/announcing-our-100m-work-bench-fund-3/index.html): NYC Enterprise: #CantStopWontStop (949 words)
- [Work-Bench | We’re Hiring a Senior Associate!](/content/post/were-hiring-a-senior-associate/index.html): In our search for a Senior Associate, our #1 priority is to find someone as obsessed with enterprise software as we are. (830 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Founder Spotlight: FireHydrant Co-Founder & CEO Robert Ross on Incident Management](/content/post/work-bench-founder-spotlight-firehydrant-co-founder-ceo-robert-ross-on-incident-management.html): We chatted with Robert Ross on how his background uniquely positions the company to win, his leadership style throughout the growth phases of the startup, and what’s next. (1,410 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in ZippedScript](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-zippedscript/index.html): We’re thrilled to announce that Work-Bench has led ZippedScript’s $2.6M Seed round with participation from existing investor NewStack Ventures to further their mission of transforming education verifications for global candidates! (390 words)
- [Work-Bench | 2022: How NYC Enterprise Software Survived A Year Of Turbulence](/content/post/2022-how-nyc-enterprise-software-survived-a-year-of-turbulence.html): 2022 was a whirlwind. The worsening market downturn certainly weighed on everyone’s mind and to navigate these times, we doubled down on what we know best - our two flywheels of community and corporate engagement. (934 words)
- [Work-Bench | Trino: A Distributed Query Engine](/content/post/trino-a-distributed-query-engine/index.html): Here at Work-Bench, we strongly believe that great businesses can be built by commercializing open source projects that target an acute pain point and cultivate developer love. (1,949 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in Authzed](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-authzed/index.html): We’re thrilled to announce our latest investment in founders we have known for many years through our Work-Bench community as we lead Authzed’s $3.9M seed round. (633 words)
- [Work-Bench | 7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive Briefings](/content/playbooks/7-habits-of-highly-effective-executive-briefings/index.html) (7 words)
- [Work-Bench | Legal Contract Negotiation & Review Tactics](/content/playbooks/legal-contract-negotiation-review-tactics/index.html): The legal contract process is necessary to keep early-stage startups protected. This Playbook addresses many of the legal challenges enterprise leaders face when closing a deal, including the best legal negotiation and review tactics. (118 words)
- [Work-Bench | Trends in Serverless Databases](/content/post/trends-in-serverless-databases/index.html): Despite the many databases available on the market, developers still confront a host of challenges when interacting with them like issues with data capacity or cost management. (1,197 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Founder Spotlight: Spring Health Co-Founder & CEO April Koh on Executing a Mission Driven Approach](/content/post/work-bench-founder-spotlight-spring-health-co-founder-ceo-april-koh-on-executing-a-mission-driven-approach.html): In 2016, April Koh set out to change the face of mental healthcare by launching Spring Health. (1,236 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench AI Snapshot H1'26](/content/post/work-bench-ai-snapshot-h126/index.html) (1,261 words)
- [Work-Bench | Learnings from Building & Investing in Business Process Automation](/content/post/learnings-from-building-and-investing-in-business-process-automation.html): Over the past few years at Work-Bench, I’ve spent a lot of time working with early-stage founders building across AI and Machine Learning Infrastructure, many of whom are aiming to build in Applied AI, RPA, and adjacent industries. (908 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Arthur](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-arthur/index.html): We’re excited to announce our investment in Arthur’s $3.3M seed round with Index Ventures and Homebrew. (656 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Artian AI: Bringing Agentic AI to Financial Services](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-artian-ai/index.html) (595 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment In CloudQuery](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-cloudquery/index.html): We’re excited to announce our investment in CloudQuery’s $3.5M Seed round, alongside boldstart, Mango Capital, and Haystack! (728 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in GovWell](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-govwell/index.html): We’re excited to announce that we led GovWell’s $4.5M Seed round, with participation from existing investor Bienville Capital to support their mission to modernize government software. ‍ (572 words)
- [Work-Bench | Transforming Development Across Frontend & Backend with WebAssembly](/content/post/transforming-development-across-frontend-backend-with-webassembly.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source on January 18th, 2024, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. Subscribe here! (1,207 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Future of Compute: How AI Agents Are Reshaping Infrastructure (Part 1)](/content/post/the-future-of-compute-how-ai-agents-are-reshaping-infrastructure-part-1.html): As AI agents evolve from experimental prototypes to mission-critical systems we believe there will be a critical mismatch between their unique demands and our current computing infrastructure. (2,157 words)
- [Work-Bench | Join Our Growing Team as our Head of Growth](/content/post/join-our-growing-team-as-our-head-of-growth/index.html): At Work-Bench, we think about the idea of “sourcing” differently than other funds. Our DNA is very much in community - and we believe and have seen firsthand that if we grow and support NYC enterprise ecosystem, then great things will happen. (781 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in DryRun Security](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-dryrun-security/index.html): We're excited to announce that we led DryRun Security's $8.7M seed round, alongside LiveOak Ventures and Cannage Capital. DryRun Security helps application security teams cut through thousands of code changes to find critical vulnerabilities by combining contextual analysis with natural language security policies. (657 words)
- [Work-Bench | Women in Enterprise Sales Forum: The Secret Sauce to Partnerships Sales Success with Red Hat, Cisco & BigID](/content/post/women-in-enterprise-sales-forum-the-secret-sauce-to-partnerships-sales-success-with-red-hat-cisco-bigid.html): Partnerships are a fast-growing and critical part of enterprise sales. Additionally, the dynamics behind Partnerships have evolved dramatically even in the last few years. (859 words)
- [Work-Bench | 11 NYC Enterprise Pre-Seed Startups to Watch in 2024](/content/post/11-nyc-enterprise-pre-seed-startups-to-watch-in-2024.html): As enterprise Seed investors in NYC, we keep a pulse on all of the new founders and startups entering the ecosystem (and track them in our Enterprise Weekly Newsletter). (725 words)
- [Work-Bench | 5 Effective Leadership Tactics of Highly Successful Founders with David Politis, Founder of BetterCloud](/content/post/5-effective-leadership-tactics-of-highly-successful-founders-with-david-politis-founder-of-bettercloud.html): Our recent Work-Bench Enterprise Masterclass led by David Politis, Founder of BetterCloud, delved into the "5 Effective Leadership Tactics of Highly Successful Founders.” (1,102 words)
- [Work-Bench | 17 NYC Enterprise Seed Startups to Watch in 2023](/content/post/17-nyc-enterprise-seed-startups-to-watch-in-2023/index.html): As enterprise Seed investors in NYC, we keep a pulse on all of the new founders and startups entering the ecosystem (and track them weekly in our Enterprise Weekly Newsletter). (632 words)
- [Work-Bench | Re-Imagining PAM:  From Privileged Access Management to Privileged Action Management](/content/post/re-imagining-pam-from-privileged-access-management-to-privileged-action-management.html): Conventional PAM solutions are based on the flawed premise that the management controls used to create, configure and administer IT resources can be neatly packaged in a limited number of privileged accounts and that access to these accounts can be restricted to a limited number of privileged users. (459 words)
- [Work-Bench | 22 NYC Enterprise Seed Startups to Watch in 2022](/content/post/22-nyc-enterprise-seed-startups-to-watch-in-2022/index.html): As enterprise Seed investors here in NYC, we keep a pulse on all of the new founders and startups entering the ecosystem. (568 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in Goodfire](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-goodfire/index.html): We're thrilled to announce Work-Bench's participation in Goodfire's $50M Series A, following our Seed investment in the company last year. (375 words)
- [Work-Bench | 10th Anniversary NY Enterprise Tech Meetup: How the CEO of Attentive Navigated a Massive Pivot to Find Product Market Fit](/content/post/10th-anniversary-ny-enterprise-tech-meetup-how-the-ceo-of-attentive-navigated-a-massive-pivot-to-find-product-market-fit.html): This month, we celebrated the 10th Anniversary of our NY Enterprise Tech Meetup! To honor our New York roots, we welcomed Brian Long, CEO and Co-Founder of one of NYC’s most exciting giants, Attentive, to our Zoom stage. (984 words)
- [Work-Bench | Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs): 6 Ways for Retaining and Growing Customers](/content/post/quarterly-business-reviews-qbrs-6-ways-for-retaining-and-growing-customers.html): We recently hosted a talk by a VP of Client Solutions from one of our portfolio companies, highlighting the importance of Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and best practices for leveraging them to strengthen long-term customer relationships. (767 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Founder Spotlight: Arthur Co-Founder & CEO Adam Wenchel on the Next Gen of AI In the Enterprise](/content/post/work-bench-founder-spotlight-arthur-co-founder-ceo-adam-wenchel-on-the-next-gen-of-ai-in-the-enterprise.html): In 2019, we invested in Arthur as the first production AI monitoring platform to detect and protect enterprises against modeling issues and biases. (1,138 words)
- [Work-Bench | A Quick State of the Enterprise Funding Market](/content/post/a-quick-state-of-the-enterprise-funding-market/index.html): The recent public and private market fluctuations are giving everyone whiplash. (800 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Promotions: Kelley Mak, Priyanka Somrah & Daniel Chesley](/content/post/work-bench-promotions-kelley-mak-priyanka-somrah-daniel-chesley.html): We are thrilled to kick off the new year with exciting news! Work-Bench is proud to announce the promotion of Kelley Mak to General Partner, along with Priyanka Somrah and Daniel Chesley to Principal. (1,050 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in Cockroach Labs](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-cockroach-labs/index.html): Today we’re excited to announce that Work-Bench is joining Index Ventures, Benchmark, Google Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and other great investors to back Cockroach Labs in their Series A-1 round. (552 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Run a Sales Quarterly Business Review (QBR)](/content/playbooks/how-to-run-a-sales-quarterly-business-review-qbr/index.html) (9 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in Paratus](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-paratus/index.html): We’re excited to announce that Work-Bench led Paratus’ $2.5M pre-seed round alongside Bling Capital, Teamworthy Ventures, and a group of defense and startup angels. (353 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Master Outbound Sales without a BDR (yet)](/content/playbooks/how-to-master-outbound-sales-without-a-bdr-yet/index.html) (92 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Future of Compute: How AI Agents Are Reshaping Infrastructure (Part 2)](/content/post/the-future-of-compute-how-ai-agents-are-reshaping-infrastructure-part-2.html): This is the second part of our series examining how AI's computational patterns are forcing a fundamental rethinking of resource architecture and management. (2,062 words)
- [Work-Bench | A Formula For Pitching CIOs](/content/post/a-formula-for-pitching-cios/index.html): After just a few years on the job, most CIOs will typically have heard ~100 sales pitches. And 7x CIO Mark Settle has heard the good, the bad, and the ugly. (956 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Structure a POC & POC Agreement Template](/content/playbooks/how-to-structure-a-poc-poc-agreement-template/index.html): We outline how to structure a POC, including a step-by-step framework and a template of a POC Agreement - in order to get your POC up-and-running fast. (36 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing our Investment in Alkymi](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-alkymi/index.html): We’re thrilled to announce our investment in Alkymi’s $5M Seed raise along with Canaan Partners. (835 words)
- [Work-Bench | 2024 Predictions: Where Enterprise Software Is Headed in the New Year](/content/post/2024-predictions-where-enterprise-software-is-headed-in-the-new-year.html): If there’s one word we’ll hear continue to echo throughout 2024, it's efficiency. (737 words)
- [Work-Bench | 16 NYC Enterprise Seed Startups to Watch in 2021](/content/post/16-nyc-enterprise-seed-startups-to-watch-in-2021/index.html): Like much of the country, New York City has experienced its share of battle scars in 2020 from the pandemic, causing a lot of questions around whether or not NYC’s startup ecosystem will survive. (780 words)
- [Work-Bench | Why Reinforcement Learning's Moment Is Now](/content/post/why-reinforcement-learnings-moment-is-now/index.html) (1,449 words)
- [Work-Bench | Introducing the NYC Enterprise Tech Index & 1H 2021 Funding Report](/content/post/introducing-the-nyc-enterprise-tech-index-1h-2021-funding-report.html): For the past 8+ years, Work-Bench has loved helping build the NYC enterprise tech ecosystem brick by brick. We’re so excited by how far our community has grown — and it’s only getting bigger! (261 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Impact of OpenAI's DevDay](/content/post/the-impact-of-openais-devday/index.html): This post was originally published on More Intelligent on November 7th, 2023, my monthly newsletter covering thematic research and the technology trends I’m digging into. Subscribe here. (1,493 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 2023 Funding Report](/content/post/the-state-of-enterprise-tech-in-nyc-2023-funding-report.html): We’ve been investing in enterprise tech startups for over a decade and during that time we’ve also been tracking the local NYC enterprise ecosystem’s growth through a series of Enterprise Tech in NYC Funding Reports. (641 words)
- [Work-Bench | Join Our Growing Team as an Operations Manager](/content/post/join-our-growing-team-as-an-operations-manager/index.html): We are searching for a dynamic, detail-oriented, and proactive teammate to join as Operations Manager. This role is critical in ensuring the smooth day-to-day operations of our firm and our vibrant Work-Bench community. (539 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Snapshot: A Primer on Nix - Reproducible Builds and Deployments](/content/post/work-bench-snapshot-a-primer-on-nix-reproducible-builds-and-deployments.html): On a recent call with an engineer at a unicorn startup, he said that he wouldn’t work at a company that doesn’t use Nix. At the same time, he’s seen developers leave companies because they use Nix. (982 words)
- [Work-Bench | AI and the CFO dream journal: Less Crunching, More Strategy](/content/post/ai-and-the-cfo-dream-journal-less-crunching-more-strategy.html): AI, CFO (687 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Spotlight: Daniel Chesley On Finding an Edge as a New Investor](/content/post/work-bench-spotlight-daniel-chesley-on-finding-an-edge-as-a-new-investor.html): Danny is an Investor at Work-Bench where he focuses on AI/ML, developer tools, and enterprise applications. He authors the More Intelligent Newsletter, where he shares the latest thematic research and technology trends he’s digging into. (940 words)
- [Work-Bench | Goodfire Raises $150M Series B to Advance the Frontier of AI Interpretability](/content/post/goodfire-raises-150m-series-b-to-advance-the-frontier-of-ai-interpretability.html) (355 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Spotlight: Priyanka Somrah On Learning The Technical Side of Investing](/content/post/work-bench-spotlight-priyanka-somrah-on-learning-the-technical-side-of-investing.html): We chatted with Priyanka to get the inside scoop on how she leans into technical deals, her journey to VC (it stretches all the way from Africa!) and what she’s most excited about in her day to day. (1,064 words)
- [Work-Bench | 2023: A Look Into The Enterprise Software Crystal Ball](/content/post/2023-a-look-into-the-enterprise-software-crystal-ball.html): Last year we talked about how the industry was overinflated thanks to megarounds and unprecedented valuations, alluding to a future correction. That correction hit hard in 2022 and its ripple effects will continue to make waves through the entire year to come. (738 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Proactive IT Service Desk](/content/post/proactive-it-service-desk/index.html) (332 words)
- [Privacy Policy | Work-Bench](/content/privacy-policy/index.html) (599 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Founder Spotlight: Catalyst Co-Founder & CEO Edward Chiu on Finding Your Use Case](/content/post/work-bench-founder-spotlight-catalyst-co-founder-ceo-edward-chiu-on-finding-your-use-case.html): Given our obsession with enterprise go-to-market, we know how critical it is for businesses to have a successful customer success organization – that’s why we invested in Catalyst. (957 words)
- [Work-Bench | NextGen Collaboration Tools: Where Are the NextGen Tools?](/content/post/nextgen-collaboration-tools-where-are-the-nextgen-tools.html): There was rampant speculation during the Covid crisis about the ways in which knowledge work would be performed in a post-Covid world. Now we know the answer. (325 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Snapshot: Augmenting Streaming and Batch Processing Workflows](/content/post/work-bench-snapshot-augmenting-streaming-and-batch-processing-workflows.html): The Work-Bench Snapshot Series explores the top people, blogs, videos, and more, shaping the enterprise on a particular topic we’re looking at from an investment standpoint. (847 words)
- [Work-Bench | 10 Lessons From Scaling AssemblyAI with Founder & CEO Dylan Fox](/content/post/10-lessons-from-scaling-assemblyai-with-founder-ceo-dylan-fox.html): We bring together 150+ operators from across Sales, Product, Marketing, Engineering, Customer Success, and more to get the lowdown on what’s been challenging and their strategies to triumph. (904 words)
- [Work-Bench | VC Perspectives on The Voyage Across Stages with Work-Bench, Lux Capital & Andreeseen Horowitz](/content/post/vc-perspectives-on-the-voyage-across-stages-with-work-bench-lux-capital-andreeseen-horowitz.html): Our sold out May NY Enterprise Tech Meetup (#NYETM) featured ​​an annual fan favorite — our VC perspectives panel on “The Voyage Across Startup Stages” with a killer lineup of female investors. (1,184 words)
- [Work-Bench | Introducing the Work-Bench Enterprise Playbook Library](/content/post/introducing-the-work-bench-enterprise-playbook-library.html): Over our decade helping fund, grow, and support early-stage enterprise software startups, we’ve seen the most difficult challenges and the most tactical solutions for scaling an enterprise startup. (161 words)
- [Work-Bench | 10 Lessons from 10 Years of Work-Bench](/content/post/10-lessons-from-10-years-of-work-bench/index.html): In honor of 10 years of Work-Bench, we thought it’d be a good time to reflect on this past decade with 10 lessons learned. Hopefully some of these lessons can be helpful to you, whether you are a founder, operator, or fund manager. (790 words)
- [Our NYC Enterprise Community | Work-Bench](/content/network/index.html): For over a decade we’ve built nyc’s deepest enterprise community: fortune 500 buyers, seasoned operators, and the founders building what comes next. (206 words)
- [Work-Bench | 1st Principles for Seed-Stage Enterprise Software Startups](/content/post/1st-principles-for-seed-stage-enterprise-software-startups.html): Building an enterprise startup is hard. But building an enterprise startup amidst this downtown is exceptionally harder. (657 words)
- [Work-Bench | 16 Mid- to Late-Stage Enterprise Software Startups Growing in New York City](/content/post/16-mid-to-late-stage-enterprise-software-startups-growing-in-new-york-city.html): As longtime investors in New York City, we’re thrilled to see how much the city continues to grow in terms of talent and density of enterprise software companies. (322 words)
- [Work-Bench | Today's Enterprise Seed VC Landscape](/content/post/todays-enterprise-seed-vc-landscape/index.html): The genesis for our March NY Enterprise Tech Meetup Enterprise Seed VC panel was to answer “It’s been a wild year in tech..how can I survive (and thrive) in 2023?” Little did we know that less than one week before the event, Silicon Valley Bank would collapse and the tech ecosystem would catapult into DEFCON 5. (964 words)
- [Work-Bench | Leveling Up Discovery and Demo Calls](/content/post/leveling-up-discovery-and-demo-calls/index.html): In today’s environment, it's critical to nail discovery and demo calls with prospective customers. This is often the make-it or break-it touchpoint that sets up the success of the rest of the sale process. (167 words)
- [Work-Bench | 2022 #Womenterprise Report: Only 400 Enterprise Software Startups Are Female Founded](/content/post/2022-womenterprise-report-only-400-enterprise-software-startups-are-female-founded.html): Our 2nd annual #Womenterprise Report continues to prove that gender disparity is far worse for women in enterprise software than the broader tech ecosystem and the problem remains relatively unsolved from 2021. (189 words)
- [Work-Bench | Mastering the User’s Product Journey from GitLab, Figma & Airtable](/content/playbooks/mastering-the-users-product-journey-from-gitlab-figma-airtable.html) (10 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Real AI Opportunity in Healthcare](/content/post/the-real-ai-opportunity-in-healthcare/index.html): Healthcare sits in a peculiar position among industries: it is simultaneously one of the most important sectors in the US economy and one of the most resistant to software. (1,286 words)
- [Work-Bench | #Womenterprise Report: The State of The Enterprise Software Founder Gender Gap](/content/post/womenterprise-report-the-state-of-the-enterprise-software-founder-gender-gap.html): Statistics have long shown that female-led companies perform better with female-led teams generating 35% higher return on investment than all-male teams. (238 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Future of Cloud Networking - A Primer](/content/post/the-future-of-cloud-networking-a-primer/index.html): This post was originally published on The Data Source on February 29th, 2024, my monthly newsletter covering the top innovation in data infrastructure, engineering and developer-first tooling. (1,371 words)
- [NY Enterprise Tech Meetup | Work-Bench](/content/ny-enterprise-tech-meetup/index.html): Now over 10 years old, with 10,000+ members and 100+ events under our belt, our meetup brings together attendees across our “suits and hoodies” community of startup founders, operators, Fortune 500 executives, VCs and more every month. See our past Meetups below. (218 words)
- [Work-Bench | #Womenterprise Panel: Lessons on Selling AI Products from OpenAI, Hebbia & Runway](/content/post/womenterprise-panel-lessons-on-selling-ai-products-from-openai-hebbia-runway.html): In our final #Womenterpise event of the year, we brought together sales leaders from the fastest-growing AI companies in NYC to share their top tactics on the front lines of selling cutting-edge AI products. (656 words)
- [Work-Bench | 10 Quick Wins to Grow Pipeline](/content/post/10-quick-wins-to-grow-pipeline/index.html): As Seed-stage enterprise software investors, go-to-market is the #1 thing we work with our portfolio – most importantly working with companies on getting to that pivotal first million in ARR and building a repeatable growth strategy. (250 words)
- [Work-Bench | How To Handle VC Inbound After Raising A Seed Round](/content/post/how-to-handle-vc-inbound-after-raising-a-seed-round.html): First of all, congrats! After putting in the tremendous hard work of getting your enterprise startup off the ground and gaining some traction, you’ve closed your Seed round. (1,361 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Founder’s Guide to Announcing a Seed Round](/content/post/the-founders-guide-to-announcing-a-seed-round/index.html): Closing a Seed round is a huge milestone for any startup. (1,235 words)
- [Work-Bench | The Convergence of Modern Infrastructure & Applications](/content/post/the-convergence-of-modern-infrastructure-applications.html) (1,389 words)
- [Future Founders Dinner | Work-Bench](/content/future-founders-dinner/index.html): The Future Founder Dinner is an intimate gathering of repeat founders and aspiring first-time founders. These tightly knit groups provide a forum for those with similar ambitions to pressure test their ideas, learn from those that have been there, and hear what making the leap to founder really feels like. (57 words)
- [Work-Bench | Work-Bench Security Perspectives 2021 Report](/content/post/work-bench-security-perspectives-2021-report/index.html): In 2020, the acceleration of digital transformation initiatives and rise of distributed workforces created wide open gaps in enterprises’ security defenses. (220 words)
- [Work-Bench | Differentiated Messaging](/content/playbooks/differentiated-messaging/index.html): This differentiated messaging template outlines the key questions Product Marketers need to think through in order to nail down and articulate truly differentiated product messaging. (200 words)
- [NYC Pre-Seed GTM Summit | Work-Bench](/content/nyc-pre-seed-gtm-summit/index.html): The only NYC summit built for pre-seed enterprise founders. A full day of GTM playbooks, founder-led sales tactics, and the unvarnished lessons from operators who’ve scaled across AI, SaaS, infra, and B2B tech. (96 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to price your product at seed](/content/playbooks/how-to-price-your-product-at-seed/index.html): This Enterprise Playbook outlines the proven frameworks and tested methods for approaching strategic product pricing, drawing from real-world examples of product pricing pages. (99 words)
- [Work-Bench | Business Value Calculator](/content/playbooks/business-value-calculator/index.html): This Business Value Calculator helps sellers demonstrate the ROI of their product versus that of an home-grown tool by creating a business case, detailing how the product will impact the prospect’s business and why now more than ever is the right time to buy. (192 words)
- [Work-Bench | Leveling up your Discovery and Demo Calls](/content/playbooks/leveling-up-your-discovery-and-demo-calls/index.html): This Sales Playbook outlines a formula to help up-level discovery and demo calls to make them more efficient, productive, and overall successful in getting to the next stage of closing a prospect. (115 words)
- [Portfolio | Work-Bench](/content/portfolio/index.html): We’re high conviction, thesis-driven investors who lead Seed rounds in enterprise software startups. (440 words)
- [Work-Bench | How to Structure a Post-Sales Process](/content/playbooks/how-to-structure-a-post-sales-process/index.html): This Enterprise Playbook outlines a framework for building a rock-solid post-sales model from implementation to onboarding to training to product adoption and beyond to renewal/expansion. (72 words)
- [Work-Bench | Customer Evaluation](/content/playbooks/customer-evaluation/index.html): Our Customer Evaluation document outlines the objectives and deliverables, pre-evaluation activities, schedule, costs, and contact info to ensure that both parties are on the same page throughout the sales process. (32 words)
- [Work-Bench | 3 Myths About Selling Cybersecurity to Financial Services](/content/post/3-myths-about-selling-cybersecurity-to-financial-services.html): Many early-stage cybersecurity founders aim to sell to large enterprises, specifically financial services, when defining their go-to-market given they deeply care about minimizing risk and have the deep pockets to invest in security. (882 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Agentic Systems – June 2025](/content/post/the-state-of-agentic-systems-june-2025/index.html) (538 words)
- [Work-Bench | Legal Challenges 6 Customer Relations During COVID-19](/content/playbooks/legal-challenges-6-customer-relations-during-covid-19.html): Our Legal Challenges Playbook addresses many of the legal challenges startups are facing during COVID-19, including how to best handle customer and contract evaluation, contract renegotiation, and contract renewal. (36 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Our Investment in AIR Platforms](/content/post/announcing-our-investment-in-air-platforms/index.html) (950 words)
- [Work-Bench | Enterprise Sales Pipeline Review](/content/playbooks/enterprise-sales-pipeline-review/index.html): This enterprise sales pipeline review template provides both qualitative and quantitative data points that can help to paint a more complete and nuanced story on sales traction. (83 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 1H 2023 Funding in Three Charts](/content/post/the-state-of-enterprise-tech-in-nyc-1h-2023-funding-in-three-charts.html): We’ve been investing in enterprise tech startups for a decade now and have been tracking the local NYC enterprise ecosystem’s growth through a series of Enterprise Tech in NYC Funding Reports. (281 words)
- [Work-Bench | FireHydrant is getting acquired by Freshworks](/content/post/firehydrant-is-getting-acquired-by-freshworks/index.html) (929 words)
- [Work-Bench | Logo Hunting: 3 Steps to Target & Catch Your Biggest Customer Logos](/content/playbooks/logo-hunting-3-steps-to-target-catch-your-biggest-customer-logos.html) (12 words)
- [Work-Bench | Buying From Startups During COVID-19](/content/playbooks/buying-from-startups-during-covid-19/index.html): We address how corporates should approach buying from startups during COVID-19, including how to rate supplier criticality, and best handle supplier diligence, contractual protection and flexibility, and contingency planning. (34 words)
- [Work-Bench | 10 Sales Process Stages](/content/playbooks/10-sales-process-stages/index.html): Our tactical 10 Sales Process Stages dives into the desired outcome to keep you focused on the goal, including a checklist of to-dos, a breakdown of each team member’s role in that part of the process, as well as the tools you’ll need. (47 words)
- [Work-Bench | 10 quick wins to grow pipeline](/content/playbooks/10-quick-wins-to-grow-pipeline/index.html): Growth is a long-term journey and nothing scales overnight, yet startup life is still a race. (52 words)
- [Work-Bench | The 5 Step Framework for Building a Product Led Business](/content/post/the-5-step-framework-for-building-a-product-led-business.html): This month, Work-Bench, OpenView, Primary Venture Partners and Lerer Hippeau hosted the second of its four-part SaaS Growth Camp (1,087 words)
- [Work-Bench | What Consumers Can Teach Us About The Future Of Employee Identity Management](/content/post/what-consumers-can-teach-us-about-the-future-of-employee-identity-management.html): “CIO Perspectives” is a white paper series by Mark Settle that explores top-of-mind technical issues confronting today’s CIOs and IT leaders. (572 words)
- [Work-Bench | Welcome Proby Shandilya as Our New Work-Bench Researcher](/content/post/welcome-proby-shandilya-as-our-new-work-bench-researcher.html) (348 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 2H 2021 Funding Report](/content/post/the-state-of-enterprise-tech-in-nyc-2h-2021-funding-report.html): At Work-Bench, we’ve been investing in enterprise tech startups for nearly a decade now and for the past several years, we’ve been tracking the local NYC enterprise ecosystem’s growth through a series of Enterprise Tech in NYC Funding Reports. (283 words)
- [Work-Bench | Time & Attention Engineering](/content/post/time-amp-attention-engineering/index.html): This paper presents a provocative investment thesis, namely that AI can be used to ensure the survival of human knowledge workers after many of the work activities they currently perform have been fully automated. It specifically suggests that AI can be used to develop personalized task management tools that optimize the use of an individual’s time-on-the-job based upon their knowledge, skills, experience and work habits. (399 words)
- [Work-Bench | Announcing Work-Bench Fund IV: $160M to Back Seed Founders with Bold Enterprise Visions](/content/post/announcing-work-bench-fund-iv-160m-to-back-seed-founders-with-bold-enterprise-visions.html): We’re proud to announce that we have raised Work-Bench Fund IV, a $160M fund dedicated to supporting Seed-stage founders building the next generation of enterprise software. (776 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 1H 2020 Funding Report](/content/post/the-state-of-enterprise-tech-in-nyc-1h-2020-funding-report.html): Here at Work-Bench, there are two things we love above all else: Enterprise tech and NYC. (291 words)
- [Work-Bench | ​​The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 2022 Funding Report](/content/post/the-state-of-enterprise-tech-in-nyc-2022-funding-report.html): We’ve been investing in enterprise tech startups for nearly a decade now and for the past several years, we’ve been tracking the local NYC enterprise ecosystem’s growth through a series of Enterprise Tech in NYC Funding Reports. (243 words)
- [Work-Bench | Welcome Daniel Chesley as Our New Work-Bench Associate](/content/post/welcome-daniel-chesley-as-our-new-work-bench-associate.html): We are excited to share the news that Daniel Chesley has joined Work-Bench’s investing team as an Associate! (336 words)
- [Work-Bench | The State of Data Infrastructure & Analytics Report 2021](/content/post/the-state-of-data-infrastructure-analytics-report-2021.html): As an early stage investor at Work-Bench, I’ve been keeping an active pulse on the data ecosystem by speaking with data practitioners, startup founders, and corporate executives from our network. (265 words)
- [Work-Bench | An Enterprise Founder’s GTM Template For Seed-Stage Due Diligence](/content/post/an-enterprise-founders-gtm-template-for-seed-stage-due-diligence.html): As thesis-driven, Seed-stage investors, we often diligence and invest in enterprise startups pre-revenue. This means founder’s often come to the table with no customer logos or clear-cut metrics to help us generate conviction. (428 words)
- [Best of NYC Operator Club | Work-Bench](/content/best-of-nyc/index.html): Best of NYC brings together the sharpest engineers, PMs, and GTM leaders at the city’s best AI-native companies. We love bringing together talented individuals so they can meet, network, and learn from each other. (39 words)
- [Writing | Work-Bench](/content/research/index.html): Essays and insights on enterprise software, ai, infrastructure, and seed-stage go-to-market. (105 words)

## About Pages

- [Team | Work-Bench](/content/team/index.html): We're a small nyc team of enterprise tech nerds working alongside you to build a repeatable sales process from 1 to 10 to 100 enterprise customers. (349 words)

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