Episode Details

"80% of the decks landing on her desk had AI on slide one."

This week on Bricks & Bytes we sat down with Jennifer Davis, who recently joined Suffolk Technologies after five years as Managing Director of Techstars Boston, where she reviewed thousands of applications and ran 65+ companies through the program.

She brought the kind of pattern recognition you only get from saying no a few thousand times.

Tune in to find out about:

✅ Why the bar has risen across pre-seed, seed, and Series A — and what VCs now want to see before they write a check

✅ The co-founder mistake that kills more startups than bad ideas (and why 50/50 equity splits are a red flag)

✅ Why "not all money is created equally" — and how founder-unfriendly terms signed early can derail an exit years later

✅ What Jennifer is looking for as she takes the reins on Suffolk's Boost accelerator, and the founder profile she'd most want to back in 2027

Listen on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube 🎧

#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #ai #vc

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Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:00 Introduction to Jennifer Davis and Transition to Suffolk Tech

04:09 Insights from Techstars Boston

07:01 Key Traits of Successful Founders

10:06 Challenges in the Startup Ecosystem

12:57 The Importance of Problem-Solution Fit

15:57 The Role of AI in Startups

18:51 Generalist vs. Vertical VCs

21:57 Navigating the Built World Space

25:08 The Future of Construction Technology

27:53 Suffolk Tech's Boost Program

31:03 Advice for Founders in the Current Landscape

33:54 Conclusion and Future Outlook