TL;DR: We introduce our fund, Sentinel Global, and share why we are so focused on technologies that are open to all. These are the innovations that will be creating businesses that are better, cheaper, stronger and safer.

Introducing Sentinel Global

Sentinel Global is a venture capital fund that centers around transformative technologies and business models.  We believe these technologies will reshape industries by boosting efficiency, safety, and security.

Decentralized networks, open AI applications, streaming data infrastructure, and supply chain optimization are just a few of the areas we are keenly focused on.  They will help form the foundation for enhancing technology interoperability, optimizing processes, and maximizing efficiency. The ultimate result? Businesses that are not only stronger and safer, but also more efficient and cost-effective.

Rather than closed-off proprietary systems, centralized tech monopolies, and incompatible devices and networks, there is a growing movement, especially among developers and entrepreneurs, to pursue a greater connectedness in the innovations they are building.  We are on the edges of a new industrial era, driven by technologies that are open to all, and Sentinel is super excited to be at the front gate.

Our Era of Openness

Why do we believe that technologies built with an open ethos will ultimately prevail?

Well, let’s take artificial intelligence. AI was actually established as a field in 1957, with a number of hype and trough cycles since then.  So what made the explosion of interest in AI in 2023 seem so different?  For the first time in history, multiple high performance models were distributed and made open to the general public, allowing them to build their own AI applications that could rival the performance of closed source models. Rather than being developed only by the government or secretive tech and security firms, AI became available to the masses. Open source models like Mixtral and Llama 2 gave savvy developers the ability to fine-tune models based on their own proprietary data sets and expanded the original bounds of these foundational models. Just take a peek at hundreds of models created on the Hugging Face Open LLM Leaderboard and you can see the innovation, creativity, and excitement generated by making these models open to everyone.

Here’s another example: digital assets.  Since Bitcoin’s inception in 2008, we have witnessed the development of a globally decentralized, open, and secure internet where value is exchanged peer-to-peer.  Everyone can see each transaction and all can vouch for its validity.  Blockchain technology has further  spurred a head-spinning (and sometimes head-scratching) number of additional innovations around decentralized finance (DeFI), digital collectibles (NFTs), and tokenization of real world assets, among many others.  Value can be transferred online in the same way that information is exchanged online – without intermediaries and centralized parties. The sum of that value, just in terms of the market cap of all cryptocurrencies, is $2.6 trillion as of March 18, 2024.

As we delve into subsequent posts and engage in debates, we can question the validity of various use cases in AI, blockchain, and other emerging technologies. However, at our core, we firmly believe that the most value will be unlocked from businesses, products, and applications that embrace an open ethos.

Why This Matters

As our world becomes increasingly digital, the need for effortless interoperability and global scalability has become more critical than ever before.  The complexities of diverse technologies, global connectivity, user expectations, scalability requirements, data accessibility, and the pursuit of a competitive edge in the digital landscape will all impact innovation and cross-industry collaboration.

That said, It can be incredibly challenging for legacy institutions in particular to adopt new technologies.  It will require the buildout of institutional grade investment products and service providers to craft solutions that break down technological, infrastructural, and security obstacles for implementation. It will require builders and adopters to come together, and recognize efficiencies, partnerships, and a common purpose for the future.

This tactical adoption is why Sentinel Global exists. It is our mission not just to identify and invest in the next generation of transformational technologies, but manifest them into institutional adoption.  

The Sentinel Formula

How does Sentinel achieve this mission?

• Enterprise Adoption:  We connect innovative companies with traditional institutions, facilitating partnerships that bridge the gap between cutting-edge technologies and established frameworks. We help large enterprises adopt open computing infrastructure, paving the way for scalable and efficient technology solutions. We create thought leadership to drive the adoption of open computing, shaping the industry’s conversation.
• Global Connectivity: We scale startups, securing regulatory support globally, with a particular focus on markets beyond the U.S.  We cultivate a valuable network of institutions and strategic partners, especially in emerging markets where opportunities abound. We drive programmatic value-add by curating communities that foster collaboration, innovation, and mutual support.
• Investment Integrity: We are experienced practitioners who understand the fundamentals of open-source tech. We focus on investment discipline and rigor, corporate governance and controls, and a company’s management team formation.  We are the sober people at the hype party, never launching into an investment without thoughtful analysis, healthy skepticism, and a belief that expertise matters.

Achieving our mission might sound extremely challenging but we couldn’t be more excited about it.  As the opening quote noted, “an invention has to make sense in the world it finishes in, not in the world it started.”  That’s what we are dedicated to building at Sentinel Global. We intend to foster a seamless investment, thought leadership, and convening platform to connect the world’s builders with the world’s adopters so that our future world will make sense through the technologies our founders are developing today.

We are just getting started.  It’s opening day, and time to play ball.  Join the fun and send us a message at hello@sentineglobal.xyz.