{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"First Funders","title":"S3E01: Monique Woodard, Cake Ventures, Trust Was Always the Moat","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1925,"description":"What could you do with a free weekend and a few subscriptions to some AI tools? Probably start a billion dollar company. This is the reality for so many startups and tech companies that can suddenly ship projects that previously would’ve taken a couple of months (and a couple of developers) to deploy. So in a world where everyone can build, what’s the differentiator? Monique Woodard has a few ideas. She’s the founding partner of Cake Ventures, a fund writing checks into pre-seed and seed-stage companies at the intersection of technology and demographic shifts. She’s interested in how companies can stand out in a crowded, AI-driven environment, the way soft skills have transformed, and what AI means for the humans still in the loop. Check size: $250k – $750kHighlights: • Trust is key for any company, and it’s not something that’s going to be replaced by technology any time soon.  • Monique is thinking more about the desk-less future of work and what AI means for the white collar workforce.  • The skills once labeled as “soft” are now getting rebranded into the “hard” skills that everyone needs to survive and thrive. ","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xHXunBbf5DbSqobO6V5P7vlThSXnbU1WHZeZm4nJjIg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yYWNk/MDMxN2UyNDgwNzI5/NGQxNzE4NDc3ZWI1/ODhkOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}