Sean Jacobsohn's job is to invest in promising enterprise software startups. His hobby is to focus on failures.

Catch up quick: Jacobsohn, a partner with Norwest, is founder and "chief historian" of something he calls The Failure Museum, a collection of artifacts from capitalist calamity.

• For example, a Juicero machine. Or an opened bottle of Mazagran, a carbonated concoction launched in 1995 by Pepsi and Starbucks (the problem, Jacobsohn explains, is "they couldn't get people to drink it a second time).
• He is a firm believer that "failure is healthy," despite some recent research to the contrary, and has been asked to speak about it at some of America's top business schools.

Yesterday I spent some time on the Zoom with Jacobsohn. Highlights:

When did you begin doing this?

• "In November of 2022 I went to a [Golden State] Warriors game when they were giving out Jordan Poole bobbleheads, and I see it's sponsored by FTX — which was imploding. I blogged about it, which hundreds of thousands of people viewed. The Warriors even sent me a second one ... I had grown up collecting sports cards and memorabilia, so it was kind of natural for me to start collecting failure memorabilia."

When you speak to biz schoolers, what's your message?

• "Don't fear failure or taking risks. Even some of the most successful companies have had to pivot. For example, I worked at Cornerstone OnDemand, which had to pivot from B2C to B2B."

Your job is to back winners. How do you try to identify potential failures?

• "I've identified six forces of failure, and tagged at least one to every company in my collection, but obviously that's not obvious when companies are starting. So, before I make an investment, I go on lots of sales calls with the founder.
• Can they sell to someone new, rather than just to their friends? Is the product mission-critical vs. nice-to-have? Could I see myself be a successful CRO at the company? Even if a CEO doesn't come from a sales background, they need to be able to sell — to customers, to talent, and to investors."

How has your hobby impacted your job?

• "I'm doing the Failure Museum because it's really fun for me, but my deal-flow has also grown significantly. It's the sort of thing that people really want to discuss."

Favorite item in your collection?

• "An unopened bottle of champagne from Webvan's IPO."

What do you want most that you don't yet have?

• "Maybe something from when Boeing got into furniture. Or Jolly Rancher soda. Or the ESPN mobile phone, or anything from Shyp. There's a lot of very interesting stuff out there."

Tempus AI, a Chicago-based provider of data and analytics tools for precision medicine developers, raised $411 million in its IPO.

Why it's the BFD: You probably didn't expect another IPO from a co-founder and former CEO of Groupon, let alone one focused on health care.

Details: The company priced at the top of its $35-$37 per share range, giving it a fully diluted market value north of $6 billion.

• VC backers include Baillie Gifford, NEA, Novo Holdings, and Franklin Venture Partners.
• The largest shareholder is company founder and CEO Eric Lefkofsky, although part of his position is via his VC firm, Lightbank. Prior to Temous and Groupon, Lefkofsky had co-founded two other companies that went public.

The bottom line: "Tempus says it's built the world's largest library of clinical and molecular data along with an operating system to make those data accessible and useful for providers to inform patient care." — Heather Landi, Fierce Healthcare

🚑 Enveda, a Boulder, Colo., drug discovery startup that focuses on medicinal plants, raised $55m in Series B extension funding from Microsoft, The Nature Conservancy, Premji Invest, Lingotto Investment Fund, and insiders Kinnevik, True Ventures, FPV, Level Ventures, and Jazz Venture Partners. axios.link/45sTPLo

• Findigs, a New York rental screening startup, raised $27m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. Nyca Partners led, and was joined by RPM Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Expa Ventures, Activant Capital, Colle Capital, and Frontier VC. axios.link/4b4o2kO

• Fuze Technology, an LA provider of rentable portable phone chargers, has raised $11.5m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Beverly Pacific led, and was joined by Palm Tree Crew, Bain Capital Ventures Scout Fund, Dream Ventures, Live Nation, ASM Global, SCIENCE Ventures, Haslem Sports Group, and Simon Ventures. axios.link/4b7x54t

• Layer3, a token distribution protocol, raised $15m in Series A funding. ParaFi and Greenfield Capital co-led, and were joined by Electric Capital, Immutable, Lattice, Tioga, LeadBlock, and Amber. axios.link/3KCAE8h

• CleverCards, a Dublin-based digital payments startup, raised €8m led by Pluxee. clevercards.com

• EnFi, a credit analysis and risk monitoring platform, raised $7.5m in seed funding, per Axios Pro. Unusual Ventures led, and was joined by Boston Seed, Argon Ventures, and Impellent Ventures. axios.link/3VGdoMQ

• Sahl, an Egyptian mobile billing startup, raised $6m in Series A funding led by Ayady for Investment and Development. axios.link/3VoQckM

• Irys, an on-chain data developer, raised $3.5m. Lemniscap led, and was joined by Framework, Primitive Ventures, Hypersphere, Permanent Ventures, and EV3. axios.link/3KGAMU4

• BayaniPay, a Philippines money transfer company, raised $3m in Series A extension funding from Wavemaker Partners,PTGB, and Talino Venture Studios. axios.link/3VCCSdU

• Danelfin, a Spanish stock selection and portfolio management startup, raised €2m led by Nauta Capital. axios.link/3RsLgu5

• AnyCreek, a Memphis marketplace of guided outdoor experiences like fishing and hunting, raised $1.8m in seed funding from Starting Line, Bridge Investments, and LaunchTN. anycreek.com

• 3t, a British workplace safety training firm owned by Bluewater, acquired All Stop, a Houston-based safety training business. allstop.net

• Carlyle and KfW plan to submit a joint offer to buy a majority stake in Thyssenkrupp's submarine unit, per Reuters. axios.link/4ey5IDU

• Clearhaven Partners bought Zixi, a software-defined video platform based in Waltham, Mass. zixi.com

🚑 EQT acquired a majority stake in CluePoints, a Belgian provider of clinical trial data quality software, from Summit Partners (which retains a position). cluepoints.com

🚑 Great Point Partners acquired Lyocontract, a German independent drug product CDMO. lyocontract.de

🚑 Leonard Green Partners invested in RedSail Technologies, a Spartanburg, S.C., pharmacy software provider, alongside Francisco Partners, which reinvested in the company. redsailtechnologies.com

🚑 Sellers Dorsey, a Philadelphia health care consultancy owned by Consonance Capital, acquired HealthDataViz, a Boston consulting and data analytics provider. sellersdorsey.com

⚡ Sixth Street Partners bought a portion of Echo Minerals' net royalty acres in the Permian and Anadarko basins, in a deal valued at more than $500m. axios.link/3VG8yyZ

⚡ HMH Holding, an oilfield services joint venture between Baker Hughes and Akastor, picked JPMorgan, Piper Sandler, and Evercore for an IPO, per Bloomberg. The company plans to seek around a $1.5b enterprise value, and could list this fall. axios.link/4chIMGY

⚡ Solaria (Madrid: SLR), a Spanish solar developer, saw its market value rise to around €1.5b on reports of unsolicited takeover approaches. axios.link/3xfutE2

• Launch One Acquisition, a health care SPAC chaired by Ryan Gilbert (Launchpad Capital), filed for a $200m IPO. axios.link/4cnozQb

• Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) agreed to buy Zendrive, an SF provider of mobility risk intelligence that had raised over $70m from firms like Hearst Ventures, SignalFire, XL Innovate, and Acme Capital. zendrive.com

• Ares Management is weighing a merger offer for real estate investment firm GLP Capital Partners, except for GLP's China operations, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3x6C9Zf

🚑 EPAM Systems (NYSE: EPAM) acquired Odysseus Data Services, a Cambridge, Mass., health data analytics company. axios.link/3VlLDYG

• The French government offered to pay €700m for certain big data and cybersecurity assets of Atos (Paris: ATOS), which earlier this week received a financial rescue plan from shareholder Onepoint. axios.link/45pmqB6

• Kirin Holdings (Tokyo: 2503) agreed to buy Fancl (T: 4921), a Japanese maker of cosmetics and dietary supplements, for more than $1.4b. axios.link/3z9AfHE

• Vodafone (LSE: VOD) is seeking to sell its 21.5% stake in India's Indus Towers, via block sales worth $2.3b at current prices, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3VG2Mxj

🚑 JPMorgan Private Capital raised over $500m for a life sciences-focused fund. jpmorgan.com/am

• Nicole Perlroth, a longtime cybersecurity journalist, announced that she's launching an early-stage cybersecurity VC firm called Silver Buckshot. Word is that she's targeting around $15m.

• President Biden nominated Christy Goldsmith Romero as FDIC chair, to replace Martin Gruenberg. axios.link/3KJIdKk

• Richard Earnshaw joined FTV Capital as a London-based partner. He previously was with Hg. axios.link/3yYYRCZ

• Jon Tenan joined Baird as a managing director of consumer investment banking. He previously was with Raymond James. axios.link/3RmSmjB

• Bessemer Venture Partners promoted Alexandra Sukin to VP. axios.link/4ep7gQC

• NEA promoted Alex Sharata to partner. axios.link/3VlKIHt

Major company CEOs continue to display steady confidence in the U.S. economy, according to The Business Roundtable's quarterly survey.

• BRT's economic outlook index came in at 84, which is just a tick below the 85 reported in March and a tick above the long-term average of 83.
• CEOs reported growing sales (up to 123 from 118), lower capital spending plans (70 from 78), and no change to hiring plans (60).

Behind the scenes: Former President Trump yesterday spoke to BRT members, via an interview with his White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow during which he pledged to further lower the corporate tax rate.

• President Biden was at the G7, so was represented at the BRT meeting by WH Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, who was interviewed by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.
• Go deeper on the meeting.

The bottom line, per Axios' Neil Irwin: "The economy has hit a midyear holding pattern in which policy is static, growth and inflation have leveled out and CEOs aren't making major adjustments to hiring plans as they await the results of the U.S. presidential election and a Fed policy pivot."