I invest in early-stage technology companies, focusing on seed investments, and I’ll join other investors in Series A. I will invest between $5,000 to $25,000, and I’d love to be the first money in.
If I invest, I have a group of angel investors I will refer you to, and I will refer you to funds I am an LP in if your company is a good fit for the fund’s thesis.
Founder Background
One of the founders should have a technical background. If you are founding a software company, one of the founders should be a software engineer.
One of the founders should be a strategic thinker, and I’ll do my best to probe that when we meet.
I find it promising if the founders read a lot of books.
I prefer the company has at least two founders.
Type of Company
I primarily invest in software companies but also consider hardware companies. For software companies, I am particularly interested in SaaS, machine learning, consumer apps, games, and crypto.
I need to convince myself there is some possibility your company could be a $10B company, and I tend not to invest in industries where I don’t believe a “decacorn” is possible. For example, while I have a background in maps and outdoor apps, I don’t believe either space leads to decacorns (and rarely even unicorns).
I don’t invest in companies related to the big sports (football, baseball, basketball, soccer, or hockey), because I just am not interested in these. I also don’t invest in physical goods that aren’t electronics. I have an aversion to investing in education and hiring companies right now, because I believe they are overhyped due to the pandemic.
Other Investment Theses
I am looking for companies that have some amount of traction (week-over-week growth).
I like to see growth, but not too much optimization… e.g. you might have strong product but weak marketing. You might have poor reviews for some reason, or you might have weird pricing, or you might not have an Android app, or you might not have self-service signup for SaaS.
My Potential Value-Adds
I am happy to be a hands-off investor, but I am delighted to get company updates, and I will advise when requested on things I have experience in.
I am a generalist and have done a lot of software development, people management, product strategy, marketing, and writing. Some topics I might be able to help with are:
- Remote work – how to foster a fun and high-morale remote workplace
- Hiring – how to source and evaluate candidates
- Analytics and Infrastructure
- Consumer Product Analytics – how to analyze, AB test, etc
- Subscription Businesses – how to measure and grow subscriptions businesses
- Infrastructure – how to manage data and act on it, what software to use and how to evaluate it
- Communications – how to write clearly and tell the right story
- M&A – how to be acquired and maximize the price