Evening update - 7 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared an unspoken truth.
Prepped for ZINC's investor office hours.
Spoke with Mads Jensen of SuperSeed to understand their investment thesis.
Attended ZINC's investor office hours and spoke with:
Carter Davidson and Jonathan Wang.
Jon Holden and Matthew Caudle.
Anna Sandgren and Vineet Ahuja.
Anna Wollaston and Hoa Doan.
Thank you ZINC for organising and you all for your time.
Met a fellow investor.
Had coffee with Cally Russell of Unfolded.

#NowI

Have to plough through my large backlog.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Frictionless investors

An unspoken truth is founders want frictionless investors.

They don't want investors that will hassle them all the time with how is it going or I'm worried about x. They do want investors they can call on when they need them.

They have to spend most of their time getting on with running the business.

I will only invest in you if I think you will win if you never speak to me again.

Then it's up to you - I can be frictionless or you can call on me whenever you need me.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 6 Mar 23

#TodayI

Had two hours sleep.
Shared my most important advice for first-time founders.
Got the 7am flight to London Gatwick.
Had a great in-person chat with Monika Holod of Wangie.app who I just invested in.
Met old friend Catherine Powell of The London Meditation Project for coffee. Always make time for old friends.
Had coffee with Anthony Paine of Stashbee.
Had the best ramen at Kanada-ya

#NowI

Am going to sleep.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

My most important advice to first-time founders

Build a network of other founders. There are a lot of solved problems out there. You don't need to recreate the wheel.

Then you can focus on solving the problems unique to your business.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 3 March 23

#TodayI

Announced unbundled vc's investment in Monika Holod of Wangie.app.
Chatted with Martin Lewis.
Spoke with Tom Hollis of Tupelo to understand his investment thesis.
Had lunch with Craig Allen at Good Rebel and a quick tour of Julius Baer's office.
Was pitched by Mohamed Ali Walji of Kounteq .
Was pitched by a founder who wishes to remain anonymous.

#LaterI

Need to do some of the important not urgent work I failed to do yesterday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

New investment - Monika Holod of Wangie

I am excited to announce unbundled vc has invested in Monika Holod and Wangie.app.

Wangie.app offers on-demand anonymous therapy. Just open the app and do it.

Why Wangie?

Mental health is important to me. I've never invested in the space because it is crowded. Every business has a differentiator. That differentiator has to matter enough.

Here the key differentiator is on-demand. Historically, people had to find a therapist - hard - and agree a weekly or monthly regular schedule - not how people live their lives any more. People expect on-demand and for that to be high quality.

Why Monika?

Monika is laser-focused, has the right skills to build this with her experience in brand marketing in high-growth venture-backed businesses and is capital efficient.

Wangie.app has the opportunity to redefine how people receive therapy.

Go check it out.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 2 Mar 23

#TodayI

Posted about the launch of unbundled vc's founder support program with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners.
Bumped into Amy Richards and had coffee.
Had my weekly important not urgent day and didn't get as much important work done as I would have liked.

#LaterI

Am improvising my joy back with Sarah Hansmann Rouxel. Showcase details coming soon.

#TomorrowI

Will share my latest investment. Very excited about this one!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Transitioning from founder-led sales

A classic startup problem is the transition from founder-led sales.

Founders understand the problem they are trying to solve back to front and are typically good at sales. Transposing that into other people is hard.

To help solve this problem, I am delighted to announce the launch of unbundled vc's founder support scheme.

Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners is a go-to-market expert with over 15 years of experience at growth stage, VC-backed SaaS companies. He has particular expertise in mentoring founders around selling and transitioning from founder-led sales.

We are partnering to offer founders a free one-hour consultation with actionable feedback for any founders I invest in and can extend that today to three more founders who Matthew and I will choose. Either contact me directly or comment on this post.

The feedback goes just to you and I will never see it. It's there to help you, it's not DD.

There is more to come. Watch this space

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 1 Mar 23

#TodayI

Posted about investing in solo founders.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Attended a JTC Group breakfast where we were fortunate to have Tim Hames speaking. Thank you Martin Punt for the invite.
Chatted with Elena Gusakova (Vysotskaya) of Astra Global and Ligo Partners LLC.
Had a postponement.
Spoke with Chryssi Chorafa and Hugh Furness of StarLiX.
Got to pick Hailey Eustace's brain on deep tech investing after I missed her Alma Angels talk.
Collected my son from football club.

#LaterI

Have to drop off and collect another son from football training.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

I like solo founders

I like solo founders. My last two new investments have been in solo female founders.

Why?

If I'm comparing two early-stage startups and they are in similar positions, it's way more impressive if you achieved that as a solo founder because it was achieved by just one person!

As the business progresses, this effect diminishes as you have more resources around you to fill the gap.

Why female? That's irrelevant. If you're good enough, you're good enough.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 28 Feb 23

#TodayI

Posted about Rare Disease Day and my sons' condition.
Was pitched by Darshita Mehta Gillies of Maanch.
Had a call with Bobby Phillips and some of his colleagues.
Was pitched by Ollie Dotsch of Kano World.
Chatted with Eleanor Kaye of Newton Venture Program.
Had a postponement.
Attended a panel meeting.
Signed some investment docs.

#NowI

Have to send funds for that investment.
Need to get back to a founder.
Have to take the bins out in the rain :(

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Rare Disease Day 2023

It's Rare Disease Day.

My youngest two boys, including the one on my shoulders in my profile picture, have X-Linked Hypophosphatemia (XLH), a rare condition affecting 1 in 20,000.

When we lived in Switzerland, the doctors checked my kids' blood tests against the adult rather than the child standards and failed to diagnose it.

When we moved to Guernsey, my wife figured it out and the paediatricians didn't believe her. Our GP did, we self-referred to Great Ormond Street and the specialist confirmed the diagnosis.

In the UK the standard (still pretty new) medication is available. In Guernsey it wasn't. We had to apply and were planning to leave as we didn't expect it to be approved. It was.

My kids will always be smaller than everyone else. They still have major issues with their teeth, one had to have some removed last week. But their growth should largely be normal from now on.

The medication is still not approved for adults and it will be needed.

I will be using my own charity pitch to raise money for the condition later in the year.

Thank you for reading.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 27 Feb 23

#TodayI

Shared my views on the premium for high-growth startups.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Chatted with Matthew Codd about our plans. Announcement coming soon.
Had a call with Raj Kulasingam of Dentons and SM River Ventures and shared investment notes.
Attended lunch break meditation at Guille-Allès Library.
Spoke with Jonny Plein of Kuai Commerce about his AMA on the trials and tribulations of raising a £2m seed round. This investment was my first commitment as unbundled vc. Details in the comments and it's raising money for a great cause.
Was pitched by Kunmi Oludoyi of Sorair Technologies.
Declined an investment, post commitment, because the terms for sub-£100k investors were different to larger tickets. This was disappointing as I've not seen this in a term sheet before.
Did a load of admin.
Spoke with Jan Deruyck of Guud whose round is closing very shortly. I am happy to be investing. Ask me for an intro or reach out to him directly.

#LaterI

Will be sleeping.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

The premium on high-growth startups

US VCs pay a bigger premium for high-growth startups than European VCs. Even in 2021, European VCs didn't pay enough for growth.

If higher growth has a chance of compounding through the years, paying more for it now will be cheap.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 24 Feb 23

#TodayI

Posted about VC-led vs Angel rounds.
Had a call with a founder who wishes to remain anonymous.
Shared Catherine Ann Reid (She/Her) of Doqit's charity pitch to raise money for Team Charlie. I will donate £50 to the first 20 founders who do this.
Chatted with Matt Ong of Ctrl Alt.
Had a postponement.
Spoke with Euan Cameron of Willo®.
Had coffee with some people.
Did my fantasy football team.

#NowI

Am making the kids pizza.

#LaterI

Will watch a movie with them.

Have a great weekend everyone!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Charity pitch - Team Charlie

#FridayFounderCharityPitch

Catherine Ann Reid (She/Her) of Doqit is raising funds for Team Charlie. Please watch to hear why and share or donate if you can.

Team Charlie offers grants to kids with brain tumours to offer respite and create memories.

I will donate £50 to the first twenty founders I publicise this way. This is 1 of 20. Donate and charity pitch links in the comments.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic #charity

VC-led vs Angel rounds

On average, VC-led rounds are higher-quality opportunities. Angel rounds can be ones that VCs chose not to lead so suffer from adverse selection. This effect may be smaller in the current market where there is less VC money.

On average, Angel rounds are priced higher than VC-led rounds because VCs see more opportunities and are better informed on pricing. Lead VCs also have an opportunity to set a price with a term sheet whereas Angels are often price takers. This effect may be larger in the current market where valuations have dropped.

There are many exceptions.

Post inspired by Ella Goldner (Levy) of ZINC's question in Alma Angels, yesterday.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 23 Feb 23

#TodayI

Posted about important not urgent Thursdays.
Had my first important not urgent day Thursday with no meetings.
Set up Founder charity pitches - first one coming tomorrow.
Gave feedback to some founders.
Got admin info to my accountants and bank.
Worked on more of the same.
Produced an internal doc to make sure I understand why I do the things I do.
Bought a monitor for use in my coworking space.

#LaterI

Am improvising my joy back with Sarah Hansmann Rouxel.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Important not urgent Thursday

I have no meetings scheduled today. I am trialling dedicating Thursdays to important not urgent work. The things that are essential if you want to grow but could wait. Otherwise, I find I might not have done them in a month's time.

How do you manage important not urgent work?

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 22 Feb 23

#TodayI

WFH in the morning because my wife had a business meeting.
Posted about the challenge of choosing between wildly different investments.
Was pitched by David Tuck of Mayday.
Had a quick call with Jamie Beaumont of Playter.
Had a no-show.
Shared Tim Whiston of isme|&|co's video pitch.
Chatted with Bobby Phillips about a Q&A we are doing.
Booked the cinema to see Puss in Boots with my kids this evening.
Was pitched by Joe Darwen of Veo (Veo.world).

#founders #startups #business #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic