Venture as a craft

OUR STORY

We take risks on brilliant people and products. We work with founders on a mission to change the one thing they think is fundamentally broken in the world. We welcome young or first-time founders who are technical or domain experts in their field.

Our focus is finding Europe’s best early stage tech startups and building them into large revenue, category-defining companies. We believe great companies are built by great teams, not by venture capitalists. Some might call our approach old-school.

We lead pre-seed or seed rounds. We invest at fair terms and reserve capital to continue investing through a company’s journey. We typically invest between $500k to $5 million, although we have gone as low as $250,000 and as high as $10 million. We like to aim for an ownership position between 10% to 20%.

When we believe in your vision, market and team, we get conviction quickly. We often write the first large check a company receives. We aren’t afraid of being the only investor, but are happy to invest alongside others.

We work hard behind the scenes to maximize value. We provide introductions, help make key hires, provide market intel, ink strategic partnerships and handle difficult operational issues. Sometimes we might even spark crazy acquisition offers. Often, our work is providing a sage perspective that comes from living through multiple market cycles, and having the forthrightness to hold honest conversations others shy away from.

Having spent most of our working lives in Silicon Valley, we aim to replicate in Europe what we saw work in California. We dream big and are unashamedly ambitious for our companies.

The earlier we can invest, the more helpful we can be

We invest at fair terms and reserve capital to follow our investments. We typically invest between $500K to $5M+ but we are not limited by a particular check size or ownership percentage.

WHAT WE DO

  • We invest in Seed and pre-seed rounds and can invest as early as pre-revenue and pre-product companies
  • Checks of $500K to $5M+,
and lead or co-lead rounds
  • Deliberately anti-thematic – the next big thing can come from anywhere

OUR CRITERIA

  • New category creation
  • Product-market fit
  • Proven ability to hire better than yourself
  • Ambition to tackle the US market early

OUR PROMISE

  • Active board members
  • Ability to open doors, including senior relationships in Silicon Valley
  • High standards and expectations for success
  • Work tirelessly behind the scenes, in good times and bad
DIVERSITY

We believe diversity is achieved through actions not words. And we are a work in progress.

23%

of our companies are founded by women

56%

of our companies are founded by immigrants

43%

of our companies are started by minorities