The promise (and risk) of pre-emptive funding
If you run a hot start-up, you’ll probably have VC’s ask if you are interested in getting a pre-emptive term sheet – you don’t have to do a full fundraise but can get similar deal terms as if you had done one. It sounds like a win-win for everybody. You can get back to building […]
The risks of scaling too fast, too soon
While preparing for some recent LP presentations, we took a close look at all of the companies that we exited in Fund I. There were ten exits out of a total of 20 investments. These were all “early exits” with mostly unsatisfactory outcomes for everybody involved, especially the dedicated and talented founders who had poured […]
Announcing our investment in CryptoKitties – the wildly popular, blockchain-based pet
We are very pleased to announce our investment in Axiom Zen, the maker of CryptoKitties. We participated in the $12M Series A alongside our friends at USV and a16z. And, we are excited to be working with the CryptoKitties team to create the leading crypto collectible platform. If you’ve missed the CryptoKitty mania, it’s a […]
Announcing our investment in Drover, a new way to get a car
We’re pleased to formally announce our prior seed investment in the London-based car subscription company, Drover. And we’re even happier to announce that Drover has just raised a £5.5 million Series A round. We co-led the £2 million seed investment with Forward Partners, and today Drover is announcing they’ve closed a Series A round, which […]
What incentives are best for decentralized platforms?
One of the major advantages of the blockchain is that token models make it much easier to incentivize users. For example, during the early days, you can hand out tokens to reward early users and solve the chicken and egg problem that so many social platforms face. With decentralized platforms, the value that is created […]