The Anti-VC
We're not unicorn hunters and don't believe in uneconomic high burn models reaching for market share. We look for businesses built by founders who are cash efficient, scrappy, and pragmatic. We focus on companies with $2mm+ of run-rate revenue and year over year growth of 50%+. We'll invest anywhere in the US or Canada, especially in markets most venture capital firms overlook. We prefer leading $1mm to $10mm Series A or B rounds, but can also follow. We like plain-vanilla preferred stock in traditional growth rounds, inside rounds, recaps, and restructurings. We can also do secondaries.
Who We AreThe Numbers
18
Companies Funded
13
Invested
1
Check Size
3-4
Decision Process
Our
Portfolio
SaaS, e-commerce, marketplaces, and low-tech are all areas of interest. Our portfolio is diverse and includes HR software, app tech, parking, sales & marketing software, greeting cards, dating, e-commerce, and healthcare software.
See Our Full Portfolio
Sell a solution, not a product
I just finished reading Strategies That Win Sales by Mark Marone & Seleste Lunsford. It’s worth a deeper read, and below are some of our favorite excerpts. Support depends on complexity. “The product or service being sold will impact the appropriateness of channel (e.g., organizations with highly technical products will require live support through…
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Autopsy of a Dead Venture Backed Company
In 2017 we had our first zero at Blossom Street Ventures. I’ll withhold the name of the company, but I do want to share key learnings from that experience. Below is an autopsy of a dead company. Build a product for one market. Our portfolio company built phenomenal technology but didn’t actually productize. The…
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Startup salaries for CEOs
We’ve seen a wide range of CEO salaries at venture backed companies, from as low as $35k annually to as much as $325k (plus bonus). While there is no dataset explicitly outlining salary levels at early stage companies, we can use the salaries from tech companies at their IPO to get a sense for what…
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One big investor is a mistake
Whether you’re raising debt or equity, our advice is to get as many investors/lenders as possible. While there are drawbacks to having a lot of investors, in our view the pros far outweigh the cons. The biggest cons of having lots of investors are that it makes the cap table larger meaning you may…
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