Who We Are
We focus on companies with $2mm+ of run-rate revenue and year over year growth of 50%+. We value founders that are cash efficient, scrappy, and pragmatic. We’ll invest anywhere in the US or Canada, especially in markets most venture capital firms overlook. We prefer leading $1mm to $5mm 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’re currently investing out of our 5th fund and our check is $1mm. We can commit to a deal in as little as 4 weeks. Our portfolio is diverse and includes HR software, app tech, parking, sales/marketing software, apps, greeting cards, dating, e-commerce, and healthcare software. We welcome cold emails so reach out any time to sammy@blossomstreetventures.com.
Our Team
Sammy Abdullah
Co-Founder, Chair & Principal
Sammy chairs the board of Blossom Street Ventures and manages the day to day operations. Along with Kevin, he co-founded the firm. His primary responsibilities are to source and diligence new opportunities, oversee the portfolio, and handle investor relations. Previously, Sammy was a Vice President at Congruent Investment Partners. Prior to that, he worked at Prudential Capital Group and Blossom Street Capital (unaffiliated with Blossom Street Ventures).
Kevin Vela
Co-Founder
Kevin Vela is a founding partner at Vela Wood Law. He focuses his practice in the areas of technology transactions, venture financings, M&A and corporate law. In recent years, he has represented both startups and investors in over $100M in seed, angel and venture rounds. Kevin proudly represents emerging companies all over the world. He was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, received Best Lawyer in Dallas by D Magazine in 2016, and is a Texas Bar Foundation Fellow, an honor granted to only a third of the top 1% of attorneys in Texas.
Lara Bubalo Manor
Senior Counsel & Advisor
Lara began her career at Lehman Brothers, and thereafter, Neuberger Berman, where she analyzed primary, secondary, and co-investment opportunities across various asset classes ranging from venture capital and growth equity to large-cap buyouts and distressed debt. She currently works as an attorney at Vela Wood, a corporate law firm based in Dallas, TX, where she advises and counsels investors, entrepreneurs, startups, and established businesses with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions, and private placements.
Mark Clark
Board Member
Mark is a Senior Partner at O2Works, a premier Oracle E-Business Suite services provider, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Mark started his career with Oracle Corporation as one of their first Applications Consultants, and later founded two globally focused consulting firms concentrating on Oracle Applications. He has worked with enterprise customers across a wide variety of industries and geographies since 1990. Mark is actively involved as a co-founder and board member of both the North Central Oracle Applications User Group and the South Central Oracle User group. He has served on the board of directors for the Oracle Applications User Group for several terms and recently completed a two year term as their president. He also serves on a number advisory boards to Oracle Product Management.
Davis Deadman
Board Member
Davis has been a Partner with Advantage Storage since 2012. In this role, he is responsible for sourcing and executing on new acquisitions and development activity. His background resides in lending/banking, valuation, commercial real estate and institutional money management. Davis currently serves on the board of directors for both Triumph Savings Bank, SSB and Triumph Business Capital. From 2004 to 2011, he served as CEO and President of NexBank, a financial services organization that included a broker-dealer, and an investment banking and corporate advisory firm. Before NexBank, he served as a Senior Portfolio Manager, and ultimately as a partner, with Highland Capital Management L.P. In this role, he managed a team of investment professionals responsible for a several billion dollar portfolio of credit investments across multiple industries. Additionally, he oversaw various real estate investments for the firm, including the notable $200+ million Chase Tower (Dallas CBD Office) acquisition. Prior to 1998, he served as an investment officer at Mutual Benefit Life, where he managed a commercial real estate-backed loan portfolio.
Thomas Gaunt
Board Member
Tom has been an executive in the software business for over 25 years. He has managed exponential growth at early stage companies, such as Macromedia. More recently Tom was SVP of Worldwide Sales at Rogue Wave Software, a leading provider of enterprise-class software tools and components. He is currently the CEO of a stealth mode startup. Tom also serves on the board of directors for Executive Networks and Readers 2 Leaders, a non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas. Readers 2 Leaders helps children in West Dallas learn to read at or above grade level.
Tim Hamick
Board Member & Advisor
Tim is a board member emeritus and advisor to BSV. Tim is a senior executive, tech entrepreneur, accomplished sales executive, startup investor and internet marketing expert. He’s also a director of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Dallas Chapter. Previously, Tim was the COO and a consultant for BubbleLife Media, a digital media and content publishing startup based in the Dallas area. Prior to that, he was co-owner and managing principal of 2ndLAW Media, an interactive ad agency, which he sold in May of 2013. He is also the co-founder of vWoGo, an online gaming platform. Tim has run divisions of financial services firms for Merill Lynch (NYSE: ML), where he was a managing director, and Southwest Securities (NYSE: SWS), where he held the title of executive vice president and served the firm’s executive committee. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Tim managed various groups and projects at ABN AMRO Incorporated and The Chicago Corporation. Most notably, he worked on the development of early to market technology for the online trading of equity and option instruments. These groups were later sold to ABN AMRO and Merrill Lynch.
Robert C. Johnson
Board Member
Robert has been an entrepreneur and investor his entire adult life. Shortly after graduating Colgate University in 1994, with a double major in computer science and psychology, he joined software startup Sundance Digital – as employee number two. Robert quickly found himself as CEO and majority shareholder of the fledgling company. Under his leadership, the company grew to become one of the world’s largest providers of software to automate television stations. Their customer list included many households names in the US, South American, and Asia. In 2006 the company was sold to Avid Technology (NASDAQ: AVID) and Robert transitioned into a corporate VP of Enterprise Sales role. After leaving Avid, Robert became involved in the oil & gas industry where he worked with a partner to consolidate production assets in the East Texas field. The resulting company was sold to Gale Force Petroleum (TSX:GFP), a public Canadian company, and Robert currently sits on the board as a member of the reserves and audit committees. In 2008 Robert founded TeamSupport.com which provides enterprise-class customer service software, delivered via the web. TeamSupport is growing rapidly in this $4.6B market and focuses on customers who see customer support as a key strategic differentiation. Their customer base includes AT&T, the NBA, the American Lung Association and WalMart.
Bruce MacFadyen, CFA
Board Member
Bruce is COO of Door, a next-generation technology-enabled residential real estate platform based in Dallas, Texas. At Door, Bruce is responsible for executing the vision to become the national leader in residential transactions. Prior to joining Door, Bruce was an executive at the cloud security company, Armor Defense. During his tenure at Armor, he was COO/CFO through four investment rounds and then led the Product Lab, which designed the next generation of cloud security solutions. Prior to Armor, Bruce held leadership roles at Guardian Healthcare (acquired by Evolution Health) and public equity firm, Atlas Capital. Bruce is also active in the angel investment community through Blossom Street Ventures and Recurring Capital.
The Numbers
18
Companies Funded
13
Invested
1
Check Size
3-4
Decision Process
