I'm a 20+ year entrepreneur investor in the Santa Barbara area. My experience included founding and operating several tech companies including (ValueClick) went public (Nasdaq-VCLK), later became conversant, and was sold to Alliance Data for 2.3 billion in 2014.
I am personally invested in over 45 early-stage startups and several more as founder and managing partner of both Entrada Ventures and Istari Capital LP.
I work closely with many early-stage start-ups, especially in the digital marketing and Enterprise SAAS space.
I became interested in blockchain in 2013 and made my first investments in Bitcoin.
I specifically look for seed stage companies, post revenue, pre A round, that are growing rapidly with a solid scalable model, where I see the opportunity to become a unicorn.
I prefer to find companies where I can add value with not just money, but with my network, mentorship, and digital marketing expertise.
Great Founders + Great Scalable Opportunites+Market Validation (Revenue) is what I am looking for.
By backing this syndicate, you can gain access to my investments. You can cancel your relationship with this syndicate and stop backing at any time, and decide to invest, or not, on a deal by deal bases.
Thesis Specifics
More specifically, the following are some of the things that I look at when evaluating an investment.
Founders
Passionate and Charismatic.
Do they have the ability to attract strategic partners, advisors, investors, team members and customers?
I also prefer more than one founder to protect against unexpected life changes.
I give extra points if the founders have start up experience.
Business Model
A great business needs great margins. I will only invest in a sub 50% GM business if I can see a clear path to increasing margins in the near future.
As with most investors, I love SAAS and recurring revenue models with 85%+ GM. If not a recurring revenue model, is the product "sticky"? I don't want to be in a business that needs to find new customers each month.
I look for the cometative advatage or "secret sauce", realizing that many times the only defense is a powerful offense.
Traction
I prefer to invest in companies that have a growing revenue and customer base.
Previous 12 months of continuous revenue and customer growth.
I like to see at least 18 months of cash post close.
I prefer to invest in rounds that get the company either to profitability or a solid A-Round.
Product
Overall, I prefer a software product that can scale "easily" once the other pieces come together. Product-market fit and TIMING are critical. Actual customer traction, NPS score and a gut feel are most valuable to determine if we have the right product at the right time.
Location
The network effect of places like the Silicon Valley can be very a powerful catalyst in growing a company, enhancing the ability to find partners, investors, team members and customers.
Co-investors
If I'm not the first money in, who is? Other notable investors "smart money" can help validate my thesis and sometimes help to attract me if I'm on the fence.
Valuation
While I love a great deal as much as the next angel, I try to only invest in companies where I believe that the difference between a 3 or 6 or 8 million valuation will be negligible in the not too distant future.
I will syndicate every deal in which the founders approve and provide an allocation. I will have real skin in the game of every company and view the syndicate as more of a value-add to the startup.
