Invest with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures
8
Expected Deals/Year
0
Unique LPs have invested
Note from Brooklyn Bridge Ventures
Seed investing isn't easy. You are being asked to evaluate companies that are barely a prototype, sometimes a napkin and often times, just an idea. You are managing a small fund, not generating a lot of fees, and working with companies at the stage where they need the most help.
In other words, it's a great job if you like working hard for not a lot of guaranteed money and you really love entrepreneurs.
Few VCs stay at this early stage. Most grow larger in terms of assets under management and look for later stage opportunities to put larger funds to work. The purpose of this syndicate is to collect a group of like minded investors who love these very earliest stages, want to be helpful, and understand the risks and rewards of involving themselves with companies that have both the most potential and the most potential to fail at the very same time.
Dealflow
Brooklyn Bridge Opportunities Fund will seek to invest, when possible, in companies that have additional capacity after Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and its affiliates have made its desired commitments as well as follow-on opportunities that are still at sub-$10mm pre-money valuations. Since BBV does not follow-on, these latter deals may represent attractive opportunities to invest in companies with traction where BBV is active, and enthusiastic, and where valuations are still reasonable. This fund does not guarantee access to every deal that Brooklyn Bridge Ventures invests in.
FAQ:
>> Are these the best deals? Do I really want to be in deals where other smart investors don't want to take up all of the capacity?
Frankly, I don't think anyone really knows at this stage which deals will turn out to be the best. Two of the best companies that Brooklyn Bridge Ventures invested in, Tinybop and Canary, both had at least $250k extra available in their seed rounds at the time that BBV invested. On the other hand, two of the companies in the main fund that have had the most trouble were completely oversubscribed by top tier investors. If VCs knew at the start which deals were the best, they'd only invest on those and never invest in a loser, nor would they ever miss a winner.
What we do know is that each of these rounds will have participation from other fund investors not affiliated with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures in at least the amount that is being syndicated--so the syndicate will never be more than half the round.
>> How do we know that Brooklyn Bridge Ventures will do right by this fund in terms of allocations to deals?
The reputation of a venture investor is his or her most important asset--and we live in a very public world. We are subjected "The NY Times Test" everyday--except 10,000x thanks to all of the various social media channels. That leaves this syndicate's founding partner, Charlie O'Donnell, very incentivized to make allocations fairly and ethically, to ensure a long term career in the asset class and continued high quality dealflow for his investors.
>> Can I lose my money doing these deals?
Yes.
>> Can I lower my risk of losing money?
Yes, you can diversify--investing across a number of companies and making sure you don't overallocate to this very risky asset class. Generally, most people invest no more than 2-10% of their net worth in venture capital and it takes about 20-25 deals before the benefits of diversification kick in.