Invest with Mentors Fund
$79k
Typical Investments
15
Expected Deals/Year
35
Unique LPs have invested
Note from Mentors Fund
Unique Partnership: Mentors Fund is an early-stage venture fund group with over 70 partners who, as founders, have created over $12 billion of shareholder value and as corporate leaders have served as CxOs of Fortune 500 companies. This unique partner network allows us to source, invest in, and mentor tech startups transforming industries and impacting society at scale.
Unfair advantage: With over 70 partner networks funneling in deals, Mentors Fund gets an extraordinary volume of high-quality deal flow. Our partners' entrepreneurial experience and industry connections make us especially attractive to founders and give us an uncommon advantage in accessing highly sought-after deals and oversubscribed rounds.
Exceptional Performance: The advantages of our differentiated setup and approach have helped Fund I perform in the Top quartile range for 2017-2020 vintage funds when compared to the Cambridge Associates benchmarks. Across 50 investments, the top 10% of our portfolio each have valuations in excess of $100m, 95% of our companies have successfully raised further funding, and we have had one write-off to date.
Backing Incredible Founders: Being inclusive isn't hard. We have backed some incredible founders without creating artificial targets for diversity. The result has been that 30% of our portfolio company founders are women entrepreneurs, and 55% of our portfolio company founders are under-represented entrepreneurs!
Opportunity to Invest: You have two ways of participating in Mentors Fund deals - (i) join this syndicate (ii) subscribe to the Mentors Fund - Rolling Fund - https://angel.co/v/back/mentors-fund. Mentors Fund will syndicate all the deals we invest in and have additional allocation available. Our Rolling Fund gets first access to all our investments. However, our syndicate LPs will have the opportunity to invest at the same terms as Mentors Fund.
OUR PARTNERS
We are a group of 70 founders, operators, business leaders, researchers, and investors who work together to identify and back entrepreneurs leading tech-enabled transformation of traditional sectors. At the heart of this group are Investment and Operating Committees that ensure rapid diligence and a decision-making process that prioritizes the entrepreneurs’ time.
Startup founders value our partners’ entrepreneurial experience in building and scaling teams and companies: they actively seek our guidance as we have been on the same startup journey they are on, having raised billions of dollars of capital, and started companies that have created over $12 billion of shareholder value. Founders also value the corporate connections and acumen of our partners who are CxOs at Fortune 500 companies and who can open business development and corporate development doors for young startups.
>>> Here is a link to our group of partners.
TOP TRACK RECORD
We started Mentors Fund I in late 2017 to invest in early-stage enterprise technology companies from Pre-Seed through Series A. Our group of 70+ partners brings unmatched industry experience and contacts to help our companies overcome startup challenges and succeed at scale.
Over the last four years, we have invested in 51 companies from Mentors Fund I. While still relatively early in our own journey, the fund has generated 29% IRR and 1.41x multiple over a weighted average 18-month holding period. Our portfolio is performing in the top quartile range when compared to the Cambridge Associates benchmark.
Some of our past investments include:
- Quit Genius - 2019 Seed. Series B w/ Octopus Ventures
- Alyce - 2017 Seed. Series B w/ General Catalyst
- RealWear - 2017 Seed - raised Series B
- Akido Labs - 2018 Seed - has since raised Series A
- Roo - 2019 Pre-Seed - has since raised Series Seed with Floodgate
- Zadar Labs - 2020 Seed
>>> A full list of past investments can be found here.
DEALFLOW
Our Network of Networks structure gives us access to high-quality companies. We typically get introduced to founders through various networks and have developed a robust proprietary deal flow process. Due to our unique partnership structure
- The corporate, alumni, and personal networks of 70+ partners
- Founder Network: Past Portfolio Founders, Incubator networks
- 50+ Active portfolio companies. In addition, we have pro-rata investment rights in some of our Fund 1 investments which we can invest in through Fund 2
- We live and hire globally - distributed partners and portfolio companies with “boots on the ground” in San Francisco, Austin, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, London, Dubai, South Asia, and Japan - we see deals from
INVESTMENT STRATEGY
We invest first and foremost in exceptional entrepreneurs. We gravitate towards startup teams that have an insider’s expertise in an industry ripe for technology-led transformation. We are bullish on the impact of AI, SaaS, and Digital Marketplaces on Healthcare, Future of Work, Agriculture, Logistics, and Finance.
- Target deployment: $15m over four years in 50+ new companies
- Stage: Our focus is pre-Seed and Seed rounds, with active follow-on participation where available
- Markets: Technology-led disruptions of traditional sectors such as Healthcare, Retail, Logistics, Agriculture, Finance.
- Syndicates: In opportunities where we have a large allocation, we may run SPVs to syndicate on a deal-by-deal basis
- Investment Rate: 3-4 companies per quarter
BENEFITS TO LPs
- Exceptional deal-flow: Access to quality deals channeled from the high value networks of a group of 70+ partners, advisors, and portfolio entrepreneurs. Monthly deal memos on every company that we invest in.
- Invitation to oversubscribed rounds: The breadth of our partner network and its attraction for entrepreneurs gets us uncommon access to highly sought-after (“hot”) deals.
- Deal diversity: With a plan for 50+ deals ranging in maturity from Pre-seed to Seed to Series A, in industries spanning Health, Finance, and Agriculture, LPs get strong portfolio diversity.
- Interest alignment: Our Fund Lead invests alongside our LPs, aligning financial ROI for both groups. Moreover, being staffed with entrepreneurs and operators, our group of partners defines success not in terms of individual returns but as overall value creation: as (a) the value they give to our portfolio startups, and (b) the value they get back for our partners.
- Mentorship opportunities: Our LPs have the opportunity to engage with our portfolio company founders and help guide them. We also have exclusive investors-only and investor-founder events.
Dealflow
Mentors Fund will syndicate all the deals we invest in and have additional allocation available. Our Rolling Fund gets first access to all our investments. However, our syndicate LPs will have the opportunity to invest at the same terms as Mentors Fund.
We syndicate deals where we have a high-degree of conviction. Mentors Fund average check size is ~$100k, and can range from $50k to $350k.
