Preston-Werner Ventures Rolling Fund
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Preston-Werner Ventures Rolling Fund

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Subscription Amount
$5,000+ Quarterly
Subscription Period
4-16 Quarters
Management Fee
2% per year over 10 years
Carry
20%
Admin Fee (annualized)
$2.5k + 0.2% of contributed capital
Invest Account
Select invest account
Message Fund Leads
Closing Documents
FAQ

Note from Tom Preston-Werner

This fund, led by Tom Preston-Werner (GitHub cofounder), invests in early-stage technology companies. Our team, consisting of active founder-operators, also provides hands-on assistance, peer-to-peer support, and VC networking to increase the likelihood of portfolio companies' success. We will actively participate in follow-on rounds, building on Tom’s successful track record as an angel investor over the past decade.

Partners

Tom Preston-Werner

Tom is a startup investor and board member, inventor, entrepreneur, and open-source contributor. He is currently a co-founder of 128 Collective (climate philanthropy) and RedwoodJS (open-source app framework and community).
  • Active angel investor for ten years
  • GitHub Cofounder (acquired by Microsoft)
  • Board member at GitPod, Netlify, and HackClub
  • Created Jekyll, SemVer, Gravatar, and TOML

David S. Price

David is a technology entrepreneur, founder advisor, and open-source contributor. He is currently a cofounder of RedwoodJS (open source app framework and community) and developer in residence at 128 Collective (climate philanthropy).
  • Repeat founder
  • Experience building predictive models of competitive markets as an investment bank CTO
  • Academic background in mechanical and biomedical engineering and philosophy

A. David Thyresson

David (DT) is a technology entrepreneur, startup advisor, and open-source contributor. He is currently a technology consultant and Core Team Lead at RedwoodJS (open-source app framework and community).
  • Repeat founder (Entessa acquired by Energy Solutions International, Spogo acquired by Buzztime)
  • Startup CTO (Spogo, Sports Innovation Lab)

Thesis

Why does this fund exist? What are the reasons to become an LP?

This Rolling Fund…
  • …is the vehicle for continuing and enhancing Tom’s investing (an evolution of angel investing for ten years)
  • …increases follow-on round participation (using an SPV when appropriate)
  • …provides an opportunity for individuals to invest alongside Tom as Rolling Fund LPs

Objective

In 2022, Tom invested approximately $10 million in 40 companies. (He led the GitPod $25M Series A.) The purpose of this fund is to continue a similar investment trajectory, including additional LP capital (dependent on market conditions).

Previous Investments

Tom has invested in more than 100 companies during the past ten years (www.prestonwernerventures.com). This is a short, representative list of his portfolio companies:
(last revised January 2023)

Opportunities

  1. Deal flow: High quality and quantity, inbound and outbound (because of Tom and RedwoodJS)
  2. Follow-on: Invest in later rounds of Tom’s current portfolio companies
  3. Evaluation: We are inventors and founders; we operate within the ecosystems where we invest, often seeking solutions to problems we encounter; we built an application framework used by startups; we run a peer-to-peer founders network
  4. Plan (and capability) to help startups achieve critical milestones: Help startups raise from top-tier VC firms (greatly increases the probability of a successful exit) and/or help startups achieve profitability
Due to past and current experiences, accomplishments, and credibility, we have a global reach with developers, entrepreneurs, and investors. We live (and have lived) in the Bay Area. We are strongly networked with reputable founders and investors.


Focus

What kind of investments will you make?

We focus on opportunities:
  • where we are experts (we are technologists, specifically software developers)
  • where we operate (we are active in the developer tooling and climate ecosystems)
  • where we have access to experts (we are strongly networked with technology and climate founders, scientists, and investors)

Markets

Primary

  1. Developer Tools (often COSS)
  2. RedwoodJS Ecosystem (both startups and integration partners)

Secondary and Emergent

  1. AI (especially adjacent to dev tools)
  2. Climate (both software and hardware)

Stage

  • We will continue to invest frequently in Pre-seed through Series A
  • We will sometimes invest limited capital in high-risk Angel rounds*
  • When possible, we will invest in follow-on rounds
  • When practical and opportune, we may invest in Series B and later
*The Redwood Startup Fund will be included in this Rolling Fund—Tom will contribute the committed capital to the Rolling Fund for investment
Tom Preston-Werner

Investment Details

Subscription Start Date
April 1, 2024
Minimum Quarterly Subscription
$5,000
Minimum Subscription Period
4 Quarters
Management Fee
Investors pay management fees of 2% per year for the first 10 years. Management fees are taken as a percentage of the total committed capital. The total management fee is paid out quarterly over the first four years of the fund's life.
Carry
Twenty percent (20%)
Admin Fee (annualized)
$2.5k + 0.2% of contributed capital
Fees for each quarterly fund in the Rolling Fund Program will vary based on each quarterly fund’s capital contributions since the fee includes a flat fee component. Last quarter, this fund closed $1.92M in capital. Learn more about how to estimate your commitment’s fees at our help center.
Fund Lead Commitment
Tom Preston-Werner's personal subscription per quarter will be with a quarterly cap of $1,000,000 in total.

Investor FAQ

How is this program different from venture fund investing?
How do subscriptions work?
How do management and admin fees work?
How does carried interest work?
How do distributions work?
Will a Limited Partner (LP) participate in all investments made by the funds offered through this Program?
Will an LP's percentage ownership of quarterly funds always be the same?
Are LPs guaranteed access to Preston-Werner Ventures Rolling Fund's future funds?
How are subscriptions funded?
How does changing or canceling a subscription work?
Who manages these funds?
Do funds in this Program have minimum or maximum investment sizes?
What happens if funds in this Program do not invest their total capital each quarter?
When will LPs learn about companies the funds invested in?
Can LPs opt out of specific deals?
Can LPs sell their investment in the fund?
Can LPs redeem their interests in the fund?
When will funds launched under this Program begin deploying capital?
How do I receive tax documents from this Program?
Unanswered questions? Contact AngelList
The performance of past deals or a lead investors' track record is not a guarantee of future returns. Venture capital fund investments are inherently risky and illiquid. Such investments involve a high degree of risk and are suitable only for sophisticated and accredited investors.
AngelList and its affiliates do not provide investment advice to investors. The information on this page should not be relied upon as research, investment advice or a recommendation of any kind. Information on this page is qualified in its entirety by the fund's Limited Partnership Agreement, Private Placement Memorandum and Subscription Agreement, which should be reviewed carefully prior to making an investment decision. Please see these documents for full details regarding risks, minimum investment, fees and expenses. The Fund Lead and the fund's investment advisor have the right to waive or charge additional carry to certain investors. The fund's legal name may be different from the name used above.
This fund may accept new investors after the fund undergoes a valuation update. Certain potential investors in the fund may then have access to materially different information concerning fund value at the time of their investment.
Current or future portfolio companies in this fund may use AngelList's recruiting platform and may pay an affiliate of the fund's investment adviser for premium recruiting tools and services. This may create a potential conflict of interest for the investment adviser, which you will consent to by subscribing to the fund.
Please read the disclosures in full here.

Apply To Subscribe

Subscription Amount
$5,000+ Quarterly
Subscription Period
4-16 Quarters
Management Fee
2% per year over 10 years
Carry
20%
Admin Fee (annualized)
$2.5k + 0.2% of contributed capital
Invest Account
Select invest account
Message Fund Leads
Closing Documents
FAQ