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Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, a classic seed-stage investment firm focusing on B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Charles also serves as the Board Chair at the National Venture Capital Association and is a lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Before launching Precursor, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet and mobile startups. He was also the Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup. He spent several years working at In-Q-Tel, the strategic venture capital group for the Central Intelligence Agency. You can learn more about: 1. How to start a VC fund 2. How to craft a compelling pitch to LPs and cultivate an influential investor network 3. How to create a unique fund strategy ===================== YouTube: @GraceGongCEO Newsletter: @SmartVenture LinkedIn: @GraceGong TikTok: @GraceGongCEO IG: @GraceGongCEO Twitter: @GraceGongGG =====================
Thomas is delighted to have Tripp Jones of Uncork Capital on the Unlimited Partners pod today. He discusses his investing philosophies, and Uncork's ability to make a name for itself in the VC marketplace. Most of his investments are a focus on digital transformation. They also discuss Uncork's Founder, Jeff Clavier (formerly SoftTech VC) who is a legend in the VC world. He shares his passion for "investing against his phone" which Thomas dives into a little deeper. This brings up companies like Hipcamp.com and Roamadventureco.com. Tripp knew he wanted to be a VC even as a young kid. He enjoys being an enabler, to help companies reach fantastic outcomes. He believes the team behind the company is the number one criterium for investing, but that even more importantly is getting behind macro trends. They also go into risk and how Tripp loves knowing he can take bigger swings knowing his firm has a great core B2B portfolio. He also shares that he learned early to assess trends in the American woman, who statistically do a lot more of the buying in US households. Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm with over $500 million under management. Links: https://uncorkcapital.com/ Tripp Jones LinkedIn Jeff Clavier Bio Susan Liu LinkedIn Roamadventureco.com Thomas McGannon LinkedIn Showlinks: up-pod.com @uppodpod Email: show@up-pod.com Sponsors: https://www.tegus.com/ https://mymarketplacebuilder.com/
How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors. This episode is with Michael Kim of Cendana Capital (https://www.cendanacapital.com/), a "fund of funds" that invests in very early stage venture capital funds. In this episode, Michael talks about why he started Cendana Capital and how he raised his fund, the types of emerging VCs he prefers to invest in (and what he's looking for when meeting a new VC), the evolution of seed investing, tips for raising an inaugural fund, the process for raising capital from a FoF, and much more. The VC funds that Cendana Capital has invested in include: US Seed: 11.2 Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Angular Ventures, Bowery Capital, Collaborative Fund, Forerunner Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle Capital, IA Ventures, L2 Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, MHS Capital, Montage Ventures, Moxxie Ventures, Neo, NextView Ventures, Silicon Valley Data Capital, Spider Capital, Susa Ventures, Uncork VC (fka SoftTech VC), Wave Capital and XYZ Ventures US Pre-Seed: Better Tomorrow Ventures, Bolt VC, Engineering Capital, K9 Ventures, Mucker Capital, Notation Capital, PivotNorth Capital, Rhapsody Venture Partners, Root Ventures and Wonder Ventures International Seed: 01VC, Blackbird Ventures (AUS and NZ), Cherubic Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, Entree Capital, Golden Ventures, Leo Capital, Moonfire, Saama Capital and System.One How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https:/www.foundersuite.com/
Dans ce 49ème Runway Series Originals, je reçois Jeff Clavier, Founder & Managing Partner d'Uncork Capital établi dans la Valley depuis 2000. [Cet épisode est un extrait de l'épisode que tu peux retrouver en intégralité et avec les shownotes sur VentureNotes.co] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Il y a aujourd'hui plus de 1'200 fonds de micro VC dans le monde. Selon CrunchBase, un Micro-VC fund est un fonds qui se définit surtout par sa taille (le capital à déployer) typiquement inférieure à US$ 100M. C'est par conséquent un fonds qui naturellement va backer des founders essentiellement du pre-seed au seed, au plus tard la Series A. Avec l'émergence et l'accessibilité des plate-formes comme AngelList, des service providers comme Assure, les repeat founders ayant fait des exits embrassant le modèle operator-investor et les solo-capitalists.. nul doute que le trend va accélérer. D'ailleurs la définition par la taille a déjà beaucoup évolué puisqu'en 2014, un Micro-VC fund déployait typiquement moins de US$ 50M. J'ai voulu en savoir plus sur les origines de cette catégorie d'investisseurs de Micro-VC qui existe depuis bien avant 2014. Et Jeff Clavier est sans nul doute l'acteur de ce space pouvant en parler avec le plus d'expérience et de granularité. Car Jeff, Founder & General Partner de Uncork Capital à Palo Alto est un pionnier du Micro-VC depuis 2004. Français et établi depuis 2000 dans la Valley, Jeff a fait depuis plus de 250 investissements (Front, SendGrid, Postmates, Poshmark, Fitbit, Eventbrite) d'abord comme "super angel" puis avec un des tout premiers fonds instit solo-GP de micro-VC, SoftTech VC rebrandé depuis quelques années Uncork avec l'arrivée de Partners. Dans ce super épisode qui est un deep dive dans le monde du Micro-VC dans la Valley, Jeff revient sur _ son parcours en France, son envie de s'établir aux US et ce qui lui a permis d'avoir un dealflow de super angel et une notoriété établie très rapidement _ Jeff revient aussi sur l'intérêt de lancer hybride angelvc et comment il a été un des précuseurs dans la création d'une nouvelle catégorie d'investisseurs _ Jeff nous explique pourquoi le rebranding Uncork Capital, l'atout capital qu'il a reussi à developper, à savoir le tissu d'entrepreneurs soutenus lui permet de ne quasiment jamais perdre un deal _ L'importance particulière que Jeff accorde à la transparence, le challenge essentiel qu'il rencontre en early stage et les questions qu'il aime que les founders posent aux VCs. Je remercie vraiment Jeff et je suis certain que vous allez adorer cet épisode. Très bonne écoute! ____ Les podcasts Runway Series Originals, AMA VC, Human Factor, No-Code VC / Fit & Venture Talks sont produits par UPCOMINGVC® (www.upcoming.vc), imaginés, animés par Raphael Grieco. UPCOMINGVC® a lancé le podcast Runway Series en octobre 2019 et après 70+ épisodes, 85+ invités dans 6 formats différents, le podcast évolue et s'ouvre comme plateforme de lancement pour aspirant.e.s podcasters ! Si comme Melchior Mesnard, et son podcast Momentor que nous produisons, tu as un projet de podcasts sur le Venture Capital, l'Entrepreneuriat, les Startups et l'Innovation, contacte-nous à hello@upcoming.vc ! UPCOMINGVC® c'est aussi une newsletter, "Venture Notes" (venturenotes.co) qui ajoute du contexte aux podcasts & donne accès à des outils & infos uniques pour la Communauté.
064 Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in the Silicon Valley, and has closed 200+ investments since 2004. His portfolio includes Postmates, Poshmark, Fitbit, SendGrid, Mint and many others. He was also a board member of the National Venture Capital Association and was featured on the Forbes Midas List among top venture capitalists in the world. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/Twitter/FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of the top investors, super star founders, as well as well known tech executives in the silicon valley. We will have a coffee chat with them to learn their ways of thinking and actionable tips on how to build or invest in a successful company.
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, a classic seed-stage investment firm based out of San Francisco, CA. Precursor seeks to invest in a company's first round of institutional investment and focuses on investments in B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Prior to launching Precursor, Charles Hudson was a Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed-stage investors in Internet and mobile startups. He focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces. He was also the Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup. Prior to joining SoftTech VC and co-founding Bionic Panda Games, Charles Hudson was the VP of Business Development for Serious Business until the company was acquired by Zynga in February 2010. Prior to Serious Business, he was the Sr. Director for Business Development at Gaia Interactive, an online hangout and virtual world for teens. Prior to Gaia, Charles worked in New Business Development at Google and focused on new partnership opportunities for early-stage products in the advertising, mobile, and e-commerce markets. Prior to joining Google, he was a Product Manager for IronPort Systems, a leading provider of anti-spam hardware appliances that was acquired by Cisco Systems for $830 million in 2007. Charles was also the founder of the Virtual Goods Summit and Social Gaming Summit, two of the leading conferences in the free-to-play games space. Charles spent several years working at In-Q-Tel, the strategic venture capital group for the Central Intelligence Agency. While at In-Q-Tel, he focused on identifying investment opportunities that could deliver significant value to the CIA and the commercial market in both the short and long term. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford University. Some of the Topics Covered by Charles Hudson in this Episode The areas where Precursor Ventures is focused How Charles decided to focus on the very earliest stages of startup investing Charles experience raising his first fund as a single GP How Charles built the team at Precursor Ventures, brought on Sydney Thomas, and what it took for her to get promoted to Principal Charles views on the role of platform in venture capital How Charles organizes the insights from their portfolio companies The advice Charles has for founders around their pitch and the importance of storytelling What Charles looks for in companies he invests in How Charles looks at the brand for Precursor Ventures Why optimism is so important at the early stage of investing Why Charles wanted to be a venture capitalist How Charles invests in himself as an investor to improve at his job Charles' experience working with a coach on communication Getting honest feedback as an investor Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers.
Listen now (36 min) | Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder at Precursor Ventures, one of the first and most active pre-seed focused venture firms in the world. Precursor seeks to invest in a company’s first round of institutional investment and focuses on investments in B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, he spent 5 years as a Partner at Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). Charles was also the CoFounder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, a mobile games startup. Prior to this he held Business Development roles for Serious Business (acquired by Zynga), Gaia Interactive, and Google. Prior to joining Google, Charles was a Product Manager for IronPort Systems, and he worked at In-Q-Tel, the venture capital fund backed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Charles holds a BA and an MBA from Stanford University. Get on the email list at ventureunlocked.substack.com
Founder's FAQ: answers to all the possible questions of a founder. Hosted by Ilker Koksal. This episode's guest is is Charles Hudson. He is the Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, a seed-stage investment firm based out of San Francisco. Prior to launching Precursor, Charles was a Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed-stage investors in the Internet and mobile startups. He was also the Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games. And lastly, he's the lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business.In this episode;1-) How to evaluate the founder.2-) The track record of a founder Current startup vibe that she's starting.3-) Valuations of companies.4-) Pivots.Founder's FAQ is a book for founders and you can pre-order through the website. You can also reach us through @foundersfaq on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
With the increasing popularity and buzz surrounding remote EA work, we decided it was time to get some real insight from a remote Executive Assistant in our network. In this episode, we interview LJ Cohen, remote Executive Assistant to the Partners of Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). In this episode, LJ addresses everything from the importance of asking the right questions in the interview process to ensure success in a remote role to setting up boundaries within her personal life to create a home environment that supports her work to dealing with situations like her executive having trouble connecting to a video conference when she isn’t physically there to assist. Listen in as LJ dives into the nuances of remote support and shares with us what it’s really like to work from home on a daily basis. (Hint: it’s not always pjs, slippers and a cup of tea!) Our hope is that after listening to this episode, you’ll have a clearer sense as to whether remote work is for you and what questions to ask of yourself and others before taking the leap.
With the increasing popularity and buzz surrounding remote EA work, we decided it was time to get some real insight from a remote Executive Assistant in our network. In this episode, we interview LJ Cohen, remote Executive Assistant to the Partners of Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). In this episode, LJ addresses everything from the importance of asking the right questions in the interview process to ensure success in a remote role to setting up boundaries within her personal life to create a home environment that supports her work to dealing with situations like her executive having trouble connecting to a video conference when she isn’t physically there to assist. Listen in as LJ dives into the nuances of remote support and shares with us what it’s really like to work from home on a daily basis. (Hint: it’s not always pjs, slippers and a cup of tea!) Our hope is that after listening to this episode, you’ll have a clearer sense as to whether remote work is for you and what questions to ask of yourself and others before taking the leap.
On this episode, Philip spoke with Charles Hudson. Charles is a serial entrepreneur and is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures. Precursor is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. They recently closed their second fund at $31m, doubling their first fund which was $15m. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC. In this role, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure. Before joining the world of venture capital Charles was a budding entrepreneur in the events industry and then the gaming industry. In this episode, they talk startups, diversity in tech and more. This is a rebroadcast to celebrate black history month.
What’s up everyone! Today I am joined by Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC). He founded Uncork Capital in 2004 to serve an unmet need of startup founders: active support and capital for companies in their first 18 months of life. Some of his successful investments include Fitbit, Sendgrid, Eventbrite, and Vungle. As a VC today, working hard/smart is not enough. You need to find that investor-market fit. After first working as a CTO for a fintech startup in France, Jeff then founded Uncork. Since then, Uncork has been helping startups through their most critical early stages. Jeff has helped guide these companies through the many struggles that come with being an early stage startup. Listen as Jeff shares his startup and VC journey, challenges encountered with founders, and how he built a successful venture capital firm. Enjoy! Episode Quotes "You can't just put a thesis together and say I'm going to work hard and succeed" "Today working hard/smart is not enough. You need to find that investor-market fit" "Get the valuation that the market gives you but don't go seeking the unicorn status" "We should do fundraising not just for the sake of raising but to scale faster, better and higher" Listen to Learn 01:04 How Jeff got into startups and venture capital? 04:53 Helping founders and challenges encountered 08:14 Jeff's core VC skill 14:13 Advice for new investors or startup founders 19:08 Insights from the recession, The $15 million VC fund 23:56 What does it take to start a successful fund? 32:41 Non-rapid Fire Questions 43:45 Jeff's social media links
Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in Silicon Valley, having closed 200+ investments since 2004. An early angel investor in Web 2.0, Jeff and his team have backed successful startups like Mint (Intuit), Kongregate (GameStop), Brightroll (Yahoo), LiveRamp (Acxiom), Milo... The post Jeff Clavier on Why Brand Matters in VC and the Best Startup Investments Break Your Investing Rules appeared first on The Syndicate.
When Stephanie Palmeri graduated from Columbia Business School in 2011, she took a leap of faith. With no job and two suitcases, she left New York City for Silicon Valley, crashing on the couches of fellow CBS grads. “As someone who didn't have a network [in the Valley]…it was scary, but I did it,” Palmeri says. Palmeri, now a partner at Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), sat down with Why CBS host Fahad Ahmed ’17 during the School’s Women’s Business Leadership in Tech: From Talk to Action conference in February, where she was a panelist.
On this episode, Philip spoke with Charles Hudson. Charles is a serial entrepreneur and is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures. Precursor is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC. In this role, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure. Before joining the world of venture capital Charles was a budding entrepreneur in the events industry and then the gaming industry. In this episode, they talk startups, diversity in tech and more. precursorvc.com Startuphandmedowns.com
In this episode of Venture Confidential, Peter is joined by Stephanie Palmeri, Partner with SoftTech VC. She shares learnings from her experience breaking into venture, as well as useful insight into how micro VC firms operate. The post Ep. #6, Feat. SoftTech VC’s Stephanie Palmeri appeared first on Heavybit.
In this episode of Venture Confidential, Peter is joined by Stephanie Palmeri, Partner with SoftTech VC. She shares learnings from her experience breaking into venture, as well as useful insight into how micro VC firms operate.
Jeff Clavier is the founder and managing partner at SoftTech VC, one of the most well-known venture firms in the industry. As one of the original so-called super angels or micro VC’s, Jeff is a legend in the valley and has seen it all. He knows how to pick winners, and some of his most notable investments include Mint.com, Fitbit, Eventbrite, Hired, Postmates, Poshmark, about.me, and many, many more. In this episode, we learn about how Jeff got his start in venture, how he raised his most recent $150M fund, and how SoftTech VC stands out from the rest by not following the crowds. Learn more about Jeff Clavier and SoftTech VC! Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeff. Jeff's favorite book: Dune Jeff's number one passion: Collecting, drinking, and appreciating wine. If Jeff was CEO of any company for one day, it would be: Twitter. Find out why on the show! _____ Executive producer & host: Joe Mahavuthivanij Edited by: Debra Lin Theme music by: Music for Makers Logo design: Debra Lin
Origins - A podcast about Limited Partners, created by Notation Capital
Michael Kim is the founder of Cendana Capital, one of the first fund of funds focused entirely on backing micro-VC firms. Since 2010, Cendana has been a very early institutional backer of firms like Lerer Ventures, Forerunner, Founder Collective, IA Ventures, SoftTech VC, K9 Ventures, among others. In this episode, we discuss Michael's path to starting Cendana and how he thinks about and decides to back venture capital firms. You can find Michael on twitter at @MKRocks and Cendana at @CendanaCapital
Today we have a conversation from our 2016 global conference with SoftTech VC Partner & Principal Stephanie Palmeri. Stephanie has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of marketing and technology. Stephanie joined at SoftTech in 2011 and served as its a Senior Associate. Previously, she served as an Associate at NYC Seed and launched the NYC SeedStart incubator. She also worked at Lot18, Accenture, and Estee Lauder and has built SaaS applications for SAP AG, JP Morgan, and Diageo. Her early experiences include Accenture's market data practice working with investment banking clients like JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Stephanie represents SoftTech VC as a board member for Niche, Ubooly, Chariot, Envoy Commerce Corp., Educents, Fatherly, and Spoon Media Inc. Stephanie holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University with joint degrees in Marketing and Management Information Systems. Lets listen into Stephanie Palmeri live from Startup Grind’s Global Conference in silicon valley this past february.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner with Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on first check investments in strong teams developing innovative hardware and software products and services. Prior to founding Precursor, Charles was a Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet and mobile startups. Prior to SoftTech, Hudson spent time at Google, IronPort Systems, and In-Q-Tel. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Charles made his way into VC from working with the CIA? What were Charles biggest takeaways from his operational experience? 2.) Why have we seen the rise of the solo GP fund? What tools and services can be used by solo GPs to make their lives easier? 3.) Chris Sacca said, 'you have to be a moron to launch a solo VC fund'. What does Charles think about this and what was it about Precursor that made him want to leave SoftTech? 4.) How does Charles' market requirements change now as a pre seed investor, a 100m exit is excellent. Do you you still need unicorns? 5.) How does Charles look to differentiate with Precursor in the sea of emerging VC funds? What is the most important thing for him about pr-seed investing? 6.) What is Charles' vision for Precursor? What would success look like for him? Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode: Charles' Fave Book: Alec Ross: Industries of The Future Charles' Fave Blog: The Information As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Charles on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!
Charles Hudson is founder of Precursor Ventures and a partner at SoftTech VC. This episode is about startup investing We talk about what makes a great investor, how Charles evaluates founders, how he raised a fund, advice to aspiring investors and more. We also talk about his past experiences at the CIA, Google, diversity in tech, the events business, and much more. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @chudson Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg
In this interview, Jeff Clavier explains how to determine your market size and what’s required to take a company public. He also reveals what he looks for in founders and shares what a typical day looks like for a VC.
In this week's episode, we welcome Stephanie Palmeri of SoftTech VC. Dave and Steph discuss SoftTech's growth as a microVC, how crowded the competitive landscape really is for seed-stage founders, and the case for having a west coast investor on your cap table. At SoftTech, Steph has led investments in Poshmark, True & Co, Clever, Handshake, Grovo, Panorama Education, Lantern, and ClassDojo. She is currently on the board of Chariot, Educents, Envoy, Fatherly, and Spoon University. She also led the firm's investment in Niche, which was acquired by Twitter. One of SoftTechVC's most notable investments to date is Fitbit, which went public in June of 2015 with a valuation of about $4.1 billion. SoftTech's founder Jeff Clavier has also been a guest on Venture Studio- you can find his episode on our iTunes or SoundCloud pages.
Today we have another classic episode from the Venture Studio Vault. Originally recorded in May 2011, Dave interviewed Jeff Clavier, an angel investor who helped build the microVC ecosystem. Jeff is the founder of SoftTech VC, one of the pioneers in the recent boom of high-volume sub $100MM seed funds. SoftTechVC is based in the Bay Area but Jeff and his team spend a lot of time in NYC with their portfolio companies. At the time of this recording, SoftTechVC III had just launched, with a target of $35MM, but ultimately closed at $55MM. Today, SoftTechVC is investing out of its $85MM forth fund. One of SoftTechVC's most notable investments to date is Fitbit, which went public in June 2015 with a market cap of $4.1BN billion. Today, Fitbit has a market cap north of $7.5BN.
Andy Mcloughlin was co-founder of London-based Huddle, a leading enterprise content collaboration company. Under Andy’s leadership, Huddle became one of Europe’s most awarded and well-known technology startups, raising over $80M of venture funding. Andy has been a prolific active angel investor since 2010 and has built a portfolio covering 35+ pre-seed / seed stage investments. His companies include innovative SaaS businesses like Tray.io, Buffer and Pipedrive, as well as retail plays including Postmates, Secret Escapes and Zesty. Andy is now a Venture Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet, SaaS and mobile startups. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Andy get into Angel Investing? 2.) Why does Andy believe Europe has the capacity to create amazing entrepreneurs? 3.) What is your Andy’s approach to deal sourcing? 4.) What is Andy’s approach to accelerators and demo days? 5.) In such a competitive market, how does Andy differentiate between startups? 6.) How important is portfolio diversity for Andy? 7.) What are Andy’s thoughts on group investing? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Silicon Valley 2nd Episode: The Down Round Fave Blogs: Hunter Walk, Hiten Shah, Launch Ticker Productivity Tool: Evernote As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com
Panel members: David Krane, General Partner, Google Ventures Jeff Clavier, Founder and Managing Partner , SoftTech VC Ann Miura-Ko, Managing Partner, Floodgate Aydin Senkut, Founder & Managing Director, Felicis Ventures Dave McClure, Founding Partner, 500 Startups Source: http://podfm.ru/goto/b811dbb
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most established seed VC firms in Silicon Valley, having closed 150 investments since 2004. An early angel investor in Web 2.0, Jeff and his team have backed successful startups like Mint (Intuit), Milo (eBay), Bleacher Report (Turner), Fitbit, Eventbrite, Sendgrid, Postmates and Vungle. The portfolio has also seen acquisitions by Groupon, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and AOL. The firm is currently investing out of its $85M Fund IV, making 16 commitments of $850K per year in mobile/cloud saas, consumer hardware, marketplaces and healthcare IT. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jeff made his entry into the world of VC? 2.) In a time when hardware was not heavily invested in, what attracted Jeff to Fitbit? 3.) How did Jeff convince Brad to invest in Fitbit? 4.) What can startups do to standout in the crowded market that exists today? 5.) What do startups need to have to get a meeting with you at SoftTech? 6.) What VCs does Jeff most like to invest alongside? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Jeff's Fave Book: June by Gerbrand Bakker As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Jeff and SoftTech VC on Twitter here! For a more colourful look into Harry's life, you can follow him on Instagram here!
Stephanie and Jenna discuss how Stephanie created a role for herself at SoftTech VC, how unconventional meetings have led to portfolio investments, and why we need greater diversity in venture capital.
We caught up with Andy to talk about his experience raising investment for Huddle, growing the business, his latest experience as an investor, and some of the lessons he'd tell his younger self. After graduating with a degree in Economics, Andy switched careers to work at a telco company where, amongst other things, he implemented a document management system. This and his experience handling documents and collaboration at subsequent jobs, was the inspiration for Huddle - the world's leading Enterprise content collaboration platform. With some success under his belt, Andy recently joined SoftTech VC as Venture Partner. *Seedcamp is Europe's leading Acceleration Fund, providing capital and ongoing support to over 160 startups. To hear more valuable advice from experienced entrepreneurs and investors, head over to seedcamp.com for articles covering topics across product, sales, marketing, finance, and more.*
In 2004, Jeff Clavier started investing in startups prior to Series A rounds. His firm, SoftTech VC, was one of the first "Seed Funds" to do this. In this episode of Bothsides TV, Mark sits down with Jeff to discuss what entrepreneurs should optimize for in a frothy fundraising environment, how the market has changed over the past several years, and verticals he is interested in funding currently.
On this episode, I chat with the phenomenal Charles Hudson of SoftTech VC on part 1. At SoftTech, Charles is a partner and focuses on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces. We discuss venture capital, the perfect pitch, music, and Charles drops knowledge bombs one after another. Part 2: Megan Rose Dickey. A rockstar personality, recovering journalist, and all around tech enthusiast. We discuss her journey in technology and startup storytelling.
FounderLine host Joe Beninato and guest Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC answer listener questions including: - What can you build into your company (e.g. policies, culture) to support failing quickly and cheaply in order to make course corrections as quickly as possible? - What is the best way to get to know an investor before making a decision about accepting an investment? - I'm a female startup founder and I'm finding it hard to tell if VCs aren't taking us seriously because I'm a woman, our idea is bad, or something else. What advice would you give me? - How do most acquisitions happen? Is it the acquirer who approaches the startup or vice versa?
The Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing
*Charles Hudson* ( https://precursorvc.com/team_member/charles-hudson/ ) *is the Managing Partner and Founder of* *Precursor Ventures* ( https://precursorvc.com/ ) *. Precursor Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Some of their investments include The Athletic, Goodr and Co-Star.* *Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC and Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup. He also was the VP of Business Development for Serious Business (acq. Zynga) and Director of Business Development at Gaia Interactive.* *You can follow Charles on Twitter* *@chudson* ( https://twitter.com/chudson ) *. To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow* *@mikegelb* ( https://twitter.com/MikeGelb ) *and* *@consumervc* ( https://twitter.com/consumervc ) *.* *A couple books that impacted Charles professionally are* *The New Geography of Jobs* ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544028058?camp=1789&creativeASIN=0544028058&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) *by Enrico Maretti and* *Who Gets What and Why* ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544705289?camp=1789&creativeASIN=0544705289&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) *by Alvin Roth . A book that impacted him personally is* *The Wright Brothers* ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476728755?camp=1789&creativeASIN=1476728755&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) *by David McCullough.* *On this episode you will learn -* * *How did Charles make his way into Venture Capital? How did Precursor come together? How does Charles think about the early investment landscape? His due diligence and decision making process. How he thinks about domain expertise.* * ** * *Why are there two different seed markets with radically different round sizes and valuations and what does seed look like today? What are some of the differences in the diligence process when investing in consumer vs. enterprise startups?* * ** * *How he thinks about pivoting in the early stages? How he thinks about portfolio composition? Advice for founders that are in tertiary or secondary markets or have a network of VCs when fundraising? What consumer trends is he most focused on? What is one thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is one piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?* * **