In January of 2010, just a few months after I joined First Round Capital, I got to back my friend Rob May and his company, Backupify. Five years later, he sold that company to Datto, and I got to back him again to build Talla.
Backupify would be the first of what is now a 50 deal track record across my time at both First Round Capital and my own firm, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Yesterday, I closed on this "golden" opportunity and so I thought I'd reflect a bit on how the 50 looked as a group.
Well, most of them are still alive, so that's cool. Some of those acquisitions were awesome, like GroupMe, Singleplatform and Backupify were wins. Others, not so much.
More than half the time, these companies have gotten follow-on capital--and another third haven't needed to raise yet. Only a small handful have crashed and burned on just one round of funding.
A lot of the deals are in the "Business pay us directly" space, but most of them are not.
Not a lot of geographic diversity, but I can bike to nearly all of these places, so that's good.
At least 44% of the companies I've invested in have had at least one female, person of color or LGBTQ founder.
Most often, I'm investing in pre-seed rounds, especially since I won't invest when the company has already raised $750k in a prior round.
Most of the time, I'm investing in teams with ideas, not quite products.
Like most VC's I'm mostly investing in software and internet technologies, but about 22% of the time, I've invested in companies that make physical things--from food to physical spaces to consumer electronics.
Mixing up these different categories has not only provided great return opportunities, but it's also a really interesting experience for me. I'm looking forward to the next 50!