If you are a venture nerd, you will enjoy Alexis Ohanian Sr. of Seven Seven Six 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ VC fund talking to Erik Torenberg on Turpentine VC podcast on how he rethought 776 as a tech co that deploys capital. [Transcript organised by me shared in the link below.] 776 is a differentiated VC fund in that it approaches venture from the perspective of a tech company, building and deploying tools that are usually found more in the portfolio companies of VCs than VC funds themselves. They have a platform they call Cerebro, which is the operating software or platform they use to run 776 (named after the year 776 BCE when the original Greek Olympic Games were founded).
The first product (or feature set) in Cerebro was enabling introductions for founders – this came as the number one requirement from founder side – by adding all of the contacts of the investors at 776 into a database and enabling a search function, and automated messaging, to remove dependency on VCs to do the intro.
The second product was a semi-automated way of distributing and amplifying content by the VC fund and investors, for their founders, who didn���t have such distribution. Rethinking the VC fund as a product co aimed at tools for founders, with investing on the side, or ‘tech company that deploys capital’, was an interesting perspective that emerged from the podcast episode.
Another interesting strand was the discussion on YC (Alexis cofounded Reddit which was in the very first batch of YC) and accelerators, and their relevance in today’s age, and why the new accelerator is a company formation platform (like South Park Commons which they mention in the podcast, or Entrepreneur First).
It is interesting to see the rise of differentiated funds and platforms such as 776, Contrary, South Park Commons etc., emerge with their distinct quests for alpha and takes on portfolio support.
Link to podcast page + audio: https://lnkd.in/gbZYnpmh
Link to transcript (not finely edited): https://lnkd.in/g3rfBri9
