Sara Foster’s Post

The thesis for our venture fund was pretty simple: What if we could gather a group of pretty decent marketers, find promising early-stage companies, then join forces to support them in ways only a group like Lunch Partners could. Five years in, we're so proud of the founders we've bet on. They're creating a new generation of brands and businesses people love -- like Brightland, Nomadica, Sundays, Jupiter, Wolves Whiskey, PATH, Air, Religion of Sports, Surf Air, MikMak, Qonsent, Chatdesk and more. As investors, we continue to learn so much from one another and from working with our portfolio companies. As Ad Age points out, these are lessons we carry back into the companies we work for and run. Here are some facts about our fund: 🌼 All 15 of our portfolio companies made it through the pandemic and are growing   🛒 Our investments span technology, CPG, food & beverage, travel, media & entertainment   ❄ 60% of our portfolio companies have diverse founders   💃 More than half of our portfolio companies are female-led 🚀 So far, one company has IPO’d. We anticipate at least 2 more to do so in the next 2 years. A few have already acquired other businesses.    🔄 Almost all have pivoted at least once -- some twice! Lunch Partners Fund One (www.lunchpartners.co) is now fully allocated. We are pondering a second fund, possibly next year. Thanks to all of our friends and partners who continue to make this journey so rewarding.

Autumn on planet Earth didn’t start until the equinox a few weeks ago, but the axis shifted months ago in Startupworld, where VC winter has desperate founders smashing up the furniture for firewood. Metaphorically speaking, of course. We’re definitely in a down market, but for entrepreneurs who are eager to build and scale, venture capital is *always* scarce. At TechCrunch Disrupt, I spoke with three investors to hear how they’re advising founders (especially first-timers) on how to calculate total addressable market (TAM), how it differs by sector, and how the TAM slide often reveals whether someone is even ready to start raising capital: Jomayra Herrera, partner, Reach Capital Helen Min, co-founder and managing partner, Phenomenal Ventures Monique Woodard, founder and managing director, Cake Ventures P.S. Whatever you do, don't just make up a number. “I would rather have an ‘I don’t know’ than pure jazz hands,” Woodard said. https://lnkd.in/gq8waAq5

When the stars align: Last night, a constellation of VC marketing masterminds emerged from the doors of their storied firms to gather in the Khosla Ventures' garden. When this crew comes together, magic happens! Thanks to Shernaz Daver at Khosla Ventures, Shannon Brayton at Bessemer Venture Partners and Allie Cefalo from Kleiner Perkins for hosting last night. It’s not often that so many of us can come together as a group, but it’s always a treat! (Sorry to miss those of you who couldn't make it.) Mandy Kakavas, GV (Google Ventures) Melissa Chaika Sobel, CapitalG Krista Canfield McNish, CRV Nicole Pack, Venrock Caroline Caswell, Operator Collective 🔆 Reze Wong, Khosla Ventures Shernaz Daver, Khosla Ventures Allie Cefalo, Kleiner Perkins Shannon Brayton, Bessemer Venture Partners Elena Tico, Bessemer Venture Partners Nikki Horn, Bessemer Venture Partners Hillá Watkins, Scale Venture Partners Ana Andreescu, Index Ventures Tiffany Spencer, Menlo Ventures (Will try to tag everyone later!)

A few weeks ago, Pauline from AA & Sons came to Refael Benadmon, Datasset’s CEO, with a burning question 🔥 Pauline leads the venture investments of AA & Sons, the family office of Romain Afflelou. AA & Sons has 130+ direct investments and has been working with Datasset for the past 3 years to monitor and value its venture portfolio. 💬 Pauline: “I see a shift in the VC industry, as an increasing number of startups in my portfolio companies aim for profitability in the next months. I really value these startups that manage to find the right balance between growth & profitability. As a fund, I wonder how to integrate these efforts into their valuation." 💬 Refael “You’re right - startups that control their costs and extend their runway have the most value these days. Let’s ask my Datasset team to work on a new valuation model that includes the profitability aspect." After weeks of hard work, we came up with a whole new valuation model to answer Pauline’s burning question - let me introduce you the “𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡”. Curious about how it works? Read our latest Datasset article 👉 https://lnkd.in/eEsSgUYu 😊 And reach out to Refael Benadmon or me if you want to test it on your portfolio and be among the first early adopters of the 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡 The article deep dives into VC literature and metrics, featuring: The Rule of 40 Rule of 40 by Brad Feld The Rule of X by Byron Deeter and Sam Bondy from Bessemer Venture Partners The Burning Multiple by David O. Sacks The Burn Multiple by ARR by Justin Kahl and David George from Andreessen Horowitz Our unique Datasset proposal - The "𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡" 👇 would love to hear your thoughts / comments 👇

To my fellow VCs and Entrepreneurs : The shift towards profitability is shaking up the game! You’d better know your Burning Math 🔥🔢 Our very own Valentin Bar Cohen has written an insightful article on this crucial topic. Check it out here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eEsSgUYu This article is just the start—your insights and experiences are invaluable to this discussion. VCs: How is this shift influencing your investment strategies? Entrepreneurs: How is it shaping your growth plans?

In honor of Single's Awareness Day, and against the better advice of my lawyer, PR person, close mentors, and at great risk because I'm still connected with all of my exes on LinkedIn, I'm back to share a mostly satirical, personal post about the lessons I’ve learned from venture capital about love, and how it has ostensibly ruined my love life. Enjoy (or don't). #venturecapital #valentinesday #startups https://lnkd.in/eHZhyaTS

Is the funding market for early-stage startups turning? It sure seems that way to us. Over the past 12 months, six of The Key’s earliest-stage clients have announced Pre-Seed, Seed, or Series A fundraising news - at a time when most reporters won’t write funding for funding’s sake. Making a real splash requires thoughtful narrative design, deep engagement with target media, and an understanding of industry and macro trends that make news relevant to key audiences. We’ve had the privilege to work with a wide range of incredible founders (and their investors) on sharp strategy, story development, thoughtful media outreach, and real consultation. Stories have ranged from enormous business pivots to establishing a new model of homeownership, to transforming carbon emissions into fashion and rebuilding B2B payments for modern SaaS companies. If you’re a VC or startup with news, hit us up! We’re lean, mean, and quick as hell. If you’re a lean team with more demand than you can manage, we're a perfect partner to round out GTM or Growth Marketing communications. We’ll help navigate inbound and proactive opportunities, partnerships and funding, product developments, and milestones to the best advantage. Our network is strong; most work has been referred to us by current and former clients or colleagues, by VCs, or by reporters who’ve seen our impact firsthand. Investors see us as a smart spend, especially when a story is complex and the audiences vary. We take our reputation and our referrals seriously. See what The Key can unlock for you. Here are some examples of client coverage: ** Today ** Wicked Saints Studios (https://bit.ly/3RqI5UJ) ~ $3.5M in an oversubscribed seed round co-led by Riot Games and Oregon Venture Fund. They're the first company to emerge from Niantic, Inc.’s Black Developers Initiative Rubi Laboratories (https://bit.ly/3mRt1ly) ~ $8.7M in seed funding, led by Talis Capital, alongside Patagonia’s Tin Shed Ventures, H&M Group, Collaborative Fund, and Necessary Ventures Nestment (https://bit.ly/3sP1hkB) ~ $3.5M pre-Seed round led by Protofund and IDEA Fund Partners, with Concrete Rose Capital, VamosVentures, angels from Airbnb, The MBA Fund Scoop (https://bit.ly/486rNpI) ~ $8M in Series 1 funding led by Semil Shah at Haystack, with participation from Audacious Ventures, Activate Capital and G2 Venture Partners Orb (https://bit.ly/3sUsimR) ~ $19.1M Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures, following seed round led by Greylock XP Health (https://bit.ly/48cWYzO) ~ $17M Series A led by HC9 Ventures, Valor Capital Group, and ManchesterStory, with investment from Canvas Ventures, Cameron Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, GSR Ventures, and Plug and Play Tech Center, as well as investors from Anthem, Inc. UnitedHealth Group, Oracle, Bessemer Venture Partners and General Atlantic

Corp Capital, a Creator-led Syndicate → run by Corporate Bro Earlier this week, I did a post on creators wanting to launch venture funds, but syndicates being a better place to start. One of my favorite creator syndicates is Corp Capital, run by Corporate Bro (Ross Pomerantz) Many know Corporate Bro as a content creator & corporate speaker (S/O to Natalie (Corporate Natalie) too who puts out great content). But not as many people know about his syndicate, Corp Capital. Corp Capital is the angel investing syndicate Corp Bro started with his friend Matt Prusak who he met while at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Basically Corps thesis was/is: As salespeople we have a high risk tolerance, we have disposable income, but also lack access and understanding of angel investing. The Corp Capital portfolio includes: • UserGems 💎 • Bravado • Pocus • Scratchpad • Orum • Lumos • Handraise • and more! Why did Ross start corp capital? For most salespeople, the assumption is that the only way to “get equity” is to be employed somewhere for 4 years. Obviously that’s not true. Too often salespeople get screwed on cap tables. I wanted to bring some financial literacy and access to my social media following as well as create a group of GTM folks who could actually add value to startups. Why is this syndicate helpful to founders? Well, they know they’re getting an engaged group of Sales Savages who are going to backchannel sell their product. After all, who better to have on your side than a bunch of salespeople? We tend to help companies with their launch announcements, GTM advice, product feedback, and even hiring at times. In Summary: •Corp Bro has great distribution as a creator.  •He can be helpful to early-stage founders.  •High-quality founders want him/his community on their cap table. •Running a syndicate allows him to invest deal-by-deal, without the longer-term commitment of a traditional fund. •He still gets carried interest (carry) on every deal he runs via the syndicate.  •It’s another way to engage with his followers/community -- Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In Media is the most actionable venture capital newsletter. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, global leaders in VC, we’ll teach you how to become more informed VC investors and gain access to the VC ecosystem, both as a fund manager and limited partner

This goes to the heart of our market licence application for FCX. Secondaries for private companies (and funds) are a key element of a healthy eco-system.

"Returning to Bryce, who was a founder of an incredibly successful seed-stage firm, OATV. OATV was amongst the earliest seed investment firms and had amazing success with early bets in Foursquare, Fastly and Figma (amongst others). In 2015, the firm made a decided effort to move away from its core model of seed investing and towards a new model, one they would later call Indie VC. Indie was counter to virtually every rule that LPs put in place, wanting to defy power law and focus on companies capable of generating capital efficient returns. When I asked Bryce, “If it isn’t broken, why fix it?” He replied back, “We all need to remove the notion that what made us successful before will work today (and tomorrow).” This is a powerful thought for an industry that relies some heavily on pattern recognition. OATV had been an innovator in its own right as one of the first firms to move upstream to write seed stage checks amidst a time period when the costs of starting a company were falling and venture fund sizes were rising (those trends have remained pervasive for the last decade). That playbook, which was highly non-consensus at the time, turned out to work quite well. As the seed market evolved and became increasingly consensus (arguably too much so) with competition coming in from all sides, Bryce’s belief was that they needed to find new opportunities to invest, leading him to Indie. It would have been easy for OATV to continue on in the fashion that it had been operating and many managers make that choice, given the sunk cost of all the investment that they had in the structures that granted them initial success. Most rest on their laurels, accumulating fees as their model degrades, as evidenced by the turnover of venture capital firms over the last decades. Bryce recognized this and the need to continually push the envelope to maintain edge in the market." https://lnkd.in/gD5zxvZu