What I look for
Pre-product market fit companies making the world suck less by delivering magical-seeming solutions to important and difficult problems. And appeal to a rational economic buyer.
Founders who are customer domain experts with a formidable strategic understanding of, and an ambitious non-obvious take on, a fast growing market.
Companies benefiting from a massive fundamental trend. Ones where the market will continue to blossom over the next 10+ years. For example:
DataDog and DigitalOcean benefit from the incredible growth of new software developers,
Kepler benefits from the burgeoning space economy & software-defined satellites,
DataRobot benefits from the importance of ML and the desire to democratize it,
Coiled benefits from Python becoming the defacto language of data science/engineering,
Canvas benefits from the move to value-based health care, and
Vectra benefits from the rise of AI, the move to the cloud, and the increasing sophistication of security attacks.
Companies with audacious visions that can deliver an MVP and have many collisions with the market in the 12 months following our initial investment because distribution matters as much as product. Ones that can get to fast-growing, high-margin, scalable, and repeatable revenue within 18 months.
Companies that have a thesis about how they can be a 70%+ gross margin business with an accelerating advantage that enable them to capture the majority of the market and resulting economics.
Founders that display clarity, courage, & urgency (clarity of speech == clarity of thought). Ones who are relentlessly resourceful and can attract the talent to achieve the vision.
How I like to invest
Provide enough runway. 24+ months of capital (thoughts on burn and team size at the seed stage) to build team, product, demonstrate the irrefutable product-market fit needed to raise the next round from a great investor.
Have enough conviction to do the whole round. No lead investor should make founders scavenge to fill out the round.
Value great syndicate members over ownership. The right syndicate can change the complexion of a company. Bottom line is the founder has the final say as to the right raise and right syndicate — keeping in mind it’s in both our interests to have a small focused group of truly helpful investors.
Hold an additional amount in reserve from the outset in case the company needs a bridge to demonstrate product-market fit. This falls under the responsibility of a true lead investor.
Invest in only a handful of companies a year. New investments should never be “options” or “lottery tickets.” Every investment I make has the potential to change the world, be a legendary company, and return our fund many times over.
Keep it simple (e.g. post-money SAFE) and expect that the time from signed term sheet to money in the bank will be less than 2 weeks.
Pay my own legal fees.
How I like to work with companies
Earn the trust of founders. Founders who believed in me enough to let me invest in their company.
Do no harm. The singular focus of a seed-stage company is finding irrefutable product-market fit. Investors can and do help, but most important is to ensure they don’t randomize founders. Founders know their business better than anyone.
Be an accountability partner. This has an outsize effect on success.
Be aligned. Every round of funding is an experiment. It is important to be explicit about, constantly assess, and evolve the hypotheses that are being tested. The company and its investors must be aligned prior to an investment. I’ve found that the best way to achieve this is for the founders and investors to explicitly define and agree upon the hypotheses being tested with this round of funding (here is an example of a hypothesis document ). That is not to say things won’t change, but it’s much easier when both parties are starting from a place of mutual understanding.
How I like to communicate
Be open. Send me anything you think is helpful or useful. When in doubt, send it. I read every email — if I have something of value to say I’ll respond, if not I won’t. The more information we share, the better we can work together.
I’ve found that the best entrepreneurs send out monthly updates.
Be candid. If I’ve done something that you want me to stop doing, keep doing, or start doing — let me know. I’d rather you be honest with me and tell me I screwed up than keep it to yourself. It makes me better and builds trust between us.
I’m your investor. I believe in you. I want you to succeed. I’ve seen it all (ducks!). You don’t need to market to me.
What I hope for
While each company has its own path to success, patterns do stand out. Generally, within 18 months after our initial investment, the best companies have built the right team, have the product in market and have demonstrated conclusive and irrefutable product-market fit (if you are not sure you have it, you likely don’t).
Once a company has demonstrated product-market fit, actively help raise the next round. Work closely with companies to refine the pitch (here is some great advice). Introduce them to the best VCs.
Invest my pro-rata in subsequent rounds of those companies that have demonstrated success. On average we invest somewhere between $6 and $10M over the life of the best companies in our portfolio. And those companies return 10x++ our total investment.
Jerry Yang
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Jerry Yang serves as Founding Partner at AME Cloud Ventures. Yang also serves as Special Partner at Neotribe Ventures. He serves as Investor of BirdEye. He also serves as an Independent Director at Workday and Advisor at Radius. He is the Founding Partner at AME Cloud Ventures. He serves as Board Observer and Senior Advisor at Didi Kuaidi. Since March 2012, he has worked with and invests in technology entrepreneurs as the founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures, his innovation investment firm. He is also a co-founder of Yahoo! Inc., where he served as a director from March 1995 to January 2012, and as Chief Executive Officer from June 2007 to January 2009. He also led Yahoo!'s investments in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, and he is a currently a director of Alibaba Group, where he has served on the board from October 2005 to January 2012 and from September 2014 to the present. He is also a director of Lenovo, Inc. where he has served on the board since November 2014. From July 2000 to November 2012, he was a member of Cisco Systems, Inc.'s Board of Directors, and he was a director of Yahoo! Japan from January 1996 to January 2012. He also is a director of various private companies and foundations. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees from June 2005 until September 2016. He is also an Angel Investor. He serves as Board Member at Docker
Tony Corbin
Investing in BioTech • Businesses Solutions ...
Menlo Park , San Fran..., U.S.A. - Israel - Europe: Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, Norway, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Icelan
Previous Investments
• Vayyar Imaging:
$109000000 (Later stage VC)
• VDOO:
$57000000 (Later stage VC)
• Cloudleaf:
$26000000 (Later stage VC)
• Fakespot:
(Series A)
• Fakespot:
$4000000 (Series A)
• Sumatra:
$2000000 (Seed)
• MRGN:
(Pre Seed)
• MRGN:
(Pre-Seed)
• Ash Wellness:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Ash Wellness:
(Seed+)
• AppliedXL:
$4000000 (Seed)
• AssetDash:
(Pre Seed)
• Tabula:
$3000000 (Pre Seed)
• Naya:
$6000000 (Seed)
• Thorium Data:
$100000 (Pre Seed)
• OpenAxis:
$2000000 (Pre Seed)
• CACTIVATE:
(Pre Seed)
• Grin Gaming:
(Seed)
• Grin Gaming:
(Seed)
• Docket:
(Seed)
• Ask Vera:
(Seed)
• UrsaLeo:
(Seed+)
• Cactivate:
(Pre-Seed)
• Clearforce:
(Seed)
• Paragon Intel:
(Seed+)
• Intrro:
(Seed)
• Bazze:
(Pre-Seed)
• Asset Dash:
(Pre-Seed)
• Extend:
$16000000 (Series A)
• OneCell Diagnostics:
$16000000 (Series A)
• Finicast:
$13000000 (Seed)
• Very Good Ventures:
$3000000 (Series A)
• Very Good Ventures:
$3000000 (Series A)
• Prellis Biologics:
$35000000 (Series C)
• Prellis Biologics:
$15000000 (Series B)
• Biomason:
$65000000 (Series C)
• Home Delivery Service (HDS Global):
$5000000 (Series Unknown)
• Rizzle:
$17000000 (Convertible Note)
• EnTribe:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Atonarp:
$50000000 (Series D)
• Atonarp:
$2000000 (Series B)
• Atonarp:
$4000000 (Series A)
• Boom Supersonic:
$50000000 (Series C)
• Extend, Inc.:
$16000000 (Series A)
• Quartic.ai:
$2000000 (Seed)
• Globality:
$27000000 (Series B)
• Globality:
$10000000 (Series A)
• BangDB:
(Seed)
• Reaction:
$10000000 (Series A)
• Reaction:
$2000000 (Seed)
• Shipster:
(Seed)
• H2O.ai:
$9000000 (Series A)
• Trove:
$5000000 (Series A)
• FUTR Corp.:
$5000000 (Seed)
• Yellowsmith:
$850000 (Seed)
• Printi:
$1000000 (Series A)
• GoPro:
$88000000 (Series A)
Tony Corbin
Menlo Park - San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A. - Israel - Europe: Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, Norway, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Icelan
Riverwood Capital is a globally-focused private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the technology and services industries, across a variety of verticals and geographies. Riverwood has offices in Menlo Park, CA and New York, NY and currently has more than 20 investments in North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm's current fund has $780 million of committed capital. The final fund close was in April 2011. Riverwood invests in mid-market technology and technology enabled products and services. The firm defines mid-market as approximately $100-$500 million in revenue for product companies, and approximately $25-$150 million in revenue for software and services. Riverwood occasionally invests outside these ranges. Riverwood invests on a global basis, having already invested in the U.S., Israel, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The firm's normal investment size ranges from $25-75 million.
Cyril Bertrand is a Partner at Xange Captial where he is responsible for core-technology investments and for the German-speaking area.
Cyril has prior venture capital experience at DVC (Munich, Germany) where is was responsible for the Telecom & Semiconductor investments, and at TeleSoft Partners (San Mateo, CA).
Prior to that, his 7-year tenure at Alcatel brought him to the position of Director in charge of creating and growing Alcatel’s first generation of 802.11 products across France, Spain and Israel in 2000.
Cyril is also a non-exec board director of Apertio (UK), MergeOptics (Germany), Panoratio (Germany), Powerlase (UK) and is an observer at BigMachines (US).
Stephen Oskoui
Investing in Education • BioTech • Busi...
Austin - Texas, U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• RealSavvy:
(early stage)
• Founders Fund:
• Hutch App:
• Rover (formerly known as Flipora/Infoaxe; acquired by RevContent):
Venrock invests in technology and healthcare. Individual focus areas: Biotechnology, Diagnostics, Genomics, Healthcare IT, Medical Devices. Prefers: category kings + big risk element
Eduardo Saverin
Investing in BioTech • Businesses Solutions ...
San Francisco Bay Are..., U.S.A. - Singapore - Brazil
Previous Investments
• iVideoSmart:
$3500000 (Series A)
• Sugar.fit:
$5000000 (Series A)
• Mswipe Technologies:
$20000000 (Series Unknown)
• Mswipe Technologies:
$31000000 (Series E)
• Mswipe Technologies:
$10000000 (Series D)
• Inspace XR:
$4000000 (Seed)
• Hopscotch:
$20000000 (Series E)
• Hopscotch:
$13000000 (Series C)
• Hopscotch:
$11000000 (Series B)
• CoinDCX:
$140000000 (Series D)
• CoinDCX:
$90000000 (Series C)
• Kopi Kenangan:
$96000000 (Series C)
• Kopi Kenangan:
$210000000 (Series B)
• Yalo:
$50000000 (Series C)
• Yalo:
$15000000 (Series B)
• Antler:
$50000000 (Series Unknown)
• Perx Technologies:
$5000000 (Series B)
• Perx Technologies:
$1000000 (Series A)
• Carro:
$30000000 (Series B)
• Carro:
$60000000 (Series B)
• CXA Group:
$25000000 (Series C)
• Tech in Asia:
$7000000 (Series Unknown)
• Tech in Asia:
$4000000 (Series C)
• INTURN:
$23000000 (Series B)
• 99.co:
$8000000 (Series A)
• 99.co:
$2000000 (Seed)
• Intelligent Video Solutions:
$4000000 (Series A)
• Jumio:
$4000000 (Debt Financing)
• Jumio:
$7000000 (Series A)
• Xfers:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Silvercar:
$28000000 (Series C)
• Silvercar:
$14000000 (Series B)
• RedMart:
$27000000 (Series C)
• RedMart:
$23000000 (Series B)
• RedMart:
$5000000 (Series Unknown)
• RedMart:
(Seed)
• Eat Just:
$90000000 (Series C)
• FlightCar:
$14000000 (Series A)
• Tag (Acquired):
$1000000 (Seed)
• Nitrous:
$7000000 (Series A)
• Nitrous:
$1000000 (Seed)
• ShopSavvy:
$7000000 (Series A)
• Qwiki:
$8000000 (Series A)
• Aporta, Inc.:
(Undisclosed)
• CrowdMob:
(Seed)
Eduardo Saverin
San Francisco Bay Area - Los Angeles, U.S.A. - Singapore - Brazil
Eduardo Saverin is a Co-Founder and serves as Partner at B Capital Group. He is a Co-Founder of Facebook. He also co-founded Velos Partners, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles and serves as its Chairman. He serves on the board of Carro, Connexions Asia and Ninja Van. He also serves as Advisor at Golden Gate Ventures.
Jenny Rooke
Investing in BioTech • Pharmaceutical (& Med...
San Francisco Bay Are..., U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• BrightSpec:
$18000000 (Series C)
• Bond Pet Foods:
$18000000 (Series A)
• Meiogenix:
$12000000 (Series A)
• InterVenn:
$200000000 (Series C)
• InterVenn:
$34000000 (Series B)
• InterVenn:
$9000000 (Series Unknown)
• Ionpath:
$18000000 (Series B)
• Ionpath:
(Series A)
• Ionpath:
(Seed)
• Tropic Biosciences:
$29000000 (Series B)
• Intabio:
$18000000 (Series B)
• Intabio:
$10000000 (Series A)
• Intabio:
$2000000 (Seed)
• NanoCellect Biomedical:
$10000000 (Series B)
• Akadeum Life Sciences:
$2000000 (Series Unknown)
Therapeutics;
Digital health (pure digital, no wet biology or chem);
Uncapped convertible notes
Dr. Jenny Rooke is the Founder and serves as Managing Director at Genoa Ventures. She is an early-stage venture capital investor. She is the Founder and serves as a Managing Director at 5 Prime Ventures. She also served as a Venture Partner at F-Prime Capital Partners (healthcare) and Anterra Capital (agriculture). She brings a combination of strategy, operating, and investing experience to her work with early stage life science companies, specializing in research tools, diagnostics, and synthetic biology. Jenny's investing experience includes roles in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Discovery group, and at F-Prime Capital, where she served her Kauffman Fellowship. Dr. Rooke held multiple executive positions at U.S. Genomics, a venture-backed biotech start-up advancing single molecule detection technologies for diagnostics, biodefense, and research. Previously, Dr. Rooke was a management consultant with McKinsey & Co., where she advised leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies on business strategy. Dr. Rooke earned her Ph.D. in genetics from Yale University and her B.S. in physics from Georgia Tech. She is also a Board Member at Intabio.
How to connect with Angel Investors in the BioTech industry?
In the BioTech industry, angel investors such as Esther Dyson, Vinod Khosla, and Steve Jurvetson are prominent figures. These investors focus on startups offering innovative solutions in biotechnology, genomics, and medical research. Esther Dyson, an entrepreneur and investor, looks for biotech startups that have the potential to make significant advancements in healthcare and medicine. Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, invests in high-impact biotech companies with disruptive technologies. Steve Jurvetson, a co-founder of Future Ventures, seeks out startups that push the boundaries of biological science and innovation. To connect with these investors, attend biotech conferences, medical expos, and networking events such as BIO International Convention, JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, and SynBioBeta. Utilize platforms like AngelList and LinkedIn to identify and reach out to potential investors. When pitching, emphasize how your biotech solution addresses key challenges in healthcare and medical research, such as developing new therapies, improving diagnostic accuracy, or advancing genomic research. Highlight any traction you’ve gained, such as partnerships with research institutions, successful clinical trials, or regulatory approvals. Building relationships through initial informal meetings or discussions at industry panels can help establish trust with these investors. Demonstrating the impact of your technology through case studies or clinical results can also add credibility. Personalize your outreach by referencing the investor’s previous investments and explaining how your venture aligns with their interests. Demonstrating a sustainable business model with clear revenue streams, such as licensing, product sales, or research grants, will further strengthen your pitch. Leveraging endorsements or case studies from biotech experts can also enhance your credibility.
Case Studies: Successful Funding Rounds with Angel Investors on Angels Partners
Exotic Orange & Angels Partners: Turning Financial Simplicity Into Investment Success
