1. Applications solving large and non-obvious problems in data-intensive industries
2. ML-driven applications that have found a path to an initial data advantage and have the potential to create a definitive intelligence advantage
3. Business operations platforms for SMB vendors who have never had a good one, esp that are driven by mobile, esp that drive payment flow
4. Large-scale applications and HW/SW systems that sell into government
Not Interested In
I like to be surprised by things I think I may not be interested in and so try not to rule anything out.
Partner @venrock • Investor @claralending, @Centricient, @dataminr, @care, @gilt Groupe • Studied at @stanford-university, @university-of-oxford-2
Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • A.I. (& Big Data) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Future Of Work • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Mobility
Description
Partner at Index Ventures
Martin Mignot serves as a Partner at Index Ventures. He also serves as Advisory Board Member at TheFamily. He specialises in SaaS, marketplaces, bitcoin and mobile. He worked on 50+ transactions to date, including Assistly, Auxmoney, BaseCRM, Cloud.com, Codecademy, DimDim, Factual, Farfetch, Flipboard, Funding Circle, Gluster, HouseTrip, Just Eat, Lookout, Nasty Gal, Notonthehighstreet, onefinestay, PeoplePerHour, TrustPilot, Soluto and SoundCloud. He is actively looking after Index's investments in Algolia, Capitaine Train, Drivy, Rad and Swiftkey. Prior to joining Index, Martin was in the TMT team at UBS Investment Bank and cofounded the beauty subscription business Boudoir Prive (acquired by Joliebox/Birchbox) and a student web radio service.
Saurabh Sharma
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Media • Businesses Solutions • A.I. (& Big Data) • Consumer • Woman Focused
Description
Partner, First Round Capital
Founding Partner, @first-round-capital; Founder @half-com (sold to EBay)
Linked In Description:
Josh is a founding Partner at First Round Capital, a seed-stage technology venture fund. Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization.
In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – and took it public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1996. Josh founded Half.com in July of 1999, and led it to become one of the largest sellers of used books, movies and music in the world. Half.com was acquired by eBay in July 2000 -- and Josh remained with eBay for three years, running the Half.com business unit and growing eBay’s Media marketplace to almost half a billion dollars in annual gross merchandise sales. In late 2003 Josh helped to found TurnTide, an anti-spam company that created the world's first anti-spam router. TurnTide was acquired by Symantec just six months later.
Josh founded First Round Capital in 2004 to reinvent seed-stage investing. And since that time the firm has invested in over 350 emerging technology startups – becoming one of the most active venture capital firms in the country. Josh was ranked 3rd on the 2018 New York Times list of Top Venture Capitalists and consistently ranks in the top 20 of the Forbes Midas List of the top 100 tech investors. Josh has been named as one of the top ten ‘angel investors’ in the United States by Newsweek magazine, one of "Tech's New Kingmakers" by Business 2.0 magazine and a "Rising VC Star" by Fortune magazine. Josh also is the proud winner of a second place ribbon in the 2011 Nantucket Watermelon Eating competition.
Josh is an inventor on sixteen U.S. Patents for his work in Internet technology. In June 2000, he was awarded Ernst and Young’s prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for the Greater Philadelphia region.
Josh earned a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
James Hardiman
Investing in Businesses Solutions • IoT (& W...
San Francisco Bay Are..., U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Gro Intelligence:
(mid stage)
• Recursion Pharmaceuticals:
(mid stage)
• Citrine Informatics:
(mid stage)
• DCVC (Data Collective):
(mid stage)
• Fortem Technologies:
(early stage)
• Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN):
(mid stage)
• INZMO:
(early stage)
• Romivo.com:
• Data Center Technology AB:
(late stage)
• Like A Local Guide:
(early stage)
• Hannu Pro:
• Startup Wise Guys:
(early stage)
• Telegrupp AS:
(early stage)
• Vayo:
(early stage)
• Bonobo AI (Acquired by Salesforce):
(early stage)
• PlainID - The Authorization Company:
(early stage)
We invest in technology and solutions that help scale innovation while also accelerating the digitalization of energy/utilities, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chain/mobility – full-stack and deep technology – across the DNA of Devices, Networks, and Applications. We focus on early growth companies (Seed thru Series B) in Europe and North America.
Not Interested In
Enterprise IT, Consumer, FinTech, Crypto, B2C
Arif Janmohamed
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Menlo Park , Mountain..., U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Udaan:
$3240000000 (Later stage VC)
• ShareChat:
$1163100000 (Later stage VC)
• FastFox:
$300000000 (Early stage VC)
• BYJU’S:
$75000000 (Later stage VC)
• Reflektive:
$60000000 (Later stage VC)
• Ladder:
$30000000 (Later stage VC)
• Dremio Corporation:
$25000000 (Later stage VC)
• Arctic Wolf Networks:
$16000000 (Later stage VC)
Arif Janmohamed serves as a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. He also serves as a Board Member at TripActions. He also serves as Charter Member at C100 Association. He is a Board Member at OverOps. He joined Lightspeed in 2008 and focuses primarily on investments in the areas of cloud and datacenter technologies, as well as enterprise mobile and SaaS solutions. He also serves as Board Member at Mist Syste He is currently working closely with the teams at Avi Networks, Highfive, Netskope, Nutanix, Pertino Networks, ThoughtSpot, Qubole, and Virtual Instruments. He was also involved in several Lightspeed investments which have had successful exits including Edgespring (acquired by Salesforce.com), IO Turbine (acquired by Fusion-io), Memoir Systems (acquired by Cisco), RAPsphere (acquired by AppSense) and StreamOnce (acquired by Jive Software). Prior to joining Lightspeed, he worked in the Corporate Business Development group at Cisco Systems where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and investments in the Unified Communications, Enterprise Collaboration, Mobile, and SaaS market segments. Before joining Cisco Systems, he was with Novitas Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. Earlier in his career, he worked in technical development and product management roles at WebTV (acquired by MSFT), Andes Networks (acquired by SUNW), and Sun Microsyste He holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada.
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
Clint Chao
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Palo Alto - California, U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Viptela:
$75000000 (Later stage VC)
• Tegile Systems:
$33000000 (Later stage VC)
• World View Enterprises:
$15000000 (Later stage VC)
I'm an early-stage technology B2B venture capital investor, investing in enterprise-facing tech startups driving transformation in the Future of Work in and across industry verticals with innovative new business models and typically a unique combination of technology and people. Industry interests include logistics, food, transportation, e-commerce, education, healthcare, oil &gas and more. Geographic focus single or hybrid-located startups across N. America.
Not Interested In
Am not currently investing in semiconductor or capital-intensive hardware startups, and not focused on consumer
Co-Founder and General Partner of Moment Ventures, seed & early stage VC firm in Palo Alto. We investing in startups building the Infrastructure of Everything.
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.
Simon Murdoch
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Dr. Simon Murdoch is a Co-Founder and serves as Managing Partner at Episode 1 Ventures. Currently he is also Board Member at Triptease. He sold his first company, BookPages, to Amazon in 1998 after which he reported to Jeff Bezos as VP Europe of Amazon.com. In early 2000, Simon founded and ran Chase Episode 1, an early stage European technology VC fund backed by JP Morgan Chase. After the fund Simon became a full-time angel investor. His angel portfolio includes/included investments in Shazam, Zoopla, LoveFilm (sold to Amazon 2011), Natural Motion, Covestor and Shutl. In addition, from 2010 to 2012, Simon worked at Octopus Ventures in portfolio development. Simon has a BA in Physics from Cambridge and a PhD in Computer Science and Expert Systems. He serves as Chairman at SubHub. He also serves as the board member at Profitero. He also served as aboard member at SwiftSwift. He holds the board position at Global App Testing, SimplyCook, Triptease and Passfort. He served as board member at ParamountZone.
How to connect with Angel Investors in the A.I. industry?
In the AI & Big Data industry, angel investors such as Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Reid Hoffman are highly active. These investors focus on startups offering innovative solutions in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics. Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, invests in AI startups that have the potential to revolutionize data analysis and intelligence. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, looks for companies that leverage AI to solve complex problems and create new opportunities. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, seeks out startups with scalable AI solutions and strong network effects. To connect with these investors, attend AI and big data conferences, tech expos, and networking events such as NeurIPS, AI Summit, and Strata Data Conference. Utilize platforms like AngelList and LinkedIn to identify and reach out to potential investors. When pitching, emphasize how your AI or big data solution addresses key challenges, such as improving data analysis, enhancing decision-making, or automating processes. Highlight any traction you’ve gained, such as partnerships with tech companies, user growth, or successful pilot projects. 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 pilot programs 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 subscription fees, licensing, or service contracts, will further strengthen your pitch. Leveraging endorsements or case studies from AI or big data 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
