notation capital - 1 year in
TRANSCRIPT
Notation Capital - 1 Year In
[Confidential - Do Not Distribute]
BE THE FIRST TO IDENTIFY AND FUND HIGHLY TECHNICAL FOUNDERS CAPABLE
OF BUILDING AND SCALING CAPITAL EFFICIENT (BILLION USER) COMPANIES.
Mission - 1 Yr Ago
To be strong technical partners to exceptional founding teams at the very
infancy of a project.
We love this messy stage and we think we’ve gotten really good at understanding it.
Mission - Today
Pre-Seed Assumptions - 1 Yr Ago
Capital efficient Internet companies don’t need tons of money to get started.
Founders are actually OK raising relatively smaller amounts initially to build a project / experiment.
Huge talent turnover happening in NYC.
Pre-Seed Assumptions - 1 Yr Ago
Many of the best VCs have raised much larger funds in the last few years, which prevents them from doing true angel or pre-seed rounds.
“There is a meaningful opportunity for a small, NYC-focused pre-seed fund that can help this new wave of technical founders with small amounts of early capital and guidance getting to market.”
Pre-Seed - Today
The model is working.
It seems practically obvious today that there is almost always a round of funding that now occurs before “institutional seed.”
Because we were early to market this trend 18 months ago, Notation Capital has become synonymous with pre-seed funding in NYC.
Notation Capital Pre-Seed
To us, “pre-seed” means more than just the amount of money a founder initially raises.
Pre-seed is a way of thinking about and running an early-stage experiment.
We believe that discipline, not large sums of $$$, gives founders the best chance to achieve product-market fit.
Notation Capital Pre-Seed
Similarly, for Notation Capital, pre-seed means a highly disciplined approach to true early stage investing.
We believe it’s one of the few pockets in the market today where the amount of talent and company potential outweighs available capital.
Consumer / Media + MarketplacesSaaSInternet + Data Infrastructure
Explored new capital efficient verticals where we believe the Internet still hasn’t had its full impact:
- Education- Health + Related Services- Financial Products
Notation Key Areas of Interest - 2015
# Months Operational - 12 MonthsApprox. # Companies Intake (Call / Meeting / Email Intro) - 504# of Investments - 10Total $ Invested - $1.65MTotal $ Invested as % of Fund - 20.6%Avg size of Initial Investment - $165k
Portfolio Overview - 1 Year In
The Notation Founders are Badass
Brian Tobal (CEO, Hickory) - Past: Co-Founder, Memoir (Redpoint, Thrive, LV backed)
Cameron Hunt (CTO, Listen) - Past: Head of Mobile, GroupMe
Lauren Leto (CEO, Listen) - Past: Co-Founder, TFLN / banters (Dixon, FC backed)
Stu Libby (CEO, Zipdrug) - Past: Co-Founder, Solve Media (FRC, Dixon, IA backed)
Webster Ross (CTO, Zipdrug) - Past: Head of Mobile, Handy
Kyro Beshay (CPO, Zipdrug) - Past: MD (ie. a Doctor)
Jacob Thornton (co-founder Bumpers) - Past: Creator of Twitter Bootstrap / Tech Lead, Medium
Ian Ownbey (co-founder, Bumpers) - Past: Infrastructure Tech Lead, Twitter
Anders Sandell (CEO, Aiko) - Past: Founder, Jorgits
Unnamed Founder X (CEO, Stealth Co) - Past: Co-Founder, Company (Bootstrapped + Successful Exit)
Ro Gupta (CEO, Carmera) - Past: VP BD, Disqus
Justin Day (CTO, Carmera) - Past: CTO, Makerbot
Miriam Altman (CEO, Kinvolved) - Past: Teach for America
Alex Meis (CPO, Kinvolved) - Past: AmeriCorps Advocate, Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center
Marissa Evans (CEO, Kids Passport) - Past: Founder, Go Try it On (Index Backed, acq by Rent The Runway)
Stephanie Choi (Co-Founder, Kids Passport) - Past: Head of Inventory, Rent The Runway
Sean Haufler (CEO, Fleek) - Past: Yale University
How We Work With Our Companies
We spend a lot of time with our companies. Given our experience, we generally provide help in several areas:
● Product● Technical Infrastructure● Technical Recruiting● Fundraising● Launch / Press / Go to Market Strategy● Customer Development
Our network of part-time partners also provides deep domain expertise.
Lessons Learned in 2015
Pre-Seed is a RANGE:
Early Pre-Seed / Incubation Stage:- $100k-$250k Round at $1M-$2M Valuation (3 companies)- Meant to hire founding team and build out a prototype / plan
Standard Pre-Seed Stage:- $300k-$600k Round at $2M-$3M Valuation (5 companies)- Team and initial plan in place, possibly prototype- Goal is to get solid product to market and show early signs of growth
Large Pre-Seed / Early Seed Stage: - $650k-$1M Round at $3M-$5M Valuation (2 Companies)- Team in place, early product in market, some growth but pre product-market fit
Lessons Learned - Pre-Seed RangeOwnership
Early Seed StageIncubation
Startup B
Startup Z
Startup N
Startup A
Startup P
Startup X
Startup F
Startup I
Startup W
Startup R
Startup T
AngelList is too important to ignore
Notation Capital now has approx. $300k in backing per deal on AL.
This allows us to effectively increase the size of our fund on behalf of our LPs and leverage their dollars to increase ownership in seed / pro-rata deals.
We executed 3 AL deals in 2015.
Anatomy of a Seed Deal on AL
Example Company:
Notation invests $150k into $1M round on $4M preNotation syndicates $300k on AL (10% carry)IF company exits for 10x multiple:Notation returns $1.50M + 300k from syndicate* The AL syndicate effect is as if Notation invested another $30k initially (or approx .6% ownership). Returns / carry from AL go back to our LPs first.
Some of the Folks We’ve Invested With
Collaborative FundSV AngelBox GroupRed Sea VenturesDesigner FundF CubedSteadfast CapitalJerry NeumannNaveen SelvaduraiRob FishmanJack GroetzingerJustin KanSteve Huffman
*Have led / participated in follow-on rounds:Y CombinatorHomebrewFounder CollectiveSpark CapitalCollaborative FundEniacMetamorphicLux CapitalMESAMontage VenturesBrian LeeJosh Reeves
Notation Platform in 2015
Notation Capital is more than single fund with a collection of investments and portfolio companies. We’ve spent a lot of time this past year laying the long-term foundation for a venture capital firm.
Marketing / Brand - Putting Notation on the MapPart-Time Partnership and Founder CommunityPartnership Process + Decision Framework“Signals” - NYC Hacker Data + Tracking
WHO WE ARE - A Growing PartnershipAlex Lines - General Partner, Notation CapitalNicholas Chirls - General Partner, Notation Capital
Part-time Partners:
Alex Chung - CEO / Hacker, GiphyJon Lax - Product Design Director, FacebookAmanda Peyton - Product Director, GoogleJake Levine - CEO / Hacker, Electric ObjectsMatt Hackett - CTO, BeMeKellan Elliot-McCrea - Fmr CTO, EtsyDavid Weiner - Head of Content, BeMeCamille Fournier - Fmr CTO, Rent The RunwayAlex Rainert - Fmr Head of Product, Foursquare + Project Florida
An Evil Plan Grows In Brooklyn
2 General Partners in NYC~ 15 Part-Time Partners in NYC~ 30 Limited Partners in NYC~ 40 - 80 Notation Founders in NYC
By the end of Fund I, we’ll have at least 100 people in NYC directly invested in the success of Notation Capital.
Notation Capital in 2016
Continue to build out foundation for the Firm:
- Notation NYC Founder Community- Notation Partnership Framework- Signals Data Product (recruiting / incubation)- Part-Time Partnership
Notation Capital in 2016
Continue to invest at a similar pace along three areas of the pre-seed range:
- 2-3 incubation projects - 5-6 standard pre-seed companies- 2-3 late pre-seed / early seed companies
We’ve made good progress in year 1, but still have a long way to go.
The goal is to be the absolute first choice for founders in NYC at the earliest stages of the stack (ie. pre-seed or whatever we call it in the future).
This will produce exceptional returns for our LPs (and for us) over time.
Notation Capital still in its 1st Inning
Like many of the founders we work with, we know this will take years and decades, and grit and grind through cycles.
But we’ll still be here, in Brooklyn, working away...and as always, we’re thrilled to have such exceptional LPs as partners - now and for a long time to come.
Notation Capital still in its 1st Inning
If you’re a founder in NYC building something awesome (or even thinking about it), send us an email and let’s hang.
There’s no project we consider too early, we always hated hearing that ourselves :-)
Nick - @nchirls - [email protected] - @alexlines - [email protected]
P.S. for Founders…(added to deck)