I’m very happy to announce that I’ve joined Vine Ventures in New York as a full stack investor focused on the earliest stages of company building! I’ll be working alongside Eric, Dan, Demren, Barak, John, Joe and Racheli to build the world’s best venture firm by investing in founders who are problem-obsessed, wildly interesting and high-integrity.
Founded in 2020, Vine is a startup investing in startups. As a founder, it’s a feeling of mutuality and respect for the journey. As an investor, it’s an opportunity to build something really special. In the last four years we’ve become one of the largest seed funds in New York with additional offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of what the Vine team hopes to achieve together.
So, let me return the favor to those of you who build in public. I’ve written down some transparent thoughts on what I know about company building and, more importantly, what I don’t. If you’re thinking about starting a company and this resonates, let’s hang out.
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My dad’s biggest regret in life is that he never tried to build something himself. He shared this with me as he was stepping back from his own career. I was very young, and his reflection struck me very deep. My grandpa, on the other hand, did start his own company – a shoe business – only to lose everything in a recession. Needless to say, these data points instilled a sobering, yet aspirational, view of entrepreneurship at an early age.
Technology entrepreneurship was an elusive concept to grasp while growing up in Colorado in the ‘90s and 2000s. You have DISH Network, which famously never raised venture dollars, and then you have the likes of Vail Resorts, which I’m sure was considered some sort of startup at some point. There were of course others, but the point is, it wasn’t Silicon Valley.
So I set out to learn: I moved to California to attend UC Berkeley and began gathering experiences that would help me understand how generational, enduring companies are built. It was a non-linear journey into inception-stage company building. Nine years later, here’s what I know, and what I don’t.
What I know:
- How to raise capital at every stage – early, growth and in the public markets, and how to sell your business to optimize outcomes for all stakeholders – employees, shareholders and customers
- How to scale a venture-backed startup from early to growth, both tactically with org structuring, and implicitly with culture planning
- How to respond to massive, unexpected disruptions (e.g. COVID), deal with cash-strapped runway planning, and motivate a team in the face of it all
- How to connect the people I’ve met and worked with at crucible moments, and how to hire for the ‘n of 1’ teammate or 10x engineer
- How to optimize tradeoffs in short and long-term unit economics, and how to track/incentivize progress towards UEs with team KPIs and compensation plans
What I don’t know:
- How the inside of a “big tech” company operates
- How to hire 100 people in 100 days
- How to leverage 20 years of venture relationships to win customers
- How to balance 20 different Board relationships in a high quality way while deploying new capital
- How to write code – though, I now have platforms like Qodo who can do that for me
September 3rd, 2024 marked my first day with the team at Vine Ventures. What should be clear is that I haven’t been investing in startups for 20 years, I didn’t grow up in Silicon Valley, and I haven’t worked at Google or Facebook.
What I have done is engrained myself in company building at every stage and seen what it takes to create a business that endures the test of time. I am a thought partner who has helped friends validate their own product-market fit, owned and operated private-equity backed businesses, and operationally supported two of the most inspirational founders in scaling their startup over three years through the highest highs and lowest lows. These experiences have shifted my view of entrepreneurship from sobering aspiration to pragmatic optimism.
At Vine, I’ll be looking to partner with founders who share this optimism and have a collision of insight and ambition as they go from zero to one. I also love working with people who are relentlessly self aware yet still take irrational pride in what they’re building.
I’ll skip the “starting a startup is hard” speech because we all know that.
What I care more about is the “why” and “how” you got to where you are. Sometimes that will come from years of industry insights, other times you’ll still be in college with more vision for the world you want to actualize than anyone around you. Life is non-linear, and it is difficult to predict when lightning will strike.
I will be a generalist but am keeping my eyes focused on developments at the intersection of different sectors – AI, application software, data/infrastructure and fintech. There is beauty in symmetry across two seemingly disparate spaces, and the next 10 years will look extremely different from the last 10. Lines are being blurred, and our generation’s defining companies will find ways to bridge these gaps.
I will also lead our efforts in New York, along with our co-founder Dan, to expand Vine’s community, identity and ethos. If you’re based in New York, coffee is always on me. We want to be your first call if you’re thinking of building and would love to host you at our Union Square office that’s filled with similarly exceptional entrepreneurs we’ve backed.
True to the spirit of ‘building in public’, here’s what we hope to accomplish over the next 90 days.
Goals – Next 90 Days:
- 2x the amount of exceptional founders/operators working out of Vine’s office on any given day; currently ~5
- Back two new founders, with at least one based out of New York
- Establish an event series focused on the “why” and “how” of tactical company building
- Touchpoints on 80%+ of the seed funding rounds in New York
Asks:
- If you’re thinking about starting a company or are in the early stages of doing so, shoot me a note and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours: alex@vineventures.com
- If you’re an investor and care about forming a long-term community of peers, I’d love to get to know you
Gives:
- If you’re thinking of starting a company and looking to work alongside other inspirational operators while ideating, we invite you to come work out of our office. Let us know here and we’ll be in touch.
- If you’d like to stay up-to-date on future Vine NYC events, sign up here.
If, in one year, we’re not one of your first calls as you start to build, I expect this letter to hold us accountable.
