how we invest · market; it’s a small business. sharing is very important and sharing great...

HOW WE INVEST VOLUME IV

eGuide www.tencapital.group

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http://www.tencapital.group/

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Contents Ba Minuzzi of UMANA .................................................................................... 6

Creating Communal Working Spaces for Startups ...................................................................... 6

Advice for Investors ................................................................................................................................. 6

Challenges and Opportunities ............................................................................................................. 6

Brian Deutsch of XV Capital Group ........................................................... 8

Helping Startups Reach Full Potentials ............................................................................................. 8

What’s Exciting Right Now .................................................................................................................... 8

Advice for Investors ................................................................................................................................. 8

Challenges in the Space ......................................................................................................................... 9

Ciaran Hynes of COSIMO Ventures ......................................................... 10

Investing in the Blockchain Sector ................................................................................................... 10

Advice for Investors and Startups ..................................................................................................... 10

Investment Thesis ................................................................................................................................... 10

Challenges and Opportunities ........................................................................................................... 11

Djalil Reghis of Agroecology Capital ....................................................... 12

Investing and Supporting New Technologies in Agroecology .............................................. 12

Advice for Investors and CEOs ........................................................................................................... 12


Geraldo Melzer of A.B. Seed Ventures .................................................. 14

An Investment Opportunity in Brazil ............................................................................................... 14

Advice for Investors ............................................................................................................................... 14

Advice for Startups ................................................................................................................................. 14

Challenges and Opportunities ........................................................................................................... 14

Grant Newlin of Newlin Ventures ............................................................ 16

Advice for Investors in Foodtech ...................................................................................................... 16



Challenges in the Space ....................................................................................................................... 16

Greg Baker of Alumni Ventures Group ................................................. 18



Industry Evolution .................................................................................................................................. 19


James Somauroo of HS. Ventures........................................................... 21

Advice for Investors in Healthtech ................................................................................................... 21




Josh Chapman of Konvoy Ventures ....................................................... 24

Advice for Investors in the Video Game and Esports Space ................................................... 24




Kerry Rupp of True Wealth Ventures ..................................................... 27

Advice for Investing in Women-led Businesses........................................................................... 27




Kevin King of Texas Halo Fund ................................................................ 30






Michael Mealling & Steven Jorgenson of Starbridge Venture

Capital ............................................................................................................... 33

Investing in the Spacetech Sector .................................................................................................... 33



Paul Sethi of 2048 Ventures ..................................................................... 36





Sasha Shtern of Zero G Capital ...............................................................38





Sergio Paluch of Beta Boom .................................................................... 40





Stephanie Campbell of Houston Angel Network/The Artemis

Fund ................................................................................................................... 42

Advice for Female Founders and Investors ................................................................................... 42


6

Ba Minuzzi of UMANA

Creating Communal Working Spaces for Startups

A multi-family office for individuals and self-mades can create a working environment of

collaboration and understanding. It’s an opportunity for those of different interests and

positions, such as celebrities, athletes, etc. to voice their opinion on new technology and

interests in business related decisions.

It helps with your investment thesis to host your audience of investors to ensure the

success of those future opportunities.

Advice for Investors

You must have a deep dive to understand the industry that you’re navigating. One of

the most important roles is to find founders that understand the industry you’re

investing in. Seek founders that understand their market and those that try to obtain a

marketing strategist that can be used in-house to help you understand how to get your

brand the traction it needs.

A deep dive is important because it makes sure you vet and understand the specifics of

the industry that you’re looking to invest in.

Challenges and Opportunities

Each industry has its own challenges but the consistent challenge is always fundraising.

Many businesses believe fundraising is easy but it takes a lot of time investment in its

own right. Capital is the one item that can have your business sustain longevity.

With those challenges come opportunities to pursue. Those hot opportunities are:

Cannabis Psychedelics

Ba Minuzzi’s Background

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Ba kicked off his career at 16 years old in the fashion industry.

He then became a fashion designer.

At 19, he decided to work in an investment firm.

6 months later, he decided to launch his own investment boutique where he was

doing private-equity deals in real estate.

He then moved to the US where he became diversified.

He ended up in angel investments and the venture-capital world.

Contact Information

Email: [email protected]

Listen to the full interview here

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-ba-minuzzi-of-umana/

8

Brian Deutsch of XV Capital Group

Helping Startups Reach Full Potentials

Brian’s role is to assist startups with succeeding beyond a normal path of startup

growth. He works to understand and navigate the waters of uncertainty with various

founders who are educated on the investment they’re receiving.

Brian and XV Capital Group are not a traditional investment group and work with

businesses to induce passion and success.

What’s Exciting Right Now

It has become much less expensive to invest and the barriers are much lower for

individuals to follow their passions, to go out and solve a problem, and to build a

company. As an early stage investor, Brian understands how much farther along

businesses and entrepreneurs can get before they begin looking for that first

institutional round of capital.


Spend as much time as possible surrounded by early-stage businesses and others who

are investing in them. The biggest mistake angels and individuals looking to write their

first early stage checks make is they’re writing checks at too high of a percentage of

what they’re seeing.

For new ventures, think about what makes sense for you as an individual as well as your

business from an investment perspective. Think about what it is that you want for

yourself and for your companies, and then do the work that’s necessary to find investors

who fit with that want. One of the biggest contributors to failed entrepreneurial journeys

is a disconnect between the investor and the founder, where the founder wants one

thing and the investor wants another - try to prevent this because you’re only doing

your venture injustice.

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Challenges in the Space

Just by virtue of being a nascent business with founders who have not been through this

before - the risk lies in the unknown. This could be from a regulatory perspective that

could mean something eventually gets written into.

It is a necessity for founders to remain as nimble as possible in the face of this

uncertainty. From an investment standpoint, think about how much to take and from

who to take it. It is critical for founders, entrepreneurs, and investors to understand that

the more money you bring on the less flexibility you have in what you can do with your

business.

Brian Deutsch’s Background

Brian was a CPA by trade before investing.

He focused on the world of chemical manufacturing.

He then went on to grad school to get an MBA and transition into the world of

investment banking where he was an advisor in the world of consumer and retail.

He focused on food & beverage, multi-site retail, and direct to consumer.

Contact Information

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: Brian Deutsch



http://linkedin.com/in/briandeutschxv

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-brian-deutsch-of-xv-capital-group/

10

Ciaran Hynes of COSIMO Ventures

Investing in the Blockchain Sector

Ciaran and Cosimo Ventures’ role is heavily invested in the deep-tech space, showing

the importance on these new emerging sectors. They are committed to blockchain

technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and data analytics.

COSIMO Ventures is about looking at companies from an entrepreneurial background

and imparting their knowledge in this space.

Advice for Investors and Startups

For investors, make sure you invest through a fund and don’t try and pick out winners

individually for yourself. If you can, invest through a fund. However, if you’re insistent

about going about it alone, spend a lot of time learning and really digging into the

space because of its ever changing nature. Remember that things can change quickly.

Keep yourself educated on what’s going on in the space of your interest and know what

the protocols are.

For startups, take the time to make sure that blockchain technology is applicable to your

solution or to your business. First and foremost, make sure it adds value. Second, do not

forget about the economics of the business.

Investment Thesis

There are six layers to what make up the future of the blockchain investment space.

COSIMO Ventures keeps this focus because they believe it will be the very basis of the

future of the current economy. These layers are:

Platform Software and Applications Data Protection and User Privacy Digital Assets and Crypto-Currencies Regulatory Technology and Custodial Solutions Identity Authentication Services

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Brokerage Services and Exchanges


A major challenge in the blockchain space is the lack of development talent and when

you do eventually find good talent, it’s expensive. The additional challenge is looking at

how various countries look at different currencies and how that pans out in either

Europe or the United States. Operating this can be a challenge but once you get solid

legal advice and work within the current parameters, it’s a challenge you can overcome.

From the major challenges come major opportunities and those are found in:

Services and data privacy Uniquely structured digital assets

Ciaran Hynes’s Background

Ciaran grew up in Ireland then relocated to Boston.

He has always been an entrepreneur, starting his first company at 25 years old.

He ended up founding several companies, having been CEO to 5 of them.

Contact Information

Web: COSIMO Ventures

LinkedIn: Ciaran Hynes


http://cosimoventures.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciaranmhynes

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-ciaran-hynes-of-cosimo-ventures/

12

Djalil Reghis of Agroecology

Capital

Investing and Supporting New Technologies in

Agroecology

Technology offers tremendous opportunities to push the values, and that’s what

Agroecology Capital is about. Dijalil chose the name because the principles of

agroecology are important to him. What excites him are these new technologies that

can help to spread those values to push forward.

Djalil notes that you also are able to work with extraordinary people and extraordinary

minds and that makes this space exciting.

Advice for Investors and CEOs

For those investing in this space keep in mind that investing in ag-tech remains a small

market; it’s a small business. Sharing is very important and sharing great opportunities is

really important. Before you contemplate signing the check, share with other investors

because that’s how you will find the best deals and also leverage the expertise of other

investors. It’s a new industry, so it’s really important to gain insights from other

investors.

For CEOs running startups in this space, make sure you gather a good team and work

with great investors. This is a very particular industry where you need to have the right

partners to access the right markets and the right geographies for your technology.

Investment Thesis

Agroecology Capital is an early-stage fund based in the Silicon Valley in Palo Alto. It’s a

newly-established fund where Djalil and his team invest only in the upstream of the

value chain in agriculture.

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They believe that ICANN software is a tremendous tool that can transform agriculture,

which remains to date, one of the last analog industries, but one of the most promising

in terms of potential for investors.

Agroecology Capital believes that decommoditization (the ability to bring a commodity

to a food product) is one of the main things that will help solve a lot of issues in this

space.

Djalil Reghis’s Background

Djalil was originally an engineer by training.

He entered the food and agri-business industry early on in his career and held

executive positions in various positions in the MENA region.

Contact Information

Web: Agroecology Capital

LinkedIn: Djalil Reghis


https://www.agroecologycapital.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/areghis

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-djalil-reghis-of-agroecology-capital/

14

Geraldo Melzer of A.B. Seed

Ventures

An Investment Opportunity in Brazil

There is a market that is growing tremendously in Brazil and A.B. Seed Ventures seeks to

further grow these startups. The region of Latin America, specifically Brazil, is waking up

to VC investments and the market is maturing.


The first thing you should do is evaluate the environment and see if you have the

potential to help.

Invest in something that you have the ability to study and to form an opinion on. You

want to be able to mitigate the risk and go with something that you are more familiar

with.

Advice for Startups

For those running the startups, look in the mirror and be true to yourself in the sense

that you’ve found a real problem that you want to solve.

Investors want to see people that know the space they’re working in. It’s very important

for founders to look for a problem that is real and one where they can deliver value.


1. Regarding SaaS and B2B companies, you may face

significant product challenges - the real product-market-fit challenge: putting a product that really delivers value.

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2. Another common challenge is moving from the

founder-selling process to a structure and team-selling process.

The opportunity from the SaaS/B2B perspective is that there is a lot of movement for HR

techs. There is plenty of space for efficiency in these areas and there are a lot of

companies appearing with different approaches to automate and create a platform for

end-to-end HR management.

Geraldo Melzer’s Background

Geraldo received his MBA at Duke.

After Duke, he went to work for Dell and at Dell he started a business - a new

initiative to sell to a small business segment.

He created a relevant business in Brazil that generated millions of dollars in the

region.

He went into the VC space and started working in a startup in Brazil that grew

tremendously leading the indirect-sales part of the business.

Contact Information

Web: A.B. Seed Ventures

LinkedIn: Geraldo Melzer


https://abseed.com.br/

http://linkedin.com/in/geraldomelzer

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-geraldo-melzer-of-a-b-seed-ventures/

16

Grant Newlin of Newlin Ventures

Advice for Investors in Foodtech

Foodtech often involves heavy manufacturing components which can cause a bit of a

challenge. It involves physical products, whether it be building models or actually

supplying and sourcing food. The entire funding runway and the funding road map is

different, so being aware of those differences is good practice.

Advice for Startups

For those running startups, understand that companies in foodtech need to think extra

hard about their funding road maps.

In the traditional seed rounds of $1 million that gets you 18 months runway, those don’t

really apply to the foodtech sector. Oftentimes, you need more money and most of the

time the runway is not as long. Also keep in mind that anytime you have a physical

product, you have to deal with gross margins.

Make sure you get some positive gross margin in the beginning so that you can keep

your cash flow stable and then scale later on to really improve those margins.

Investment Thesis

The main areas that Newlin Ventures focuses on are:

IOT Hardware

Newlin Ventures is looking for niches and they’re looking at under-served markets.


In the food tech sphere you’re going to have FDA issues.

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The manufacturing component is also a challenge. For example these challenges may

include:

The IOT where you have to look at your building materials Your COGS cost Your shipping costs

Grant Newlin’s Background

Grant started his career as a management consultant at UI.

He was working on a variety of projects around the financial crisis then switched

over to investment banking.

He transitioned into a corporate FP&A and then worked for the CFO and

President of Kraft Heinz where he started in food tech.

Contact Information

Web: Newlin Ventures

LinkedIn: Grant Newlin


http://newlin.vc/

http://linkedin.com/in/grantnewlin

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-grant-newlin-of-newlin-ventures/

18

Greg Baker of Alumni Ventures

Group


Investing all depends on the stage of startups.

Startup investing has grown from angel friends-and-family rounds which gives a

company that first shot of money to billion-dollar rounds.

The most important thing to look at on the early-stage companies is the team and their

flexibility. Think about these questions when you’re looking to invest:

Have they done it before?

Are they aware that what they’ve developed is likely not the solution that is going to take them to success?

Very few companies end up being what they started off as. The teams that are dead set

on their product being the perfect solution tend to believe that the customers who give

negative feedback are wrong. These teams are probably not the best teams to invest in

because they are not yet ready to change what it is they are doing. The best teams

recognize they are going to have to change what they’re doing as the company

develops.

As you get into later-stage deals you need to be more cognizant of how the market is

reacting.

Is there a large enough market opportunity to offset the risk that you’re taking?

At the end of the day, a large number of the companies that are invested in at the

startup stage, fail. They may be great companies and great teams but the timing is

19

wrong. Therefore, as you make those investments, you need to make sure that you’re

building a portfolio that is going to be able to withstand these inevitable failures.

Advice for Startups

Be aware of your customer.

Get your product out there and find out what the customers really are looking for.

With Greg’s own startup, he thought what the company was offering was something

that everybody would want. In reality, this wasn’t the case. He eventually found things

that the customer did want, but this only happened because the company got out there

and worked with their customers.

If you stay under the radar for too long and only listen to what your own team is saying,

then you’re not going to bring a product to market that the market wants.

Industry Evolution

There’s more money in the industry and the classic lines are blurring.

On one hand there is private equity and large funds coming into what used to be pre-

IPO rounds. In the past this would have been just venture-capital funds. However, these

rounds have extended because of the nature of regulations that have been placed on

people. It’s not as attractive as it used to be to go public.

Companies don’t go public early anymore, so there is more capital coming in from

places that didn’t do private investing before. In turn, this is creating issues of valuation

creep.

Another thing entrepreneurs should keep in mind is that the valuation that you really

care about should be the one where you’re exiting. It might sound good that your

company is worth $100 million, but if your company really isn’t worth that then it is

going to be tough to raise your next round.


Startups spend a lot of time on regulation. This happens because this simply is not what

their expertise is in. A lot of entrepreneurs spend an inordinate amount of time on the

things that are not crucial to their business, just because it’s not what they know how to

20

do. For example, If you’re building a consumer-products company in the US and all of a

sudden start getting orders from Canada, you then need to start thinking about what’s

the best way to service those orders?

It’s not something that was central to what you were doing, so you spend a lot of time

trying to figure out import, export, and taxation issues that take up way more time than

they should.

Greg Baker’s Background

Greg was originally a mechanical engineer with an MBA.

He worked briefly as an engineer.

He later moved into corporate strategy and corporate development before

starting his own business.

Contact Information

Web: Alumni Ventures Group

LinkedIn: Greg Baker


https://www.avgfunds.com/

http://linkedin.com/in/gregebaker

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-greg-baker-of-alumni-ventures-group/

21

James Somauroo of HS. Ventures

Advice for Investors in Healthtech

Generally, in this space, you’re either coming from a more life-science background, or

you’re coming from a tech background. With those two worlds that have developed,

you’re in one camp or another, but you need to think about moving more centrally.

So, if you’re in the life-science camp you usually want a high level of evidence, which is

generally impossible to get in digital health and healthtech at the moment.

If you’re from the tech world, you tend to want a hockey-stick graph of users and

revenue and you want a quick exit yet modernizing healthcare isn’t quite like that; it’s

somewhere in the middle.

You need to get comfortable with the fact that there are not clear paths to graphs, nor

huge levels of evidence yet. You also need to be confident that you’ve got a team in

front of you that understands the above.

Looking for key motivating factors in founders is a key element to this. For example,

founders that have a personal patient experience, or a family member going through

something in the healthcare realm. Make sure the founder has an intimate

understanding of the issue.

Industry Evolution

The healthtech sector is maturing. There’s been hype for quite a while, but it’s no longer

buzzworthy enough, either to raise money, or to create any sort of sustainable business.

We’ve seen hype with things like AI, but now people are starting to ask real questions

about the evidence behind these technologies.

The companies that are winning and coming up with the answers are not the people

that have been shouting loudest. It’s the companies that have actually been doing the

boring, regulatory stuff behind the scenes that are coming out on top.

There’s a consolidation of ideas and of products and far more collaboration between

startups. This is because buyers need a problem solved end to end, and when you’ve

22

got a small part of the chain, as a company it’s worth linking up with other companies

that happened before and after you.

Generally, there are more startups and there are more ideas in the space now and it’s a

positive space to be in because it’s growing. There are a lot of people that want to enter

this space and there are a lot of people out there that are generating ideas, and so it’s a

truly exciting space to be in.

Investment Thesis

HS. Ventures tends to look at founder characteristics first. These characteristics generally

include:

A strong, technical, co-founder Domain expert

They also pay attention to productivity and resilience metrics in addition to scalability.

This would include companies with a product or a solution that’s applicable across

global health systems.

Another area HS. Ventures focuses on is patient-product fit. They want to see

companies with data and demonstrating evidence-based impact all the way back to

patients, ideally with patient co-design and patient feedback.


One of the biggest problems HS. Ventures tries to solve is access to customers to

validate ideas. In healthcare it’s difficult to understand and then to find your way around

this complex system, so HS. Ventures believes in providing access to those customers.

Another challenge is finding a solution that is genuinely scalable. There is far too much

variation on an organizational level to know that something is truly scalable unless

you’ve got specific experience.

James Somauroo’s Background

James is an anesthesiologist and ICU doctor by training.

23

James quickly realized that if you do your clinical work, you do great work for

your patients but it’s only a few patients a day. He wanted a greater impact than

that because he was frustrated that 90% of his day was spent on administrative

tasks.

He used a study-leave allowance to shadow CEOs, finance directors, and other

hospital managers to learn the way hospitals were run.

Through different projects James ended up talking to a lot of technology

companies and meeting startups in the space.

He was part of the founding team of a health-tech accelerator in London which

helps Series A startups get into the NHS.

He started HS. Ventures, which builds and scales healthtech startups from Pre-

seed to Series A. They help strategically with business models from B2C to B2B

with the private sector insurers, as well as emerging markets globally.

Contact Information

Web: HS. Ventures

LinkedIn: James Somauroo


http://hs.ventures/

http://linkedin.com/in/james-somauroo

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-james-somauroo-of-hs-ventures/

24

Josh Chapman of Konvoy Ventures

Advice for Investors in the Video Game and Esports

Space

There are 3 primary ways that you can get exposure to video gaming as an investor

today.

1. You can invest into a video game itself. For example, trying to find

the next Fortnite, Halo, or League of Legends.

2. You can buy an esports team. Over the last 5 years there’s been

an explosion of family offices putting a lot of capital into the professionalization and structures behind the competitive scene of video gaming.

3. Focus on investing into the technologies behind video gaming.

Think of investing into the picks and shovels and infrastructure of this space. A couple of really great examples of this include companies like Unity and Twitch.

Industry Evolution

There are some major changes that are happening in video gaming right now.

One is that video games are now no longer just about games. It is about the future of

social interactivity in digital and real worlds.

Another shift is that video games are now not just one-way media. Games have moved

toward two-way media. Video gaming is now no longer just about games, it is about a

two-way, digital-media-entertainment industry which is competing and about to surpass

the largest OTT platforms on the planet.

The last big change is that video game technology is becoming more complex as we get

closer and closer to a Ready Player One type of world because of virtual reality. As we

25

shift toward this type of game play, this type of reality is one that we need to be keenly

aware of that does have certain benefits. However, virtual reality needs to be honed in

on, locked into and built out.

Investment Thesis

Konvoy Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund focused only on video gaming and

esports.

They do not invest in game studios or esports teams. They focus on investing in

technology and have a highly-technical approach and background in which they

evaluate these companies.

They prefer to come in at a seed stage and be the first check that is coming into the

company.

Some attributes they look for are:

A technical founder on the team The initial signs of traction A founder that understands the pain points within video gaming


The biggest concern Konvoy Ventures sees for startups right now is that the investor

base does not understand their market well enough, so they spend a lot of time

educating people on what is happening in video gaming, instead of being able to talk

about their company.

Another issue that startups struggle with is that there is a lot of tourists talent coming

into the space and trying to work in video gaming. Weeding through this talent can be

tough. People see the growth of the industry, and think that just because they’ve been

playing video games since they were a kid this makes them qualified to work in this

industry.

Startups get a lot of this type of inbound interest and it becomes a real time waster.

Konvoy Ventures encourages startups to get through this list of inbound interest quicker

in their hiring and get to the best talent as quickly as possible. Look for people who

actually have experience in this industry and understand the industry.

26

Josh Chapman’s Background

Josh started his career in finance.

He was working at BlackRock and Morgan Stanley then decided that he wanted

to use those skills early on in the life cycle of a company.

He wanted to get into venture and decided to launch his own venture firm.

Contact Information

Web: Konvoy Ventures

LinkedIn: Josh Chapman


http://konvoy.co/

http://linkedin.com/in/joshchapmanb

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-josh-chapman-of-konvoy-ventures/

27

Kerry Rupp of True Wealth

Ventures

Advice for Investing in Women-led Businesses

The fundamentals of choosing a company don’t really change based on the gender of

the startup.

A lot of data shows that having diversity on a team is what brings benefit to the

startup’s performance. This data has been proven from McKinsey, American Express, and

the Kauffman Foundation that diversity does make for better financial outcomes. This

means taking a look at the team should be the number one priority for investors.

You should be looking to see if there is something particularly strategic about the team

themselves and that diversity might bring to bear. For example, True Wealth Ventures is

not looking only at women-led companies; they are looking at companies where having

a woman on the executive team leads to more strategic advantage because they’re

going to have better insight into specific customers in certain markets.

Industry Evolution

There has recently been a lot more attention on the industry. When True Wealth

Ventures started raising their fund years ago, there were only 6 funds that had a focus

on investing in women-led startups.

There are more funds explicitly focused on women-led companies, but there’s also been

a lot more attention to bringing more women into investing roles and senior investment

decision making roles at VC funds. There’s a shift toward being proactive about a

diversity strategy, not for the sake of social good, but because the data shows that

diverse teams actually outperform. This data is not just about gender, it is often that

different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnicities, and different backgrounds in

general, bring new decisions, ideas, and opportunities to the table.

It’s important that there are more women investors, not just firms looking at women,

because data shows that when there are more women at an investment firm, that firm is

twice as likely to invest in a company with a woman founder and three times as likely

to invest in a company with a woman CEO.

28

Once we start to normalize and integrate more women into investment decision making

roles, then we start to see more women-led companies getting funded, it starts to

become a more normal way of doing business rather than it simply being a fringe case.

Investment Thesis

True Wealth Ventures invests explicitly in what they call women-led companies. The way

they define that is:

At least one woman of significant, decision-making authority, is on that founding or executive team.

This doesn’t have to be a CEO role and there is no specific percent on the cap table for

True Wealth Ventures, but they want a woman to have a significant stake on the cap

table; she should be one of the people that influences decisions.

One of the layers of their thesis revolves around data that shows that women-led

companies outperform. On average there is a 15% higher return on investment and

30% higher revenue growth when you have a women-led team in venture. True Wealth

Ventures figures those companies are not getting funded but they outperform

financially, so they are happy to take advantage of that opportunity.

True Wealth Ventures is also more strategic about which markets they want to be in.

They look at the fact that women make 85% of consumer-purchase decisions and 80%

of healthcare decisions, so these are particular areas of interest for them. Having a

woman on the executive team with insight into these types of customers is going to

have an increased opportunity for financial out-performance.


It can be hard to get that first level of funding, so while you certainly don’t have to only

find women investors, you have to find investors that can overcome that hurdle.

Most investors that are focusing on women-led startups are at the seed stage, so you

might get your seed-stage funding, but then that whole problem might rear its head

again at the Series A.

It’s important to make sure you’re building potential future relationships with investors

who get to see your progress over time and are excited about what you’re doing.

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Leveraging seed-stage investors who have those relationships on your behalf to make

introductions is key.

Kerry Rupp’s Background

Kerry spent about 20 years in the early-stage technology space mostly at early-

stage companies.

She had some stints in her career where she was at bigger companies who had

merged with or acquired the startups she was working with.

Right out of college, she went into coding actually, however this was a short-lived

part of her career.

Her career in coding got her started in the tech industry through Andersen

Consulting.

She has worked in areas such as product management, biz dev, marketing,

strategy, apps, and sales.

Contact Information

Web: True Wealth Ventures

LinkedIn: Kerry Rupp


https://truewealthvc.com/

http://linkedin.com/in/kerryrupp

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-kerry-rupp-of-true-wealth-ventures/

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Kevin King of Texas Halo Fund


Before you write the first check you need some sort of approach.

If someone is going to pursue investing outside of the fund approach, then they need to

be prepared to build a portfolio of 10 to 12 companies, which can be challenging. It’s

challenging from seeing sufficient deal-flow perspective, and it’s challenging from the

capital-requirements perspective. As an individual it can be hard to build yourself an

appropriate early-stage portfolio.

Advice for Startups

Persistence, persistence, persistence.

One of the things that is exciting about running startups, is that you do a little bit of

everything. This in particular appeals to a lot of people. However, if you go into it with

the approach that says: I have a skill set in a certain sector and that’s what I’m

going to do, you are likely going to be surprised at what is required when you’re

running an early-stage business.

Industry Evolution

Volume has been the biggest change in the early-stage industry.

The things that have changed so much and continues to change rapidly are:

1. How many people are interested in early-stage businesses

2. How many people want to start an early-stage business

3. How many people have the awareness of the potential and

opportunity there

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Investment Thesis

Texas Halo Fund is building a diversified portfolio, so there’s no target sector that makes

the most sense for them.

What they are looking for is good management teams, with good ideas, that they

believe are defensible. They also look for startups that are capable of growing into

something that will be attractive for someone else at a certain time.

Texas Halo Fund does a tremendous amount of background research on the

entrepreneur themselves and a lot of due diligence into the field that they are pursuing.

They try to understand the concept that the startup is pursuing and/or the product they

are producing.


The challenge is always money.

The companies that are growing rapidly are raising a couple of times a year.

One of the things that Texas Halo Fund consistently counsels their companies on, is to

be realistic with their valuation.

There’s a temptation for entrepreneurs to want to value their companies as fully as

possible, but there’s an inverse relationship between the valuation that you place on the

company and the time that it takes to raise the money. Be conservative in your

approach to increasing valuations, so that you don’t spend all of your time out raising

money. This will give you time to focus on operations and growing the business which

will truly make you money at the end of the day.

Kevin King’s Background

Kevin has run 10 early-stage businesses.

He’s been in the early-stage industry for most of his career.

Prior to early stage he practiced law.

He’s never limited himself to a particular field and likes to go wherever he sees

opportunity.

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Contact Information

Web: Texas Halo Fund

LinkedIn: Kevin King


http://texashalofund.com/

http://linkedin.com/in/kevin-king-64071215

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-kevin-king-of-texas-halo-fund/

33

Michael Mealling & Steven

Jorgenson of Starbridge Venture

Capital

Investing in the Spacetech Sector

First and foremost, you really need to know the industry before you put any money into

it. In this particular sector a lot of investors come in following hype.

Keep in mind that there are companies out there that are much better at media and

hype than they are at actually running a profitable business and making it a good

investment. Make sure you talk to people who understand the sector and make sure

that you know what you're investing in beyond just looking at what the company

presents as their financial sheet or pitch deck. There's a lot more to this sector than what

you can see at the surface of a pitch meeting.

A lot of the companies in this space tend to come off more as engineering projects,

rather than businesses. You have to be very careful to make sure what you're looking at

is a viable, high-growth business, and not just a company that a group of engineers put

together to create a lifestyle for themselves.

Investment Thesis

Starbridge Venture Capital is focused on space-technology companies that have

multiple revenue streams.

They don’t usually invest at the seed stage because the infrastructure for supporting

small companies at this level already exists in the form of incubators and angel

investors.

Starbridge Venture Capital comes in once a significant portion of the technology risk

has been retired and the number one thing they look for is an understanding of the

market followed by proof that the market exists. They are very focused on LP returns, as

opposed to how sexy a particular business or the sector may be.

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There's not a lot of information available out there for an entrepreneur to understand

the competitive landscape that they're working in.

There is a lot of hype.

There is a lot of inaccurate information about what demand looks like.

Some of this is coming from the government and some is coming from industry

cheerleaders. Just remember that it is important to be realistic.

Steven Jorgenson’s Background

Steven has been a professional fund manager for nearly15 years.

He got into the sector from being an angel investor in the aerospace market.

His original background is in finance where he’s done portfolio management,

quantitative analysis and trading.

He’s had a successful career as a fund manager for over a decade and was able to

parlay that to do some individual angel investments on his own where he learned

that he finds the aerospace sector full of opportunity.

Michael Mealling’s Background

Michael was highly involved in a lot of the early internet during the late 80s

and early 90s.

In 2004 he was part of a startup that built a vertical-takeoff and vertical-landing,

which was a suborbital spacecraft company, that is now one of the commercial

lunar services companies working with NASA.

He’s been involved with technology companies of various types that include

telecom consulting and creating a space ground-station network.

He joined a venture fund in Atlanta where he and the CFO ran everything related

to the fund which is where he gained an understanding of what it takes to run a

fund.

Contact Information

Web: Starbridge Venture Capital

https://www.starbridgevc.com/

35

LinkedIn: Michael Mealling & Steven Jorgenson


http://linkedin.com/in/mealling

http://linkedin.com/in/steven-jorgenson-b2585254

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-michael-mealling-and-steven-jorgenson-of-starbridge-venture-capital/

36

Paul Sethi of 2048 Ventures


It always comes back to the team.

Focus deeply on the team that you're considering investing in, specifically why that team

has a burning desire to disrupt. Make sure the team understands that it's not a 2 to 3

year jaunt; it's a 7 to 10-plus year marathon to get to the ultimate success that you'd

want to see as an angel or an early-stage investor.

Industry Evolution

There's a dearth of talent and part of that talent's shortage is just because of the big

companies paying so much to acquire and then retain talent. This makes it tough for

startups.

At the same time there's an abundance of capital, so you do have more founders out

there, but the founders are not necessarily building in the most capital-efficient way.

They're not necessarily looking to prove things before they go to market, so there's

more dollars chasing a finite number of high-quality founding teams. This being said,

there are a lot of founding teams out there that are just taking advantage of the capital

surplus.

Investment Thesis

2048 Ventures is focused on tech-differentiated businesses across geos, sectors, and

verticals.

They invest at the seed stage and pre-seed stage generally writing $300,000-$500,000

checks.

They have a differentiated-LP base, so rather than traditional, institutional LPs, their

investor base is made up of successful founders and VC's.

2048 Ventures want to be the ones that invest in tech-differentiated founders and then

bring as much value to the startup as they can. They want to be the ones who are

augmenting the superpowers that they believe their founders have.

37


It all comes back to the talent shortage. It's recruiting and retaining talent that's the

toughest for everyone involved. As founders, you need to be able to identify the people

who share the passion for your vision, otherwise you'll be caught executing on your own

vision and not being able to scale and really build upon that vision to create a grand

and exceptional company.

Paul Sethi’s Background

Paul started out as a banker and then moved to the public-market side with a

hedge fund where he focused primarily on tech for about 5 years.

In 2006 he became interested in being an entrepreneur and an angel and moved

into the space initially as a founder in the online-education space.

Contact Information

Web: 2048 Ventures

LinkedIn: Paul Sethi


https://www.2048.vc/

http://linkedin.com/in/paulsethi

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-paul-sethi-of-2048-ventures/

38

Sasha Shtern of Zero G Capital


Keep price in mind.

What does success need to look like at the valuation that you're investing in?

How realistic is it for that outcome to be real?

In recent years, price has fallen by the wayside for excitement and, realistically, prices

have to be grounded at some point.

Advice for Startups

Figure out how to be a capital-efficient business. The easiest way to avoid excessive

fundraising is to make sure that your business isn't capital intensive.

For example, can you break out the development of your product into milestones, so

that early customers can fund a part of or all of the initial growth?

It's obvious that if you're in one market, it's going to take a long time for customers to

fund that growth. At that point it's better to have outside investors, but what can you do

to make sure that as you're adding features and functionality to your product that you

don’t need to ask for an investor’s help?

Industry Evolution

The biggest change for startups is how easy it is to start a business.

There is more angel capital available today than ever before, and the amount of money

that it takes to start a business is lower. You can also learn a lot of the skills that you

need to get your marketing off the ground for little to no cost with places like YouTube.

Additionally, hosting and DevOps have become streamlined because developer tools

and design tools are infinitely better than they were before. This all means there's less of

a barrier if you have a good idea that you want to bring to market. However, keep in

mind execution's everything.

39

Investment Thesis

Zero G Capital invests in software companies in Denver and the Midwest and they look

for tier-two markets.

They define tier-two as cities that are growing, have great university systems, and a lot

of talent. Zero G Capital does not look for large cities, or cities that are flooding with

capital. What they look for is cities where there is a lot of opportunity for the

entrepreneur and for the investor. Zero G Capital tends to look for companies in:

Fintech Supply chain Inventory management Real-estate technologies

Where they end up investing is in $30,000 to $300,000 a month in sales and they prefer

to have an entrance check of about $1 millon.

They like to see companies that have a product built and have a decent amount of

traction with clients.

Sasha Shtern’s Background

Sasha got started early in high school working in e-commerce.

After his business began generating cash flow, he started investing that cash in

other areas in the community which led him to become a full-time investor.

Contact Information

Web: Zero G Capital

LinkedIn: Sasha Shtern


http://zerogcapital.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-shtern-36815320

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-sasha-shtern-of-zero-g-capital/

40

Sergio Paluch of Beta Boom


Think about investing in human and social capital. If you have a focus on investing in

entrepreneurs from more diverse backgrounds those entrepreneurs may not always

have the same access to knowledge and connections that the traditional Silicon Valley

entrepreneurs have.

There's quite a bit of research that suggests that investing in human capital and social

capital, alongside traditional capital, is most predictive of any startup's success.

Advice for Startups

Founders that are running startups that are from underrepresented groups should focus

on investors that can bring more than money to the table. These investors should bring

expertise in a particular field, or connections to potential customers and strategic

partners.

A lot of times investors are inclined to invest in and get deal flow from rising tech hubs.

These tech hubs receive 70% of the investment, but it's very important for founders to

make connections to their local investment community and to their local ecosystem in

addition to those traditional hubs. At the end of the day, that's where a lot of capital and

connections lie.

Investment Thesis

Beta Boom believes that domain expertise, passion and perseverance are stronger

indicators of founder success, rather than pedigree or qualities derived from privilege.

Additionally, they think that founders from diverse backgrounds can better address

opportunities in large, often overlooked, markets. However, the trick is in unlocking that

opportunity. Beta Boom believes that the key to unlocking this opportunity is by

investing in greater human capital along with traditional capital.

Beta Boom is also a startup academy and they provide their founders with daily

coaching from product and marketing experts in order to help them hone in on

product-market fit.

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A common challenge is simply being part of an underrepresented group.

These groups don't always have the same access to information or connections, or

connections to mentors, investors, customers, and strategic partners that other startups

would.

Sergio Paluch’s Background

Sergio founded and ran a Silicon Valley product-innovation firm for over a

decade where he led product design and development for over 50 clients.

He also co-founded a tech nonprofit called ATMA Connect, which reaches over 3

million low-income users each year.

Contact Information

Web: Beta Boom

LinkedIn: Sergio Paluch


http://betaboom.com/

http://linkedin.com/in/sergiopaluch

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-sergio-paluch-of-beta-boom/

42

Stephanie Campbell of Houston

Angel Network/The Artemis Fund

Advice for Female Founders and Investors

Stephanie notes that females are incredibly skilled at relationships, whether advocating

for their children, their spouses, or their communities.

Women should not be afraid to take the risk, ask, or use their networks in the same way

that they do in their community for themselves. Be brave and ask because you never

know what an investor might say.

Stephanie also notes that women typically have never been asked to invest because

they lack access and they lack education. However, this can be overcome by getting

educated about the topic. You can do this by:

1. Joining a local angel network

2. Speaking with people that you know

3. Talking with trusted advisors such as wealth advisors and

attorneys

4. Turning to podcasts and books for additional knowledge

Industry Evolution

There are a lot more female-led angel groups starting in recent years.

There has been a renewed focus on angel networks trying to diversify their membership

which is causing a major shift for females in the space. Houston Angel Network believes

that when more women are investing, more women get funded. This happens because

women tend to invest in things that they understand, which means women are creating

solutions for things and problems they understand.

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Investment Thesis

The Artemis Fund is looking for companies that are raising a Seed to Series A Round.

They look for:

Tech-enabled companies led by women Companies that have received significant traction

By the time a company comes to them at the Seed Round, they've got significant

customer or revenue traction and are looking to partner with a female fund that

understands their values. The Artemis Fund looks for a company that has a strong path

to profitability with sustainable growth where a good return can be expected.


There is a significant lack of human capital.

Once you do raise that round, most projections are, it will take you out 12 to 18 months.

However, if you haven't already figured out who it is that you need to help you grow

and deploy that capital, you forget that it takes potentially 6 months to hire those

people. It’s important to have already talked to people that you know you need, and

have them ready to join the team; you’ll be able to get rolling faster after you receive

capital.

Stephanie Campbell’s Background

Prior to moving to Houston and getting her MBA at Rice, Stephanie spent 5 years

on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, advocating for clients in Southern California.

She worked mostly in the transportation, infrastructure and healthcare space.

She helped businesses, cities, and states advocate for regulatory change and

funding from the federal government.

Contact Information

Web: Houston Angel Network

http://houstonangelnetwork.org/

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LinkedIn: Stephanie Campbell


http://linkedin.com/in/stephanielcampbell/

https://investorconnect.org/investor-connect-stephanie-campbell-of-houston-angel-network-the-artemis-fund/

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Band of Angels

About TEN Capital Network

TEN Capital Network provides funding as a service to

companies anywhere raising venture capital. Its network

of over 11,000 accredited investors represents venture

capital, angels, family offices, and high networth

individuals.

©2020 TEN Capital

Network

www.tencapital.group

[email protected]

https://www.bandangels.com/

http://www.tencapital.group/


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