A+H Venture fund. I think I like it. A lot!
I think the most question most asked over the previous weeks was ‘Can you recommend any vc’s, bart ?” Over the last months and years, I have seen quite some – and I do believe that choosing the right investors or shareholders is just as important as choosing your team! However, again and again I see the roadway to hell: because of no alternative, a specific ‘money provider’ is chosen anyway, and than the trouble starts. Milestones not reached, payments from investors delayed, focus off the product and customers and fully towards cash needs, etc etc
Over the last weeks, I have seen quite some investor that I like a lot. I like the experienced ‘hands-on’ guys. Not hands-on in the way that they interfere in the daily management (though a bit can’t hurt to fully understand the product and market), but hands-on because they also have been entrepreneurs.
With that in perspective, today’s announcement of Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz is an extremely interesting approach:
Marc Andreessen and business partner Ben Horowitz launched a boutique VC fund Monday with an initial capitalization of $300 million that the pair intends to invest in “anything that involves chips and computers” at a clip of $50,000 to $50 million per startup.
The firm, Andreessen / Horowitz, makes a business of what has been a consuming private enterprise of the two, who have made angel investments all over Silicon Alley. While the money they have at their disposal now is considerably more than they had as lone private investors their approach will remain essentially the same, Andreessen and Horowitz told Wired at a recent briefing. That is to say, they they won’t invest in anything they don’t understand, period. This includes a lot of “cool stuff,” the eternally-boyish Andreessen explains, like clean and nano technology.
If you get to make a pitch a decision won’t be long in coming because it’s only the two partners deciding. But don’t bother to cold e-mail them with your Google-killing idea. You need an invitation to this party — a referral from somebody you both know and that they respect. This rule, however — more bean-counter than dreamer-friendly — is pretty much disposed of almost as quickly as it is enunciated. “We’ll probably read the e-mail,” they say, shrugging and shooting each other a look after a moment’s reflection.
Yep, things are moving. More later.
bart
