Operating under uncertainty

Understanding risk reward is an important skill for founders and investors.

We all operate in a world where outcomes are never guaranteed. Very rarely do you have all the information or knowledge to make a decision with absolute certainty.

We still have to make the decisions. A fast decision is better than no decision.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

More at unbundled dot vc.

Ask Marc Anything

My "Ask Marc Anything" bot is up and running. It requires a ChatGPT Plus subscription.

I would love it if you could test it for me and give me feedback.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Critical founder decision

I spoke with a founder who was facing a critical decision on whether to self-fund their business, having not paid themselves a salary for some time.

They weren't sure their own funds would be enough, didn't think existing investors would support them, and had another option to start a new venture in a related space.

They were worried that if they took the latter option, their investors would be upset or angry.

I recommended they speak candidly with their existing investors and explain that the current situation was unsustainable. They need to earn money to support their family and it's unreasonable to expect them to fund the business on their own.

Then, with this context in mind, they can talk through the potential scenarios like a recap and pivot, or closing the existing business and starting a new one.

The key is to manage expectations while being honest and transparent about the options.

Investors should respect that, see that they have worked hard and contributed above and beyond what they might reasonably have expected, and hopefully recognise that any proposed outcome is the only reasonable way forward.

Best of luck.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Decision making mindset

The right mindset for decision-making is asking yourself, "Will this matter in twenty years" and "What would the me in twenty years' time want me to do?".

I am still working on this.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Make it easy

Founders, if you can easily make me understand you are solving an important problem for your customers in a space I know little about, that evidences a skill set that is just as important as the problem you are solving.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Are you worth it?

Founders, if you ask for a pre-seed valuation of £4m, you are saying you and your co-founders deserve an aggregate net worth of £4m.

Are you worth it? The best founders are. And more.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Text to video

If you've not seen Sora, the new text-to-video tool from OpenAI, you need to check out Sam Altman's Twitter feed.

The text prompt for this video was "A bicycle race on ocean with different animals as athletes riding the bicycles with drone camera view".

The world is changing fast.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Change the world

Founders, you are the people brave enough to try and change the world. Win or lose, you give it your all.

Most people just want change. You are the few prepared to risk failure and make it happen.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Coffee and love

The coffee machine is working again and all is well with the world.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Introductions and social capital

Whenever you are kind enough to introduce me to someone I would like to meet, you risk your social capital.

I am always grateful when you do and understand when you don't. Thank you.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

First Principles Hiring

I wrote an article for Business Brief magazine on First Principles Hiring and its analogies with investing.

There's a callout for Jan Deruyck of Guud and how he employs these principles.

Thank you Amanda (Mandy) Eulenkamp for allowing me to contribute.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Founder pitch summary

Founders, here's your pitch summary:

This is the important problem we solve for our customers. Here's how.

That's it.

Investing in a competitor is a big deal

Investing in a competitor is a big deal. Your founders, and potential founders, need to know they can trust you with anything. They can't if they are worried about your close relationship with a competitor.

Conflicts can happen - businesses pivot - but you should avoid them wherever you can.

Follow on in Pragmatic Semiconductor

I made a follow on investment as a very minor part of Pragmatic Semiconductor's £182m Series D.

This is an unusual one for me, unbundled vc very rarely invests this late stage. Why now?

Despite the stage, Pragmatic still has room for a 50-100x valuation multiple in the next 5-10 years. Its price point and groundbreaking short lead times unlock entirely new business models for users of its semiconductors - opportunities that were impossible before.

As an investor primarily focused on early-stage, I recognise the features that have the potential to create huge markets that didn't previously exist.

Thank you to Andrew Williamson and the team at Cambridge Innovation Capital for this opportunity that was only available to me as an LP in their fund.

The wonder of deadlines

There's nothing like a deadline to get your creative juices flowing.

Magrathea Metals receives $28m in non-dilutive funding

ICYMI Magrathea has been awarded $28 million in non-dilutive funding to help enable the establishment of independent, carbon-neutral magnesium production in Western supply chains.

This is huge validation of both the importance of its mission and its incredible execution. Congratulations to Alex Grant, Jacob Brown and the whole team.

unbundled vc invested in Magrathea's pre-seed and seed rounds and I am delighted it did. You can hear how that first came about in my podcast with Jack Richardson of ProRata.

Details of the award. The podcast.

hashtag#founders hashtag#startups hashtag#venturecapital hashtag#buildinginpublic hashtag#investinginpublic

New investments paused to figure it out

Following a fundraising conversation on Friday, I am pausing looking at new investments.

The overwhelming weight of evidence is that if you want to raise a new fund you have to try and do it full time and you can't do that while full-time investing.

I am not 100% on this path yet but I need time to figure it out.

In the meantime, so as not to waste people's time, the right thing to do is to pause looking at new deals while I make a firm decision.

Apologies to anyone who has submitted a video pitch or scheduled a call I've had to postpone.

There may still be follow-ons. I will be able to speak about one of these very shortly.

I will post again when I have full clarification.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Late update - 11 Jan 23

#YesterdayI

Shared that founders need ambition plus insight plus pragmatism.
Had coffee with a friend.
Caught up with Monika Holod of OMA Mind.
Had coffee with Paul Nobes of Infinity Construction and Daniel Blondel of BTP Limited.
Had my Important not Urgent Day.
Didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Ambition + insight + pragmatism = outcome

I want my founders to have the ambition to grow fast and target a huge outcome. I also want them to make the right decision if that path no longer seems viable or is too risky.

Ambition plus insight plus pragmatism. The perfect combination.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 10 Jan 23

#TodayI

Shared why I passed on a recent pitch.
Gave feedback to a founder about how the current fundraising environment affects growth plans.
Was pitched by Sarah Wernér of Husmus.
Shared how to check if your email is likely to get stopped by spam filters.
Had an impromptu lunch with Matthias Plunser of Selected Workspaces.
Dealt with suspected fraud on my bank account which turned out to be a scheduled direct debit.
Postponed a founder call for them to finalise a presentation.
Was pitched by Tom Sherwood of Koios.

#NowI

Need to finalise my overdue article for Business Brief.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic