Serendipity final call

Final call for my/unbundled vc's Serendipity Meetup from 5.30pm this evening upstairs at the Jon Snow pub in London.

TIL from my super impressive 17yo nephew, Sam Cohen:

TIL from my super impressive 17yo nephew, Sam Cohen:

It's ok to repost your own content on X and LinkedIn. You have followers who may not have seen it the first time. You have followers in different time zones.

Don't be embarassed to promote your own content.

He should know. His X account, @SamC_reports, has 140k followers and he runs The United Stand's account which has 2.5m.

A lot more I can learn from him.

Learn from your buyers

Early-stage founders, if you have a first buyer for your product that loves it, understand why they love it, what problem it solves for them, and why it makes sense for them to buy it.

Then look for the set of companies that have the identical characteristics.

Now you have your target market and your messaging nailed.

Bingo.

This weekend with Al Murray

The weekend starts soon with Al Murray, Pub Landlord.

A crazy backlog to work through before I fly to London on Sunday to do my own very different level standup set.

The unbundled vc serendipity meetup is on Monday evening (link in comments).

Sifted Summit and Alma Angels female founder office hours are on Wednesday and Thursday.

And meetings meetings meetings.

Have a great weekend, all.

ICYMI yesterday

ICYMI yesterday I:

👉 Shared details of Monday's upcoming unbundled vc serendipity meetup in London.
👉 Asked for advice ahead of speaking to a journalist on a controversial subject.
👉 Shared I had been quoted in a Business Insider article about Mr Beast.

Quote in Business Insider on Mr Beast

Here's my quote in this Business Insider article about Mr Beast, Founder Mode, and his recently leaked onboarding document:

"It feels authentic," said Marc Cohen, an early-stage tech investor at unbundled vc. "It feels like it's written by a person rather than it's written by a corporation. And when you do that, you get a message across."

Thank you to Dan Whateley of Business Insider for the opportunity to contribute. I was a little nervous because of the controversy around Mr Beast but Dan was a delight to deal with.

Talking to journalists advice

So I have a call with a journalist this afternoon on a subject that is adjacent to a controversial one.

How do I avoid getting misquoted or caught up in it yet take advantage of the opportunity to build my brand?

Advice please.

Edit: all good. Business Insider.

Sign up for the serendipity meetup

The serendipity meetup is happening on Monday in London!

Please signup to meet like-minded others, chat, connect and generate serendipity.

No agenda, no selling, just show up and see what happens.

AI’s impact on venture

AI is opening up an incredible set of opportunities, enabling founders to solve problems at scale that were never possible before.

That’s why it matters, but it’s not the only way to do so - as my current portfolio evidences.

At the end of the day, if you can solve real problems for customers at scale you will have a great business. AI hugely increases the set of things where that is possible.

Venture Capital’s Wild Ride in the Guernsey Press

My article, Venture Capital's Wild Ride, is in today's Guernsey Press .

Love the image they've used.

Alma office hours at Sifted

Come meet me at the Alma Angels Female Founder Office Hours during Sifted Summit next week.

🗓️ On Wednesday, 2nd October, from 5 pm, I'll be matched with two founders for 25-minute sessions, joining 49 other Almas in offering advice and support.

Let's do this if:

👉 You're at the pre-seed or seed stage
👉 A woman (co)founded business
👉 Building a tech or IP-rich venture with global ambitions

⚠️ To register, be sure to save the office hours in the Sifted Summit app ⚠️

🎟 If you haven't grabbed your ticket yet, there’s still time. Use code Alma15 for 15% off.

Who’s up for a serendipity meetup

Who's up for a Serendipity Meetup in London next Monday 30th early evening?

No agenda, just get great people together in a room/pub/wherever and see what happens.

Enough people let me know and I will make it happen.

Edit: it's happening.

VC fake differentiation

It's way harder to differentiate as a VC than as a startup.

Most VC funds are pushed by their investors to show how they differentiate when they either don't or they do and it hurts them.

They either:

1. Say they invest in a niche and in doing so rule themselves out of most of the market.
2. Define their areas of interest so widely that it looks like they have them but they actually invest in everything, or
3. Say it's by value add. This is important but, as every founder knows, is usually more words than actions.

In practice, most funds are alike. What really makes a difference is if founders want them in their rounds (= brand + reputation) and if they are good at choosing.

For choosing, it's all about process. And almost every VC process is largely the same.

More on process another time.

Focal W24 final call

🚀 Final call! Just 24 hours left to apply for Focal's W24 Demo Day, backed by HSBC Innovation Banking.

Startups raising in the next 6 months - this is your chance to get in front of over 250 leading VC funds, including unbundled vc.

It only takes 7 minutes to apply. Even if you don’t make it to the Demo Day, you’ll still have the opportunity to connect with top investors - last round over 1,600 introductions were made! This is one of the most efficient ways to supercharge your fundraise.

My biggest learning from investing in startups

What's been my biggest learning investing in startups? Find out at the end of the post.

This was the best question from the podcast I recorded with Prashant Choubey on VC10X. I did not know my answer until we got there. But I trusted the words would just make sense as they came out. This is one of the benefits of doing a lot of improv - and a lesson for the LLM sceptics who like to claim, "We are different".

What's my biggest learning from investing?

Investing has taught me how to be a founder - I've met so many great founders, tried to learn from them all, and continue to learn how to be a great founder for my startup VC, unbundled vc.

Guernsey EIS in the Guernsey Press

My views on the new Guernsey Enterprise Investment Scheme, GEIS, published in today's Guernsey Press .

Buy a clip-on you idiot

Charity event for my kid's school. I have to leave in thirty minutes.

Will I make it?

Click Like for "Yes", Support for "No", or Funny for "Buy a clip-on you idiot".

Guernsey EIS

Guernsey finally has its version of EIS, the imaginatively named GEIS.

It's been a constant challenge for Guernsey startups that it's harder to raise from the UK because they aren't eligible for EIS or SEIS but there's no equivalent to encourage local investors.

Finally there is! At least as a trial. Let's hope it encourages the same level of innovation it has in the UK.

Guernsey startups, you can apply for the Certificate of Advanced Assurance from the 1st of October. Best of luck.

Guernsey Venture Challenge panel

Just setting up for this evening's Guernsey Venture Challenge where I'll be on the panel alongside Paul Wilkes of Osney Capital and Xenia Levina of Blenheim Chalcot to award £70,000 to the best startups.

Best of luck to all the founders presenting this evening - excited to hear your pitches!

Investor insights with SeedLegals

Lots of fun chatting with Mo Saed of SeedLegals for this, including:

- An Xmas Runna fairytale
- What I learned from my first investments
- What I look for in founders and startups
- How doing improv and standup helps me

Blog link. Thanks to Kaylin Sullivan for putting this together!