2. BE THE FIRST TO IDENTIFY AND FUND
HIGHLY TECHNICAL FOUNDERS CAPABLE
OF BUILDING AND SCALING CAPITAL
EFFICIENT (BILLION USER) COMPANIES.
Mission - 1 Yr Ago
3. To be strong technical partners to
exceptional founding teams at the very
infancy of a project.
We love this messy stage and we think we’ve
gotten really good at understanding it.
Mission - Today
4. Pre-Seed Assumptions - 1 Yr Ago
Capital efficient Internet companies don’t need
tons of money to get started.
Founders are actually OK raising relatively smaller
amounts initially to build a project / experiment.
Huge talent turnover happening in NYC.
5. Pre-Seed Assumptions - 1 Yr Ago
Many of the best VCs have raised much larger
funds in the last few years, which prevents them
from doing true angel or pre-seed rounds.
“There is a meaningful opportunity for a small,
NYC-focused pre-seed fund that can help this new
wave of technical founders with small amounts of
early capital and guidance getting to market.”
6. Pre-Seed - Today
The model is working.
It seems practically obvious today that there is
almost always a round of funding that now occurs
before “institutional seed.”
Because we were early to market this trend 18
months ago, Notation Capital has become
synonymous with pre-seed funding in NYC.
7. Notation Capital Pre-Seed
To us, “pre-seed” means more than just the
amount of money a founder initially raises.
Pre-seed is a way of thinking about and running an
early-stage experiment.
We believe that discipline, not large sums of $$$,
gives founders the best chance to achieve
product-market fit.
8. Notation Capital Pre-Seed
Similarly, for Notation Capital, pre-seed means a
highly disciplined approach to true early stage
investing.
We believe it’s one of the few pockets in the
market today where the amount of talent and
company potential outweighs available capital.
9. Consumer / Media + Marketplaces
SaaS
Internet + Data Infrastructure
Explored new capital efficient verticals where we believe the Internet still
hasn’t had its full impact:
- Education
- Health + Related Services
- Financial Products
Notation Key Areas of Interest - 2015
10. # Months Operational - 12 Months
Approx. # Companies Intake (Call / Meeting / Email Intro) - 504
# of Investments - 10
Total $ Invested - $1.65M
Total $ Invested as % of Fund - 20.6%
Avg size of Initial Investment - $165k
Portfolio Overview - 1 Year In
11. The Notation Founders are Badass
Brian Tobal (CEO, Hickory) - Past: Co-Founder, Memoir (Redpoint, Thrive, LV backed)
Cameron Hunt (CTO, Listen) - Past: Head of Mobile, GroupMe
Lauren Leto (CEO, Listen) - Past: Co-Founder, TFLN / banters (Dixon, FC backed)
Stu Libby (CEO, Zipdrug) - Past: Co-Founder, Solve Media (FRC, Dixon, IA backed)
Webster Ross (CTO, Zipdrug) - Past: Head of Mobile, Handy
Kyro Beshay (CPO, Zipdrug) - Past: MD (ie. a Doctor)
Jacob Thornton (co-founder Bumpers) - Past: Creator of Twitter Bootstrap / Tech Lead, Medium
Ian Ownbey (co-founder, Bumpers) - Past: Infrastructure Tech Lead, Twitter
Anders Sandell (CEO, Aiko) - Past: Founder, Jorgits
Unnamed Founder X (CEO, Stealth Co) - Past: Co-Founder, Company (Bootstrapped + Successful Exit)
Ro Gupta (CEO, Carmera) - Past: VP BD, Disqus
Justin Day (CTO, Carmera) - Past: CTO, Makerbot
Miriam Altman (CEO, Kinvolved) - Past: Teach for America
Alex Meis (CPO, Kinvolved) - Past: AmeriCorps Advocate, Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center
Marissa Evans (CEO, Kids Passport) - Past: Founder, Go Try it On (Index Backed, acq by Rent The Runway)
Stephanie Choi (Co-Founder, Kids Passport) - Past: Head of Inventory, Rent The Runway
Sean Haufler (CEO, Fleek) - Past: Yale University
12. How We Work With Our Companies
We spend a lot of time with our companies. Given our
experience, we generally provide help in several areas:
● Product
● Technical Infrastructure
● Technical Recruiting
● Fundraising
● Launch / Press / Go to Market Strategy
● Customer Development
Our network of part-time partners also provides deep domain
expertise.
13. Lessons Learned in 2015
Pre-Seed is a RANGE:
Early Pre-Seed / Incubation Stage:
- $100k-$250k Round at $1M-$2M Valuation (3 companies)
- Meant to hire founding team and build out a prototype / plan
Standard Pre-Seed Stage:
- $300k-$600k Round at $2M-$3M Valuation (5 companies)
- Team and initial plan in place, possibly prototype
- Goal is to get solid product to market and show early signs of growth
Large Pre-Seed / Early Seed Stage:
- $650k-$1M Round at $3M-$5M Valuation (2 Companies)
- Team in place, early product in market, some growth but pre product-market fit
14. Lessons Learned - Pre-Seed Range
Ownership
Early Seed StageIncubation
Startup B
Startup Z
Startup N
Startup A
Startup P
Startup X
Startup F
Startup I
Startup W
Startup R
Startup T
15. AngelList is too important to ignore
Notation Capital now has approx. $300k in
backing per deal on AL.
This allows us to effectively increase the size of
our fund on behalf of our LPs and leverage their
dollars to increase ownership in seed / pro-rata
deals.
We executed 3 AL deals in 2015.
16. Anatomy of a Seed Deal on AL
Example Company:
Notation invests $150k into $1M round on $4M pre
Notation syndicates $300k on AL (10% carry)
IF company exits for 10x multiple:
Notation returns $1.50M + 300k from syndicate
* The AL syndicate effect is as if Notation invested
another $30k initially (or approx .6% ownership).
Returns / carry from AL go back to our LPs first.
17. Some of the Folks We’ve Invested With
Collaborative Fund
SV Angel
Box Group
Red Sea Ventures
Designer Fund
F Cubed
Steadfast Capital
Jerry Neumann
Naveen Selvadurai
Rob Fishman
Jack Groetzinger
Justin Kan
Steve Huffman
*Have led / participated in follow-on rounds:
Y Combinator
Homebrew
Founder Collective
Spark Capital
Collaborative Fund
Eniac
Metamorphic
Lux Capital
MESA
Montage Ventures
Brian Lee
Josh Reeves
18. Notation Platform in 2015
Notation Capital is more than single fund with a
collection of investments and portfolio companies.
We’ve spent a lot of time this past year laying the
long-term foundation for a venture capital firm.
Marketing / Brand - Putting Notation on the Map
Part-Time Partnership and Founder Community
Partnership Process + Decision Framework
“Signals” - NYC Hacker Data + Tracking
19. WHO WE ARE - A Growing Partnership
Alex Lines - General Partner, Notation Capital
Nicholas Chirls - General Partner, Notation Capital
Part-time Partners:
Alex Chung - CEO / Hacker, Giphy
Jon Lax - Product Design Director, Facebook
Amanda Peyton - Product Director, Google
Jake Levine - CEO / Hacker, Electric Objects
Matt Hackett - CTO, BeMe
Kellan Elliot-McCrea - Fmr CTO, Etsy
David Weiner - Head of Content, BeMe
Camille Fournier - Fmr CTO, Rent The Runway
Alex Rainert - Fmr Head of Product, Foursquare + Project Florida
20. An Evil Plan Grows In Brooklyn
2 General Partners in NYC
~ 15 Part-Time Partners in NYC
~ 30 Limited Partners in NYC
~ 40 - 80 Notation Founders in NYC
By the end of Fund I, we’ll have at least 100 people
in NYC directly invested in the success of Notation
Capital.
21. Notation Capital in 2016
Continue to build out foundation for the Firm:
- Notation NYC Founder Community
- Notation Partnership Framework
- Signals Data Product (recruiting / incubation)
- Part-Time Partnership
22. Notation Capital in 2016
Continue to invest at a similar pace along three
areas of the pre-seed range:
- 2-3 incubation projects
- 5-6 standard pre-seed companies
- 2-3 late pre-seed / early seed companies
23. We’ve made good progress in year 1, but still have
a long way to go.
The goal is to be the absolute first choice for
founders in NYC at the earliest stages of the stack
(ie. pre-seed or whatever we call it in the future).
This will produce exceptional returns for our LPs
(and for us) over time.
Notation Capital still in its 1st Inning
24. Like many of the founders we work with, we know
this will take years and decades, and grit and grind
through cycles.
But we’ll still be here, in Brooklyn, working away...
and as always, we’re thrilled to have such
exceptional LPs as partners - now and for a long
time to come.
Notation Capital still in its 1st Inning
25. If you’re a founder in NYC building something
awesome (or even thinking about it), send us an
email and let’s hang.
There’s no project we consider too early, we
always hated hearing that ourselves :-)
Nick - @nchirls - nick@notationcapital.com
Alex - @alexlines - alex@notationcapital.com
P.S. for Founders…(added to deck)