I can confidently say that there will never be enough accessible capital to adequately support entrepreneurs. So we’ll always have that to complain about. But that’s also a massive opportunity. Because there is also plenty of room for new players — and new models — to emerge. And another one just did. From Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad.
Sahil is looking to be first money in for early stage tech startups. He’s targeting check sizes of $100,000 to $250,000. Clearly, he’s looking for startups from anywhere. But given that he lives here, you may want to check it out.
What types of founders and companies does he prefer?
I’m looking for founders who
have a deep understanding of the space they are in – they typically read a lot
haven’t waited for permission to get started – they have hard skills if not degrees
don’t have access to the traditional startup ecosystem
I am interested in products that are
soon-to-be obvious but only recently possible
solving a difficult, boring, complex problem with an easy-to-use, elegant solution
I’m particularly interested in b2b, SaaS, commerce, the future of work, video, and developer tools.I’ve invested in HelloSign, Movable Ink, Lambda School, Figma, Clubhouse, and Haus.
And while having a new fund around these parts is always interesting, the way that Sahil put the fund together is equally intriguing. He used a new form championed by AngelList called a “rolling fund.”
What’s a rolling fund? Well, according to TechCrunch:
In February, AngelList launched a so-called rolling venture fund product to help emerging venture capitalists close their first funds faster. The fund structure allows fund managers to raise new capital commitments on a regular basis and invest as they go, ergo the “rolling” aspect.
Cindy Bi has also taken advantage of this new model to launch CapitalX, another early stage startup fund.
For more information on this new Portland area fund, see Sahil’s interview on AngelList or visit shl.vc.
