While I’m not a fan of folks announcing things on Fridays, I will always be happy to share news about more investment capital being made accessible to startup founders in the Pacific Northwest. A week ago, it was Fortson. Last Friday, it was Martin Tobias launching Incisive Ventures.
At Incisive Ventures, certain Themes drive WHERE we look for investments. The short answer is where we believe we have an ADVANTAGE. Some kind of information, insight, or talent advantage that is not available or at least non-obvious to others. The long answer is the rest of this post.
Having far exceeded the 10,000 hour rule over decades of Venture investing, I have found an advantage when I follow these seven Meta Themes. These themes emerged from careful analysis of every check I ever wrote, the state of the company when I wrote it, and the eventual outcome. Turns out, the best returns (10x or more) have ALWAYS occurred when 5 or more themes are present. I now search exclusively for investments that fit 5 or more of these Themes. While I occasionally do invest with a looser fit, (say in an extremely strong founder outside technology), approximately 90% of our capital is deployed in line with these Themes.
- Software eats everything
- Great founders figure shit out
- Disruptive innovation creates new markets
- Platforms win
- Laziness wins!
- Invest only when I can be helpful to the company
- Invest alongside other very smart, committed people
“There are B2B problems that are really solvable given the underlying AI infrastructure that we have, which is really exciting for a B2B software investor,” Martin told GeekWire. “If you just look at how the cloud went, SaaS ended up being multiples larger than the infrastructure, and I think the same thing is going to happen in AI.”
For more information on the firm, read the Incisive Ventures thesis. To pitch the fund, fill out the Incisive pitch form.
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