entrepreneurs, in particular. They were generally positive and welcoming, while remaining realistic. “The Founder’s Co-op can serve a critical need, especially in this economy. Angel groups will have a higher bar for new investments given the downturn,” says Rebecca Lovell, program director at Seattle-based Alliance of Angels. “Andy and Chris are getting in earlier, investing capital, providing sage advice, and helping these burgeoning companies hit some critical milestones. Unique to their model, they’re putting money in and giving advice, not charging fees for consulting…Whether the co-op’s investments better prepare their portfolio companies for larger angel rounds or bring them to profitability, it’s great to see they’re ready to put fuel in the engine.”
At least one entrepreneur not involved with Founder’s Co-op expressed great confidence in the model. “They’ll add value far beyond the cash they invest,” says Dave Schappell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet. “[Andy] and Chris bring actual hands-on experience to the companies they’re investing in. I like their focus on revenue-generating businesses—that isn’t a strategy that sprung up in the last two weeks (AKA ‘Sequoia memo’), but a way of thinking bred from experience.”
I also asked Tony Wright, co-founder of RescueTime, for his take. Wright knows a bit about the climate for seed-stage investment, having come out of the Y Combinator program in Silicon Valley and having closed a Series A round last month. “I think it’s a great model—or at least the small investment for small startups part. I think the co-op part is interesting,” says Wright. “There’s a definite need for this in Seattle.”
But Wright also points to some challenges that Founder’s Co-op must address, like deal flow and the existence of competing seed-stage funds. “Maybe all of the people they raised money [from] can funnel aspiring startups that direction, but any way you slice it, I think deal flow will be a challenge.” Y Combinator and Colorado-based TechStars, he points out, “are plugged into the young entrepreneur community worldwide and have blogs and essays that get insane amounts of attention, which gets them hundreds or thousands of aspirants for 10-20 slots every 6 months.”
As for Founder’s Co-op, he says, “they’ve got a few interesting differentiators, but it’s a hard sell to say that they could help your startup more than” Y Combinator or TechStars. “Give the Co-op a few successes and people might start lining up in a few more years.” Wright points out that Y Combinator and TechStars have well-attended “demo days” with hundreds of people focused on seed-stage software companies. “One of the big values of these outfits is ready access to follow-on investors…Can a Seattle firm compete with that? My gut is that there aren’t enough early stage software investors in Seattle to feed into,” he says.
In talking with me, Sack addressed those issues, explaining that while Y Combinator puts in on the order of $10K for a few months, “We’re trying to build businesses…We take fewer bets and support companies longer, focusing on ‘where’s your revenue stream coming from?'” He says Founder’s Co-op is in the process of closing several deals already—mostly in the Seattle area, though they are also looking in the Portland and Vancouver areas. And he emphasizes the importance of the local entrepreneur network and mentoring that is provided by his partners.
Looking forward, Sack says he hopes to see signs of promise in the portfolio within about two years, around which time he’ll look to raise his next fund, which “hopefully will be a little bigger.” In terms of where Founder’s Co-op will fit in compared to venture firms, Sack draws a clear distinction. “I don’t see us becoming a true venture fund,” he says, pointing to his limited partners’ skill sets as entrepreneurs. “Venture has too much money, and doesn’t have the knowledge and expertise…Venture investing has slowed down, and they’re going to sit on the sidelines for a while.”
That means more than ever, even with the economy tanking, there’s an early-stage funding gap to be filled. “I’m pretty jazzed, even with the downturn,” Sack says. “It plays to the kinds of deals and overall structure of Founder’s Co-op,” he says, meaning that he and DeVore are used to taking risks and are focused on capital-efficient, revenue-focused businesses that are “gritty and bootstrapping.” As a final thought, he adds, “We were committed to doing this with or without the LPs. Now everyone’s in, we’re 90 percent in cash, and people are feeling bullish.”
