fnMentoring helps you accelerate your startup and expand your high tech network through private advising sessions with featured guest experts. Sessions are free to members but require your RSVP. If you are not a member you can apply here. Next week’s featured guest(s) will be:
Company:
Webb Investment Network
Maynard Webb, former COO of eBay and CEO of LiveOps, created the Webb Investment Network in 2010 to formalize the investing he’s done over the past fifteen years. WIN’s goal is to invest in companies that aim to change the world, particularly in mobile, consumer Internet, and cloud applications. With our 77 member Affiliate Network, WIN is able to draw not only from Maynard’s experience and insight but also from those CEOs, CTOs, founders and investors who make up the WIN Affiliate Network to provide our portfolio companies with much more than capital: on-demand advice.
What they look for:
- Investment stage:
Seed round (first source of capital), though WIN will make select investments in later stage (A, B, C) rounds. Though they typically do not lead rounds, they often partner with a syndicate of leading seed funds to fill a round. - Investment size:
$100,000 – $500,000, with additional capital reserved for follow-on investments. WIN likes to back entrepreneurs throughout their funding lifecycle - Areas of focus:
Technology, with a particular interest in cloud applications and infrastructure, enterprise software, mobile, marketplaces, e-commerce, crowdsourcing, and consumer internet. What they generally won’t invest in: Semiconductors, cleantech, life sciences, and non-technology companies.
How they decide:
- People first. WIN bets on entrepreneurs over ideas. They gravitate toward entrepreneurs who are highly technical, passionate, realistic, and insightful, who are great listeners, who understand their competitors better than their competitors know themselves, and who dream of creating the next big thing in their respective industries.
- Problem solving. They seek to fund companies that are solving a deep, identifiable problem or pain point.
- Innovation. They look for companies that have developed a unique or innovative product/service, or a novel new approach.
- Identifiable business model. They seek to fund companies with a business model that can rapidly scale in a cost-efficient way.
- Traction. With the costs of starting a company and getting a product to market rapidly declining, they prefer to invest in companies that have built a product, have a very clear use case with initial customers/users and a clear path to revenue.
- Jeremy Schneider, Senior Associate at Webb Investment Network
Name:
Jeremy Schneider
Position:
Senior Associate
Education:
B.A., History from Dartmouth College
MSc, Economic and Social History from University of Oxford
Background:
Jeremy Schneider joined WIN as a Senior Associate in January, 2011. Prior to WIN, Jeremy was a Senior Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco, where he focused on technology companies and worked in the Private Equity Group. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College, where he majored in History. He has a Master’s degree inEconomic and Social History from The University of Oxford, where he was a Clarendon Scholar. Jeremy grew up in the Bay Area and is thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely with entrepreneurs and to immerse himself in the world of start-ups.
fnMentoring is on Wednesday, 9/19/12 beginning at 2pm. RSVP on the right to meet with our featured guest(s).
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