Survivors

I have been asked countless times the same question….”what do you invest in”?  For the past decade I have been mostly a generalist when it came to the investment business.  My thesis is mostly financial because I believe a financial thesis mitigates risk.  The other piece that has been important to me is investing in female and minority founders yet I do invest in white men too.

Many of the companies I invested in awhile ago are evolving.  Some have exited, some have sold to other companies where the investors now own stock in that entity, some are just getting bigger by the month.  What is clear time and time again is no matter how fantastic your company is doing, raising cash is always a factor. And lets be clear, raising money sucks.  Founders want to be focused on building their business not doing a dog and pony show but that is part of the territory.

There are many different places to raise capital depending on your business.  I am seeing businesses that are profitable rethink their trajectory to figure out how to grow without raising money.  Everyone has a different path.

After more than a decade I am starting to see things in entrepreneurs that I might have ignored in the past when I meet them.  It is clear to me that without really knowing it I have invested mostly in survivors.  Maybe it has to do with my personality or the overwhelming amount of women in my portfolio but the consistent theme among the founders I have backed is that they are survivors.  For the most part they are all hellbent on making their business work no matter what.  It is insanely impressive.

Was thinking that I even though I just took Gotham Gal and added ventures after it when it came to my investments that if I started again I could use the name Survivor Ventures.  It has a nice ring.