Introducing Initialized Capital
initialized.com
Introducing Initialized Capital
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Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#2We met Garry, Alina, and Alexis at YC16 investor day. After talking for twenty minutes, they said "we're going to go talk about you behind your back, then give you an answer."
They made a decision in 2 minutes.
That's what it's like working with other founders. There's no bullshit. They proactively ask how they can be helpful, are empathetic and understanding when we go through tough times, and push us in a great way.
I'm pretty critical of a lot of Silicon Valley, but we are big fans of Initialized.
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#3Hi HN! Happy to answer questions here, which is funny because this is where it all really started for me back in 2007 when I was first thinking of starting my first company. I started as an HN reader working at a friend's startup, applied to YC and got in, became a YC partner, and then an early stage investor.
We're engineers and designers and product folks, and most investors aren't still (which is crazy, right?) so we figure if we can do what we're doing while being the investors we wanted when we were founders, that's about as good as it gets.
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#4Hi HN! Happy to answer questions here, which is funny because this is where it all really started for me back in 2007 when I was first thinking of starting my first company. I started as an HN reader working at a friend's startup, applied to YC and got in, became a YC partner, and then an early stage investor. We're engineers and designers and product folks, and most investors aren't still (which is crazy, right?) so…
Congrats to you and the team. I take it your primary focus is SF. Will you look to invest in the broader US? And are you interested in specific areas/industries or more in finding great teams/founders?
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#5Congrats guys!
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#6Hi HN! Happy to answer questions here, which is funny because this is where it all really started for me back in 2007 when I was first thinking of starting my first company. I started as an HN reader working at a friend's startup, applied to YC and got in, became a YC partner, and then an early stage investor. We're engineers and designers and product folks, and most investors aren't still (which is crazy, right?) so…
Congrats to you and the team. I take it your primary focus is SF. Will you look to invest in the broader US? And are you interested in specific areas/industries or more in finding great teams/founders?
We've funded companies all over the place, and it just so happens many of them are in SF. If anything, the ongoing housing crisis that's systemically being ignored by local politicians is making it that much more likely our next startups don't start out in SF.
We've always been pretty sector agnostic, but we're software folks so that's what we know best. A lot of the things we're spending the most time with are "file cabinet" industries — any market where if you walk into the dominant player's office, you see lots of file cabinets or fax machines. A software-enabled startup will probably do a lot in those spaces. What's funny is you can pretty directly extend that to any business that still mainly runs on Microsoft Excel and email too.
Founders matter, but so do markets. We've seen so many of our talented friends end up working on new capabilities that don't solve a specific problem, or don't have a real market. It definitely takes both.
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#7Hi HN! Happy to answer questions here, which is funny because this is where it all really started for me back in 2007 when I was first thinking of starting my first company. I started as an HN reader working at a friend's startup, applied to YC and got in, became a YC partner, and then an early stage investor. We're engineers and designers and product folks, and most investors aren't still (which is crazy, right?) so…
Hi Garry, congrats and good luck!
My question: will you follow other investors pattern for whom only warm introductions matter?
I read in the press other SV investors stating that exactly zero investments were made as a consequence of a pitch through the contact email. Will this be true to you as well?
thanks!
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#8Hi HN! Happy to answer questions here, which is funny because this is where it all really started for me back in 2007 when I was first thinking of starting my first company. I started as an HN reader working at a friend's startup, applied to YC and got in, became a YC partner, and then an early stage investor. We're engineers and designers and product folks, and most investors aren't still (which is crazy, right?) so…
Hi Garry, congrats and good luck! My question: will you follow other investors pattern for whom only warm introductions matter? I read in the press other SV investors stating that exactly zero investments were made as a consequence of a pitch through the contact email. Will this be true to you as well? thanks!
We're trying to figure out ways to get around this for later stage seed investments. We don't have a solution yet, but we're working on it.
In a thread below I talk about file cabinet industries — industries that basically have no software, and are horribly inefficient. Investing is absolutely one of those, but only using email and calendaring. The main bottleneck for investors is number of hours in the day, because there are very few people making all the decisions. Warm intros are the only way a non-software system can work.
So, spoiler alert, software. :-)
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Congrats to you and the team. I take it your primary focus is SF. Will you look to invest in the broader US? And are you interested in specific areas/industries or more in finding great teams/founders?
We've funded companies all over the place, and it just so happens many of them are in SF. If anything, the ongoing housing crisis that's systemically being ignored by local politicians is making it that much more likely our next startups don't start out in SF. We've always been pretty sector agnostic, but we're software folks so that's what we know best. A lot of the things we're spending the most time with are "file…
Thanks, appreciate the detailed response. Look forward to seeing how it all plays out.
Re: Introducing Initialized Capital
#10I’ve known Garry since 2010. Even though he didn't know us at the time - he met up with us to help us hone our YC pitch. He later became our adviser. Awhile after, when I showed him our growth numbers, he offered to invest, which then triggered a round. He didn't need to follow anyone else to decide. When we had an announcement, Alexis helped get us press. There are tons of helpful moments like this.
When I talk to other founders, I keep hearing how helpful they are. This is one of the most talented and genuine groups of people in the valley.
Congrats on the raise!