No big stage, no panel, just people who read this newsletter sitting around a table talking about money, culture, and everything in between๓ ๓ ๓ ก๓ ข๓ ท๓ บ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ฃ๓ ต๓ ๓ ค๓ จ๓ ฝ๓ ๓ ๓ ฐ๓ ๓ ฏ๓ ฑ๓ ฎ๓ ๓ ๓ ด๓ ๓ ฝ๏ธ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ จ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๏ธ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ข. First one goes down this Friday. and tickets are $60๓ ๓ ๓ ก๓ ข๓ ซ๓ ๓ ญ๓ ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๏ธ๓ ข๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๏ธ๓ ฅ๓ ซ๓ ถ๓ ๓ ๓ ฟ๓ ช๓ ถ๓ ๓ พ๓ ๓ ญ๓ ๓ ๓ ฑ๓ ฌ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ บ๓ ๓ ๓ ฌ. Grab your tickets. here๓ ๓ ๓ ก๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ๓ ๓ จ๓ ฅ๓ ฆ๓ ๓ ฝ๓ ฆ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ฐ๓ ง๓ ฆ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ณ๓ ๓ ต๓ ฟ๓ ต๓ ฒ๓ ฑ๓ ๏ธ๓ ถ๏ธ๓ ฌ๓ ๓ ต๓ ท๏ธ๓ ฟ๓ ๓ .
I (Jonathan) met Aaron Samuels when I was 20. At the time he was a nationally recognized slam poet, and a few years ahead of me in college. We didn't know Blavity would become what it did, but we knew that the right density of talent, with clarity and ingenuity would give us a fighting chance. The rest, became very public history.
Collide Capital is making a mark across fintech, future of work, and supply chain. With a fresh $95M, they have another turn to play the game and do it at a high level.
Their thesis is simple:
at the intersection of the communities that shaped them, the schools that trained them, and the institutions that refined them, there is boundless innovation. But to get engage that institution, you need to be colliding on purpose.
Executing on that is exceptionally hard. A recent study of 100,000 VC professionals found that 90% of all profits are generated ~5% of firms. This is similar in statistical spirit to becoming a perennial NBA AllโStar: theoretically anyone can do it, but it is a rare thing to be one who does.
Aaron and Brian are just on their second fund, and plan on doing this for the next 20 years. So far, they've been an outlier: 75 investments, and a top performing fund. That means they are not incentivized to lie, and they have too many active investments to be anything but direct, especially if they want to keep using other people's money to do it. Bank of America, University of California, Morgan Stanley do not play around with their own money.
Stuff we talked about:
- How the combination of cultural ecosystems, financial capital, and deep trust gave them a competitive advantage early on
- Building value outside of just giving founders money (especially when you do not have it)
- What marks a founder as undeniable and their mix of evaluation criteria
- Building a culture of well-received and well-given feedback for founders and themselves
- Cold emailing the Chief Investment Officer of a $200B investment platform
- How they built an internship program across 20 college campuses that brings them active deal flow while giving students the ability to co-invest and gain experience
- Building a track record of investment in business school
- The kindest thing someone did for them when they started the firm
- Why many founders aren't prepared for the enterprises deals they think they want (and what it takes to get there)
If you're curious about venture capital, if you are building a company (or know someone who is), or just love people who have something other than just competition moving them forward, this is for you.