Comments on: Presenting Founder Collective

By: Sprouter » How a solid team has helped Chris Dixon build and invest in web startups

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:13:04 +0000

[...] his busy schedule as an entrepreneur, in November 2009 Dixon launched Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund based in New York City and Cambridge, MA. “Founder [...]

By: It’s not that seed investors are smarter – it’s that entrepreneurs are cdixon.org – chris dixon's blog

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:08:12 +0000

[...] mentorship programs, and a generally more active and connected entrepreneur community. For example, Founder Collective recently backed two Y-Combinator startups who decided to raise money exclusively from seed [...]

By: Exectweets » davidcrow at 11/09/09 05:20:30

Exectweets » davidcrow at 11/09/09 05:20:30 — Sat, 01 May 2010 06:08:07 +0000

[...] Really interesting news for startups RT @cdixon: Presenting a new seed fund, Founder Collective http://cdixon.org/?p=1794 davidcrow – Mon 09 Nov 17:20 All Things [...]

By: What’s the right amount of seed money to raise? | Igniting Startups - nPost

What’s the right amount of seed money to raise? | Igniting Startups - nPost — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:20:25 +0000

[...] many reasons why angels or pure seed funds are preferable seed round investors (bias alert: I am one of them!). Share and [...]

By: Founder Collective Is New Cambridge Seed Stage VC Focused on Lean Startups

Founder Collective Is New Cambridge Seed Stage VC Focused on Lean Startups — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:22:38 +0000

[...] firm only invests at the seed stage. (Dixon wrote about the investment philosophy on his personal blog last week.) Focusing exclusively on the seed round means that Founder has an incentive to help [...]

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:47:14 +0000

Well, this blog post http://cdixon.org/?p=1893 was meant to address one of my main suggestions about pitching.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:47:14 +0000

Well, this blog post http://cdixon.org/?p=1893 was meant to address one of my main suggestions about pitching.

By: nobody

nobody — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:16:19 +0000

Chris,
When do you think you have an answer to this question?

By: Chris Sorensen

Chris Sorensen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:03:45 +0000

This is exactly what we need here in Silicon Valley.
Please let me know when you open an office in Palo Alto.

By: » Week in Review | StartupNorth

» Week in Review | StartupNorth — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:03:25 +0000

[...] Really interesting news for startups RT @cdixon: Presenting a new seed fund, Founder Collective http://cdixon.org/?p=1794 [...]

By: LJC

LJC — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:38:00 +0000

I am review some of your past successes, very impressive. I am very interested in the mentor but I do not need the money. Would Founder Collective take on startup for mentoring?

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:05:06 +0000

It's a big question. I'm going to respond soon with a full blog post.

By: tchan

tchan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:02:32 +0000

don't expect an answer. there are 5 similar questions on this blog that went unanswered.

By: mab

mab — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:37:17 +0000

one more note.

Add yourself to angelsoft.net, because if you don't they provide misleading information to discourage people from apply to you. For example, the firm True Ventures invest in early seed startup but they will list it as a very late stage funding VC outfit to discourage potential early stage startup from applying.

By: mab

mab — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:26:30 +0000

I am not Ankesh Kothari. I just use his post as example. Please don't take it personally. I am a straight shooter.

1. Your issue with overwhelming messages is a common problem with many companies. You can use auto response email to acknowledge receive of the message. Maybe you can add some feature (link) to allow sender to automatically track average time to response and their order in the queue. Better yet make it into a web service for other business to use as well. One example would be federal and local government agency which handles many requests in a given day. Anyone reading this, do run with the idea. I have a ton.

2. While it is easy to say you be different, proof it! suggestion, do an online youtube documentary for your vc with a entrepreneur. Start from reading the first executive summary to taking the company to success or failure. It will be like ABC shark tank but showing then how you do it different and how you can help with more than money.

3. I not an entrepreneur. I saw too many dreams destroy by investors. One investor trick me into signing my patent away. He was an angel investor. So I am now just give warning. I am here to kiss up, I here to share my view.

My apology if I insulted you in anyway.

By: sullivan8263

sullivan8263 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:34:14 +0000

What's the best way to present an idea to your team? I've read that the traditional business plan isn't relevant.

By: sullivan8263

sullivan8263 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:33:09 +0000

What's the best way to present an idea to you? I've heard the traditional business plan isn't relevant. Great blog!

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:16:09 +0000

Dude, I posted this on Monday. Today is Thursday. We got tons of
emails since then – far more than we could intelligently respond to.
The fact that we haven't responded to you in under 3 days makes us
“wolves”?

By: mab

mab — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:05:28 +0000

no different than any other VC. they ignore entrepreneur's questions and request for information to their site's email. their site say “say hello, we're nice”. they forgot to say “at long as you not serious about actually looking for help”. Look at the post from Ankesh Kothari, his question still being ignore.

entrepreneurs don't bend over yet! they are just like any VC.
study the posted comments and you will realize this is just a PR spin for a wolf. not all VC are equal. many great company are started with the help of VC. At least they don't pretend to be a sheep.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:46:50 +0000

we're pretty overtly capitalist actually.

By: alex

alex — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:47:36 +0000

yet another capitalist wolf in sheep's disguise:)

By: Brian Link

Brian Link — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:37:09 +0000

Brilliant. This is absolutely fantastic. I will anxiously await an opportunity to come to NYC to meet with you guys.

By: Google Revs Regulation Engine; TARGUSinfo and AdMeld Bring The Data; The Performance Rocket

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:27:46 +0000

[...] Chris Dixon announced on his blog about a new venture capital fund known as "Founder Collective" (see the site) which will be funded with $40 million of seed capital and focused on regional investments in New York City and Cambridge, MA. "New York is a hotbed for online media and advertising startups," says Dixon. The fund is run by founders, but of course, including Eric Paley, Dave Frankel , Mark Gerson (founder of Gerson Lehrman Group), Zach Klein (co-founder of Vimeo/Connected Ventures), Bill Trenchard (co-founder of LiveOps), and Micah Rosenbloom (co-founder of Brontes). Read more. [...]

By: tchan

tchan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:40:59 +0000

I am looking for mentors and investments for my new company (mobile market). What kind of information is needed for submition for application? Better yet, what I have to do to get 5 min of your time?

By: ShanaC

ShanaC — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:51:10 +0000

COngrdaultions.

Read the really Radical. Critical Art Ensemble...Tactical Media, Observations on Collective Cultural Action (You may plagiarize this document, you just have to tell them, they are, err, a step beyond creative commons)

http://www.critical-art.net/books/digital/tact4...

By: Kristine Maltrud

Kristine Maltrud — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:23:14 +0000

Love what you're doing. P2P is changing the world, 1 P2P at a time. Also love that you're having a dialogue right here! We're not located in NYC, but having great conversations with artists and arts orgs there about P2P fundraising for artists/arts projects. Cheers!

By: Daily Links #122 | CloudKnow

Daily Links #122 | CloudKnow — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:53:09 +0000

[...] Chris Dixon: Presenting Founder Collective [...]

By: Coach Wei

Coach Wei — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:05:39 +0000

Chris – this is fantastic for Boston and NYC. We need more of this. In particular, the model is very interesting (by entrepreneurs who are in the trenches) vs the normal VC model (by ex-entrepreneurs who were successful but see the everything from the 1-2 successes years ago, MBAs who never built a company, or worse, bankers).

–Coach Wei

By: netjacobsson

netjacobsson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:50:13 +0000

Really good idea. Wish you all the best. We need more initiatives like this. The era of the investpreneur has come

By: Dave Blanchard

Dave Blanchard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:38:33 +0000

Pretty cool Chris…congrats!

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:22:35 +0000

Thanks!!

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:21:58 +0000

> Sounds like the partner most in-line with the startup will take lead on the investment for FC and will receive a bigger piece of the pie then other fund partners for doing so.

Yeah.

Board seat: sometimes, but not necessary. We are very flexible.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:20:44 +0000

I haven't but it looks interesting. Thanks for the link.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:19:56 +0000

We are totally open to New Haven and agree there have been some interesting startups coming out of there lately.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:19:18 +0000

Thanks Albert! Hope to work together!

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:35:10 +0000

We're in a state of “high flux” (read as dynamic pages). We're cleaning up the look, layout, and choices available to users (Tyler much more than me, as I'm ramping up my Ruby knowledge).

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:35:10 +0000

We're in a state of “high flux” (read as dynamic pages). We're cleaning up the look, layout, and choices available to users (Tyler much more than me, as I'm ramping up my Ruby knowledge).

By: My Twitts from 2009-11-10 « Louis van Proosdij’s Twitts

My Twitts from 2009-11-10 « Louis van Proosdij’s Twitts — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:31:18 +0000

[...] RT @cdixon Presenting a new seed fund, Founder Collective http://cdixon.org/?p=1794 [...]

By: charlottekim

charlottekim — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:09:04 +0000

Wow! Just got back from SF where I was in the audience listening to a panel of Angel funds talking about how they were doing B AND C rounds in their current investments AND requiring preferred shares if they do take a new company– HUH?! REALLY? Would love to talk to you guys!

By: Johndmc

Johndmc — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:03:34 +0000

Congratulations, sounds like a great addition to the NYC startup world.

By: petermccarthy

petermccarthy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:43:10 +0000

Excellent stuff, Chris.

I just wish we had something like this in the UK. Out of interest, if FC made an investment in a UK startup, how would this work in practice?

By: Boris M. Silver

Boris M. Silver — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:13:44 +0000

awesome to see entrepreneurs backing other entrepreneurs.

By: Shlok Vaidya’s Thinking » P2P Venture Capitalism

Shlok Vaidya’s Thinking » P2P Venture Capitalism — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:54:49 +0000

[...] really like Chris Dixon’s model of a VC as a consultancy with dollars. That’s pretty cool and his new firm looks like fun. [...]

By: William Carleton

William Carleton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:10:46 +0000

Chris, congratulations. The whole project sounds awesome, but the points that resonate with me the most are those you lay out at (1). Keeping smaller exits viable–that's where the ecosystem needs to go, at least in info tech. A decade ago, I co-founded a boutique firm whose mission was to do seed investments only, but I think the timing is even better now for such a concept (the firm I co-founded ended up going a different direction after the dot com implosion, but that's a longer story).

By: Justin Kan

Justin Kan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:34:33 +0000

Looking forward to seeing what companies come out of this

By: SELECT « TheWaterRat

SELECT « TheWaterRat — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:17:59 +0000

[...] 9 November 2009 PROfounders Capital Google acquires Admob Murdoch to block Google What EA Sees in Social Gamer Playfish Founder Collective [...]

By: Joseph Turian

Joseph Turian — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:58:11 +0000

A partnership with Montreal Startup would be great.
It's especially sensible for companies that want to have an R&D arm in Montreal. (Quebecois tax credits for scientific research are very favorable.)

By: The Adapted Capital Firm: Venture Capital, Metamorphosed « The Mark Bao Journal

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:32:50 +0000

[...] and Hunch co-founder, angel investor, and startup icon Chris Dixon announced the launch of seed-stage venture capital firm Founder Collective today, forming an entrepreneur-backed firm [...]

By: Tyler Willis

Tyler Willis — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:19:08 +0000

Chris, can you expand a bit on this: "we also have a unique structure where active entrepreneurs lead investments, work hard to help their investments succeed, and share in the profits when they do."

Sounds like the partner most in-line with the startup will take lead on the investment for FC and will receive a bigger piece of the pie then other fund partners for doing so. Do they take a board seat? Are there expectations around time? How will partners mitigate their busy life as founder interfering with their commitment to their partners and board?

It's an amazing group of people, I can't wait to follow you all more closely in the coming years.

By: Elie Seidman

Elie Seidman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:05:35 +0000

the damn socialists are taking over the world congrats and good luck!