Corporate Partnerships, VC Strategies, and Kaufman Fellowship Insights with Industry Leaders | E28

Speaker A: And then third, I'd say definitely what you just said, business development opportunities, uh, when they become relevant, we don't really um, we don't really look for an exit opportunity within our corporate investors. We believe that you know, startups that are very close to their core, to their core business will find a way to you know, go pitch their M and A team or go pitch their um, their corporate ventures team. For us we really try and focus on things that are outside of the core business of our corporate investors and, and that way we can bring things that they will use, that they can maybe build some strategic uh, advantages around. But they're not going to want to acquire those things.

Speaker B: Right. Welcome to uh, today event tonight or today wherever you are. Uh, we're going to Explore how uh VCs uh, deal uh, with corporates. Uh mostly focused on how to fundraise from corporates. So having corporates as LPs, but we go through also discussion on how to partner corporates, how to engage um, corporates with our portfolio like value creation activities and uh, trying to discuss uh, all the details on how to deal with corporates. So uh, a bit of housekeeping before I pass on to Jack. So um, introduction on Kaufman Fellowship. For those that who don't know, Kaufman Fellowship is uh, a VC network created around 30 years ago from the Kaufman foundation, which is the largest uh, pro entrepreneurship foundation of the world. Um, it was started to train VCs and make them more pro entrepreneur let's say. And it has grown TO I think 800, 900 fellows worldwide. It becomes very international. It's one of the um, largest network of um, great uh venture capitalists in the world. And we have a bunch of Midas list. So I definitely encourage everyone who is uh, pursuing career in venture to uh, check out the Kaufman Fellowship or to engage a ah, Fellow. We have uh, for those that are Italian, I see a lot of people from Italy. They are I think 10 or a dozen of uh, Kaufman Fellows in Italy. So reach out and we need to improve the status of venture capital in Italy, slash Europe, which is the continent where, where I'm at. Um, again bit of housekeeping. These uh, the way we usually do with uh, this meeting is we have half an hour, 45 minutes which is open for everyone and um, this part is recorded and will be uh, posted online uh, on the Kaufman Fellow channels and the Impact VC uh channel. And then we'll ask you to leave and uh, we'll have a Kaufman Fellows early session. So uh, I know most of the people online uh, but uh, if you're not a Kaufman fellow, when uh, when we reach a certain time, please disconnect because that's private. Only for Kaufman. I think that's all for the housekeeping. So now uh, I'll introduce Jack, which is a speaker and my co chair with the cb, UM Group at Kaufman. And um, pardon to you.

Speaker C: Thanks Alessandro. Welcome everybody. We're excited to have a panel today talking about corporate LPs and corporate collaboration. Uh, my name is Jack Crawford. I'm a founding general partner at Impact Venture Capital. We're a C stage fund that invests in AI companies alongside of corporates. Our check size is 500,000 to a million dollars. And now our companies have been followed by uh, $500 million of follow on capital from intel and Zoom and SK, Hynix and Yamaha and Qualcomm and a bunch of others. And so what I've been doing is trying to learn best practices from other VCs and other corporates about how best to collaborate with uh, uh, corporate investors and corporate LPs. And so I'm excited to moderate the panel today with three accomplished VCs who have a lot of experience in interacting with corporates as LPs and as CO investors. Um, in addition to moderating uh, the uh, Kauffman Sig special interest Group for corporates, I also got a chance last week to uh, moderate a panel with the National Venture Capital association that included um, intel and Thomson Reuters and um, Lockheed Martin. So I'll share some of those experiences. The format today will just be one minute introductions. That's mine. Um, I'll turn it over to Rodrigo in a minute and we'll just go right down the line for 60 second introductions. We'll dive into the panel discussion and then uh, we'll open it up for Q and A. Uh, so, uh, let's start. Rodrigo, why don't you give us the 60 second introduction.

Speaker A: Of course. Good morning everybody. My, uh, name is Rodrigo Sanchez. I'm a partner at uh, B37 Ventures. B37. We are a venture firm based here in the San Francisco Bay area. We do seed to Series B. Um, our typical uh, check size would be like a million dollar check into a Series A company. We manage, uh, about $130 million have been investing for about the last 11 years or so. And our model, we partner with multinational corporations to leverage, um, their operations to inform our investment thesis, uh, and get into good deals here. And then we also partner with them to implement uh, those innovations or that technology into their Operations. So we think about, we leverage these corporations to help understand product, market fit, go to market strategy and then create business development opportunities. Um, and that's what we do for our portfolio.

Speaker C: Was that 60 seconds then you're quick, you're faster. You talk fast and drive fast like I do. That was impressive. Gonzalo, you want to go next or next on my screen?

Speaker D: Sure.

Speaker E: Hi everyone, my name is Gonzalo. I'm uh, co founder and general partner at Cardamon Capital. Cardamom Capital manages today 250 million. We have several strategies. We started investing in Israel in deep tech, AI, cyber, big data. There we do pre seed and seed. The reason we started there was because I was the founder and the head of the Samsung Ventures Israel uh, office. Prior to that I was in headquarters investing on behalf of Samsung. I've been doing this for 15 years and we have over uh, 12, uh, LPs that are corporates. And in terms of co investments, we are constantly looking for co, uh, investments with corporates because we know how to work with them and then leverage them in the same way that we add value, they add value to us. Happy to be here.

Speaker C: Fantastic. And Matt, why don't you finish this off?

Speaker D: Yeah, great to be here everyone. Um, Matt Maurer. I'm a partner at a firm called WVV Capital. Uh, I actually started the beginning of my career on the venture side and then I went off and I was a founder for about a decade. So I've got a bunch of experience over there. Sold a company to a large corporate and then spent a couple years inside of the corporate, uh, in coincidentally partnering with startups on the outside. So I've kind of seen it over there. And then for the last four years I'm back now investing in venture, uh, at a fund, WVV is what it's called. We're backed by four large corporations. We're early, uh, stage $100 million fund. We do anything from pre seed all the way through Series B. And it's a lot of uh, strategic investing kind of on behalf of the industries of our corporates. And then anytime we can pull it off, we try to do some interdisciplinary investing between those industries. So that's what we're about.

Speaker C: Thanks Matt. Just to stay with you for a second and kick things off, um, you know, maybe just start with. We'll start with a general question. How do each of us work with corporate investors? At Impact, we have these corporate innovation programs. We're running events, uh, in person and online to gather market insight that we Believe uh, elevates our investing IQ at the seed level. Uh, we co invest with these, with these corporates and certainly we're looking uh, to accelerate the timeline to exit uh, when we invest at the seed level. If we feel like we understand what the M and A teams that these corporates are focused on, that's a big part of how we're collaborating with them. Uh, Matt, how are you working with uh, I guess the four corporates that backed you and others in the ecosystem?

Speaker D: Yeah, we take a pretty uh, face to face, like real time, get people on the phone and spend a lot of our time learning and relearning and really just understanding the direction of our corporates. We're lucky in the fact that we only have four. So sometimes four seems like a small number and it's manageable but sometimes it seems like a huge number because they take a lot of effort to really understand what they're trying to do strategically. So kind of the, the workflow for us is on at least an annual basis but when possible on a quarterly basis we try to sit down with them, really understand where their strategic directions are going for the next cycle. Sometimes it's a 12 month cycle, sometimes people are at the exact level planning on 1, 3, 5 year cycles and just get a sense for what is in the crosshairs immediately, what's in the crosshairs long term, uh, where is budget being allocated for the next cycle. And then it's kind of a Venn diagram. We overlay that against what we are seeing as interesting places of startup innovation within each of their respective sectors. So we kind of pull back and sit with the intelligence we get from them, um, pick out a few specific areas of opportunity that we think overlap with their problems and their technological interests and then go off and do kind of the intense research phase, making market maps, making reports, meeting a lot of startups one on one, bringing them back into the corporations for you know, meetings at the exec level. Kind of what we like to do is really find that you know, throwing a dart at uh, exactly where they might be relevant to a specific business unit within a corporation which is kind of a lot of intel gathering to get to that level. And then you know, fast forward to the end. If we may make an investment in the startup, we may not, we may facilitate partnership with the corporate. You know at the base level it's almost always really good educational exchange for both sides. Both are very mutually interested to learn from one another and then we've also facilitated co investments and kind of A series of other ways that they partner together. So that's kind of our, our arc of working with corporates and startups.

Speaker C: Matt, do you view yourself as the corporate venture arm of the four corporate partners that you're working with?

Speaker D: Good, great question. Nope. I would say in the early days it was important to really understand where the lines were, what each corporation was doing as far as their own venture activity, if they had it or not, if they did have an internal cvc, kind of what that meant to them and how that existed in their ecosystem and then how we could be complementary. But yeah, I would say in no way are we, you know, formally or officially investing on behalf of these corporates. We always kind of stay at arm's length.

Speaker C: Okay, thanks for that Gonzalo. Talk a little bit about how you work with corporates and what the collaboration looks like.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker E: Yeah. So we have a number of ways to work with them. The first thing to note is we do not um, decide on investments on the basis of what a corporate or an LP might think.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker E: We make our decisions and that's one track that's however um, we do have three people that do around 80% portfolio support and around 20% LP support, corporate LP support. So things that we do are mostly scouting. Scouting could be for a collaboration or an investment.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker E: And it's not necessarily within our portfolios, outside looking, right. Could be anywhere, um, where we have reach. And um, in addition to scouting, we also do sensing. Sometimes they ask us to check out a specific theme that they want to look into. And so we look at startups, we look at trends, research reports. You know, these are more ad hoc and it's not very recurring whereas the scouting is very recurring. We also give them a chance to sit with us to bring ah, an employee and do a secondment just to see how we go about things, how, you know, the style, the language, things we worry about for them to learn. We um, have a recurring corporate, uh, venture club which is just putting all of our corporates together and having themes and invite guests to talk about specific things. Sometimes we talk about, I don't know, structure, safe versus convertible loan and anything they might want. This is something that we usually source and uh, and then of course that's only on the side of the corporates that invest in us. In addition to that we have lists and lists of corporates that we are aware of that we constantly send uh, deals to with the hopes that they'll co invest or, or, or sometimes just uh, do business with our startup. So you Know, generally that's how we go about it.

Speaker C: How many, uh, corporate LPs do you have? Matt. Matt mentioned he's got four corporate LPs and he works with the broader ecosystem. We have a couple of corporate LPs and then we have. I don't know, I think the number is over 200 that have attended our events virtually or in person or been on Impact tv, the corporate venture video series that we run. So we feel like we're working with hundreds, but really we have a formal relationship with a few that are LPs and a few that are co investors. How many corporate LPs do you have?

Speaker E: So I forget the exact number, but it's above 10 and we have anything from as little as a billion in revenues. So they're small companies, right? I wouldn't necessarily comment. Maybe 2 billion. So I wouldn't, you know, maybe corporate, but.

Speaker C: Oh, you just. Gonzalo, you just muted. You just muted for a second.

Speaker E: Sorry. Extremely, um, profitable businesses that are small. Many times we're talking to the owner, so they're happy to. And they may be tiptoeing into venture capital as we speak. So there we're guiding them a lot more as to what this is about and how not to mess it up. So in three years they regret everything and they stop everything, which is a classic up, um, all the way up to, you know, uh, tens of billions in revenues, if not hundreds of billions, uh, in oil and gas, in energy, uh, and others both in Europe and in Latin America and in Asia.

Speaker C: Great, thanks for that, Rodrigo. I've seen these corporates sort of come from attending events to investing in venture funds to building up their internal capability. And now they seem to be actively looking to collaborate with VC firms. How do you mostly collaborate with corporates?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, corporates have really tried to be in the ecosystem one way or another. Um, in our case, we have seven corporate investors. They're all kind of, uh, between 1 and $20 billion in revenue. These are corporates that operate in about 34 countries around the world, serve millions of points of sale. Um, M. They're in very diverse industries. Food, transportation, manufacturing, finance. Uh, and one thing that's kind of a little bit. And about 50% of their revenues is in the U.S. but the rest is worldwide. Um, and so I guess we partner in a very hybrid of what's been said already. Like, we do view ourselves and we, we, uh, tend to pitch it to the LP as we want to be an extension of their innovation team. So a lot of what Matt was saying, right, we partner at the highest levels. These are companies that are not extremely big. So we do have a close relationship with the CEO sometimes if they're a family owned business with a family that owns it. Uh, and we tend to look at it kind of tops down what's important in the industry, what's important for the company, where is this all going? Uh, but just to kind of, and then we have quarterly or monthly reviews of kind of our pipeline or you know, what's changed for them, et cetera. From, from a really, just top down view. But that just gets you so far in reality. If like our, our objective is we want to leverage the, the information that is in their operations, right. The, all of the decisions that they're making shouldn't, should inform our investing and give us a little bit of a competitive advantage or at least some uh, more information about a certain opportunity. And in order to get that we really have to get into the weeds. So our real objective is we want to have an active network of champions inside of our corporate investors in those business units that have uh, budget, authority, need and are really like, you know, strategic for the company and are going to adopt technology uh, in the near future. And with those teams we really have an interaction that's day to day. Like we uh, are either visiting their, their plants or their facilities or you know, attending trade shows with them or just like really spending time understanding what they're doing. Or two or three times a year we host them here in Silicon Valley as well, um, you know, have them meet uh, other funds that we collaborate with here or experts or startups, etc. And so really our objective is, you know, have this intimacy that uh, when we see an opportunity that we want to invest in, that's within our investment thesis, etc. We have a first reaction because we know the opportunity somewhat from our interaction, but we also are a phone call away from someone who is currently evaluating that sort of technology. Um, so I'd say it's a little bit of a hybrid of both things that have been said already.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's really helpful Rodrigo. Uh, let me continue on with you and ask, ah, that's functionally how you're working with these corporates. Now let's talk about how are they adding value beyond capital? What are they doing to add value to either uh, your firm or uh, the startups that you work with? I'll say that Impact Venture Capital is now collaborating actively with the National Venture Capital association on um, some corporate innovation programs. So in last week's session that I mentioned. I heard Lockheed Martin say that 80% of the companies they invest in, uh, they become a customer for which I thought was pretty interesting. And I think that's going to end up being more of a recurring occurrence uh, with these corporates. I heard Thomson, uh, Reuters say we have a worldwide global sales force for things like accounting firms and uh, law firms. And so if there are software companies that have generative AI that want to get into that space, they've got a whole army of salespeople uh, that can help get the product to market. And Intel Capital commented a little bit about curated introductions, making uh, curated introductions to M customers, partners, investors, media sources, industry research firms. I find that we do a little bit at Impact Venture Capital, a little bit of all of those things. Um, probably not on the scale of Intel Capital but we try and um. So tell me a little bit about your view on where corporates add value beyond capital to your firm or to your portfolio companies.

Speaker A: Yeah, much like Gonzalo and Matt were saying, uh, we are arm's length from our corporate investors so there are LPs in our fund but we are independent in all of the investing that we do. So the objective that we have is our relationship with these corporates should inform uh, our investment thesis. If we're not gathering intelligence that will inform our investment thesis then you know, why are we wasting time with these corporates. And I'd say in general we gain intelligence in three areas. Uh, uh, one would be product market fit. So when we see a company in a, in an area, in an area that we like, at the stage that we like, etc. You know, just understanding, you know, is the pricing, the right price is, you know, what, what other things have been tried in this space that are similar or not similar. Just really trying to understand you know, is there or how close is this a product market fit. And it's usually stuff that's you know, very, it's venture. Right. So it's different from what the corporate has already been evaluating because they're you know, evaluating later stage deals. But it should be kind of sufficient information to understand, you know, where are they in this product market fit roadmap. Um, the second would be information about a go to market strategy. Right. So this type of uh, technology or this type of product or service etc. Like who makes the, who makes the buying decision, the procurement decision, how long does it take, what sort of ROI does it take, etc. Like really trying to understand what that go to market strategy, the Startup has and how well does it fit with, you know, the regular corporate environment? And then third, I'd say definitely what you just said. Business development opportunities, uh, when they become relevant, um, we don't really look for an exit opportunity within our corporate investors. We believe that startups that are very close to their core business will find a way to go pitch their M and A team or go pitch, uh, their corporate ventures team. For us, we really try and focus on things that are outside of the core business of our corporate investors. And that way we can bring things that they will use, that they can maybe build, you know, some strategic, um, advantages around. But they're, but they're not going to want to acquire those things.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: So the, but they will, they will hopefully want to. Our, our corporates have bought, I think about $250 million of products and services from our portfolio companies. So we do foster business development. It's just, you know, that's a great outcome if we've been able to find the right startup and, you know, fostered it through the first two things.

Speaker C: That's really insightful. Yeah, thank you for that, Gonzalo. Uh, talk about your view with regard to how corporates are adding value beyond capital.

Speaker E: So with all due respect to all of the corporates out there on my own LPs, we don't, we don't expect a lot. Okay. So hope for the least and then make M the most out of it. I'll complement, uh, what Rodrigo just said, um, hopefully with some ideas that are a little bit different from, from, from those. One thing that was critical for us, and I know that in the States this may be limited, um, we marketed the fact that they invested in our fund and that was a huge catalyzer for our first fund. So thanks to the investment of Banco Sabadel, which is one of the largest banks in Spain, that brought in, uh, interest from other corporates and it really validated us. And that was on the news. I don't think you can do that in the States. But just saying that there is value in, in getting corporates, uh, in the other thing that I think is interesting from the perspective of the startups in your portfolio, whether they're your LPs or just CO investors, you know, in addition to the business development opportunities or becoming a venture client, um, when people buy startups, the first thing, and I know because at Samsung I was working at the Ventures team, but I also talked a bunch with the corporate, uh, development guys. One of the easiest things to do is let's Check out what Andreessen has. Let's check out what sequoia has, big VCs, but also let's check out where Samsung invested or SK invested or any other corporate that might be relevant to this other corporate. The stamp of approval of a corporate has a ton of value when it comes to, um, selling in the future and also to be in the radar of potential acquirers. So I think there's a ton to be, uh, to be gained.

Speaker C: Yep, thanks for that, Matt. Uh, what's your view of how corporates are adding value beyond capital?

Speaker D: Yeah, I've got a couple, I think interesting ones to add. One is, uh, we're a young fund. We're on our very first fund, and so no one knows who we are really when, especially when it comes to startup founders. And so, um, we've got to, you know, we got to fight tooth and claw to win deals sometimes. But having the corporates behind us, especially when there's a good alignment between one of our corporates and the startup we're chasing, really helps in winning deals. Like, there's been a bunch of times where one of us can just, we can just say, hey, what if we just text the buyer of the largest gorilla in your industry and just kind of see what they're thinking about the space, if they've heard of you, you know, maybe they're interested and like that, that goes a long way in just like proving that we, we kind of bring what we claim to the table. Um, I think the distribution channel is a good one. Sometimes the corporates can provide that. It's. You got to be patient. That takes a long time. You got to align a lot of plan. Um, I appreciate a lot learning about corporate budget awareness. I think about this word budget a lot. If you've ever, anyone here has ever spent time anywhere around large enterprise sales and figuring out when corporates and excited people inside are willing to take a conversation and learn and just. It's exciting to be on the cutting edge of what's happening in startup innovation. But then is their budget seeking to buy in a relevant time frame for that startup? There is often a Grand Canyon between those two positions. So I pay a lot of attention to where budget is going and just use it as a qualifying way to accelerate the process and not just like end up at a, uh, thousand dead ends. So that's, that's useful because corporates are really helpful in kind of explaining where they're going. And then I think one of my favorites is just having spent time on both sides, um, like providing a vocabulary to folks. When you get corporate representatives in a room with startup founders, especially if they haven't spent a lot of time in each other's worlds yet. And just watching the way that the two polar opposites will describe a problem space and describe seemingly the same industry, they use different words and phrases and they both learn from each other. Uh, it's not just the startup learning how to build a sales playbook, but the corporates are like, oh, this is actually how they're talking about it on the front lines of technology and this is where I can go learn more. So I like that just knowledge osmosis that I can just sit back and watch is kind of fun too.

Speaker C: That's been uh, one of the most interesting things for us as well is being the trusted advisor between market innovating startups and market leading corporations and sort of helping to bridge the dialogue between uh, those two. And oftentimes, uh, to your point, we're a source of introduction for the startups to the corporate community and we're a source of innovative stage and industry relevant deal flow for the corporate. And so being right in the middle makes venture capital pretty fun. Uh, so it sounds like you're doing a lot of the same things. Um, Matt, let me uh, stick with you and just ask, uh, with regard to your experience with corporate LPs, um, are you finding that there, do you have any traditional LPs, do you have a basis for a comparison of how they would interact with you compared to a traditional lp? I mean we're seeing obviously quite a different uh, set of behaviors. The corporates are looking at sourcing deal flow. They're happy to collaborate on due diligence. They want to add value to the portfolio companies, uh, they're looking at companies co investing and acquiring. The traditional LPs are really just, hey, you know, I'll see you at the annual meeting and you know, send us our K1 tax form and that's, you know, that's about it. They're looking for a return only. Um, can you, can you tell me a little bit about your experience with uh, sort of traditional LPs versus the corporate LPs that you have?

Speaker D: Yeah, I think that it's always the question, right? Are you interested in a financial return or a strategic return? And I think what I hear most often is everybody just says both because I guess, why wouldn't you? You know, they're engaging with a uh, financial firm at the end of the day. So we're supposed to be able to find Alpha. So, you know, why would you say, don't worry about that side of it? So I see everyone saying both. I find it. I always have to really kind of give it some time and ask a lot of probing questions and talk to different people to kind of figure out where the line is between the two. And then, um, you know, if. If there's a financial, um, goal, try to figure out kind of where that line routes up, uh, to the corporate. So in. In some cases, you know, even though we're backed just by corporates, there's still a ton of diversity in the model. So in some cases, we kind of roll straight up to the cio, and, you know, sometimes their chief point of contact is the deputy cio and they just see the world through ROI models. And in other cases, we kind of roll up through Innovation Corp. Dev, uh, in one case the cto. And then it's. It is less of a priority. There's kind of a dotted line over to the CFO office, but I don't think we are, you know, much of a known entity over there. So it's. It's a lot of exploration. Um, but I think at the end of the day, for me, the strategic priority is way more common, way more the goal. And that looks like. It doesn't look like I'll see at the annual meeting. It's. It's, you know, oh, we heard about this player in. In our space. We don't know anything about him. M. Like, what do you guys know about him? Can you find out more? You know, sometimes it's. It's panic. Right? In, like, a fun sense. It's very eager. Um, so, yeah, I think we spend more of our time really trying to satisfy that strategic, uh, angle.

Speaker C: Gonzalo, what about you? We, uh, you know, as you look at sort of strategic and financial returns from corporates versus, uh, you know, kind of the passive role that a traditional LP might play just looking for investment returns only. Can you talk a little bit about that with your corporates?

Speaker E: Absolutely. So things that we see that are a little bit different, um, we do have a lot more comments on the LPA limited partnership agreement from corporates than from traditional, uh, financial investors. All kinds of things. They'll ask for Seidler and this and that. A most favored nation. Um, and it's painful, and we tend to say no until we have to say yes. Sometimes we do have to do changes. Right? But the general answer is no, whatever they're asking, because it's just annoying. Uh, uh, but sometimes you have to accept those. Then there's the aspect that because corporates change a lot, you may change, uh, the sponsor may change, the point of contact may change, the executive may change. And all of a sudden you may be left with a corporate who, you know, doesn't want to do anything with you anymore, which is fine, right? It's, it's up to them at the end of the day. But, you know, we have a situation with a company that's about to be bought, right, or is in process in the ma. So they're like, look, if you find me liquidation, I'm happy to, to get the liquidity right now because, you know, I'm busy with other things. Um, then I'd say that, um, yeah, you know, it's a completely, completely different type of conversation. Um, and it's less than money because the money is never the point of contacts money. It's the corporate's money. And it's more of like, what can you do for me within the corporate? Can you help me get, uh, uh, technology that the business unit is asking for me, uh, to source? Can you help me advance my career and venture capital? So there's other motives to be doing that. So it's interesting.

Speaker C: Awesome. Rodrigo.

Speaker A: Yeah, we see, uh, I'd say like 40% of our assets under management are non institutional financial investors. And honestly, they're great. So we spend a lot of time, effort, management fee, everything, uh, with corporates because our objective is to leverage them. Uh, and so that is, if you want to think about it, like, it's very low margin because we have to have, you know, most of our team dedicated to that. We have to have people that spend money on people that are dedicated just on those partnerships versus when we have just a financial investor, you know, it's much more about just here's the money and let's create a return. Many of our investors, our financial investors are really non institutional. So they do look at us, you know, to um, understand new areas or you know, what they want to see what we think about certain technologies or certain areas that might inform investing in other places. Or they might ask us what does the group of corporates think about these applications or these technologies, etc. So we're kind of a source of information for them in some way. But as a GP, we are B37 is purely financial driven. We leverage our corporates to gain intelligence to make our investment. And we believe that our corporates are leveraging us to generate some sort of advantage or some sort of something. Uh, but our objective is Purely financial. And so, you know, we are very, I'd say, aligned with our financial investors in the sense of, look, if you can generate alpha and you can make an investment, then we are more than happy to give you money and you know, uh, say arm's length and that's great for us because as a gp, it's a more high margin sort of investor. We don't have to invest a whole lot of people and time and effort in maintaining those LPs. Happy? Well, they, they will be happy when, you know, when they get a return or they are happy when they get a return.

Speaker C: Awesome. Yeah, thanks for that. Uh, so let's shift to the rapid fire portion of the program with the last few minutes that we have here. So I'm just going to look for 10, uh, to 15 second responses from, from each of you on, uh, just a series of questions that um, I'm curious about. Uh, let's, uh, Rodrigo, why don't I start with you and just geographic focus. I mean, Impact Venture capital is investing in the U.S. mostly, uh, northern California, Southern California and New York is where our team is at, but we'll invest anywhere across, uh, the country. Uh, just talk about your geographic focus.

Speaker A: Yeah, our team is here in the Bay Area. Our investing team is here in the Bay Area. Kind uh, of more of our operational team is in Mexico, but we do all of our investing in the Bay Area. Uh, so our geographic focus from an investment point of view is here.

Speaker C: Gonzalo.

Speaker E: We invest, uh, into Israeli and European founders in Israel, Europe or the States. If they're abroad, they have to be in the States.

Speaker C: Matt.

Speaker D: Yeah, we've got a US focused. Our investing team is on west coast based. And then we actually have a strategic interest in the Midwest also. So I'd say it's nationwide. West coast first, Midwest second, kind of the rest of the US Third tier.

Speaker C: Okay. Uh, now let's talk about, uh, just a few more rapid fire questions. Largest, uh, check written so far. We wrote a, as a seed investor, we wrote an accumulative $4 million check into a company. And then we were surprised when our LPs, corporate and otherwise, came in, uh, and wanted to put another $20 million into follow one rounds through an SPV. So that was quite unusual. That's the largest sort of checks check that we've written so far into a company called Kornami, an AI chip company. Matt, what's the largest check that you've written so far?

Speaker D: Uh, 5 million for us into, uh, a company called measurable.

Speaker E: Okay.

Speaker C: Gonzalo.

Speaker E: 4 million. That's it. But that trickled, uh, $42 million round, but that was the largest we've done.

Speaker C: Okay, Rodrigo?

Speaker A: Uh, I think it's 20 million or 25 million into a company called Dexterity Robotics.

Speaker C: Okay. Uh, biggest win so far, Rodrigo. What's. We've had companies that went from 50,000 to nine and a half million in ARR. We've had one company where we invested at a $20 million valuation. And now Softbank, Qualcomm and Applied Materials have come in at a $450 million valuation. Those are the things when we're looking at wins. What's the biggest win you've had? So, so far?

Speaker A: Yeah, we have, we have had a couple of companies that uh, we invested at the seed stage and now their, their latest round was above a billion dollars. Uh, and our most successful company revenue wise is doing $500 million of ARR.

Speaker B: So.

Speaker C: Fantastic. Gonzalo.

Speaker E: Amazing. So we have a bunch of, we start in pre seed. So we have a bunch of companies that are in the 100, 200, 300, uh, million sort of, uh, pre money valuations when we invested at five, ah, six. So those we have probably around six of them in the total. And in terms of revenues, the largest, uh, revenue generating companies is probably doing five, uh, million. So nothing compared to Rodrigo's.

Speaker A: Well, we were lucky, but it's actually a company that was, we invested in a different company and then they were acquired and that went really well. So luck is a big part of this game. As everybody.

Speaker B: That's a big part.

Speaker C: Matt.

Speaker D: Yeah, we're, we're a little younger in the tooth. I think for us that metric is we've had a few already that we invested in the 0 to 1 million revenue when they were there and we've gotten them to eclipse 5, do eclipse 10 and really see them kind of just change the kind of company they are. And as a former founder, I get an extra kick when we invest at zero revenue. So when it is a pre revenue company, we can get them through a couple of those order of magnitude humps.

Speaker C: So Matt, biggest uh, mistake so far. We've got most of the Kaufman fellows, so, uh, we can talk. Candidly, my biggest mistake so far is probably not taking some chips off the table. When, uh, there was a subsequent round of financing, we could have gotten a portion of our ownership, bought out and produced uh, a larger distribution. We went back and forth about truncating our upside. Uh, but I look back at some of those opportunities and wish that Maybe we would have, uh, distributed, uh, a larger amount to our LPs and sold a little bit more, uh, to get the DPI numbers up. Uh, uh, so that when I look back, that's, uh, one mistake or second thought that I have. Uh, what's the largest mistake so far?

Speaker D: Yeah, I think for us, we've had a couple instances that still sting a little where we just got way ahead of the technology trend. And I, you know, I think in the diligence, we felt it a little. We haven't let this thing mature at all, even, you know, this niche of AI four years ago, and we just, we were so hungry to place a bet on it as a team, and it's just, you know, it's just failure to launch. We've had a couple of those where we, I feel like we kind of knew it in retrospect. So that's been, that's been our biggest miss.

Speaker C: Yeah, Gonzalo.

Speaker E: So we invest in pre revenue, pre seed. Usually it's first money in. And we have done a couple of investments in the 35 that we've done where we broke that rule. And we came in a little earlier thinking that we were opportunistic. There's a, for us, a huge stigma. There's a rule not to do that, and we did it anyway and it didn't go well. So I think, uh, old companies, uh, we don't like, we like new.

Speaker C: Yep. Rodrigo.

Speaker A: Now, we wasted a ton of time working with business units at our corporate investors that, you know, just didn't have the, the technology framing or, you know, for example, we have, uh, an interesting thesis on, you know, climate tech or we want to make some, some bets there. And we started working with some of our investors, teams, you know, that are doing net zero or climate tech or whatever. And some of those teams, like, they don't care about technology, they don't care about innovation, they don't care about B37. But we spend way too much time trying to convince them versus the other way around. Right. Which is okay. If that doesn't work, then what are business units that are very technology forward and how can we leverage them? And that was a big learning. This burns out the team, burns money, everything.

Speaker C: Yep, I get it, Rodrigo. Uh, best corporate to work with. Uh, we've, I guess we'd have to say SK Hynix. We've learned the most from about bar market insight and technology trends. But, uh, Thomson Reuters acquired one of our portfolio companies, so I guess we have to put them up on a pedestal. Who's your favorite corporate to work with?

Speaker A: Uh, we work very closely with uh, uh, a company called Grupo Bimbo. They're the largest baking company in the world. They own Sara Lee Entenmanns, a bunch of brands here in the US and they are, the Bimbo USA team is great to work with.

Speaker C: Gonzalo.

Speaker E: For me, my favorite uh, are those that are very active. If they're deploying money and they're in the game that, that usually goes for a better uh, collaboration. We've co invested twice with my ex, uh, former employer which is Samsung and um, it's close to my heart. So that's probably one of the most exciting for me and Matt.

Speaker D: Yeah, we've had a couple really, really collaborative ones that have been fun. I think the, if I had to call it out, the one that's probably been the, the best for us is a company called Johnson Controls, which I didn't have a lot of background and familiarity in that industry coming in. Um, but they do a lot of property, tech and climate, uh, investment energy systems into buildings. Right. So it sounds kind of old world but I've, we've found them over the years to just be very, very agile, um, very like low ego institution wise, which is just not words that I'm used to, uh, facilitating with or associating with corporates. And they're, they're quick to partner and they, they're very good at articulating kind of their own problem spaces and how they're interested to address it and say talk to this technology person on this team over here. That would have taken me, you know, nine months to find that person if I was outside. So that's the agility and just the hunger to kind of self improve seems to be across the board and that's made it extremely fun to work with them.

Speaker C: Awesome. Okay, last question and then we'll open it up uh, for Q and a with the audience here. Um, as you guys may know, my thought leadership project at Kauffman Fellows was on strategic planning for life. Sort of taking business practices and applying them to life and thinking about sort of, you know, how do you make yourself better from a professional development standpoint and how do you sort of live your best life? All that to say I'm um, curious as to your favorite podcast and, and you think that mine would be on sort of ah, work life balance or something like that. But I keep gravitating back toward all in. Uh, I just love that, love that, love that podcast in the way that it covers a Variety of topics. Matt, what's your favorite podcast or professional development publication or personal development publication?

Speaker D: Let's see. I like. Oh, man, I listen to a lot of them. Uh, I spent a lot of time in the healthcare industry. That's where my startup existed. And I think I'm just a science geek at heart. So I will take deep dives with Andrew Huberman all day, every day and just let him talk to me about research for three hours at a time. So I think it's Andrew Huberman Lab is number one right now.

Speaker C: That's great, Gonzalo. Favorite podcast.

Speaker E: I made my life goal to never, ever commute to work since I lived in London for six years. I hated my commute and I have kept, uh, that promise. So I'm usually 5 minutes walk to every office and every apartment that I own. Um, so I don't listen to a lot of them all in is one. What I do do sometimes is, uh, I'm very interested in geopolitics and macroeconomics. And so I just listen to the classic, uh, CEOs, chairmans of the big banks and so on, and large corporates, just individually, but not on a podcast level, more on a ad hoc level on specific topics.

Speaker C: Great. Thanks for that, Rodrigo.

Speaker A: I in general love biographies, so I love reading biographies. I love it. So acquired. The podcast is great because it's kind of like stories of people or businesses, et cetera. So that one I like.

Speaker C: Fantastic. Thanks to all three of you for the rapid fire session and the engaging discussion today. I really appreciate it.