Change is the prerequisite to disruption. Therefore, to monopolize a market globally we believe you must fundamentally disrupt it.
To do that you must have a product which solves a painful problem in a notional 10x better way than existing solutions. Or, serves a need which today is not being satisfied in another way.
We don’t just look for Unicorns, but Decacorns. We seek multi-billion dollar opportunity, which we define as:
- A startup which is doing something which in the future will be scalable enough in a large enough market for a future valuation of multiple $bn’s to not just be feasible, but probable, assuming the startup executes well.
- The Founder(s) have a narrative which explains why they believe (1) is true.
- A CEO who has the ambition and drive to want to build such a business and can evidence from their actions and choices thus far that this is the case, even if the company is very early, or even still on the drawing board.
Many Founders claim they want to build a $bn business, but only some articulate their playbook as to how.
You need to understand the inflection points your business needs to hit, and the money you think it might need to raise, to deliver on your vision.
We know this playbook will change and evolve but together we can then get behind an aggressive plan, to deliver the change in the world you want to see.
Global.
Most of our investments have been in the UK, US, and Europe.
(Super) early stage
We are often first or second money-in (pre-seed/seed). We can go as early as the pre-revenue concept stage, right through to those with a sustained record of aggressive growth.
$250k-$2m check-size
This can be on our own, but is more often alongside other angel investors or founder-friendly VCs we know and trust.
Angel tickets from individual team members are usually between 5-100k USD, depending on stage.
Feedback
We do our very best to respond to every inbound. As a small team sometimes that takes a little time as we get >2,500 startups applying for funding each year. We try to respond to everyone within 5 working days - sometimes it can be longer.
Deeptech
A known technical solution applied to fundamentally change how a vast laggard market works: removing someone from the value chain, making the product or service 10 or 100x cheaper, better, or all of the above.
“Transformative” startups in our portfolio include: Flexport, Archax, Earnr and BreezeAI.
Deeptech where one of the core challenges is primarily technical, but if you solve that technical problem by building a commercial solution, it can take command of a huge market which is often nascent. This could be in anything from next generation quantum computing to the new space economy.
“Frontier technology” startups in our portfolio include: OculusVR, Gensyn, Univeral Quantum, PlumerAI, Beyond Aero and Mind Portal.
Deeptech where one of the core challenges is primarily technical, but if you solve that technical problem by building a commercial solution, it can take command of a huge market which is often nascent. This could be in anything from next generation quantum computing to the new space economy.
“Frontier technology” startups in our portfolio include: OculusVR, Gensyn, Univeral Quantum, PlumerAI, Beyond Aero and Mind Portal.
*What we don't invest in
We will not invest in any business – however good it might be - which is not a multi-billion dollar opportunity, or is outside the two buckets above.
If you’re a Series-B company from Timbuctoo and enquire we probably won’t respond as you’ve clearly not read our thesis.
We also do not recommend using platforms to spam lots of investors, this does more damage than good.