“Nothing can happen if it’s not first a dream. If you have someone with a dream, if you have a motivated person with a goal and a vision, if you have someone who never gives up , who has great hope, anything can happen.”
Our philosophy is based on trust and a “play hard, work hard” attitude. We love mission driven entrepreneurs as we know from our own experiences as entrepreneurs that you succeed eventually if you are driven by true passion. If you combine your passion with a data driven approach you might just become a firefly.
Julie Allegro and Philipp Stauffer have been investing in seed and early stage technology companies for over 15 years. We are typically the first institutional money into a company – either with or immediately after the friends-and-family round. We continue to back our start-ups, following through the life of the company.
A key component of our approach is to perform a “360 due diligence.”, which includes looking at our potential entrepreneurial teams as much as looking at ourselves. Given the inherent uncertainties in launching new businesses, improving the likelihood of success requires bringing more than just money to the table. We invest in companies where we feel we have the right set of contacts and/or skills to fill in the gaps needed to help the early team to reach the growth stage. We bring substantial personal entrepreneurial background and passion coupled with Fortune 500 best practices and relationships to ensure our companies receive the strategic and operational support necessary to succeed. We work with our companies to build the sound plan to ensure our companies can then truly benefit from later-stage capital designed to fuel growth.
Over the past 10 years of investing, our portfolio has included such companies as Bazaarvoice, Tripwire Security Systems, Switchfly (formerly EzRez), OrderGroove, Experience Project (Kanjoya), Philz Coffee, Noise Toys, Jawbone, Angellist, Speakr, SourceDNA, Playspan, Tango Card, Pley among others.
“Our thesis cuts across vertical investment silos so that we see opportunities where others don’t. We look for sustained competitive advantage through data and intelligence.”
Brett Hurt, CEO & Founder of BazaarVoice |
Jacob Jaber, CEO of Philz Coffee |
Marco Hansell, Founder, CEO, Speakr |
David Leeds, CEO & Founder of Tango Card |