The Exchanges

Q You said there about having potentially more portfolio companies than would be expected for a fund of your size. How much of a role does ownership Stake and valuation then play when it comes to investment decision making?

A Well, as the fund gets bigger, it certainly becomes more important. Uh, we've concentrated more over time. You'll see that we, we today, you know, average between 250 K to one million dollars going into most companies. However, we don't take board seats, uh, unless it's something that we're extremely passionate about. For example, I'm on the board of dwell. I think that our point of view is that at the At the size of funds that, that we are at today, uh, you know, we think we can create performance at the two to five percent level of ownership. Do that across many companies rather than needing to just be at the 20, 30% your, your traditional fund might target along with taking a board seat. So today we are not doing the, you know, super small amount, uh, into a ton of, into like many, many companies kind of strategy. We're, we're sort of In the middle, where we're looking for two to five, maybe 10% if we're lucky, and as early as possible, uh, trying to do a few more of those, simply because our network enables us to do so. You know, we'll see how that strategy works. I think that over time, as funds get larger, have to play the more traditional game, but right now, this is working pretty well for us.

AI assessment note: “we think we can create performance at the two to five percent level of ownership.”

Q How does that then affect Your investment decision making process when you go from scaling up from like 25 K checks to now with a sixty five million fund. And how does the additional fiduciary responsibility of the hundred LPs affect your thinking around investing?

A Well, I think that just like scaling up any company, you have to put in place new processes in terms of decision making. Putting process in place for communications with your partners, I think, is a critical piece. You know, we've worked to develop a A process where, you know, we made a lot of mistakes, uh, along the way in terms of communicating with each other. And we've developed a process where we have a document that we put together for every investment that we want to bring to the partnership, which really the goal of that is to bring the partners up to speed to provide context around the story, the entrepreneur, the idea, uh, the timing in the market, how big of an idea do we think this is? And then, you know, the basic information around, Pricing and et cetera. We've iterated and developed that kind of stuff. Uh, we've also had to develop a new diligence process, uh, because of the size of investments. As you said, we have a stronger fiduciary responsibility. And so putting together a diligence process reflects, you know, our values and ensuring that we're investing in good teams and good humans and good missions. Like these are, these are important things. Also just developing structure, you know, more structures for communications and things like this. It's also, as you, as you scale up You end up having to build out more operations and infrastructure. So in a way it'…

AI assessment note: “we've also had to develop a new diligence process, uh, because of the size”

Q I'd love to learn, because you said about the, the two, the small, the, for Slow One and Slow Two being both one million dollar funds, and I'm really intrigued as to the institutionalizing of Slow. In May, Four. I guess what was behind the decision to formalize the structure and get institutional LPs on board, and how did that change your investment thought process?

A Well, I think, I believe it was 2010 that we actually formalized Slow into its first structure. You know, it really started out as me and a few of my close friends, uh, as the original LPs. You know, it was Dustin Moskovitz, actually, the co-founder of Facebook. He was the one that pushed me to think about Uh, beginning to institutionalize it. And, uh, initially I, I didn't want to have LPs. I was really enjoying doing it myself with my own capital. I felt that that was more pure. It's very visceral when you're investing your own capital. Dustin actually, uh, said to me, well, you know, I think it can still feel that way. And, you know, we can make this feel very personal and, you know, and so it started as a collaboration amongst, uh, Aaron and, uh, Dustin and I, and then, and then as we Built out Slow One and Slow Two, it became Sam Lesson and Justin Schafer and Kevin Colloran, and it sort of grew organically like that. For Slow Two, Sean Parker joined. We kept it very small and almost like a club. I was leading the funds and doing most of the investing. The crew of people were all very talented in different areas of expertise. Aaron is one of the great designers, I think, in our generation on the internet. Dustin is, you know, an extraordinary thinker and engineer. I think he's one of the great thinkers of our generation. You know, Scott built Facebook photos, one of the lar…

AI assessment note: “Dustin Moskovitz, actually, the co-founder of Facebook. He was the one that pushed me”

Q Now talk to me, Dave, why the name Slow Ventures, and what did the early thesis and investment check size look like for you at Slow?

A I named it Slow Ventures because it's It's a craft, and it's something I feel like that you have to get good at over time. I think I probably could have raised quite a bit more to start off with, but I decided to start slow. It was sort of an acknowledgement that I didn't know what I was doing, um, and that I wanted to sort of honor how hard it is to be good at this. I started out, I mean, the first two slow funds were only a million US dollars, you know, enabled a lot of 25 K, 50 K, a hundred K kind of investing, and the ability to, you know, develop Pattern matching. VCs, like, always say that, and I always get annoyed. When I was first starting, I was like, ah, what does that mean? It turns out to be pretty true. You start to just develop muscle memory, I think, over time. As with anything, you know, like, I'm sure you've done enough of these interviews now that, like, it's just, like, you know, second nature to you. I think we have, like, almost 300 investments now, and I did, like, over probably half of them personally, so it's, like, once you get enough data, you just start to kind of Two kinds of things you're always looking for, the ideas and the people. I think it's like actually the people part that's the hardest part to get a really good, uh, radar on. I'm a fan of taking it slow in everything, not just like if you were raising money for your company, you know, or wh…

AI assessment note: “I named it Slow Ventures because it's It's a craft... first two slow funds were only a million”

Q How does that then affect Your investment decision making process when you go from scaling up from like 25 K checks to now with a sixty five million fund. And how does the additional fiduciary responsibility of the hundred LPs affect your thinking around investing?

A Well, I think that just like scaling up any company, you have to put in place new processes in terms of decision making. Putting process in place for communications with your partners, I think, is a critical piece. You know, we've worked to develop a A process where, you know, we made a lot of mistakes, uh, along the way in terms of communicating with each other. And we've developed a process where we have a document that we put together for every investment that we want to bring to the partnership, which really the goal of that is to bring the partners up to speed to provide context around the story, the entrepreneur, the idea, uh, the timing in the market, how big of an idea do we think this is? And then, you know, the basic information around, Pricing and et cetera. We've iterated and developed that kind of stuff. Uh, we've also had to develop a new diligence process, uh, because of the size of investments. As you said, we have a stronger fiduciary responsibility. And so putting together a diligence process reflects, you know, our values and ensuring that we're investing in good teams and good humans and good missions. Like these are, these are important things. Also just developing structure, you know, more structures for communications and things like this. It's also, as you, as you scale up You end up having to build out more operations and infrastructure. So in a way it'…

AI assessment note: “we have a document that we put together for every investment”

Q Now talk to me, Dave, why the name Slow Ventures, and what did the early thesis and investment check size look like for you at Slow?

A I named it Slow Ventures because it's It's a craft, and it's something I feel like that you have to get good at over time. I think I probably could have raised quite a bit more to start off with, but I decided to start slow. It was sort of an acknowledgement that I didn't know what I was doing, um, and that I wanted to sort of honor how hard it is to be good at this. I started out, I mean, the first two slow funds were only a million US dollars, you know, enabled a lot of 25 K, 50 K, a hundred K kind of investing, and the ability to, you know, develop Pattern matching. VCs, like, always say that, and I always get annoyed. When I was first starting, I was like, ah, what does that mean? It turns out to be pretty true. You start to just develop muscle memory, I think, over time. As with anything, you know, like, I'm sure you've done enough of these interviews now that, like, it's just, like, you know, second nature to you. I think we have, like, almost 300 investments now, and I did, like, over probably half of them personally, so it's, like, once you get enough data, you just start to kind of Two kinds of things you're always looking for, the ideas and the people. I think it's like actually the people part that's the hardest part to get a really good, uh, radar on. I'm a fan of taking it slow in everything, not just like if you were raising money for your company, you know, or wh…

AI assessment note: “first two slow funds were only a million US dollars, you know, enabled a lot of 25 K”

Q I'd love to learn, because you said about the, the two, the small, the, for Slow One and Slow Two being both one million dollar funds, and I'm really intrigued as to the institutionalizing of Slow. In May, Four. I guess what was behind the decision to formalize the structure and get institutional LPs on board, and how did that change your investment thought process?

A Well, I think, I believe it was 2010 that we actually formalized Slow into its first structure. You know, it really started out as me and a few of my close friends, uh, as the original LPs. You know, it was Dustin Moskovitz, actually, the co-founder of Facebook. He was the one that pushed me to think about Uh, beginning to institutionalize it. And, uh, initially I, I didn't want to have LPs. I was really enjoying doing it myself with my own capital. I felt that that was more pure. It's very visceral when you're investing your own capital. Dustin actually, uh, said to me, well, you know, I think it can still feel that way. And, you know, we can make this feel very personal and, you know, and so it started as a collaboration amongst, uh, Aaron and, uh, Dustin and I, and then, and then as we Built out Slow One and Slow Two, it became Sam Lesson and Justin Schafer and Kevin Colloran, and it sort of grew organically like that. For Slow Two, Sean Parker joined. We kept it very small and almost like a club. I was leading the funds and doing most of the investing. The crew of people were all very talented in different areas of expertise. Aaron is one of the great designers, I think, in our generation on the internet. Dustin is, you know, an extraordinary thinker and engineer. I think he's one of the great thinkers of our generation. You know, Scott built Facebook photos, one of the lar…

AI assessment note: “Dustin Moskovitz... was the one that pushed me to think about beginning to institutionalize it.”

Q You said there about having potentially more portfolio companies than would be expected for a fund of your size. How much of a role does ownership Stake and valuation then play when it comes to investment decision making?

A Well, as the fund gets bigger, it certainly becomes more important. Uh, we've concentrated more over time. You'll see that we, we today, you know, average between 250 K to one million dollars going into most companies. However, we don't take board seats, uh, unless it's something that we're extremely passionate about. For example, I'm on the board of dwell. I think that our point of view is that at the At the size of funds that, that we are at today, uh, you know, we think we can create performance at the two to five percent level of ownership. Do that across many companies rather than needing to just be at the 20, 30% your, your traditional fund might target along with taking a board seat. So today we are not doing the, you know, super small amount, uh, into a ton of, into like many, many companies kind of strategy. We're, we're sort of In the middle, where we're looking for two to five, maybe 10% if we're lucky, and as early as possible, uh, trying to do a few more of those, simply because our network enables us to do so. You know, we'll see how that strategy works. I think that over time, as funds get larger, have to play the more traditional game, but right now, this is working pretty well for us.

AI assessment note: “as the fund gets bigger, it certainly becomes more important.”

Q And talking of taking it slow there, moving from an entrepreneur to a VC, is that a transition that you've made for Fully, or do you think one's innately an entrepreneur, and actually, you can inject his sense of entrepreneurialism into VC, and actually, did you ever think of considering joining VC funds full-time, a more established fund?

A You know, I've been recruited by, like, every fund, you know, I've gone through, like, their recruiting processes, and et cetera, et cetera, but at the end of the day, like, I'm an entrepreneur, I can't help it, you know. Yep, it's just reality. If you're an entrepreneur, you're an entrepreneur. It's just innate. Like, it's really clear to me. Like, I can tell that you're a purebred entrepreneur from, like, across the ocean and having never talked to you on the phone. Like, it's, it's just, like, super clear. You know, when you have that DNA, you know, you're always going to want to do your own thing. You know, you want to plant the seed and watch the tree grow and see where it goes. And, like, that's just, it's just your DNA.

AI assessment note: “at the end of the day, like, I'm an entrepreneur, I can't help it”

Q And talking of taking it slow there, moving from an entrepreneur to a VC, is that a transition that you've made for Fully, or do you think one's innately an entrepreneur, and actually, you can inject his sense of entrepreneurialism into VC, and actually, did you ever think of considering joining VC funds full-time, a more established fund?

A You know, I've been recruited by, like, every fund, you know, I've gone through, like, their recruiting processes, and et cetera, et cetera, but at the end of the day, like, I'm an entrepreneur, I can't help it, you know. Yep, it's just reality. If you're an entrepreneur, you're an entrepreneur. It's just innate. Like, it's really clear to me. Like, I can tell that you're a purebred entrepreneur from, like, across the ocean and having never talked to you on the phone. Like, it's, it's just, like, super clear. You know, when you have that DNA, you know, you're always going to want to do your own thing. You know, you want to plant the seed and watch the tree grow and see where it goes. And, like, that's just, it's just your DNA.

AI assessment note: “If you're an entrepreneur, you're an entrepreneur. It's just innate.”

Q And then being a new father, how does that affect how you live and work?

A I think having kids is an operating system upgrade. You know, it's, it's one of those things that's impossible to describe. Once you go through it, you can't go back. I love the saying that once you have toast, you can't turn it back into bread again. It really is an operating system upgrade. It gives you an understanding of the world, Why we make all the laws we make, why we, we act as a society, why the traffic is so bad at five PM. You know, I also describe it to people. It's like having your heart ripped out of your chest and running around in the world without you. I just think that it, it really is such a grounding and wonderful experience. I wish I would have done it sooner. It's the point of everything. I think it really provides a lot of clarity and, and, uh, meaning in your life. And, uh, I highly recommend it to everyone.

AI assessment note: “It really provides a lot of clarity and, and, uh, meaning in your life.”

Q Sam has this in the information too, doesn't it?

A Yeah, we're both interns. You know, I really respect what Brit's doing, and, I look up to her in a lot of ways, uh, with how, how much, uh, success and innovation she's had. I've been working personally on dwell, you know, the traditional media companies, I think have a huge opportunity. The way that I think about it is every time I stand in an airport, uh, in front of the, uh, magazine rack, and I look at all of the magazines sitting on the magazine rack, each one of them is represents a very passionate interest in its community. Whether it's Powder Magazine, my favorite ski magazine, or Dwell for people who love architecture and design and modernism. There's tons of different magazines sitting on that magazine rack, and each magazine represents a community. You know, up until this point, most of those media companies have been talking in a one-to-many kind of way with their community, rather than trying to generate and take their community and connect it to itself and enable people to contribute and Meet each other, connect to each other, um, and I always think about that every time I'm standing in front of the magazine rack. Like, what if I could just hang out in a conference with all the people that read outside magazine, right? Like, that would just be awesome. Same thing for something like Dwell. You know, I'm super passionate about design. I love architecture. I love pho…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, we're both interns. You know, I really respect what Brit's doing”