Jeff Clavier

Founder and Managing Partner, Uncork Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderengineerexecutive@jeff ↗LinkedIn ↗uncorkcapital.com ↗

In 2004, Clavier founded SoftTech VC—rebranded in 2017 to Uncork Capital—pioneering the institutional seed-stage micro-VC model in Silicon Valley. Over two decades, he has backed prominent startups from inception, including Fitbit, Mint, Eventbrite, SendGrid, Postmates, and Poshmark.

12statements → 6claims → 3claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 4.33/5average certainty → 1.75/5average debate potential → 4.3/5argument clarity · the sources → 60said about them ↓

1 supported 1 partly supported 1 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 5 assertions · 2 insights · 3 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Jeff argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Clavier: Micro VC Market Grew to 250 Funds and $4B by 2015

“By 2010, you were looking at a market of 20, 25 in sort of institutional micro VC funds. In five years, 10 X that amount has been raised. So we're now looking at 250 macro VC funds having raised a total of four billion dollars.”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 11:34 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Clavier in 2015: Ambient Wireless Power Will Recharge Electronics by 2018

“So those two guys out of MIT have invented a well using a technology which has been refined lab at MIT, where, you know, in three years from now, you'll have a device or earlier You will have a device on your nightstand or your desk in the office that will aut…”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 24:19 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.3 / 5 directness 4.2 · coherence 4.5 · precision 4.2 · compression 3.8

redirected or did not address 2 of 12 assessed questions (17%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

233 words/min while actually speaking · 47.9 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 3,510 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 1/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 1/10

setup questions received 75%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 3:47“So what attracted you to Fitbit when, when it wasn't to others?” ▶ 15:13“And, and then moving to that next stage of the seed, the seed round itself, it's been said before that you encourage companies to raise large seed rounds, maybe larger than they ne…”

when Jeff pushed back ▶ 15:29“Uh, I can feel the, um, sorry, Lacey quote where I forced my companies to raise large seed rounds, um, which is sort of true and not true.”

What they said12 What others said60 Episodes1

Everything Jeff Clavier said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

What-if

Clavier: Fitbit Would Have Died Without Brad Feld's Series A Investment

“Every single round of financing was either close to impossible, To raise, I had to beg Brad failed to invest in the Series A saving Fitbit, because without that investment from Brad, they would be dead, and even the Series B or the Series C were not easy, desp…”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 6:15 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Clavier in 2015: Ambient Wireless Power Will Recharge Electronics by 2018

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 24:19 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Clavier: No VCs Were Willing to Fund Fitbit in 2010

“In 2000 10 there was basically no one to fund Fitbit, like no one would touch it despite the early progress and, you know, sort of early liftoff in terms of sales”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 8:04 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Clavier: One-Third of SoftTech Portfolio Companies Receive Preemptive Series A Offers

“The thing which is interesting is that about a third Of our companies actually don't go and raise a round. The round just comes to them in the form of a preemption.”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 19:04 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Clavier: Hardware Startups Were a "No-Go Zone" for VCs in 2008

“It was a no-no or no-go or no investment zone for the other VCs.”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 6:07 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Disclosure

SoftTech VC Doubled Down on Fitbit's $9M Series A Across Two Funds

“After a couple of months of due diligence and reference checks and spending time with the team, they led a nine million dollar Series A that I we participated into, and we actually bought more shares of Fitbit from our other fund, Fund Three, which we had rais…”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 10:20 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Assertion Supported

Clavier: Micro VC Market Grew to 250 Funds and $4B by 2015

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 11:34 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Insight

Clavier: Startups Need 18 Months of Seed Runway to Reach Series A

“We've always sort of looked at a, an average of an 18 months runway as what it takes for a company to, you know, take the seed round, hire a few engineers, get the product to market, start building traction, do a few, you know, revisions of the product, and th…”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 15:41 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Insight

Clavier: Preemptive Term Sheets Now Avoid Bidding Wars, Not Bargain Valuations

“And it used to be that preemptions were a way to try and get a sweet deal, so not pay market price, whereas now it's to try and get out of bidding wars that end up happening if ever you have an interesting company that is raising through a process where you co…”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 19:37 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Assertion Partly supported

Clavier: Fitbit Reached a $10B Valuation on Just $40M-$50M in Equity

“In the case of Fitbit, they've gotten to where they are just using, you know, roughly 50, you know, 40, fifty million dollars in in actual sort of equity capital.”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 22:26 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Disclosure

SoftTech VC Reviews 3,000 Startup Pitches Annually to Make 15 Investments

“We get to see about 3000 or more companies per year, and we only invest in 15.”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 14:02 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

Disclosure

Clavier: Hardware Startups Need $3M-$4M Seed Rounds Due to Longer Timelines

“Most of our companies will, you know, go out and raise a two million dollar seed round on average Unless, you know, they're a hardware company, in which case, they might go and raise a three to four million dollar listed round, because hardware is so hard and …”

Jeff Clavier Sep 7, 2015 ▶ 17:04 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups

The other half of the tape: Jeff Clavier's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 54 times in 17 episodes on 20VC. 6 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 21 Michael Kim 8 Brad Feld 7 Andy McLoughlin 5 Ed Sim 4 Charles Hudson 3 Samir Kaji 2 Paul Martino 2

Statements about Jeff Clavier, by other people (6)

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Kim predicts SoftTech VC will build a multi-generational platform like Greylock

“And if you look at the absolute top tier VC funds, they've done a phenomenal job of generational shift, and, you know, the older generation handing off to the younger generation, certainly firms like Greylock, have transformed themselves, and I think that is t…”

Michael Kim Jul 6, 2016 ▶ 24:27 20VC: What It Takes To Raise A VC Fund & Investing in First Time Fund Managers with Michael Kim @ Cendana Capital

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Early Micro-VC Returns Gave LPs Confidence to Back Solo GPs

“I actually think that there's a lower threshold because people like Jeff, Steve Anderson, Chris Saka, and others showed that you could take a small amount of capital. And actually turn it into meaningful returns. I think the fact that they proved that those ea…”

Charles Hudson May 9, 2016 ▶ 7:28 20VC: Raising A Solo GP Fund & Why They Are So Prominent Today with Charles Hudson, Managing Partner @ Precursor Ventures

Assertion Contradicted

Jeff Clavier bought SoftTech VC's original logo on 99designs for $100

“Jeff had bought on 99 designs for like a hundred dollars or something back in probably 2005 or something.”

Andy McLoughlin May 8, 2018 ▶ 6:34 20VC: Andy McLoughlin on The Benefits of Backing Unsexy Businesses with Non-Obvious Founders, How To Distinguish Between A Good Bridge Round and A Bridge To Nowhere & Whether VCs Really Do Add Value?

Assertion Supported

Kaji: Maples, Dearing, Anderson, and Clavier pioneered the micro VC trend

“Folks like Mike Maples and Michael Daring Steve Anderson, Jeff Clavier they started the micro VC trend and they started raising these small funds when it wasn't even a thought.”

Samir Kaji Dec 2, 2015 ▶ 24:38 20 VC 093: Where Is The Micro VC Market Going with Samir Kaji @ First Republic Bank

Assertion Partly supported

Micro-VC funds grew from nearly zero in 2010 to 400 by 2015

“When I started this in 2010, I think one of the only micro VCs was Jeff Clavier, soft tech. ... Since that time, I think there's 350 or 400 now, quote unquote, micro VCs.”

Ed Sim Nov 30, 2015 ▶ 15:11 20 VC 092: The Repeatable Playbook of SaaS with Ed Sim, Founding Partner @ BoldStart Ventures

Assertion Supported

StyleSeat Raised Over $40 Million From Sequoia, Sacca, and Other VCs

“They've raised over forty million in challenging funding conditions from some of the true greats of the business, Including Alfred Lynn at Sequoia, Chris Sacker, Jeff Clavier, Eileen Lee, Lightspeed, the list goes on.”

Harry Stebbings Mar 31, 2017 ▶ 0:20 20VC: Why Every Founder Should Bootstrap Their Startup, How To Solve Information Asymmetry Between Founders and VCs & Living In A Cupboard For Two Years To Fund StyleSeat with Melody McCloskey, Founder & CEO @ StyleSeat