Mullen Committed to Scopely and The Trade Desk in First Meetings
Mark Mullen · 20VC: Optimising Investment Decision-Making in Compressed Fundraising Timelines & A Deep Dive on Portfolio Construction, Price Sensitivity and The Importance of Ownership with Mark Mullen, Co-Founder @ Bonfire Ventures · Jun 24, 2021 · at 7:44
Mark Mullen, co-founder of Bonfire Ventures, reflects on his decision-making speed as a solo investor at Double M compared to his current partnership firm.
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“When I first met Walter Driver from Scopely or Jeff Green from the Trade Desk, I invested in the first meeting. I committed to them in that first meeting.”
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“I wish everybody would have to post their returns publicly every quarter. Competition. Let's see what everybody, let's see the hands people are playing. You know, this business is very opaque, right? You can be a VC and never have a return for like 10 years.”
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“And for the first time ever last March, I went negative cash and I went big into the market and big into crypto.”
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“What's interesting, what you're saying, though, is valuations have jumped, as we all know, and also the amount of capital the A firm is putting in. So where the A round three years ago should be six at 24, it's now 20 at 80, like you're saying.”
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“Yeah, and to be honest, like, we're not, in those situations we're talking about, we're not perhaps taking the entire prorata we have, ok? So, we are managing that capital.”
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“How does a company like Sequoia invest a six hundred million dollar seed fund? How do they write a two million dollar check, let's say in a seed round, and then actually give you the full Sequoia team behind? Maybe they do that. I'm not saying they don't. I'm …”