Geoff Lewis is co-founder and managing partner of venture firm Bedrock. He discusses Bedrock's strategy of rejecting strict ownership targets in initial funding rounds.
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“For me, the companies where I've done the best, and wherever I look, you know, retrospectively to our bedrock track record, our pre-bedrock track record, the ownership percentages were actually quite low, and so you basically, for me, it's operating the world, what's worked For me, and what's worked for us at Bedrock, and in terms of cash in, cash out, the best deals have been the ownership percentages are quite low initially, and then you try to concentrate capital into the successive rounds as they were.”
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