The Ledger
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Kumar: Early-stage startups should embrace remote teams
“And so now I, when I'm talking to companies that I would invest in, I'm totally comfortable with them having remote teams. And in fact, I advocate that they should have remote teams.”
Kumar: K9 Ventures refuses to invest using convertible notes
“And I walk away from deals all day long based on price and structure, so I also don't do convertible notes.”
Kumar: K9 Ventures will not raise valuations to chase competitive deals
“I have absolutely zero fear of missing out, and so if there's a company that is got multiple term sheets or offers even at the pre-seed stage and stuff like, I'm not going to be Chasing that deal and trying to move up in valuation in order to win that deal.”
Kumar caps K9 Ventures at three to four investments annually
“So if I'm only making three or four new investments in a year, it's an incredibly tight filter to begin with.”
Kumar details portfolio counts for K9 Ventures Funds I, II, and III
“Fund one had about 19 portfolio companies. Fund two had 14 portfolio companies, and I'm about a third of the way in fund three, where we have about six investments so far, and I still have several years to go before we'll go out to market for the next fund.”
Kumar: K9 LPs push for concentrated, high-ownership venture portfolios
“My LPs tend to prefer a concentrated portfolio, and so most of my LPs are kind of pushing me in the other direction, which is like, go ahead and take a, take as much ownership as you can in a company, do fewer companies, and if you win with fewer companies, yo…”
Kumar: K9 Ventures operates on a five-year fund cycle
“First my investment period is five years. So I only go out to market with a new fund every five years and not every two to three years.”
Kumar: Solo founder experience is critical for solo GPs trusting their gut
“And I think that experience of having been a solo founder is critical for me today being a solo GP, because I have to be comfortable in making a judgment call, effectively trusting my gut in a lot of cases.”
Kumar: K9 Ventures shuns sector strategies for radical tech and markets
“I actually don't use a sector strategy. For me, it's really about, like, give me radically new technology and radically new market, and then let's talk about it.”
Kumar: K9 Ventures is operating on a 30-year horizon
“I think when I got into it with a thirty-year timeline.”
Kumar: K9 Ventures initial check size is $400K to $600K
“My initial range used to be between 400 to 600 K as an initial investment. I would say I'm probably closer to the higher end of that range today than I was earlier, but I've still tried to keep it very stable and disciplined.”
Kumar: I spend most portfolio support time on follow-on financing
“And that's probably what I spend most of my time on with my existing portfolio companies.”
Kumar: K9 Ventures' first fund was $6.25 million
“So the first fund was about six and six and a quarter million which is super tiny as venture funds go.”
Kumar: K9 invests $400k-$500k initially and up to $4M per startup
“So my sweet spot is usually around 400 to 500,000 as an initial investment. But then I will go as high as about four million dollars into each company. So I do, I'll do 400 to 500,000 into the pre-seed. I might do 750 or a million into the seed, and then anoth…”