Investment Thesis
VentureForge focuses on finding, developing, and funding startup ideas and Founding teams that align with our investment thesis. A real problem is solved
The market is larger than $1 billion
The Founding team must consist of 2 or more core members
Pre-Seed capital requirements are less than $25,000
The most probable liquidity event post-Series A is an acquisition by another comp
any
Seed to Series A Framework
We execute our investment thesis by embedding with our Startups as Officers and interim “C” level employees within the startup. Our “Seed to Series A” framework encompasses 5 phases:
Phase 1: You contact us by submitting a statement of the problem you’re solving for, the value proposition that comes from your solution, and a framework for how you’ll deliver the solution and eventually exit. We’ve made it easy for you by creating a portal on our website. Though we’d like to work with every founder, we simply can’t. We use an internal framework for concept validation to evaluate if your idea is plausible. We will tell you within three days if we see a fit between you and VentureForge. Phase 2: From here we talk with you, mostly via phone and web, to collect the information required to complete an internal due diligence process. On the initial phone call, you should be prepared to tell us about your business from a set of questions we’ll customize to your industry. Some of our questions will apply to any business concept such as the following: What do you do? Who’s on the management team? What’s the market like? Who’s the competition and why will you crush them? How much money will it take to accomplish that? Who should buy your offering and when? Other questions will be more specific such as the following: Who are the primary stakeholders (customers, suppliers, competitors, government entities, NGOs, etc.)? What are your key assumptions? Why are these assumptions valid? How can you test your assumptions? Who are your competitors and what are their weaknesses? How will you beat them in the market? Our investment thesis is “agnostic” in that we’ll entertain any good business idea from those that are capital intensive to those requiring almost no capital. If your concept matches our capabilities then an in-person meeting and conversation will occur. This would be with the CEO of your firm and followed by us meeting your entire leadership team. At this meeting we’d expect you to give us your “investor pitch” in 10 minutes. Next we’ll want to do a deeper dive into the concept and begin to assess why the idea won’t work. This approach forces you and us to look at the concept as a competitor would, or an entity that wants you to fail. Taking this negative view will force new assumptions and insights. Phase 3: If we conclude your concept is plausible, our next objective is to evaluate if your idea is possible, probable, and profitable. The result is a term sheet. We will tell you within two weeks. With a term sheet signed, we work as a core team member to lead an even deeper due diligence process leading to a business plan, investor pitch, and reasons for an investor “to believe.”
Phase 4: This is where the value begins to be forged. Using a structured approach, we’ll work to outline your business plan while identifying the data required for defining your value proposition and creating compelling, quantitative financials. Our objective is to help very early stage businesses deal with the “fuzzy front end” of the venture when developing your team, your strategy, and communicating with investors. One of our core skills is quantifying the many unknowns common with these kinds of concepts. Once compelling quantitative financials are created to support your value proposition, the focus becomes creating pitch decks, investor presentations, business plans, and pitch training. We will also help create a powerful advisory board, general corporate governance rules, and an overall intellectual property strategy. Using our network of investors, the objective of Phase 4 is to acquire seed funding that will provide capital for proof of concept and operations. The amount of time required to complete this phase varies due to many variables, and can be 2-6 months. Phase 5: Once the investment is made, the real fun (and work) begins. We will work with you to build your business, providing assistance on matters such as board and management team recruiting, business model and strategy refinement, and (hopefully) exit planning. Our objective is that your business grows per your plan, is capitalized via further funding rounds as needed, and focused on an exit via strategic acquisition.
