AXIS Group Ventures’ Post

I raised my first fund when I was 27. Most people told me I would fail, but that didn't stop me. The 5 most important things I learned raising my first fund: 1. Perseverance is absolutely critical: When you're raising for a fund (or any business), you'll likely be told "no" WAY more than yes. This can be very discouraging. But those who win in this game are often the ones who just stick with it through ups and downs. Anyone I've ever met who has built a generational business has told me there were literally countless moments that tested their resolve and commitment. One of the major keys to success was (and will always be) just staying in th game. 2. Have a strong reason and thesis that your fund NEEDS to exist This sounds simple, but in my experience, it's shockingly overlooked. There are a lot of funds out there these days. I think many LP's would argue that there are actually too many funds out there these days. In a sea of new funds launching, it's more critical than ever to have a VERY strong thesis and reason for existing. We picked a lane that: - We had deep experience and connections in -Is massive & highly lucrative -Is very underserved by traditional venture/PE 3. Pick the right partner Building a fund is difficult and requires covering a lot of operational (and strategic) bases. It's also very hard and will test one's resolve and discipline. Having a partner(s) that compliment your skills (and personality) is critical. It also helps to genuinely like your partner and feel excited to go to battle with them every day. As simple as it sounds, you'll end up spending a ton of time with your partner when you launch a fund; make sure you pick the right one! (cc Jason Sherman) 4. TRULY understand what you're signing up for Launching and building a fund from scratch is VERY different than joining a fund. It's much closer to building a company than it is joining someone else's shop. It often takes much longer to make real money, there's much more operational/administrative work, and way more pressure. For many/most aspiring investors, joining another fund is probably by far the better path. Building your own fund is incredibly rewarding, and can of course be very lucrative, but it's a long journey and I can almost guarantee it will be harder than you expect (just like starting/doing anything worth doing). 5. Communication, Transparency, & Real Relationships are mission critical We focused (and continue to focus) on strong, consistent, and highly engaged relationships with our LP's. It's become a bedrock of how we think about our current and future strategy. Building Top Shelf Ventures has been a beautiful grind, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! I'm still early in this journey, but we've come a long way already. More importantly, I continue to learn more every day! I'll continue to share my key learnings along the way in the hopes that it's helpful for others out there!

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴. We had an incredible night at the UK Business Angels Association Awards, celebrating early-stage investing. Conduit Connect was honoured to be a finalist for Seed VC of the Year. Although we didn't win, being recognized in this category inspires us to continue driving impactful investments and supporting purpose-driven founders. The Conduit EIS Impact Fund has a clear mission: to drive capital to founders solving some of the greatest challenges facing people and planet while generating investor returns. The fund invests across four impact themes- Climate, Health, Education, and Inclusion. The Fund is focused on leveraging a combination of resources, including our partnership with The Conduit to enable the next generation of companies to achieve positive impact at scale from a broader set of mission aligned investors. Our objective is to build a diverse portfolio of scalable impact-driven companies, with the benefit of EIS tax reliefs. See our latest investment into Heatio, link in the comments. We are thrilled to share a few impact highlights achieved by our portfolio companies in the last 6 months: RideTandem | B Corp™ is now enabling £5m in wages p/m by using their smart bus service to help employees get to work Thalamos closed a deal with 6 London NHS trusts to support safer, quicker and more joined-up assessment and treatment of people detained under the Mental Health Act Zen Educate has facilitated the delivery of almost 2m hours of high-quality education to students whose regular teacher is absent in the last 12 months SOJO has extended the life of 1.8k garments and is partnering with Marks & Spencer to launch a clothing repair service Kamma has assessed 218,987 homes for climate & compliance risk and launched a pilot with Octopus Real Estate The Conduit EIS Impact Fund is currently open for investor subscriptions until its next close on 17th July 2024. Funds will be deployed into 8-10 EIS-qualifying Seed to Series A ventures over 12-18 months from subscription. The minimum subscription is £25,000. 👉 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱@𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁.𝗰𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗺, 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 #impactinvesting #eisimpactfund #venturecapital #vcfunding Investment in the Conduit EIS Impact Fund is restricted to Professional Clients, High Net-Worth Investors and Self-Certified Sophisticated Investors. Always take time when considering your investment decisions. Financial advice is recommended. A fuller summary of risks is available here https://lnkd.in/eWAtPWYG

100% agree with Jamie Finney's call to Just Start a Fund ...and I up the ante: Start a fund that includes, yes, all the local impact-oriented angels and anchor institutional investors but take it one important step further to include all aspiring citizen investors. I'm talking about the non-accredited (retail) folks, and there are plenty who have the means and desire to put their money where their homes and hearts are. Investment crowdfunding (Reg CF) opened the door for retail investors to engage with values-aligned companies. And -- for all the same reasons that Jamie points out in his post -- they will also become more effective and engaged if they can band together into a fund rather than taking on investments one-by-one. Granted, including retail investors adds complexity -- believe me, I know! A small but committed group of community capital champions has been tackling the barriers of investor exclusivity for years and I'm happy to say it is getting easier thanks to the work of Capital Innovation Lab, National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3), PathLight Law and Michael Shuman. And with community champions like Local Return in Rhode Island and WEPOWER in St. Louis leading the way to build true community wealth, we have more and more examples of how it can be done. #juststartafund https://lnkd.in/e_w7hFAf

As #funding dries up for diversity-focused #financialintermediaries like venture funds, CDFIs, and foundations — innovative strategies must emerge that shift reliance AWAY from wishy-washy institutions. Now is not the time to buy into the myth that being an even more perfect visionary — dotting all t’s and crossing all i’s — will merit financial favor towards greater inclusion. Nor is it the time to merely switch up language and legalese to quietly ride out this lull and hope the corporate money comes back later. It’s time to create #structural momentum around #people-#powered funding pipelines. I’m talking regenerative, easy-to-tap schemes that perpetually cycle our dollars where we want them to go. Hear me out. We aren’t hearing that top banks are experiencing funding shortages as DEI wars rage. Want to know why? Because their funding is coming from deposits — people powered deposits — that they cycle into investments. Households, ultra net worth individuals, CEOs of companies, small businesses, etc. It’s all in there. Want to know why #FawnWeaver was able to raise $230MM, achieve a $1.1Bn valuation, and own all her stuff? Because she worked with +170 individual investors who had largely clustered themselves into SPVs (special purpose vehicles). Up to 250 people can raise up to $10MM under a single SPV — and an individual with income exceeding $200k in the past 2 years can be an accredited investor! The rest of Fawn’s funding came from bank debt using her own real estate as collateral. People-powered. Want to know how #AvaDuVernay was able to raise $38MM on her own when Netflix told her they didn’t want to release Origin until after the 2024 presidential election? She rolled up to people who were typically backing museums + documentaries, asking them to invest in her movie! She also received money from players like Chris Paul, Kevin Love, and of Malcolm Brogdon who innately understood the significance of the film. Her independent route was people-powered. It is important that we scale alternative #systems around people-powered financing so that our people-centered momentum is not at the mercy of institutions. The best way to fight a system is WITH a system — as this work requires sustainable, durable strategy. Let’s scale people-powered funding schemes and sustain momentum that lives beyond us! #innovation #peoplepoweredmovement

See below from Transform Finance's newsletter

I lead a group of impact angel investors focused on backing regulated investment crowdfund offerings with small investments. We call it the Impact Cherub Club. This month, we'll be looking at four deals. We'll take a first look at Agua Bonita and Gryt Health, both of which are raising capital on Wefunder. We'll also take a deeper dive into two deals: an Ovanova project to install solar on a rural grocery store, raising on Climatize, and Halcium Energy, raising on Wefunder. The monthly dues are really expensive. We use the dues to screen out the riff-raff. 😉 The cost is $5.95 per month, less if you pay annually. Learn more here: http://s4g.biz/09oct24. #ImpactCrowdfunding #DiverseFounders #SocialEntrepreneurs #CommunityCapital #ImpactInvestors #RIC #InvestmentCrowdfunding #SuperCrowd

John Barker, MFAM's Chief Investment Officer, and Reeta Roy, the President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation, spoke with the The Globe and Mail's James Bradshaw yesterday.   John spoke about MFAM’s mission, how we’re on track to rapidly become one of the largest startups in the investment world, and the unique opportunity to build a global investment strategy in support of the Mastercard Foundation.   Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gDHrPd54

I was very disappointed when I read this post. It’s an example of a core problem with raising from VCs——bullsh*t criteria filters. It’s lazy and arrogant investing at its finest. 1- Passing because of a “signal”. This is just a weak excuse to not speak with a founder. If there is one thing I’ve learned as an investor, it’s that decks rarely tell the story well. With all the dynamics of early stage company building, relying solely on “minor flags” to pass is just a cheap excuse to not speak with someone. 2- Founder not “paying attention to detail”. Attention to the correct details is important. This type of “detail” is ridiculous. As an outsider, you have no idea what their document management is like. They may have updated the document that very day. You’re getting upset about naming conventions like it means that they can’t possibly build a billion dollar company. It doesn’t matter. 3- Being butt hurt when you realize you weren’t the top of their list. This one makes me laugh the most. What an arrogant stance to take. “Oh, I wasn’t your first call? Go jump off a cliff.” It doesn’t strike people like this that it may have taken months to network their way into the person that he knew so they would get an introduction so this investor would take it seriously? Note, “I was sent a fund deck the other day” means that it was a referral, presumably from someone they know and trust. 4- Fundraising must be tough because you’ve been in market for at least two months. Cut me a break. It’s hard for every company in this environment. Most of the best performing VC investments in history struggled to raise money in their first few rounds. And most of the company who raised huge amounts with no friction end up Hindenberging. This is so lazy and biased. These investors also tend to be logo investors—eg who else is committed to the raise. 5- Saving time by not taking the meeting. A VC cannot possibly take a call with every deck that comes across their desk. However, especially when it comes from a referral, and things sound “pretty good”, give it the benefit of the doubt. Especially when it’s so hard to tell a story to hundreds of investors who all have different expectations for “the perfect deck”. Your obligation to your fund LPs means you turn over every rock. Make the time. Pass it to an analyst to hear the full story. Don’t look for weak excuses like this to pass. If you’ve experienced at fundraising, I’m sure none of this is a surprise to you. Fundraising is extraordinarily difficult. If you’re new to venture fundraising, this is just one example in a sea of irrational behavior exuded by VCs and the analysts that filter deals for them. Buckle up. **Thanks to Alex Dunsdon for sharing this investor screenshot with his network first.

Thirteen percent of #venture #GPs don't plan to raise another fund as the #LP #pullback #spoils #fundraising efforts, according to PitchBook's latest #VCTechSurvey. That's #double the rate in H1 2023, when 6% said they had #noplans to raise another fund. Nearly half of #venturefirms — 44% of those surveyed in mid-2023 — had previously pushed back their plans to reenter the #fundraisingprocess. That has driven activity in the #secondaries #venturemarket as #GPs #scramble to show #returns. A quarter of #GPrespondents said that they were becoming “#moreactive” in the #secondariesmarket because of the #currentenvironment. A small cohort has already #packedup shop. #HardtechVCCountdown Capital #shuttered its #operations earlier this year, citing #marketconditions and #heightenedinvestordemand that have #pricedout #smaller #earlystagefirms. Others are #quietlyretreating from the #limelight. In 2023, approximately 38% of VCs #disappeared from #dealmaking, according to PitchBook data, translating to approximately 2,725 firms #activelymakingdeals. For those that have #managed to #raise #freshdrypowder, #investors are #optimistic about the 2023 and 2024 #vintages: GPs polled expect them to be the #strongestvintagereturn years going back to 2019. https://lnkd.in/gGBP_sRr

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