Thanks to David Bogoslaw for covering our new partnership in today’s Venture Capital Journal.
I’m pleased to announce a strategic partnership between Coolwater Capital and Versatile VC. Coolwater is an investor in VC funds and runs an accelerator for emerging VC fund managers. Coolwater has built an investment community of 300+ founder VCs and over 5,000 technology companies. Versatile VC is the first VC focused on backing “investment tech” companies which help investors generate alpha and grow. As part of the partnership, I am joining Coolwater as a part-time Venture Partner.
We will track our success through six joint goals:
- Increase awareness of the opportunity to stake venture capital funds’ management companies. A number of major firms have been systematically staking emerging managers in private equity, hedge funds, and real estate for decades. However, Coolwater is one of the few firms taking this model and applying it in venture capital. This is particularly high-potential because emerging VC managers have historically outperformed established VC managers.
- Increase awareness of the opportunity in backing “investment tech” companies, i.e., companies which help investors generate alpha and grow. For example, I’m an investor (via my current and prior funds) in alternative data (Earnest Analytics, Drop Technologies), investment research (Xperiti, Wonder), administrative tools (Addepar), lending tech (Asaak), alternatives marketplaces (Republic), crowdfunding (Indiegogo), and risk tech (Stratifi).
- Source the next generation of top-decile emerging managers. Coolwater is effectively a curated investment basket of the next generation of elite VCs that provides LPs with differentiated exposure to early-stage VC. I run a leading blog for emerging investment managers at Teten.com. I also run FoundersNextMove.com, a community of tech founders in transition, many of which are active angels who are evolving to become emerging managers.
- Accelerate Coolwater community funds. I am a serial builder of institutional investors in innovative tech companies, formerly serving as Partner, ff Venture Capital; Managing Partner, HOF Capital; and Founder & Chair, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York. Coolwater will tap my domain expertise and investor relationships to expand its already rich resources for portfolio GPs.
- Expand Coolwater’s direct investments, particularly in “investment tech” companies. Coolwater has an enormous opportunity to expand its activities investing directly into companies, not just into VC funds, given its deep ties with the emerging venture capital manager community. In particular, Coolwater can tap its proprietary dataset to source unique insights on alpha generation. Coolwater can immediately enhance any investment tech company’s revenue prospects, by encouraging their portfolio GPs to trial a given company.
- Generate “operational alpha”. Investment alpha always is uncertain, but operational alpha is predictable. Coolwater has a vested interest in making sure that both Coolwater itself and all of the over 185 funds it has graduated to date are leveraging their internal technology and analytics stack to maximize alpha. Versatile VC will tap its unique expertise and the PEVCtech community to help topgrade Coolwater and its community’s operations and analytics.
I met Winter Mead, Founder of Coolwater, in June 2012, and love his holistic vision for supporting emerging managers. I’m very fortunate to partner with the leading accelerator for emerging VC funds. Our partnership with Coolwater Capital represents a significant step forward in our mission to back companies that drive alpha generation and growth.
About Coolwater Capital:
Coolwater Capital is the “Y Combinator for emerging VCs”. We run an accelerator for emerging VC fund managers and invest into this early-stage science and technology ecosystem. We have incubated and helped launch >200 funds which have collectively raised >$2b. We are the highest rated accelerator for fund managers, with a Net Promoter Score of 83. We are backed by over two dozen early-stage VC investors, active VC LPs, and tech industry executives.
Coolwater’s founder, Winter Mead, previously helped build and invest an evergreen fund at SAP and Hall Capital Partners, both VC fund of funds. He served as junior faculty at Stanford GSB and holds degrees from Oxford and Harvard. He is author of How To Raise A Venture Capital Fund and How To Set Up A Venture Capital Fund.
About Versatile VC:
Versatile VC backs early-stage companies which help investors generate alpha and grow. Versatile VC manages PEVCtech, a community for family offices, private equity funds, and VCs focused on using technology and analytics to make better investments in private companies. Versatile VC also manage Founders’ Next Move, a community for founders researching their next move.
Versatile’s founder, David Teten, was previously a Managing Partner with HOF Capital and Partner with ff Venture Capital. At both of his prior VC funds, the firms grew both AUM and their LP base >10x during his tenure, based on strong returns. He is also Founder and former Chair of HBS Alumni Angels of NY, now the largest angel group on the East Coast, and a serial fintech entrepreneur with two exits. He holds a Harvard MBA and Yale BA.
