1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra:  What is your current strategy going forward? Humanity has never changed in such space as you pointed out earlier. As we are seeing everywhere in all dimensions of life, this has been a real change enforcer. How do you parse that and what is your investment thesis going forward? What are you looking to invest in and what would be the strategy?

Jon Staenberg: I was extremely active during the last year personally as an angel. I also have changed my own personal strategy around a few ways to invest. What do I mean by that? I have said this for a while now. At the highest level, it used to be the case that technology was rolling out in a serial linear fashion.

That is no longer the case. We are at an interesting inflection point. It is so big that every industry is being impacted. It is not being impacted by one technology but by a variety of technologies. If you go back and look at the transition to personal computers or the transition to networks or the transition to the internet, this was a serial rollout – one technology beating it.

Now, there are multiple industries transitioning. I don’t care if it is healthcare, education, FinTech, travel, or anything else. It is all being transformed. It is simply impossible as an investor to be able to on top of each one of those. I believe that crypto and blockchain are fundamentally hugely important technologies and I need to be exposed to them from an investor standpoint.

Instead of saying that I am going to bet on this horse or that horse, I went out and found the best blockchain fund to allow me the best exposure. I have actually become a venture partner with them. We are in 15 funds globally. That is the other point. You have to be global now. It is no longer limited to one area. It’s global thinking. It is across the country as well.

All the blockchain co-investors have exposure to 300 different startups. I could not possibly know how to pick by myself. Previously, I would have tried to figure it out and focus just on that but it is such a fundamental technology. You are missing out on something important by not having exposure. That is one example. I will give you another example.

I am a venture partner with a global venture fund called Rocketship.vc. Their approach is unique. I think everybody will take on this approach in some form going forward. They are data scientists from Stanford. They are using algorithms combing through huge amounts of data and looking for patterns to find startups around the world to invest in. They are getting to look at the world in a different and faster way.

The approach has been interesting. It appears that they are going to be in the top 5% of all their funds. That is my way to get exposure to things that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Yes, I still invest in startups as an angel investor, mostly in Seattle and in the Bay area. I have never seen so many startups. I must be getting five new opportunities a day online. It is fascinating to me. I can’t possibly do the work and make a decision around that.

That is my strategy – working with people that I know or having a group of people that I know is important to me. I have the luxury, having done this for 30 years, to focus on things that I like. If I like the people, if it’s an interesting category based on my own personal interest, and if it is doing something good in the world, I go for that. 

This segment is part 2 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners
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