1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Julie Lein, Managing Partner at Urban Innovation Fund (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do some case studies of companies that you’ve invested in that you’re passionate about everything. As you talk through them, talk about what they’re doing. Also, talk about at what stage and in what condition you encountered this company. What was it about that situation that made you write your check?

Julie Lein: One example I can give is our first investment out of our current fund in December 2019. The company is called Electriphi. They are a software solution to manage the transition for fleet owners to electric vehicles. This is an area that we’ve been passionate about for a long time. We deeply believe that the electrification of vehicles is coming.

Best of Bootstrapping: Seed Investors Who Like Bootstrapped Startups

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

I would like to encourage bootstrapping entrepreneurs to start thinking about certain investors as bootstrapping partners. These investors, typically, LIKE capital efficient businesses.

They do not want to force feed capital into companies, unlike certain larger funds.

Their fund sizes are small, and they are set up to make money off smaller exits. [Re: Bootstrapping to Exit]

Please listen to a few conversations to get a feel for the point of view. There are many more on the Seed Capital series on our blog. You can also listen to the 1Mby1M Podcasts for more.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Julie Lein, Managing Partner at Urban Innovation Fund (Part 2)

Julie Lein: What we want to see is execution. You may not have a full-fledged product yet. You may not have everything figured out, but you’re doing things to attract attention. You’re doing things to move the customer feedback forward. That’s what we get impressed about at pre-seed. The definition has changed.

It’s typically that first round of funding, typically, less than two million. In our order of criteria, one is the team and the ability to execute. Two is, we do look at the market. We want markets where you can have a pathway to having a billion-dollar type of exit and beyond.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Julie Lein, Managing Partner at Urban Innovation Fund (Part 1)

Julie Lein, Managing Partner at Urban Innovation Fund, discusses pre-seed and seed funding in companies focused on the betterment of cities.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get you and Urban Innovation Fund introduced to our audience.

Julie Lein: I’m the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Urban Innovation Fund. We are a venture capital firm that invests in startups shaping the future of cities. We invest across a variety of verticals. These are what you might consider more traditional smart city sectors like transportation, energy, PropTech.

573rd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Steve Eskenazi, Angel Investor

Steve Eskenazi is an Angel Investor, and we had a number of interesting trend conversations.

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573rd Roundtable Recording with Steve Eskenazi, Angel Investor

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

Roundtable Recap: Startup Trends Discussion with Steve Eskenazi

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Angel investor Steve Eskenazi. We had a number of interesting trend conversations.

iBay

As for entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Pradheep from Singapore pitching iBay. The company has significant traction.

Capriquota

Next we had Olabode Qudus from Ogun, Nigeria, pitch Capriquota, a concept stage venture with a little bit of validation.

BEI.RE

Then we had Ranga Krishnan from San Jose, California, pitch BEI.RE, a prop tech venture that also has some degree of validation.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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572nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Andrus Oks, Tera Ventures

Andrus Oks is Founding Partner at Tera Ventures, based in Estonia. We have a great discussion on entrepreneurship in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries in particular.

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