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Nicholas Chirls

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28
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2015-09-14
most recent
2015-09-14
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1
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  1. “In the idea and really the purpose behind the company and the product. And so we're really excited about Zip Drug. They just launched. They're doing great. And I think they'll be much more exciting news to come from them soon.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “So I won't speak to the most recent investment because it's not quite an ounce. But yeah, our most recent public investment was in a company called Zip Drug. They are fundamentally rethinking how prescription drugs in New York and ultimately the United States are delivered. So Stu Libya is the CEO and one of three founders there. He previously built a company or was a co-founder at a company called SolveMedia in New York, incredibly smart, honest, motivated founder. And the purpose, you know, the reason to begin buildings of drugs was because he had a father or has a father that was quite sick and unable to go to the pharmacy to get his medication and thought that there was probably a better way to do this. And so we fell in love with students.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Sure, I love, I've been loving this blog called Wait But Why dot com It's been profiling recently Elon Musk and Tesla and I think they just the SpaceX post just came out and previously had a series on artificial intelligence that was mind-blowing. I forget the author's name. But it's quite wonderful.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “So that's a really hard question. I dread this question. I'll tell you the book that I'm currently reading is called My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. She's an Italian writer. And actually, it's her pen name, so actually no one knows who she is. It's about childhood friendship, and it's quite wonderful. I prefer reading fiction, reading for me as pleasure, as not work. So I try to read books and topics that take me far away from technology and venture capital. I don't, but I've thought about it.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Yeah, I mean, you know, we want to build a top tier firm in New York City that is the best place for highly technical founders in New York to go for a first check and to go for a first partner. And so we're taking a very long-term approach. This is our first fund of what hopefully will be many funds. And Alex and I are hopeful that we'll run notation capital for decades to come.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “So we have about 30 LPs. Half of those are, or I'd say in terms of dollar amounts, about half the fund is individuals, many of whom are founders and partners that are at other VC firms and folks that we've worked with in the community for a long time. And then half of the fund is institutional. And by institutional, I mean either fund of funds or companies or corporations.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yeah, so the LP universe is really in many ways hard to navigate because it's so opaque. Venture has become much more transparent. And so if you're a founder looking to raise venture capital, for the most part, you know where to go. As a first time VC navigating the LP world is still can be quite difficult. And so we met most of our LPs either through existing relationships that we had held for many years. We met many LPs through other VCs and through other founders. And so we kind of slowly pieced together the LP universe and found a way to navigate it. But it's very... Frag”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “So, yeah, good question. I mean, that's something we think about often, you know, the tension with a very small fund like ours is how much capital do you save for follow-on versus how large is the initial check in order to get meaningful ownership in the companies that we work with? And so for a number of different reasons, I'm actually in the process of writing a blog post about it for a number of different reasons we're focusing on having initially relatively high ownership in the companies that we work with, that's usually high single digit percentage. And our strategy is to find ways to follow on investments and pro rata outside of the fund, either through SBVs with RLPs or at some point we might raise a follow-on. Fund separately.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Yeah, so that's a good question. I do think that because there is so much capital available today, particularly, I would say particularly in San Francisco and the Valley, it is really hard to legitimately differentiate yourself as an investor. And so, you know, I think you see all the time, both venture firms pitching to LPs and venture firms pitching to founders, that they are fundamentally different in some way. And I think the reality is that that's rarely the case. One is working in New York City at the stage that we are. And so our view is that there are very few really top Firms and investors that are comfortable investing at what we call the precede stage in New York City. And so for us, I think it's much more easier to differentiate from a lot of the noise in the market at that stage.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “So I don't go to those things anymore. And so our approach in terms of meeting founders is we basically have an open door. Anybody can email us at any time. I'm Nick at NotationCapital.com. We respond to basically every single email we get sent. And when it makes sense to really spend the time, we do that. We do that in person. And we're not making decisions from an audience while a founder picks us on a stage for a minute.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Yeah, so the stage at which we're investing, I think, is in many ways similar to the stage that many of the accelerators work with companies. Our approach is as much less formulaic. So we don't have demo day stages and we don't have batches. And we are a venture firm and we'll grow up as a venture firm. Personally, I don't go to demo days. I'm just kind of burnt out by them. I think it's actually kind of a shitty way to get to know a founder is to listen to them pitch on a stage amongst hundreds of other faceless investors for 60 seconds. Fair enough.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Whenever it makes sense, we don't require time spent from our founders for the folks that just want to focus and be heads down and build. We let them do that. But for the folks that need help in key areas, and I'd say we spend a lot of time around technical team building and recruiting, we spend a lot of time around building out the initial version of the product and product architecture. And then we spend a lot of time around capital raising stuff. And so I find that those conversations, interactions, and relationships are just that much stronger when we can work in person.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Again, I think it totally depends on the investor and the model and the stage. So, you know, I think if you're a pre-IPO growth investor, for the most part, you are a purely financial investor. And so I don't think it's nearly as critical to be close to the founders that you're working with. I think as you get early and earlier in the stack, I do think it's more important to be able to meet with and interact with on a somewhat regular basis in person. And so what we do, our approach is, you know, we have an office in Brooklyn. Some of our founders are welcome to work there with us if they so choose. And we're available on call and in person.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “We think we'll provide a lot of value to them and then a lot of value to us as we build the firm over the course of the next years and decades.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Yeah, so yeah, so at least today we're in New York, very much in New York City focused fund. So every single one of our companies that we work with will be primarily based in New York. We've actually just kind of settled on that recently. So up until the last couple months, we were trying to work through whether or not there might be opportunities to work with founders to founders out West, and particularly those founders that we may have worked with in the past. Where we came out is that ultimately one of the things that we're building out in this first fund is a network of fantastic people that might help one another as much as we might hopefully work with the founders directly. And so having that network of founders all based locally here in New York City.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yeah, I mean, I think valuations are all over the map and it depends on who you ask and at what stage and in what location I think that what we've seen in terms of seed and pre-seed and even series A in New York is much more practical evaluations. I mean, I don't think it's super crazy here in New York, certainly out in the valley I think you're seeing much more inflated relative valuations. And so look, I mean, the reality is that as a small fund, we are somewhat more valuation sensitive than some of our peers. And the reality is that hasn't really been a major hurdle in terms of us trying to come to terms with With founders that we want to partner with.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “And I'd also say there's an assumption that the best founders are one repeat founders, which I don't think is the case. I think if you look at some of the biggest, most important companies over the last 10 years, they're first-time founders, including Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. So I don't think Rebeat founders are always the best founders. And then number two, it assumes that repeat founders or serial entrepreneurs that can raise these very large initial rounds of funding will always choose to raise as much money as they can. And what we've seen even six or seven months in is actually quite a few repeat founders say, you know, the reality is that I don't need millions of dollars to prove out this initial experiment. And in many ways, it makes sense to To raise much less to figure that out.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Yeah, so that's a really good question. I mean, certainly we get asked that by our LPs all the time. You know, the question really is, Is there some sort of are we going to basically lose out on the best founders by investing in these relatively small rounds early on? And six to 12 months ago, I would have said, you know, I'm not sure. Today, having been running the fund for about six months now, and we've made eight investments now, I don't think that's the case at all. So I think that we can still work with really top-notch founders that are disciplined around the amount of money that they raise early on.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Yeah, I mean, so this is somewhat cliche at this point, but to us, the team and the people are everything. So we look for really top-notch, typically technical teams that are in the very early stages of building a product. And then number two is we really look for a reason or some sort of unique insight into why that team is building what they're building. And so we are happy to invest as early as something that is pre-launch or even in some cases pre-product, what we look for is a really fantastic, motivated technical team that has a real reason or unique insight into why they're doing what they're doing.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “So, what that means is that we write on average $150,000 checks into what we consider precede round. So that is typically rounds of 500K or less. And so our belief is that in the very early days of building a product in a company, you don't need millions of dollars to show real traction and to build out a great team and to show the early signs of product market fit and that until you are at a place that you believe is really some semblance of product market fit that you actually should not raise millions of dollars. And so we believe that the discipline that comes along with raising relatively smaller rounds of initial financing is really important for founders and companies. And so we highly prefer rounds of call it 500 care less of which we're typically act as effectively the institutional lead.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Consider that true seed. And so, what that's allowed for, I believe, is an opportunity for new folks like Alex and myself to build a firm that's working with this new generation of founders at the very infancy of an idea.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Billion plus dollar outcomes in New York and that my partner and I having grown up in the community here in many ways have a really good opportunity to partner with those new founders and be the first to fund them. And then number three is many of the best VCs in New York have moved up the stack. And what that means is they've raised dramatically larger funds in the last few years. Folks like Thrive Capital and Lira Ventures and First Ground and folks that you might consider as traditional seed investors here in New York, the reality is that what they're doing, I wouldn't really consider seed anymore. I mean Thrive is an extreme example they're growth investors now but absolutely but even layer of first ground you know the reality is that they're writing million dollar checks into two to three million dollar rounds and and I wouldn't really”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “and a bunch of others, a bunch of e-commerce companies as well. So one New York can produce billion plus dollar outcomes. Number two is that New York now has a critical mass of talent in many ways for the first time. So real engineering and design talent that in many ways has grown up in those companies. And we believe”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Sure, yeah. So I left BetaWorks about a year ago to start notation capital, which is a venture firm based in Brooklyn, New York with another partner. His name is Alex Lines. He's the chief architect of Betaworks and a close friend, and in many ways we've been planning for notation for quite some time. The notation thesis is quite simple, and the reason that we started the firm was really for a few different reasons. Number one, New York, we believe, has now shown that a consistently can produce billion plus dollar exits. And so that's companies like Etsy and Mongo and Tumblr and”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Wow, that's a great question. So I'd say I've been very lucky to find Find venture mentors that I view as really some of the best VCs, certainly in New York and maybe across the country. And these folks were not just mentors in the sense that they helped me learn the business, but actually they helped us raise notations first fund in many ways. And so Andy Weissman has been a mentor to us, who's a partner at Union Square Ventures. And then I'd say there's a group of younger VCs that have done really well in New York recently that we look to as kind of newer folks in the business of folks like Chris Paige and some of the folks at Collaborative Fund. I think it's important to surround yourself with people that you both look up to and view as peers that have both been in the veteran industry for a really long time and for folks that may be a fund or two ahead of you.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “You know, I think number one by doing, so I think you start out billing like a fraud and in some ways you are the first few months of running an investment business there, I was constantly terrified of screwing everything up and being found out. And so really I learned from surrounding myself with folks that had been making and doing investments and had been working a venture for a lot longer than I have. And so certainly that included John Borthwick, who was the CEO of BetaWorks, and I found a couple really, really wonderful mentors. Outside of BetaWorks as well that I view as mentors today that have been doing a lot longer. I learned the business from them in many ways. I think venture in general, I think, very much an apprentice type business. And so you learn from folks that have been doing a lot longer than you have.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “I think I'd recommend to most people when you're fascinated with a company or a product, worry less about the role and just find a way to become part of it. And so I joined in 2011. I had a couple different roles there as most folks do. I spent the bulk of my time running the seed investing business, and that was mainly because a couple folks that had been doing it actually at the company left. And so with really knowing very little about the investment business and about venture was thrown into the deep end. And so that's really where I learned the basics.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “In many ways, I think, like many BCs, I stumbled into a role in venture. I think because it's in many ways a boutique industry, the reality is that it's hard to plan for in many ways. And so And so I've been building and investing in startups here in New York since 2008. I started my first company in 2008 and 2008 and initially kind of built a skill set around operating and product building. I had been, I think, like many folks have been fascinated with the BetaWorks model and the ability to both build and invest in startups out of one corporate entity. And so I joined BetaWorks in 2011. The role there was in many ways was nebulous.”

    2015-09-14 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source