Invest with Jim Greer's Syndicate (original) (raw)

I’m an experienced technologist and entrepreneur - I was the founding CEO of Kongregate, which was successfully sold to GameStop after 4 years, generating a 7x return for seed investors. I left the company in 2013, but Kongregate has continued to grow and prosper, successfully transitioning from web to mobile as a leading publisher of free-to-play games.

My investing philosophy is not unusual - I look at the talent of the founders, and will admit a bias towards CEOs with a technical background, like mine. I also look at the product vision and whether it solves a burning pain for the potential customers. I’m less concerned with the size of the initial market, as I believe strong teams with a great product in a small market can often move into an adjacent larger one that they hadn’t considered (Airbnb, Zimride/Lyft, etc).

My typical check size is $50k.

I am investing both as an individual and as an "Open Angel," a program created by Bloomberg Beta, the early-stage venture fund.

Bloomberg Beta created the Open Angels program to deepen relationships with a handful of angels they trust. They will back every deal I syndicate at a fixed ratio with my personal investment. (In my case, Bloomberg Beta invests 1Xforevery1X for every 1Xforevery1 from me.) While a portion of each allocation I bring will therefore be reserved for Bloomberg Beta, they do not intend to be direct investors in my portfolio companies and I will manage the syndicate's relationship with companies. Bloomberg Beta's intent is to support people they trust as investors, and extend their fund to support many more companies, not to create direct deal flow for them.

Dealflow

I see companies primarily based on the relationships I’ve formed with founders in the 20 years I’ve been a technologist, game developers, and entrepreneur. I’m also shown deals by the investors in Kongregate, and other early stage VCs I’ve come to know.

I have made seven angel investments prior to setting up this syndicate, all seed stage. The standout companies so far are:

- Instart Logic, a leading application delivery company which has raised $140M from top VCs including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, and Kleiner Perkins

- Vium (formerly Mousera), which brings Silicon Valley innovation to preclinical drug research, and has raised $30M from firms including Data Collective, Founders Fund, and Lux Capital since its founding in 2013. I was fortunate to see Vium very early, was the first outside capital in, and put in seven times my usual check size based on the founders and the prototype product.

I will share all investments I make to selected investors from the syndicate, subject to founder approval. The amount available will be based on the allocation available.