Good morning 👋
I’ve seen a lot of interesting fund theses over the past few years, and I have a pretty high bar for what I deem as “cool” now.
But the new Creator Fund from Slow is cool.
It aligns with my view of the world of where the world is heading, and I wanted to recap it for those of you who missed it last week.
Today’s highlights
What to make of the Slow Creator Fund
Don’t be a career
Data on founder ownership at VC-backed companies
Turo scraps plan to go public
TOP
Creators are the next great entrepreneurs ➡️
ICYMI: Last week, Slow Ventures announced its Creator Fund.
We like love this idea.
Every company is now competing on distribution, and creators have that.
Savvy creators have built massive businesses on top of their existing trust and authority within their community, and this has translated to lower CAC, higher LTV, and a flywheel that other businesses can’t compete with.
This has rewritten the rules of business, and now distribution precedes product, and as an investor (especially at the earliest stages), your job is to find things before they become obvious.
That’s what Slow has built with this new fund.
Here’s how it works in more detail:
They invest between $1m - $3m into the creator’s holding company.
In exchange, they receive an equity stake (usually ~10%) and the right to follow on with capital into ventures that decide to pursue additional financing
They invest holistically. We don’t invest in the creator’s specific projects or companies. We want to be maximally aligned with the creator in all that they do for their community.
They are passive investors. They don’t take board seats, they don’t direct how to run the company, there are no creative milestones or deliverables. This is the creator's venture and they are here to support.
Sounds pretty sweet, and I can’t wait to see what it becomes.
Read more:
GP / LP Mastermind
The “anti-conference” for fund managers 🌴
We don’t like conferences, so we created our own version that we would actually look forward to going to.
Small group of 6-10 LPs, GPs, and partners
Golf and padel
Boat charter
Private dinners
No outside sponsors
We only have space for 6-10, and applications close in under a month.
If you’re interested, we’d recommend letting us know sooner rather than later …
TWEET
HEADLINES
Car-rental marketplace Turo scraps plans to go public (Pitchbook)
Aging buyout portfolios reach decade high at 3.4-year hold period (Pitchbook)
Marc Andreessen dreams of making a16z a lasting company, beyond partnerships (TechCrunch)
Founders Fund is about to close another $3B fund (TechCrunch)
MEMOS
Chima: Interoperability for AI agents
Superpower: The all-in-one health membership for elite performers
Documenso: The DocuSign killer
LINKS
🧐 The Definitive Study on Founder Ownership in VC-Backed Companies: Peter Walker highlights the report from Carta that analyzed data from more than 45,000 startups incorporated from 2015 to 2024
🆇 The Evolution of X: Contrary Research outlines how “the worst buyout for banks since the financial crisis” is slowly but surely moving its way toward success
🏪 Why Ultra-Successful Products Disappear Daily: A new wave of products are proving the old playbook of “make your product available 24/7” isn’t always the best strategy
＞ How “Venture Capital 3.0” Impacts Founders in the AI Age: Nfx lists 7 things for founders to know about how VC has changed and how those changes will impact them
＄ How Do VCs Evaluate Whether a New Technology Can Be Commercialized?: Russ Wilcox, partner at Pillar VC, lays out the questions to ask and answer
MEME
BOARDROOM
Get a FREE audit of your business 🆓
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Ignoring platforms or not learning how different algorithms work that results in not getting enough attention
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And a thousand others
But after making tweaks for 5+ years, you start to learn what works and what doesn’t.
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POLL
What do you think about the Creator Fund model?
Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.
Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.
- Clay
RESULTS
Here are the results from our poll question in yesterday’s piece:
What percentage of people you work with are Level 5 employees?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 None - I work with idiots
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 A few - but we don't have enough
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Most of my team are killers
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Just show results
