Announcing Village Global: Venture Capital as a Network
We’re excited to publicly announce Village Global, a new early stage venture capital firm. This is Day 1 for us. There is much to do, and much to learn. We’ll be sharing more later this fall. Today, we wanted to share a few highlights about what makes Village different.
1) Industry Luminaries Supercharge the Network
It wasn’t long ago that people like Jeff Bezos, Diane Greene, Reid Hoffman, and Mark Zuckerberg were early stage founders themselves. When they were getting started, it was all hope and hustle. They remember.
These innovators haven’t lost their love of the startup game. In fact, they have a lot of wisdom to share about their entrepreneurial journeys, and insight to gain from interacting with the next generation of innovators.
These people — some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs — are financial backers of Village.
Each Village “luminary” shares a passion for entrepreneurship and the innovator’s journey. Each has committed time and energy to the Village network.
We think this creates some uniquely powerful learning opportunities for the founders and network leaders in our network.
To be sure, Village isn’t just about successful people imparting pearls of wisdom. It’s also about learning from one another in a community, and applying network intelligence to today’s biggest entrepreneurial opportunities.
It’s the advantage of a network.
2) Operating as a Network
Networks are known for speed and adaptability. These are good attributes for founders, and should be for their investors, too. Networks are in Village’s DNA — from how we invest, to how we support founders.
One of the unique ways we operate is that we entrust successful angel investors and inspirational founders with capital to invest on behalf of Village. These folks are often the first call for early stage entrepreneurs. Decentralizing some decision-making to these “go to” people means today’s founders can get fast fundraising decisions from folks they know and trust.
This networked model can discover hidden-gem entrepreneurs. Village network leaders — representing different backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, geographies, and sectors — have proximity to founders, including those who might go underestimated and who, like virtually all founders, could benefit from an extended network. We’re constructing a network to serve the brightest leaders of tomorrow no matter what they look like or where they’re from.
Pushing decision-making to the edges of networks identifies promising talent and technologies earlier, as they emerge.
3) What We Invest In and How We Help
We seek entrepreneurs who are using software & IT to transform global industries. This could be a health-tech company in New York, an agtech startup in Palo Alto, a fintech startup in London, or a cybersecurity company in Singapore. Broad, yes. Innovation is everywhere, and software is transforming every industry.
Rather than focus on a specific niche or theme, our network leaders support unbelievably persistent tech entrepreneurs and their passions for changing the world — wherever those passions lead them.
We invest early. We love being the first money in. Pre-seed and seed stage are our sweet spots; then, we’re here to follow-on and connect you with other investors as you grow.
With Village, you get connected capital: access to potential hires, customers, partners and follow-on investors. When it comes to reaching the right people at inflection points in your business, the Village network gives you an advantage. That’s how we strive to add value.
With gratitude and excitement,
The Village Global HQ Team
Ben, Anne, Ross, Erik, Adam
Drop us a line, follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn
