Our Model
In 2009, our team helped create the venture studio model. We believe that taking an active role in co-building our portfolio companies – far beyond simple funding – is crucial at any stage. Many venture firms speak of having a studio or value-added services, but to truly deliver the rarest form of venture capital – consistent support to all portfolio companies – requires the right structure. We apply these three key elements in our studio model and our later-stage investments:
Daily Active Engagement with Founders
Daily Active Engagement with Founders
H/L Ventures’ involvement with our portfolio companies is as hands-on and supportive as possible throughout the entrepreneurship journey. We hold ourselves to a standard of nearly daily contact with every company in our portfolio. This is not the empty promise of a website value-added page, but the core of our investment thesis. We host weekly calls with our senior portfolio team and each team of founders, which leads to daily activities involving our staff, Venture Partners, advisors, and network of service providers. All of this is in a supportive mode, meant to ensure that whatever needs our portfolio companies have, we remain actively relevant and helpful, every day.
A Powerful Ecosystem
H/L Ventures responds effectively and proactively to our portfolio companies via a powerful team and community. Organized in a hub and spoke model around our core portfolio staff, four key communities help us co-build companies: Venture Partners, Advisors, Member Partners, and our affiliated Partner Network. Our team is shared across all our vehicles, from the H/L Ventures studio to our later-stage CityRock funds.
Our Organization
Access to capital
We provide many different forms of capital to our portfolio companies over time, from inception to exit. We provide human capital, social capital, networks, experience, time, and financial resources to our portfolio companies. We also actively leverage our extensive networks of co-investors to assist fundraising efforts. In later stages, companies from within our studio and outside are eligible for consideration by our CityRock growth funds, which invest in Series A and later and continue to benefit from the full access to our venture studio resources.
Our Investment Thesis
H/L Ventures stands for a different investment thesis across all our vehicles; one that prizes our relevance and role as well as the key characteristics of prospective companies and founders. This is how we approach partnership and investing, from our venture studio to our later-stage funds.
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Potential
We seek companies that show potential for high growth. We look for a uniquely qualified team and an innovative product that solves a large market need. We seek founders who are brilliant, team-oriented, responsive, resource magnetic (we can explain!), and open to collaboration with our team.
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Stage
H/L Ventures works with companies from co-founding onward, using different vehicles. At our H/L studio, we start early, ranging from co-founding to just before a Series A. For companies at Series A and later, the opportunity goes to our CityRock funds, which invest in both our studio companies as they grow and new companies that we meet at a later stage. Regardless of entry point, we provide holistic, relevant support through every stage of growth.
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Impact
We look for companies that have a positive impact on the world either through the mission of the company or diversity of the founding team – often both.
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Industry
We are industry agnostic. Our large ecosystem and team allow us to be relevant across sectors.
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Relevance
We seek companies for which our hands-on co-building model will be highly impactful. A vital part of our due diligence process involves us working to ascertain if our networks, expertise, and skills are relevant to the success of the company. This is as true of our early stage studio companies as it is of the later stage companies in our portfolio.
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Outcomes
For our venture studio, success does not have to mean a classic venture M&A or IPO exit. Companies who work with us can achieve long-term cash flows from a profitable operating company. Our measure of success at the studio is not tied solely to the pressure of a venture style exit.
High Impact / High Returns
We strongly believe that impact makes good business. We believe both sustainable businesses and diverse founding teams do better — in protecting and promoting people and the planet, as well as in making money. We also believe in protecting and promoting people and the planet, and that sustainable business and diverse founding teams build stronger companies.
| Protecting | Promoting | |
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Two Way Diligence
Each year, we screen hundreds of early stage companies to bring on a select few portfolio company partners. We recognize, also, that any founder will be equally selective about partnering with us: we celebrate this process of finding a mutual match. To determine if a company is a good fit for H/L Ventures (both at the studio or later-stage entry points) we evaluate on these key areas:
