Mason Bleakley

Let's talk about Accelerators as VC Funds TIL ANZ has 69 active Accelerators, but only 4 invest: 👉 spreadsheet with all Accelerators in comments 1️⃣ Accelerator as a Business Firstly, Accelerators are shocking businesses. (Don't start one 😅) How do they pay the bills? There are 4 usual business models: 🏛️ Government - you get a grant for 2-3y, the grant stops, you have no revenue, you die 🧳 Corporate - corporate cares about you, until there's a leadership reshuffle, stops caring, you die 🧑‍🎓 Universities - similar to corporate, but more aligned with getting students into working world, usually grant rather than commercial funding 💰 VC - you run it as a VC fund, full alignment of LPs to the outcomes you and founders want to achieve BUT as you've learned in this series (post #5), management fees on SMALL funds are barely enough for a skeleton team So yeah, in short - bad, bad cashflow But ofc if you can make it work >> small funds = better VC returns (post #14) 2️⃣ Accelerators as VC Funds 🤯 there are 69 active Accelerators in Australia and NZ! BUT only 4 that actually invest money. 🔥 1/ UNSW Pretty epic deal at $100k SAFE note 15% discount Varies program by program though, so couldn't exactly find online if the deal still exists and for which program 👀 2/ Techstars Tagline: $180k for 5% + ~5% future equity Reality: [Tranche 1] $30k at $600k post (5%) >> $30k at $600k val 👀🤯 >> not entirely sure how that works, as it also triggers everyone else's MFN clause so you get extra diluted! [Tranche 2] $150k uncapped with MFN >> AU$150k So your startup is really valued at $600k. Note: converted from USD to AUD at $1.50. 😬 3/ Antler Tagline: $260k at $2.2m post-money (12%) Reality: $260k investment - but you don't see the money, because: $75k fee 😱 Effective investment: $185k for 12% which implies $1.5m valuation 😢 Even worse off are actually LPs, because only 😱 45 cents on every $1 invested goes to the founder = working capital 👉 you get charge mgmt fee + expenses (~25%) AND 👉 the investment to startups gets charged back via the fee to Antler (~30%) ❤️ 4/ Startmate ofc biased here, but no hooks nor surprises in our investment terms: Simple SAFE or equity (whatever you prefer) either: 1. $120k at $1.5m post-money (8%) or 2. we match your latest valuation if you have raised $250k previously Fun Fact: Startmate is the only investing Accelerator in NZ 🥝 👉 today's comment request if you liked the content: 🥝 ("kiwi") for the hidden gem and the love for Kiwi founders that Startmate backs ❤️ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ What is this? Day 16/30 - I'm posting one VC fund insight per day this month. I'm often wrong. What did I miss this time? 👉 cut my usual outro as I ran out of characters on this post 🥲

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When NinjaOne announced their $500M Series C at a $5B valuation, one point stood out from the press release: "NinjaOne has no debt and remains a founder-led and controlled business after the Series C extensions. Co-founders Sal Sferlazza and Chris Matarese remain the biggest equity holders in the company, have majority control of the Board of Directors, and hold a majority of the company's voting power." Sal Sferlazza knows exactly why that matters. When you're selling to enterprise customers, they ask one critical question: "Will this company keep innovating?" His answer: "So I think for good or for bad, our customers and our employees are stuck with me and Chris." We had Sal on Unicorn Builders to break down why founder control became their competitive advantage in a market with deeply entrenched competitors. We also cover: → Why enterprise buyers fear startups will pivot or get acquired mid-contract → How spending 25 hours/week on product as CEO signals long-term commitment → The accidental discovery that doubled their addressable market overnight → Why throttling growth built more trust than racing to scale → How consensus-based leadership creates better products than founder ego → Why homogeneous tech stacks beat "best of breed" acquisitions → The "spy network" management style that prevents product issues Full ep: https://lnkd.in/eN9QQAKt

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(6) Off-market Founders raising capital you need to know about 🤝 🥰 EQTY Lab Raising $500k. Developing the world's first Innovate To Earn currency called Metron 🤖 ChatESG.au Raising $600k. AI-driven platform breaks down the barriers, making it easy for businesses of all sizes to access expert ESG advice and strategies. 🚛 Quick Safety Raising $300k. Providing oversight, intelligence, and predictive solutions for all electrical work 🕐 Occamise Raising $250k. A single platform for building, deploying, and managing AI-powered solutions 🧑‍🏫 AmplifiU AI Raising $1m. AI collaborator designed to amplify K-12 teachers' capabilities and improve quality of learning Elysée Dubois and Bella App Raising $500k. The ultimate app for beauty, making it easier for people to find salons they can trust using social proof and personalised recommendations. ------------- 👀 If any founders would like to be featured in our weekly roundup just shoot me a DM Community VC profile links in the comments below for more info on their rounds. #startups #angelinvesting #community

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Backing only second-time Founders: Why Limit Your Odds? 🃏 I recently heard of an investor who only backs second time founders. Their thesis? Second-time founders have an edge - pattern recognition, a stronger network and clearer mistakes to avoid. Sure, they don’t know what they don’t know… but isn’t that where we, as investors, are supposed to ‘add value’ (as much as I hate this much-abused phrase)? Some of the biggest companies in the world were started by first-time founders: Airbnb, Stripe, Canva, Dropbox, Facebook…. If you only back repeat founders, I truly believe you’re triaging on the wrong metric and needlessly restricting the pool of potentially game-changing entrepreneurs. Backing repeat founders with big pedigrees at pre-seed is the lazy investor option; Less scrutiny, less hand-holding required and no awkward conversations with LPs if they flop. But some of my biggest investment wins have come from first-timers - because they don’t know what ‘can’t be done’, they just go ahead and do it anyway! Pre-seed investing is risky by nature. If you’re taking a risk, why not take it on someone who might actually change the game? 🧨🚀

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