A Little Micro VC History ...

Way back in 2005, I started writing small personal checks (in Phoenix) into software startups. My first small angel check was into local Phoenix Company Golf Now followed up by Lifelock. Both turned out to be great products, companies and exits. I was inspired by Fred Wilson, Bred Feld and Jeff Clavier. They were writing about all things angel investing.

Jeff Clavier had a great blog called ‘Softtech VC‘ where he would write about angel investing and software. I could not believe how much I was learning about investing.

I got to meet Jeff in 2006 because I went to a web 2.0 show and did a presentation about GolfNow. Jeff came up to me after the presentation and asked if he could invest. He liked the business. The company was not raising money and ended up being acquired by Comcast in 2007.

I was so lucky to stumble upon the leaders/greats in my industry as I started out. I had no idea that we were at the very beginning of web 2.0 or that what I was doing was unique. I just felt like I was part of this community because the these guys were writing and sharing and showing up at pitch events. In 2006, Brad co-founded Techstars with David Cohen in Boulder and it just felt right to be in Boulder and invest in and alongside those first year groups of companies, including David’s first fund of $4 million. That $4 million fund made seed investments in Twilio, Sendgrid (Twilio acquired Sendgrid as public companies) and Uber.

Jeff’s firm is now 15 years old and renamed ‘Uncork Capital’ and he dives into the history of his firm in this post. On Micro VC’s:

Congratulations Jeff, a godfather of the industry/business I still find myself working in and loving.