It was almost exactly 19 months ago that I laid down the proverbial writer’s pen and picked up the less proverbial pen for writing checks. It has been an amazing experience getting a fund up and running, learning, and ultimately, making a lot of wonderful investments. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’ve decided to dive deeper by joining Google Ventures as a general partner.
Just as I took my time in deciding to switch careers a year-and-a-half ago, I’ve been talking with the Google Ventures team for a few months now. After getting to know the partners and hearing the vision for the fund laid out by managing partner Bill Maris, it became clear that this would ultimately be a perfect fit.
Google Ventures sits in a truly unique space within the venture capital industry. They have the resources to make investments at any stage, but more importantly, they have the talent and knowledge required to do so. The partnership is brimming with experience when it comes to starting companies, building products, and scaling.
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My buddy Jacob Mullins, a VC at Shasta Ventures, launched his own first (well, technically second) startup, Exitround. When I first heard the idea a few weeks back, I immediately knew it was a good one coming at perhaps the perfect time.
Series A funding isn’t exactly matching the massive upswing in seed funding in the past year-plus (the so-called “Series A Crunch” — which I would consider natural, and healthy). At the same time, there are a group of voracious would-be acquirers, buoyed by the rebounding economy, out there hungry for talent.
Hand, meet glove.
Quick Q&A I did about my new role with Dan Primack for CNNMoney.
I’ve been thinking about how I was going to write this post for a while now. Of course, I didn’t anticipate that I would be writing at 2 AM local time in London, where I’m currently visiting to speak at FOWA in a couple of days (that talk also just got potentially much more interesting).
Stuff happens. Fortunately, sometimes, so does jetlag.
Enough with burying the lede: yes, I’m becoming a VC. I couldn’t be happier to announce that I’m joining CrunchFund as a general partner. It’s my honor to join Mike and Pat in that role. And I thank them for the opportunity.
Before I say anything else, I should also make something clear: as Erick states in his post, while the timing of this announcement may seem a bit odd given the recent drama involving AOL and TechCrunch and well, CrunchFund, this move has been a long time in the making for me.
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