Venture by Design

Most established VC funds have evolved to a stage where they are managing extremely large funds and therefore can only invest in companies where they can put significant money to work. As a result the exits they seek need to be out-of-the-park successes and there is a dearth of “professional money” in the very early stages of a company. At the same time, the cost of doing a startup (in the web, software and services space) has declined and companies can be a lot more capital efficient.

K9 Ventures, by design, is a fund focused on concept-stage (sub $100k) and seed-stage (sub $1M) technology startups in the San Francisco Bay Area, which have the potential to be capital efficient and make successful acquisition exits.

Relationship Investing

Venture firms are a dime a dozen in the Bay Area. Money is a commodity. We believe that our real currencies are our reputation and our time. With that in mind we subscribe to the following core values:

Respect – for everyone, but especially for entrepreneurs
Honesty – no excuses, just straight feedback
Transparency – of process, so you know where you stand
Humility – because arrogance kills

Why “K9″?

Dogs have many different traits that can be useful at different times. They can be your best friend, be loyal, loving, aggressive, intelligent. Companies, especially startups, require different forms of support at different times of their lifecycle. If a dog is “Man’s best friend,” you can think of K9 Ventures as the “Startup’s best friend.”