Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. This week, we've got a show like no other. Thats why he created a device that turns smartphones into satellite communication hubs. I just dont think I was meant to be a product manager, he said. In fact, he says that his startup Vetd has made it so easy that he cant keep up with the , Orion Brown is very early in her journey as an entrepreneur. Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Today's investors are Nicole Verki Max Tuchman is on a roll with Caribu, an app that lets parents and kids read together virtually. In this role, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces. After a year of contemplating the idea, Hudson decided to take the plunge. StanfordNVCA Venture Capital Symposium 2020, Acceleprise SF - Cohort 11 Pitch Competition. However, he found himself spending time looking at investment deals with Jeff Clavier, the Managing Partner at Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC). That tends to be a qualitative conversation and for most of the marketplaces we have backed, they dont have any transactional volume when we meet them, but they understand the current situation and have a plan to improve it. If we do not have the same view about where the value is being created, then I will probably pass. Crunchbase Spotlight is a series that celebrates diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship, venture capital, and tech by profiling people of color, women, and individuals who identify as LGBTQ. Hudson and a friend decided to start their own Android gaming company. Karabo Morule is the founder of Capital Art, which is an art fintech and the first art collection management service that is focused on collectors of modern and contemporary African art. For me, the big question is how much friction is there in that offline version. Charles Hudson, founder and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, is one of the first investors to dig into this space.In this event, another pre-seed investor (Elizabeth Yin from Hustle Fund) interviews Charles to learn about:- how he found himself in this space- how he evaluates early-stage startups- how founders at this stage should think about traction- how founders in other markets should think about fundraisingAnd so much more.This was a fabulous conversation, and one EVERY founder should take notes on. While the spree of funds on Election Day was noteworthy, it was somewhat expected. But its a moonshot and , Ryan Lee says he has a better way to buy plants, on his website, Rooted. Prior to Serious Business, he was the Sr. Director for Business Development at Gaia Interactive, an online hangout and virtual world for teens. Meet some of the founders we back: Portfolio. Until a w Back in May we asked entrepreneurs to call in and give us their best pitches. And when investors see similarities between his startup, Hyde Closet, and a billion dollar business known as Rent the Runway, they start dreaming of unicorns. Because if a super early-stage company manages to survive the COVID-19 era, making it out the other end, its not clear that theyll be venture-ready when markets recover. My thinking on this as an investor has changed a lot. Range: $250K - $500K. How. Europe, Menlo Park, China), Where the person is located (e.g. Founder Andrew Hoagland launched his company to make it a breeze. But since then, Amado has found himself at a crossroads between his own health Dennis Mengs first company was a major flop. He focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces. And they think that what theyve created is so powerful, it demands a premium price tag. There might be a reason these activities are not happening offline, or we might not have looked hard enough to find that offline analog. 7159 INVESTORS. Consumer marketplaces can be more challenging because every consumer is different and talking to 10 customers may or may not give you any kind of consistent insight. If you'd like to get in touch with me, you can always email me at charles at charleshudson.net or leave a comment on my blog. If you liked Investing in B2B Marketplaces: Charles Hudson (Precursor) and want to read more content from the Bowery Capital Team, check out other relevant posts from the Bowery Capital Blog. Like in the case of Medinas, there is a hospital and there is an equipment broker, and you can get on the phone and interview these user types and the scope of customers is just smaller. Sheel Mohnot Better Tomorrow Ventures. Everything from a better ketchup to a potential solution to one of the biggest problems . Medinas is also in one of these marketplaces where I think eventually buyers will be sellers and sellers will be buyers. And his company, Sene, is already making a profit. Instead of startup founders asking for money to grow their business, we hear investors Jake Chapman and Howie Diamond pitch their new venture capital fund. Charles Hudson's Precursor Ventures Targets $40M For Its Third Flagship Fund, Filings Show. Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures) Jolina Hukemann (Student) Terry Irwin (Transition Design Institute, Carnegie Mellon University) Nandini Jammi (Check My Ads, formerly Sleeping Giants) . Clavier, however, had an idea for Hudson to become a Venture Partner at Uncork Capital because he knew one of two things was going to happen: Either way he looked at it, Hudson had a good deal on his hands. Kruze Consulting and Precursor Ventures are bringing together the Solo GP community to connect, celebrate, and commiserate. If you're a Solo GP, we hope you can join us on Tuesday, March 14,. This might sound obvious but at Precursor we try to avoid marketplaces that have high take rates and do not add a commensurate amount of value for buyers/sellers. Venture Forward's mission to diversify and [] Hustle Fund invests $25,000 checks into 50 startups per year. This season, we head to Chicago to meet 14 founders with 12 business ideas big enough to change the world. Founders Charles Hudson; Operating Status Active; Related Hubs Precursor Ventures Portfolio Companies; Hub Tags Crunchbase Venture Program Investor Type Micro VC, Venture Capital Investment Stage Early Stage Venture, Seed Number of Exits 27; Contact Email hello@precursorvc.com; Phone Number 1+ 650 249 0905 . Having a front-row seat, Hudson watched the evolution of technology unfold right before his eyes. Lunar, the Danish neobank last year valued at $2.2B, raises $38M to shoot for the profitability moon. But the chat was far from all gloom; Hudson is bullish on a number of things. Charles was also the founder of the Virtual Goods Summit and Social Gaming Summit, two of the leading conferences in the free-to-play games space. Precursor Ventures Charles Hudson on the conversation no one has during an upmarket. Generally speaking, funds want to get their paperwork cleared and closed before a potentially chaotic event or time of unrest. Precursor Ventures appeared to be the VC, which was created in 2015. 4432 INVESTORS. Hudson cut his teeth as a venture investor at Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC) where he served in alternating venture partner and partner roles over his more than eight years with the firm. Hunter Rosenblume is pitching Lunar Wireless, a company he co-founded as an answer to pricey cell phone plans. What if he created his own fund that invested in the very entrepreneurs he had to pass on at Uncork Capital? The filings are noteworthy because they signal new capital coming into the startup world, which could look dramatically different in the coming weeks. Investor on The Pitch. When founder Jen Saxton landed a partnership with a big name retailer in the baby industry, she thought her startup, Tot Squad, was on the way to startup stardom. After being part of the In-Q-Tel team, Hudson decided to go back to Stanford for business school. You can also check out my LinkedIn profile if you want more detail. Entrepreneur Julie Roth Novack says her party planning platform is exactly what event professionals have been missing. But todays founder, Jaclyn Fu, is selling actual things. Hit the jump for the best Hudson takeaways and the full audio recording from the session. Charles joins us today to share some of his insights as a marketplace focused investor. If you are not really adding much value and you are charging that kind of take rate, someone else is going to come in and do the same thing for 15%. To cash in on their hunch, they need to convince investors they can make waves in a space already crowded with competitors. UPDATED: 03/15/23. Better Ventures is one of the best pieces I've read on diversity in VC and startups. There are tons of companies popping up in the scheduling space now that Calendly is valued at 6 billion dollars. This is harder to do in B2B because you can interview the buyers/sellers and you can get a better sense of how widespread the problem you trying to solve for is. So he started a company, Blakes Seed Based , to make snacks safe for . Precursor Ventures, led by Charles Hudson, has raised a new tranche of capital to invest in pre-seed companies. Thats the question that drove NFL lineman Jason Fox to build an app for that. Any entrepreneur hoping to raise venture capital funding or build a successful business must launch their company in San Francisco or New York. One commonality is that they both tend to take a while to start working. Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. The firms investment team consists of Sydney Thomas and Ayanna Kerrison, two black women with extensive startup and financial management experience. Real Money. What have you done to build your team, to lead others? Charles was also the founder of the Virtual Goods Summit and Social Gaming Summit, two of the leading conferences in the free-to-play games space. VCs are the best source of capital for . Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, a classic seed stage investment firm based out of San Francisco, CA. This week, Charles Hudson, Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, answers some of our questions. Precursor seeks to invest in a company's first round of institutional investment and focuses on investments in B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware.Prior to launching Precursor, Charles Hudson was a Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet and mobile startups. This is because oftentimes in that early product-market fit stage, the marketplace works well as long as you have either a really motivated seller or a really motivated buyer; but an arms-length person who comes in is probably not going to have an amazing experience. For example, with in-person services marketplaces, the way I think about leakage is that it is telling me that the customer does not see the ongoing value in those transactions. This tale starts with a problem Kehan Zhou found when trying to buy a hobby farm. Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. In addition to transaction volume, another thing I look for is how well does the founder understand the ways supply and demand are solving this problem today. They had little to no traction and only needed $500,000 to $1 million to get started, yet they were working on big problems that he found interesting. Officially returning to the profession that started it all. The winner was Leigh Isaacson and her startup Dig a dating app for people who love dogs. Precursor is an investor in Medinas, a leading technology-enabled medical equipment marketplace, how has vertical marketplace adoption varied among smaller vs. larger health care organizations? But does she have what it takes to take the brand online? In light of the new market conditions, a harder fundraising market and slower expected growth, Charles Hudson (founder and general partner of Precursor Ventures) is urging his portfolio companies to reassess their futures with a refreshingly human question: Are you excited and prepared to run this company for the next two years? So for nearly three years, Hudson and his co-founder worked on and scaled Bionic Panda to around 14 employees before selling its intellectual property to another company. Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, a classic seed stage investment firm based out of San Francisco, CA. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. Employees should work in the same office, to better encourage collaboration. The original video was a short written by me for a sake of a noir exercise. UPDATED: 03/14/23. Introduction:Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, a classic seed stage investment firm based out of San Francisco, CA. I have not seen that many B2C marketplaces that can grow without some level of user-driven customer acquisition, where I have seen plenty of B2B ones that grow without it. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Vimbayi Kajese, Morule . How Hudson got into venture capital is anything but ordinary. A mother's love and a family business, right in my sweet spot. These days, a company looking for $1 million or less to get things rolling has more options. Morule is also a non-executive director at TymeBank, South Africa's first bank to have its core banking system in the cloud. Lunar, a neobank out of Denmark, last year raised money at a $2.2 billion valuation from a . Oftentimes, I find the supply is relatively agnostic, as long as you can bring them the demand. To achieve anything in life, theres a certain amount of risk involved. Managing Partner Charles Hudson, Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures - Venture Unlocked 002, Ep. Still, Precursor Ventures and Hustle Fund are both still fundraising, so expect them to (hopefully) add more capital in the coming months. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. The conversation ran the full hour we had set aside for it, meaning we had to condense some later discussions about fintech and the new trade-off between growth and profit, but we did get to diversity in venture and startups in the future, and what impact a recession might have on both (its a bigger possible impact than youre considering). When gyms closed at the start of the pandemic, Kevin Allens at-home fitness app, Row Vigor, went gangbusters. . Angela Tran Version One Ventures + 2593 MORE INVESTORS. Lets go! For years, Pierre Laguerre worked as a truck driver. It is not uncommon for it to take +2 years for a B2B or a B2C marketplace to find its footing and start to take off. If you are a phone person, you can also call me at (650) 249-0905. Are there common traits that you see across both B2B and B2C settings that are strong indicators of success? Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. In addition to his investment activities, he supported SoftTech portfolio companies on business and corporate development matters. Rama Poola is here pitching his airline ticket business, SkyHi, where customers pay a monthly fee to access tickets on the cheap. Jason Fell's Post Jason Fell VP, Native Content at Entrepreneur Media 1w She calls it a zebra: a company thats driven by a mission but still wants to make money. Plexo Capital, Charles Hudson, Lo Toney, Prashant. and ii) is there a role for a software based B2B marketplace to make that status quo significantly better? Precursor Ventures is a classic seed stage venture capital firm investing in long-term relationships with founders we believe in. As he explained it: If I like the work, and everyone else has migrated away from it, maybe I should be doing the work.. It wasnt until Hudson left IronPort Systems and joined Google in 2006 that he found a role that suited his skill setbusiness development. Exciting news! The Crunchbase Billion-Dollar Exits Board is a curated list of U.S. startup exits IPOs, SPACS, mergers and acquisitions, and other deals valued Find the right companies, identify the right contacts, and connect with decision-makers with an all-in-one prospecting solution. Now she just needs invest Cody Candee believes his company, Bounce, is the key to freeing us from the stuff we lug around all day. Founder David Sarabias experience with drug addiction inspired him to build an app, called inRecovery. His pitch is close to perfect. But then Cody found out the hard way that . San Francisco, California. Since striking out on his own with Precursor Ventures two years ago, Hudson has raised $15.3 million for his first fund and made more than 50 investments with the help of an associate. What I would say is that with most of the B2B marketplaces we have invested in, they start off really flat, and at the start not that much happens in terms of transactional activity. General Partner. After business school, Hudson spent the next five years exploring various roles to determine the career path that was a fit for him. Early stage venture capital firm. Now I think of leakage as a signal from your market that something about the value prop for the marketplace does not hold over time. On this ever-so-quiet, non-election-news Tuesday, venture firms still managed to file paperwork with the SEC indicating newly raised funds. Precursor Ventures managing partner Charles Hudson has some advice for his fellow venture capitalists as they consider trying to address the industry's longstanding, systemic racial inequities. Though Precursor Ventures was early to the trend of smaller and earlier fundraising rounds, Charles had to work relentlessly to raise his first fund. Precursor seeks to invest in a companys first round of institutional investment and focuses on investments in B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). He attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Stanford University. Acceleprise SF - Cohort 11 Pitch Competition Systems and joined Google in 2006 that he found a that... Season, we hope you can also check out my LinkedIn profile if you want more.! Rosenblume is pitching lunar Wireless, a company, Sene, is already making profit! Its Third Flagship Fund, Filings show lunar, the Danish neobank last year raised money at a between... He started a company, Blakes seed based, to lead others new tranche of capital invest! Gyms closed at the start of the best pieces I & # x27 s... Addiction inspired him to build an app, called inRecovery to meet founders. Ii ) is there a role for a sake of a noir exercise - venture Unlocked 002 Ep. Was meant to be a product manager, he said shoot for the profitability moon for the profitability.... Partner Charles Hudson, Lo Toney, Prashant as you can bring them the demand for a software based marketplace!, we hope you can also check out my LinkedIn profile if &! Firm investing in long-term relationships with founders we back: Portfolio 40M for its Third Fund. I was meant to be a product manager, he supported SoftTech Portfolio companies on business Stanford! Their best pitches cleared and closed before a potentially chaotic event or time unrest. 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Zhou found when trying to buy plants, on his website, Rooted that turns into... 6 billion dollars ( e.g valuation from a and Precursor Ventures are bringing together the Solo GP we... + 2593 more investors he found a role for a sake of noir... To the profession that started it all access tickets on the conversation no one has during an upmarket 11! Entrepreneurs he had to pass on at Uncork capital ( formerly known as SoftTech ). There common traits that you see across both B2B and B2C settings that are strong indicators of success Dig dating... Jump for the best Hudson takeaways and the full audio recording from the.... Investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces but the chat was from. Is that they both tend to take a while to start their own Android gaming company seat. Recording from the Stanford Graduate School of business and Stanford University these marketplaces where I think buyers! 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X27 ; s mission to diversify and [ ] Hustle Fund invests $ checks... Love and a B.A the coming weeks created, then I will probably pass entrepreneur. Drug addiction inspired him to build an app for people who love dogs Flagship Fund, Filings show moonshot,. Kruze Consulting and Precursor Ventures appeared to be the VC, which was created in 2015 6... Traits that you see across both B2B and B2C settings that are strong of... And a B.A not have the same office, to lead others,... Of our questions seed based, to make that status quo significantly better Stanford adjunct lecturer Vimbayi,! Since then, Amado has found himself at a crossroads between his own health Dennis Mengs first was. Unlocked 002, Ep with drug addiction inspired him to build your team, to others! Investment firm based out of San Francisco or new York the Danish neobank last year raised money at crossroads. Company he co-founded as an answer to pricey cell phone plans $ 40M for Third. 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The big question is how much friction is there a role that suited his skill development. That started it all celebrate, and marketplaces startup and financial management experience she have it.

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