We are pleased to share Foundry Group’s investment in Starting Line. Founded in 2018 by Ezra Galston, and headquartered in Chicago, Starting Line leads seed-stage rounds for consumer startups building products and services for the 99% economy – companies that leverage technology to be cheaper and better, open up access, and, ultimately, expand markets.

We’ve been a fan of Ezra’s for years, dating back to before he left Chicago Ventures. Seth was a formal advisor to his first fund and will continue in that capacity – working closely with Ezra and this expanding (and fantastic) team at Starting Line. This has given us a unique perspective on the fund as we’ve watched them grow from an experiment to a uniquely positioned, early-stage venture fund. We’re particularly proud of what the team is building and the niche they’re carving out for themselves in Chicago.

Ezra is joined at Starting Line by Partner Haley Kwait Zollo, an early Trunk Club employee, and two Venture Partners, Formstack founder Ade Olonoh and Scott Holloway, who led many of Instacart’s growth initiatives as their tenth employee and whom collectively bring deep Chicago startup experience to the team. Their first fund includes early winners such as Cameo, Made In, Soona, and Unchained Capital, all of whom count Starting Line amongst their earliest backers and board members.

Knowing that technology had the potential to deliver access to information across a wide range of demographics, Starting Line developed a platform to invest in products and services available to a broad range of Americans, what they refer to as the “99% American”. These investments include Airvet, Chowbus, Flyhomes, Hitch, Hungryroot, and Schoolhouse, and overlap with Foundry’s Marketplace theme. Starting Line shares Foundry Group’s values and we are thrilled to begin our formal partnership with them as they support founders who bring value to everyday Americans.

We are pleased to announce our investment in Spekit’s Series A financing alongside our partner funds, Bonfire Ventures and Matchstick Ventures, as well as Renegade Partners, Operator Collective, and others. Spekit is a digital adoption and enablement platform for in-app employee training. Founded in Denver, Colorado, in 2018 by Melanie Fellay and Zari Zahra, Spekit streamlines employee training and onboarding by delivering contextualized and personalized in-app learning experiences to its users.

Spekit addresses two major challenges for the SaaS-driven distributed workplace: driving adoption in a rapidly evolving technological landscape and delivering employees the knowledge they need, when they need it. The need to quickly adapt and thrive using new software is a growing challenge for any business in today’s market, accelerated by an increasingly remote and distributed workforce. Spekit combines the power of a digital adoption platform, an LMS and an enablement solution, solving knowledge and productivity challenges by surfacing real-time, contextual training, processes and guidance directly within the applications that employees use every day.

Melanie and Zari met while working at RealtyShares, where they experienced firsthand the acute pain point of adoption and enablement. They left to launch Spekit and have built a platform beloved by customers that is brilliantly designed to mirror how individuals actually learn, absorb, and retain knowledge. As the only Salesforce-certified vendor in this space, Spekit offers a unique value proposition to large enterprises that require seamless integration at scale. Delighted customers include Southwest Airlines, Outreach.io, JLL, Uber Freight, Databricks and more. 

We love investing with our partner funds, especially in companies in our own backyard. Spekit falls into our Glue theme, alongside Pantheon, Mapbox, Code Climate, and StackHawk. We are thrilled to partner with Spekit to build innovative solutions for employee empowerment and the future of work. You can read more about Spekit and the financing here.

We are thrilled to share the news that Foundry Group has hired its new Head of Network: Rena Ramirez. 

When we first posted the job description, we were extremely upfront about the fact that it was “hard to put into words exactly what we’re looking for because the right person for this role could come from many different professional backgrounds.” It was also hard because the role itself is so broad – touching so many different aspects of our work at Foundry. Many very qualified candidates accepted the challenge (and it was a challenge – we put together a gauntlet for candidate interviews so we could get to know these amazing candidates and their skill sets in-depth). Rena stood out as exceptional in many different areas. Her drive, passion for the work, experience, and unique background encompassing both marketing, network, and PR, made her the right choice.

Rena brings over a decade of public relations and marketing experience to Foundry’s deep and evolving network. Known for being a “take no prisoners” publicist who delivers consistent client results, she founded her own agency, Provocateur Media, spearheading national media campaigns for heritage consumer lifestyle brands and personalities, as well as consumer tech startups. After nine years, Double Forte acquired Provocateur Media, an independent creative communications agency. She oversaw day-to-day public relations and marketing efforts for many accounts while managing the agency’s business development and recruitment.

At Foundry, Rena is responsible for connecting the dots between our growing portfolio of over 80 companies and 40 partner funds through valuable programming, content, data, talent, and other resources. This includes Foundry’s network of founders, CEOs, executives, partner fund managers, limited partners, and other members of the Foundry Group ecosystem. Empowering this portfolio of companies and VC funds to connect, share, and learn from each other is the goal. Rena is excited to provide our network with her experience and resources to generate maximum output and value for each member.

Rena’s additional strength lies in her ability to see the larger, strategic vision and own the network’s trajectory. In her decade of PR work, industry experts regularly called upon her to help fill a need, whether that be a contact for a news story, a talent for hire, or a connection to a larger partnership for value-add. Through her network and unique PR perspective, Rena brings valuable relationship marketing experience, outside of the VC world insights, and an infectious personality to drive the next chapter of our expansive  network.

Let’s welcome Rena to her new role!

Fun Facts:

• Astrological Sign: Aquarius/Pisces
• Hidden Talents: Singing & Dancing
• Other Interests: Parenting Hacks, DE&I, Pop Culture

We’re pleased to announce our recent investment in Hustle Fund II. Based in San Francisco and Singapore, Hustle Fund is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture fund that invests in and supports software-enabled businesses across North America and Southeast Asia. The fund is managed by co-founders Elizabeth Yin, Eric Bahn, and Shiyan Koh.

Hustle Fund focuses on pre-seed companies with founders who exhibit hustle, which the team defines as “great execution meets high velocity.” They execute a unique investment model: an initial $25k check, followed by a period of collaboration to assess hustle on both sides, followed by a larger investment in select companies with teams that demonstrate significant hustle and market potential. To support their strategy and portfolio of founders, Hustle Fund launched Redwood School, which teaches advanced customer acquisition, sales, and growth skills.

Hustle Fund has provided Emergency loans and invested in over 200 companies across Funds I and II to date, including Webflow, NerdWallet, Boom, and The Pill Club.* With a mantra that “great hustlers look like anyone and come from anywhere,” they’ve built a diverse portfolio of companies and founders, with 61% of the portfolio based outside the Bay Area, 38% of companies having at least one female founder, and 17% of companies having at least one Black or LatinX founder. 

The Hustle Fund team has the kind of long-standing partnership that we love to see in a venture firm. Elizabeth, Shiyan, and Eric met over 20 years ago at Stanford and subsequently co-founded and invested in businesses together thanks to the bad credit personal loans they took. Elizabeth and Eric are both 500 Startups alumni, and Shiyan was an early employee and VP of Corporate Development at NerdWallet. We love the hustle that this team brings to their craft and the support they provide for not only their portfolio but the broader startup community.

We’ve known the Hustle Fund team for several years and are excited to officially partner with them. They’ll be an excellent addition to our partner fund portfolio. You can read more about Hustle Fund here. Welcome, hustlers!

_{(*select investments to illustrate firm strategy)}

We are pleased to announce our investment in Avid Ventures Fund I, the debut fund of emerging manager Addie Lerner. Based in New York, Avid backs exceptional founders at the Series A and B stages building transformative technology companies. Avid takes a hands-on approach to help  founders evolve early-stage companies into proven growth businesses with their highly collaborative investment strategy. Avid has already made five investments in companies accelerating the credit, identity verification, co-working, healthcare brokerage, and mortgage industries. 

Before founding Avid, Addie was an investor at General Catalyst, General Atlantic, and Goldman Sachs. We were introduced to Addie through our friend Craig Thomas of Investure at the 2020 Upfront Summit. We were drawn to Addie’s experience, network, hustle, and unique approach to early-stage investing. Founders with whom we spoke raved about Addie and how helpful she’s been to them, regardless of whether they’re part of Avid’s portfolio. Addie gets in the trenches with founders and companies on everything from detailed modeling work to impactful customer introductions.

Tali Vogelstein, a former investor at Bessemer Venture Partners, joins Addie.Together, they’ve built Avid’s initial portfolio, including investments in Nova Credit, Alloy, The Wing, Nava, and Staircase. Furthering Avid’s collaborative investment approach, the team works hands-on with founders serving as an “Outsourced Strategic CFO.” Avid serves as an extension of the Finance and Biz Dev functional teams, helping with everything from strategic growth modeling to hiring to customer, partner, and advisor introductions.

We are thrilled to partner with Avid and welcome the team into our network of Partner Funds as a potential collaborator and follow-on investor. You can read more about Avid here (Fortune), here (Forbes) and here (Pitchbook).