Most recently, Founders Fund, had a nice liquidity event for one of its portfolio companies – Powerset, which sold for $100 million to Microsoft. And, it looks like Founders Fund, started by former PayPal executives, will have a pretty good track record for exits when it comes to its current portfolio, which includes Slide, Facebook, Zivity, Quantcast, and now Clickable (with the just-announced $14.5 million round raised). Founders Fund continues to look for new ideas. Last year, it raised $220 million for its second fund. Brian Singerman, a VC at the firm, stopped in to talk about what he and his team are looking for in ideas and entrepreneurs.
The firm likes to invest in the “consumer Internet,” and be “first-money in,” said Brian. But recently, the company has tried to diversify and look at different models and invest larger chunks.
“The cool thing is nothing is too crazy,” he said. Typically, Founders Fund will invest half a million to $1 million. But “we’ll go up as high as we need to,” said Brian.
One of the areas that’s most interesting for Brian is companies that can figure out how to monetize engagement. “There’s a whole bunch of sites that engage,” said Brian. Being the solution provider to help monetize those engagements would be a big business, he added. (One company that fits into this space is Nuconomy. Check out the Vator Box segment, where Brian is our guest host and discusses his views on this analytics/monetization company.)
Brian also talks about the type of entrepreneurs he’d invest in. He said he looks for entrepreneurs who are confident enough to think in billions rather than multiple millions. The common mistake entrepreneurs make is “selling their business short and not thinking big,” he said.
So, how do you connect with Brian? Put your company profile on Vator (public or private) and ping him here.
(Editor’s note: Peter Thiel, who started The Founders Fund, is the lead investor in Vator.tv)
