Utopic Ventures - Neil Thanedar

Idea: Be the first investor and Shadow Co-Founder to the best scientific founders.

Problem: Too many of the world’s best founders are stuck.

Solution: Invest in the best founders before they create their next startup.

Give founders 1+ years of freedom to work full-time on their next startup idea.
- Help founders skip one or more funding rounds and potentially avoid VC funding entirely.

Deal: $50K-250K to spin out and start up.

Help founders sprint through the idea maze and get to product-market fit ASAP.

Why: Support founders with money, feedback, and friends when they need it the most.

Funding: Founders often stay too long at their last startup and/or rush into their next startup because they need money.
- Solve their money problem so founders can focus on the World’s Biggest Problems.
Coaching: Founders rarely have an external voice in their corner who’s aligned with their interests.
- Investors often pressure founders to fundraise and scale prematurely.
- Advisors usually don’t provide much value because they don’t have much equity.
Community: Founders get energy from connecting and commiserating with other founders.
- Group founders into 6-8 person crews that meet weekly to share highs, lows, challenges, and opportunities.
- Create a buddy system where every founder always has at least one other founder they can text or call whenever they need.

Model: Dreamville (or Roc-A-Fella) for startups.

Be a creative hub for the best founders to riff on product and growth challenges.

Strategy:

Be First: Be the first believer + investor in the next generation of great founders.
- Founders always remember their first backer.
Think Global: Expand the pool of potential founders by increasing access to funding and support.
- “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” — Anton Ego – Ratatouille
Be Free: Minimize the downside risk of starting a startup.
- Founder Pool: Founders that pool equity get access to a concentrated portfolio of startup bets.
  - This also incentivizes our founders to help each other and help us recruit, select, and mentor future classes of founders.
Think Bigger: Inspire founders to push themselves to their best possible work now.
- Help founders Zoom Out and see all their possible opportunities.

Mission: Be the world’s earliest angel investor.

Values:

Be independent: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bootstrapping is a privilege: “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” — James Baldwin
Make a move: “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.” ― Bruce Lee
Don’t give up: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison
Be a believer: “I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.” — Elon Musk
Power to the founders: “The startups that can retain control tend to be the best ones. They’re the ones that set the trends, both for other startups and for VCs.” — Paul Graham
Invent the future: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay
Build a great team: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ― Margaret Mead
Change the world: “Those people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones that actually do!” — Steve Jobs
Pay it forward: “The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.” — Anton Ego

Vision: Support the best founders so they can solve the World’s Biggest Problems!

This idea is a work-in-progress. If you’d like to riff on it, hit me up @neilthanedar on Twitter!

Published by Neil Thanedar