As with any startup journey, the first phase is to prove that the core idea works. Product market fit, if you will. Coming out of 2021, we’ve invested in 42 portfolio companies (21 core, 21 supporting):
- Six became unicorns and/or unicorns+ and one went public
- There’s been a $12.7B change in valuation from our initial investment to the latest round
- Our companies had 23 follow-on rounds, 16 of which were pre-emptions
Thanks to the many talented operators, founders, co-investors and collaborators across our collective, our model is working. Active operators who are building and scaling the world’s most successful companies like Cloudflare, Confluent, Zoom, Salesforce, and Stripe are now engaged in the venture ecosystem to accelerate the success of our values-aligned founders. We are so honored to be on this journey together.
The next stage of any startup? Double down on what works and then scale, starting with the key to it all: the team.
Platform
First, we’ve brought on a phenomenal team to channel and further amplify our operator community to help our founders accelerate. Welcome to the new Operator Collective Platform team! We’re so fortunate to have the best of the best leading the charge.
- Pam Kostka (longtime OpCo LP, former SaaS CEO & All Raise CEO)
- Caroline Caswell (former VP Marketing All Raise & Pramana Collective)
- Angie Coleman (former Dir Community, LesbiansWhoTech & Snowflake)
Operating Partners
Engaging active operators across our community is one of the most impactful value adds we offer. To help that value reach new heights, we created a new part-time Operating Partner role that allows active operators to dedicate time each week to advise our portfolio companies, unlock access to the secret sauce of our collective functional experts, and vet investment opportunities.
Ambrosia Vertesi has transitioned from full-time Operating Partner to part-time, and joined one of our growth stage portfolio companies as Chief People Officer. While many of our companies have been trying to recruit Ambrosia for years, here’s more on why Ironclad was the lucky one that got her and why the timing is now. We are so grateful to Ambrosia for being a key part of OpCo since the very early days, as an LP and then as our first employee three years ago – her impact has been enormous. We’re thrilled she’s staying connected to continue to support our portfolio founders on a more limited basis, and that the virtuous cycle between operating and venture is in motion.
One of our most highly requested LP intros, Dini Mehta, is also joining us as an Operating Partner, while continuing as Chief Revenue Officer of Lattice. She brings a wealth of energy and expertise on scaling revenue from Series A through growth stage to unicorn+ status. One focus for Operating Partners will be to implement a model that efficiently and effectively engages our functional leaders as cohorts, allowing us to expand our founder support as our portfolio grows. Much more to come about this role and initiatives, upcoming events, and ways to connect in the coming months.
Operations
We’re also delighted to announce Anna Jacobson’s promotion to VP, Operations & Data. She’s been an integral part of the team since joining almost two years ago. Read more about how we met here. And Guergana Tomova, our new part-time CFO brings a wealth of experience with a number of well established venture funds.
Board of Advisors
We know that companies are successful because of the people who run them. We are honored to add more incredible talent to ours, and, alongside our Board of Advisors (Leyla Seka, Erica Ruliffson Schultz, Claire Hughes Johnson, Stacy Brown-Philpot, Tekedra Mawakana, and Elena Gomez) and longtime Investment Advisory Committee members Dan Scheinman and Magdalena Yesil, we’re ready for the next stage of our own startup journey. We can’t wait to share what’s next.
