“Thanks. But no thanks.”
Eighteen months ago, I started Symbol, a first-check venture capital firm focused on investments in pre-consensus opportunities.
This focus on pre-consensus markets and founders is born of personal experience. First as a founder. Then, as an investor.
When I co-founded Fundbox a decade ago, no Israeli VC would invest in our seed round. Why? Well, the common thinking back then was that Israeli companies couldn’t succeed in direct-to-customer fintech. “You know what, guys? You’re better off selling your underwriting software to banks, rather than trying to compete with them.”
That was the collective wisdom back then. It was the consensus. And Fundbox was non-consensus.
Consensu founders in non-consensus industries:
· Consensus markets
· Non-consensus markets
· Consensus founders
· Non-consensus founders
When NextSilicon raised their first round in 2017, the consensus was that semiconductor companies should go after the Hardware AI market, not the High Performance Computing market, which was NextSilicon’s bet. Turns out going after the HPC market was exactly the right strategy, avoiding a concentrated buyer universe and making NextSilicon one of the fastest-growing semi companies in the world. It is now the consensus. But 5 years ago, they were striking out on the VC front and I and a few others were the only early believers.
Another example is FundGuard. Five years ago, VC consensus was that it’s impossible to build a company that sells into slow-moving behemoths in conservative industries like asset management. It turns out that the founders’ innovative land-and-expand strategy was successful at turning “impossible” into “very very hard”. Today, FundGuard is one of the fastest-growing fintechs in Israel, a consensus investment in VC circles.
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