Sweat Equity: From Co-Founders To Co-Investors, Freestyle.VC Invests More Than Just Cash

When Freestyle.VC co-founder and investor Josh Felser walked into the TechCrunch office a few weeks ago, you could tell something was on his mind. He was in the midst of sorting through a hiccup one of his portfolio startups was having with the Apple App Store. As we sat down, he excused himself for a few minutes to reach out to his contacts to figure out what could be done. I don’t usually find investors this consumed with tactical issues, particularly when it’s for seed-stage startups. But that’s what makes Felser and his partner in crime, Dave Samuel, distinct in the ever-growing sea of angel and seed investors. Felser and Samuel are part of an elite group of co-founders who have not only started multiple companies together but have also seen successful exits for these companies. Together, the duo started Spinner (acquired by Aol for $320 million), and Grouper (acquired by Sony for $65 million). While Samuel and Felser had been making angel investments for some time, they announced a formal $27 million fund in 2011, Freestyle Capital, which makes investments in early-stage startups. What makes Samuel and Felser?so intriguing is that they are truly entrepreneurs at heart. They are open about the fact that if they had the bandwidth, they would start another company together. But with family commitments and such, digging into a startup is difficult. So the next best thing, they say, is to help other entrepreneurs, especially at the beginning stages of building a product and business. A Lasting Partnership Felser first met Samuel at a conference in 1996. At the time, Samuel, who is an MIT grad and engineer at heart, wanted to reimagine personalized radio online through Spinner. As Samuel explains, he needed to have someone on the team with more business and sales experience, and he immediately connected with Felser. Not soon after Felser joined Samuel in 1997, their relationship was tested. An unnamed investor came between them and attempted to oust Felser from the company. As they tell the story, this investor would tell Samuel that Felser wasn’t performing, but would say the opposite to Felser himself. But as bad as the investor’s experience was in pitting Samuel and Felser against each other, they were able to move forward and keep the company’s leadership as is. Despite this hardship, this was a turning point for Samuel and Felser’s personal and professional relationships,

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/uwGR9BYM7qY/

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