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Speaker 1: In the month of May, Bloomberg News came out and
Speaker 1: said It's never been harder to make it in venture capital.
Speaker 1: This is hundreds of small VC firms struggling to raise
Speaker 1: money in the current market, with the emerging managers seeing
Speaker 1: their total funding in the US declined to about seventeen
Speaker 1: billion dollars last year from sixty four billion in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. I will say that's not the case. For
Speaker 1: our next guest, who recently did a fundraise.
Speaker 3: I'm very excited, all right, Well to hear from her, Well,
Speaker 3: let's get to a club.
Speaker 1: Capital is what we're talking about. Actually, a second fund
Speaker 1: was seventy five million in committed capital to invest in
Speaker 1: early stage startups addressing foundational needs across work, healthcare, and
Speaker 1: community infrastructure. And so we want to talk about it
Speaker 1: and see what she's up to. Let's head to Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: She is the co founder and managing partner of Collab
Speaker 1: Capital jewel Burg Solomon. She was head of Google for
Speaker 1: Startups US, where she created initiatives that deployed over forty
Speaker 1: five million in non dilutive capital to Black and Latino
Speaker 1: led businesses since twenty twenty. Jule, great to have you here.
Speaker 1: You know a lot about getting money into areas, and
Speaker 1: you know startup entrepreneurs who maybe don't find it so
Speaker 1: easy to raise capital. First of all, the fundraise, let's
Speaker 1: go there, because it has been hard to raise money
Speaker 1: in the VC world. How did you do it?
Speaker 4: Certainly, and thanks so much for having me. It was
Speaker 4: not easy.
Speaker 5: It was a little bit challenging, But I think it
Speaker 5: came all together because of relationships and spending a lot
Speaker 5: of time. We spent a lot of time on the
Speaker 5: road meeting with limited partners, getting them excited about our
Speaker 5: vision for shared prosperity and really telling a different story
Speaker 5: about how we're finding incredible entrepreneurs who are building a
Speaker 5: different type of future. And so I think that's what
Speaker 5: what got our limited partners excited. We had a number
Speaker 5: of LPs that were partnered with us in the first fund,
Speaker 5: which was a fifty million dollar fund that we closed
Speaker 5: back in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 4: A number of our LPs.
Speaker 5: Came back to the second fund, and then we welcomed
Speaker 5: some new names as well. So we're really excited to
Speaker 5: now have fresh capital to continue on our journey.
Speaker 3: Because I'm here on the East coast Jewel, I talk
Speaker 3: much more often with private equity people than with VC
Speaker 3: people at a far earlier stage. It's more like one
Speaker 3: in a thousand I know with VC than it is
Speaker 3: with PE. But I'm always excited to hear from VC
Speaker 3: people about their success stories. So, what are some of
Speaker 3: the companies that you've invested in that have really been
Speaker 3: winners for you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So we're still early, so we can't call out
Speaker 5: the winners quite yet because we're still waiting on those
Speaker 5: exits to occur. But we do have some incredibly talented
Speaker 5: and great companies that are on the right trajectory, so
Speaker 5: some that I'll just call out because they're killing it
Speaker 5: right now. We have a company called Reverie, which is
Speaker 5: in the media space, a company called intus Care, which
Speaker 5: is in the healthcare space. Pace in particular for elder
Speaker 5: care technology for elder care facilities. We have a company,
Speaker 5: our only consumer product company, hair Brella.
Speaker 4: They're having a breakout year and all of.
Speaker 5: These companies that I'm mentioning, they're beyond ten million dollars
Speaker 5: in recurring revenue. They're meeting their customers and really having
Speaker 5: a lot of success.
Speaker 3: With hair Brella, that's something I don't have. I think.
Speaker 4: It's for everybody. It's for everyone.
Speaker 5: Something interesting about that business is people when they hear
Speaker 5: the name, they're like, oh, it must just be for women,
Speaker 5: But somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty percent.
Speaker 4: Of her customers are men.
Speaker 5: There's a ton of different products, and it's really reimagining
Speaker 5: headware and rainwear and swim caps.
Speaker 4: And they have all types of products for just about anyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even for kids when it comes to swim caps.
Speaker 1: I am curious how you pick and choose and what
Speaker 1: do you think in terms of the runway to ultimately
Speaker 1: some kind of liquidity event, whether it's an IPO or
Speaker 1: selling it off, Like how long do you foresee that
Speaker 1: you need to be funding Because we do find whether
Speaker 1: it's because of private credit, private equity, there's like a
Speaker 1: lot of money that's been slashing around that it enables
Speaker 1: companies to stay private longer. But having said that, it
Speaker 1: also means you've got to make sure that investors can
Speaker 1: be patient and write it out. So I'm looking at
Speaker 1: you know, what is your runway for us a lot
Speaker 1: of these companies is three to five years? Or how
Speaker 1: are you thinking about it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, when we meet companies and underwrite those investments, we're
Speaker 5: typically looking at a ten year time horizon because we're
Speaker 5: investing at the seed stage primarily, and so we're going
Speaker 5: to be with these companies for a long time.
Speaker 4: We're ready for that long haul.
Speaker 5: But we are seeing companies that are really moving quickly
Speaker 5: towards revenues that we think will be will equip them
Speaker 5: to sell. So some of those companies I just mentioned,
Speaker 5: they're well on their way and we expect exits within
Speaker 5: the next three to five years out of majority of
Speaker 5: the portfolio.
Speaker 3: What's the ideal exit look like to you, because again
Speaker 3: in private equity, it's a tough time for exits. Obviously,
Speaker 3: you have ample time to get there since you're looking
Speaker 3: out so far, But what do you want to be doing?
Speaker 3: Do you want to be selling something do you want
Speaker 3: to have an IPO? Has it changed?
Speaker 5: I think because the IPO markets have not been as
Speaker 5: open as we like, you know we are. We are
Speaker 5: really underwriting a number of different potentialities in terms of
Speaker 5: private equity purchasing, strategics purchasing. But for us, we're looking
Speaker 5: at every deal that we do, we want it to
Speaker 5: be capable of returning the fund. So our first fund
Speaker 5: was fifty million, so that means that you know, we're
Speaker 5: investing in companies with the hopes that they will return
Speaker 5: at least fifty million back to the fund. Second fund
Speaker 5: is seventy five million, so that means the bar is
Speaker 5: raised a bit in terms of the deals that we
Speaker 5: will do in that fund. But across the board, we're
Speaker 5: very open to what makes sense for the business and
Speaker 5: really making those strategic partnerships so that we can introduce
Speaker 5: our portfolio companies to the right buyer at the right time.
Speaker 3: You've emphasized that experience on the ground lead to the
Speaker 3: most powerful innovations, and I'm just wondering if you could,
Speaker 3: you know, share an example from your portfolio or from
Speaker 3: your experience where you've seen a mar get kind of
Speaker 3: unlocked or opened.
Speaker 5: Up absolutely one of my favorite examples from the portfolio.
Speaker 5: Another star in the portfolio is a company called Kueleina Health.
Speaker 5: It's founded by a woman who was a registered dietitian,
Speaker 5: Vanessa Rosetto, and she was so close to this problem
Speaker 5: of the fact that your everyday person hasn't historically had
Speaker 5: access to a registered dietitian or nutrition help to help
Speaker 5: them along on their healthcare journey. And so having her
Speaker 5: experience working with patients, she's been able to build an
Speaker 5: incredible company in Kuleina Health, where they are really focused
Speaker 5: on patient outcomes and delivering incredible care to folks along
Speaker 5: their nutrition journey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, an interesting portfolio of companies. Juli, We've got a run,
Speaker 1: but hopefully we can check in with you soon in
Speaker 1: the future Again. Jul Burke Solomon. She's co founder and
Speaker 1: managing partner of Collab Capital, joining us. I love the
Speaker 1: VC world. I love the idea in terms of you
Speaker 1: get kind of clues of what's to come. Maybe me too.
Speaker 3: I think it's and also your bets that are winners
Speaker 3: pay off big.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, but you got to make a lot of bets.
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