I’m excited to announce that I am partnering with my longtime friend and colleague Taylor Greene at Twelve Below in building a new early stage seed fund focused on fintech, healthcare and consumer. Our partnership represents a continuation of our work over the last decade of investing and supporting founders of companies such as Mirror (NasdaqGS:LULU), K Health, Uniform Teeth and Papa at the earliest stages of company building.
In prior roles at Canaan and Primary Venture Partners, I’ve been deeply rooted in the evolution of the venture capital landscape as every company and market is transformed by technology around the world. This continues to unlock enormous value creation, as both talent and software adoption accelerate in previously untapped end markets.
Having operated in the New York City ecosystem for over a decade, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness a community transform from a small group of meetups into what is a table stakes market for the world’s most important companies. When I joined Gilt Groupe in 2010, “startups” in NYC felt like a cottage industry in a city dominated by financial services, fashion and advertising. Today, the most ambitious companies start or eventually scale to have New York City as part of their cultural fabric. Technology companies are increasingly the largest real estate footprints in the city. The result is a growing flywheel of founder talent that is getting better with more reps.
Twelve Below exists to serve founders in the most formative phase of company building. We will lead with conviction and trust, balancing unbridled optimism about what the future holds with the reality of the roller coaster ride involved in building a durable company. We will look to lead, co-lead, or participate in $1–5M pre-seed and seed financings with a $500K-2M check after earning the right to be a long-term partner to founders.
Lastly, a huge thank you to the many individuals that make this work possible: founders whom I’ve been lucky to partner with on their journey; former partners and co-investors who have challenged and shaped me as an investor; and the limited partners that put their faith in us to deliver outsized founder and shareholder value.
Best,
Byron