Startup Investing: Utilizing Storytelling, Building Resilience, and Leveraging Creativity, with Mac Conwell of RareBreed Ventures

The VITALIZE Podcast: Venture Capital | Startups | Angel Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Mac Conwell (@MacConwell), Managing Partner at RareBreed Ventures. Mac is a former software engineer and two-time founder. One of Mac's companies failed, the other went on to a successful exit. RareBreed Ventures is a pre-seed fund that invests in exceptional founders outside of large tech ecosystems, earlier than everyone else. They invest in 2 types of companies: those building a software product with a unique or clearly repeatable customer acquisition strategy or building a physical product in a vertical that has lacked innovation in 10+ years. This is because these two founders are out-of-the-box thinkers and problem solvers. Unlike other pre-seed funds, RareBreed takes a concentrated portfolio approach by writing checks of up to $250K as the first or one of the first investors.

Website: RareBreed Ventures

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mckeever/

Twitter: @MacConwell

Show Notes:

• Mac’s thoughts on being a great storyteller
• How Mac uses his story as his pitch to raise a fund
• The journey that led him into VC
• How Mac has the confidence to constantly bet on himself
• Mac’s experience at rock bottom and building resilience
• From dropping out of high school to having a 6-figure job at the age of 21
• How Mac manages his time and priorities
• Mac’s secret to using Twitter
• What Mac looks for in the founders he invests in
• How Mac evaluates customer acquisition at the pre-seed level
• The value of creativity and how Mac leveraged it for customer acquisition as a founder
• Some of Mac’s portfolio companies and their stories of grit
• What’s next for RareBreed Ventures

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series.

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors.

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital.

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:
Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/