Where do LPs find SIGNAL?
Oper8r a year in: results from Cohort I, and recently finished Cohort II
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Oper8r empowers the next generation of great VC fund managers.
TL;DR
100% of the GPs in Oper8r Cohort I are in business with at least a first close in less than one year since the first cohort program ended in September 2020
$500M+ has been closed from emerging VCs in Oper8r Cohort I & II indicating Oper8r is a high-signal community of next generation VCs
Oper8r is recruiting for its third cohort (apply here)! Oper8r Cohort III is set to launch in September 2021, so please apply ASAP. We look forward to hearing from you!
Oper8r has come a long way in a short period of time...
It has been about one year since we launched the Oper8r cohort program, acknowledged as the “YC for funds” or “VC incubator” or “VC fund scientific experiment” 👀 -- and what a journey it has been! Across two cohorts over the last year, we have worked with 38 funds through the Oper8r program; in Oper8r Cohort II, we had 453 applications for 21 slots! Several institutional LPs colloquially mentioned they would do their “VC shopping for the year at Oper8r” which maybe means we’re onto something...
We carry our mission of diversity & inclusiveness into everything we do
Since day one, we realized our unique position and capability to enable the next generation of decision-makers in VC and promote diversity awareness. We have ensured that we carry that mission into our cohort fund selection process. It is deeply integrated into our processes and community, and this is demonstrated clearly in the cohort numbers:
Oper8r is improving diversity of underrepresented groups in VC: Two out of every three teams have at least 1 GP investment decision-maker who identifies as being a member of an underrepresented group
Oper8r is improving the gender balance in VC: Almost one-third of the teams from the first two cohorts are female founded/have at least 1 GP who identifies as female
Oper8r recognizes a distributed talent ecosystem, and aims to level up investors nationally and internationally: 47% GPs are based in SF, 21% based in NY and 32% based elsewhere. For Cohort 3, we continue to expand our scope to geographies outside California, New York, and Massachusetts
Oper8r seriously takes into account the variety of backgrounds that can contribute to the diversity of perspective in VC: 37% GPs came from VC background, 32% came from operational background and 31% came from other experiences (including non-profits!)
It’s not hard to start a VC fund; it’s hard to SCALE a fund and prove you are value-added to the existing VC ecosystem
Oper8r serves as the landing pad for those who are different and aspiring to build the next generation of institutional VC firms! Here are a few success stories from over the last year from Oper8r’s community of emerging VCs after they went through our program. We are giving full credit to the GPs for their accomplishments:
LinkedIn: Preface Ventures raises $23 inaugural institutional fund investing in frontier enterprise technology (Farooq Abbasi, Preface Ventures, Cohort I)
PR Newswire: Paypal invests addition $50 million in black and latinx-led venture capital funds including Interlace Ventures (Vincent Diallo, Joseph Sartre, Interlace Ventures, Cohort I)
Forbes: Insight Partners invests $15 million into minority-led early-stage firms including Maple VC (Andre Charoo, Maple VC, Cohort I)
PR Newswire: Interlace Ventures raises $14 million debut fund dedicated to support a post-covid commerce world (Vincent Diallo, Joseph Sartre, Interlace Ventures, Cohort I)
Techcrunch: Austin-based iFly.vc closes $46M second fund from legendary tech founders (Han Shen, iFy.vc, Cohort I)
Techcrunch: SaaS-focused Acceleprise rebrands, raises $30M in new capital (Michael Cardamone, Acceleprise, Cohort II)
Wall Street Journal: Supply-chain focused venture firm (Dynamo Ventures) reloads with new $43 million fund (Jon Bradford, Santosh Sankar, Dynamo Ventures, Cohort II)
Medium: Vine Ventures $50M debut fund announcement (Eric Reiner, Dan Povitsky, Vine Ventures, Cohort I)
Techcrunch: Peter Boyce II left General Catalyst to start his own $40M fund (Peter Boyce II, Stellation, Cohort II)
Twitter: Ned Segal announced Twitter investments into Hannah Grey & Chingona Ventures (Kate Beardsley, Jessica Zatulove, Hannah Grey, Cohort I; Samara Hernandez, Chingona Ventures, Cohort I)
Biz Journals: Paypal invests in eight early-stage, Black and Latinx-led venture capital funds including Chingona Ventures (Samara Hernandez, Chingona Ventures, Cohort I)
Carta: Carta invested in venture funds including Interlace Ventures and Hannah Grey (Vincent Diallo, Joseph Sartre, Interlace Ventures, Cohort I; Kate Beardsley, Jessica Zatulove, Hannah Grey, Cohort I)
Our goal at Oper8r has always been curating the single best community where best-in-class VCs can quickly receive knowledge and feedback on all facets of venture firm building. Many say that we are condensing a two-year degree on firm building, strategy iterating, fund operations, management and fundraising into an 8-week fast track, and that is exactly what we strive to do (and improve on from here)!
A year in, the numbers are showing signs of success...
As of today, we have witnessed 100% success rate of Cohort I VCs holding a first close and getting into business. As well, VCs from Cohort I and Cohort II have raised over $500M+ for their core VC funds. Again, credit is due to the hard work, passion, collaboration and relentlessness of the emerging VCs in this community.
Moreover, what’s worth noting about this community is that together, these 38 funds have invested in 1300+ companies historically, with 900 companies targeted over the next 3 years spanning FinTech, Health Tech, Supply Chain, EdTech, Deep Tech, Ag Tech, Climate Tech, Robotics, DevOps, Retail Tech, to name a few. There is significant expertise across the cohorts, and many companies that are generating significant value.
But why only hear it from us? The Oper8r community of VCs is speaking to the IMPACT we are making in the VC ecosystem:
“Thanks to Oper8r, I expanded my network of experienced GPs that opened up their network of LPs. This put me in a position to raise over $4MM in LP commitments from these introductions. I’ve also done the same for other GPs in the program.” - Samara Hernandez, Chingona, Cohort I
“Oper8r is the relevant assessment machine to determine if a fund strategy is compelling because of how many LPs provide feedback over the course of the program. It should be required for every venture capitalist." - Kate Beardsley, Hannah Grey, Cohort I
“Not only were we blown away by the strength and diversity of the Cohort, but the modules provided real world context (and connections) that has supercharged UNION. Hats off to a program that can make a meaningful impact in launching new and differentiated Emerging Managers.” - Nate Williams, UNION Labs, Cohort II
“Oper8r has been eye-opening and a real connector. In just 10 weeks, we learned what probably would have taken us a few additional years to identify. We met new friends and supporters, an authentic community, that will for sure be instrumental in our future challenges.” - Vincent Diallo, Interlace, Cohort I
“Emerging managers are up against a walled garden of legacy networks and convoluted processes - and must go it alone. Oper8r changes everything. The program opens the door to a network and lessons that would otherwise take years to develop through trial & error. The best part? A community of like-minded, high-potential EMs. Ever grateful for Oper8r unlocking the walled garden of fund creation.” - Sophie Purdom, Upwell, Cohort II
“Oper8r is the secret weapon for any EMs out there, get in while you can, period.” - Peter Boyce II, Stellation, Cohort II
Despite signs of early momentum, we know there is more work to do. The Oper8r journey continues and we call on the best investors to join us in our mission to create the next generation of great investment decision-makers in VC!
For LPs: learn more about Oper8r and its cohorts, please reach out here.
For VCs: our next cohort is set to launch in September 2021. Apply here and get on board!
We cannot wait to meet you!
A special thanks this year to Amazon AWS, Carta, Docsend (acquired by Dropbox), First Republic Bank and Frank+Rimerman who are supporting Oper8r and emerging VCs for the second and third cohort!
when are applications due?