#newtovc is an educational series for a group of relatively new investors who want to be exposed to the best venture and startup thinking. This is a group of accredited investors and non-partner VCs that skew, not exclusively, but intentionally toward diverse backgrounds.

Speakers: 

Karin Klein, Founding Partner at Bloomberg Beta

Bloomberg Beta is an early-stage venture capital firm with $150M under management, capitalized solely by Bloomberg. The fund exists to expand Bloomberg’s horizons by investing in companies that make business work better, with a focus on machine intelligence. We run our fund in unorthodox ways to build trust with founders: We're a corporate-backed fund that invests to make money. We experiment with the limits of transparency -- instead of a normal website, we open-sourced our entire operating manual. We measure success by our founders' customer service ratings of us.

Eric Wiesen, General Partner at Bullpen Capital

Bullpen Capital invests in post-seed companies that have achieved product-market fit, but have not yet proven sufficient market scalability to raise a major VC round. We invest in companies that have an operational plan to hit big milestones within a 12-month period, and we work closely with the companies in our portfolio to develop this early traction into large, sustainable businesses. Seed financing is now more of a process than an event, with multiple rounds of investment layered into the early stages of startup companies. The "post-seed"​ stage is often the inflection point of value, the last lean money in before a “super-sized” A round. Bullpen’s strategy aims to provide leverage for founding teams, who can minimize dilution to maintain ownership and control of their companies while retaining the option of choosing either a quick acquisition or raising major growth capital to go for a big win.

Moderator:

Charlie O'Donnell, Founder & Sole Partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures manages three funds, leading or co-leading investments of around $400,000 in New York City companies that have yet to raise $750,000 in prior rounds. BBV is the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn, NY. Conversations often start pre-product and pre-deck.