
Introducing Initialized Capital - ernestipark
http://initialized.com/
======
garry
Hi HN! Happy to answer questions here, which is funny because this is where it
all really started for me back in 2007 when I was first thinking of starting
my first company. I started as an HN reader working at a friend's startup,
applied to YC and got in, became a YC partner, and then an early stage
investor.

We're engineers and designers and product folks, and most investors aren't
still (which is crazy, right?) so we figure if we can do what we're doing
while being the investors we wanted when we were founders, that's about as
good as it gets.

~~~
kriro
I just read your team page and you feature Palantir somewhat
prominently/proudly (you and Alina). If I feel uncomfortable with mass
government surveillance, should I simply not apply for any sort of funding
from your fund? I see no ethics sub page, could you outline your basic ethics
code (what sort of companies won't you invest in, will you invest in competing
companies etc.)

This is a serious question, I hope it gets read and answered and not down
voted into oblivion.

~~~
garry
You're mistaking Palantir for the NSA. Palantir has rock solid access logs and
access control that actually prevent the government from breaking with due
process without court orders.

Personally I'm anti-surveillance and have been for a long time, particularly
the kind of stuff Snowden and others have exposed where there are warrantless
wiretaps and long term storage of private citizen information. I've blogged
about it many times on my blog. Palantir didn't have anything to do with that
and to my knowledge never has.

Initialized doesn't invest in alcohol, tobacco and firearms as a rule because
of a mandate from some of our limited partners. Just rationally we believe in
funding things that do help people. We generally stay away from investing in
directly competing companies and when that does come up (usually through one
company pivoting) we make sure that a single partner is assigned to each and
those partners are particularly careful to firewall sensitive information.
It's similar to what YC and SV Angel have done for years and it works well.

------
sandslash
For full transparency: I was Garry's Chief of Staff for 2 years before joining
YC.

Garry and Alexis are the most founder friendly investors I've ever had the
pleasure of working with. Late nights and early mornings in every time zone
were normal for them. When I managed Garry's schedule, he held 3-5 hour blocks
every single day to talk to founders. Then, in addition, we'd squeeze in as
many calls and meetings the schedule would allow to speak with founders who
reached out cold asking for general advice. A nightmare logistically
sometimes, but a true testament to just how much they care about helping
others.

When stereotypes of fund investors are that they are sluggish to make
investments, quick and impatient when it comes to vetting teams and products,
it is refreshing to see that Garry and co consistently break that view with
their founder-first approach.

It might be an understatement for me to say that I'd recommend Initialized to
any founder!

------
tyre
We met Garry, Alina, and Alexis at YC16 investor day. After talking for twenty
minutes, they said "we're going to go talk about you behind your back, then
give you an answer."

They made a decision in 2 minutes.

That's what it's like working with other founders. There's no bullshit. They
proactively ask how they can be helpful, are empathetic and understanding when
we go through tough times, and push us in a great way.

I'm pretty critical of a lot of Silicon Valley, but we are big fans of
Initialized.

------
guiseppecalzone
I’ve known Garry since 2010. Even though he didn't know us at the time - he
met up with us to help us hone our YC pitch. He later became our adviser.
Awhile after, when I showed him our growth numbers, he offered to invest,
which then triggered a round. He didn't need to follow anyone else to decide.
When we had an announcement, Alexis helped get us press. There are tons of
helpful moments like this.

When I talk to other founders, I keep hearing how helpful they are. This is
one of the most talented and genuine groups of people in the valley.

Congrats on the raise!

------
hackerews
I met Garry in 2014 during YC. After our first office hours with him, I knew
Garry would be a valuable go-to. He's a legit advisor because he can dig in at
any level with you - founder stuff, company, go to market, users, working with
big companies, design/code, hiring, raising money, prioritization, etc, etc.
Part of that comes from being a YC partner and seeing that large sample size
of startup problems. But he has also built inspiring products, led teams at
large companies, is a brilliant developer and designer, and flat out an all
around great guy.

So for me, this announcement is bittersweet. Initialized will be great for so
many early stage founders, but now I don't have a simple way to book office
hours with Garry. Well actually, I bet if I shoot him a message, he'd still be
glad to help anytime.

~~~
garry
Thank you so much Paul! Yes, you know where to find me. :-)

------
apoorvamehta
hey - this is apoorva from instacart s12. we'd not have been in YC had it not
been for Garry Tan! full story here: [https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/18/how-
instacart-hacked-yc/](https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/18/how-instacart-hacked-
yc/)

really happy to see this happen. i think this will be great for the community.

------
OoTheNigerian
Congratulations Garry!

A few questions.

1\. An obvious question is: Why start out on your own rather than via YC as
you've done for a while and seems to have succeeded for you.

2\. Would you actively seek investments from outside the United States? As you
may well know, emerging markets are gaining a load of attention. In 3 months
Nigeria would have hosted Zuckerberg, YCombinator and 500 Startups. (You're
always welcome :D)

3\. What's the investment thesis of Initialized. Didn't see an Investment
Thesis on the website.

Congratulations and all the best!

PS: Not sure if you remember me but you were in the panel that interviewed me
for YC in Summer 2014

~~~
garry
YC is awesome and I remain a super big supporter. I owe half my career and
most of my friends to what an awesome family YC has become. What I realized
was just that I could help companies the most in that 9 to 18 months you have
after YC is done. I have a pet theory that in the next ten years, you're going
to see the YC alumni turn into the most powerful set of investors in tech, and
that'll be a good thing because we have a pretty strong shared culture around
being good to founders and helping, and frankly doing no evil, which seems
like it should be a basic thing for early stage investors but really isn't.

We have no specific mandate for US-only, and we think startups are absolutely
happening everywhere and we want to help them.

An investment thesis at the early stage is really hard to do because we don't
know what people are going to start when they're just a few people starting
out. E.g. it would have been impossible to write an investment thesis that
would include Coinbase early on because nobody was thinking about
cryptocurrencies.

Thanks so much for your questions Oo!

------
prayag
Story time folks! I have known Garry and Alexis for many years now. They lead
our seed round and we invited Alexis to be on our board for a brief period of
time.

So, when we were raising Series A, the negotiations with some new investors
were getting a little tenuous. I knew and appreciated that investors are
professional negotiators and do this for a living. I on the other hand was a
first time CEO. So, for some time during the process, I was feeling a
tremendous amount of pressure.

So, one morning I come in to the office feeling sick and questing my ability
to withstand the kind of pressure a growing company's CEO has to endure. First
thing I see is this short email from Alexis "How's it going? How can we
help?". I had talked to Alexis and Garry a few months before about raising a
Series A but I was sure that famous people in the valley with full-time jobs
had more important things to do than check in on a small, pre-series A company
with 10 employees.

I welled up. It was the first time in months that I had felt like someone had
my back. In the end we were able to raise a successful A followed by a
successful B as well but I still go back and read that 2 sentence email from
time to time.

Garry and Alexis are not only awesome investors but wonderful human beings.

------
parkerconrad
Congrats Garry -- I just wanted to chime in with others to say that Garry was
an incredible investor in our seed round -- always helpful, and has been very
loyal in good times and bad. If you can work with him I highly recommend it.

------
datalus
Is there a reason why the startup list is a giant image rather than a table of
links? It'd be nice to hit each startup's landing page as I'm browsing your
list of clients.

Not that big of a deal, though. Interesting VC being product people instead of
finance people :)

~~~
garry
Working on it. :-)

------
michaeldwan
I met Garry while he was a part-time YC partner during S11. Office hours with
him were always helpful and productive. He gave thoughtful product feedback,
facilitated countless fruitful introductions, and helped us navigate
fundraising and an acquisition. He’s laid back, easy to talk to, and doesn’t
bullshit or play games. After YC Initialized invested a small amount in us and
he continued to be one of the most value-add investors we had. I can’t stress
enough how much value these guys bring to the table. I’d be honored to work
with them again.

------
barmstrong
Garry was one of the first investors in Coinbase and acted as my CEO coach for
the first ~6 months of the business, during a very stressful time. He was
incredibly helpful to us early on! Would recommend them as a firm.

------
jakek
This is fantastic news for entrepreneurs everywhere.

Garry has been instrumental to the success of my company from the earliest
days when we were back in YC W11 through to the present day - I'm so excited
for all the new founders who will get an opportunity to work with him as a
result of this new fund. Garry is not only an extremely kind person, extremely
smart,but also completely understands what it means to have ups and downs as a
startup since he's been there and helped hundreds of other companies through
those ups and downs. So when you need someone in your corner he's there every
step of the way. If you're an early stage founder I couldn't recommend
Initialized and Garry more highly - super excited for what Garry and team are
going to build.

------
aerosmile
If you haven't met Garry, Alexis or the rest of the team, by now you will have
read that they have all worked very hard to earn all this good will that's
reflected in the comments. And if you're wondering how you can be like them
one day, it's really very simple - pay it forward and be kind. Obviously, it
helps if you're also incredibly smart and experienced, but the first two items
alone will get you very far.

I first met Alexis in 2011 in Austin, and to this day my wife and I often
reference the many different nuggets of wisdom he shared with us. A couple of
years later, I met Garry at YC, and his support far exceeded the typical
business stuff - we were having a hard time at one point, and his help made
all the difference.

What I appreciate the most about people like this group is that they are
setting a high bar for everyone who's trying to be a value-adding investor -
and people are also stepping up to the plate. The amount of help that my
current startup has received from people with no skin in the game is truly
remarkable, and people like Garry are the real reason why building a startup
in the Valley is easier than anywhere else.

------
ALee
Just wanted to echo the sentiments about having an investor/friend who sticks
with you through the thick/thin. I think some investors are all about downside
protection and it usually manifests in legal instruments that benefit the
investor if anything goes wrong, but more importantly, you can tell by the way
you're treated. It's rare that investors don't have the "game" change them.
They start to focus on their returns, care only about a few number of winners
(when in fact, writing the check is just the beginning to making sure you have
an active winning investment). Lots of these investors completely forget why
they are VCs in the first place.

When Esper was changing from an AI assistant company to a calendar analytics
company, we went through one of these moments. Some investors were immature
frantically trying to find an edge, while some others did everything in their
power to help us transition. When things get tough, you realize who has grit.

I remember thinking that Garry was uncannily nice with us during this trying
time (to be fair, I've known him since we were both founders and consider him
one of my best friends in the bay area). He was always solutions oriented,
introducing us to people, thinking through problems and just giving more of
his and the Initialized team's time than probably we warranted. The reason why
he was that way was because he cares about you (the founders and the team) to
tackle a problem you care about. He would always say that when he started
investing - "I'm just afraid of being a straight vampire" i.e. an investor who
is just leeching off a growing beast.

In a weird way, he's the type of investor, similar to how PG describes great
companies - they're kind of like non-profits. They just want to solve problems
and it'll work out. That's probably the reason why he's done so well.

Anyway, respect him because he sure as hell respects you.

------
FT_intern
This comments section feels like an Amazon review page of a product that
launched a month ago with 1000 5 star "received product with discount here is
my unbiased opinion" reviews.

~~~
dang
It's because Garry really cares about (a) other people and (b) what he does.
That kind of thing produces this sort of comment section.

The effect is amplified because many of the people Garry has helped are part
of this community. That includes me personally, not to mention various things
he's done for HN itself over the years.

------
arshmand
Congrats Garry, Alexis and team. Just to add another anecdote: We are backed
by Initialized coming out of YC S16 batch. Incredibly awesome to work with
such founder friendly investors. I'm sure the perspective that Garry/Alexis
gained by going through YC themselves gives them this sort of empathy towards
other founders.

------
7cupsoftea
Just a quick note to say congrats to Garry and Alexis. Garry helped us out a
ton at 7 cups. He said a startup is like a magnet. The more users you attract,
the more powerful your magnet becomes. Alexis has also always been very
encouraging and helpful in figuring out things that are not obvious. I highly
recommend Initialized!

~~~
Angostura
> He said a startup is like a magnet. The more users you attract, the more
> powerful your magnet becomes.

It doesn't matter what I swap out for 'users' in this analogy, I can't make it
make sense. It sounds impressive though.

~~~
vadym909
network effects. If you are a marketplace or service you need both sides
ramping up fast- the more users you get the more valuable it becomes and
easier to attract more and so on.

~~~
Angostura
...and this is like a magnet.... how?

~~~
cyphar
Might be something like adding an iron core to your magnet? Not sure, the
analogy is sketchy at best.

~~~
garry
One talk I like to give at college campuses is such: A startup is like the
obscure 1990's Playstation game Katamari Damacy. You start off with a small
magic ball about the size of a pencil eraser. You can pick up anything smaller
than you, but if you try to pick up something too big, you bounce off and get
smaller. You start picking up paperclips and chess pieces, and then by the end
of the game (spoiler alert) you end up picking up skyscrapers and continents
and such.

It's like that. You start with bringing your cofounders together. Then you add
your first customers. Then maybe you raise a little bit of friends and family
money, and that lets you put more money into customer acquisition, which gets
you more cofounders, which lets you get more revenue to hire a few more
people, and raise more money, and so on.

So startups are like katamari damacy, and if you win, you end up picking up an
entire industry.

~~~
BillionaireBear
Upvoting this because of the Katamari Damacy shout out!

Unrelated, but did you ever play Nobi Nobi Boy from the same creator?

~~~
garry
Yes, a long time ago — I forgot what it was called but thanks for the
reminder! My 15 mo old at home will love it!

~~~
BillionaireBear
Hahah! Yes he will. Happy to help.

------
dbburton
Congrats to Garry and the Team. Garry was one of our partners during YC W15 -
he was incredibly insightful on product and design, generous with his time,
and just plain nice throughout.

~~~
garry
Thank you so much Dan! Really appreciate it.

------
skdoo
Sanjay here from Boosted S12. Garry and Alexis and team were one of our first
investors and have been some of the best people we've worked with. I am so
excited for them and for all the new founders who will get to work with them.

------
vecter
Our company was part of YC S12, which was a huge batch before YC sharded
itself into clusters. During that summer, Garry was one of few partners we
actively sought out for advice. He was always extremely helpful, especially
with product and UI suggestions.

Initialized was one of our earliest post-YC investors and we've been
incredibly happy with their support for us during the many years since YC.
We're happy to have them onboard and still talk with the partners quite
frequently relative to many of our other investors. I'm excited to see what
these guys will accomplish with their new fund!

------
foobarqux
Has one of the GPs directly invested in each of the startups listed on the
"About Us" page or are some of those startups listed because of an advisory
relationship or indirect investment (e.g. carried interest)?

~~~
garry
We've invested in all of them, almost all of them in the earliest possible
seed stage. (Small nit: Carried interest doesn't have anything to do with
advisory shares.)

~~~
foobarqux
The sentence was a bit ambiguous. I should have written "or _other_ indirect
investment, like carried interest" to be clear.

------
technofiend
Did you guys recycle a domain name? Blocked due to security concerns. You may
need to work with the big vendors to get yourselves off the naughty list for
actions taken by prior domain owners.

~~~
garry
We finally got the initialized.com domain this year. What are you seeing? Let
us know and we'll take care of it. Thanks for the note.

~~~
technofiend
I wish I could be more helpful but I'm not aware of what vendor supplies my
work proxy / site access rules: it's not part of the error message. I asked if
the domain was parked for a while because it's flagged as potentially a
placeholder domain.

------
dsugarman
It has been great to work with Initialized so far. When we had bad times,
other investors acted poorly, they supported us. When we were going through a
pivot, Garry gave us weekly office hours during a very busy time in his life.
This allowed us to keep pace like we were still in YC even though it was 3
years after still under the same company and it set us up properly for the
crazy growth we had for the next year. I would highly recommend them to anyone
who has a chance to work with them.

------
rmorrison
Garry, Alexis, and Initialized have been extremely helpful and hard-working
investors in my company for ~5 years. I love that they're founders themselves,
which means they know what it takes and they work really hard to help their
portfolio companies. These are the investors you want on your side,
particularly when you run into road bumps. I highly recommend them as
investors, and I'm happy to answer any questions (my email is in my profile).

~~~
tlawal87
They sound like amazing guys to work with. I'm sending you an email.

------
collinjackson
I feel very lucky to have had an opportunity to work with Garry and
Initialized. They are incredibly helpful investors and I expect big things to
come from the new fund.

------
ckelly
This is fantastic news for founders. Survata (S12) was pumped to have
Initialized in our Series A last year. Garry worked the closest with us of all
YC partners, and Alexis had already been a customer! They make valuable
customer intros, always offer time to help, and have such a pro-founder view
of the world.

------
bedros
Hi Garry, and congrats on your new firm.

the age old question comes to mind; how do you value startups with a prototype
with little traction. assuming the target market is the size of markets for
airbnb,facebook,dropbox, etc.

do you guys follow YC with a fixed rate, (7% for 120K) like 10% for 1M; do you
have a min and max for equity and valuation?

Thanks,

~~~
garry
At the early stage this is always classically difficult. For both founders and
early stage investors, you're balancing dilution vs. percentage ownership.

We think buying 5% of the company is the right level for a given seed fund.
It's enough to be significant to return the fund, but not so much that you're
crowding everyone else who you would want in the round. It takes a village to
build a great startup and we particularly like to help founders put together a
good syndicate of angels and seed funds, all of whom can help with advice,
connections, customers, employees and just general support.

It's basically binary whether a company gets to metrics that help it either be
profitable or get to a Series A— so that's why at the early stage (all the way
to Series A really) most VCs work backwards from percentage ownership. So we
write checks of as small as $300K for earlier companies at lower valuation, up
to $1M or more for companies later stage.

It's enough to either get to the next milestone, or put together a good round.
All of the real work happens after the raise, and it's usually a huge relief
to founders to be able to get back to work.

------
waxman
Garry and the Initialized crew are simply the best!

You can really judge investors by how helpful they are during adversity.
Through ups and downs, but especially the downs, Garry and Initialized have
been the absolute best!

If you're a founder and you have an opportunity to team up with them, do it
without hesitation!

------
dkobran
Initialized is venture capital without the attitude. Garry has been an
incredible advisor to us ever since our first YC interview (he and Alexis were
both there actually). Could not imagine a more down to earth, insightful and
energetic group. Congrats!

------
pjg
Garry - way to go!! Raising a fund of 100M+ while being so founder friendly is
not easy. Of course building a stellar team helps. Nicely done!

I read your farewell letter when you left YC - you hit the nail on head by
saying you haven't decided what to do because that would obviate the
"founder's perspective". Founders who are going to a known from a known will
never know the unknowns faced by a startup.

Everybody I've talked to has raves to say about you. We're solving the problem
of paper Checks. People and Businesses are still writing paper Checks.
Contrary to popular opinion, Checks moved 5X the money as VISA and MC combined
in 2014. We're already seed funded but would love to talk more.

~~~
garry
Thanks for the note. I'm happy to talk more — garry@initialized.com.

------
ajkates
Congratulations to Garry, Alexis, Alina, and team! Such an awesome group---and
an immense pleasure to work with. You won't find a more beloved group of
partners in the entire Valley. So excited to be sharing in this journey
together!

------
ryankrucker
Seeing that minority black founders/teams only represent on average 3% of YC
batches and you're current portfolio represents almost 2/3 YC, how would you
suggest a founder who just so happens to be black navigate success or an
opportunity with Initialized?

Also, if warm intros are the most effective lead source for deals but most of
the YC network is non-black how does that at all address the huge diversity
issue thats happening in Silicon Valley that everyone swears they are
attempting to fix.

Does Initialized remotely care about this? If so, what are the numbers you can
show to prove it?

~~~
garry
We absolutely do. Kim-Mai Cutler has been great here making sure that we
invite a diverse set of folks to our happy hours and events. We don't track
ethnicity in our portfolio but do have many Latino, Latina and African-
American founders. We are gonna do more here.

------
nickadam
This site needs to be recategorized
[https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/initialized.com](https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/initialized.com)

~~~
garry
Thanks for this. Working on a fix.

------
qwrusz
I don't know these guys. I just want to say kudos for launching a VC fund the
way they did:

-Announced in public and on VC website.

-Who you are

-What you look for

-What you offer ($ size _and_ intangibles from partners)

-What track record/prior vintages look like

-How to reach you

Too many VC funds are too opaque or they ask founders to go hunt down a random
mutual connection, bother that 3rd person and then circle back to get
introduced to the VC.

I like Initialized approach here and wish you a lot of success.

P.S. If nitpicking the website isn't exactly the most impressive looking.
Doesn't bother me one bit. KISS. Hope founders look past that too.

------
nim
This is great news for future startup founders! Having worked with Garry
personally I can absolutely attest he is top notch. (disclaimer / cred: our
startup is a part of the Initialized portfolio)

------
lorenbaxter
Garry and Alexis have been a huge help in getting Priime started, and have
consistently given us solid feedback along the way. I can't say enough how
excited I am to see them launch. Congrats guys!

------
lancerpickens
Garry is bar none one of the best investors I've ever had the privilege to
have worked with. Garry is down to earth and a great advisor. Highly recommend
working with Garry to any entrepreneurs.

------
GraffitiTim
I still remember the time we came to office hours with Garry to get some
advice on how to approach designing a new product, and in 15 minutes he
sketched out an entire design -- which we used.

------
clairethere
Congrats, Garry! It's a rare treat to get to work with people as smart, savvy,
helpful, and kind as you and your team. I'm glad more founders will have the
chance w this new fund.

------
kaistinchcombe
Garry saved my company … twice. There is nobody like this team.

------
mrmch
Super stoked to see this announcement, I know Garry has been cranking on the
new fund.

Canadian founders, Garry+Alexis are super canuck friendly, some of the best
investors we have :)

------
saadrizvi
Congratulations Garry, Alina and Alexis! We feel incredibly lucky to be backed
by them. Super founder friendly, tremendously helpful and always have your
back!

------
tomharari
Garry and Alexis were early believers in Cleanly and have been incredible seed
investors. Highly recommend them if you can get them on your side.

------
jvrossb
Could not recommend an investor more strongly. Incredible how they've
progressed since we met them with their Initialized hats on in 2012.

------
btrautsc
Few investors I've met feel like they're completely on your side. Garry and
Alexis are two of few, and there is absolutely zero doubt.

------
estitesc
Garry and Initialized have been amazing to work with. So happy for you and
can't wait to see what awesome companies you invest in next...

------
kalvin
Another upvote for Garry and Alexis from a YC alum! Garry was such an
empathetic, helpful person throughout our startup journey.

------
jstreebin
Can't recommend Garry and the team highly enough. They've been incredibly
helpful and we owe a lot to them!

------
cedricdahl
Garry & Alexis are two of my favorite investors. They came on early in our
startup and did everything you would want from a good investor. Besides being
2 of the nicest people on earth they're smart, connected, and will do
everything they can to help. Love these guys.

------
yc-kraln
I'm curious to know if there is a specific market you are focusing on (in
terms of target market, such as IoT, Security as well as regionally).

How would someone make the determination that you are the right firm to pitch
to? How would they bend your ear? What's the best way to get your attention?
I'm missing a lot of this from your site.

~~~
garry
We built software companies, so that tends to be what we know the best.

I think the question of sector is really hard for this stage of investment
because early on I learned that the best companies to invest in aren't the
ones who are hitting some specific buzzword like IoT, etc. Great startups
don't work that way — they start with founders going after some specific
problem and then later they become trends.

So that's why we think of meeting founders as just "doing the work." We have
no choice but to talk to as many people as we can, and then meet them in
person when it's useful, novel, or real. Please email me directly —
garry@initialized.com.

------
mmmmax
Garry, this is a big fund. What can you do for founders with a large fund that
you can't do with a small one?

~~~
garry
There are lots of small seed funds now! And many of them are new. This way we
can lead seed rounds and so when a founder gets our money, they know they'll
be done soon (lots of smaller investors will follow on quickly) and will be
able to get back to work faster.

Fundraising is always the worst, so anything that helps founders get done
faster is the right thing.

------
stephenvlahos
Garry is an amazing investor and a great advisor! Wishing these guys the best
of luck!

------
stephenvlahos
Garry is an amazing investor and advisor! Wish these guys the best of luck.

------
wasd
Hey Init! Congrats on the launch.

Curious, have you funded any startups under Init? If I had to guess, "Our
Startups" are startups you (Garry / Alexis /et al) personally invested in.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
I noticed that and felt it was a bit disingenuous; it's not as though
Instacart (for example) interacted with or benefited from Initialized Capital
in its early stages, and the relationships between Instacart and the Init team
members who once invested in them are not necessarily good proxies for the
type of service Init will provide new startups.

~~~
garry
That's not actually true, we invested in their seed round directly from
Initialized Capital. Apoorva's in the thread above with a testimonial. :-)

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
I stand, corrected.

------
vskr
What percent of company do you expect in return. YC has a pretty deterministic
formula. Do you have a similar formula? Or do you decide (or negotiate) on a
case-by-case basis

~~~
garry
It really varies based on the company, stage, market. Check size typically
$500K to $1M. We typically try to be the biggest investor in someone's seed
round, and when we invest, the founder knows their round will be closed soon
and they can get back to work!

------
Anahit_AM
I want to pen IT management office in Armenia can you answer me about startup
amount

------
eattropics
Are you actively seeking startups or do you wait for them to come to you?

What would be your Ideal investment and are you investing in Food Tech
startups?

------
ahaseeb
Garry was our group Partner in YC S'14 and I am lucky enough to know Alexis as
well. Fantastic team that you want on your side.

------
PStamatiou
Congrats Garry!! Curious who else is on the investment team?

"We’re founders who are engineers, designers, and product people. "

~~~
garry
It's just me, Alexis and Alina. :-)

------
alibaba2020
Salute Garry and team.. congrats Q:how founders will get in touch with you?
Via referral like the rest?

~~~
garry
I'm at garry@initialized.com!

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ilithiumi
garry and alexis are two of the best in the valley! a big congrats for all
your hard work :)

------
TedBlosser
congrats Garry and team! Any entrepreneur is lucky to have your team in their
corner.

------
brandnewlow
The news is out! Congrats guys!

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stonlyb
Congrats Gary! Will you be sharing your deal flow or syndicating any of your
deals?

~~~
garry
We're trying to figure this out now — we're friends with both FundersClub and
AngelList folks and it's something we've been talking about.

------
bastian
Huge congrats Garry. Maybe we will find a way to work together in the future!

~~~
garry
Dude yes. Congrats on the ongoing success!

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volkk
very cool. i know you guys mention startups, and IMO thats a pretty generally
encompassing term. would that include game development?

~~~
bkanber
Probably not. They're looking for companies with upside potential in the
billions of dollars and game development doesn't really do that.

Unless you're aiming to build the next Unity or game dev/hosting platform,
it's unlikely you'll get a Silicon Valley VC to invest in gamedev.

------
cloudjacker
What are you looking for in your portfolio?

------
ranidu
Congrats Garry!

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dmritard96
any interest/aversion to hardware or hardware/software?

~~~
garry
We've definitely funded hardware and hardware that's software-enabled. The
economics and and execution required are very critical, so the bar just gets
set higher, I think.

------
davidrjm
congrats guys! great partnering with you and look forward to seeing where you
dig in with this fund

------
jasonwilk
Congrats guys!

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Skeptique
Dear Garry - is any VC really "founder friendly"? VCs expect founders to work
for zero or minimal salary. Even a below-market salary is incredibly painful
in any metro.

My question -- will VC-funded startups ever enter the realm of the non-wealthy
and/or beyond bro's willing to bunk up in a studio apt?

~~~
CyrusL
Not true at all. The general opinion of investors in Silicon Valley is that is
that after a seed round, founders should take a salary where they aren't
worried about their bills but aren't getting rich.

