Venture Capital, Reimagined: A Conversation with Mike Collins
episode
Startup Success: A Podcast for Founders & Investors
28 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 16 days ago
Transcript
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What makes Alumni Ventures’ VC model different from traditional firms?
Welcome to Startup Success, the podcast for startup founders and investors. Here you'll find stories of success from others in the trenches as they work to scale some of the fastest growing startups in the world. Stories that will help you in your own journey. Startup Success starts now.
Welcome to Startup Success. Today we have Mike Collins, who is the founder of Alumni Ventures and now the CEO. And this is a real treat because Alumni Ventures is a very well-known VC firm. So we're super excited to have you, Mike. Thanks for being here. So I'd love to hear, in your own words, how Alumni Ventures is different from most VC firms. firms we speak to and then we can get into why you felt the need to found your firm in this direction, if you wouldn't mind.
Yeah, sure. I a couple of main ways. One is most venture capital firms get their capital from institutions, endowments, pension funds, sovereign wealth, money. Our capital comes from individuals. So, you know, we're a huge network of people, all accredited, but around the globe. And the basic ideas that, you know, we think venture capital is really important, including for individuals to have in their portfolio and that we could do better with this all important asset class together than any of us could do on our own. From an investing strategy standpoint, we really try to we we're a co-investor. So we're not going on boards, we're not pricing rounds, we're not firing management, we are supportive co-investor.
And we get access to what we think are really top-tier deals because of that same network. So if you're an entrepreneur, You obviously have a relationship with a lead investor. That's you know, that's that's almost the marriage, right? Right. We're we're more like your favorite uncle, you know. So it's we leave you alone, but we really when you need help, we really try to be helpful and you know, we're helpful in ways, you know, usually with introductions to people within our network. So, you know, hiring board members, customers, talking to other entrepreneurs who might be at this similar stage or in a similar industry. we try to add value that way. And I think our reputation, one of the reasons we've grown and been as successful as we have been, is I think w our reputation is that we really kind of punch above our weight class when it comes to helping
entrepreneurs. And so, you know, we have a particular niche in the industry. You know, this co-investing strategy means, you know, we work with everybody. So we don't we don't compete. You know, we do dozens and dozens of deals with, you know, the name brand venture firms, you know, our most common lead investors, you know, we're behind KOSla and A sixteen Z and Sequoia and Lightspeed and USV and really amazing lead investors. And we and we're just a small part of the round and try to be helpful.
I really liked how you described that. You you really captured how unique you all are. And I I interview a lot of founders and they're they're always, you know, they have so much respect for alumni, but they don't always get it sometimes. So you did a great job of explaining it. Tell us, I want to delve into that more, but tell us why you felt the need to found the firm and a little bit about your background. I find that really interesting.
So I'm an old timer. So I I my first job in Venture Capital was in 1986. So time machine. This is personal computer is just starting to happen. It's thought of as a toy. There's no internet.
Why did Mike Collins decide to build a VC firm focused on individual accredited investors?
There's no no mobile phone, no cloud computing, no blockchain. It was it was a different era, but I was with a great firm in Boston called TA Associates at the beginning of my career. So had great mentors, really learned a lot, big influence on me, and went back to business school, Harvard Business School, where I again had great influences, including, you know, a guy named Clayton Christensen. Clay was a a g again a big impact on my life. as just an intellectual powerhouse, really, you know, wrote some of the seminal work in entrepreneurship and innovation. Innovators dilemma is a bible of, you know, entrepreneurship and
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What makes Alumni Ventures’ VC model different from traditional firms?
0:01–4:15
2
Why did Mike Collins decide to build a VC firm focused on individual accredited investors?
4:15–7:50
3
How does Alumni Ventures evaluate startups and choose co‑investors?
7:50–11:46
4
What kind of support does Alumni Ventures provide to founders beyond capital?
11:46–14:43
5
Is AI the only hot sector, or are there other industries Alumni Ventures is excited about?
14:43–18:06
6
What emerging sectors (energy, health, space, quantum) does Mike see as the next wave of innovation?
18:06–21:31
7
What is Mike’s three‑word advice for founders navigating today’s startup ecosystem?
21:31–25:27
8
Where can listeners learn more about joining Alumni Ventures or accessing its network?
25:27–28:04
Speakers
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