Jeff is a partner at Renaissance Venture Capital an innovative venture capital fund of funds. Jeff’s diverse background in venture capital and technology and his experience working in various start-up ventures uniquely position him to advise startups. In addition, Jeff is quite active in the Michigan start-up community, volunteering his time to mentor young entrepreneurs, judge pitch competitions, and guest lecture student classes and organizations. Through Jeff’s work on the Fund, his volunteer efforts, and his role as the chair of the Michigan Venture Capital Association’s board of directors, his passion for fostering a productive environment for venture capital investment in the State of Michigan is evident.
You can find Jeff on his socials here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rinvelt
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rinvelt/
Martin Tobias is the Managing Partner and Founder of Incisive Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of technology companies that reduce friction at scale.
Martin was previously at Accenture and Microsoft and is a former Venture Partner at Ignition Partners. Martin is a 3X venture-funded CEO rising over $500M as CEO with two IPOs who has also invested in hundreds of companies and is a limited partner in over a dozen VC funds. Martin was an early investor in Google, Docusign, OpenSea, and over a dozen Unicorns.
Martin is the father of 3 daughters, a cyclist, surfer, poker player, and life hacker. Martin tinkers with motorcycles on the weekends. He writes about Venture Capital on Incisive Ventures blog and Twitter.
You can find Martin on his socials here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MartinGTobias
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martintobias/
And huge thanks to this episode’s sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
Brought to you by Alchemist Accelerator.
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Introducing Jeff Rinvelt and Martin Tobias
[04:14] What was Jeff’s pitch to their LPs for Renaissance Capital?
[06:30] Why did Jeff pivot from being a founder to an LP?
[08:10] Renaissance Capital’s portfolio construction model
[13:00] Jeff’s involvement in non-profits
[15:56] How did Martin become an angel investor?
[18:03] The big lesson from being an LP in SV Angel’s Fund I and II
[20:10] Why is Martin starting a fund now?
[26:07] A lesson on variable check sizes
[28:53] What is Martin’s value add to founders?
[33:29] What stood out about Martin’s deck and email when it arrived in Jeff’s inbox?
[35:43] The 2 biggest worries Martin had in sharing his deck with Jeff
[36:47] What does Jeff think about generalists?
[40:49] What held Jeff back from making an investment in Incisive Ventures?
[42:37] What kinds of conversations does Martin usually have with LPs?
[47:05] One of the greatest professional lessons Jeff picked up as a manager
[49:07] Martin’s greatest lesson from his days as a CEO
[51:57] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!
[54:33] Like, comment and share if you enjoyed the episode
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Renaissance Venture Capital
- Techstars
- Greycroft
- 5AM Ventures
- Sierra Ventures
- Michigan Venture Capital Association
- Michigan Founders Fund
- Incisive Ventures
- Cintrifuse (Cincinnati)
- Houston Exponential
- Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained (Wisconsin)
- Andersen Consulting (now Accenture)
- Microsoft
- Steve Krausz
- U.S. Venture Partners
- Ron Conway
- SV Angel
- Larry Page
- Sergey Brin
- Dave Asprey
- Upgrade Labs
- Ignition Partners
- Docusign
- CalPERS
- Madrona
- Bessemer’s Anti-Portfolio
- Imperium Renewables
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“One of the things a lot of investors don’t do is go back and be honest about where they got fucking lucky and where they had a thesis that they could potentially replicate in future investments.”
– Martin Tobias
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