Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in Silicon Valley, having closed 200+ investments since 2004. An early angel investor in Web 2.0, Jeff and his team have backed successful startups like Mint (Intuit), Kongregate (GameStop), Brightroll (Yahoo), LiveRamp (Acxiom), Milo (eBay), Wildfire (Google), Bleacher Report (Turner), Gnip (Twitter), Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), Eventbrite, Sendgrid, Poshmark, Hired, Postmates, Shippo, Front and Molekule. The portfolio has also seen acquisitions by Groupon, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and AOL. The firm is currently investing out of its $100M Fund V, making on average 15 seed commitments of $1M per year in mobile/cloud saas, consumer services, connected devices, marketplaces and “frontier tech” (AI, AR/VR, autonomous vehicles, digital manufacturing and material science, space tech).
Listen and Learn:
- Why brand is incredibly important in venture capital
- The importance of networking and diversity in investing
- Why Jeff’s investment thesis had changed over the years
- The reason Uncork only invests in businesses that matter
- Why Jeff thinks blockchain is a just hype and manipulated markets
- How to think about investing in frontier tech
- What most people don’t know about venture
- How Jeff efficiently manages his time
- Why the best investments break your rule book
Jeff’s Projects:
Jeff’s Twitter: @jeff
Uncork Capital’s Twitter: @uncorkcap
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