Announcing Slow Ventures 2
A New Chapter
We are pleased to announce the start of Slow Ventures 2, and the opening of a new chapter for Slow Ventures.
Slow was originally founded in 2011 by Dave Morin and a group of friends that came together while building Facebook. The group shared a passion for entrepreneurship and a deep excitement about the fundamental ways in which the technology of our time is redefining the world we live in deeply and completely. A big part of the idea behind Slow was to create a framework for sharing and debating ideas with each other, and to be able to collectively help entrepreneurs in the infrequent instances where “experience” is valuable.
Over the course of our first fund, those friends, joined by a few others, were privileged to have the opportunity to invest in more than 180 wonderful early stage companies and entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and beyond who are building meaningful and impactful things all over the world.
A few months ago Slow was drawing towards the close of its first installment, and, Kevin Colleran, who had taken on an active role managing the group, suggested that it may be time for Slow to grow beyond its original framing as an investment club. Even in just the last few years the pace of technology has very clearly sped up. The once narrow definition of “tech” companies has dramatically expanded as new platforms make it possible for technology to reach into the real world. The number of extremely exciting and impactful companies being founded every year is growing appreciatively.
As a direct result of those conversations, today, we are pleased to announce Slow Ventures 2. The fund is $65M and will be deployed to help seed and nurture companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and beyond. The Limited Partners are a set of technology entrepreneurs and leaders, and a select set of venture capital firms, who share a passion for all of the change we see around us and want to accelerate the future. In keeping with the spirit of the original Slow vision, all of our LPs are people with whom we enjoy dreaming and debating.
The fund has three partners: Kevin Colleran, Dave Morin, and Sam Lessin. Kevin is leading the fund as the Managing Partner. In addition to investing, Kevin is responsible for the operations of Slow. Day-to-day, Dave is focused as the CEO of Path, and Sam will also be focused as an entrepreneur; but both are deeply committed to helping to grow the Slow family of companies and will be involved in all investment decisions of the fund.
Sometimes we are asked about the philosophy, thesis and areas of focus for Slow. We will be sharing more of this over time, but suffice it to say for now that we believe that the future is very bright, and very different than the present. We believe in people above all else. We champion the premise that truly great ideas require long-term thinking and time, despite the seeming evidence to the contrary all around us (thus the name of the firm). If you are looking for a slightly more specific indication, for now we suggest you look at a selection of the companies we have invested in before: angel.co/slow.
To The Future,
Kevin, Dave, and Sam
