Why I’m Joining Main Sequence Ventures

After almost 20 years in venture capital, I’ve seen some things….market cycles, recessions, bubbles, births of new industries and amazing technological advances, saved lives and small conveniences. I’ve also borne witness to entrepreneurs sacrificing almost everything — relationships, marriages, mental health, life savings, self esteem — to realise their vision and sometimes financial security, while other, equally hard working and deserving entrepreneurs have realised loss. Along the way, as an investor, I’ve played a small part in it all, including the joy and the heartbreak of the founders I backed. While at the same time, experiencing joy and heartbreak myself. Some of it well documented, some of it in the shadows.

It’s definitely not everyone’s idea of a vocational calling, but it is mine.

A couple of key learnings I’ve collected along the way:

• People are ground zero. As a professor from my MIT stint used to say, the single requirement (but not sufficiency) for an entrepreneurial ecosystem to exist is the entrepreneur. Without them, the ideas wouldn’t be conceived, the envelopes would remain unpushed, the impossible would not be made possible. And while I know that some tech ventures are often categorised as mild conveniences or ‘assisted living for millenials’, even the most cynical must concede these businesses create jobs, industries, knowledge and sometimes generational wealth which creates a flywheel for progress and advancement. In the same way as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village for a startup to thrive. While technology may be the catalyst, the engine is the unique collaboration of humans that enables new problems to be solved, new markets to be created, capital to be invested when the risk is high, and customers to be convinced. And so, while other factors impact success, such as timing, finding or creating the alchemy of the right people, at the right time, with the right characteristics, is the most critical component.
• Venture is a scale and timing game. Starting your own fund is hard — I know I’ve helped to start two over the last five years — and it’s almost impossible to do without a side hustle to pay the bills. But the harsher reality is it’s hard (but not impossible!) to generate top quartile returns with a subscale fund, because the structural playbook of venture almost requires you be able to follow on through multiple rounds (I may write another blog to expand on this later). Very few sectors enable this, and so investing from a fund of scale is becomes important to meet the needs of investors and of founders. This is particularly valid if you invest in deep tech.
• Go bold or go home. Venture as an asset class rewards the brave. It also punishes them if you get the timing wrong. But in the words of Fleetwood Mac “but time makes you bolder” and the older I get, the bolder my ambition is and the more I want to be involved in something truly impactful. Very likely this has something to do with me confronting my mortality, not having kids and wanting to leave a legacy, yada yada yada. But also, if you live long enough, you also get confronted by many unacceptable things about our planet which I can’t abide, like climate change, health care inequality and others. And while some people get into venture for rEaSoNs, my experience is many just want to help others build things and ‘make a difference” (TM pending) because they realise they are not the architect in that analogy, but the developer. As a healthtech investor that morphed into a generalist investor, and who has recently had the privilege to work with the Universities and federal government with early stage and technology driven opportunities, I’ve developed a gravitational pull to use my skills and experience to help solve big problems that impact our planet.

And while there are plenty more learnings, the trinity of tenets above are the reasons I’ve joined Main Sequence Ventures, because they embody the best of how venture can play a role in doing something of significance.

• Phil, Gabs, Mike, Emerald, Mike, Erika, Dani, Martin, Alex, Bill, Virginia, Jason (x2) Jen, AB, Jo and Ben are wonderful humans, and I can say that because I’ve known many of these folk for a long time, I have co-invested with them, and I have heard what their portfolio companies have said about how they have helped.
• Main Sequence now have over $1 Billion under management, investing from pre-seed stages to later stages, meaning they have the capacity and the skill to back founders and hard problems, deeply.
• They have a ambitious goal to use their investment capital and skill to help entrepreneurs solve some of our biggest global challenges (6 in fact). How to scale access to healthcare, how to feed $10Bn people, how to address climate change, and many others.

I can’t think of a better fit. I’m incredibly lucky they have welcomed me so warmly into the team, and I look forward to helping play a continuing role in creating Australia’s industries of the future while also solving some of our biggest problems.