The Hypothetical Thesis
Yes, this really is a thing and we’re really serious about this.
A New Beginning
Welcome to Hypothetical Capital, a hypothetical VC firm that is testing a hypothesis.
We are excited for you to come along on this journey with us. We (Ali and Angelo) created Hypothetical Capital with the intentions of it being a high-touch firm dedicated to helping founders become the best founder they can be.
We have been hard at work developing a systematic fund criteria that will be used to evaluate and support companies. We have identified key areas that we felt have been underestimated in indicating potential founder success and we are excited to share them with you.
Hypothetical Capital is starting up Hypothetical Fund I (HYFI) - we have a lot of money secured and are excited to get to work. We’ve raised a total of $0 for the fund and we will disperse this amongst exciting companies. To be clear, we don’t plan to raise any more in the future. In this thesis, we present our logic behind our investment criteria.
Why We Are Doing This
We think the barrier to entry for starting great companies needs to be lowered. Economies around the world depend on quality business formation for growth. A rising tide lifts all boats and we want to make sure more parties can participate.
Our assumptions* for acquiring investments are the following:
- Companies who don’t pitch often are less likely to be prepared for success.
- Companies who aren’t located near VC firms have less opportunities, and chances for success are hampered.
- It is difficult to achieve validation when it takes money to accomplish said validation.
- Companies should seek validation as early as possible and the methods to do so can be more efficient.
- Business is hard, but living with no stable income while you spend your time and money on an idea is harder. Exposing entrepreneurs to the fundraising processes earlier is a way to address the need to sustain oneself.
If you want to learn more about our logic, we’ve written an extensive article on our assumptions and the reasoning behind each. Click here to read it.
What We Plan To Do As A Result
Hypothetical Capital has opened its doors** for companies to practice their pitch and we will give feedback as if we were an actual fund because we are an actual fund.
If we like your company, we can simulate the investment process for your current round.
We want to be a valuable resource through your founder journey — we can’t add capital but can add experience. Our assumption is that people love helping people and chances are, founders are going to run into problems that other founders have already faced. We probably know someone*** who can help when you’re looking for advice in your time of need.
Has this been done before? Maybe! We started Hypothetical Capital because we love start-ups and want to help. This help will initially start with reviewing your pitches and exposing you to the process and creating content aimed for beginners.
We believe the criteria for success for the Hypothetical Capital firm is having portfolio companies get term sheets from real Venture Capital firms with real money. Trust us, we know fake money.
Our team is small but capable. We’re friends who met on the Internet over our mutual love of start-ups and also happen to be from South Florida. Between the two of us, we have seen around 30+ pitches, helped others with their decks and pitched our own startups hundreds of times. We have been in the line of fire and in Angelo’s case, gave the fire as well. In case you care, this is who we are:
Ali Finkelstein graduated from MIT with a Master’s of Engineering and Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. During her time at MIT, she was a researcher at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the MIT Media Lab and interned at Toast and DirecTV. After graduating, she delved into cryptocurrency and blockchain. She worked as the developer evangelist for Lightyear.io, growing out the developer community for the Stellar Development Foundation. She is now pursuing changing the field of emergency medicine with her own start-up — ERinfo.me. Ali is driven by innovation and has knowledge in the fields of security, databases, and systems. But really, she considers herself a “jack of all trades,” as she is always striving to learn new skills and new topics. If you want to strike up a conversation with her, ask her about her favorite YouTuber. You can find her on Twitter @endingwithali.
Hailing from Miami, Florida — Angelo Saraceno holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Florida International University. He is currently is a Product Manager at a enterprise software company. With an unconventional background, he lived multiple lives doing everything from working in park service and retail to leading companies. Angelo leverages oft referenced experiences to connect the dots for difficult challenges that the firm and its companies might take on. Angelo owes his success to the networks of colleagues he has built in the tech industry and as a result, has spent his academic time in community organization. He has served in officer positions of numerous clubs and raised over $70K in grant funding from large tech companies. He spent his time as undergraduate working in entrepreneurship circles and traveling the country learning about what it takes to build successful teams and businesses. In his spare time, Angelo enjoys salsa dancing and thinks soccer is the most beautiful thing on this Earth. You can find him on Twitter @ndneighbor.
A Promise To Founders
Uncompromising honesty is the best policy. This policy is in two parts:
First, we believe in failing fast. When we see a great idea, we will tell you it’s a great idea. When we see a bad idea, we want to help you turn it into a great idea. We are incentivized to be as honest and as helpful as possible, as we are a $0M firm. The act of pitching puts many founders on edge, so just imagine us as your friends. You can’t substitute honest feedback and a strong support network with a textbook.
Second, we aspire to be good confidants.
We promise to uphold confidentiality. As founders ourselves, we understand how uncomfortable it can be to share your deck. Founder comfort is our upmost priority and any pitch you present to us won’t be mentioned to other parties unless you explicitly grant us permission to do so. We think that the people we talk to should share our values and hopefully we have been good judges of character if we do share decks within our network.
Yes, we can do this.
We believe we can do this because we have quite a bit of exposure to the entrepreneurial community and have been / are going through these processes. Does this make us completely qualified? No — not at all. But, hopefully over time we will become qualified. As all entrepreneurs say — you have to start somewhere. Usually VC’s**** are former founders and entrepreneurs, but we see no reason to why we cannot do both at the same time. As they say in Miami (and Old El Paso commercials), ‘porque no los dos’.
To reiterate, this is 100% real. We’re really serious about this. We really have no money, but we really want to help. Feel free to reach out to us via Twitter DMs @hypocap or shoot us an email at email@hypothetical.capital. Founder, VC, or other, our DMs are open.
If you’re a new founder and what we’ve said has resonated with you, checkout our website and apply to pitch. It’s 100% free.
We’d like to thank everyone who helped us raise and we can’t wait to deliver returns. We look forward to the future of Hypothetical Capital and we are excited to start helping entrepreneurs and founders build their fantastic companies.
The Very Important Side Notes:
* These are general summaries of each of our assumptions. To have a deeper understanding, please read our explanation here.
** We are are only two people. Bandwidth may vary. Availability of services contingent on time. (There are only so many hours in a day and Angelo likes to play FIFA)
*** Founder? Want to share your story? Want to get involved? Email us at email@hypothetical.capital.
**** VC or Angel? Want to invest or get involved? We don’t want money but we would love to connect and hear your advice. Email us at email@hypothetical.capital.
Our Guarantee to You
As founders ourselves, we understand how uncomfortable it can be to share your decks. We promise to uphold confidentiality and any pitch you present to us won’t be mentioned to other parties unless you explicitly grant us permission to do so.
