Your adventure fund.

We’re changing the way we invest to allow us to give others the chance we had 15 years ago.

15 years ago not to this day, my dad lent Sinx and I £5,000 to start ustwo. Without knowing it at the time, and likely completely taking the investment for granted, we were able to lock and load ourselves with everything we needed (laptops) and get shit done. The rest as they say…blah blah blah.

The fact that it was my dad meant the terms were not discussed at all. This wasn’t an equity play, this wasn’t anything more than my dad believing in ‘us two’ and a chance for him to feel good about helping total strangers (almost-ish). We paid him back within the first few months.

If he’d asked us to pay back more, we would have. If he’d asked for certain terms, we’d likely have said yes. What we appreciated was his belief in us making the decisions we needed to make (no actual questions asked) and the chance to own the entirety of the business we were building.

Fast forward to the future which happens to be the present, and we now want to do the same for others (with a few minor tweaks to the concept my dad unknowingly pioneered).

We’re changing the way we invest moving forward to support founders who are passionate about retaining total control in their own destiny.

Why are we doing this?

We are creators. We are operators. We value our financial independence. Our culture is central to our success. These traits have allowed us to take risks and make a meaningful impact.

This approach is for people like us.

What does it look like?

It’s about profit over ‘growth at all costs’. Digital businesses that have design thinking at their core. Companies that bring their values to everything they do. That’s the future we are going to unlock.

How does it work?

Don’t ask me! — (but do ask justinm@ustwo.com ) It’s definitely different, though – no equity upfront, no board seats, and using cash to pay back investors over time rather than making it all about the exit. We’re building on the great work already done by the likes of Indie VC and Earnest Capital, bringing our spicy ustwo spin to it.

It will work because we believe in backing founders to the hilt. Business is hard enough, so our bet is that giving founders the options and flexibility through more balanced investing increases the chances of building long-term sustainable, culture-lead businesses. By doing that, we can bring more good business into this world.

P.s Life is too short to not take risks. Life is about doing. We’re doing this. It’s worth noting that anyone (including even me!) can write a medium post. Now we actualy have to sort shit out!

If you’re interested in knowing more, then email Justin who leads ADV justinm@ustwo.com and wrote this to expand upon the above juice fest.