Serial entrepreneurs are building their next startups with Antler. See how these founders did it, and raised a $1 million seed round
At Antler, we share a lot of information about how founders benefit from working with us when building their company, but the value that the VC firm provides portfolio companies beyond this phase is just as significant. This series aims to share the experiences of the founders, and what they have benefited from most.
Building a business is hard work, particularly if you’re doing it alone.
Without financial support, a network to lean on, or investors to speak with, growth and scale can be difficult.
For that reason, more than 50,000 people across the world apply to Antler to build their next business. But only a small percentage of these entrepreneurs are accepted.
And not just first-time entrepreneurs, but seasoned and experienced former founders who see the advantage a partnership with a global VC would give their next venture.
One of those veteran entrepreneurs is Carl Prins.
Before joining Antler, Carl spent three years as co-founder & CEO of Handled, a hyper-personalised energy comparison and auto-switching service and before that was the Director of Go-To-Market at Nearmap.
So, why would a well-connected, experienced founder join Antler to launch a new business?
“It’s a question I do get quite often and my answer is the validation you receive on your idea,” Carl said, referencing the way Antler works with founders in the company building phase.
“I think you can easily get a bit carried away with yourself, especially if you’ve had some success before, in thinking that the idea you’re working on is going to be as successful.
“Having to put it through the same process as everybody else and hear raw feedback is a good challenge to make sure that you don’t lose focus.
“And in terms of idea validation, also getting access to Antler’s network where getting meetings on your own steam would be very difficult.
“For example, getting a meeting with the head of sustainability of Mirvac would have been very difficult one for me to do if I had just reached out cold, saying, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of doing a startup, do you have half an hour for me?’ Versus, ‘Hey, I’m part of the Antler program, I’ve got this great idea.’ That’s one of the reasons I joined Antler. I’d actually mentored some of the previous cohort and I then realised what sort of access they had in such a short period of time. It was pretty amazing, so I think that’s very valuable.”
He continues: “Also, the access to the investment community in Sydney, Melbourne, and parts of Queensland via Antler’s Limited Partners. In the context of investing, they ask you all the questions and a lot of those early conversations are very formative in shaping your idea and firm up the things you need to do to make it into an investible company.”
“Then the second reason is the co-founders,” says Carl.
“Yes, you may have your own network and people you worked with before, but to find people who are exactly in the right stage of life and have committed to the process and what that means — you’re not going to be earning a big salary, you’re going to be potentially doing this for at least three years, working really hard, and working long hours — is difficult.
“For those two reasons, the validation of the idea and finding the right people to execute with, is why I joined Antler.”
For Carl, that complementary co-founder was Charbel Ayoub, a technology leader and former founder with more than 10 years experience in enterprise, media, agencies and startups.
Together, the pair launched Pathzero, a pioneering self-serve emissions management platform that enables small and medium sized businesses to measure their carbon footprint, reduce their impact and share their carbon neutrality with confidence.
Now, five months on, Pathzero has just closed a AU$1 million seed investment round, backed by leading strategic investors Antler, Black Nova Group and a number of experienced senior business figures including climate campaigner Simon Sheikh, former CEO of Westpac Brian Hartzer and two early customers.
“Having Antler as an investor, and the fact that it can follow on is very useful because you have that established relationship that understands your business probably better than most people do,” says Carl.
“I think that, as a founder, it’s nice to continue that relationship with your first investor through the next investment rounds rather than necessarily taking on new investors and re-establishing those deeper relationships.”
Bigger better product and vision for future growth
“To date we’ve made five hires, including a senior software engineer, a marketing director and a senior carbon and sustainability specialist,” says Carl, “and Pathzero has been servicing 25 businesses across professional industries like architecture and asset management.
“This has been a big driver of growth for us. These asset managers have portfolios of tens or hundreds of companies who need to be reporting their carbon footprint as a group and we are the tool to enable them to do that.”
“Version 2.0 of the self-service carbon neutral product is in market,” he says.
“We had a lot of feedback from the first version and we have iterated the design and taken all the feedback on board. Now, we hope that version 2.0 is going to be a big driver of growth for us having addressed any of the concerns that the early users would had.”
So — what’s next for Pathzero now that it has taken on investment, extended its runway and carved out an expansion for the business?
“We’ll continue to leverage Antler’s global network, and we will be popping up in the US soon and also some of the other countries like the UK that Antler are a part of.
“Along with leveraging the global network of Antler people, we also plan on tapping into the companies in the Antler portfolio, which will be very handy.
“As we grow and scale, we’ll also look to raise a series A round.”
Antler in Sydney is currently recruiting for a January intake. Apply now to build your next company with Antler: www.antler.co/apply
Read more articles from this series below:
- ‘For founders by founders’: Why a network of serial entrepreneurs is the secret weapon every startup needs
- ‘They don’t just act like a VC’: Aurelius co-founder shares how Antler supported her beyond investment
- How partnering with a global VC validates your brand and opens doors
- Why having a support network of entrepreneurs and coaches makes you more successful as a founder
- This startup raised $450K in just 3 weeks during Covid-19 — here’s how it leveraged brand & network to do it
