Origins S2-E11: David Frankel — Founder Collective

Subscribe to this episode and past episodes HERE.

On this Origins season 2 bonus episode, we sit down with David Frankel, a managing partner and co-founder of Founder Collective. David and the partners at Founder Collective started the firm in 2011 with a simple mission: To be the most aligned fund for founders at the seed stage. In the years since, they’ve become one of the most well known, respected, and highest performing venture firms in the industry.

Before starting Founder Collective, David spent most of his life as an entrepreneur, co-founding Internet Solutions, the first ISP in Africa, at the ripe old age of 23. When Internet Solutions was acquired by Dimension Data, he served as a key executive and on the board through its successful listing on the London Stock Exchange, two years before the company was ultimately acquired by NTT Japan for $3.2B.

Today, what you’ll hear consistently from founders that have the good fortune to work with David, is that he’s one of the most thoughtful and humble venture capitalists in the business. Which is exactly why this episode was one of our favorites to date. In it, we discuss David’s early beginnings as an entrepreneur when he was a teenager, his decision to go back to business school after selling Dimension Data, challenging times raising Founder Collective’s first fund with Eric Paley, and FC’s contrarian approach to many widely held beliefs in the venture industry today. We hope you’ll like it!

Subscribe to this episode and past episodes HERE.

As always, you can give us a shout and let us know how we’re doing by following us on twitter! And if you feel so inclined, please share this episode and use #openlp. See ya out there.

— Nick + Alex