A New Era at Uncork
Uncork Capital promotes Andy McLoughlin to Managing Partner; hires two new investing partners, Susan Liu and Tripp Jones; and begins investing at the growth stage
I keep seeing stories about how people are quitting their jobs because the pandemic made them realize how much they hated what they were doing. After all the isolation and introspection of the past year, I, too, had a revelation, but it was very much the opposite: I really loved investing in startups, and the people I was doing it with. Instead of pulling back, I felt a strong desire to prepare Uncork for the rapidly-evolving future, and scale our investing efforts.
Reflecting on our recent portfolio, there are so many stories of founders we met at their company’s very earliest stages when they were still searching for market validation, and who persisted toward their vision through all the ups and downs to grow into confident leaders of category-defining businesses. ClassDojo. Eventbrite. Fitbit. Front. Human Interest. LaunchDarkly. Poshmark. Postmates. SendGrid. Shippo. And many others are growing fast and attracting large amounts of follow-on financing (almost $1B so far this year).
When you’re investing at the seed stage there is often little-to-no proof, so many of your decisions come down to people. It is never a straight line to success. The entire team shares joyful moments, as well as crises, and you need to be there for each other through it all.
…Which brings me to Andy McLoughlin. When I met Andy in 2015, he was already a proven founder and angel investor with a keen eye for software people will love to use and a reputation as one of the most genuine people in the business — he is someone that everyone wanted to see succeed. Over the past six years he’s also become a dear friend and an exceptional business partner. He helped us identify and support many of our breakout companies and brought Uncork into the then-nascent field of developer tools and APIs. Those are just some of the reasons I’m so proud to announce that Andy is joining me in co-leading the firm as Managing Partner.
The past 18 months tested all of us personally and professionally — some days more than others. Through it all, Andy’s positive attitude, good (albeit British) humor and patient problem-solving were steadfast, as was his honest, direct feedback — a hallmark at Uncork. We spent many hours together talking about the implications of the changing world and our collective vision for a broader Uncork.
Welcoming Susan and Tripp
Andy led a months-long search for two new investors and brought in two dream candidates. We’re proud to welcome two new partners to the firm: Susan Liu and Tripp Jones. They will contribute a lot to the firm: experience in investing from seed to growth stages; expertise in consumer and B2B; advice to founders as active board members and so much more.
Their reference calls — from colleagues, founders, even competitors — were universally, unbelievably positive. All we had to do was float the idea of bringing Susan or Tripp on board, and it would generate so much excitement that it was almost embarrassing.
Susan joins us from Scale Venture Partners, where she spent nearly a decade studying workplace trends and enterprise software, and was early to invest in tools for hybrid and global teams. Susan sourced multiple successful cloud companies for Scale, including WalkMe, which went public in a $2.5 billion IPO and sells a product that sits on top of other software to teach people how to use it; Papaya Global, an automated payroll platform for businesses with employees in multiple geographies; and Wrike (acquired by Citrix for $2.25 billion), a project management platform that is especially helpful for remote teams.
Not surprisingly, Susan has been honored with a “Rising Star Award” by the NVCA, and named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list. In addition to being a stellar investor, Susan has earned a reputation as a smart, analytical thought partner who knows how to ask the right questions to help founders think multiple steps ahead; a collaborative member of the startup community; and a mentor to young women in the industry.
Tripp came to us from August Capital, where he has demonstrated an uncommon ability to invest across multiple categories and has invested in a dozen companies now worth more than $1 billion each. Maybe it’s because he’s wanted to be a VC since he was eight. Maybe it’s because he grew up in San Francisco where his parents’ friends were founders and his basketball coach was a VC. Or maybe it’s because he has a really high EQ, which means a) people want to work with him and b) he has a sense for the products people will want to use.
Tripp likes to say he’s “business model focused,” which means he will invest in B2B or consumer, as long as it’s a marketplace or there’s a high likelihood of recurring revenue. Tripp also says he hates his phone, so he’s trying to invest against it — and into things that make life richer: Bark, which just went public, creates subscription boxes of goodies for well-loved pet dogs; HipCamp is a sort of Airbnb for the outdoors, making it possible for landowners to make money without exploiting their land, and for urban dwellers to spend more time in nature.
What we’re investing in now
Across the partnership, our common backbone is and has always been software. That said, we each interpret that in slightly different ways and invest outside of those parameters according to our own personal interests. Broadly speaking, our investment strategy falls into four categories: applications and the future of work; APIs, developer tools & infrastructure; consumer & marketplaces, and frontier technology (what Andy lovingly calls “the crazy stuff Jeff likes”).
The global reset is leading society to some important, permanent changes in the ways we live and work, leading to a wide swath of new opportunities across multiple dimensions. Distributed teams. Digital transformation. Online and mobile everything. Futuristic capabilities driven by advances in computer intelligence. Space exploration. Well-being. Values-driven consumer experiences.
Staying true to seed while also going after the anti-portfolio and more
Since I started investing as a “super angel” in 2004, and we introduced our first institutional fund in 2007, we’ve been committed to investing seed capital into startups long before others are willing to take the chance.
Five years ago when we introduced our fifth seed fund, we announced our first growth fund (“Plus”) to double-down on Uncork companies that are taking off. We called this our “barbell” strategy and it has been a big win for Uncork and our startups. But looking back, it also meant we missed out twice on our anti-portfolio: companies we failed to invest in the first time they came around. Not any more. Starting now, we will be looking for opportunities to invest growth stage capital in Uncork-seeded startups as well as companies we hadn’t previously invested in.
You can read more about the way we work here.
Our best days lie ahead
I’m confident in saying that for Uncork Capital, the future has never looked so bright. The companies in our current fund, our sixth, are growing fast and raising their next rounds faster than we’ve ever seen. In addition to our portfolio hitting $1B in follow-on financing since the beginning of the year, in the last few weeks, four of our companies reached a $1 billion+ valuation. The world is trying to open up and change all at once — an incredibly auspicious time to start a tech business. And with our team in place, coming together at just the right moment, I can’t help but be energized and optimistic about this opportunity.
Please join me in congratulating Andy and welcoming Susan and Tripp to the Uncork family!
