Indies are Everywhere

A Statement from Zebras Unite on the end of Indie.vc

Illustration by Mitch Wilson

On Tuesday, Bryce Roberts, founder of Indie.vc, announced the end of the fund.

Some context: when startups raise venture capital, it sets them on a path to grow by any means necessary, become a “unicorn” (valued at $1B+) and “exit” (sell or IPO) to maximize shareholder profit. If you’re a company that raised a bit of VC and then turned profitable this is, if you can believe it, a failure for investors. There’s no exit, no big payday.

Bryce, a successful VC investor, saw a different way: we need more profitable, successful companies. The bet by traditional VC, that startups should aspire to be unicorns, was unrealistic. The premise left promising companies in a capital chasm. So he created a different way to finance them through Indie.vc’s term sheet that wasn’t designed around an exit, a liquidity event.

This week, Bryce shared that the Indie.vc experiment had come to an unplanned end. It wasn’t because the portfolio companies weren’t successful. In fact, many of them have 7 and 8 figures in revenue. Rather, investors weren’t getting the outsized return they’ve come to expect investing in the startup space. As a result, Bryce had a hard time raising subsequent funds.

Indie.vc did not fail. Investors failed Indie.vc.

As we process this unfortunate news at Zebras Unite, we come away with three initial lessons learned:

1. VC cannot be “fixed.” VC is a specific tool used to drive a specific type of growth for a specific kind of company. It can produce harmful outcomes if outsized returns are prioritized over the company’s sustainable growth. If we want new outcomes, we need new funding models. Indie.vc was one of them. These models exist and they have names: revenue-based financing (like the 1863 Fund), character-based loans (like the Matriarch Fund), worker-ownership conversion (like the Main Street Phoenix Fund), and equity injections (like the Community Equity Fund). These emerging products on the market serve the chasm Bryce identified (and more are invented every day). Let’s pour our effort into connecting these capital innovations.
2. Indies are everywhere. At Zebras Unite, we’re cooperating with hundreds of independent capital innovators like these who are similarly called to create a better way. The thing is, you often don’t hear of them. Bryce was successful with Indie.vc because of his track record as a successful venture capitalist. These innovators are changing the game despite lacking his advantage. With support from their community and the wisdom of lived experience, they have different, compelling advantages. Are you one of them, or interested in learning more and investing? Join us.
3. Cooperation and community. We’re at a fork in the road. Over the coming years we can watch more one-off experiments fail. Or we can confront these challenges together by investing in the infrastructure, field building, community cooperation, and education they need to succeed. At Zebras Unite, we believe that reimagining business (including the business of aggregating and allocating capital) is the most urgent human rights project of our time. In this time of collapse and composting, we invite those ready to cooperate to do this work to join together.

To Bryce and the Indie.vc community: you showed founders, investors and capital innovators like us that we didn’t have to accept the status quo. Now let’s get to work to support indies everywhere.

Want to discuss what’s next after Indie.vc? Join us for a community conversation on Friday, March 5 at 1 PM PT.