THIS WAS AN APRIL FOOL'S POST. IT IS A PURELY FICTIONAL POST.
I've said before that I wouldn't take on a partner.
I didn't think I needed one, and I'm happy to say that it seems that I've done just fine without one. I've had the good fortune of investing in standout companies like Canary, Tinybop, Floored, Orchard, and Ringly, just to name a few. The fund is performing really well and we've had lots of inbound offers to invest in the second fund, which was being rounded up until recently.
That's when I got an offer I couldn't refuse.
Someone called me up that I hadn't met in person before but that I had interacted with over Twitter. This person had built a hugely successful firm that grew in size from fund to fund--and was now a major brand in the space.
Right off the bat, we hit it off. It was like we were talking to mirror images of each other. And that's when it happened...
Marc Andreessen asked to join Brooklyn Bridge Ventures.
Yeah, I wouldn't have believed it either, but he said he wanted to get back to the roots of investing in pre-seed and seed deals, of focusing on some hands on work with lots of first time entrepreneurs.
Turns out, he's also in love with New York the way I am--and believes that the diversity of industry, culture, and talent here is the best place to start the next big thing. He'll be moving to the Big Apple at the end of this month.
Still reeling from the offer, I sunk back down to earth when I realized that I had priorities. While I was well on my way to raising my $15 million dollar second fund, I wasn't quite finished with that process yet. When I told him about my concern of adding a new partner in the middle of a fundraise, he asked me how big the target was. After I told him, he joked that he'd shake out his couch cushions and make it happen.
I said, "What do you mean 'make it happen'?"
That's when Marc offered to be the sole investor in the fund--putting up the whole $15 million. He said it wasn't about the money for him--but that he just wanted to work with someone who hustles like an entrepreneur and is willing to make investments in teams in the most formative of stages, when they really don't have a lot to show the world quite yet. It was more about an interesting challenge for him--and that the day to day of running a huge machine like A16Z had grown a bit boring. That's why he had been tweeting so much and why he wanted to really sink his teeth into something new.
So, unfortunately for everyone else, including my existing investors in Fund I, there is no opportunity for anyone else to invest in my second fund. Marc really wants to be all in and that was the minimum he would accept having at stake. We might strategically take a few checks from larger accredited investors, but only ones we really like.
I'm excited about this new chapter in the history of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and am still in disbelief that I was able to sell this bridge to such an successful industry leader. And if you believe this, I've sold you that bridge as well.