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inVest Ventures = A Community VC fund investing in LinkedIn alumni founders building great companies

Last Money In is excited to share the story behind LinkedIns community VC fund that invests in LinkedIn alumni founders. In this interview, we’ll explore topics like:

• How they got started

• What types of companies they invest in

• Who are the LPs

• A Pre-approved VC list

• How they add value

• What the future looks like for inVest Ventures

Now, let’s get into it…

1. Where did the idea for InVest Ventures come from? This is probably the right place to tie in both of your backgrounds as well.

inVest Ventures began with a simple observation. Looking at the networks of founders and investors that sprung from places like Google, Uber, AirBnB, and Lyft, we noticed that founders who left LinkedIn didn’t have access to a dedicated system to support them in their entrepreneurial journey. 

The three of us who serve as managing partners - Glenn, Karen, and Lauri - worked across strategy, product, and GTM roles at LinkedIn, came together to change that. Each of us can attest - LinkedIn has a distinct culture where next plays are celebrated - and wanted to ensure that we could support new founders on an ongoing basis.

When we dug into the data, we saw upwards of 80 LinkedIn founded startups raising pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds every year. The opportunity was there - but the most exciting piece was what we heard when we went and talked to founders. They saw this as a no brainer. LinkedIn is a special place that values relationships, and these founders had such a strong affinity of their time at LinkedIn. There’s conviction this network could help, whether it’s referring candidates, introducing prospects, or finding the right advisors or mentors. Overwhelmingly they said they saw the value, and the belief we could meaningfully help these companies grow. 

2. What types of companies do you look to invest in?

We invest exclusively in early-stage software (pre-seed, seed, series A) companies with checks of ~$100k. Some unique aspects about our investment criteria are that companies must have a founder that previously worked at LinkedIn, and as follow-on capital, companies must have a lead investor from our pre-approved list of VCs.

3. Who are the LPs in InVest Ventures?

Our 200+ member LP community is a mix of both LinkedIn alumni and current LinkedIn employees. 

We built this community with early-stage founders in mind. The fund is not only about harnessing capital, but the deep expertise and talent that our LPs bring to the table.

Our LPs include founders, startup advisors, VCs, angel investors, C-suite execs, and those with early-stage experiences. Everyone was intentionally selected because of their unique expertise and experiences. Our LPs include leaders across product, design, engineering, GTM, and legal, among many others. 

While being extremely qualified operators, about half our LP community self-identify as being “beginners” when it comes to early-stage investing. So we’re using this opportunity to help educate them on venture capital.

4. Where do you see InVest adding value and supporting portfolio founders?

So far, we’ve engaged our community in three main ways:

1. Operating expertise & advisory work: We’ve connected founders with LPs for 1:1 coaching or advisory roles

2. Recruitment: Our extensive LP community has deep connections to help founders find the right candidates for critical roles

3. Customers: Our LPs have helped make meaningful introductions to prospective customers

All of this only matters if we have the right LP community, and one that’s engaged - so we’re focused on making sure that happens.

5.  What excites you about the LinkedIn alumni going on to start new startups?

LinkedIn alumni have founded some incredible companies - unicorns that include Notion, Figma, Alchemy, Confluent, and Cricket Health, among dozens of others. What we’re most excited about are supporting the next wave of companies and founders.

As we think about the future of AI, we see a lot of opportunities for new founders to create immense value given the expertise they bring to the table from their previous experiences at and after LinkedIn.

6.  Where do you see the InVest fund 10 years from now?

We want to be the go-to resource for all LinkedIn founders across the startup ecosystem. Obviously, we want to see our current founders go on to build amazing products and companies, while raising and deploying additional capital to support the next few waves of founders. by connecting them with who and whatever they need. But ten years from now, we hope that our founders can look back and see inVest Ventures are an important part of their growth journey. 

7. Why did you create a pre-approved list of VCs to invest alongside?

We write relatively small checks, and generally follow on to a lead investor. By cultivating a group of investors we trust, know well, and have worked with, we can ensure that we build strong relationships with key VC partners and work with them to help build a strong flywheel to support the next set of founders.

8. I know you do not plan to follow on from the fund but do you see yourself using SPVs as a follow on tool?

We’re considering dedicated SPVs for follow-ons or raising future investment funds. We want to double down on any winners, and SPVs are a useful tool to bring our community together to do that.

Disclaimer: Please note that while we proudly support the LinkedIn alumni entrepreneurial community, inVest Ventures is not connected with or endorsed by LinkedIn Corporation.

inVest Ventures Team

1. Glenn Borok: Glenn is a Vice President on the investment team at Jump Capital where he focuses on early-stage investing within B2B SaaS, the Future of Work, and American Resilience. Before joining Jump, he worked as an investor at In-Q-Tel, a venture fund that represents the national intelligence community. Prior to that, Glenn served as a product strategist at LinkedIn, where he focused on the Sales Navigator platform. He holds degrees from MIT, where he earned his MBA, and UC Berkeley, where he obtained a BS in Business Administration.

2. Lauri Moore: Lauri is a Partner at Bessemer’s Silicon Valley office, where she focuses on early-stage opportunities in data, AI, developer tools, and related infrastructure. Before joining Bessemer, she was a Partner at Foundation Capital. Lauri also co-founded a company that automated top-of-funnel screening using voice AI, leveraging one of the earliest (and ultimately not good enough) externalized BERT models in 2018. She has held product leadership roles at LinkedIn and worked in data science and product across several startups. Lauri graduated from Columbia University and also holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow.

3. Karen Chi: Karen is currently the founder of Karen Chi Consulting, a go-to-market advisory partner to early stage B2B startups. She spent the last 15 years building and scaling multiple B2B businesses at world-class, hyper-growth companies. Most recently, Karen led the B2B Sales and Talent Partnerships organizations at Cameo, a Series C creator marketplace. Previously, she built and scaled revenue organizations for LinkedIn’s digital advertising and SaaS businesses. 

If you enjoyed this article, feel free to view our prior articles on adjacent topics:

• Defending Your Pro-Rata Rights: How VCs and Angels Can Monetize Growth Rounds and Avoid Leaving Millions on the Table

• Deal Machine or Selective Investor: Which Syndicate Style Wins?

• 💡Venture Capital Should Not Be Democratized Unless...🎓

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✍️ Written by Zachary and Alex