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🤝The Power of Networking as an Early-Stage Investor

Your network is your net worth. We’ve all heard it. In many ways, this is quite true as it relates to my (Alex’s) personal story, specifically as an investor.

This week, I’m doing a deep dive into how investing in startups (starting as an LP/investor in syndicates) has stimulated my network and is paying dividends monthly. I think this can become reality for others interested in the early-stage investor ecosystem whether it be investing in syndicates, directly as an angel, running a syndicate or via a traditional venture fund.

In this post, I’ll share 5 stories, plus a bonus section, of individual people or categories of people that I met through the early-stage investing world that have played a major role in elevating my investing career and overall professional life.

Fwiw, there are many others that played a significant role but 100% of the people here I specifically met via the venture capital/early-stage investing ecosystem

1. Bryan Rosenblatt (Craft Ventures)

When I started angel investing, I had some startup experience to offer, next to zero deal flow, and peanuts to actually invest into companies. I was ramping up deal flow by joining syndicates and attempting to network. This is when I met Bryan Rosenblatt who had recently started Riverside Ventures (before he went on to join David Sacks @ Craft Ventures).

When we originally met, nothing meaningful happened. We had an intro call and I got to learn about what he was investing in at Riverside and share with him some deals I was looking at to open up the communication channel going forward. Maybe 6-9 months later (after I had some higher quality deal flow to share) we reconnected and decided to co-syndicate a deal together. Fortunately, I was helpful with sourcing/diligencing deals & bringing in LPs which led to the start of a value-add relationship.

What I did not expect was how helpful Bryan would become to me in opening up the world of syndicates & venture capital.

Fast forward → we ended up working on a bunch of deals together and went through the A to Z syndicate process with his support. This tremendously accelerated my ramp up. We spent many many hours talking through a million VC-related things like how Syndicates & VC funds differ, how a fund operates, the best approaches to deal flow, who we should be working with, how to evaluate deals & founders at the earliest stage. The list goes on and on…

I can confidently say that Bryan has single-handedly been the most influential person in my VC career.

Summary: Investing in startups and sharing deal flow gave me the opportunity to connect and become friends with Bryan, which has been the biggest accelerator of my VC career to date.

2. Zach Ginsburg (Calm Ventures & Last Money In)

No surprise here, but meeting Zach Ginsburg has played an amazing role in my VC/Syndicate journey. What you don’t know is that I met Zach because he was an LP in Riverside Ventures years ago. We originally spoke back in 2019 or so, and as embarrassing as this may be, I don’t remember the call (he reminds me that he does).

Not too much time later, Zach launched his own syndicate which immediately caught my attention. Over the past years, Zach has become a friend but also someone I frequently collaborate/co-syndicate with. We’ve done some of our best deals together and have put a significant amount of capital to work together. That relationship has extended as we’ve embarked on launching this newsletter together with no shortage of ideas for the future :)

Meeting Zach has been extremely impactful in my life, and I imagine this will be a fruitful relationship for many years to come. Who knows what else is in store for us in the future…

Summary: Running Riverside Ventures and having Zach as an LP led to frequently co-syndicating some of our best deals, putting more capital to work, and partnering up to start this newsletter.

3. Sam Parr & Joe Speiser (Co-founders of Hampton)

I work with Sam Parr & Joe Speiser (co-founders) at Hampton. In under a year's time, Hampton has generated a ton of buzz in the startup founder/CEO ecosystem. It has to be one of the fastest growing and highest quality communities for founders (500+ awesome founders/CEOs).

What people don’t know is that I met Sam & Joe 2+ years ago in the syndicate/startup investing ecosystem. Sam had just sold The Hustle to Hubspot and Joe had probably recently sold 1 of his 5 companies (can’t remember) and they had just teamed up to start a syndicate.

They were eager to get involved in the SPV ecosystem and collaborate on deals as they already had great deal flow. In running Riverside Ventures, we got connected to explore co-syndicating deals. Sam & Joe were obviously awesome to work with because of their backgrounds and founders loved having them on the cap table.

Fast forward to today → not only have I gained them as friends but they brought me into Hampton (back when it was in stealth) to help grow the business and launch the community publicly. The amount I’ve learned and people I've met from Sam, Joe and joining the Hampton team is a flywheel on steroids.

Of course, my relationship with Sam has played a meaningful role in starting Last Money In as well. What I always say nowadays is:

In Summary: Running SPVs was what led to me meeting Sam & Joe. That relationship has led to my current role as a founding team member at Hampton, learning all sorts of biz strategy & stories from them both, and Sam giving me direct feedback to start a Newsletter (and not a podcast which is what Last Money In was originally going to be).

Fun Fact: Zach Ginsburg introduced me to Joe :)

4. 1,000+ Founders

My founder network truly feels massive at present. Those who know me, know that I can talk to founders literally all day and am always eager to learn more about their business. Let me tell you, being an investor in startups is fucking perfect for this.

By investing in startups, and marketing this on social/linkedin to some extent, you are automatically desired by a ton of founders who are out there raising capital. And, of course, you are constantly seeking out the best founders at the best companies to learn more and build relationships. I’ve met thousands of founders over the years doing this. Some I am frequently in touch with, some not so much, and some just pop up here and there with cool opportunities or want to introduce me to another founder who is raising capital.

It’s fun. I like having all sorts of opportunities come knocking, relevant or not.

When you meet thousands of founders, and back 400+, you are bound to create some meaningful relationships. For example, I actually do boxing once a week with Nate Kondamuri, a portfolio founder who co-founded Pair Eyewear. And no, we don’t box each other, but if he squeezes me out of one more growth round, we might start going at it 🙂

Having this massive founder network is a flywheel of its own whether its introductions that come from it or requests to intros to them where I can be helpful in connecting dots. I really can't quantify the value of this and what has come out of it the previous couple years.

In Summary: the founders I’ve met over the years have sourced deals we ended up investing in, become good friends, helped open all sorts of new doors to meet unique people, create partnerships opportunities across the portfolio, and have even invested in some of our SPVs & venture fund.

5. 350+ Venture Capitalists

In my earliest days in venture capital, I was trying to build a network from little to nothing. As an angel investor, it allowed me to brand myself to VC’s as this “deal flow” guy. It was nice because I didn’t really have an ask from VC's, rather I just wanted to meet them so they’d open the door to allow me to share deals.

I took full advantage of this. I got introduced to and cold outreached to A TON OF VC’s and that helped me 1) grow my VC network, 2) learn so much from each conversation and 3) actually start to get some higher quality deal flow from VCs.

Fast-forward → I’ve now got 350+ VC contacts I can tap for all sorts of needs and/or follow on rounds. Many of these people have been tremendously helpful (a bunch suck too lol) in shaping my investing career and have sourced a lot of the founders we’ve ended up investing in.

In Summary: By angel investing, and being a “deal flow guy”, I was able to rapidly grow this network of VC's which accelerated my investing journey. In turn, building this network is now a daily way in which I can be helpful to founders I encounter who are looking for the right investors.

6. *BONUS* Celebs, Athletes, Creators etc.

So, yes, I think athletes & celebs are cool & fun to meet. It’s been a fun journey to get access to many unique celebs, creators, athletes etc. as a byproduct of investing early-stage.

Whether it’s their company, they are highly involved, or they are investors, all of these routes have enabled some pretty unique access.

I definitely did not get into early-stage investing because of this and certainly don’t recommend people get in for this reason. With all the recent buzz in venture capital, it is clearly attracting all sorts of unique people with different backgrounds, influence, experience etc., and I think that is exciting for the ecosystem.

Below is a list of folks I have either met, invested alongside and/or into their company:

Jay-Z, Jake Paul, Kevin Durant, Justin Timberlake, Troy Aikman, The Chainsmokers, Kyle Cooke & Carl Radke, Katy Perry, Sam Parr, Rick Fox, Lady Gaga, Matthew Dellavedova, David Grutman, Alexis Ohanian, Kygo, Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, Sahil Bloom, Josh Richards, Gary V., Austin Rief, Mr. Beast/Night Ventures, Barry Sternlicht, Shaan Puri, and Carmelo Anthony. I’m probably forgetting a bunch of others…

In Summary:

Networking in any industry, and specifically in venture capital, opens the door to wide ranging opportunities. It’s a key reason I got involved and now lead Riverside Ventures. It’s the connection that helped get me to start Last Money In, the very newsletter you're reading. It’s played an ample role in getting me involved in hundreds of incredible founders and portfolio companies. It led me to Sam Parr, Joe Speiser and the amazing community at Hampton. The beauty with networking is the flywheel and compounding that occurs over time – the more people you know and work with, the more high quality impactful intros and people that enter your life, and that can lead to some incredible things….

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Sydecar is a frictionless deal execution platform for emerging venture investors. We make it easy for anyone to launch SPVs and funds in minutes, with automated banking, compliance, contracts, tax, and reporting so that customers can focus on making deals and building relationships.

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✍️ Written by Alex and Zachary