Again, this has become my personal blog and does not reflect the views of any of our family of companies.  I am going to place just for fun some facts that should be interesting based on meeting some investors that did really rounds in Unicorns (Robinhood and another in Carta).  These investors worked hard to find a good deal and with a little luck, their Unicorn will have an exit.

My bastardized proverb is “hard work increase your luck” and my provocative statement is all “Unicorn requires a little work or magic to make them work.”

Remember: “Saying provocative statements that intelligent people argue about fast without dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s can produce great ideas.” – JD Morris

My Crystal ball does not show me the answer for Robinhood or Carta, but I believe Guild Education has a high probability with the right backers (i.e. needs Softbank) to become a dragon for some investors.  From Forbes:

The education software startup Guild Education announced today the close of its $157 million Series D round, making it one of the few female-led companies to join the elusive unicorn club this year.

The funding round was led by former American Express CEO Ken Chenault through the venture firm General Catalyst, and was joined by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, Iconiq Capital and Lead Edge Capital.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthumoh/2019/11/13/guild-education-is-latest-female-led-company-to-hit-1-billion-valuation/#200809aa58d9

BOTTOMLINE:  The educational space has many success stories, but lots of failures due to the size and players of the industry.  Guilded Education will need to acquire companies just like Facebook and Google to be a market leader with a strong IPO exit.  WeWorks had an easy model to beat Regus (aka IWG plc today), but history shows you need a lot of luck and hard work to succeed in any market place.

Short URL: http://bit.ly/2rC6vAv

DISCLOSURE: The views and ideas of this blog posting are for fun with the idea that “saying provocative statements that intelligent people argue about fast without dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s will result in creative ideas.”  They do not reflect the view and ideas of any company or organization as the goal is creating ideas and thinking.

Happy Networking and Investing,

JD Morris

Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdmorris/

 

CAPITAL REPORT V19.10.12

• HYPR Corp., a New York-based provider of enterprise-facing decentralized authentication solutions, raised $8 million in Series A funding.  Comcast Ventures, led the round. Existing investors RTP Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, and Mesh Ventures participated.
• HelpSystems, a Minneapolis, MN-based global provider of IT operations management, security and analytics solutions, received an investment from private equity firms TA Associates and Charlesbank Capital Partners
• Umbo Computer Vision, a San Francisco, CA-based artificial intelligence company that specializes in autonomous video security, raised an $8m post-A round of funding
• Razberi Technologies, a Carrollton, Texas-based provider of simple, secure video surveillance and IoT solutions, raised $5.8 million in funding.  LiveOak Venture Partners led the round.
• Lex, a NYC-based commercial real estate securities marketplace for retail investors, raised $4M in seed financing

Read More: http://www.investornetworkdestinations.com/capital-report-v19-10-12/

In recent years the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has emerged as a device to quiet those gnashing teeth. Originally, SPVs were mostly used by loose groups of angels to facilitate investment in a specific emerging company, most often in a seed or other very early round. They are still used in that scenario, but more recently are being employed in later rounds by smaller funds that participated in earlier rounds but lack dry powder to either protect themselves in down rounds or double-down in flat and up rounds

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=de463075-8d99-455c-8975-de3b5a5dde1a

 

UPDATE

• Our friends and family have invested through SPEs in 6 moonshot deals last quarter.

• Currently, we are raising capital for one of our new SPEs for a hybrid fund that invests in funds (fund of funds) and moonshot deals.

Read more updates from Red Hook Capital via this URL:

http://redhookcapital.co/2019/01/welcome-to-red-hook-capital/

More information about Red Hook Capital SPEs and thier moonshot deals coming soon!