By: Ben Freeberg
Grossinger Capital is a venture capital pledge syndicate that invests alongside quality venture funds that its members trust and alongside experienced founders. The firm is led by the independent investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Paul Grossinger. As a private investor, Paul has backed eight funds, and made 74 startup investments to date.
Paul has also worked to establish multiple funds and syndicates, including A-Level Capital, a student-led venture firm investing in companies founded by Johns Hopkins students and alumni, co-founded by Elizabeth Galbut. In addition, Paul formed Gaingels, the world’s first syndicate investing in startups with LGBT founders and executives. Paul and his partner, Elizabeth Galbut, are excited to continue to back entrepreneurial students through these funds.
The Grossinger Capital syndicate has recently started co-investing with VCs in a formal fashion, helping to back high-growth companies, led by founders with a track record of accomplishment, by putting together SPVs on a deal by deal basis alongside quality VCs in their network.
For VCs and Institutions:
Grossinger Capital invests in early stage Seed and Series A companies, and the strong community of investors Grossinger has built is evident through investors’ affiliation with more than one of his syndicates. The curated group of backers is maintained by the group continuously assessing how a new partner will bring added value for their portfolio companies and finding future deals.
Paul and his team have vast experience with customer acquisition, IP management and securing future funding. This is what they genuinely enjoy being personally involved in, helping to guide companies towards rapid growth through their involvement in addition to connecting them with other people that add value.
For Entrepreneurs:
Do your homework. Entrepreneurs who have a genuine understanding of the organization and who are involved fare much better through the process. Likewise, it is important to develop a personal relationship with one or more of the members of the firm, who could serve as your advocates throughout the investment process. As they seek to do between 10-15 deals per year, make sure you find one investor (at a minimum) to be your champion internally; someone who understands your business almost as well as you do.
Members of Gaingels and Grossinger Capital syndicates will make a point to develop personal relationships with co-founders, and connect them to an extremely wide network of other companies and areas of expertise.
Startup Spotlight:
MycoTechnology has created the world’s next generation mushroom protein, utilizing organic solutions to broadly address food flavor defects. A-Level Capital invested in the Seed round and has served on Board of Advisors. The Company subsequently raised a $10m Series A and is gearing up to raise a Series B this fall.
The protein, which produces an organic, non sugar sweetener, is very effective in small doses and requires labeling only as “Natural Flavor”. They have essentially created an organic and bitter free natural version of Stevia sweetener. We are excited to see how MycoTechnology continues to make a big impact within beverages, supplements and protein powders.
Thanks to Paul Grossinger for assisting us with this blog post.