By: Ben Freeberg
Rubicon is a bi-coastal New York and San Francisco based VC firm that invests in late seed and Series A and B financing rounds of technology companies. With a focus on enterprise saas, mobile, big data, IoT, FinTech, Insurance Tech, hospitality tech, Marketing Tech, B2B and B2C, technology startups, Rubicon focuses on providing value to its portfolio companies through introductions to key decision makers and partners in an effort to increase revenue generation. Rubicon seeks to help brand its companies by using their resources and connections to drive value.
For VCs:
Continuing to develop partnerships within the VC community is instrumental to Rubicon’s success. The fund has been brought into rounds by numerous investors for its relationships within its core markets, such as financial services, software, entertainment, advertising and marketing technology. Rubicon strives to find deals with educated investors on the cap table who they can work with throughout a company’s lifecycle.
Out of the 5,200 deals Rubicon reviews each year, the firm typically make 10 investments. Although Rubicon usually does not lead (although it will for the right opportunity), they work with other VC firms to structure a round and do the hard work necessary to close an investment and get the company back to focusing on its operations as quickly as possible.
For Entrepreneurs:
Warm introductions are an absolutely necessity. Spend two extra minutes before you reach out to Rubicon’s team and try to find one mutual connection who can pass your deck along. Next, ahead of your introductory meeting, make sure that you can clearly and concisely describe your MVP and the market you are attacking.
Once Rubicon begins to dig deeper, they want to see that you are controlling your costs, have strong margins and make real money for the product or service you are selling. If you are burning $100k per month without showing genuine traction, prepare a bulletproof story outlining your short and long-term game plan. More importantly, when you go out to raise capital, share with your potential investors how much runway the raise will leave you with (tip: shoot for at least 18 months).
Lastly, know your market. Rubicon can help you attack that market, but you need to come to them with a dedicated team in place who understands the market your product or service is selling to.
Rubicon’s Startup Spotlight:
Rubicon invested in Trumaker, a built to fit, direct to consumer fashion company at competitive prices, with excellent margins, in June 2015. The Rubicon team got to know Trumaker early in 2015 after ordering products from the company. They were impressed, gave feedback to the lead VC on the platform, and they were invited to participate in the next round of funding. Rubicon understood the product and market so well, given the General Partners’ experience and connections in the fashion world, that they were delighted to participate in the round.
Fashion can be a tough business, and we are seeing many established brands come under attack by upstarts that utilize technology, fast fashion methods and tactics, and provide direct to consumer options. Trumaker is a new brand that leverages its founders’ experiences and expertise to deliver a best in class product nationwide. Rubicon has introduced the Company to new talent, great service providers and multiple PR opportunities. The Company is primed for continued growth.
Thank you to Joshua Siegel and the Rubicon Venture Capital team for assisting us with this post.