By: Ben Freeberg
White Star Capital is a late seed and series A technology focused venture capital firm with offices in New York, London, and Montreal. Many of the companies White Star invests in see an opportunity in targeting enterprises and the over one billion consumers across the Atlantic who have more in common than they are different.
The firm is run by Eric Martineau-Fortin (New York), founder of a boutique M&A bank that connected Paris, London and New York, Christian Hernandez (London), former director of platform partnerships for Facebook in EMEA, and Jean-Francois Marcoux (Montreal), co-founder of the digital video game publisher Ludia.
The complementary backgrounds of the three partners allows the White Star team to approach sourcing companies, evaluating investments and working with portfolio companies to be a unique and helpful endeavor. The firm provides operating expertise to CEOs and leadership teams, helps companies develop partnerships on both sides of the Atlantic, and assists companies as they seek to achieve an exit or acquisition.
For VCs:
White Star invests in many cities across North America and Western Europe, with a focus on New York City, Montreal, Toronto/Waterloo, London, Stockholm, Paris, and Berlin. They like to work with the most value-added investors in each geography they invest in. The firm differentiates itself from many U.S.-based firms by investing alongside a diversified group of VC firms, in terms of geography and industry sector focus. They invest alongside sector-specific experts and bring in experts of their own in each deal they take part in.
When White Star invested in mnubo, an IOT data analytics company out of Montreal, they invited McRock Capital, an industrial IOT focused fund, to assist with 
sector-specific expertise. As shown by the makeup of the White Star team, this is a group who appreciates working with investors who have a unique and different set of experiences and focus. They generally lead or co-lead investments, and they like having a co-lead who complements themselves.
White Star takes a lot of pride in assisting with the process between a company raising its Series A and Series B rounds. They coach each company and its leadership team for its Series B well ahead of time. White Star discusses how the company prepares its financials, KPIs and staffing to make sure the company is truly ready to go back out to the fundraising market.
For Entrepreneurs:
Top entrepreneurs have a level of transparency and openness that other entrepreneurs often don’t have. White Star wants to see that confidence come across in the first meeting. An important aspect of that confidence is the entrepreneur knowing that they should be honest and open with potential investors, and most importantly know their numbers/KPIs. Entrepreneurs should want White Star to dig into their numbers and talk to their clients.
It is important for the leadership team to show a sufficient level of confidence on every aspect of the business. This includes technology, strategy, marketing, finance, customer acquisition, churn, and other VC buzzwords. You don’t need to be an expert in every field, but you should be able to show a sense of understanding, and if there is a hole in your skillset, be upfront about it.
If you do send a cold email, research the individual in the firm you are reaching out to and draw some affinity to each other. Start by doing your research and say “I saw x portfolio company in the news and want to learn more about how you are helping them grow and develop” or “I saw you blogged about xyz, do you have a few minutes to chat about your findings?” If it feels like your email was copy and pasted, it will not be read.
Startup Spotlight:
White Star Capital co-led the Series A round of New York City’s KeyMe, a secure and convenient way to copy, share and personalize keys. The firm invested alongside Battery and 7-Ventures (7?Eleven’s corporate venturing arm) in the $7.8 million round in April 2014. Post White Star’s initial investment, KeyMe recently raised a $20m follow-on round, led by Comcast Ventures, in which White Star enthusiastically did their pro-rata.
White Star has worked closely with Greg Marsh, CEO, to brainstorm the product roadmap, decide how many kiosks they should have and discuss the focus on mobile applications vs. kiosks.
KeyMe is utilizing capital from the recent round to manufacture next generation kiosks in order to increase their distribution across key US cities. KeyMe’s mobile app allows users to scan their keys and to see where kiosks are near their home and office. The Company’s most recent initiative is the copying of car keys, traditionally a very expensive and time consuming effort. White Star is excited to stay involved and help KeyMe continue to quickly expand throughout the U.S.
Thank you to Lylan Masterman in the New York office and the whole White Star Capital team for assisting us with this blog post.