Brad Feld is a top venture capitalist. He founded Intensity Ventures, and co-founded Mobius Venture Capital, TechStars, and Foundry Group. Companies he has invested in include: Harmonix, Zynga, CrowdTap, Cheezburger, CloudAbility, and awe.sm. A more detailed portfolio and biography can be found at foundrygroup.com.
Mr. Feld is also an entrepreneur, author, and marathon runner. He is a nationally recognized speaker, chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, co-chair of Startup Colorado, and he is on the board of UP Global. The VC also authors several popular blogs: Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC. His most recent publication is Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur, which came out earlier this year. Mr. Feld is known for speaking his mind, and being very generous in answering all of his emails. The following is my interview with Mr. Feld.
1) As a venture capitalist, are there any sectors that you will not invest in for moral/ethical reasons, or otherwise?
We have passed on companies because we thought the entrepreneurs were crooks. In a few cases, this unfortunately turned out to be actually true. We use our themes to focus what we invest in – see http://www.foundrygroup.com/wp/themes/ – and that’s our first filter. But our next filter is a simple question: “Do we want to be long term partners with these entrepreneurs, and do they want to be long term partners with us?”
2) How do you define success for yourself, and the companies you invest in?
The definition of success for a VC is very simple. Our investors give us a box of money. Our job is to give them back a much bigger box full of a lot more money (at least 3x the amount they gave us.)
3) In the event of disaster, what would you recommend a company do to rebound?
It depends entirely on the disaster. I’ve been through so many unexpected things that I don’t have a general answer anymore. The key – like from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – is Don’t Panic (and always have a towel with you).
4) I’ve seen in previous interviews where you’ve given various pieces of advice to entrepreneurs, such as think long-term, develop a good team, and quit what you suck at. You are also known for being very generous and you are often called “lionhearted”. When you are looking at potential start-ups and young entrepreneurs, what is generally the first thing to catch your eye, or peak your interest?
The intensity with which the entrepreneurs obsesses about their product. I’m not talking about “passion” which is an easy throw away word these days, but actual, deep, obsession.
5) How successful has networking been for you specifically when trying to attract start-ups to invest in?
I’ve never really focused on the concept of networking. Rather, I like to “engage” and live my life out in the open. I suppose some people view this as a form of networking, but it’s never a deliberate activity on my part.
6) Currently, what is the most exciting project you are working on?
I’ve been completely entranced by the physical products that we’ve invested in – something we call “hardware wrapped in plastic.” This includes Makerbot, Fitbit, Orbotix, Sifteo, Modular Robotics, and Revolv. I just love these companies.
7) I see you are on the board of Harmonix. Tell me, do you play video games?
Yup, although not as much as I used to. When a new game comes out that I’m into, I play it intensely for a few weeks. I was an early investor in Zynga and spent a bunch of time playing Mafia Wars, FarmVille, and CityVille. I’m a huge Rock Band fan. I’m never really been in first person shooters but I did spent way too many hours playing Doom in my late 20s.
8) As a VC with a focus on the information technology sector, it seems that you get to see a lot of the newest breakthroughs before they are fully known to the public. Is there one thing in particular that excites you–something that you haven’t seen yet, but you can tell that we are close to the ability to create?
I think we are dramatically underestimating how smart software is going to get “about us” in the next decade. Right now we are still telling out computers a lot about what we want. I think we are on the edge of them figuring out what we want automatically.
9) You and Foundry Group have stated that there will be no scaling within the company—all funds are $225M, and there will only be 4 partners, etc. Why did you decide to operate this way rather than pursuing growth?
We decided we wanted to spend as much of our time as possible working with the entrepreneurs and the companies we invested in, rather than spending our time scaling a VC fund – which, in our opinion, rarely scale well.
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