Founders Circle Capital

Open Capital has 4 main areas of work: Series A and B (fundraising, investment and loans). Distress and Special Situations (refinancing, reconstruction, etc). Turnarounds (reorganization, transformation, etc). Pre-IPOs and Exits (readiness, listings, etc). We provide advice, equity and lending to SMEs and risk-adjusted return for investors. Our aim is to support good quality companies for sustainable growth while protecting our investors and minimizing risk.

Think about your vision for the future – what does it look like? We consider it our job to get you there. We provide founders with the tools, resources, partnership and pattern recognition so they can build their strategic, operational and leadership success. How do we help you grow? With the volition to go beyond the walls of the boardroom. GROW WITH A SHARED VISION When we invest in a company, we’re also committing to a vision for the future that’s shared with founders and their management teams. Our investment strategy is designed specifically to keep us all aligned: $5 Million - $50 million investment; Growth Capital/Shareholder Liquidity; Board Position; Meaningful minority ownership stake. GROW WITH PERSONAL SUPPORT Leading a company is a tough task with major physical and mental demands. We support the whole person in their journey through growth with no-B.S. programs, people and advisors who understand the unique challenges that come with growing a business. GROW WITH STRATEGIC INSIGHT At Volition there's no single playbook or definition of success. We tailor our strategic and operational support to each our founder’s ambitions and company. Drawing on experience, pattern recognition and ideas from leading minds, we help to draw a roadmap that’s your-company-specific. GROW WITH NETWORK ACCESS Having access to the right person at the right time can be transformative for any business leader. But, it’s particularly critical when they’re growing and scaling a business. When our portfolio companies need introductions – whatever that might look like – we take action personally.

Founders Forum Group is a global community and group of businesses supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys. Our invite-only forums unite founders, investors, corporate and government leaders to tackle era-defining questions in iconic locations across the globe. Our annual forums take place in London, New York, Berlin & Singapore and we're proud co-hosts of #LondonTechWeek. Fuelled by the connections and ideas forged at FF events, Founders Forum Group businesses support the needs of today’s founders via networking (Grip), education (01 Founders and Framework), professional services (Founders Keepers and Founders Law), investment (Founders Factory and firstminute capital) and philanthropy (The Centre for Entrepreneurs and Founders Pledge).

firstminute capital is a $320m sector-agnostic seed fund backed by 120 unicorn founders, including over 20 founders of $10bn+ businesses. Our General Partner Brent Hoberman is a double unicon founder. Yet, we are more than a fund. We’re an ecosystem of entrepreneurs from all over the world who, facilitated by firstminute capital’s team, come together to help one another, turn vision into reality and create the future. Our community is our edge. It is the source of the transformational support we offer to our partners who are warmly welcomed inside. An invitation into the firstminute capital community is secured by those with a special kind of spirit, not just a solid spreadsheet. A rare breed driven by a powerful characteristic we call, ‘Magnetic Ambition.’ Those with it often don’t recognise it in themselves, yet they are propelled forward by it, every day. We see it in their ability to capture hearts and minds with their vision, their belief and their commitment. When we find a founder with Magnetic Ambition, we open the door to the firstminute capital community and we give them everything they need. At your service What can founders expect from working with us? First of all, our 9-person investment team will fight for founders. Between us, members of the team have backed 10 unicorn startups at seed; we have IPO-ed companies; we have started companies; we have fundraised ourselves and we have failed and picked ourselves up again. So we are all here to help with advice, strategy brainstorming, product workshops, introductions to customers, raising a Series A or just being there for you in the tough times as well as the good times. If we can't help, we'll know someone in our extensive network who can and we'll make that intro. On top of the investment team, founders also get the whole "platform" team, which is another 11 people dedicated to helping founders scale their business and help with areas such as hiring and marketing. Our goal is to be the most helpful seed fund in Europe. We love to help founders build. Network effects At firstminute, we see ourselves as collaboration catalysts. We act to unlock the value our the community and bring our own expertise to bear when the time is right. Thanks to our 120 unicorn backers as well as a network of top CEO supporting us, firstminute has an extensive global reach. We like to bring on our investors - some of the top angels in the world - into our deals and as advisers to supercharge companies. firstminute's co-founder is Brent Hoberman, who after founding and exiting two unicorn startups himself created a network of companies under the 'Founders' umbrella. These include a world-class event series called Founders Forum as well as a consultancy, a recruitment firm, a charitable arm and Europe's largest incubator-accelerator. This whole ecosystem is part of our network, which helps with everything from sales introduction to finding top talent. We also have a large investor network to help with that Series A fundraise and beyond, having done deals with our friend at funds such as Tiger Global, Sequoia, Benchmark, a16z, Coatue and Atomico. Being part of our community, with our events and parties with some of the biggest names in tech and business, means you will be working with the best. We do an annual retreat for founders as well as regular drinks and dinners. Every year we hold our flagship summit in London which brings together firstminute investors, portfolio founders, partners from the top US and European multi-stage funds, and friends who are all bright lights in the tech community. Read more about that here.

We're by your side from founding to the finish line, following a blueprint for success to take you further. De-risked ideas: We spend 3-4 months vetting each business idea upfront to vastly increase the likelihood of success. Operational Backbone: We streamline the back-end operational processes so our startup leaders can focus on building team, product, and a customer base. This enables our companies to have a best-in-class operations stack with vetted vendors and built for scale. Accelerate funding: The first fundraising round is often the hardest. We provide a multi-year funding runway without the need for outside capital. Network: We are with our executive teams at every step of the journey. Along with our experienced internal teams, we maintain relationships with contractors and consultants to support our leaders where they need it the most. Talent: A company is only as strong as its people. Our in-house talent acquisition function supports leaders in building out their teams as they grow. Mentorship: Even the most accomplished leaders are on constant journeys of betterment and recognize weaknesses can become strengths with practice and attention. We work to further cultivate great leadership talent in our CEO ranks. Community: Our CEOs and portfolio company executives are in frequent contact with one another, serving as sounding boards and thought partners when they have confronted similar challenges. We ideate, validate, create & scaleIdeate: We study industries and niches to discern where they are going next and what white space that creates. We then sketch out the business models, innovations, and technologies that are poised for success. Validate: We only launch businesses in our highest conviction ideas, developed through extensive discussions with potential customers and intensive study of competitors and incumbents to affirm the business idea. Create: Misguided early product decisions can prove disastrous even with a great idea and experienced management team. We work closely with management teams to leverage our industry research and startup experience in MVP and strategy development. Scale: Sifting through stacks of vendor proposals and implementing back-end processes is not the best use of a founding management team’s limited time. We streamline these processes so that the founding team can focus on growing its business. What we do Catalyzing creativity: equipping our leaders to actualize their visions People: The quality of the team ultimately determines whether a new business succeeds or fails. Our experienced in-house talent acquisition function helps structure founding teams, devise talent strategies, and execute on searches. Technology: We have relationships with experienced CTOs, software engineers, and technical recruiters to enable portfolio companies to develop products at a lower cost and to help overcome technical challenges that arise. Funding: Founders often turn to friends and family to pull together the capital needed to get a business off the ground. We provide portfolio companies with a multi-year funding runway. Strategy: Our idea validation process involves customer and competitor interviews, analysis of unit economics, evaluation of ancillary business models, and assessment of go-to-market strategies. We work with management teams to leverage this research in developing an MVP and go-to-market strategy for their company.

We bring our extensive experience of working with entrepreneurs across sectors and institutional investors deploying capital to help you make the right decisions for scaling your business. We will help you navigate the fund-raising process right from business planning, developing projections & impactful pitch decks to guiding you to arrive at a fair valuation for your business and negotiations. In a nutshell, we will be your trusted advisor and handhold you through the entire fund-raising process. Having worked with leading family offices and VC as well as PE investors, our team has in-depth understanding of what the investors are looking for while making investments in terms of their sector focus, ticket size and stage of the business. This experience with domestic as well as international investors helps us connect you with the right capital partner in your growth journey. We strongly believe in having skin in the game and hence we co-invest in every transaction that we help raise capital for. This differentiates us from other advisors. We succeed when you succeed. Our relationship with you goes way beyond just helping you raise transformational capital. We remain vested in your future through our investment. We appreciate the grit, determination, conviction, passion and perseverance required to take a concept or an idea and scale it to a sustainable business in the face of various operating challenges. We go to great lengths to help you achieve success as we have the same entrepreneurial DNA. We will open up our global network of professionals who are domain experts in finance, accounting, taxation, performance marketing, social media management, logistics to fuel your growth.