Liberty Ventures

We lead pre-seed and seed rounds. We commit meaningful amounts of capital to empower founders to build the future before it becomes obvious. Deep Partnership We are company builders. We have built products, teams and companies in Southeast Asia. We care about your vision and product in a deep way. We believe that hands-on support makes a difference. Unparalleled Network We provide access. We have spent our entire careers at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship and venture. Our network is comprised of world class founders, investors and technologists.

In 2007, I was working as a junior trader at Lehman Brothers. I hated it - the dehumanizing culture, lack of creativity, and singular focus on transactions and money left me feeling uninspired and lost. I didn’t know it then, but Lehman’s bankruptcy in ‘08 was a gift, and I left in search of a calling. I spent a few years meandering - writing, working odd jobs, grad school in Hong Kong - ultimately ending up back in NYC in 2009, having stumbled upon a young, passionate group of misfits that folks were calling “founders.” These founders felt more like artists than assets, more obsessives than executives. They were avant garde, they were building the things they wanted to see in the world, and to my surprise, people called venture capitalists gave them money to pursue their dreams. I was in love with their fringe eccentricity, extraordinary craftsmanship, and wild ambition. I was in love with the beautiful new works of art they called startups. For the next 15 years, I dedicated my life to working with founders – first at betaworks, and then over three funds at Notation with my partner Alex Lines. A lot has changed. The venture ecosystem went from cottage industry outsider to institutional insider – from a nascent practice to a consensus component of institutional portfolios. The result has been the industrialization–and bankerization–of venture. Firms that make dozens or even hundreds of investments per year, relentlessly focused on assets under management, using the same copy-paste transactional language, all drowning in a sea of sameness. Similarly, what was once a risky leap of faith has become a credentialing factory: accelerators churn out 1,000s of startups per year and fundraising rounds are the new requisite bullets in Linkedin resumes. The environment today feels eerily similar to the one I left on Wall Street so many years ago. Into the Asylum I’ve always believed the best early-stage founders are artists – they're obsessive about new and unusual things, they feel compelled to bring creation into the world, and they are often misunderstood for long periods of time–even lifetimes. Building businesses is their art. The good news is that as the new “banks” in venture continue to expand their tentacles, they also enable new alternatives. What if we treated founders like artists, instead of like assets? We plan to spend the next decade trying to answer this question. We think it means: A firm that’s small by design, that makes a handful of investments per year, and that eschews board seats and administrative control. A small team of partners moving mountains to help when asked and otherwise getting out of the way. A place for founders to tune out the noise and focus on making something truly great. A source of calm, trust, and support for founders who are manifesting beauty through one of the hardest things you can do: starting a company. The path forward We believe there are exceptional founders who, like us, want to win their own way, who want to work with VCs who care more about them and their companies than assets under management. If this sounds appealing to you, please get in touch. Whether you're a founder or in between things, we’d love for you to come visit us at our studio in Brooklyn. And if you would like to join a small team dedicated to the art of venture rather than the business of banking, contact us at hiring@asylum.vc.

Apoiamos empreendedores que sonham em resolver grandes problemas e querem transformar o mundo. Contamos com a experiência, as competências e as conexões necessárias para ajudar as startups a darem o próximo passo.

Lewis & Clark Ventures was founded by former founders and operators to support the tech ecosystem. We’ve built venture-backed companies and have navigated the terrain of going from idea to exit multiple times. We are excited to partner with dynamic founders them on their journey to build successful companies. What We Look For Stage | Sectors Late seed through Series A and are sector agnostic technology investors. Investment We typically invest between $2M - $3M in our initial investment, but have flexibility in either direction. Between The Coasts We seek to fund companies in geographies that are overlooked by coastal venture funds Market Large opportunity, with high growth potential. Founder | Team We look for founders that have a big vision, a bold idea, and a strong ability to build and lead a great team - an exceptional founding team with either previous startup experience, domain expertise, or are very close to the problem they’re solving. Role We prefer to lead investments, but this is not always a requirement. Market-Fit We look for rapidly accelerating growth metrics and lean toward a minimum of $500K - $1M in revenue. Customers Companies that are establishing strong product-market-fit through close customer relationships, and are beginning to demonstrate a consistent go-to-market process. Mission To partner with visionary founders to build iconic companies between the coasts. Our Ethos Empathy As former founders, we are rooted in understanding and supporting the founders’ journey. People who embark on this journey command our respect. Execute We take pride in doing great work and care about the details. Initiative is in our DNA and we always have a bias towards action. Navigate The path to success and significance is rarely a straight line and decisions are rarely black and white. We believe in navigating the complexity of startups with our experience to accelerate growth. Shoot Straight As partners for the long term, we believe an open, transparent and candid communication style, based on mutual respect and trust, is the best way to communicate and achieve the best results. Smart Growth We believe in smart growth, not growth at all costs. We work with founders to build sustainable, enduring companies, combining rapid growth built on a foundation of strong fundamentals. True Partners We believe that the people you surround yourself with make the difference in life. We work with people we respect, that challenge us to dream bigger, and that we enjoy spending time with. We support each other and win as a team.

We are a sector agnostic early-stage investor that wants to partner with founders from the very beginning of their journey and support them throughout their growth. Our team has global experience in building and scaling companies both as founders and in various CxO roles. We invest in ambitious and determined teams that can one day become industry leaders.

We are early believers in magically weird founders and help them realize their vision for the world. Our values. Chase the magically weird. “Chase the magically weird” pushes us to do things that take guts, focus on finding outliers, question the status quo, and let our freak flags fly. We love unconventional ideas, quirky personalities, bold choices, and things other people describe as ridiculous or stupid. We try to infuse magical weirdness into our events, our company culture, and everything else we put out in the world. Some examples of magical weirdness at work? Attending toilet paper conventions. Getting tattoos of company logos. Sending a founder pizza delivered by a dude dressed as a rat. Escape rooms. Alpacas. Bob Ross. You get the idea. If you’re a weirdo and/or you’re building something crazy, we’d love to chat! Be a bubbe. This value is our north star for how we interact with our founders and broader community. Lots of founders ask, “How do you typically work with the companies you invest in?” and our answer is that we aim to “be a bubbe.” Bubbe is the Yiddish word for a grandmother. In her purest form, a bubbe is incredibly (sometimes comically) hospitable, wise, protective, direct, and, occasionally, a little neurotic. Her love for you is unconditional, but she doesn’t take bullsh*t from anyone. She makes a mean matzo ball soup and she tells you like it is. Spending time with bubbe is good for the heart, soul, and stomach. In practice, this may look like: Checking in with founders about their lives and families. Hosting intimate events that feel like dinner at grandma’s house. Sharing personal stories. Sending freshly baked cookies. Communicating as directly as possible, but always with love. And maybe even hand-knitting some swag. Our character alignment is Chaotic Good. If Long Journey were a Dungeons & Dragons player, our character alignment would be Chaotic Good - a complex trait that combines a good heart with a free spirit. Chaotic Good characters make their own way, but remain kind. They value freedom and independence above all else, and they know that prosperity comes from empowering individual autonomy and looking beyond the standard mold - this is exactly what we aim to do. This value also reminds us to stay humble and not take ourselves too seriously. We are allergic to self-importance and entitlement, and drawn to curiosity and playfulness. Our “Chaotic Good” value reminds us to stick to our principles, have fun, and keep our eyes on the long game. It's not Monopoly money. “It’s not Monopoly money” emphasizes that we take money very seriously, and we appreciate that there’s a story behind every dollar. Wealth isn’t built overnight, and we feel a responsibility to honor the work our LPs put into building their wealth. We are disciplined, high-integrity stewards of our LPs’ capital, and we back founders who similarly care about and understand the value of that investment. We believe that money is fuel and money enables freedom. Our job is to return as much money as we possibly can to our LPs, and we don’t take that job lightly. We want to work with founders who understand and respect this value.