Patience Pays Off, Going the Distance, How to Operate, and Highlights from 2022

Patience is hard – in life and in investing. But it lets you think differently about risk and reward in private equity, align incentives, figure out priorities, and reinvest in things known to be valuable – building capacity, capability, and readiness.

Compared to last year's total of 542, only 244 new unicorns have been created globally so far in 2022, while only 23 new unicorns have been minted in India this year, compared to 44 in 2021.

Listen to this episode from Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon on Spotify. I’m always excited to interview a portfolio company founder on Panic with Friends, so I’m doubly excited to have Nave Avimor, co-founder of DSTNC (Social Leverage Fund IV) on today’s show. The company is at the forefront of fashion and technology, or as I like to call it, ‘Fashology’ – for the modern cyclist. DSNTC (pronounced 'distance' - vowels removed) is a first of its kind global marketplace and content destination, curating the largest selection of high-end brands and performance products from around the world. Nave and the team have done a phenomenal job over the last eight months or so, and with the site launched and a seed round raised, this is the right time to have him on. Not everything is about unicorns, and I finally get to dabble in fashology, something I’ve been talking about since the Oakley days. I’ve been able to invest and really try building a full-on Lifestyle brand without the hassle of the day-to-day. Nave’s traveled the world, knows the sport, and his partner has an eye for culture. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.  Guest - Nave Avimor, Co-Founder & CPO at Dstnc  howardlindzon.com, dstnc.com  Twitter: @howardlindzon, @dstnc, @naveavimor, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen  linkedin.com/in/naveavimor #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance  Show Notes: Introduction (00:39) Welcome Nave (09:24) Meaning of Avimor (09:44) Getting into Cycling (10:14) Moving to China (12:22) Living in Shanghai (13:08) Israel Cycling Academy (14:38) Optimal cycling physique (17:14) Building DSTNC (20:53) Bike shop business model (26:45) Gravel bike v. Road bike (28:42) Disc brakes (30:53) A revolution in cycling is happening (32:37) Discovering the best gear (33:45) Close-calls and accidents (39:25) Beyond clothes - exotic bike parts (41:32) Rise of e-Biking (42:38) Wrapping up (43:53) Closing thoughts (44:36)

Listen to this episode from Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy on Spotify. My guest today is Kat Cole, the COO and president of North America for Focus Brands, which owns famous companies like Cinnabon, Carvel, Jamba, and more. Kat’s story and career trajectory are remarkable, as are the lessons she’s picked up along the way which she shares with us all in this conversation. We discuss negotiation, distribution, brand building, brand extension strategies, and leadership. I always enjoy having a true operator on the show, so I was very excited to discover Kat and her thinking. Please enjoy this great conversation.   This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.  Bottomless is offering one month and your second bag of coffee for free at bottomless.com/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:13) – (First question) – Her call to prayer             (2:16) – Kat Cole on Pomp’s podcast (5:20) – Her positivity lens (7:59) – Applying that positivity lens in business (13:34) – How to show positivity in early interactions with someone (17:37) – Overview of Kat’s career (21:03) – Lessons learned building brands (27:11) – Changing relevance or differentiation within a brand (32:34) – Keeping a brands dominant position in people’s minds (36:00) – The power of franchising and shared commitment (40:50) – How her experience makes her a better investor (42:55) – Lessons around distribution (46:24) – Effectively negotiating and getting your fair share in a partnership (52:49) – Attributes of a brand that get Kat most excited (56:34) – Transferring her brand lessons to software and tech companies (59:09) – Biggest lessons in leadership she’s learned             (1:04:13) – Checking In: the power of intention, reflection, and action to be your best and help others do the same (1:05:18) – Most effective questions in her check-ins (1:06:29) – Personal check-ins vs professional check-ins (1:10:44) – Balancing gratitude and ambition (1:14:37) – The kindest thing anyone has done for Kat   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

I had the opportunity to interview Surfboard founder ( Fund IV ) Chuhan Wang before her appearance on Panic with Friends to share her founder story.  Chuhan spent the last decade working in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, as a Venture Capitalist, and growing a company from Series B

Social Leverage led the seed round for Seeds Investor ( Fund IV ), a fintech firm providing financial advisers the technology to deliver a personalized and engaging investing experience to their clients. Social Leverage GP Matt Ober joins the board of directors. The seed round saw additional partici

MoneyLion ( $ML ) acquired Even Financial, Inc. ( Fund II ). The acquisition opens up MoneyLion platform users to a network of over 400 financial firms and 500 channel partners who provide a wide-array of financial services and products. Even revolutionized the customer experience for financial ser

Social Leverage portfolio company beehiiv ( Fund IV ) raised $1.6M to expand headcount and accelerate product development. This raise extends the seed round from October of 2021, bringing in the total raised to date at around $4.2M.  Post-launch in November 2021, beehiiv has grown 30% plus

Social Leverage portfolio company Sequel ( Fund III ) just raised an $8M Series A round in what’s been a particularly difficult year for fundraising. Sequel’s low-code and no-code options allow companies to host virtual events on their own websites without having to outsource to other platforms;

Covey ( Fund IV ) closed a $2.5M seed round, led by Social Leverage and Portage Ventures. Cue Ball and BoxOne also participated. Covey was founded by Brooker Belcourt, an investor who spent seven years managing funds for Citadel, a Tiger Management seeded Fund, and Coatue. Initially built as a pe

Our San Diego based portfolio company Walla ( Fund III ), the all-in-one studio management software for boutique fitness businesses raised an $8M Series A round, on top of a previous $5M seed round. We participated in the round and led the pre-product seed round as COVID began in 2020. Software con

Social Leverage portfolio company ( Fund III ) Staytuned has completed the acquisition of Moonship, a Shopify app that creates AI-based personalized discounts. Details: Moonship was founded in November of 2020 to help Shopify merchants convert reluctant buyers browsing their online stores. The

This week’s [co]founder in focus is Denise Thomas, CEO and co-founder of ApplePie Capital. ApplePie Capital ( Fund II ) is a marketplace lender that enables franchisees to get new and more efficient sources of capital for their business. Denise says the idea for ApplePie Capital came about as banks

I’m excited to announce the $15.5M Series A raise by Social Leverage ( Fund III ) portfolio company Gotrade. The Gotrade app, which allows users in over 170 countries to invest in fractional shares of US equities, was founded in 2019 by Rohit Mulani, Norman Wanto and David Grant. The company annou

We’re pleased to announce Fund III portfolio company Nayya has raised $55 million in a Series C equity round led by ICONIQ Growth. Since we first invested in Nayya in July of 2020, the startup went on to raise two more rounds totalling $48 million in 2021.  Nayya’s digital assi

Gary, Tom and I are excited to announce Matt Ober is joining the team at Social Leverage. Matt and I connected about 11 years ago at Stocktwits , where WorldQuant became the first customer to buy and integrate the Stocktwits data feed. Over that time, we'd catch up whenever either one of us was i

I’m excited to announce Facebook parent company Meta has closed the acquisition of our Fund II portfolio company Kustomer. Facebook initially reached an agreement to acquire Kustomer in November of 2020, but the deal was subject to an FTC review, and a separate approval by authorities in the U.

The $32M Series B round was led by Insight Partners with continued participation by Social Leverage, Redpoint Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Founder’s Co-op, and other existing investors. The Series B follows a $13M Series A raise in April of 2021. After the Series A, the company experienced immense gro

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