Defy, the early stage enterprise funding agency based by Neil Sequeira and Trae Vassallo, is placing a brand new twist on the enterprise companion mannequin because it brings Brian Lee and Sujal Patel on board to assist out with investing and guiding firms within the agency’s portfolio.
Just don’t name them enterprise companions.
Vassallo and Sequeira favor the time period “sage” to explain the oldsters they’re wanting to usher in to assist mentor their firms.
Here’s how the 2 describe it in a weblog put up in regards to the new program:
Venture companion, working companion, entrepreneur in residence, advisor and so forth, so many names and so many alternative implementations, so we determined to easily give our distinctive relationship it’s personal name- a Sage.
A “sage” is somebody smart via reflection and expertise and we thought that completely encapsulates what these lively working executives convey to Defy. As proficient multi-time operators, seed traders and present CEOs, Defy Sages convey their working expertise, area data, and networks to assist our portfolio.
Both Lee, a Los Angeles-based serial entrepreneur who based or co-founded Honest Co., Shoedazzle, and LegalZoom; and Patel, whose deep background in enterprise software program comes from years spent as a co-founder and govt of Isilon Systems and later at EMC, are “longtime friends of the firm” based on an interview with each Sequeira and Vassallo.
Through its twist on the enterprise companion mannequin, which Defy is looking a “sage” program, the advisors get a much bigger piece within the upside at a fund and particular person deal degree. “There is carry throughout the fund and on any particular person firm they’re concerned in,” Sequeira mentioned in an interview.
For Lee, who’s operating the Los Angeles-based early stage client funding follow BAM Ventures, the settlement with Defy is an opportunity to see early stage executives exterior of his community and get publicity for a few of the firms in his portfolio. “It’s almost a backstop for BAM Ventures,” mentioned Lee.
Defy’s technique hasn’t modified. The firm will nonetheless be investing in conventional Series A offers — the $three million to $10 million rounds that many corporations now take into account to be seed stage.
“Our purpose is to create a right-sized agency, which means we will’t convey on numerous individuals or we find yourself in the identical slope of everybody else the place extra individuals equals greater fund which finally results in bigger checks,” Defy’s two founders wrote in a weblog put up saying the Sage program.
Already this system has born fruit, with Lee investing beside Defy within the cannabinoid product developer Prima, launched by Honest Co. co-founder Christopher Gavigan, and Shujinko receiving help from Patel as a part of its preliminary $2.eight million spherical.
And Defy hopes to convey different companions on board to offer much more sage recommendation for the agency’s rising portfolio.
