Tandem Entrepreneurship

After my last company was acquired, I found the time to look at the world around and I was quickly came to realize that it’s a perfect time to start a company. Traditionally startups have required teams of 15-20, two+ years and millions of dollars before they have their first hundred users. There was a new class of startup that could, with a few people and a small pot of capital get to that kind of traction in months. However traditional forms of early capital were not structured to participate in such startups. The startups did not need the kind of money that was normally invested by these firms and most would not see the kind of exits that traditional early capital considered viable.

I concluded that what was needed was a different form of entrepreneurship and not a different form of capital. This led me to set up Tandem Entrepreneurs.

We invest our sweat and usually less than $1MM in a startup over a period of 2 years working in tandem with the founders. We are much more like Y-combinator than Sequoia. We don’t consider ourselves a VC like Sequoia because we work so closely with founders and view more modest exits as a success. We love Y-Combinator’s approach, but they just help a company get out of the gates. We engage for a much longer period and happen to invest more time and money in each business.

Take a look at our website tandementrepreneurs.com that has more detail. I would love to get the thoughts of the venture woods community. We would also love to hear from founders who would like to work with us.