Category: Venture Capital

Consumer Startups We’re Seeking for 2016

December 31, 2015 2 Comments

With a focus on consumer software, I’m constantly looking for new trends that will impact consumers’ behavior in the coming year. As my team and I begin investing from our newly-raised Maven Fund II in January, here are some of the trends we’re considering for investment in 2016: Consumer Health:

How We Choose Startup Founders

December 23, 2015 3 Comments

This guest post was written by Sara Thomas, Principal at Maven Ventures. Follow Sara on Twitter @saraannet. Earlier this month, we held our second annual Maven Ventures Holiday Party, and it was great to welcome the holiday season with our Maven community — the Maven team, founders, limited partners, mentors,

Startup Thanksgiving Gratitude

November 25, 2015 No Comments

Thanksgiving is a great day to step back, take a breath, and be GRATEFUL. It’s something that we simply don’t do enough of in the tech startup world and it would serve us well. In an industry of endless demands and possibilities, we’re so busily focused on the future that

Einstein’s Secret to Investing in Early-Stage Consumer Winners

November 10, 2015 3 Comments

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is now over 100 years old, yet it’s as relevant today as ever before. One of the most remarkable theories in the history of science, Einstein’s methods of discovering new ideas is surprisingly similar to discovering early-stage consumer startups. I’m often asked how Maven knows which

The Rise of Institutional Seed: Reflections on Fund I

November 2, 2015 No Comments

Over the last couple of months at Maven, we have spent time reviewing our Fund I investment strategy and results as we prepare to begin investing our second fund soon. We invested Fund I over about 2.5 years and have a total of 22 portfolio companies in our inaugural fund. Any