Antler Global Early-Stage Venture Capital Firm

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Speak With Tyler Bryden
Speak With Tyler Bryden
Antler Global Early-Stage Venture Capital Firm
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  • Matching co-founders and incubating companies
  • $150,000 for a 10% equity stake in companies
  • Program versus non-program investing
  • Upcoming Toronto Cohort in September 2022
  • Parallels with Y Combinator, 500 Startups & NEXT Canada

#venturecapital #vc #antler #fundraising #preseed #seedround #seriesa #seedfunding #investment #toronto #next36 #ycombinator #500startups #startups #founders #investing #canada

Resources

Join our next cohort | Antler | Antler
Find out more about Antler funded startups | Antler
Join our next cohort | Antler | Antler
Find out more about Antler funded startups | Antler
The Antler Story | Antler
bbfe790e-2f33-4aa7-9131-4daab5f50296_How+Antler+thinks+about+investments+-+Antler+VC+(2022).pdf
FAQ_-_Antler_Canada – Fall 2022 – Google Docs
Antler eyes $30 million fund as part of Canada expansion
Relay Ventures bolsters investment team, while Antler expands to Canada | BetaKit
Next 36 – NEXT Canada
(99+) NEXT Canada: Overview | LinkedIn

YouTube Video

 

Automated Transcription

Hello Tyler Bryden here hope everything’s going well hopping right in today. Something sort of interesting that popped up into my I guess my LinkedIn inbox today and that’s the message from a representative from Antler and I think it’s a really interesting to sort of check out these firms that are investing building companies in different ways. So antler is a global venture capital firm investing in the most exceptional people at the earliest stages. Just disclaimer I am not participating in this program. I am not promoting this program. I’m not being paid to advertise this. I just thought this was interesting. After checking out a little bit more information on on on the organization and would you like fascinating is sort of the way that they’re doing it. So again, everyone always claiming about differentiation and how they treat founders first and etcetera etcetera. But what antler is sort of doing here is almost creating an incubator where they’re taking a bunch of talented people that they’re vetting, and then they’re putting them into a cohort, and you can actually come in with no no company and just an idea of what you want to do and what they’re.

But then hoping to do or achieve is to match skill sets so that they compare to cofounders together. During that process, you’re going to $3000 stipend, which is pretty awesome. I mean in Toronto and lots of places that’s not going to get you too far. But at the same time, if you are trying to derisk moving from a job or coming out of university or school, this is an awesome way to you know, subsidized some of the work that you’re doing as you’re building a company as you go through that process. And then what seems to happen here is that there is a select.

Group from those match cofounders who then proceed to the next stage and that is then $150,000 investment, did not define if USD or Canadian for 10% of the company. So about 1.5 million evaluation at the company in this early stage. And it’s really interesting. I think you know part of the idea here is a focus on unrepresentative underserved just founders and talented people who want to accomplish something, but maybe don’t necessarily have the people around them the. That the experience, the ability to raise capital, et cetera, et cetera. And I think the reason why this is then sort of coming to my mind here as on the date of that I’m recording this is that they’re launching their second cohort here in Toronto in September, so I’m going to sharing this. I don’t know if this promotional, I don’t know exactly what this is, but just thought this was worthwhile to talk about. And in a video, and so they’re messaging people holding information sessions now and and if you are a person probably fits that.

That quality seems pretty polished. Seems pretty interesting. They do sort of promote, you know, some founder testimonials, which I think is nice. The website is clean, I think under anything in venture capital there is sort of this possible darkness that can lay, but generally I like to can still have this sort of optimism and hope that people are good that they’re trying to do the right things and serve, you know, serve people well. So I got this message from one of the representatives.

Here, today or yesterday. Thought about attending an information session and then what they did. I think nicely in advance to filter out people who are interested versus not interested is share a frequently asked questions and within those frequently asked questions you can start to understand a lot more about what you know what this program looks like, how how you would contribute, how you’d be successful in the program. If you are truly considering this, you know what? What stage do you need to be at? What ideas do you have?

What other cohorts have existed, and are there any notable startups that have come through that and then? Just lots of great applications and also some understanding of like what would make you a successful applicant versus not the selection process, how you would actually go through that and then if you are to be one of the people who is invested in, what does that look like? And I think generally it fits a lot of the stages that were sort of parallels with a lot of different of these firms that are doing this. A lot of people would think of why Combinator. There’s 500 startups. There’s tech stars generally around 150,000 bucks.

Sometimes a little bit lower 6% and then 10% is a little bit on the high end, but obviously they’re sort of incubating you directly in the program itself, so there’s a lot of work, or at least you would think that there would be a lot of work to to sort of incubate you and set you up for success. The goal there is to then have a demo day where there’s a lot of investors, and in that Investor Day you are pulling together an investment, so I will, you know, I think one of the when I think about this one of the parallels that I’ve seen and actually. Participated in early in my life, which was still not that long ago, but it’s starting to seem longer. Ago was next 36 and next 36 had a very similar model to this. They’ve had some pretty good portfolio companies come from them. I think I looked at the portfolio companies from Antler, not as much. I mean at least like well recognized names that I I knew, but.

Still, I mean there’s companies that have very successful Series A $30 million. I mean, obviously, just because you raised money doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a sign of success, but it means, hopefully, that you’re you know, doing doing something right next 36 has Bridget North, which I believe was required for a significant sum and a couple other companies that have come from there. And it was the same thing. I think I was trying to think the exact age I was, but they sort of brought what in the end was this? Like weekend 72 people? Sort of.

Talented I was there so quotation marks people into a room and and then basically filtering that down to 36 people who they thought were entrepreneurs who had the most potential in Canada and generally were young then started to match them and build companies. So that’s where a lot of the parallels will are. One of my quick, you know experiences I got to meet a bunch of these people here and one of the crazy experiences I had with Reza who sort of a legend in Toronto, was we all sat down. 76 of us showed up. Our 72 of us showed up for this weekend. We all got into room. There was hundreds of people there. Reza gets to the front of the classroom or whatever. They even have room a big conference room and start saying, you know, calling people’s names out and he starts saying, hey James, just as an example, you only had a 2.5 GPA in university. Why are you here? And so then this person would have to stand up and defend why they were in the final 72 of this next 36 program and.

There’s actually a picture of me and I think I’ve maybe shared this before, but me putting my head down in this chair and just hoping that I didn’t get picked because of what an intense scrutinizing moment that they then released. And obviously that’s part of it. They want to put pressure on you. They want to, you know, see you excel under pressure, but you know that was always will stick out to me. I’ll never truly forget that moment, so that was next 36. A parallel to I believe, what antlers doing antler with ton of locations seems originally?

Originated from Singapore and then you know the goal here is that they’ve got obviously the platform they’ve got the cohort based. Maybe got some technology stack on the background and then they’re also trying to connect you into community, so I’ve got a bunch of links here. They do seem to invest. I did check this out just if you’re interested in so there is this normal cohort based stage that they go through where they match you with the founders and then they invest with the terms. They do seem to invest in companies that are outside of.

Of the cohorts and program two and they talk a little bit about what that investment looks like, the instrument, and then preceded and seed round companies formed outside of our cohort. So maybe you’re further along on your journey. You don’t have. You know you’re maybe you already have a company. Maybe you already have an idea. You’ve got a cofounder, you’re further down the road and going through this program doesn’t make sense. But maybe a precede in a seat you know, maybe a preceder. A seed round makes sense from them, so they do say they invest in a series and beyond they don’t leave these investments.

But now they must have a little bit of powder there for you, and generally looking like you know they’re moving towards founder friendliness. But at the same time in the world that we’re living in, what? What does that mean? And then you also think you know they’ve raised about 30 million at least and to to expand into Canada here. So with that there is obviously a goal to return this money. This is not at all just charity, and so with that investment they’re hoping that one of these companies that they incubate maybe a couple of these companies.

They have a decent return and then maybe one is an outsized return, hopefully with. You know, maybe a Unicorn coming together who knows who knows? So that’s just a little bit. I shared a couple of links, but think apologies. I think I got a little LinkedIn buzzing message buzzing on there. I should have muted that, but that’s life and you learn and I’ll share these links. I’ll share these videos and just thought this was fascinating. There are a couple more information sessions coming up. If you are interested in this in this, you know in this type of investment, whether it’s through the cohort or you just want to check out Antler and general. Overall, the messaging was nice. I didn’t get to go to the information.

Question just had a couple things pop up, but maybe worthwhile checking out and looked like there is at least something interesting or something to learn. Whether you are interested or not. So this has been. Tyler, Brighton I hope you enjoyed this. If you did, I’m talking about what am I talking about talking about VC stuff, talking about language technology? Psychedelics ends up usually in this somewhere. I’ve got collision coming up and then you know, just overall building a little bit of a habit of creating content. If you like it. If you’re on YouTube, subscribe that. Subscribe. Come. You know it’s going up a little bit like it, and then if you’re on LinkedIn, feel encouraged to comment. Send me a message. Truly appreciate you.

Checking out everything that I’m doing, all the feedback, the messages that makes me feel like I’m doing something right. It gives me a little bit of incentive to continue. I’m learning along the way, sharing insights along the journey, and obviously a very interesting time in the world right now, so hopefully I’m giving you some valuable perspective along the way. Thank you so much.

 

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