Jack Dreifuss announces Impatient Ventures Fund I at $23.5M, oversubscribed from $20M target

sounds like there might be some other factors at play. Uh we have Jack. Let's bring him in the waiting room. Let's bring him in. Welcome to the stream, Jack. How you doing? There he is. There he is. I changed my shirt when I saw that you guys white when you went light today. I had a dark shirt on.

I just Can we get some suit though? No suit though. But he's in the studio. Welcome to the stream. Let me get the Ashton Hall. Yeah. One more. Let's go. We got Jack. He's got news today. Let's go. He's got news. He's got news. What What news do you have? What's going on? What you got for us?

This is You guys are getting the first look at this. It's a It's a pleasure to do it here. Uh we are announcing Impatient Ventures Fun One. Let's go. Another air horn. Another air horn. How big is it?

Uh so we we had set out to do 20 million right we had set out to do 20 million we ended up overs subscribing and doing 23 and a half million so congratulations you know it's a it's it was a tough market to start in February 2023 was basically the rock stone cold bottom of venture stone cold time it out have you thought of concentrating the entire fund into a single foundation model company just putting all 23 million in one deal I basically was was hoping that that would be the case.

I was just waiting to yolo in with Josh Kushner into something. There you go. No, I uh I never found it. Next fun. I mean, BR seriously, break down the Maybe talk about Why don't you give people a little background? Talk about uh AUM, too, because I don't think the first fund tells the whole story. Yeah.

So, I was lucky enough to to start uh investing honestly during Zer when it was a little bit easier to raise capital and and so we did a series of SPBs while I was a founder.

uh in 2020 2122 um first deal we did ended up being a CPG company might be the first and last CPG company but it's my best investment which is a high protein oatmeal brand called Oats Overnight um I met the the founder he was a pro poker player I was a very serious poker player at once in my life um which I think is an amazing skill set to have as a founder is that sort of decision tree between luck and what you actually did to impact an outcome but uh yeah we did about 30 million million bucks of SBPs before the first fund and then along the fund we've done probably another 50 or 60 million.

So AUM is uh is north of nine figures. Um but uh uh we're we're definitely we're definitely as they like to say in the industry just getting started. Just getting started. Started. That's great. Portfolio construction for the new fund. What's the average check size? How many deals are you trying to do?

Are you leaving some on the table for PRAA and followons? Will there be a growth fund, an IPO, a special situations fund, debt fund? Are you getting into uh structured structured credit, private credit at some point? What's going on? I mean, I'm you know, import export.

You know, it's like, you know, when you have those friends where you ask them what their parents do and they don't know and they say import export, you're just left wondering. But like everything's import export import the capital, export it to the founders. Yeah. Exactly. So, we're we're a concentrated fund.

Um we're we're going to do probably about 20 to 22. We're actually at 20 right now and so we're just deciding kind of the last few.

The the nice part about being a first fund is you can not only make a lot of mistakes, you don't have to be as kind of like letter to the law of how how it's done I think as you scale aum and you have institutional investors. We were fortunate to have an institutional investor was a as a top endowment.

need permission to say publicly. Unfortunately, I don't have that permission, but as I've been told, I can say it's a Bostonbased uh endowment. Uh that's in the it's in the top quartortile of investing. Um but uh so we um we we have a a generalist approach.

How I think about it is I was reading somewhere the other day that somebody talked about how specialist funds actually outperform generalist funds for only fund one, but then as soon as you escape fund one, you start just getting decimated.

And and basically the articulation was if you're focused, it's because you're investing in whatever is of the time, right? Right now at the time, it's uh it's foundational models uh and and and deep tech. So everything from AI to to robots.

But, you know, three years ago, I saw a lot of people saying, "We're web three focused. " And then they kind of like branded everything that way and then slowly walked off stage and pivoted as that industry changed from where it was three years ago.

So, I like to think of us as a generalist fund that dynamically invests in what the best categories, you know, of today is. And so, right now, that is, you know, robotics, that is deep tech, that is advanced manufacturing and defense. Um, but we're also doing consumer. Um, I think consumer is permanent.

It's a permanent category. Um, you know, I think uh we have yet to do a web 3 deal. I don't want to write it off.

We did some pre fund uh stable coins uh that that that we're excited about, but um you know, I think it's still a sort of to be determined um you know, what's going to work in web 3 because it's still just tokens with not a lot of value.

But how do you find um there's there's been a number uh full disclosure, I'm an LP and impatient. Um but uh h how do you how do you think about investing in companies before there's any heat on the deal?

I can think of a few companies in the fund that were couldn't have been less hot at the time of investment and then a year later you've got you know tier ones uh you know leading and they become super competitive.

But um what what's your kind of what are you looking for in a founder uh to get a sense of their abilities oftentimes before there's any you know revenue or or sometimes not even an actual product yet. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean that's uh that basically is kind of where I think our edges is in what we invest in which is I think you always hear it it's about the people but my line is I can't underwrite a business if I can't underwrite the founder.

And so it's those characteristics of that founder that I feel like are a winning you know sort of uh profile um because you know comically the word pivot is so often used in startups because the beginning life cycle of a company is one continuous pivot and so I love the Mike Maples quote 80% of his best investments were pivots Mike Maples being the you know the floodgate founder and and and I think that that couldn't be truer about so many of our best deals were sort of the business change later and so what I'm really looking for is that the founder has um there's a line that I like to use which is um never uncertain often wrong and so whatever they believe to be true at that point they believe it with 110% but as soon as new information enters their their head that that might change the way they you know go to market that might require them to need to shift their team I'm looking for a founder's ability to be dynamic at as the sort of uh the information changes cigar right now the celebration cigar Break it out, John.

Let's do it. Let's I don't mind. I don't mind taking the suits to the dry cleaner after this. I mean, the next studio, I think we will be able to smoke.

I wish I remember you guys remember there's like at least two or three COVID startups that were like I think uh there's still one that does it where you can get like 10-minute delivery or something like that. Cigars. I mean, maybe cigars. That might be the next great consumer business. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah.

Go puff for cigars.

What what is your take on these like on these new Zoomer companies, these these young entrepreneurs who seem to be really good at like going viral on day one vibe reels take over the internet and then they kind of got to build the plane after they're already flying versus you know the Dylan Field story of like Teal Fellow in kind of private beta for like three years raising money uh then launches Figma and goes on this like generational run.

uh the fear and like the vibe is like, "Hey guys, like you're taking the marketing a little bit too seriously. Maybe you're too good at going viral before you you really have any product, but uh are we just being like boomers if we're like, "Hey, you know, get in the get in the garage and start coding.

" I I love that question. One of the companies that uh you know, Jordy knows is in our portfolio um and uh we're we're all big fans of, in fact, I think you both have the fish is Shink. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I think they're at they're they're they're at 40 Michelin stars of of sort of their fish being distributed to restaurants. I thought it only went up to three Michelin stars, but they got 40 40. They're hogging all the stars. That's incredible.

really blew it off the but one of the things I really appreciate about the CEO is quite young and and you know we backed him uh you know when he had two roommates from college working on the idea with him and actually the original idea he wanted to make autonomous fishing boats and he wanted to build the fish processing robots that kind of you know execute the fish when it's caught and then get it right the narrative the the the narrative violation there is that [ __ ] is a YC company that graduated YC and still had.

And this is this just goes to show how not hot robotics were and any type of sort of more antiquated industries that they could that a founder of SAFE's category could get out of YC and just be out in the free market building in relative obscurity for I don't know how long it was exactly, but if I remember correctly, it was it was a few years.

But but just to even finish John your question, one of the things I like about the CEO is there's a lot of pressure for him now that he is a you know tier one backed uh um startup and has you know some of the best from SpaceX and Android working there to really scale revenue.

The thing that he's focused on is quality revenue and I think in the age of AI being able to pump numbers up quickly. I don't know what that company was. I don't want to say the wrong one. It was 11X or 11 Labs or something that had like 10 million wildly different companies but they're wildly different.

There was one that basically had like uh 10 million in revenue in like three weeks or something crazy and it was just turns out it was like all turned over like 90% churn and so I think demos. Yeah.

I think in this age of of uh of being able to scale as fast as we've ever been able to quality revenue is really the most important thing I look for and does that founder understand what that means. Yeah. Yeah. So understanding econ economics are still in right now.

And I think the founders that don't understand hot take I mean hot take you know margin profile basic finance 101 stuff in conjunction with a market insight and the ability to scale and execute.

That's an important thing that we underwrite is I don't know what your ultimate business is going to be but will you know it when you see it. Uh last question I have. Are you a long or short burning man? You've been a a vocal uh proponent of Burning Man over the years. Uh every year that I've known you, you've gone.

Uh I I'm short. I got to say I'm short. I think it peaked a couple years ago. Uh but but what's your take? I got bad news for Burning Man. I This will be my first year in which I do my hot VC summer in Europe. And not a Burning Man. Okay. And so this is my first year taking off. Could be a death. I think I will be back.

I will say I have gotten deals and LPs out of Burning Man every year I've been there. So, you know, I I have a good batting average and the productivity. Um, but it definitely feels actions. What's that? The actions are speaking louder than words here. You're short.

Yeah, the revealed preference is the revealed preference. Mega short. I'm currently I'd say I'm I'm currently uh I'm currently uh at I'm staying in cash. I'm not long cash. cash. Awesome. Uh well, it's great to have you on. Congrats on uh the milestone and uh yeah, good luck to you.

I'm looking forward to Fun Two announcement. I'm sure it'll be not too long. Around the corner, not too far away. It'll be sometime after Burning Man, which is nice. Great. Anyway, great seeing you. We'll talk to you soon. All right, fellas. Thank you. Thanks, Jack. See you. Let's talk about Eight Sleep. Go to eight.

com. I'm going to keep the cheering going. 5year warranty, 30 night rice free trial, free returns, free shipping. Last night, I got a 90. I'm back in the ranks. I think I actually put up a 909 or 90 on the dot. What you got? No, actually a 90 because we got Pippa from Sweet Capital coming in the studio in just a minute.

Let me also tell you about Adqu. Out of home advertising made easy and measurable. Say goodbye to the headaches of out ofome advertising. Only Adqubines technology, out of home expertise, and data to enable efficient, seamless ad buying across the globe. Uh, Pippa, are you here? Welcome to the show. Hey, John.

How's it going? It's good. Uh, would you mind kicking us off a little bit of an introduction on yourself for those who don't know you? Absolutely. Uh, it's great to be with you guys. I know we've been wanting to do this a little for a little while, so it's great to be with you. Yeah. Somehow we missed