Today we’d like to introduce you to Seth Levine.
Seth, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My parents and I moved to Boulder when I was 11 days old. While we moved back east two years later and I don’t have memories of that time, I’ve always felt a pull to Colorado. Growing up on the east coast I spent every summer in Colorado with my grandparents in Denver, deepening my love for this area. Fast forward to my first job, I was living in New York City and working pretty much non-stop at an investment bank. I had an offer to stay at the bank, skip business school and fast track my banking career. But it just didn’t feel right to me. Instead I followed my heart and set out west for Colorado. It was a big move, but one that I’ve never regretted.
I had the great fortune to work for someone who took me under his wing and, frankly, put me in a series of jobs that I wasn’t exactly qualified for but which I was able to grow into. This was around the time of the 2000 Internet bubble and it was a fun time to be working in and around technology businesses. I had the chance to have a number of job titles and responsibilities, ranging from business development to finance to m&a. I lead the acquisition of over 20 companies in a few years period. I negotiated agreements with Jeff Skilling from Enron. I learned to be a manager. I lead the M&A process for the company I worked for in 2000, raising almost $300M from the IPO and side-by-side investments from SAIC, Lucent Technologies and Microsoft. Eventually I landed in something of a general management role, running several divisions of the company I helped take public. It was a different kind of job for me – in charge of a $50M P&L and an organization of 250 people. I liked it a lot but I also missed “doing” vs “managing”.
It was 2001 and as I was looking around for my next opportunity, I received advice that may have been the most important I’ve ever received: “find someone amazing to work for”. The advice came from a close friend and mentor and it changed the way I was thinking about my job search. Ultimately it led me to meet Brad Feld – the single most important person outside of my wife and family and the person who ultimately changed the trajectory of my life.
Brad was a partner at a Silicon Valley based venture firm, Softbank Venture Capital. The job he had was a pretty big step back for me, but I was eager to get into venture and becoming an associate at Softbank was my way to do that. At the time I thought of it as a temporary step. The job was only intended to be two years and then I’d figure out what I wanted to do next. But two years turned into three, which turned into four and a slight promotion from associate to junior (super junior) partner. In 2005 Brad and I had a conversation that would change my life forever. Softbank (which was then called Mobius Venture Capital) was raising a fund and I wanted Brad to know that I was not likely to stay as a junior partner in that fund. Mobius wasn’t a platform I believed in and I wasn’t going to have the chance to participate meaningfully in the investment decisions and economics of the fund. But as it turned out, Brad had other ideas. He told me that the Mobius fundraising wasn’t going as planned and that he was thinking about starting something on his own. He wanted to know if I would be interested in joining him.
That conversation blossomed. Jason and Ryan (two of our colleagues from Mobius) moved out to Colorado and in 2006 we started Foundry Group. Our idea was to build a national venture firm based in Boulder, CO. It was going to be different in a number of ways, including that we weren’t planning on building a “legacy” firm – we’d raise the same size fund over a series of years and when we were done, we’d be done. It was not an easy pitch and our initial fundraise was challenging. At several points in 2007 it looked like it wasn’t going to come together.
Fast forward 12 years and Foundry has become more than I ever thought possible. We now manage $2.5 Billion and have investments not just in companies but also into funds across the US. We’ve built an incredible platform and have been fortunate to work with some amazing entrepreneurs and co-investors. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built.
Along the way my life has completely changed. I met my wife in 2002. We have three kids, three dogs and three horses. And most importantly an amazing life together. I’m truly, truly lucky!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’ve found that most things that end up being impactful in life are the unexpected ones. Just when you thought you were on one path; another emerges and leads you in directions you never expected. For me it’s been a somewhat meandering journey. One that led me to school in Minnesota, to working in New York City, to moving to Colorado. I never expected to land in venture and certainly not to start my own firm. Or frankly to even live the kind of life that I’ve found myself in. Serendipity has played such an important role in my life, it’s hard to overstate the importance of being open to random circumstances and ideas. But that creates challenges. It’s hard to see around corners and you can sometimes feel like you’re at the whim of some guiding hand that you don’t really understand. But I’ve been lucky in so many ways that I’ve learned to trust the randomness and embrace the paths it takes me down.
Foundry Group – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Foundry Group is a venture capital firm based in Boulder, CO. When we started the firm, in 2006, there were few nationally focused venture firms located outside of Silicon Valley or the Northeast. We had all been together at a larger, Palo Alto based firm and we had a lot of ideas for how to better run a venture firm – particularly what NOT to do, based on our prior experiences. From the beginning we’ve tried to foster an openness and transparency around our business that veered from the norm at the time. We focus on investing in technology companies across the US in a number of specific themes. We had a vision to stay small and focused. We’ve never had a large staff and the partners at Foundry do their own work, vs relying on teams of analysts and associates. What started as a single fund of $225M has grown to over $2.5 Bn in funds that we manage. We’ve expanded from investing in Seed and Series A businesses to also investing in some later stage businesses and now investing in other venture funds. Across our business we now touch about 3,000 underlying companies. Along the way we’ve only limitedly expanded our team. Companies that readers may have heard of that we were investors in include Zynga, Fitbit, Sendgrid, Mapbox, Sphero and Admeld. But in total we’ve invested in over 130 companies and more than 30 venture funds. Most importantly we’ve stayed true to our original mission and ideals. Looking back on our original pitch to investors, we laid out a series of principals that we hoped would guide our business. Twelve years later, they still guide us.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Foundry tends to get a lot of credit for Boulder emerging as an entrepreneurial hub in the US over the past 15 years. And while we certainly helped, we were just one of many groups and individuals that helped put Boulder on the map. These are people and orgs (Techstars, Startup Week and Startup Weekend, NewTech) that helped put Boulder and put Foundry on the map. Beyond that, we have been greatly lifted up by a large network of peers and mentors – other VCs, investors, board members, etc. – that we learned from along the way.
For me personally, my partners and my family have been my source of support along the way. At Foundry we have always had a very close partnership. We’re friends as well as partners. Close friends, in fact – often vacationing together and spending time outside of work. Our families are close and the line between work and personal is often blurred, in a good way. My family as well has been a huge source of inspiration for me. My wife and I have been married for nearly 20 years and she’s been a consistent sounding board for me to help me through some of the thornier issues I’ve had to tackle over the years. We have three children, who have been important reminders for me of what’s important and why.
Contact Info:
- Address: Foundry Group
1050 Walnut Street, Suite 210
Boulder, CO 80302 - Website: www.foundrygroup.com; www.sethlevine.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Twitter: @foundrygroup; @sether
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