keithrabois

I have witnessed a sufficient number of pitches in the last six months to opine from my own vantage point. KV invests in many companies that no other VC in the US will invest in. We also support companies that raised money earlier under different circumstances that nobody else will invest in. (I can't address any historical examples without you guiding me to a particular company, etc.)

Completely inaccurate. Many of the companies literally cannot be financed by anyone, with the possible exception of Founders Fund. Moreover, it would be an extraordinary case where we would even ask for Board seats like that. In fact, we would more often then not prefer to avoid Board seats entirely. As a technical matter, you cannot increase your ownership % by investing via pro rata rights, just preserve it.

These "experiments" are normally companies that no other fund on the planet would finance, as they are extraordinarily risky. In those cases, KV does expect greater equity (due to risk and the fact that nobody else will support the company) than a standard seed or Series A. Would you prefer we just decline to fund them like every fund?

KV asks for less control provisions than other comparable funds. Indeed, we rarely even require a Board seat. Most often, the founder persuades us to accept one.

KV recently led the Series A in Quartzy and a Series A in another deeply technical YC company (soon to be announced), which had offers from other highly prestigious firms.

Most YC companies are addressing markets and challenges that are ideal fits for KV. There are probably 10 companies or so that would (even with the benefits of hindsight) been quintessential Series A candidates for us.

Footnote: I write this as someone who loves YC and has personally invested in over a dozen YC companies.

KV offered substantially less of a valuation than other firms to lead the Series A.

Square will be a $10 B+ outcome. Juniper already is. Lookout, Jawbone and ZocDoc (all Series A leads) are $1 Billion companies. Ring Central is on the precipice of its IPO, etc.

Feel free to email Jack at Square (Series A), or John Herring at Lookout (Series A), or Hosain at Jawbone (Series A, B) for references on KV.

You might also be familiar with Juniper, for example.

False. KV led Square's Series A and is the largest institutional share holder in the company (by a large margin).