We dive deep into our sectors. Our research drives our insights and thesis-driven approach.

One of our core values at Equal Ventures is to have a “prepared mind” and I often get asked “what does that actually mean?”. For us, a prepared mind is an informed point of view on a space, industry and/or business model that enables us to be additive partners to the founders we work with. We develop this point of view by 1) focusing on the spaces we think are most impactful to our thesis, 2) broadly researching (qualitatively and quantitatively) those spaces on a continuous basis, and 3) developing “prepared mind deep-dives” on individual ideas we find most exciting (see here for a redacted version of our “prepared mind deep dive” that we did on the commercial energy efficiency market prior to investing in David Energy).

We’re kicking off our summer 2021 MBA intern recruiting process and this year we’re looking to bring on a few team members with previous experience across 3 of our core focus areas: Insurance, Supply Chain / Logistics, & Climate / Energy. Our summer interns work with our investment team to research specific industry themes and analyze investment opportunities in support of our thesis-driven approach.

In October, we announced the kick-off of our Operators-in-Residence program, a 4 month-long, part-time leadership development program for high potential operators. The Equal OIR program focuses on peer-based learning for high potential startup operators. This group gains exposure to our research, strategy and operational methodologies across 4 months with the goal of accelerating their development as leaders in the startup ecosystem. Meeting monthly, OIRs discuss these topics as a group and identify ways that they can apply these concepts to the businesses they are working with or on. The group provides a trusted peer community (something that we believe is really valuable to founders and investors alike), where these operators can get feedback on ideas and how to navigate different aspects of their career.

When Rich and I were starting Equal Ventures, there was a lot we didn’t know about starting a venture fund. Scarier than that was that we didn’t know, what we didn’t know. The prospect of starting a new venture fund is both exciting and terrifying. Each of us had significant track records with our prior firms, but starting and running a great firm is a lot different than simply investing in great companies.

Today SmartHop announced the close of a Series A round led by Rebecca Kaden of Union Square Ventures. This represents a tremendous (and well deserved) milestone for a company that is truly transforming the trucking value chain. We first announced our investment in SmartHop in July and shared the story of how Equal and SmartHop came together. Since then, the company has experienced incredible growth, extended its array of products (offering fuel cards, factoring and leasing to our drivers), established countless partnerships with brokers, and become one of the largest sources of loads in the country. To put this in perspective, SmartHop launched its product last February and has surged to become an emerging leader in the trucking industry in just under a year.