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Red Swan Ventures

RED SWAN invests in amazing humans. We invest in entrepreneurs who delight customers, create culture, and disrupt industries.

Details

101 Avenue of the Americas Fl 18, New York, NY 10013
United States

Overview

Founded by Andy Dunn, co-founder and CEO of Bonobos. There are more than 40 businesses in the portfolio including Birchbox, Wealthfront, Chloe + Isabel, Warby Parker, TaskRabbit, Coinbase, Matterport, Wanelo, Hailo, Floored, Nomi, Cover, Keychain Logistics, Sunglass, Thanx, Scopely, EverTrue, Bottlenose, RJMetrics, SeatGeek, Spree Commerce, Cambrian Genomics, RelayRides, OrderAhead, Harry’s, ID.me, Hinge, Artivest, Trumaker, Betterment, Cabify, BucketFeet, PolicyMic, Aidin, LayerVault, Weddington Way, Interior Define, Whistle Labs. We think culture is important at companies. Ones that get big with high employee turnover are Pyrrhic victories. Customers and shareholders may be happy but what joy is there in Mudville if the people building the company have none? We won't invest in a round that has an unfavorable structure for entrepreneurs and we'll take on other investors who suggest bad terms. From participating preferreds to excessive liquidation preferences, which paradoxically remove your incentives in a side-ways case, we think what's in your best interest is in ours and that's how we play ball. A lot of angel investors fight for their pro rata. We fight for you. We like to invest with investors who we admire and who do this full time, so we know that you are in good hands. You now have a friend in your round who isn't paid a management fee to ask you questions. Entrepreneurs like our advice because they know honey badger don't care. Traditionally VCs fire the founding CEO when things aren't going well. This is often a road to perdition. The biggest outcomes usually are created when founding CEOs stay on board. We back self-aware leaders because we believe they are the first ones to raise a hand, if it needs raising. We are fascinated by the founder's dilemma and love helping with the founder scaling issues that confront every company. We'll never ask for a board seat. We believe board seats are privileges to be offered and earned and that the most influential advisors to companies are often the ones that don't need to carry the card.