I'm a 2x former founder and now early-stage fintech investor.

This page outlines how I invest. The goal is to make it easy for founders to know upfront if it's worth chatting. It's an experiment and feedback is welcome! It's also private for now, so please don't share :)


The TLDR of the TLDR is:

(1) It's never too early: I invest from pre-incorporation / concept stage to Series A, but typically not after that.

(2) High conviction investing: I lead investments, often as the first institutional investor. I.e., the opposite of "spray and pray".

(3) High involvement + fintech focus: I'm as hands on or off as needed, but I've actually designed card programs, built risk engines, worked with regulators, etc... all the unsexy things it takes to scale.


# MATRIX TLDR
Matrix is an early stage VC with offices in SF and Boston, as well as China and India. Our latest US fund is Matrix XII, an $800M vehicle only for early stage investments.

You can count our investing team on two hands. Everyone is a former founder and/or operator, including 5 former Matrix-backed founders and 3 YC alums. Different investors have different focus areas, from dev tools and B2B SaaS to healthcare and semiconductors. I focus just on fintech.


# HOW I INVEST
My investing style is what you'd consider "OG VC": concept stage to Series A focus, combined with a high conviction bar before investing and a high involvement afterwards.

I'm typically the lead investor, if not the first institutional investor. There isn't an arbitrary check size, but it's typically $1-3M at pre-seed or seed and $5-12M+ at Series A.

I take a $1M seed investment as seriously as a $15M Series A. I typically make 1-3 investments per year. This allows me to actually understand what I'm investing in and help those companies.

I have 5 threads pinned to the top of my Messages: my wife, my family, and 3 portfolio founders. I don't make many investments, but I treat each one as if I was a co-founder and work my ass off to make them massively successful. Quality > quantity.


# WHAT I INVEST IN
I have an expansive view of fintech and invest across it: from payments and credit to infra to adjacent areas like real estate and insurance.

I believe most software companies will be fintech companies in some way. I'm very interested in SaaS/fintech (what I call "vertical ERPs") and marketplace/fintech models, as well as the infrastructure enabling that.

‍My recent writings are a good indication of what I'm thinking about: smart uses of risk in fintech, post-interchange business models, the trade offs of embedded fintech, and undifferentiated heavy lifting.


# WHERE TO FIND ME
- Calendly
- Email
- Website
- Twitter
- Linkedin