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Co-Founder & Managing Director at Slow Ventures, a generalist early stage venture capital…
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Kevin Colleran shared thisExcited to announce our new Slow funds and new members of the investment team!Kevin Colleran shared thisAnnouncing our next Slow Ventures funds, our 5th Seed fund and 2nd Opportunity fund for a combined $325M and adding more investors to our team! https://medium.com/Slow Ventures
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Kevin Colleran shared thisExcited to announce that the Slow Ventures team has raised an additional $220M across two funds in order to continue supporting founders for many years to come!
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Kevin Colleran liked thisKevin Colleran liked thisI live four blocks from Maxwell Social in Tribeca. I almost didn't go. Glad I reconsidered. We're a week from coming out of stealth with technology we're spinning out from Touchlab, and launching our fundraising roadshow. Showing up was exactly the right call, and the theme of the entire evening. Slow Ventures brought their Etiquette Finishing School to NYC last night, following a sold-out inaugural run in SF that drew national press. At the last minute, I threw on a blazer & skipped the tie. The fundraising pre-flight Timing made this session more than interesting for me. Aaron Harris was direct: there is exactly one reason an investor passes. They don't believe the story you're telling them. Every other explanation, margin structure, hiring plan, market timing, is post-hoc rationalization. Don't chase it. Don't read into it. Find the people who believe the story. Yoni Rechtman: most founders can't tell when a meeting has already been decided. Reading the room is a skill. The purpose of the first meeting is just to get a second one. Kevin Colleran on what he actually wants when he meets a founder: "I want to meet a person, I want to have an interaction, I want to enjoy someone's company." The 90-second pitch instinct is the wrong default. Brian Kelly closed with the line I'll probably be thinking about next week: "I sold my blog for $28 million from a bad date." Relationships are long. Every room is a seed. The room itself I expected the crowd to skew heavily toward AI devpreneurs. It was more diverse than that, across ages & stages, backgrounds, and what people are building. Met some genuinely sharp people whose startup journeys I'm looking forward to following. Before Sam Lessin decamped for SF, I was an early Dropio user. The project was years ahead of its moment. The thread connecting that to an etiquette school in Tribeca is less obvious than it looks, but it's there. He's always been in the business of giving people stuff they didn't know they needed. One small irony: Maxwell hosted and participated in an evening on etiquette. I've been waiting to hear back from my membership interview there since November. Noted. Thanks to Jack Raines for his excellent stage wrangling duties, to those who trekked in from SF, Brooklyn, and Boston, and to the Slow team for building something that treats founders like adults who can learn more than one thing at a time. (More Notes follow in the comments)
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Kevin Colleran liked thisKevin Colleran liked thisThank you to Slow Ventures for hosting their Etiquette event this evening in NYC. At first, “etiquette” might feel like an unusual theme for a venture capital firm - but the rationale behind it was thoughtful and, honestly, refreshing. Kevin Colleran shared how he prefers to truly get to know founders. Too often, conversations jump straight into a polished one-minute pitch, when what really matters is understanding the person behind the company - the kind of leader they aspire to be. Etiquette plays a role here: it reflects awareness, respect, and the ability to connect across backgrounds - not just the stereotypical “founder in a hoodie.” Yoni Rechtman emphasized that what we do in tech matters - and how we show up matters just as much. Practicing good etiquette is a signal that you care, about your work and the people around you. Jack Raines spoke about how his upbringing in the Baptist church inspired the event - bringing a sense of intentionality and values into professional environments. We also got to see some great presentations, including Matt Mullenax and Matt Teri from Huron, who walked through how fragrances are actually made - and the attention to detail they follow at @usehuron . I'm a big fan of the strategic thinking and writing from the Slow team overall including Will Quist, Sam Lessin, and Yoni Rechtman - highly recommend following them on X/Twitter and subscribing to their newsletters for fresh, unfiltered takes on venture and startups.
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Kevin Colleran liked thisKevin Colleran liked thisRove is now the only U.S. rewards program to support transfers into SAS EuroBonus, giving our travelers access to one of Europe’s most valuable loyalty programs. EuroBonus is known for strong redemption rates on their transatlantic routes to Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen and broad partner coverage across the SkyTeam alliance. Historically, earning these points required flying SAS as there are no U.S. credit cards or rewards programs that currently transfer to them. For the next month, we’ll be running a 20% transfer bonus, where every 1,000 Rove Miles you transfer turn into 1,200 Bonus Points. SAS EuroBonus frequently offers nonstop flights from major U.S. cities to their three hubs for as little as 30,000 points in economy, 45,000 points in premium economy, and 60,000 points in business. We’re excited to help EuroBonus expand to the U.S. market and to keep unlocking the world’s best loyalty programs for Rove members.
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Kevin Colleran liked thisKevin Colleran liked thisAfter 15 years in and around VC, I still have one person to thank for getting me started, and that's Niko Bonatsos. He "discovered" me, got me my first job, mentored me and has remained a great friend. Few are made like him in VC. Excited for his next steps!
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Kevin Colleran liked thisSam Lessin was one of the very early investors that believed in me before I even believed in myself. Together with Sam, Slow Ventures GPs Will Quist, Kevin Colleran, Dave Morin were the ones who told me “don’t fxxx this up” when they handed me the check, but stayed with me throughout the multiple near death experiences of my startup and told me “do what you gotta do to take care of the business and your team first, we are all big boys here and worry about us later”. Bonds forged through a decade of this level of trust is so thick that on the top of my personal wishlist is “I want to make Sam and his partners at Slow Ventures a fxxx ton of money whenever there is a chance. Thank you, Sam Lessin and team Slow Ventures! Big things are on the horizon, and I can’t wait to make a dent to the universe with your continued support and unconditional love behind me! Go Genspark!!Kevin Colleran liked thisMany founders rushing into AI today are doing it because the space feels “hot,” “hyped,” and “easy” to get traction in. But real traction? It takes decades of compounded skill to sustain. Today on Slow's weekly newsletter, Snailmail, we're featuring Slow alum Wen S.'s journey to Genspark. From $0 to $50M ARR in under 5 months, $435M raised, and 20M+ users But let's not gloss over the battle scars that got him and his team here: This wasn’t his first venture and it wasn’t a Tier 1 logo that propelled him to today’s success. It was his ambition, learnings from Smarking, and the support system that backed him long before any of it was an “it” category. The real seed round are often times led by the people who bet on you, not the market trends. Keep reading on this week's Snailmail: https://lnkd.in/g88WrpKt
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Kevin Colleran liked thisKevin Colleran liked this“I travel hack for the love of the game - Kevin Colleran Kevin didn’t say that. He probably wouldn’t ever say that in those words, but he embodies this more than almost anyone I’ve met. As an early employee of Facebook, Kevin doesn’t need to spend the time getting the most value out of his miles and points, but he does. He’s one of the few investors who hasn’t even booked a flight with us yet because he has so many points and he is very committed to using them on his limited international travel. And even when points aren’t involved, he doesn’t waste ANY money traveling. I took the Acela up from NYC to meet him in Boston and when I mentioned I sat in first class one of the legs, the venture fund founder who takes this route all the time told me he has never paid for first class! While at FlyFlat, we love all the VCs - from the uber capital-efficient Kevins of the world, to those that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with us annually, jetting around the world - I have a special place in my heart for fellow optimizers like Kevin. We do it for the love of the game! Grateful to have Slow Ventures on our cap table to help us always keep this top of mind for everything we spend on at FlyFlat #TravelHacking #PointsAndMiles #CapitalEfficiency #BusinessTravel #FounderLife #Optimization #PremiumTravel #FlyFlat #SlowVentures #VC
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Kevin Colleran liked thisSome very happy and surprising news: I'm a Partner at Slow Ventures :) In an interview Kevin Colleran asked me “where do you see yourself in five years” and I answered “not at Slow!” Big things take time and now I have more time to see things through. Full post in the comments.Kevin Colleran liked thisYoni Rechtman has been (shockingly) promoted to Partner at Slow Ventures. Occasionally at Slow we hire investors into Principal roles with the expectation that they will work with us for a few years and then move on to do their own thing. This can look like what Clay Robbins did (who went on to found Colosseum and remains a venture partner at Slow)... or what Megan Lightcap did (who started out working in the core fund but ended up becoming the lead on our creator fund). As an explicitly non-expansionary firm… there generally is no defined ‘path’ to partner / we don’t really do that. When Yoni Rechtman joined in 2022 the expectations were largely the same. We all thought he would come in, work for a few years with us on deals, learn what we know, and then move on to do his own thing. Given this context it is particularly exciting to be announcing an exception to our rule (most great things are exceptions to hard rules)… Yoni is being promoted to the role of ‘Partner’ starting now for the next fund cycle. As he has done to date - Yoni will continue to work across a range of deals with a particular focus on real world businesses, GBOs, healthcare, and fintech… though like all of us - he is fundamentally a generalist and we look forward to seeing what he does in the broader world. He will also continue his shit-posting (sometimes at our expense), blogging, and mini-conferences… all of which seem to be well received… and he keeps getting better at (sometimes leading us to question if we should have encouraged him quite so much) … Here are some quotes: “Psyched yoni is being promoted to Partner. He has been great to work with. Several times last fund Yoni went deep on things we wouldn’t have otherwise and had real impact. More please” - Sam Lessin “Shocking that we promoted someone to partner and shocking that someone in his generation is committing to something long term - not shocking that he’s done great work and is owning NYC” - Will Quist “He always submits his expenses on time, and is great at using discount codes at hotels… and I have been really impressed with how he gets our lawyers to pay for our events” - Kevin Colleran More to come from slow soon – but for now congrats Yoni on the promo… please find great deals and make our LPs (and us) a lot of money. - Kevin, Sam, Will.
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