Finding the Next Unicorn
YYashad KulkarniMar 3, 2021 at 4:30 pm20min
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00:03Speaker 1
Arlen Hamilton is the Founder and Managing Partner of backstage capital, and has raised more than $12 million to back 150 companies led by underrepresented founders. Let's watch Ireland in conversation with moderator Natasha Mascarenhas. This was recorded a couple of days ago.
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00:25Speaker 2
Hey everyone, I am Natasha Mascarenhas. And today we are going to talk about the super simple and not at all complicated question and theme, which is combining the next unicorn. Jokes aside, we have one of the best in the business to help us navigate that topic. We have Arlen Hamilton, the Founder and Managing Partner of backstage capital, Arlen, it's super great to talk face to face instead of just in the DM. Hey,
Unknown Speaker
thanks for having me here.
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00:55Speaker 2
Yeah, thanks for joining us. As you know, the whole event around TCP sessions justice, will a chat is this one will be all about how to help founders better understand how you invest and kind of the state of investing from your eyes. I want to start with a very simple question, which is how you've been able to find focus in this year, it feels like the hottest time and inventor and early stage startups. So you know, in a world of invite only apps and, and Twitter drama every day, I'm really curious how you find yourself focusing on what kind of startups to back?
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01:32Speaker 3
Yeah, it's a great question. I just don't engage and follow, I just don't have the that same need to be on everything early in first and be everywhere. I really. So I like to watch people kind of run around and ask for invites and things like that. But it's just not as important to me. It's just a strategy of like keeping myself calm, because there's always a VIP to the VIP section, there's always a further further further, and I find some of it quite distracting. I think it helps just to know where I was just a few years ago, and to know, kind of what's important or to kind of hopefully, you know, keep tabs of what's important and not get caught up in any hype anytime. And I think that serves me well when I'm making investment decisions, too. Because people who interview me or are, you know, want insights from me, they are always asking me about trends. And what am I seeing and and what do I you know, what are the trends out there, and I just don't know, the trends. Were kind of counter intuitive and, and dancing to the, to the sound of a different beat anyway. So I think that's all helpful when we're looking at companies and finding things in different places.
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02:57Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, you've invested in over 170 companies today, if I'm getting the number, right, I'm sure it's not perfect. Um, one of the favorite one of my favorite things you did in the early days, which was right that Arlen Hamilton invest in 100 companies by 2020. And accomplishing it by 2018 was pretty badass as well. Thank you. You know, one thing that that you guys do differently, obviously, is this explicit focus and underestimated founders. But I would love for you to maybe walk me through some of the signals you look for, from those founders, because I'm guessing some of them are first time founders who don't have three exits to Google in their resume already.
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