My guest for Ep164 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, was Chris Hitchen the Co-founder & Managing Partner of Possible Ventures.

Possible Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in frontier technology. Their approach in investing early, with a high cadence and investing globally has resulted in an incredible portfolio of over 100 startups which includes the likes of Sport NFT trading card startup Sorare.

Possible Ventures was one of the earliest backers of the company writing a $50K cheque into company that had 5 people and 1 team signed on hailing from the 3rd division of the Belgian League with a company valuation of 2.3M Euros pre-money. Fast forward 2.5 years and Sorare is now worth over $4B Euros, providing an incredible return on their initial investment.

In this episode we cover a lot ground diving into topics like:

• Chris’s background as a founder and operator
• His journey as an investor from writing angel cheques to running syndicates to their co-operative fund model
• Possible’s investment strategy on betting early and with high cadence into frontier tech
• Lessons from investments and his belief in backing founders that have an authenticity of mission
• Investing in what’s possible, not just what’s probable
• and much more!

Timestamps 

• 3:44 – Chris’s background
• 4:40 – Lessons from Chris’s background in sports science
• 8:47 – Chris’s early career as a founder and operator
• 11:14 – The advantage of the Micro fund model
• 13:33 – Chris’s early investments 
• 21:21 – What’s changed from Chris’s days as an Angel Investor to running Possible Ventures
• 26:41 – How Chris’s approach to early stage and high cadence investing affects their approach to ownership in companies when they invest
• 29:40 – Speed and backing your gut when making decisions on hiring and investing
• 35:23 – Lessons from investing mistakes and why resilience and authenticity of mission is important when investing
• 40:01 – Chris’s approach to building conviction in early stage frontier tech startups like Psylo
• 47:30 – The story behind Possible Venture’s seed stage investment in Sorare
• 52:13 – Possible’s investment model and structure
• 57:02 – Investing in the possible and how founders can articulate their values and mission

Our partners

A big thank you to Simon Betschel and Josh Ismin for their help with this interview. Also a big thank you to our partners for this episode.

Lawpath

Lawpath’s Legal Advice Plan gives you access to lawyers on demand for one low monthly fee. Create legal documents, sign online and have a lawyer on-call to help you through any legal need for a fraction of the cost.  Lawpath has helped Australian businesses save over $100 million in legal fees, and are offering Startup Playbook listeners up to 20% off their most popular legal plans. Visit lawpath.com/playbook for your exclusive discount and discover an easier way to get your legals sorted.

Scendar 

We’re Scendar, an accounting and advisory practice better described as Finance as a Service (FaaS). We’re focused on founders, funders and startups. Clients that are ever-changing and adapting. We like fast movers. And as you might have guessed, we’re not your basic accountancy. We can take care of tax and the books whilst building a syndicate fund and a multimillion dollar exit strategy.  At Scendar, we’re empowered by our client’s potential. Find out more at Scendar.com

Dovetail Studios 

Dovetail Studios operates a venture studio and VC to transform ambitious ideas into unstoppable businesses. On top of being a renowned product development partner for startups like Afterpay, they also operate a VC fund to invest in early-stage companies that go through their venture studio program. So if you’re a non-technical, early-stage founder looking for a talented team to help supercharge your success, check out dovetailstudios.com

Links Mentioned 

Chris’s Links 

• Chris on LinkedIn
• Chris on Twitter
• Possible Ventures LinkedIn

People mentioned

• Simon Leicht – Possible Ventures
• Thyra Seitz – Possible Ventures
• Will Anderson – Possible Ventures
• Simon Betschel – Possible Ventures
• Josh Ismin – Psylo
• Nicolas Julia – Sorare
• Adrian Montfort – Sorare

Companies mentioned:

• Possible Ventures
• Psylo
• Marvel Fusion
• Sorare
• Entrepreneurs First

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Rohit@startupplaybook.co
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Paycheck

Other channels:

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