Just Go Grind #197: Karl Alomar, Managing Partner at M13, a $190M Consumer-Focused Venture Fund Based Out of LA and NY, and Serial Entrepreneur Who Built Multiple $100M+ Revenue High Growth Businesses in Various Market Segments
Karl Alomar is a Managing Partner at M13, a serial entrepreneur, and he's built and/or sold high growth businesses in various market segments. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London. He has a strong technology pedigree and over 20 years experience in executive management roles in institutionally funded businesses.
M13 is a Venture Engine, a full-service venture firm that provides the platform for founding teams to create and develop high-growth businesses.
M13 injects capital to fuel high growth while helping founding teams fill gaps in their businesses through their Propulsion Team, which provides strategic counsel, operational expertise, and a constellation of talent, experts, and resources to accelerate growth. Where they see whitespace in an industry, their Launchpad develops the right founding teams, products, and practices to incubate and launch an idea from inception.
About Our Partners
This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models.
Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work", 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI.
Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba.
Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast.
This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.
Connect with Karl Alomar and M13
Some of the Topics Covered by Karl Alomar in this Episode
- M13 Details:
- $190M Venture Fund based out of LA and NY
- Focused on consumer technology businesses
- Invest in Series A and late seed $2M-$7M
- $500K check for their feeder program
- A team of former operators
- Built a team of executives and platform at M13
- How M13 works with their portfolio founders
- How M13 operates week to week
- What the dealflow for M13 looks like
- Why Karl decided to get into VC
- "Build what you love" and how Karl decided which businesses he wanted to start throughout his career
- Some of the first things Karl did to help Digital Ocean grow to $250M+ ARR
- The growth levers Karl used to scale Digital Ocean to hundreds of millions in revenue
- Scaling the team at Digital Ocean and one of the biggest mistakes they made early on
- Going through a culture crisis, losing 30-40% of their engineering team at Digital Ocean in a year, and the massive undertaking of resetting an entire culture of a company
- The importance of trust and leadership in a culture
- Karl's advice around decision making and the importance of being decisive
- What Karl looks for at M13 in the companies they invest in
- The characteristics of founders that grab Karl's attention
- What people interested in getting into Venture Capital should think about and why getting some operating experience is very important
- How Karl is building his team at M13
- How Karl recharges outside of work
- What Karl's day-to-day looks like today
Links from the Episode