M13's Carter Reum on building an operational services team (Propulsion platform), navigating from operator to angel investor to building a firm for the long haul.

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

Our guest today is Carter Reum, Co-Founder of M13, a unique venture capital firm that combines a traditional fund, a services platform, and a studio model to support high potential early-stage companies. M13 has AUM of over $650MM and the team has invested in companies Ring, Daily Harvest, Tonal, Thrive Market, Pinterest and many others.

Prior to M13, Carter and his brother Courtney founded VEEV Spirits which became one of the fastest-growing independent brands in the country before being acquired in 2016.

Carter holds a B.A. from Columbia University and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. Carter and his brother are the authors of the national bestseller Shortcut Your Startup (Simon & Schuster) that shares business insights to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs.

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In this episode we discuss:

01:27 Why he and his brother decided to start M13 as a full time endeavor after being entrepreneurs their entire lives.

06:38 The era of value add has changed, and how they’ve thought about systematizing this.

11:34 How capital is commoditized so much today, and what VC firms need to think about to compete.

14:39 How M13 mitigates risks through their propulsion platform

18:19 The data behind M13’s high Net Promoter Score and what they found their founders cared about most

21:20 What are the non-negotiable traits they look for when recruiting

26:06 Developing a pattern and ethos around diversity of though.

31:06 What are the things they had to unlearn when moving from angel investors to a firm

32:37 Early mistakes as a VC and what they learned from them

37:13 How they set up rules for follow-on investments and when they break those rules

43:43 The most non-consensus view he holds as an investor

44:19 The person who has been most impactful on his career as an investor

45:01 The entrepreneur that has helped form him the most

Mentioned in this episode:M13

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Carter. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

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