Russ Wilcox, Repeat Founder and VC - Pillar VC

Sal's Investment Syndicate: Click for Sal's Syndicate Page

If you’ve used an Amazon Kindle you’ve used tech pioneered by Russ Wilcox and co-founders at E Ink. Russ is now a VC who remembers well the trials of being a founder and is a deep well useful knowledge about building startups. I learned a lot.

Highlights include:

• brief bio of Russ Wilcox
• the founding story of E Ink
• the mistake of focusing on a financing strategy rather than product development
• burning $2 million per month but clients hated the product
• Golden Lesson for Founders: don’t kill your company by sticking to an unrealistically high valuation; propping up valuation is self-delusion
• beware liquidation preferences (jargon-free explanation)
• comparison of VC funding to debt
• Pillar is a seed-stage VC firm founded by people who have started companies
• Pillar’s “phantom partners” are 22 startup CEOs who put money into the fund and roll up their sleeves to help
• Write checks of $1 to $2 million in rounds of $3 to $4 million
• Put in a lot of time and energy to support founders
• Emotional support is provided by the Pillar CEO investors
• Cool Portfolio Company: Kula Bio which has a really clever way to make earth-friendly fertilizer
• Cool Portfolio Company: Higharc creates 3D plans for your home without needing an architect
• Russ Wilcox’s wisdom on platform technologies
• Sal talks about his portfolio company Akili Interactive that has a game to treat ADHD in children and invites accredited investors to join his syndicate at https://www.angelinvestboston.com/our-syndicates
• What Russ learned from his post-exit world tour with his family
• Golden Lesson for Founders: look for a co-founder first