Good and Hard Things About Launching a Mobility and Transportation Fund
It’s probably the best time in history to build a venture capital firm, we will know for sure in a few years. How can it be with all the negative news in the markets? Do you want to know more about it? Choose a slot and let's have a short call here.
I’m launching a specifically oriented fund in mobility and transportation with the ambition of making an impact on 660 Million people in Latam after my experience in corporate innovation at Kaufmann and previous startups and company builder expertise. I’m expecting to do the first closure in a few months, contact me if you don’t want to miss this opportunity.
Some Good things?
I met extraordinary people, confidants, mentors, and peers in this process.
There is a process! (but it’s still very hard, especially getting LPs)
I was the winner of the Top Community Voice Award of my cohort! fantastic surprise from the VC Lab team. (for those that know me in person, the mustache in the picture below is an AI secondary surprise, maybe I should let it grow)
Some Hard things?
For now, I can tell you:
It is really hard to create a VC firm and a fund.
There is not too much info on the internet on how to build a fund, it's kind of obtuse, with lots of regulations, and entry barriers.
There is no playbook like those for building a startup.
I use to think that the funding process for a startup was hard, but this is much harder. I like challenges, I’m also very fortunate of having a good friend and former boss introduce me to this incredible accelerator called VC Lab.
More than 2.000 people apply, about 289 were selected, and 63 of us finished the program in this cohort. VC Lab is doing a great job accelerating the VCs that will fund the startups and their solutions to many of our problems. I’m proud to be one of them and this is just the beginning.
Fundraising. I agree with Ben Horowitz on startups. VCs need more than one “yes”, and we will face 10X “no” 👇
Other news:
I spent a few days in Argentina and here are my takeaways from all those meetings:
Most mobility and transportation companies I met are innovating and building startups, or they are investing in them.
There are “arbitrage” opportunities in at least 3 mobility startups when you compare them with other geographies.
High-network individuals get the momentum and opportunity on early-stage investment and they choose to have exposure to it.
I discovered a mobility founder that just made an exit to an Israeli startup. Good news for the ecosystem!
Some Industry News:
Investors Pour Into Venture Capital Funds Even as Markets Cool - WSJ
What’s new in On-demand and ride-pooling services in the world? Check the On-Demand Transit Market Report Q3/2022 by Lukas Foljanty
Mobileye Is Once Again a Public Company
Mobileye IPO not capital raise, but market entry -Intel CEO
Ford, VW-backed Argo AI is shutting down. This article does not mention that they are going with other options and VW with Mobileye.
IKEA teams with self-driving truck startup Kodiak Robotics to test deliveries in Texas
See you next month and remember to contact me for more details about our mobility fund. ds@bluemobilityventures.com