Independent rating of Alloy Ventures VC fund
Overall rating:
13 reviews
About Alloy Ventures VC fund
Website:
Founded:
1996
Number of funds:
4
Number of investments:
181
Number of exits:
52
Headquarters:
Organization type:
Venture Capital
How Alloy Ventures VC fund invests
Average ticket size:
7.17M USD
Smallest investment:
286K USD
Biggest investment:
12.9M USD
Would lead round:
Yes
Would coinvest:
Yes
Countries where invested:
Sectors of interest:
Software, SaaS, Medical Device, Biotechnology, Transportation, Supply Chain Management, Semiconductor, Robotics, News, Network Security, Mobile, Market Research, Manufacturing, Logistics, Information Technology, Health Care, Fraud Detection, File Sharing, Events, Energy, Delivery, Cyber Security, Consulting, Collaboration, Cloud Computing, CleanTech, Beauty, Artificial Intelligence
Founders' reviews of Alloy Ventures VC fund
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Older than a year by non-portfolio founder
Very Helpful, Very Good VC
I'm posting this for my fellow CEO Eric Filseth of Ciranova. His company and mine (IPextreme) were both Alloy portfolio companies and Dan Rubin was on my board as well and I can concur on much of Eric's comments.
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Great Experience
Alloy led our Series A and Dan Rubin was a fantastic investor and board member that was able to go deep into the business and provide real guidance and advice that was very helpful as a sounding board but didn't try to get in the way of day-day business. As a firm, Alloy bent over backwards to help us through the hard times and were our greatest cheerleader when things went well. They seem to really understand that there is no such thing as instant gratification in this business and are in it for the long haul if that's what it takes. I've love to work with them again someday.
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Too Early for Them, but Had Best Meeting Ever Anyway...
I pitched Scott Johnston and Manu Lakkur and found both to be highly capable, personable, and constructive. Only first meeting I've ever had that lasted an hour and included them breaking out the whiteboard to help me make my company better and get to a point of funding with them. While I admittedly had a warm intro, these guys are definitely a class act and I would go to them without reservation.
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Ammar is Class Act
Ammar has been instrumental in helping GigaOM think through different revenue and economic models as the digital media landscape changes. Ammar understands our industry, is extremely well connected and has been a very strategic partner to us. He is willing to roll-up his sleeves and work with the executive team.
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D List VC
Skip it. On the tech side, these guys haven't had a win in years. Most recent exits are fire-sales (e.g. Kasenna, You Send It).
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David Ezequelle is Not Helpful
We were provided a warm introduction to Alloy, unfortunately our point person was David Ezequelle. David preferred to talk about himself and ended with "do this, do that, do this and then we can talk". The problem is we needed help to do this that and the other, which is why we went to see him in the first place. Why the heck would we go back to Alloy once we did everything.
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Older than a year by non-portfolio founder
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Don't Take Innovation Here
I would agree with many of the comments posted on this firm. They are not looking for anything new, and aren't impressed with anything that isn't new. Not much insight provided, even with respect to businesses which are clearly in their portfolio.
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Beware: Doug Kelly
Doug Kelly is disruptive as a board member in a clever and devious kind of way. He has no clout and very little respect amongst his own partners, so he cannot back up his own word when it has to do with making an important comittment to a company that Alloy has an investment in. Without going into great detail, he has some real ethical issues that would cause me to avoid him and Alloy like the plague. Old school arrogance rules the day in this fund. AVOID.
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Older than a year by non-portfolio founder
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Past Their Prime?
Alloy has probably seen better days. They appear to be stuck in a rut. They look at deals as being all the same.
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A Bit Too Careful
Hey, it's not my money--or theirs--so it's easy for me to say they appear a bit too careful. But they do. Tempting to say they are past their prime, but I think they are doing the same thing they did at Asset Management...their previous firm. They are looking to create new subsidiaries of big companies....not new big companies. It's a subtle difference, but you see it all around them. After X years, it's time to bring in professional management....even if there is nothing to professionally manage. At month 1, the company is thinking too big...and needs to prove out its potential with only 1/2 of what it wanted. As a result, everything falls short. Expectations are too low in the beginning and too high near the end. As a result, Alloy and the startup management team never quite get it right because they are never aligned....and neither side ever figures out why.
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Their Overfocus on Risk Assessment is Interesting...
To me it seems as if they are focusing too much on eliminating any possible risk rather than to balance the associated risk against the market opportunity. After all it is venture capital we are talking about here, not a bank loan. We had to spend too much time taking out any risk and we therefore decided that the time spent with them was not worth it.
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David E is Horrible
Met this guy at a conference a few years ago. He just walked over to our booth and basically told us how stupid we were. I mean, seriously, they told us we were idiots before he even asked a single question.
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A Typical Tier 2 Firm
Fairly bright people, but without much first-hand business experience. Don't have the stomach for making tough decisions and tend to panic easily. Very political organization with a culture of bullying both smaller investors and founders.