Independent rating of Opus Capital VC fund
Overall rating:
26 reviews
About Opus Capital VC fund
Website:
Founded:
2005
Number of funds:
2
Number of investments:
86
Number of exits:
23
Headquarters:
Organization type:
Venture Capital
How Opus Capital VC fund invests
Rounds:
Average ticket size:
6.18M USD
Smallest investment:
1.54M USD
Biggest investment:
22.9M USD
Would lead round:
Yes
Would coinvest:
Yes
Countries where invested:
Sectors of interest:
Software, Information Technology, Enterprise Software, SaaS, Cyber Security, Cloud Data Services, Business Intelligence, Big Data, Universities, Service Industry, Security, Real Time, Product Management, Payments, Network Security, Mobile, Marketing Automation, Marketing, Location Based Services, Information Services, Identity Management, Higher Education, Financial Services, E-Learning, Data Visualization, Computer Vision, Cloud Storage, Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence, Analytics
Founders' reviews of Opus Capital VC fund
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Good Guys Generally
Not really anything negative or positive to say about these guys.
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Funded... Then Helped
We worked with Carl Showalter who lead our investment. He's sharp and not too far removed from operating he can provide excellent feedback. It seems to me that they have an investment thesis in certain spaces and then find companies that match their view of the future to fund. They seem to like real businesses that make money right away over less capital efficient moonshots. We are not their largest investment by far but they put quite a bit of time into helping us out especially in the recruiting area around a VP sales.
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Great Experience Pitch and Beyond
We did a fundraising this summer. We are a veteran team with a solid exit behind us, so fundraising for venture #2 went fast and we only pitched folks we knew well and thought could add value. Opus was on our list, as we know few of the key partners well, and they are super smart. I appreciate that (most?) of their partners are actual operators - have worked in industry before - so their questions and opinions are steeped in data, which is hugely refreshing. The other benefit of having VCs that have worked in industry is that they have friends / connections / intros that could be hugely valuable to you. In fact, even though we did not go with them, one of the partners there has remained engaged with us -- offering feedback, ideas and introductions to very high-value connections. I find that very impressive. If they are interested, Opus moves fast. We were hoping they could pull together a term-sheet in time, as we could see them adding huge industry-specific value for us, but our fundraising went too fast for these guys (too fast for many others - I wouldn't call Opus "slow" in any way). All around great experience. If you find a good partner match, I think you are in very good hands.
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Do They Have Money?
<a href="http://www.pehub.com/111284/a-founding-gp-leaves-opus-capital-following-fundraising-challenges/" target="_blank">http://www.pehub.com/111284/a-foundin...</a>
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Very Engaging First Meeting
Recently pitched two of the partners at the firm, and had a great time doing so. They understood our market, asked very thoughtful questions, and followed up quickly with very helpful introductions and proposed next steps. It's too early to tell where it will lead, but even if I don't eventually get a term sheet, it was an incredibly well-spent hour of my time.
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Very Funny....
So we pitched to a partner we already knew, went back to talk to another partner to get his approval.
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Bob Borchers, a Rising Star in VC
I raised venture capital for several startups and I have worked with many VCs. For my current company, Payfone, a new mobile commerce startup, we wanted a west coast fund to join our initial east coast investor, RRE Ventures.
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Good Pitch, No Bs, Quick No, Valuable Feedback
One of the best experiences I've had pitching to any VC. I pitched to Carl, and other than not getting a great term sheet, I can't fault him on any of the usual things we all gripe about with VCs. He was prompt, polite, attentive and already knowledgeable about our space. He had smart questions about our model and approach, and offered his own insights into the challenges of our market, and suggestions on how to strengthen our story, which were useful. He explained why we weren't a good fit, and then offered to make intros to some other funds that would be a better match.
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Asked Irrelevant Questions
Was one of the first VC's we pitched in late 2007. We met with Dan and another person from the firm. The pitch went ok, they got what our product did, however they failed to see beyond that.
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Great Pitch Experience
Pitched Ken Elefant-- super smart, nice guy. Got back to us very quickly, and although they passed, they did so in a way that would make me want to work with them in the future. When pressed on explanation for not investing, Ken called me personally to not only explain but also encourage us to keep looking and that they were very bullish on the business but just didn't clear their internal objectives.
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Pragmatic, Value Add on Board
As a CEO who has had Dan Avida as a board member, I found Dan and his partners at Opus to be high value-add. He’s tough, but extremely sharp, and he seeks the truth. I received a steady stream of pragmatic advice and assistance including customer and partner intros.
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A Belief in People, an Intuitive Understanding of the Space and Respect for Management
My experiences with VCs prior to Opus were rather frustrating - they tended to focus on the wrong things - i.e. how to squeeze another penny out of the customers, an obsession over how to size the market and an unwillingness to understand that there are valuable nuances to our sector that they may not understand.
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Substantive Guys
Our experience is primarily with Carl. He's a substantive guy, has been in the trenches. He's lived our life. He will question and push, but he'll make it feel cooperative and supportive. Dan is extremely bright, well connected and will also question and press ... harder and without trying to make you feel good about it.
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Dan: Rough Around the Edges, but a Good Guy
He can be blunt and aggressive, but can also be very helpful. In our case, they didn't fund us but he did connect us to prospective partners for our company, something he obviously didn't have to do.
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Insightful, Quick, and Ethical: Opus Came Across Very Well
I've been working to raise a seed fund, my first experience raising money as an entrepreneur.
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Decent Bunch of Guys
Have had a history with two partners during their Lightspeed days. Gill Cogan is a strong leader and Isaac Applbaum has a well-deserved reputation as a loyal guy. Was also introduced to Ken Elefant as part of an ongoing due diligence process. They didn't invest at the end of a thorough due diligence process but were very engaged.
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Unfocused Fund, as a Result Hard to Know if They are Right for You.
Opus is trying to find themselves with a wide array of deal types -- the day we were in a networking startup was coming in after our consumer play. Carl Showalter is smart, blunt, and straight up. Dan Avida is rude and not helpful. Though both are honorable guys. All in all, a good fund to use as a warm up before going to your targeted firms to learn from Carl; get used to trial under fire from Dan; and if you are what they are looking for that week, you might get a term sheet quick -- they are very efficient to pitch to.
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Ken Elefant is Worth Talking To
I did a pitch awhile back to Ken and he came across as a fairly down to earth (for a VC) investor who asked good questions, took the time necessary to understand our business plan and did not come across as arrogant at all.
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Co Founder of Spock
Ken Elefant is great to work with and takes the time to make the right introductions to poeple within your field and academia. Several of our hires are a direct result from introductions by Ken and the Opus team.
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Nice First Call, No Follow Up
We had a very pleasant call with Ken Elefant. We didn't immediately follow up and neither did he. If we'd been in the Valley we'd have been banging on the door.
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Quick and Polite Response
Recently introduced an opportunity to them. The decided to pass and informed us quickly and with good commentary as to why.
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Very Unpleasant Pitch
We pitched a Series A plan to Opus (Ken Elefant and Dan Avida) late last year. The meeting was fairly painful, as Dan fiercely attacked our plan based on what I believe to be mis-information about competitive products. We were not given any opportunity to respond to the competitive claims, and as a result the meeting was waste of time. Very disappointed as an experienced entrepreneur that I was not even given an opportunity to reply to the claims.
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Quick Answers and Willing to Help Either Way
The partners look at your deal behind the scenes and get back with you very quickly. They may want to "watch" and they certainly will so keep in touch. If it's a "no" move on. Ken Elefant knows the mobile space as well and if you get a chance to meet, take it.
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Age Bias in Favor of 20 Year Olds?
We felt that the only reason we did not get to pitch is because they wanted a younger looking team.
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Ken Elefant
Ken Elefant is one of the few vc's i've met who seemingly hasn't turned into the typical silicon valley vc robot (pompous, master of the universe, etc.). He's a good listener, good background in consumer media and technology and always willing to help.
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Quick Decisions
Tight team that can make decisions reasonably quickly. Several of the partners have deep security backgrounds, which is good if you are that type of company. One of the more polite firms that will actually give you a "not at this time... we need to see X Y and Z before investing". Most firms just stop answering emails.