Independent rating of Storm Ventures VC fund
Overall rating:
13 reviews
About Storm Ventures VC fund
Website:
Founded:
1997
Number of funds:
6
Number of investments:
239
Number of exits:
55
Headquarters:
Organization type:
Venture Capital
How Storm Ventures VC fund invests
Rounds:
Average ticket size:
8.78M USD
Smallest investment:
1.14M USD
Biggest investment:
28.6M USD
Would lead round:
Yes
Would coinvest:
Yes
Countries where invested:
Sectors of interest:
Software, Productivity Tools, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Therapeutics, Sales Automation, SaaS, STEM Education, Robotics, Risk Management, Quality Assurance, Pharmaceutical, Outpatient Care, Mobile Apps, Mobile, Medical Device, Medical, Marketplace, Marketing Automation, Machine Learning, Life Science, Internet, Information Technology, Information Services, Human Resources, Events, Enterprise Software, Education, EdTech, Direct Sales, Data Center Automation, Construction, Biotechnology, B2B, Apps, Analytics
Founders' reviews of Storm Ventures VC fund
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Older than a year by non-portfolio founder
Can Drag and Kill Your Fundraising
Be careful not to be dragged into time buying tactics
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Alex Mendez & Team
Had the opportunity to pitch Alex Mendez and a few of his associates. Alex was interested in the business idea and you could tell right off the bat. The team asked well informed and thoughtful questions and gave us a bit of extra time to go through some of the finer details. After the meeting they followed up within a reasonable time-frame.
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Meh
Had a call with Ben Choi and Juwul WIlliams, to which Ben conveniently didn't show up. The conversation really didn't have much depth to it. From the get-go, we probably shouldn't have been talking.
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Good Investor
I joined a Storm backed company after they did the "A/B" round for a small software firm. They have been extremely supportive and professional.
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Ryan is a Very Helpful and Nice Guy
I pitched my company to him and it was a great meeting. We were early for them and I ended up taking angel money. Since then we have been engaged in many conversations about business model and I have received lots of help from Ryan: sending me related market news, connecting me with domain experts, and introducing partner companies upon my request. He is really a nice guy and very helpful even though Storm didn't invest my company.
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Fast In; Fast Out
Very efficient pitching Storm; you'll know from the body language in the first meeting if there's a deal to be had -- we made the mistake of taking the partner's meeting after getting the vibe -- that Storm wasn't going to do the deal. Sanjay is upfront; quick to respond; and could be a good board member. Avoid Tim Danford he was obnoxious and unprofessional.
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Believe in People / Team
I have had solid experience working with Tae Hea Nahm, Ryan Floyd, Ben Choi, Tim Danford, and other Storm members. My last company OSA Technologies was invested by Storm in 2000 when the fund was just started. They helped guided and supported the company through the challenging period of 2000-2004, until our successful M&A exit to Avocent (NASDAQ: AVCT) for over $100M USD.
After spending 2 years at Avocent, I decided I wanted to come back to do another startup again, and launched DeviceVM in July 2006.... Storm team was first to support us and gave us a termsheet, even though our business plan was still in relatively early stage. Ryan and Ben have provided solid advice and networking help. We have just closed our series B with continuing support from the Storm team.
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Operators
Storm prides itself on operators, primarily coming from Stratacomm which was acquired by Cisco. The founders came from both and they've been doing M&A and deals long before VC and seem very sharp and straightforward.
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Quality Folks
I've had the chance to pitch to the Storm guys in the last half year, and what I liked was the rational, informed approach they took. I assume this comes from the operational background of all the partners (and associates), as others have pointed out already. While they did not in the end offer us a term sheet, if they had offered, I would likely rather have taken their investment over the couple of other much more prominent firms that did offer. As an early entrepreneur, I've slowly come to understand the standard advice to separate the "help" from the "money", and superficial domain expertise is almost always more harmful than no domain expertise at all, but the Storm guys always struck me as knowing what they know, knowing what they don't know, and knowing where and when they can add value. That, to me, is the kind of firm you want on your board. To the comments about them misappropriating the Mobio business plan with EIRs, there's a reason why vc's can't sign nda's-- because there are precious few truly unique ideas out there; most entrepreneurs know that good ideas are a dime a dozen, and it's rare to come across a good idea that a handful of other folks aren't already working on.. it's all about execution, and that's where people like Storm really shine.
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Operators
I have worked with the Storm team over the last year. They bring real entrepreneurial help based on operational experience. The fund has not been around as long as other Tier1's, but they know what they are doing.
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Straight Shooters
I have known many of the Storm partners since pre-Storm and they invested in my current company as a fund, and as individual investors in my last company.
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Storm's EIR's, Conflicts of Interest
i have dealt with both their VCs and EIRs, and I agree with the other "beware" comments. They like to start companies in-house and usually just do meetings with outsiders as market research for existing stealth EIR deals you don't even know about (yet). Look at their track record. Cat's out of the bag!
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Mobio Backed or 'Founded' by Storm?
Sounds like a typical case where a VC likes an idea and then goes ahead and implements it.