This Life: Volume 5
I started a venture capital firm
I started a venture capital firm. It’s been a long time coming.
Building my own venture capital firm has been the plan for some time. I bought the URL for Begin Ventures back in 2018 before the pandemic. The fund will be a natural extension to the deal-by-deal investing I’ve already been doing with Morgan at Backpocket VC.
Begin Ventures launched last week as a 506(c) fund. That means we can market directly to the public. Traditionally, VCs could not market publicly and limited partners (”LPs”) had to come via warm referrals. This is still largely the case. Regulation 506(c) has been around since 2013 but used by only a small fraction of VCs. Begin is among just a few new emerging funds more deliberately choosing to be public-facing. In order to invest, you have to self-verify that you’re an accredited investor. You can do that plus learn about Begin and see the types of companies we’re investing in here.
Begin blends what I’ve learned about analyzing, starting, and investing in companies since 2007. Our initial thesis is simple: the way humans live and interact with the physical world is going to change rapidly in post-AI society, and we want to back founders making day-to-day life better. Brian Chesky summed it up well on TBPN last month.
Here’s a clip of that interview here on Chesky’s Instagram.
I plan to dive deeper into our thesis as we build Begin. Sectors we’re interested in investing include home, transportation, food, wellness, personal finance, and relationships. We will dabble in future of work as it relates to human sovereignty.
We plan to invest very early. Pre-Seed, first investor.
We’ll meet some founders through a fellowship we’re launching in 1Q26 meant to help founders explore ideas before they quit their current job. I happen to think that mid-career professionals with 7+ years experience are well fit to reinvent certain bits of the economy they know well. Other founders we’ll meet by way of ecosystem relationships we’ve built over the past ten years including other Pre-Seed funds, accelerators, studios, etc.
Going forward this newsletter will lean a bit heavier into investing. A journal of sorts. At only five posts in… I’ve grown tired of the polished style I previously created. Trying to fit my thoughts and ideas into the same format hasn’t worked for me, so I end up skipping.
Now, I’m going a bit more freestyle.
I’ll still write about coaching and what I’m learning. The self inquiry and personal growth — and sharing it with others — makes all of this worthwhile and more fun.
If we haven’t caught up in a while, I’d love to tell you more about what I’m building at Begin.
Mike
Michael Saloio
Founder & Managing Partner
Begin Ventures