1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bill Bice of Verge Fund (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Before we get into that, let’s get the fund specifics. How big is your fund? What is your preferred investment criteria.

Bill Bice: We’re an early-stage fund. My partner was the first VC in the state of New Mexico. He really took a different approach in building the firm. He brought together a partnership of entrepreneurs that have all built companies and have had successful exits.

We are really using the fund structure as a way to do what we’d do anyway, which is go build and invest in companies. We’re a small early-stage fund. We have a total of $40 million under management. I invest as an angel investor in addition to this.

The difference in philosophy compared to traditional VC model is, we’re not after the one-in-ten or one-in-fifteen big win. We’re really going for singles and doubles with the intention of doing it enough and getting a triple or a homerun.

Sramana Mitra: How big is the fund?

Bill Bice: Total of $40 million, which includes a follow-on fund.

Sramana Mitra: What is the check size that you like to write normally?

Bill Bice: Our average total investment is a million and a half and typically, starting in the few hundred thousand for the first investment.

Sramana Mitra: I’m sure this is going to be sector-specific. What do you like to see by way of proof points in the companies that you go into?

Bill Bice: It’s an interesting question in this market because we’re opportunistic on a regional basis as opposed to having a really driven philosophy around the investment criteria. What I’m really looking for is what everybody wants. We want a fast-growing company.

I’m particularly interested in something that can have a significant impact here, ties in to the advantages that we have of being in New Mexico, and is leveraging the technical infrastructure. This is also a really great ecosystem to build service companies that sell everywhere else.

I’ve essentially made a career out of doing exactly that. It’s basically an arbitrage play because we’ve got a much lower cost of living. We have a great way of life. We’ve got a large enough ecosystem now that is much more realistic to recruit external talent into New Mexico that was much more challenging just five years ago. Those elements are starting to come together.

Sramana Mitra: In terms of the sectors that you like to invest in, you described the sectors that are active in New Mexico. Does that mean that you are active in all of those sectors?

Bill Bice: Yes, and the other one is material science, which is fairly significant just because of the research that’s done here.

This segment is part 2 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bill Bice of Verge Fund
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