1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Tony Olivito of Comeback Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Tony Olivito was recorded in May 2020.

Tony Olivito, Partner at Comeback Capital, discusses his firm’s Midwest-focused investment thesis.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a bit about your background as well as about Comeback Capital.

Tony Olivito: I started off in corporate M&A for a couple of years. That’s where I learned about valuations and acquisitions. Then I spent a lot of years as an operator working for a large private company. I worked in various roles in supply chain analytics, finance, and strategy.

Then about six years ago, I started a chip manufacturer with a friend of mine. I got into the entrepreneur world. Also at that same time, I started investing as an angel actively. Fast forward to about a year and half ago, I formed Comeback Capital with a different partner.

The fund is derived from a bus tour in the Midwest. They liked what they saw. It was their first foray into understanding the ecosystem in the Midwest. They supported the formation of Comeback Capital.

Sramana Mitra: What is the size of the fund?

Tony Olivito: This is our first fund. It’s $2.25 million. To date, we’ve invested in 16 companies in about 18 months. Pre COVID, we were on a pace of one investment per month. We expect to probably make another 10 investments. Our check size is typically $100,000.

We invest in seed and pre-seed. These are at the earliest stage. Typically, they’re post-revenue. There’s some form of traction whether that is $5,000 or $10,000 MRR. That’s on the earliest stage. If it’s pre-revenue, that’s where accelerators tend to do a good job. It just makes capital raising a little bit easier if they’re post-revenue.

In addition to that, we typically like small rounds. We’ve invested in a few rounds that are as low as $250,000 to $500,000. We will invest in larger rounds as high as $2 million. 

Sramana Mitra: Do you lead rounds?

Tony Olivito: On a small pre-seed round, we would lead. On a larger seed round, it depends on how large the round is. If it’s a $2 million round, we probably wouldn’t lead that.

If it’s $750,000, that’s something we could lead. Our check size is $100,000 but our LPs who are partners at other VCs have the opportunity to side car. As a group, Comeback could provide $400,000 to $500,000.

Sramana Mitra: I heard you say MRR a few times. Does that mean that you’re doing B2B SaaS primarily? What’s your sector focus?

Tony Olivito: It’s primarily B2B, technology or tech-enabled services. We have a lot of companies in our portfolio that are B2B software. There are three that are selling to consumers. Those are transactional.

I say we weigh more towards B2B. We do look at both. We’ve invested in a company called Xena that is into women’s workwear.

This segment is part 1 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Tony Olivito of Comeback Capital
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