We bring software, operations, sales, and marketing experts to the table to help software companies grow. Rather than charge you for this assistance, we include it because it makes you successful and our investment more valuable. Think of it like an incubator, only you get that support throughout instead of just at the beginning.
Venture Funding That's MORE Than Cash
Funding: A Startup's Most Important Resource
It’s also one of the most volatile and dangerous elements that make or break early stage companies. You need a venture partner that has seen both sides of the venture game — as an entrepreneur and investor. That's us: We've been in your shoes, taking small private companies from idea to IPO or acquisition.
Element 80 Ventures is a different kind of venture fund. We've seen why partnerships go bad and are ready to change the culture of venture funding. If there's a mistake or trap we've fallen in, we want to help you avoid it, because our perspective comes from being a founder first, not an investor. Ready to join us?
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Our Approach Is Simple
We fix the broken venture capital model by offering three things most venture funds don't want to offer or want to charge you extra for.
Partnership
Being a partner means we actually want to be a true partner. Our sole focus is giving you the resources to be successful. We only invest in a handful of early stage companies per year. By doing this, we can stay in close contact and make the right moves — so we can both succeed.
Velocity
We've been entrepreneurs and we know how slow and difficult it can be to scale. We offer deep expertise across operations, technology, sales, and marketing to launch at the right speed to ensure that your success and our investment grow together.
Transparency
We don't hide our investment dollars from you by paying ourselves for sales, marketing, operations, or software support to help you scale. We include one-on-one consulting, support from experts, and access to resources as part and parcel for a successful investment.
Changing the Culture of Venture Funding for Good
We're comfortable saying it: The culture of venture capital is terrible and its reputation is completely deserved. It's time to change that experience for the better.
Element 80 Ventures takes a different approach. We’re not making hundreds of bets to try to find a winning lotto ticket with the company you've worked so hard to build.
Instead, we look for a few companies that are a good fit for our background and then equip your company with knowledge and included expertise that will help you scale technology, sales, and marketing efforts. Our transparent funding model includes deep expertise and resources to grow smart while mitigating typical failure points.
With true investment, we believe we can all win together.
A Better Way for Entrepreneurs to Raise Funds
We've been in your shoes. As an early stage venture capital firm started by technology industry veterans and entrepreneurs, we've seen the good and the bad that comes with raising money. This is our vision for making it better.
Love Your VC Firm for the First Time
After a founder exits from the startup they created, they never say they loved the venture capital firms that they worked with. Even successful exits see founders get bilked in bad faith by VCs. We're tired of that, and if you've been involved in venture capital, you've experienced it, too. We're ready to change that.
Comfort, Trust, and Understanding
Not the typical words you might associate with a venture capital firm, right? As entrepreneurs, we've nervously presented new ideas to VCs or come to them with an issue that they may not like. If we're going to work together, it has to be from a place where we're comfortable around one another, trust our team, and fully understand issues.
It Takes True Investment
Most VC firms spread their money wide: Make a lot of bets and some will hit. It's a transactional game of chance that investors always try to hedge on. That's a disservice to entrepreneurs. Yes, we invest cash to help you grow, but we also inject knowledge and expertise into every one of our investments, too — and we don't charge extra for it.
We're Ready to Win Together
We don't want to play the numbers game. We're all-in with a handful of companies and we want to win just as badly as you do — and we're transparent enough to show you why. It's time for a change. There's a new funding model where investors and founders can truly win — together.
About Our Founder
David Rhodes is founder and lead partner for Element 80 Ventures. As a tech-focused entrepreneur, he has more than 20 years of software application development, delivery, and executive experience. He founded WORKTERRA in 2006, leading the company from concept to a leading provider of human capital management software. WORKTERRA was acquired by CareerBuilder in late 2016 and Rhodes continued to lead the technical vision and work on the platform.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
There aren't any formal steps to take other than to pitch us but there are some things you should know about how we work.
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