We launched OpenVC in March 2021.
At the time, we wanted to build a better VC list - radically open, radically free.
Since then, 800+ VC firms have joined in. Thousands of CEOs have used OpenVC to find investors. We've been mentioned in TechCrunch and nominated for Product of the Year on ProductHunt.
Not bad for a side-project built on Airtable by 2 French bois 🤗
To all of you, VCs and founders, who answered our endless surveys, tested our broken features, delivered brutal feedback, Lucas and I want to say a sincere "thank you!".
Modern funding is hard to navigate
Out of this 9-month experiment, we gathered 3 key insights:
- Venture capital is just one piece of the puzzle. Revenue-based financing, acceleration programs, subsidies, angel investors, crowd investing, venture debt, crypto-loans... They are all part of the modern funding landscape.
- CEOs and CFO struggle identifying the right partners to speak with. As private funding becomes more fragmented than ever, the pain point grows exponentially. OpenVC helps with that, but we still have a long way to go.
- Comparing funding becomes the next challenge. How do you mix and match RBF with VC money and a slice of crypto-loans on top? CFOs will be under pressure to answer those questions in the near future. They're gonna need help with that.
Eventually, we realized that our original mission as a VC list was too restrictive.
If we want to have an impact, we need to embrace a much wider scope.
Towards a global marketplace for private funding
In the long-run, private funding is leaning towards a marketplace configuration.
Three conditions are required to fulfill that prediction: the market must be (a) fragmented enough, (b) digitized enough, (c) commoditized enough.
Fragmentation is already there. Commoditization and digitization are on their way - one look at the RBF space is enough to be convinced. However, we're still several years away from a full-fledged online funding platform.
What do we do until then?
An aggregator.
Cue OpenVC 2022.
In 2022, we're building a global aggregator for private funding
Within the next 12 months, we want to make all of funding searchable on OpenVC.
Angel investors, acceleration programs, revenue-based financing, venture debt, crypto-loans, blockchain-enabled loans, grants, subsidies…
Still 100% open. Still 100% free.
It's not a platform, it's an aggregator.
