Inovia’s first Discovery Fund backs the next generation of VC funds in their mission to identify and nurture high-potential startups at the pre-seed and seed stages. We sat down with these emerging managers to discuss their vision, their approach, and what they look for in a pitch.
Today, we’re happy to introduce you to Mark Trevitt, Founder and Managing Partner of Defined.
“A well-defined problem is half solved.” That’s the adage Mark lives by and the one he named his fund after. As a former engineer and operator, he has a knack for diving deep into issues to extract the best solutions from the founders he works with.
After a few years in London, where he spearheaded product and algorithm development at a data analytics company, Mark decided to pivot into investing. The Vancouver native moved back to Canada to lead a new fund strategy for BDC Venture Capital, the country’s largest early-stage tech investor, where he led the firm into artificial intelligence, resulting in early successes. He was selected to be a Kauffman Fellow, which exposed him to the forefront of the changing landscape in venture capital and the opportunity for emerging specialist funds to create outsized value. Deeply connected to the Silicon Valley ecosystem, Mark foresaw the coming platform shift and formulated the need for an AI-focused early-stage fund.
Defined, launched in February 2023, has a US$15M target and focuses on the “AI Frontier,” where data, humans and AI come together to solve problems in radically new ways. It looks for founders who understand complex and somewhat overlooked domains.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO FOCUS ON THE EARLY STAGES OF INVESTMENT?
I thought deeply about how I could best support founders. Earlier in a business’s lifecycle , I can have an outsized impact on shaping the product vision of companies, which is often overlooked by many investors, and help founders avoid the pitfall of choosing the wrong direction.
In Series B and C, everyone is pounding the table for revenue to go up, but a lot of the problems can be traced back to the product and to losing sight of the customer’s problem. If I can catch them earlier and help them get on the right rails, once they hit product-market fit and start getting revenue, it is more a matter of scaling.
TELL US ONE OR TWO THINGS THAT MAKE YOUR FUND UNIQUE
We’re more focused on the data side of the AI coin than most other funds. We’re trying to acquire assets in domains where datasets still need to be structured and build value around them. Being on that frontier gives us an unmatched vantage point to understand what new possible outcomes can be created based on emerging state-of-the-art technology. Every industry will leverage AI: we are arbitraging on that wave.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THROUGH FAILURES OR TRIALS AND ERRORS?
One of the key learnings I have taken from my work with multiple founders and being on boards is that VC funds and founders only have a few key moments to positively leverage the value they can provide or potentially save the company from failure. The real challenge is first to notice these and then seize the opportunity to intervene at the right time and in the right way. First and foremost, it is critical to develop a rapport with the founders so that they trust you and come to you as a partner to share those concerns.
WHAT GETS YOUR ATTENTION IN A PITCH?
- Founders must be visionary and thesis-driven, with a particular, ideally unique, technology and market insight.
- Do they have a “wedge,” an insertion point for their product that they can scale to other parts of the customer’s value chain?
- Do they understand why now is the time for this particular opportunity?
- Do they understand how they will create a moat and permanent economic advantage for the business?
- Do they have enough self-awareness to know what they don’t know and be willing to fill in the gaps?
WHAT IS THE ADVICE YOU MOST OFTEN GIVE TO FOUNDERS?
Always articulate the problem first and work back towards the solution. Not the other way around.
Visit our website to learn more about the mission and leaders of other exceptional emerging managers in our portfolio: Boon, FounderFuel, Front Row Ventures, Garage Capital, Luge, Maple, Mighty Capital, N49P, Northside Ventures, Roar Ventures, The51, and Two Small Fish Ventures.