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 Andre Charoo, Founding Managing Partner of Maple VC.
During his first ten years in Silicon Valley, including as employee #25 at Uber, Andre gained expertise in helping startups expand, changing jobs often to join inspiring founders at stage zero. He was getting ready to leave Hired for the next challenge when the recruiting platform came up with an offer to convince him to stay: It would seed a small fund, giving Andre a chance to engage with young companies as an investor. In 2016, Maple VC was born.
Andre focuses on Canadian founders building in America. The University of Toronto graduate, who started as an investment bank analyst in the U.S., knows first-hand that it takes grit to make it south of the border. It was no surprise to him that some of the biggest tech successes had at least one Canadian founder. Yet he noticed none of them had attracted Canadian investors at the seed stage, prompting him to also open his portfolio to ambitious founders in Canada ignored by local VCs.
Results from his first fund encouraged him to become a full-time investor. After raising US$16.5M in 2021, Maple is now targeting US$35M to US$45M for its third fund. Some of Andre’s most notable investments include Clay, a sales development tool, and fintech company Neo Financial.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO FOCUS ON THE EARLY STAGES OF INVESTMENT?
Seed investing is an extension of what I did as an operator in the early days of Uber and Hired. At the stage that I’m investing, I consider myself a company builder. I get genuinely excited about someone’s ambition, and joining them on that journey to achieve even a part of that ambition brings me a lot of joy.
TELL US ONE OR TWO THINGS THAT MAKE YOUR FUND UNIQUE
We are the only fund targeting Canadians who are building companies in America. Like Canada itself, it’s a very diverse network, and our portfolio reflects it: almost 70% of founders in our first two funds were people of color.
I’ve also built an operating partner bench of advisors among the first 25 employees of the world’s best technology companies, such as Slack and Shopify. They have seen what amazing outlier success looks like at the exact stage the founders we work with find themselves.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THROUGH FAILURES OR TRIALS AND ERRORS?
I’m not afraid of failure, it is a rite of passage. But I have a contrarian view: I don’t think you learn from it . When I look at the companies where I worked, no founder today asks me for advice from my days at Color or Cinemagram! And there’s nothing much for me to share because those companies failed. Founders want to know what I learned at Uber.
Professionally, you learn exponentially more than anyone when you are on a winning ship. But in venture capital, it takes time for your winners to happen; this is why I built that bench of advisors–I’ve hacked my way into the learning cycle.
WHAT GETS YOUR ATTENTION IN A PITCH?
Three things:
- Ambition. When a founder can look me in the eye and share a really big vision of the world. Also really important is the unique starting point they are working on. Amazon’s vision was to build the “everything” store, but it started by selling books.
- Timing. There needs to be an enabler (such as technology), an economic impetus and a cultural buy-in at that time. I look for at least two out of three.
- Conviction. What do you believe that others do not? (A Peter Thiel question). I’ll tell founders: “Let’s ask ten Maple advisors what they think, and I want nine of them to disagree with you.” That’s uncomfortable, but that’s what seed investing is about – picking differently.
WHAT IS THE ADVICE YOU MOST OFTEN GIVE TO FOUNDERS?
Most investors will ask you about how big your market is. I recommend you make your market really small so you can go get a large percentage of it and be really important to those customers.
The second part is to put energy in getting the product to your customer. It’s not the best products that win in the short- to mid-term; it’s the most distributed ones. Ironically, you then get the resources to build the best product in the long term.
Visit our website to learn more about the mission and leaders of other exceptional emerging managers in our portfolio: Boon, Garage Capital, Front Row Ventures, Luge, N49P, Northside Ventures, Roar Ventures, The51, and Two Small Fish Ventures.