Author: MartinGTobias

The Prevailing Cloud Infrastructure Thesis: The Cloud is simple to use and the early leaders (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc.) will take most of the economics in the Cloud. The Counterintuitive Thesis: Cloud complexity is growing and Cloud waste is becoming a material problem for cloud customers. There will be economics available for companies that reduce … Continue reading Investing in Vega Cloud →

In order to beat the averages in any game, you have to disagree with the average opinion and be right. To get top decile investment returns as I have in angel investing for over 25 years, you must have a counterintuitive investment thesis. And you must be right. If you are right, the counterintuitive thesis … Continue reading The Value of a Counterintuitive Thesis →

Katalyst.fit: An at-home workout like never before. I am going to start this memo by admitting a mistake and a bit of luck. Early last year (2020) I was unsure of the direction of the home fitness trend so hedged by betting both sides of it. I shorted the (I thought over-hyped) leader, Peloton (at … Continue reading Investing in Katalyst.fit →

Tripp: Digital Therapeutic Platform for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing. Mental health has been the ugly ignored stepchild of health care for a very very long time. It is also an area lots of us are uncomfortable talking about, so much so that my TED talk on mental health was anonymous at first. Americans spend … Continue reading Investing in Tripp →

Goldilocks: Adjective: "having or producing an optimal balance usually between two extremes." I am often asked "What stage do you invest?" While most people expect to hear "Pre-Seed", "Seed" or "Series A, B, C, etc", I answer "The Goldilocks Stage". Traditional Venture stages have become a function of fund size and seem to be increasingly … Continue reading The Goldilocks Stage →

IV Probability terms decoder table Have. you ever had a conversation with someone only to find out later that the two of you took away totally different meanings from the exact same conversation? I have found that many times the root of the dis-connect is different definitions of key qualifying terms used in the conversation. … Continue reading Definition of Probabilistic Terms →

International Scout Angel investing is a team sport. Many Limited Partners, Founders, friends across our larger network have asked how they can help bring the best companies to Incisive Ventures.  Our answer is the Incisive Ventures Upgraded Scout Program.  When you help us source a great company we invest in, we share the carry and … Continue reading Announcing IV Scout Program →

Had fun talking start up investing with Todd on this podcast.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate Angel Syndicates have been a huge upgrade to the early-stage fundraising ecosystem delivering over $3B in capital recently and the pace is accelerating. Syndicates promise to add value and reduce friction for both investors and companies. Unfortunately, as an investor in over 300 syndicates, I have often been underwhelmed and frustrated. So … Continue reading Incisive Ventures is Upgrading the Syndicate →

For those investors who want to beat the crowds, today we are announcing our Preferred Limited Partner Program. Peter over at Unpopular Ventures runs a very good syndicate and I thank him for the inspiration of this syndicate upgrade. In the past, in order to get access to all on-thesis investments from a Venture Fund … Continue reading Announcing IV Preferred LP program →