When I was a founder, I had no idea what a Limited Partner in a venture capital fund was. Now that I run my own fund, I want to bring transparency to founders and let them know where our money comes from. Our LP’s are an incredible group of individuals who often advise our founders and myself as we strive to create the next generation of world-changing startups (and funds!). -KW
I’ve known Laura Butler, long-tenured Microsoft Distinguished Engineer and Technical Fellow, and now founder of property-tech startup UpLift Group, since we met as mentors at the Allen Institute for AI Incubator. When we first connected I was immediately struck by her curiosity and approachability - for someone with her immense and frankly intimidating technical chops, she was more focused on learning than lecturing. So it’s no surprise she quickly adapted to the zero to one startup world, made a slew of great angels investments, and kicked off her own startup journey. Ascend co-invested in LegUp with Laura, and she’s an incredible asset to our portfolio founders as a Limited Partner in Ascend.
You held some of the most prestigious engineering roles Microsoft has to offer, and built some of the company's most enduring products. What made you decide to leave all of that behind and start UpLift Group from scratch?
Why leave Microsoft? Microsoft is a platform company. There was a time when platforms - operating systems, devices, infrastructure, and APIs - mattered to individuals and were changing the world viscerally. It was awesome and I was so lucky to be part of it. But over the past 5-10 years, it’s felt increasingly indirect and narrow. I just don’t care about new icons in Windows or an additional option in some dialog in Office or release v17.5b of a schema.
It came down to Ikigai. What makes me happy is to work on something that matters to me personally, something I can contribute to uniquely, something with other people I enjoy learning from, and something that makes more time, money, freedom, or quality of life for other people who need it most. So leaving Microsoft was easy. The question was what to move towards.
Why a start-up? Originally I thought I’d join a scaling-up company, to learn a lot while hopefully contributing operator skills, then maybe become a founder or investor. But it hit me pretty quickly that I knew almost nothing relevant for a modern tech company, and even the stuff I thought I knew needed to be relearned. Plus the earlier stage the company the more interested I was as well as the more scared. I couldn’t stop thinking about starting something from scratch. And as I was reflecting on my personality traits, particularly the things that were weaknesses and problems at a big co, I realized they could also be strengths as a founder.
Why found UpLift Group specifically?
I Marie Kondo’ed my life, or rather Marie Condo’ed it, as part of making changes. I sold my house, it was too much work and not bringing me joy. I bought a condo because condos are supposed to be effortless, the best of apartment living combined with the benefits of homeownership, with pluses like being near shops and restaurants and shared amenities like roof decks.
Well, it turns out that condos are an iceberg and my impression is the tip above the waterline. Condo ownership comes with more responsibilities and restrictions than a stand-alone home. You are a member of an association, an HOA, and joined at the hip with your fellow members. To operate an HOA wisely takes deep expertise across finance, governance, and maintenance. These are arcane subjects (WUCIOA? CC&Rs? Level 3 Reserve Study?) and trustworthy owner-centric information is utterly lacking. The existing tools and solutions revolve around property management, not owners.
I didn’t know what I was getting into emotionally, financially, and legally with buying a condo. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know. Fortunately, my mom (Carol) is incredibly experienced and knowledgeable about HOAs. She’s owned many condos and townhomes across several states, served in every board position, and she’s seen it all. She also happens to be an economist specializing in public policy, exactly where finance meets governance.
The more we dug in, the more we became convinced that there was a huge opportunity to help HOAs be happier and healthier. It starts with quality democratized data and accessible expertise. So the two of us founded UpLift Group. Everything we’ve learned since founding has strengthened our conviction and passion.
If anybody out there reading this is buying a condo, owns a condo, or knows somebody who is - contact us! We can save you time, money, and stress. We can also help your entire HOA. Visit www.upliftinc.co or email me at laura@upliftinc.co.
You dropped out of Harvard to come to Microsoft in 1989. If you had it to do over again, would you have made the same decision? Do you recommend young people chase their passions even at the expense of a college degree?
Yes, I would make the same decision again but only if it was at the same point in time. In 1989 computer science classes were far away from the reality on the ground. The industry was evolving fast, exciting, cool, and changing the world. Microsoft - what I moved towards - was in the middle of it. Harvard was the antithesis, making it easy to leave. But I would’ve stuck it out if Microsoft hadn’t come along.
Things are different today, especially with computer programming. Beyond the basic foundation, universities help students learn how to learn, how to go about solving problems, and how to collaborate with other people. Those are critical skills. They take time and practice. Plus, college and college internships are great laboratories to try things out and discover passions. They also act as a transporter, carrying graduates to companies that are recruiting and hiring.
Covid has changed the value proposition some with remote work and remote learning. And of course, the cost is a huge factor as is culture. If your school isn’t the right place for you or you can’t afford it, then yes do something different. But try smaller changes first rather than dropping out. You can change your course of study, you can alter your schedule, you can switch universities, you can work-study with apprenticeships, and you can some take time off. Graduate and get your degree, just don’t end up burned out or crushed by debt. That serves no purpose.
You've become a prolific angel investor in a short period of time. I know you to be a fierce advocate for founders, and believe your angel thesis is built entirely around women founders and founders of color. What do you see as the most common "missing link" for underestimated founders raising institutional capital?
My angel thesis is different actually but it has worked out the way you describe. I’ve always invested the same way, whether it’s time or words or support or money. Angel investing is just one more type of investment and one I wish I had done sooner.
I invest in
People I know
Things I care about
Areas I have some understanding of
Efforts I might be able to help beyond $
Ideas I feel are underappreciated or overlooked
I’m a short nerdy scrappy contrarian woman. Most of the world’s existing products and companies don’t target me. They don’t know my needs or wants. They don’t solve problems I have or make the world be the way I would like it to be. Plus I’m magnetically attracted to grit and hustle and cinderella stories. All of this just happens to align with atypical founders.
This is going to sound obvious after the fact, but the missing link is that institutional capital involves institutions. Institutions are best worked and navigated with help from the inside and they hate risk. Underestimated founders often don’t have a “mole” in their network, somebody who can explain the system and act as a guide. They also often don’t have “vouchers”, the résumés and the advocates who bring “credit” and change the risk equation.
Those of us with connections and access and “credit” can make a big difference by sharing those things and using those things for founders who don’t have them. It’s what I try to do. Be a mole, be an informer, be a cheerleader, be a guide, be a voucher, be an early endorser. I think of it as fairy-godmothering. It doesn’t take a lot of time or effort. You can do it at scale and it multiplies over time. It’s energizing and it’s fun. The world needs more fairy god-mothers.
You're known for your quick wit, wise counsel, and kind heart. Also your chocolate chip cookies. How do you stay so grounded while in possession of such a powerful technical mind? Any tips for technical founders on improving "EQ" and becoming secular startup leaders?
Are you sure you have the right Laura Butler? :-) I’m LauraCatPJs on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Fortunately, I don’t have to try hard to stay grounded. I’m 5’0” so I’m low to the ground by nature. What keeps me in place is irreverence and humor. I see the funny side of things. I am thrilled and intrigued by the unexpected, the stuff which happens that you couldn’t make up if you tried. Laughter is good medicine. Being able to laugh at yourself is a vaccine.
For tech leadership EQ, I can’t stress enough the idea that management is engineering too. Teams are designed, built, repaired, improved, refactored, and updated just like code. It is work that needs to be planned, scheduled, measured, rewarded, and done along with all the other work.
The job of a manager is team optimization, to get the best overall out of a team in a sustained way over the long haul. How people feel materially impacts that. You wouldn’t want a constant heavy load on your servers, bogging everything down and wearing out the hardware, without the capacity to handle new traffic much less deploy new stuff, right? The same goes for the team.
Any founders/investments you want to hype for us here?
Why yes, yes I do. ALL OF THEM! But I’ll focus on a few that
Have ties to Seattle
Are starting to hit their stride
Raising $ soon or completing a raise
Friendly and empowering tech help especially good for senior citizens and n00bs. Recently featured on Kelly Clarkson. Founded by Ming Yang.
Performance-based sports stock market when you can put your money where your mouth is about your fave athletes. Founded by Deven Hurt.
OpenTable for childcare, matching families to providers with open seats. Founded by Jessica Loche-Eggert and Garrett Vargas.
Helping university & higher-ed teachers transform their traditional in-person course into online, modern, remote-friendly content. Founded by David Boone.
Career help and peer mentoring through story-stelling and community, currently focused on womxn. Founded by Rebekah Bastian and KT McBratney.
What do you think the next ten years look like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups and funds?
I think it will be incredible, even better than the 1990s. I’m big on Seattle of course. It’s why I choose to live here still after 30 years.
I believe what made Seattle’s tech scene was many different ingredients coming together in the 1990s to produce a great dish. Those ingredients included music, coffee, writing, art, fishing, film, aviation, the outdoors, agriculture, our position on the Pacific Rim, medical research, the culture and history of the Indigenous peoples, and immigrants from all over the world. They helped focus our tech development on human problems and human purpose.
We have a long tradition of philanthropy in this area and investing in this area. Paul Allen with Vulcan and the Allen Institutes is a great example of that. We have 100x the resources today for entrepreneurs, artists, and researchers than a generation ago. There’s a critical mass of programs, advice, support, and knowledge when it comes to startups. And it’s just the start. Microsoft, Amazon, Google Cloud, Adobe, Salesforce / Tableau, and many more companies here have a tremendous amount of untapped wealth in terms of people and funding.
This region drives IaaS and PaaS for the world. What better place to found a startup? Your tech utilities and company infra are here. Your dream new hires are here, graduating from the U of W and Seattle U. Your disruptive research is being done here. Your experienced managers and operators are here. Your creative design experts are here. Your shipping and distribution are here. Everything and everyone you want is right here or they are nearby in Vancouver BC, Tacoma, Portland, or Spokane.
As for VCs, they are to startups like bears are to salmon. Where great startups are being spawned the investors will show up to fish. :-)
Current top song in your Spotify rotation?
I don’t have Spotify. KEXP (a Seattle radio station) on my Sonos (a company with Seattle roots) is what I usually listen to during work. KEXP is always fresh and always interesting. When I’m running, it depends on the kind of run and my mood. Right now I’m wallowing in Daft Punk now they’ve split up. I forgot how great the Tron: Legacy soundtrack is.
Favorite shoes?
Allbirds for walking, Brooks (a Seattle company) for running, and Jimmy Choo for glam.
Favorite cooking ingredient?
Butter. It makes everything better.