When I started Ascend in 2019, I realized even though I was o-l-d OLD, I had more in common with the folks in town who were earlier in their professional investing journeys than the venerable VC’s I’d pitched as a founder. I admire and respect the new wave of Seattle/Pacific Northwest venture capitalists, and thought it would be fun to profile some of our region’s up and coming VC talents in these pages. —KW
There are hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs working at Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and dozens of other large tech companies in the Seattle area. They just don’t know they’re entrepreneurs yet. Sean Sternbach wants to help them discover their inner founders. He started Venture Out to achieve this goal, and he also makes investments in ex-Amazonians out of his Day One syndicate. Sean is simply a great guy who wants to see founders win, and spends his life trying to help them do so.
What made you decide to be a professional investor?
As a former startup founder, I wanted to pay it forward and help more founders. As a mentor at Techstars for several years, I realized how much I enjoy supporting founders. After a dozen angel investments and a ton of fun working with founders I realized there was an opportunity to invest in a more professional manner and there was no better place to do it than in Seattle.
What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?
After co-founding a B2B SaaS company, I worked at Amazon, building products for the Home Innovation Team where I learned how to scale products to the millions. During this time I mentored a variety of startups in the Alexa Accelerator and Techstars Seattle. After doing this for two years, I was offered an opportunity to be the EIR for Techstars. This was a great opportunity to work alongside the MDs and see what it takes to get more startups funded.
Between Techstars and supporting founders from big tech companies, I realized there was a great opportunity to share my learnings with the founders I work with.
What are your most successful investments so far?
Latchel is a company co-founded by a former Amazon employee who led a team behind Prime 2-Day and 2-Hour shipping. The company manages 80% of a property manager’s maintenance coordination efforts while adding new profit streams to their bottom line. We met the founder during Seattle Angel Conference and I invested in the company before they went on to Y Combinator. We have made subsequent investments in Latchel as they continue on their growth trajectory.
My other most successful investment has been an investment of time building out a community, called Venture Out, which is composed of hundreds of founders who have experience working at big tech companies. I’ve learned so much from them and they have supported their fellow community members in so many ways. Startups like Iteratively, Spiral, Neu, Schedulista, Sniffspot, and so many more have made such an impact on other founders following in their footsteps and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of them.
Why should founders want you on their cap table?
What I love about investing in startups is that I get to support founders beyond writing a check. Sometimes it means being a sounding board, and other times it means sharing access to a strong network of founders, mentors, and investors who can support them. Having co-founded a tech company I can relate to what other founders are going through and I go to bat for my portfolio companies when they need help.
How many new pitches (actual calls/zooms) do you take per month?
~15
How many new investments do you make per year?
Fund I was 10 investments per year, and fund II, our current fund, will average 15 investments per year.
What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?
Pre-seed and seed investments between $50K and $100K across all verticals that are B2B or enterprise SaaS and marketplace companies. The valuation to me is not as important if all the other boxes are checked.
What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?
Fusebit. I met the founders a year before investing in them and the team is amazing. They just raised their seed round and have amazing opportunities for engineers to join them at the ground level.
What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?
For starters, hopefully the Seattle Supersonics will be back playing basketball here. The future for startups in Seattle and the PNW is strong. However, I’m excited to see what pockets outside of Seattle, but in the PNW, can grow into startup hubs and build off the foundation set in Seattle. I saw firsthand how Colorado has supported entrepreneurship outside of its key cities that promote a work-hard, play-hard balance and I think the PNW has an opportunity to do something similar.
What song is currently getting the most run on your Spotify/Apple Music?
Better Days by JJ Grey and Mofro
Favorite shoes?
It might be the hippy in me from my Boulder days, but when I can, I prefer to be shoeless.
Favorite cooking ingredient?
I never realized how many different kinds of mustards there are until I walked into DeLaurenti’s in the market. I’ve been experimenting with a variety of them and right now my favorite is Amora’s.
Anything else to say?
I’m grateful and honored to be part of such a great community that supports one another in so many ways. People like you. Thank you.