Artisanal venture capitalists
Earlier this month, Kevin Gibbon hashed over his startup's public relations plan with his lead venture capital firm in a meeting that took place at about 3 mph.
The co-founder of Shyp discussed the strategy along the sidewalks of South of Market with Homebrew partner Hunter Walk, who regularly takes meetings on foot and had dropped in to see the company's new offices.
During the half-hour talk, Gibbon said they wanted to stir up press interest ahead of the holidays to draw attention to the forthcoming app.
[...] the firm's house calls, meetings in mid-stride and even its name signal a departure from the traditional gatekeepers of venture capital, epitomized by the glossy offices of Menlo Park's Sand Hill Road.
Walk, previously a product executive at YouTube, launched the boutique firm in July with his friend and former colleague Satya Patel, mostly recently a vice president at Twitter.
Walk worked at YouTube and its parent company Google for nearly a decade.
When his wife was pregnant with their daughter, he wondered if he'd become content on the comfortable corporate path after her birth.
After an earlier stint in investment at Battery Ventures, he also wanted to build a firm with a strong thematic focus that worked in close partnership with its portfolio companies.
The general plan is that each partner will only invest in a handful of startups per year, and only participate in rounds they can lead or co-lead.
Since launching this summer, Homebrew has announced investments in four companies, including Shyp, theSkimm, Plaid.io and UpCounsel.
The knock on these kind of worker marketplaces, which only represent a portion of Homebrew's portfolio, is that they can drive down wages as the underemployed compete vigorously to snag job assignments.
Yet plenty of other angel investors and firms are going after that segment of the market, including Baseline Ventures, Bowery Capital and Cowboy Ventures.