Happy Tuesday, Brex Community! | The largest and newest shipyard to be built since WWII just was announced! This initiative is being led by US government and VC backed Anduril, one of the most sought after investment opportunities available in private markets per Setter VC. | Related to building hard things, today is the demo day for Discipulus Ventures, which has become a leading accelerator for startups who are primarily building hardware startups and/or software for hardware companies. They are taking applications for their spring cohort, take a look here for more info. | The resurgence of manufacturing in the united states has been a great trend the past few years, I’m bullish on the future and excited to see how VC backed startups play a big part in it. | Have a great week. | Shai Goldman | | | Tyler Hogge, the former Divvy exec and Pelion partner, just announced that Captain Ventures Fund 1 is live with roughly $33M. He pitched over 100 LPs in that window and got it done in a single rolling close, which is remarkably fast against a typical 18 month fund raise (even the fastest quartile takes about nine months). LPs include founders, GPs, other funds, and family offices, and Hogge himself is one of the largest individual LPs with a stated goal of eventually being the biggest. | The backstory is a good one. Hogge nearly launched a rolling fund in 2021 while still full time at Divvy post BILL acquisition. His mentor Andy Rachleff (Wealthfront, Benchmark) talked him out of it, essentially telling him you can't half-ass venture and be great at it. Hogge set three conditions before he'd start a firm: be full time, have the beginnings of a real track record, and put a meaningful amount of his own money in. He says all three are now true. | The strategy is deliberately small and collaborative. Several GPs told him they'd happily co-invest if he could help them find or close great founders, with the catch that he wouldn't lead rounds. He took the deal. That's why $30 million was the target: no need for fee income, a fund size small enough that getting into the right companies is all that matters, and the ability to fit into any round without competing with anyone. His core thesis is that picking exceptional startups is 10x more important than anything else, including ownership, and that too many investors hold big stakes in bad companies. | Practical details: offices in SF and Salt Lake City, 25 to 30 investments, average check around $750k with plenty of variance, mostly in a company's first two rounds. He frames it around a "captain" thesis, that the best startups are led by the best captains and he can spot them before the market does. | He closes with three promises. To founders: most valuable investor per dollar, fastest responder, help with customers and the next round, and good memes. To GPs: make Captain the first call when a founder asks who else to bring in. To LPs: treat their dollars as sacred and put their needs first. | | Events you might see us at - subscribe here - all focused on Founders, VCs & Finance leaders: | Oct 13 - LA - Brex Supper Club - open to VC backed Founders - Apply Here | Oct 14 - LA - Puppy Yoga - open to VC backed Founders - Apply Here | Oct 15 - NYC - Brex Supper Club - open to VC backed Founders who are building GTM AI products and/or highly leveraging AI for their GTM motions - Apply Here | | | | | Sign up here for Brex and receive $1,250 towards Brex Travel or $750 cash | Brex is the intelligent finance platform built for speed and control. Combining corporate cards, banking, treasury, expense management, bill pay, travel, and accounting, Brex helps companies spend smarter and move faster in 120 countries. By integrating AI across every workflow, Brex enables founders and finance teams to eliminate manual work, do more with less, and accelerate impact. More than 35,000 companies from startups to enterprises run on Brex, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Cursor, Granola, ServiceTitan, Robinhood, DoorDash, etc. | | |
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