Startup Investing: Trace Cohen of New York Venture Partners on How to Manage Deal Flow, Evaluate Startups, and Partner with Great Founders
Justin Gordon talks with Trace Cohen, Managing Director of New York Venture Partners, where he manages over 50 direct early stage startup investments. NYVP is a Family Office that invests in early stage startups that provides an ecosystem of financing, mentorship and strategic marketing.
Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Trace Cohen (@Trace_Cohen), Managing Director of New York Venture Partners, where he manages over 50 direct early stage startup investments. NYVP is a Family Office that invests in early stage startups that provides an ecosystem of financing, mentorship and strategic marketing. Trace has sourced/met thousands of founders, conducted due diligence, leading to multiple strategic investments every month, while also helping to manage over 50 current investments. He also runs the Active Investors Community with hundreds of investors around the world providing deal flow, speakers and networking opportunities through his newsletter, Slack channel and Upstream app.
He was the President and Co-Founder of Launch.it, a new self-publishing platform for PR professionals, agencies and brands to launch and socialize everything new. Prior to that Trace was an SVP at iFluencePR where he “created understanding for a complex world.” He specializes in strategic PR for tech companies looking to develop their communications, branding and outreach strategies to connect with their communities and customers with transparency. Trace is a graduate of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University with a double major in Entrepreneurship and Marketing. He is one of the original Co-Founders and former CMO of Brand-Yourself.com, which helped students and young professionals manage their reputation and personal brands online.
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Website: New York Venture Partners
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tracecohen
Twitter: @Trace_Cohen
Trace's Email: t@nyvp.com
Show Notes
- Investing as a family business for Trace
- Studying entrepreneurship before it was cool
- Starting his first company, Brand Yourself, from his college dorm room
- Joining his father as a full time professional angel investor
- Trace’s distinction between angel investor and professional angel investor
- Trace’s process for investing at New York Venture Partners
- Their “do diligence” process
- Where they get their deal flow and how they manage and prioritize it
- Investors as “marriage counselors/therapists”
- Being in the businesses of saying ‘no’ and exits
- Some of Trace’s best investments, like Fi and Uizard
- Evaluating founders based on their attitude around what’s possible
- Where they invest geographically and how that has shifted in the last 5 years
- Making memes and having one go viral
- Trace’s newsletter The Active Investor List
More About the Show
The VITALIZE Podcast, a show by VITALIZE Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.
Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at VITALIZE Venture Capital, The VITALIZE Podcast features interviews with a variety of VCs, angel investors, and founders, with a particular focus on the future of work.
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