Previous Foursquare exec Steven Rosenblatt raises $11 million debut fund

• Steven Rosenblatt has lifted his debut fund of $11 million to commit in seed-stage organizations. 
• Rosenblatt is greatest identified as the ex-Apple advertising and marketing guru who helped direct Foursquare’s transformation from a purchaser app enterprise into an organization location-data powerhouse that booked $100 million in profits previous calendar year.
• Called Oceans Ventures, the company is designed up of 5 associates who have collectively sold additional than 20 organizations, opened satellite offices for Facebook, and led merger and acquisition tactic across the Time Warner ecosystem.
• The organization also has backing from substantial-driven traders like Ron Conway and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley.
• Go to Business Insider’s homepage for far more stories.

In 2012, Steven Rosenblatt left his occupation at Apple and agreed to stay three months at Foursquare as a expert.

The startup — finest acknowledged for its the popular application that allow people share their spot with pals by “examining in” to dining establishments and espresso stores — was burning funds and hadn’t figured out a business design. Analysts and pundits organized to compose its eulogy.

But Rosenblatt, who experienced long gone to Apple in the 1st position following it obtained his cellular application promotion enterprise Quattro Networks, was decided to save it.

“The more I started off to get underneath the hood, the extra I was like, ‘I never know if you fellas have recognized it but you’re basically sitting on a great quantity of gold,'” Rosenblatt advised The New Yorker in 2017.

In excess of the up coming 6 many years, the promotion expert led the transformation of Foursquare from a rapid-fading purchaser app to an organization powerhouse, offering its application equipment and locale details to application builders, advertisers, and brands that want to know wherever customers are and where they are headed upcoming. In 2019, Foursquare’s profits hit $100 million, marking a stark turnaround for a firm that experienced previously been published off by several. 

Now, Rosenblatt needs to enable other startups obtain their possess path to prosperity.

$11 million for seed-stage businesses

His debut fund, Oceans Ventures, has elevated $11 million to make investments in seed-phase businesses. It truly is concentrated on software package organizations across industries that are principally centered in New York Metropolis, exactly where its five associates are positioned.

Oceans Ventures statements an all-star staff of operators who have collectively offered extra than 20 organizations, opened satellite offices for Fb, and led merger and acquisition system across the Time Warner ecosystem.

He reported his firm’s partners have been in the trenches at fast-increasing organizations and know where the landmines are buried (figuratively talking, of course). They can aid founders determine out how to employ, who their buyers are, and when to elevate more revenue.

“You never just get one particular companion, you get the complete workforce,” Rosenblatt informed Organization Insider.

Seed investments are dropping off

The quantity of startup investments at the seed and early stage has dropped off this calendar year, experiences information supplier PitchBook, and one particular explanation is that VCs are investing their reserves on portfolio corporations that are battling in a pandemic planet. The decrease in seed funds could develop an opening for a modestly sized fund like Oceans Ventures. The business has already built 18 investments out of its debut fund, along with companies with further pockets.

“We get invited by a good deal of people late-phase money into deals. Most of them, their model is not established up to invest a full large amount of time supporting founders in the seed phase,” Rosenblatt instructed Company Insider. “They are chips, they are bets. They want to get in the doorway early so they can lead the later on phase rounds. So they pull us in to support the founders.”

The company also has backing from higher-driven investors like Ron Conway and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley.

Crowley, who is now the firm’s govt chairman, states he fulfilled for breakfast with the firm’s founding partners just before the pandemic shut down New York. Just about every partner arrived to the table with their individual “superpower,” he reported.

“A large-excellent man or woman appeals to other superior-quality people,” Crowley mentioned.

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