Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio. Want to bring in jewel Burg Solomon, co founder and managing partner of Collab Capital. It's a venture capital firm that, in its own words, invested the intersection of innovation and inclusion.
Well to background on jewel She sold her first company to Amazon and then was also the inaugural head of Google Startups US that was from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three. Juel joins us once again, this time though from Martha's vineyard, Jewel How are you.
I'm doing great? How are you?
We're doing well. Earlier in our program, we spoke to the partner at in Recent Horowitz, who focused on fintech. So his his purview is very focused on just one part of what he sees as a promising tech ecosystem and a promising future. Where would you say, in terms of types of technologies, Cloud Capital focuses on.
So we really focus on what we call the building blocks of shared prosperity, and that looks across financial technology. So we think about economic mobility from a standpoint of how can we get more people into high paying jobs using technology, how can we provide the right access to capital using technology. We look at the healthcare industry and where there have historically been gaps and access to care
and how technology can close those gaps. And lastly, we look at community infrastructure and we think about all the things that people need to thrive in communities, things like access to transportation, climate related technologies, energy related technologies, all those things that in this AI world that we're living in right now are increasingly important. Those are the places where we really look to invest.
How is the investing landscape right now in the context of the fact that I mean you mentioned AI. It seems like there's so many startups out there that are claiming to have some innovation in artificial intelligence. Are you finding that like you're in an environment right now where you have to sift through a lot of noise to find a good investment or are you finding that you know, there's too many companies that are promising to you.
Well, there are a ton of promising companies. We definitely don't have any problems when it comes to pipeline of companies that we could potentially invest in. But you're right, there are a ton of companies that are just slapping dot ai on technology that maybe isn't truly deep ai, and maybe they don't necessarily have a data mode or
something that makes them special. So that's our work as investors to really make sure that the companies do have some type of technology lead or mote that can be defensible, that they are approaching a problem in a really unique way, that they're actually solving a problem that at some point down the line from our investment will become profitable. Those are all things that we're considering as we make investments.
Talk to us about the environment of raising money from LPs right now, going out and raising the money to invest in these startups that you find.
Yeah, this is a tough time for managing partners of particularly new funds to raise capital. I think the stat is something like eighty percent of capital that was deployed over the last year went into nine funds. So those large funds like the A six m Z that you spoke with earlier today, they're kind of consolidating a lot of the LP capital and so it's increasingly challenging for emerging managers like myself to raise capital from LPs. But the good news is we were successful in closing our
second fund a few months ago. I know I'll have a lot of friends who are also out in market right now and finding success from LPs who really are still looking for these unique strategies and managers that are in places maybe outside of your typical silicon valley in Boston and New York hubs.
Collob Capital is a venture firm investing at the intersection of innovation and inclusion.
Do you get? Do you think?
Just talk to us about like how that pitch works, the inclusion pitch. I guess how is inclusion related to investment returns?
Yeah, inclusion still matters. We know. The pitch that we make to our LPs is that we believe we can find alpha in places where other people aren't looking. And most importantly, we believe that folks who are in the margins, if you will, they oftentimes have the best solutions to
our most entrenched problems. So the founders that we're finding they oftentimes have the live experience that leads them to the right solution, and they really just need the resources, backing and support to be able to build really scalable and successful companies, and that's what we're all about, is not just the capital that we're providing, but also the wrap around services, the fact that we've been entrepreneurs before, we've done it, so we can really offer them our
first hand experience and also connections to the right people that they need to really scale their businesses as well.
I know there's probably way too many to pick just one, but tell us about one interesting company that you guys are investing in right now that our readers would want to know about. Our listeners.
You're in a different media today, It's okay, we'll send you back there tomorrow. Sadly.
Yeah, sure, I'll tell you about an investment we're super excited about. We're just closing a company called May, which is in the maternal health space. They've built a network of doulas around the country and are providing really important critical care to mothers who need that extra support as they're they're going into thus the pre natal and post
natal care. So that's one that we're really excited about because unfortunately in this country, the health outcomes for mothers are really not as good as we would hope for them to be, and so May has really built this support network of do list to address that problem.
Just in our last minute, can you tell us about the seaweed company for building materials Source that you recently invested in.
Yes, that's a really exciting one as well. So they have done some incredible work as using seaweed to create this nantio cellules material to ensure that all of the great things that we're building, all of these new and innovative products that are coming out to market, have the right materials that are cheaper, more efficient, and safer for the environment. And so this is our kind of first
foray the material science world. But we're really excited to support Source, which is a company based in Florida.
Jewel always good to check in with you. Thank you so much for joining us. Jewel Burg Solomon, co founder and a managing partner at Collab Capital, joining us this afternoon from Martha's vineyard. Seaweed as he building material. This is cool.
I know, I think about seaweed as something that it's like an emerging health snack.
I was thinking about it as like, yeah, I like it when they have them here.
Yeah, yeah, the sweed, the seaweed snacks.
Yeah, just a little inside baseball. I think that's a permanent part of the permanent snack collection in the San Francisco Bureau.
Really.
Yeah, you know, when I go to different bureaus around the country, around the world, I just go to write to the snacks. Got to get a good idea of the you know, regional varieties.
Yes, yes, I'm trying to remember the SF Bureau. Yeah, they had a lot of like sweet sweet treats.
Yeah, the sweet A great view from that bureau as well.