Announcing Starting Line Fund II
Eighteen months ago, Starting Line came out of stealth in order to share that we’d closed a $17M pilot fund to back early stage consumer startups building products and services for the 99% economy – companies that leverage technology to be cheaper and better, open up access, and, ultimately, expand markets. Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve raised an additional $30M second fund to continue executing on that mission.
As with our first fund, we are proudly and boldly headquartered in the great city of Chicago, in the heart of the Midwest. A lot has changed in the world over the past several years. But these changes have only made our mission – and location – more important. Every teenager with a phone in their hand is now capable of becoming an entrepreneur, a brand, and defining pop culture - irrespective of whether they are in a small town or big city. We are excited to provide a relatable, youthful, authentic home for all the budding entrepreneurs who don’t know where else to turn.
Starting Line isn’t just a venture capital firm to us. It’s a personal battle. Each of us has been dramatically underestimated in our careers – often outright misunderstood - and we feel the same hunger and drive as each of you to prove the world how wrong they were about our dreams. We are winners because we need to win in order to prove the world wrong. If that sounds familiar it’s because we are a startup ourselves; just like you. We’re just humble kids desperate to leave a meaningful mark on the world.
For Fund II, we are happy to share that Haley is now a full partner, with Scott and Ade returning as Venture Partners, furthering our mission of Starting Line operating as a flat, even, and decentralized partnership. All four member of our investment team have the autonomy to pursue their own interests, the ability to approve investments, and each member sourced LPs that would add value to the founders we fund.
Starting Line is backed by founders of many of Chicago’s top consumer companies including Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney, M1 Finance CEO Brian Barnes, Kin cofounder and CEO Sean Harper, Rush Street Interactive CEO Greg Carlin, Tovala CEO David Rabie, Clearcover cofounder and CEO Kyle Nakatsuji, Catch Co CEO Ross Gordon, Factor CEO Mike Apostal, and Sprout Social cofounder Aaron Rankin, as well as founders beyond our city limits such as Thrive Market CEO Nick Green and Prettylitter CEO Daniel Rotman, among many other individual investors.
We are also excited to bring to the early stage scene in Chicago for the first time, strong institutional support, from multi billion funds such as Vintage Investment Partners, Foundry Group, 50 South Capital, Bracket Capital, Wicklow Capital and others, that will enable Starting Line to scale and support the ecosystem for years to come.
We are so deeply proud of so many of the Fund I companies that have found strong product market fit and are on the way to becoming household names, including:
Cameo, a marketplace connecting talent with their fans for personalized video shoutouts, and which was recently achieved unicorn status. (Chicago)
Made in Cookware, a direct to consumer seller of prosumer cookware, and which is endorsed by the world’s top chefs including Grant Achatz, Tom Colicchio, Eric Ripert and more. (Austin)
Unchained Capital, a next generation crypto bank offering custody, loans, and multi-user account management, which now boasts over $1 billion of assets under management. (Austin)
Soona, a distributed cloud production studio, that powers the photos and videos behind many of today’s top emerging brands. (Denver/Minneapolis)
Haven Protocol, the world’s first ecosystem of private, stable crypto assets, now trading at a market cap above $250M. (Distributed)
SchoolHouse, a marketplace connecting parents directly to teachers to facilitate world class education for families who live in “school deserts.” (New York)
Fund II, just a few months old, is a continuation of this same mission and we are excited to be amongst the first investors in a number of founder driven companies such as The Player’s Trunk, a marketplace for athletes to sell game worn gear to their fans, Spot, a mobile product for getting us off Zoom screens and walking on our feet, as well as Stacked, a platform enabling regular people to invest in cryptocurrency markets like the industry’s best hedge funds.
Last, we are proud to announce v1.0 of our Starting Line Scout Fund, giving ten high potential operators a small amount of angel capital to invest in their friends, colleagues, and learn the craft of angel investing. We have been extremely vocal about the need for seeding more young founders in the Midwest and are excited to put money directly in their hands. We are dedicating 2% of the fund, $600,000. to this effort and hope to scale it up more aggressively in 2022 and across future funds. To apply please do so below: