Jesse Randall

Over the past decade, I've met with dozens of men in failing marriages. If you want to be happy in a marriage that lasts, here's what you need to know:

One of my favorite things as a father is watching things “click” for my kids. My 4 year old daughter figured out skiing today. 😎 Good form overall! She might just take on a blue before the season is over. 🤩

@mariusschober @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Fully registered with the SEC, reporting quarterly, priced daily. It’s the equivalent oversight of being public, but the shares aren’t publicly tradable. sec.gov/Archives/edgar…

This startup is trying to make Venture Capital less condescending. Time to rate their pitch 1 to 10. Let’s go.

@anandshroff @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Fair point. You’re welcome to look at the investments we’ve made to date in the app. Out or curiosity, what would you remove from the current pitch to squeeze in a discussion about track record? Or what topic is less important than track record?

@businessbarista @SweaterVentures @SweaterCEO Not clear to me why they can or should be trusted to make good investments. Maybe a quick mention of prior wins which makes them believable would help the close.

@0xBeckford @businessbarista @SweaterVentures In due time on both accounts.

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Awesome Are you looking to enter into the UK/European market anytime soon? Both from the user app or funding/investing perspective?

@Ryan_Perri @businessbarista @SweaterVentures This is one area where Sweater gets to write its own script. Think of the fund ops more like a mutual fund than a RegD venture fund. All fees are reflected net in the NAV, there are no capital calls, the fund is evergreen, and there is liquidity every six months.

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Right, how does the fund plan to offset drag? Capital calls? Performance fees? Again, I think this is a great solution and very intrigued. Hence the prospectus related questions.

@0xBeckford @businessbarista @SweaterVentures The Cashmere fund invests pre-seed through Series A with checks from $350K - $1M. Industry focus is what we call “Consumer touching”, or products that can be experienced or observed in every day life. Consumer products, consumer tech, health tech, and even B2B are all relevant.

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures I like the concept and read through your FAQs, are your funds industry agnostic? And what stage do you tend to invest in, from a founder perspective?

@OffWhite_Quant @businessbarista @SweaterVentures We’re working on a solution for that! It does take time to do it right though.

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Looks very promising, wish I could invest too. Not based out of US :/

@OffWhite_Quant @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Yeah there is a bit of a firewall there. If anything, the founders benefit from our massive community promoting and championing their products out in the real world. 🤓📣

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Makes sense, used to believe that since people have certain ownership in those startups, it would make them liable to many of these shareholders

@Ryan_Perri @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Liquidity was actually the SEC’s #1 priority when we worked with them to advance this. We also have other liquidity mechanisms that we will eventually release to increase that factor even more.

@businessbarista @SweaterVentures @SweaterCEO Great idea, but are non AI ready for the illiquidity? Maybe some people. The max 5%, twice a year redemption window will be a new reality for greener investors. Education and a good IR team helps mitigate for sure.

@Hiraaaad @businessbarista @SweaterVentures There is a fee table in the prospectus. You can access on the docs on this sub-page. Scroll about half way down. Sweater reflects similar fees to the VC industry standard of “2 and 20”, with a flat 2.5% management fee. sweaterventures.com/cashmerefund

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures There are no mention of any fees for the Sweater Cashmere fund on your website. Where can I find this info?

Got a nice feature by Morning Brew’s Alex Lieberman (@businessbarista)! Not a bad pitch for just 60 seconds. 😎😏 Proud of my team at @SweaterVentures.

@OffWhite_Quant @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Great questions! Glad you like the approach. It’s new in the venture world and it takes a good deep dive to wrap your head around the nuances that make it possible.

@businessbarista @SweaterVentures @SweaterCEO ☝️Opinions solely based on pitch, really like the idea :)

@OffWhite_Quant @businessbarista @SweaterVentures This is correct, and it’s one of the larger moats around us. This is not a simple or cheap machine to run. Scale is important! We’re aiming for $1B in AUM in the next 5-7 years.

@businessbarista @SweaterVentures @SweaterCEO 4. Justifying Initial Costs: Setting up a good VC fund as well as running a startup is not a cheap task, you need to potentially have a large AUM to even breakeven. Huge cash burn to begin with

@OffWhite_Quant @businessbarista @SweaterVentures 3- The SEC has a protection against bank runs built into the fund. We only open 5% of the value of the fund for redemptions every six months. Track records have to be built, it’s true! We’ve already made 26 incredible investments. Check them out in the app.

@businessbarista @SweaterVentures @SweaterCEO 3. Managing Liquidity: Defensibility mechanism to counter any potential bankrun? With a very small historical record of performance with Sweater, pretty tough to have conviction in their choice of "high growth startups"

@OffWhite_Quant @businessbarista @SweaterVentures 2- Taking an investment from Sweater is no different than taking money from Fidelity, Charles Schwab, or other money managers. Happens all the time. The portfolio companies don’t carry the risk, the fund does. This exists in every retail offering.

@businessbarista @SweaterVentures @SweaterCEO 2. Why would a startup raise capital from Sweater and get exposed to more potential lawsuits, being answerable to more people as compared to traditional VCs with limited LPs?

@OffWhite_Quant @businessbarista @SweaterVentures 1- Not sure I understand the conflict of interest concern. Feel free to elaborate. To your point, it is “easier” to raise from 99 LPs, but that’s not why we’re doing it. Our mission is to legalize access.

@businessbarista @SweaterVentures @SweaterCEO Few concerns: 1. Conflict of Interest: VCs have family offices, institutional funds etc. as their LPs because it's easier to raise $100M from 10 sources than launching an app and targeting a much broader client base

@0xBeckford @businessbarista @SweaterVentures The growth of any given investment in the fund is reflected in the NAV price as a weighted average against the rest of the portfolio. That happens as the asset grows in value, not just at exit.

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures So let’s say your professional managed fund picks a fantastic unicorn and you invest with preferred options on the table, does some of that returns go back to the users, or any other method that releases funds before exits?

@0xBeckford @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Distributions are aggregated once a year and you can choose if you take the money or recycle it. The fund also has redemption windows every six months where you can request your position at the current NAV. No VC fund does that.

@SweaterCEO @businessbarista @SweaterVentures Interesting Let’s say I commit $500 to get access to this VC model of investing, what are the time frames in which I’d see returns, considering the lifecycle is much longer? And does one have the ability to withdraw invested amount or are the funds allocated then locked in?