Rick Heitzmann
1.7K posts
@rick
Venture capitalist - Founder and Managing Director at @FirstMarkcap, Entrepreneur, avid Philly sports fan
1/ We're proud to announce our newest funds, FirstMark VI and OF IV, with $1B+ in commitments
🚀 🚀 🚀 IT'S OFFICIALLY HERE: My new book "TECH MONEY: A Guide to the New Game of Technology Investing" is hitting book stores today! 🚀 🚀 🚀 After 2.5 years of researching, analyzing, and deep interviews, I’ve distilled everything into a playbook every investor and manager needs. 100 charts. 100 chapters. 100 lessons. I wrote this book for everybody who wants to succeed in the innovation economy by mastering the cycles of technology. A deep felt THANK YOU to everyone who made this book possible: - To all the brilliant endorsers who took the time to review the manuscript and lend their names. I have admired many of you for a long time, so seeing that you liked the book means the world: @DavidGFool, @AswathDamodaran, @rick, Mike Rubin, Rupert Sausgruber, and @jeff_desjardins. - To all the incredible individuals who sat down with me to share the stories, insights, and expertise that took a lifetime to build. The voices of these top-notch investors, technologists, and true tech pioneers breathe life into a book deeply rooted in data and empirical research. There is no way I can list all of them, but some of the people I enjoyed talking to most include @Scaramucci, @TimDraper, @timoreilly, @chriski, @alextapscott, Scott Hartley, @Alex_Lazarow, @cjwake, @Scobleizer, @ballmatthew, @elizabethyun, @dunkhippo33, Jackie Fenn, @EconWithNick, @TheRudinGroup, Alfred Taudes, @ChrisSerendip, @edyson, @JuergenKob, @owocki, Jay Ritter, Stephen Foerster, @ronitA380, @timevalueofbtc, @natbrunell, @behaviorgap, @SamofAmerica, and @ScottDAnthony! - To my phenomenal agent Donya Dickerson, who has championed this book from day one, helped shape the vision, and guided this book from idea to reality. Nobody contributed to Tech Money as much as you did! - To all the astute people at my publisher who behind the scenes worked on putting together this beautiful book, especially Dan Ambrosio. - And of course to my family and friends, the unsung heroes of every project of such magnitude. What better time to get your copy than on launch day 👇 👇 👇 Amazon: amzn.to/3L47K4K B&N: lnkd.in/dtFuKZ3y Bookshop org lnkd.in/dSfTKmTS Walmart: lnkd.in/dfqhqwSU #TechMoney #TechnologyInvesting #TechInvesting #AI #Crypto #Investing #WealthBuilding #InnovationEconomy #BusinessBook #InvestingBook #BookLaunch
Imagine telling these guys they would become NBA Champions together in 10 years
We're thrilled to welcome @arjundundoo to FirstMark as our newest Investor focused on the consumer tech landscape! Prior to joining us, Arjun was at Bird (NYSE: BRDS), where he helped lead M&A and capital markets. FirstMark has a long history in consumer (Pinterest, Airbnb, DraftKings, Ro, Function Health, Discord, etc.), so we couldn't be more excited to have Arjun joining the team, as we double down on backing and supporting the next generation of iconic consumer businesses. Please join us in giving him a warm welcome 🚀
Episode 2 of Standing Table drops today after MRKT Call! @rick Heitzmann of @FirstMark joins Dan & @GuyAdami to talk AI, prediction markets, owning a piece of the @Yankees and so much more. Don't miss it today at 11:30 am ET... youtu.be/8dKP997dnW0 Presented by @apexfintech
I am going to piss off so many friends by saying this but if I could invest in one emerging manager sub $50M fund, it would be @Joshuabrowder. A few things you need to know about Josh: - He makes the founders he invests in live in his spare room at the Four Seasons until they raise their seed - He turned his $100K Thiel Fellowship grant into a $10M angel portfolio - He was one of the first cheques into Micro1, Yuzu and many more - When he found out his father had been taken by the Russians, he was playing poker… (legend!) I have never had founder references like the ones I got on Josh. I spoke to 12 founders. He averaged 9.2/10 across all 12. This is one of the best episodes we have done in a long time and my notes below: 1. Why I Believe Young Founders Make the Best Founders Young founders have no safety net and no option but to win. Corporate engineers often default to hiring big teams, while young founders stay focused on building the product. Their grit is much higher. Without that level of dedication, most people quit at the first real obstacle. 2. How I Test Founder Commitment Before Investing To filter out tourist founders, schedule a pitch meeting at 11:00 PM. Elite founders accept immediately. Mediocre ones push it out by weeks. During the interview, ask rapid-fire questions. If they claim a specific revenue number, have them pull up their live Stripe account on the spot. Look for tactical customer acquisition goals, not vague partnership promises. 3. Why I Make Founders Live With Me After Investing The best early investments come from deep day-one relationships. Living together creates a focused, one-person accelerator where founders get a three-week crash course and avoid years of mistakes. The rule is simple: co-founders share one room near the Four Seasons and cannot check out until they raise an institutional seed round. 4. Why Pre-Seed Companies Fail Startups usually fail for three reasons: they run out of money, they run out of hope, or the co-founders break up. Money problems usually come from weak pitching, which is why founders should drop the deck and show the product live. To maintain hope, ignore Silicon Valley vanity signals and focus on customer progress. To avoid team blowups, handle mechanics like vesting early. 5. What Founders Need to Know About Signing With a VC VCs will say almost anything to get you to sign on the spot. They reverse-engineer your desires and claim they know every customer you want to meet. Impressionable founders fall for it, but the promised intros often never happen. Never sign in the room. Take the night to think clearly. 6. My Biggest Lesson on Reserve Investing Holding back reserves for later rounds has a huge opportunity cost. The biggest value creation happens at pre-seed, so saving capital for a Series A follow-on can limit your upside. Deploying upfront into 20 to 30 pre-seed companies can produce far better long-term returns. Go all-in early. (links below)
