We were once told that 1 year in the early stage startup world is like 20 years in human years -- if that is true, then we are celebrating our 80th birthday. At 80, we decided it was time for a face lift.
Let’s back up…
Four years ago, David and I started Laconia to better support the next generation of entrepreneurs by taking the best practices of angel investing and the best practices of institutional venture capital to build the fund we always wanted to have as founders. We wanted to leverage our operational experience and our network to build an ecosystem that provides entrepreneurs with value and guidance beyond cash investment.
Transparency. Community. Collaboration.
These were the core values that we built our vision on, and they continue to be the backbone of Laconia today.
From our open-door policy for mentor meetings to our first full-day venture symposium for 20+ family offices and our intensive, year-round paid internship program, education has been fundamental to increasing transparency across our sliver of the venture ecosystem.
Laconia is a family. Everyone, whether an entrepreneur, a Limited Partner, or a VC co-investor, plays an integral role in the success of our portfolio companies. As we build infrastructure around sales acceleration, operational execution, and capital strategy, we continue to proactively engage our whole community. Our north star, as always, is to support founders as they embark on the most difficult of journeys - entrepreneurship.
As our vision evolves, we realized it made sense to give our company a makeover that fully reflects our core DNA, starting with our logo:
We set out to not only change the top coat of paint but better communicate the foundational elements that embody Laconia - community, collaboration, connectedness, support and guidance.
Perhaps most significantly, we’ve revamped our website to further increase our accessibility through a pitch submission form, an open rolling intern application, and better organized resources.
Beyond the logo, website, and brand identity, we are launching a number of new initiatives, including a forum for founders to meet and discuss business challenges alongside fellow VCs, content series that further demystify venture and entrepreneurship, and curated community events.
When we started Laconia, it was just David and me in a room. As a full team of six, we can’t wait to see what the next chapter holds.
Thank you to Daniel Stankus for patiently understanding and capturing who we are, Adam Price & the Homer Logistics team for sharing your in-house genius with us, Bani Singh and Jake Quan for the heavy lifting on the website, Dessy Levinson for the thoughtful early support, Alex Sherman for calling our baby ugly and pushing us to prioritize this project and the team at ListenFirst for being the best officemates we could ask for since day one.