Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner of Uncork Capital, is a well-known figure in the VC ecosystem. Born and raised in France, he earned a Master of Science in Computer Science and a degree in Distributed Computing from Université Paris Descartes. During his studies, he joined Effix, a fintech startup later acquired by Reuters, which led to his move to the U.S. as a general partner at Reuters Venture Capital’s Silicon Valley office.
In 2004, Clavier founded Uncork Capital (originally SoftTech VC) to address the need for active support and capital for early-stage startup founders during their first 18 months. Using his “three asses rule”—a smart-ass team, a kick-ass product, and a big-ass market—he has successfully identified numerous promising ideas, leading him to invest in over 250 companies, including Fitbit, Eventbrite, and Postmates.
Below is the best advice he’s given over the decades.
Networking
“The thing which we don’t do to help is introduce someone we pass on to other investors because, by definition, if I introduce someone I just said no to another investor saying, “Hey, I just passed, but they want to meet you,” then, instantly, I kill the deal because in the mind of my buddy who I made the introduction to, I’m passing, and that’s a super negative signal.”
- “Jeff Clavier on Standing Out, Valuations, and Saying No” via Spearhead
Clavier says when trying to get a VC’s attention, “figuring out in the ecosystem, who is the right sort of referral point is super important. It is the difference between being at the top of the funnel and being sort of close to deletion.”
- “(Founder Stories) Jeff Clavier: On Getting Your Product In Front Of A VC (And Keeping It There)” with host Chris Dixon for Techcrunch
Do you check backgrounds? So we’ll also go back to the person that introduced us, and that’s why the person in between is important, because we’ll ask about you. So they will potentially be the person that acts as your reference and strength and potential areas of improvement.
- “From The Vault Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC)” by Francisco Cruz via Startup Grind
Stand Out
“The coolness of things is not really a real thing. We actually like very unsexy verticals, and things which are under the radar, because that’s what gives us an opportunity to build something and give it some velocity before it becomes clear that it is successful.”
- Audience question: Is it important to be cool?“From The Vault Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC)” by Francisco Cruz via Startup Grind
“So to get to us, first and foremost, and this is true for any vc, you want to understand, based on the type of company that you’re building, the location of the company, the market that you’re in, which are the five or ten most likely investors that you should be reaching out to.”
- Cutting Through the Clutter for VC Attention. “20 VC 069 Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups” by Deciphr
Funding Process
“We’ve always sort of looked at an average of 18 months Runway as what it takes for a company to take the seed round, hire a few engineers, get the product to market, start building traction, do a few revisions of the product, and then hit some kind of a growth path that will sort of get it to clear series A hurdles.
- Seed Round Strategy and Runway Considerations. “20 VC 069 Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups” by Deciphr
“Part of it is understanding the market dynamic. You know that some firms like to meet startups very early on and create relationships over a year, for example, like our friends at Emergence Capital. They love to meet companies way ahead of any fundraising, so roughly a year before we know we’ll have to fundraise, we’ll either introduce our companies to them or they’ll ping us, because they’re pretty good at that. Then, a year later, we’ll [reach out to say], “They’re thinking of doing a round, we’d love to get your feedback,” wink, wink.”
- Securing Series A Funding. “Takeaways From The Seed Series Interviews Of 2019: Part 1 of 2” by Gené Teare via Crunchbase
Find the Right Team
“It’s a mix of vision, it’s tenacity, it’s empathy. […] Do we feel that they have the passion, the domain knowledge, this unfair advantage that will make them execute and realize the potential of the company in a different way than the rest of the market? […] We really respect people who have this belief that if there is a wall, they can walk through it.”
- Finding a team. “Jeff Clavier Breaks Down His “Three Asses” Rule for Investing” by Kira M. Newman via Tech.co
“If I believe that the team can actually pull it off, even in the face of low probability, I will go for it” […] You have to have pushback. We’ve had contentious decisions at Uncork, where one of us was intimately convinced that the company that he or she was pitching was a good one and the others were like, ‘Don’t like it, don’t agree, whatever.’ Ultimately, if one of us has an absolute conviction that we should do this deal, then we’ll probably do it, unless we have data points or intimate knowledge or experience that disproves it.”
- Trusting your team. “Jeff Clavier on Standing Out, Valuations, and Saying No” via Spearhead
About the Author: Tess Danielson is a journalist and writer focusing on the intersection of technology and society.
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