firstminute Capital, Successful Entrepreneurs Helping the Next Generation

This interview was held by Burak Buyukdemir and the article written by Jeremiah Uke, the contributor author at Startup Turkey.

This is part of a series of interviews with top venture funds in Europe by Startup Turkey. Sam Endacott is a Senior Investment Associate with firstminute capital, an early stage venture capital fund based in London. Prior to this, he worked in M&A at Goldman Sachs after graduating from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Sam sits on the board of Quanterium (a dark pool trading platform for digital assets) 

An Interview with Sam Endacott

firstminute capital is a $100m early stage venture capital fund based in London, founded by Brent Hoberman (Co-Founder, lastminute.com - $1.1bn exit to Sabre in 2005) and Spencer Crawley (DMC Partners, AppDirect, Goldman Sachs). Their investor based includes 30 unicorn founders, Atomico, Tencent and Henkel. They have invested in 32 companies to date across a variety of sectors including Blockchain, Fintech, Consumer, Media, Biotech, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity. Sam joined the team in January 2018 and focuses on Fintech, Enterprise, Cyber and Blockchain.

firstminute is a cousin to the wider Founders Forum Group, which consists of Founders Forum, Founders Factory, Founders Intelligence, Founders Keepers, Founders of the Future and accelerateHER.

The fund invests anywhere between £500k to £2m with an average ticket size of £1m. firstminute has several channels for sourcing deals - via its LPs, Founders Forum network, portfolio founders and its relationships with top tier pre-seed funds and angel investors across the UK, Europe, Israel and the US.

The typical investment process includes a first call or meeting with the founder, followed by further due diligence and meetings with the broader team, culminating in an Investment Committee which consists of the firm’s partnership and investment team. The key things firstminute look for in an investment are the quality of the founders and core team, domain expertise, market size and tech, product or business model differentiation. The typical process lasts approximately 6 weeks.

The fund has been investing for the last 18 months with 8 companies already raising follow-on financing at Series A and Series B.

Sam believes that the best way to approach funds is through warm introductions and referrals (often the best way is via fellow entrepreneurs). Key for the team is to really show their knowledge of the product, the market, the pain-point being solved and being crystal clear on why you are the right team to build the business.