Category Archives: AtlasVenture

Oct 2
Fred Destin

Cytokinesis at Atlas Venture: bio and tech take off

Atlas Venture announced at his latest annual meeting that the biotech and tech groups were going their own way.  Since I did spend ten years there, let me give you my view on it. Aligned, yet different The two groups …

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May 19
Fred Destin

Zoopla at seven – how focus and speed drive exceptional outcomes

 I first invested in Zoopla in July 2007.  At the time, a mere £500,000 to get the company going and back Simon Kain and Alex Chesterman in improving the real estate experience. Last week, almost exactly 7 years after this …

1 Comment
Feb 4
Fred Destin

Backing PillPack : a pharmacy you might actually love

Pharmacies are like banks.  When you have to go to one, it’s usually an unpleasant experience delivered in often indifferent fashion by overworked people.  TJ Parker and Elliott Cohen, the founders of Pillpack, together with the rest of the team, …

4 Comments
Jan 3
Fred Destin

Seed to Scale: towards a $30M round for Integral Ad Science

 I hate high capital intensity, yet here I am celebrating a $30 million (thirty) for Integral Ad Science led by the excellent August Capital with my beloved CEO telling Techcrunch “we did not have to raise”.   So what gives ? The wedge: …

2 Comments
Dec 10
Fred Destin

CAD Venture Chef : The Recipe for a $5M Series A with Lagoa

Since this is festive season I thought I would share with you the recipe of a successful series A fundraising and tell you the story of Lagoa: Start with a devilishly smart entrepreneur who’s able to code a multi-physics engine …

8 Comments
Oct 2
Fred Destin

High Risk + Founders First + Boston: The Atlas Venture way

I am re-publishing an interview with Tom Lytton-Dickie in which we discussed Atlas’ focus on people, our high risk strategy and the benefits of existing within a single location.  Excellent write-up, I did not touch it. Putting people first In response to …

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Jun 11
Fred Destin

Backing CustomMade, the marketplace for one-of-a-kind goods

 The first investment out of our new fund IX will bring me back to some well trodden stomping ground, and specifically the world of marketplaces, as Atlas Venture leads the new round of financing for CustomMade. CustomMade is a marketplace …

5 Comments
May 1
Fred Destin

Men on Mars : The Reinvention of Atlas Venture

 I joined Atlas Venture 9 years ago. At the time we had 5 offices, 22 partners, 7 board rooms, a team of over 60,  over two billion in assets managed. And boy, were we making life difficult for ourselves. Today: …

26 Comments
Feb 8
Fred Destin

Timbre App: how an odd investment process yields a promising partnership

 I had the funny / dubious distinction of being a headline item today as Techcrunch announced the funding of concert discovery app Timbre.  Timbre is a simple and beautiful app to help you discover great live music around you.   …

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Nov 1
Fred Destin

On historical returns and venture capital flavours

Story of of the last few years in Venture Fund Land : large institutional investors concentrate money with fewer managers and flagship brands AND / OR find emerging managers. Since VC offerings have generally been undifferentiated, LP’s had little choice …

11 Comments