We angel invest in founders who are creating software that will improve the lives of millions of people.
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- Who We Are
- Why We Exist
- How We Help Founders
- Our Investment Thesis
- Our Investment Process
- Working Together
Ramen Ventures is an angel fund in Toronto, Canada. We're run by:
Adam was the first VP Product at Shopify where he helped create the Product strategies it used to grow to a $17B company today.
Josh was the first Head of Core Product Engineering at Shopify where he lead hundreds of engineers to build software that powers 700,000+ businesses and $10B/year in sales.
Ali founded Vanhawks, a Y Combinator-backed startup that made the world's first smart carbon fibre bike.
“Technology not only moves the human race forward, it’s the only thing that ever has. Without technology, we’re just monkeys playing in the dirt.” - Naval Ravikant
We're rational optimists who believe that innovation makes the world a better place.
Our mission at Ramen Ventures is twofold:
To help founders create world-class companies like Shopify.
Shopify is the fastest SaaS company to 1-billion dollars in revenue. Anywhere. Ever.
When it acquired our startup, Shopify had about 60 employees, powered 20,000 businesses, and was worth about $100 million. Today, Shopify has more than 3,000 employees, powers 700,000 businesses, and is valued around $17 billion.
As Shopify's first VP Product and Head of Engineering respectively, Adam and Josh learned how to scale a small Canadian startup to a World-leading company. We want to share the important lessons we learned with as many founders as possible.
To help founders make the world a better place.
Our life's work is to improve the world. We don't angel invest to make money; we do it to help great founders solve problems that will improve the lives of billions of people.
We help founders in a few unique ways.
We're friends first and investors second.
Our number one priority is that you're healthy and happy. We know how hard being a founder is - we're founders, too. That's why we're friends first and investors second. You can always be honest with us because, no matter what happens, we believe you come first.
We're independent.
Unlike VCs, we invest our own money. We'll always act in your long term best interest because our interests are 100% aligned with yours, and no one else.
We help you grow into World-class founders.
We know first-hand what it takes to be the founder a World-leading startup. We can coach you on becoming one, too.
We help you create a World-class company.
We've hired and lead hundreds of developers, product managers, and UX researchers. We can coach you on how to create a great culture that attracts and grows great people.
We help you create World-class products.
We've built products that have scaled to billions of dollars in revenue. We can coach you on how to create massively successful products.
The best founders schedule regular coaching sessions with us. They also call, text, and email us all the time asking us for help.
We'll watch your investor updates for opportunities to help, but it's up to you to make the most of us.
First, we look for a startup that's found a group of Users with a important, painful, and valuable Problem. We call this having an "Important Mission."
Next, we look for founders who are trying to create an ambitious solution that's first, best, or unique. We call this having a "Bold Vision."
Finally, we look for founders with the passion, guts, and ability to actually create it. We call this having the "Right Team".
More specifically, we aspire to invest in companies that meet the following criteria:
- Mission: You could positively impact the lives of millions.
- User Type: Consumer, SMB
- Problem Type: The future of Creation (audio, video, programming, etc), E-commerce, Education, Environmental Sustainability, Food, Financial Wellbeing, Health and Longevity, Transportation, Work.
- Solution Type: It can become a Platform or Marketplace.
- Enabling Technology: VR/AR, AI, Quantum Computing, or some other Frontier Technology.
- Stage: "Pre-Seed"
- Market: You've found early adopters in a market that could be big in the future.
- Problem: You've validated a problem that's important, painful, valuable, and underserved. (I.e you've found Problem/Market Fit)
- Solution: You've validated a vision that's first, best, or unique. (I.e you've found Problem/Solution Fit)
- Product: You're working with early adopters to create and validate your MVP. (I.e you haven't yet found Product/Market Fit)
- Founders: The founding team can design, develop, and distribute your product.
- Investment Size: $100,000 CAD at Pre-Seed, and we exercise pro rata in later rounds.
Our investment process is designed to find companies that fit our thesis while being extremely founder-friendly: fast, honest, and transparent.
Step 1 is to quickly screen your startup.
To understand, at a high level, what your startup does and whether it fits our investment thesis.
We will look at the material you send us and ask ourselves our Screening Questions.
- Your deck (if you have one)
- A link to your MVP
If your startup fits our thesis, continue to Meeting.
If not, we share our analysis and feedback.
Step 2 is to meet your founding team, preferably face-to-face.
To deeply understand your target users, problem, existing solutions, unique value prop, mission, vision, and team.
When we meet, we'll ask you our Meeting Questions.
- To meet you :)
If we're excited, start our Learning.
If not, we share our feedback.
We've learned from you and now it's time for us to learn from others, too. We'll talk users in your target market to learn about them and their problems. We'll also talk to people who know you about the traits we look for in founders.
To develop a first-hand knowledge of your team, target market, and the problem you're solving.
We'll reach out to your users and people you know and ask them our Learning Questions.
- Three (3) most recent monthly update emails
- Intros to 2-3 early users
- Evidence of a real user problem, like:
- User interview transcripts
- Retention metrics
- LOIs
If users tell us that this problem is important, start Analysis.
If not, we share our learnings and feedback.
Step 4 is where we decide whether your startup really fits our investment thesis.
To decide whether we should pursue an investment in your startup.
First we fill our our Investment Memo. It's full of questions we ask ourselves to understand if a startup fits our thesis.
We then turn our memo to an Investment Scorecard. Our scorecard helps us make data-driven decisions based on what we think are the most important elements of a startup.
Nothing :)
If we want to invest, start Investment Diligence.
If not, we share our analysis.
Step 5 is our investment due diligence. It's designed to be lightweight but rigorous enough to uncover any red flags.
To ensure that the company and funding are structured for success.
During this stage of the process we ask ourselves our Diligence Questions.
Access to a Data Room that includes your:
- Corporate Documents
- Shareholder Agreement
- Director Resolutions
- Employee Stock Options Plan
- Cap Table (on a fully diluted basis including all option, note, and warrant holders)
- Founder Documents
- Founder Employment Agreements
- Founder Vesting Agreements
- Past and Current Financing Documents
- Subscription/Share Purchase Agreements
- SAFEs, Kisses, and Convertible Notes
- Right of First Refusal and Co-Sale Agreements
- Side Letters
- Material Contracts
- Major Supplier Agreements
- Major Customer Agreements
- Major Partnership Agreements
If there are no red flags, we invest and start helping.
If we can't, we tell you why.
To decide whether or not to make additional investments in a portfolio company.
We'll go through your updates, and through any new material you and us and we'll ask ourselves our Follow-On Questions.
Access to a Data Room that includes your:
- Past and Current Financing Documents
- Subscription/Share Purchase Agreements
- SAFEs, Kisses, and Convertible Notes
- Right of First Refusal and Co-Sale Agreements
- Side Letters
- Key Metrics
- Your one metric that matters
If yes, we send you more money.
If no, we continue helping as we always have.
Our mission is to help you be successful, and to do that, we only ask you for two things:
We ask founders to spend some time Getting Started Together with us after we invest.
We ask you to stay in touch by:
- Providing us with concise and regular monthly updates.
- Keeping an open and honest communication channel open. Some things shouldn't wait until a monthly update, so reach out whenever you want to talk.
Please don't only share good news; we'll be by your side on the best days and on the worst days.