2021 Annual Review and 2022 Goals

In late December 2020, I published a self-review recounting the prior year’s wins and lessons, while also sharing glimpses and goals for 2021. I concluded my review with a promise to write these year-end recaps annually.

Happy February, everyone. Better late than never!?

I have been looking forward to sharing what I can from what proved to be an exciting 2021, as well as my goals for the bright (and busy!) 2022. Like last year, my personal and professional guideposts continue to inform my work. Namely: teaching others, investing in others, creating opportunities for others, and constantly learning. Let’s dive in.?

2021 Investment Recap by the Numbers

It was quite a year at 75 & Sunny , both in VC investing and incubating startups in our lab. We evaluated more than 500 startup investments and had 350 actual pitch meetings. Of those, we invested in 44 new companies and made 12 follow-on investments in our existing portfolio.?

We invested $11M of 75 & Sunny capital: $4M in early-stage (pre-seed, seed, series A) and $7M (series B or later). In addition to the $11M, we also invested $15M in seven special purpose vehicles (or SPVs – meaning 75 & Sunny invested on behalf of other investors). So 75 & Sunny put to work $26M of total capital last year, making us one of the most active early stage investors in L.A.??

Geographically, my #LongLA pride was on full display in 2021, with over a third of new portfolio companies based locally here in LA (36%). But I know great “founder-idea fit” is not solely discovered in the Los Angeles sunshine. We also invested in companies in startup-centric cities like San Francisco (16%), New York (13%), and Seattle (10%), with startups in other cities (25%) rounding it out.

The number of investments by sector shows my proptech roots running deep and accounting for the lion’s share of new investments (30%), followed closely by consumer tech (23%), fintech (12%), future of work (11%), and creator economy (6%)

Many of these exciting investments are still under wraps, including an unannounced seed round in a web3 consumer service product as well as an unannounced seed round in an LA-based NFT startup.?

One announcement I can make is my investment in the LA-based proptech company Luxury Presence , a provider of marketing services for real estate agents, who had a strong Bessemer-led Series B , raising $25.9M.?

2021 Continued Growth at 75 & Sunny Labs

In addition to cultivating the newest crop of startups, 2021 also saw great progress with companies I co-founded while at 75 & Sunny. Mentoring and advising these awesome portfolio companies have continued to be my biggest win, and the part of my job(s) which I enjoy the most.?

Pacaso , the company I co-founded with Austin Allison that democratizes second home ownership, had a year that can only be described as explosive: record-breaking Series B and C rounds, the fastest unicorn company in history , and continued growth into more markets in the US and in Europe.

The Southern California-focused tech and startup digital publication, dot.LA , continues to grow while shining a spotlight on all the innovators and market disruptors this city has to offer. In late October, dotLA even hosted our first (and incredibly successful) in-person dot.LA Summit. Hundreds of founders, investors, and entrepreneurs descended on Santa Monica for two days of presentations, discussions, and networking – and we’re already looking forward to 2022 .?

Additionally, some of the other companies I co-founded experienced some great highs, specifically those contributing to the unbundling of social media. Queue , for example, has officially launched after a successful $2M seed round which 75 & Sunny led. Co-founded by Garrett Rothstein , the app solves the “what to watch next” problem in a fun, engaging, and social way – sharing recommendations and binge-worthy entertainment amongst friends.??

Recon Food , the food-focused social media app I co-founded with my daughter Sophia, continues to make the social experience delicious. And this fall we received tons of great press after a successful satellite media tour. Meanwhile, another unbundled social app, Path Travel , continues to innovate travel planning through social discovery.

There were also dozens of startup ideas 75 & Sunny labs worked on – and subsequently killed. But currently, we are incubating some (hopefully soon-to-be-announced) projects, including a travel startup idea, a real estate project, as well as several web3 projects, and a new consumer product.?

Keep an ear out in 2022 for more information.

Shining Supernovas

Shifting gears, 2021 also saw some excitement for my Supernova family of SPACs . SPACs have gotten a lot of flack lately but they are still an excellent way for companies to go public in certain situations.?

In September of 2021 my SPAC, Supernova I (SPNV), successfully completed the merger with OfferPad – a leading real estate technology revolutionizing iBuying – taking the company public.?

More recently, another SPAC of mine, Supernova II (SNII), announced its deal to take the quantum computing company, Rigetti, public.

Meanwhile, Supernova III is still looking for the right merger partner to take public.

What’s New, 2022?

Two months into the new year and already so much to celebrate (and look forward to).?

On the investing front, 75 & Sunny aims to deploy $5M in 20 new investments – focusing on prop-tech, web3, future of work, creator economy, and consumer tech. We’ve already begun investing and have a handful of exciting “non-announcements” for new startups. While I can’t divulge too much, I can share that we are eager to announce our involvement with two companies in the emerging NFT market, as well as exciting follow-on investments on a few prop-tech companies in our portfolio. We also aim to double our SPVs – and invest $30M on behalf of other investors.?

This year, and accounting for the slower pace listed above, a goal of mine is to focus more of our time and capital on incubating more of 75 & Sunny’s own projects and existing companies, like Pacaso and dot.LA.?

Outside VC investing – I have been focusing my philanthropic efforts on helping to combat the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, and will soon be announcing a new initiative I’m organizing.?

Also, I’m very excited to be heading back to Harvard this semester to teach a class on startups and entrepreneurship. In 2019, I was honored to teach a course at Harvard Business School called “Managing Tech Ventures”, and I am now eager to teach Harvard college students the course “Startups: From Ideation to Exit” this spring at my alma mater.?

Overall – 2021 was a pretty great year with a lot of growth, a lot of learning, and a solid self-evaluation to show for it. I’m excited to see what else 2022 has in store and (putting it in writing now) I’ll aim to get the next end-of-year review a bit closer to the end of the year.