Announcing MuckerLab Southeast: Now Accepting 2020 Applications

Annual cohorts. No three-month boot camps. No demo days. Just heads down company-building for one year — or however long it takes.

When Mucker’s founding partners Erik Rannala and William Hsu first launched MuckerLab and Mucker Capital in 2012, the idea was simple. They moved their families from San Francisco to Los Angeles and set out to prove that SaaS and marketplace businesses had a place in Southern California to launch and scale. Since then, MuckerLab companies have raised over $5B in capital, with over a 90% funding success rate, supported by an extensive mentor network of 275+ industry experts. (Read all about MuckerLab here.)

We have since broadened our scope of industries — spanning tech and consumer — along with our geographic footprint outside Silicon Valley. We provide more capital to our founders with our fourth fund totaling $90M, supporting them with initial checks at their earliest pre-seed, seed, and series A rounds, sometimes all the way through to series D.

2018: Mucker’s Launch in the Southeast

In 2018, we quietly launched operations in Nashville, extending our model from Southern California to the Southeastern U.S. We opened the doors to our Nashville office and have invested into select Southeast-based companies as both MuckerLab into pre-seed companies, and as Mucker Capital into seed and series A companies.

Now, we are excited to announce that we are officially accepting early applications for MuckerLab Southeast 2020. We are applying our proven model for supporting founders at the earliest stages of company building, with the convenience of Nashville’s central location within the Southeast, mid-Atlantic, and midwest.

Not in Nashville? No problem. We support remote companies from coast to coast, applying our bespoke program to meet the unique needs of our founders. We believe it is important to meet founders where they are and not the other way around.

Apply Now: MuckerLab Southeast 2020

Do you have an early-stage startup — either in stealth or in-market — and looking for the benefits of an institutional fund? Our first application period for early access to our MuckerLab Southeast program closes on Friday, December 27 at midnight (PST).

**Submit an application by 12/27 → MuckerLab Southeast 2020 (Select “Southeast 2020” as the program)**

Commonly asked questions:

• How does the MuckerLab program work? The MuckerLab program helps entrepreneurs take their products to market, find the right customer/user segments, implement the right business model, generate revenue and user growth, develop scalable/profitable distribution channels, augment their teams with complementary skills, and when appropriate, raise venture capital from investors who believe in their vision. MuckerLab helps entrepreneurs build great, category-leading companies.
• Why MuckerLab? We’re glad you asked. MuckerLab is not for every entrepreneur or company. Our portfolio companies are our customers, and as in any service business, customer satisfaction is key to long-term success. As a result, our selection criteria are not solely based on whether we believe the company can generate a significant financial return in the long run. We need to be convinced that we can add value significantly above and beyond our equity ownership in the company.
• How long is the MuckerLab program? MuckerLab does not have a set duration nor a set start date. We start when the founders are ready; we end when the company has found the initial formula for success. The average MuckerLab company works with us for roughly 12 months –- but the duration of the program can be as short as 3 months to as long as 24 months depending on the needs and progress of the company. Companies only “graduate” from MuckerLab when they have achieved mutually agreed upon business, customer, and financing milestones.
• What does MuckerLab receive in exchange for program participation and funding? MuckerLab typically invests between $21,000 to $150,000 in exchange for an 8% to 15% equity stake. Investment amount and equity stake depend on capital needs and state of the business.
• Is office space included? Yes! By participating in MuckerLab, your company automatically adds two physical office locations — Nashville, Tennessee and Santa Monica, California.
• I already have funding. Can I still apply? Yes. Our average MuckerLab portfolio company has typically raised at least $250K to $500K in funding before starting the program, some as much as $1.5MM. Since our value add is primarily operational and not merely financial, the more important question for entrepreneurs to answer is whether they believe MuckerLab can help accelerate the growth of their businesses, operating metrics, and fundraising — thus making the company significantly more valuable after the program.

About Us

Mucker Capital invests in seed and “pre-seed” stage companies building defensible and scalable, internet software and services businesses outside Silicon Valley.

We partner with exceptional entrepreneurs to provide their earliest institutional funding and work with them side-by-side to help launch and scale their new ventures. But, it is our conviction that we must provide more than just capital. As operators and entrepreneurs ourselves, we roll up our sleeves and work with entrepreneurs in all parts of their businesses that need additional resources –- product development, customer development, business development, operational infrastructure, recruiting and fundraising.

We don’t care where you live, where you went to school or who you know. We don’t live in Silicon Valley anymore and you don’t have to either to build a great company. If you have unique insight into a product or market that you’ve commercialized into a business, we’d like to hear about it and see if we can help.

Learn more about our Blue Collar VC here.