Supporting ex-Google founders by launching Xoogler Ventures

After 8.5 memorable years at Google in New York and their headquarters in California, I set sail in April 2015 to launch a startup focused on creating a next-gen marketplace for the on-demand economy, helping workers maximize their earnings and helping businesses find the talent they needed to deliver goods and services. Even though I had landed my dream job at?Google, I had aspired to build and launch a startup of my own in Silicon Valley ever since I was 19 and the timing was right to pursue this exciting opportunity.

I really enjoyed working with Suman Prasad (my final boss at Google), Ryan Petro, Ryan Smrekar and Sharif El-Badawi on Project Sand Hill (pictured above). Some startups that I got to work with during 2014 included Coinbase, MyFitnessPal, Lyft, HotelTonight, Wattpad, Nextdoor and Duolingo along with Venture Capital firms like Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital and Union Square Ventures. In addition, being able to work cross functionally at Google with folks like Shabih Rizvi (Google Play), Ken Schutt (Google Cloud) and Debbie Lai (Google Product Partnerships) was incredibly fulfilling. However, since I had been aspiring to work on a startup, the timing was right to leave Google during April 2015.

I will always be thankful to Satya Patel and Hunter Walk, both Xooglers and General Partners of Homebrew for giving me space in their office at SoMa in San Francisco during April 2015 which provided me with a soft landing pad after Google. The welcome note (see above) was very thoughtful and made the transition outside Google much easier. They helped inspire me to grow the ex-Google community Xoogler.co which now has over 10,000 members from all over the world.

While the road to profitability?was longer and more complex than anticipated for my initial startup, launching Xoogler.co to help ex-Google founders played to my interest, strengths and I got immense joy connecting founders, investors and helping folks inside and outside Google. The community organized many events for ex-Googlers and during our first Xoogler Demo Day held at Google's headquarters, Ethan Beard, Kushagra Shrivastava and I discussed launching an investment syndicate to invest in ex-Google led startups. 5 years later, that investment syndicate has over 2,200 investors and has made 40 investments in the US, Europe, India and Australia.

While Ethan, Kushagra and I enjoyed working on the syndicate together the timing didn't work out for the 3 of us to raise a fund together and in 2020, I was fortunate to have a discussion with long time friends who I had worked with and are Xooglers. Sandeep Jain (Google 2006-11) and Howard Tung (Google 2010-21) and I decided to launch Xoogler Ventures together during November 2020.

Howard and I worked on the same Google Channel Partnerships team in 2012 and I remember meeting him initially at one of Google's micro kitchens, I would go to him whenever I needed to run new ideas or challenges by someone. I knew many startups would benefit from his strategic thinking, domain and operational expertise, finance and go-to-market best practices.

Sandeep and I played on the same Google basketball team when I started at Google's New York office in 2006. We would go around different New York City high school gyms to play against other companies. Our friendship was solidified when I had a partner that needed assistance with a Google Maps issue and Sandeep, who became a Google Staff Software Engineer helped me with the issue. When Sandeep left Google in 2012 to found a startup, I tried to be helpful with that process by organizing engineering-led Xoogler startups to meet investors and get feedback on their ideas. We ended up becoming good friends over the past decade through discussing startups and how we could be helpful to startup founders. Given Sandeep's background and experience I knew startups would find his expertise helpful. His HR Tech startup that he worked on after Google was acquired and his next startup, Workrise is now valued at $2.9B.

Since November 2020, Xoogler Ventures has invested in 26 startups, with Jennifer Dulski's (Google 2011-13) Rising Team being one of the first investments. Rising Team empower managers to build more engaged, connected, and successful teams. She announced her $3M raise in March.

The Xoogler Ventures team also includes Ankit Jain and Veronique Lafargue as Operating Partners and Catherine Lacavera, Kushagra Shrivastava and Qasar Younis as Advisors. Our Limited Partners include one of Google's first investors, Google VPs, ex-Google executives and startup founders.

If you used to work at Google, whether as a full-time, contractor or intern and are looking to raise funds for your startup, be sure to apply to raise funds from Xoogler Ventures! Our check size ranges between $50,000 and $200,000.

Here's what some of our founders have previously said about working with us.

Chris is extraordinarily helpful and well connected. His energy and generosity to the community has rapidly built Xooglers into one of the very best entrepreneur networks in the Valley (and globally). The quality of the companies involved is just exceptional, far above what I've seen anywhere else. It's a highly engaged community, no simple thing to achieve in such a short amount of time. - Mark Cummins, CEO/Co-Founder of Pointy who sold his startup to Google.

Xoogler: A community of investors and technologists who have been by Kapwing’s side since day one. Chris Fong counseled me when I was considering leaving my job to jump into Startup Land and has continued to advise Kapwing as we’ve grown. - Julia Enthoven, CEO/Co-Founder of Kapwing

Xoogler Ventures is looking forward to helping many other ex-Google founders tap into the 10,000+ Xoogler.co community to help them with their startups. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you to all our Limited Partners, supporters and startup founders who are supporting Xoogler Ventures. In turn, we plan on continuing to use the resources from the fund to foster the Xoogler ecosystem for the benefit of the ex-Google community. Review the most recent Xoogler newsletter here and Xooglers/Googlers, we hope to see you on the Xoogler slack once you sign up at Xoogler.co!