Why I decided to dump tech journalism and become a venture partner in the 7BC fund

I am a writer. I have always been a writer and will remain one until I die. My blood is not red, it is Mont Blanc blue and my heart beats that ink around my body. 

I love, and will always love, newsprint and the unbelievable joy I have every day turning the pages of a physical newspaper. That’s why I was a freelance journalist.

Like everybody else I wanted to write about sport or for The Face magazine, but I fell into writing about technology to hear about the future from awesome people and, in some way, relay that to my now-teenage son. 

But after a decade, it’s time for a change and that’s why I’m going in a new direction, having looked for a new act for the past couple of years.

This will be one where I will accelerate my public writing, but from the perspective as an operational investor rather than a journalist without financial skin in the game of every prediction and observation I make. 

Five years ago, I also embarked on a speaking career. That involved interviewing big names on stage and speaking at more than 200 global events from Moscow to Lagos to Johannesburg to Houston to Bengaluru to Hanoi. Emcee, keynote, panellist, moderator… I really have done it all.

These have included Ghostface Killah from Wu-Tang Clan, Brian Solis, John MacAfee, Steve Wozniak (twice - in Vienna and Beirut), Gary Vaynerchuk and culminated with a very charming Kim Kardashian at the end of 2019. 

I love this type of work and will continue to do it, but with a new perspective of taking back-to-back meetings with startups and investors for a completely different reason than just writing about them. 

So, what is this new venture? Well, there had been several offers to work in PR over the years, but I had done that before and was heartily sick of receiving press releases, let alone sending them, so it had to be something new… and difficult.

Then it came to me, slowly. At the end of 2018. I had written about a London-based company called Qriously, a mobile data company that had predicted correctly Trump, Brexit, French/Dutch elections and seemed a perfect fit for a social analytics company in Brighton called Brandwatch.

I pled with Brandwatch CEO Giles Palmer to buy the company and then, without really knowing it, became the faciliator for the entire merger/acqusition. From opinion to hunch to introduction to meetings to the difficult bits and the patience, I arranged the whole thing.

When the final acquisition was featured in TechCrunch, it was one of the most gratifying things I’d ever done, nearly as good as being accepted as a writer for The Economist. If I could do this once, I could certainly do it again.

Here, I thank Giles at Brandwatch for the following kind words:

“Monty has watched us build for the past decade and has always openly shared connections and possiblities for our growth. When he, almost hysterically, told me that ‘we had to buy the company’, we had to take a second look and he was right. 

“He has the creativity to see connections where they don’t exist and a nose for when people are likely to click. It’s a powerful combo.”

There is much in common between looking at horrendous press releases and commensurate startups pitches and their decks. It is easy to dispel 95% of them because of a manifold of reasons. Lack of respect for the reader and over-ego being two of the main ones.

Experience, however, means that 5% of them will be interesting and there really is a correlation there between tech journalism and investing. 

Once the idea had set in, I wanted to be a venture partner with a fund that was more valour than vulture and 7BC Ventures is that company. Here, I defer to the fund’s co-founder, Andrew Romans with more kind words:

“On the treasure map of PR, media, tech, and creativity we place an X on Monty Munford. Part of the success of a startup with or without VC funding is their ability to generate positive PR for the company and be noticed by multiple relevant audiences, but also tell a story, do something novel, and innovate. 

“Top-notch journalists such as Monty take the time every day to meet with and cover every truly innovative startup, understand them, support them, and help them grow.

“This results in a unique understanding of specific ecosystems and categories of startups and corporate players, not to mention relationships with all of these individuals and the key news outlets. But it also results in understanding markets, trends, and whether they are aligned with the vision of a business."

I have also known the other co-founder Hazem Danny Al Nakib for some years and while our talks were often about business, they were also and more frequently about the works of all types of philosophy. My kind of conversations and they led to my appointment with the fund.

Hazem has been walking the pavements in Europe for many years and runs Europe. I am the second European partner after the earlier appointment of Tony Pearce, another person I respect greatly.

My job is to utilise my network to find, assess and select the world’s best startups in the fastest possible time to scale them toward greatness, as well as help the fund raise the money it needs to do so.

For those who don’t yet know, 7BC Venture Capital is a venture capital fund exclusively focused on investing in AI, FinTech, blockchain and tech startups to use capital, network and technology to solve the urgent problems of the world through new business models and tech innovations. 

We see an opportunity to work with startups, which are automating and digitising workflows of business, finance, government, healthcare and education where the digital economy and infrastructure is evolved and the importance of data vital.

Well, that’s the skinny and this is my future. My blood may flow in Mont Blanc blue, but I hope that 2020 brings in deal flow as well. 

We’re deep into that $200 million and we plan a final close of the fund by the end of Q3 2020. Following our first close, the fund has already begun with the completion of our first investments. 

We are actively seeking new investment opportunities now as well as compelting the fund. Either way, we may just help to solve some of the urgent problems of our world.

No harm in trying, is there?

Please slip into my DMs, especially if you are a family office, or representative of, who is looking for the best fund in the world.

No harm in asking, is there?