For the past few years, longtime entrepreneurs Josh Felser and Dave Samuel have been investing in seed and early-stage startups under the name “Freestyle Capital”. Now that a few of the nearly 30 companies in their portfolio are starting to exit, they decided to make things more formal. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, they’re officially unveiling Freestyle Capital — and they’re doing so with a new $27 million fund.
Freestyle will operate out of San Francisco and will feature Felser and Samuel as the two founding partners. Additionally, they have entrepreneurs Joe Stump, Lane Becker, and David Bill on board as advisors. The plan is to use the new fund to continue their established investment trends, investing anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000 in young startups, typically.
The two hope to differentiate themselves in the VC field because of their entrepreneurial experience. The pair co-founded two companies that both had successful exits (Crackle and Spinner.com). Just as important as the money will be the advice and guidance that Felser and Samuel offer startups.
Of their 27 listed investments, three have already exited: About.me, BackType, and CoTweet. They’re also investors in Formspring, Get Satisfaction (which Becker co-founded), SimpleGeo (which Stump co-founded), TypeKit, Yobongo, and others.
Felser will be on stage as both a judge today and a panelist during a VC talk on Wednesday at Disrupt. Freestyle also has one new portfolio company launching at Disrupt in a couple days.
