Allied Venture Partners Investment Thesis

At Allied Venture Partners, we follow a strict 6-Factor Investment Thesis, honed by many years of investing in early-stage technology startups.

1) Software/Technology-focused

We invest in venture-scale startups enabled by software/technology due to its highly-scalable nature and low capital requirements, thus allowing for quicker experiments, faster validation and scale.

Relatively industry agnostic, we tend to avoid the following sectors: MedTech, HealthTech, BioTech and GovTech; with a geographic focus on North America (Canada & the US).

2) Great Team with Strong Domain Expertise

We invest in startups with strong founding teams, thus ensuring they possess the passion, desire, unwavering focus and determination to execute on their vision and see their product exist in the world.

Strong teams should boast the necessary technical knowledge, experience, and complementary skillsets to achieve initial scale (i.e. founder-market fit).

Additionally, founders should have a clear roadmap of the strategic positions they must fill following the capital raise to minimize talent gaps, while also having the self-awareness and humility to recognize if/when they must step aside should the business outgrow their abilities.

We strive to mitigate risk by investing in credible, resilient, highly-driven and knowledgeable founders.

3) Post-Revenue with Signs of Early Traction

We invest in startups which have built (at minimum) an MVP and have begun generating cash sales from outside customers (i.e. strangers, not friends or family).

Ideally, we will invest in a startup generating $5,000+ in monthly revenue; can show 3–6 months of strong revenue growth; with the ability to obtain feedback and reviews from early customers.

Such traction will provide strong initial signs of product-market fit (i.e. solving a legitimate pain point among a large-enough consumer segment/target market), thus minimizing risk for our angel investors.

Note: if your startup is pre-revenue, we still encourage you to complete the application form and get on our radar. Even though we do not invest at the pre-revenue stage, we know many VCs that do, and we are always happy to help make introductions.

4) Early-Stage (Seed–to–Series A)

We invest in startups which have yet to raise their Series A (i.e. Pre-Seed, Seed, Seed+, or actively raising Series A).

Doing so will ensure we capture enough ownership at a reasonable valuation, thus minimizing dilution from subsequent funding rounds and creating greater long-term value for stakeholders.

Furthermore, we will only invest in a startup where the founder has granted us pro-rata rights alongside our investment, allowing us to support the company long-term while maintaining our equity percentage in follow-on rounds.

5) Capital Efficient with a Path to Profitability

We invest in startups where the founders have a clear focus and appreciation for capital efficiency, with a minimum runway of at least 14-months following the capital raise.

The company should show early evidence of attractive CAC, whereby additional venture capital funding will simply optimize and scale the company’s growth-engine flywheel and subsequent competitive edge, thus improving CAC:LTV towards sustained profitability.

As angel investors, this focus on capital efficiency and positive unit economics will help ensure the long-term profitability and sustainability of the business, therefore increasing the company’s attractiveness for future funding from VC’s (or acquisition) at a significant markup.

6) Meaningful and Sustainable Differentiation

We invest in startups which have found a unique and meaningful way to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, thus creating a larger pie as opposed to a larger piece of the same pie (i.e. no “me too” products/services).

Although not always required, the ideal startup will possess some type of IP or technological moat which provides a competitive edge towards meaningful and sustainable differentiation.