NFX Guild

NFX Guild
Private business incubator and startup accelerator
Industry Venture capital
Founded 2015, San Francisco, California
Founders Stan Chudnovvsky, James Currier, Gigi Levy-Weiss
Headquarters San Francisco
Number of locations
 3 offices (San Francisco and Palo Alto in California, Herzliya, Israel)
Areas served
 United States, Israel, Europe
Services Consulting, business programs, conferences
Website NFX.com

NFX Guild is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator[1] founded by partners and long-term tech investors James Currier,[2] Gigi Levy-Weiss,[3][4] and Stan Chudnovsky.[5] With financial backers including CRV, Shasta Ventures, and Greylock Partners,[6] the company selects portfolio companies through scouts as compared to an open application process.[6] NFX Guild focuses exclusively on businesses that rely on "network effects", and holds two annual programs for startups in California and Israel. With portfolio companies including Genome Compiler,[6] the firm has been covered in news outlets TechCrunch,[6] Globes,[5] and The Australian,[7] among others.[8]

History

Founder backgrounds (1990s-2010s)

NFX Guild was founded in 2015 by three long-term investors: Stan Chudnovsky, James Currier,[9] and Gigi Levy-Weiss.[4] Co-founder Stan Chudnovsky also works as VP Product for the Messenger division of Facebook.[10] Around 2000[11] Chudnovsky and Currier[10] began working together as business partners. Together they co-founded American startup company[10] and quiz network Tickle.com,[6] which was sold to Monster.com for around $100 million in 2004.[6][9] Prior to co-founding NFX, Gigi Levy-Weiss had served as the CEO of 888 Holdings in Israel.[10] He had had also become known for investing in technology startups and games companies such as Playtika, which was sold in 2011 to Caesars Entertainment Corporation for $150 million in a deal that according to VentureBeat, "helped trigger the social-casino game frenzy in Israel."[4] By 2015, Levy-Weiss had invested in around 70 other companies as well.[3] Levy-Weiss was named Israel’s most connected angel investor by Haaretz in 2015,[12] and ‘the investor with the golden touch’ by the Forbes magazine.[13]

OogaLabs (2007-2015)

In 2007 Currier and Chudovsky founded OogaLabs in California,[11] a business incubator and investment firm[6][8][14][15] described by the founders as their "advising/investing vehicle."[11] OogaLabs founded a number of digital network and ecommerce companies, for example the gaming company Wonderhill before it was acquired by Kabam.[16] Other companies associated with OogaLabs included IronPearl, which was a growth analytics company acquired by Paypal,[17] and the company Jiff,[6][8] a healthcare marketplace which raised money from investors like Venrock,[18] GE Capital and Rosemark.[19] Throughout this time both Currier and Chudnovsky retained positions at Paypal.[11][20] Levy-Weiss joined the pair in 2015.[3]

Founding NFX Guild (2015)

NFX co-founders James Currier and Gigi Levy-Weiss speaking at the 2015 NFX conference.

Early in the summer of 2015,[4][5] Currier and Chudovsky left OogaLabs and partnered with Levy-Weiss to form NFX Guild in Silicon Valley. The business accelerator and investment fund was created to exclusively cater to network and marketplace companies,[3] with financial backers such as CRV, Shasta Ventures, and Greylock Partners. As of September 18, 2015, NFX Guild was managing $10 million in investments.[6] As compared to opening an application process to choose portfolio companies, NFX Guild established a network of scouts[6] in California and Israel.[5] According to Currier, around thirteen scouts brought in around 100 organizations for NFX to choose from.[8] NFX Guild unveiled their first round of portfolio companies in September 2015.[5] Of the sixteen companies, Honor, LiquidSpace, and Honeybook had raised more than US $20 million each prior to joining the NFX program.[5] One third had previously raised series A funding[6] and one third had come from Israel.[5][6]

First round of programs (2015)

As part of NFX Guild's business model, each portfolio company was provided with consultation and underwent a three-week program in the Bay Area.[5] As of September 2015, sixteen companies had "graduated" from the initial program,[6] with eight choosing to change their company names as part of the process.[5] On September 17, 2015, NFX Guild held "an invite-only demo day for around 150 investors who were able to casually meet with NFX’s first batch of companies."[6]

On September 18, 2015, NFX scouts began the process of looking for the next batch of portfolio companies, with the process lasting until October 10, 2015.[6] For the "Winter 2016 program," NFX provided each participating startup with "$120,000 in equity based funding." The Israel-based "equity crowdfunding platform" iAngels also announced that it had partnered with NFX Guild, and would enable its members to invest $100,000 in each of the NFX portfolio companies.[2] On December 21, 2015, iAngels associate and NFX co-founder Gigi Levy-Weiss was named to the Geektime list of "the 100 most influential people in Israeli hi-tech in 2015 the 100 most influential people... in the world of Israeli startups in 2015."[3] On December 21, 2015, The Australian reported that Thorney Investments had backed NFX Guild.[7]

Overview and business model

Stan Chudnovsky speaking on stage during the 2015 NFX Guild Conference in California.

NFX Guild has from its inception operated an "invite-only guild" for digital marketplaces and digital networks,[10] and NFX is short for "network effects."[5] According to NFX management, "NFX only accepts businesses that seek to build network effects -- typically, these are networks and marketplaces."[10] According to Bloomberg, beyond the United States the firm "considers investments in Israel and Europe," and "seeks to invest in education, networks, and marketplaces."[1] When companies join NFX Guild, as of 2015 they are given $120,000 in funds from NFX Fund 1 LP, which is an "investment fund made up of capital from the three NFX partners as well as CRV, Greylock and Shasta."[10]

"...NFX purposefully works with companies in different stages, from three-person teams with no product or revenue, to 150 person teams with over $50M in revenue."
— NFX Guild website (2015)[10]

As of 2015, the company provides advisory services[1] and runs two annual programs in the Bay Area for ten to fifteen companies at a time.[10] With NFX asserting in 2015 that they developed thirty hours of original curriculum for the classes,[8] the programs last three months,[1] and includes companies dubbed "post Series A, post Seed, or pre Seed."[10] Angled towards network effect businesses, the programs are advertised as focusing on "marketplace balance and liquidity, network density, retention tactics, growth tactics and strategy, benchmarked KPI’s, rake pricing and other fees, effective access to the platform companies like Facebook, Apple and Google, rapid scaling, etc."[10] One of the programs takes place in the Palo Alto area of California, while Israeli companies are allowed to take part in a two-week pre-program in Herzliya, Israel.[10] The programs are ended with the "NFX Conference & Demo Day," which is open to the press and investors.[10]

Management and headquarters

NFX Guild is headquartered in Palo Alto, California but also maintains corporate offices in Herzliya, Israel.[1] The three founders, Stan Chudnovsky, James P. Currier, and Gigi Levy-Weiss, serve as well as the three partners of the firm. Shahed Khan was an official "entrepreneur in residence" at NFX Guild[1] in the summer of 2015.[9]

Portfolio companies

NFX co-founders Stan Chudnovsky & Gigi Levy Weiss.

The following sixteen companies were selected as "Summer 2015" of NFX Guild's portfolio companies:[6]

Funds

Year Fund title Significant investors Funding cap
2015 NFX Fund 1 LP[10] CRV, Shasta Ventures, Greylock Partners, NFX partners,[6] Thorney Investments[7] $10 million (as of Sept 18, 2015)[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Company Overview of NFX Guild". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  2. 1 2 Finberg, Ron (December 23, 2015). "iAngels Expands Investment Opportunities with NFX Guild Partnership". Finance Magnates. press release. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Avital, Yaneev (Dec 21, 2015). "The 100 most influential people in Israeli hi-tech in 2015". GeekTime.com. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Takahashi, Dean (October 20, 2015). "How one Israeli investor overcomes fears and continues to invest in games". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Goldenberg, Roy (August 18, 2015). "NFX Guild accelerator unveils summer 2015 class". Globes. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 "James Currier And Stan Chudnovsky Take The Wraps Off Their New Incubator, NFX Guild". TechCrunch. September 18, 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  7. 1 2 3 Kitney, Damon (December 21, 2015). "Thorney Investments backs NFX Guild in Silicon Valley". The Australian. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "James Currier and Stan Chudnovsky Requires the Wraps Off Their New Incubator, NFX Guild". The News Worthly. September 18, 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  9. 1 2 3 Loizos, Connie (November 8, 2015). "Twenty-Year-Old Shahed Khan Has More Connections Than You Do". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Team and About". nfx.com. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "About Ooga Labs". oogalabs.com/. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  12. ↑ Orpaz, Inbal (December 10, 2015). "With 67 Startups Behind Him, Israel's Gigi Levy-Weiss Can Spot a Winner". Haaretz. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  13. ↑ "גיגי לוי: כרטיס הכניסה של היזמים הישראלים לעמק הסיליקון". Forbes Israel. December 2, 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  14. ↑ "Ooga Labs Profile". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  15. ↑ Rao, Leena (May 27, 2013). "Ooga Labs Takes A Ground-Up Approach To Generate Growth And Network Effects For Startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  16. ↑ Kincaid, Jason (October 22, 2010). "Kabam Acquires WonderHill, Wants To Become The Blizzard Of Social Games". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  17. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai (April 11, 2013). "eBay's PayPal Acquires IronPearl To Fuel Growth Beyond 123M Users". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  18. ↑ Perez, Sarah (September 23, 2014). "Jiff Raises $18 Million Series B To Make Employers' Digital Health Programs More Personalized". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  19. ↑ Pai, Aditi (May 21, 2015). "Jiff raises $23M from Rosemark, GE Ventures for employee wellness platform". Mobi Health News. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  20. ↑ Byrne Reilly, Richard (March 25, 2014). "PayPal's secret weapon: A Silicon Valley success story you've never heard of". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
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