The 81 Collection

We are a collection of entrepreneurs who brought our offline industries online. Now, we're backing the next generation building across the 81% of U.S. GDP underserved by early-stage capital. We built companies in un-sexy industries, and it was lonely when we started. Most venture capitalists said our industries were too capital intensive, low margin, or difficult to scale. We were outsiders. Now, we can look back at the $60 billion of value created and the employees whose financial trajectories we altered. The very qualities that made our businesses unattractive early are now our greatest strengths. Our entrenched assets serve as a barrier to entry, our higher-quality revenue inextricably ties to our customer’s daily needs, and our loyal employees who once made $20 per hour now make $100K per year. We chose the harder path, built the right kind of businesses, and improved America. A decade later, not much has changed in early-stage financing. We back early stage companies transforming boring trades, hard work, unpleasant spaces, and structural inequity. We know first-hand that exceptional humans can unknot these un-sexy industries. Now is the perfect time. California is out of water, a generation can’t afford a home, and our skilled tradespeople are in their fifties. Raw input, supply chain, and labor crises are silently cracking America’s infrastructure. Today, 19% of the U.S. GDP attracts more than 50% of early stage investing activity. 81% of the U.S. GDP is under-invested. Trillions of dollars of value are locked up in serious, unsolved problems across the 81%. Tackle a real, often very difficult problem. Use technology, cash flow, and a long-term mindset. America needs you to, and know that we exist to lighten your load.