Luck isn’t made, it’s engineered

When we started talking to Felicis, we weren’t raising money but I just really enjoyed our conversations. I felt like Felicis understood our business when I would share our view of the world—horizontal platform, multiple products, net dollar retention—and how we were thinking about building the company. Felicis leaned in and there was extreme alignment. We talked about how we could go faster and it was just very natural and it felt like a great process.

One of the most unique things about Felicis is the childlike fascination they have for different ways of seeing the world. This openness to challenge existing systems has made them such a tremendous investor, and its why I’m so excited to have them involved.

Thank you for providing this incredible and unique benefit. Coaching and personal development for leaders is easy to overlook in a world where budgets are highly constrained, but I think it is one of the most high-leverage ways to support companies. You guys are awesome, and I'm honoured to work with you.

We are building a generational company. We want to have investors who understand how to build companies that not only change our market, but define or create entire new markets on their own because they're making bets and they're innovating in a way that's never been done before. It wasn't really a hard choice when we realized that we could put Felicis on our cap table because they truly believe the opportunity of growth and the innovation cycle takes time and that you need to be there to support the company as it starts to invent a market.

The best investors believe in and support your company, and that’s exactly what the Felicis team has done through good times and challenging times too. They believe in us for the long run.

When you have a choice of investors, you need to think about the relationship you’re going to have with this person over the long term. There’s a mutual bank of trust that needs to be built up over time. It’s phenomenal to have the backing of a team like Felicis, they have our trust, and we know we have theirs.

Working with Felicis has been great. The team has been phenomenal and helped us do a lot of recruiting. They've given us a lot of advice on how to construct a great tea, and they have been a really good partner in helping us build into a big company.

‍

‍

After meeting Viviana, Tobi, Aydin, and Michelle from Felicis, I realized there is another [investor] group; those who understand “how” you’re building your company, not just “what” you’re building... The folks at Felicis clearly got this.

In terms of recruiting, the wisdom and the introductions Felicis made, it was like a full-court press. It wasn’t just one person, it was the entire firm.

From a founder's perspective, so much trust is involved when you work with an investor. You are really vulnerable to all kinds of things, so trust is the number one aspect to consider when evaluating a potential partner. I was super excited to work with Felicis for the third time. There's no substitute for 10 years of working together.

The Felicis team worked really hard to understand our business, and there's no commercial analog for what we do. The team was really quick to thoughtfully understand us, the company, the opportunity, and the industry. They flew across the country to have some barbecue and discuss defense problems, which said a lot to us. The resources that they've brought to the table are really specific to our business. We've found that we're really culturally well-aligned; Felicis wants to win and create a big impact in the world, which is exactly what we want to do at Vannevar.

‍

‍

Anytime we have an ask, the team at Felicis is incredibly efficient. They bring so much energy to the table, and that’s exactly what you want from a partner. The team has worked with us to build the kind of culture and go-to-market strategy that will allow us to build a generational company.

Felicis has been a game changer for Resourcely, including many firsts; first term sheet, first founding engineer, and first paying customer (and countless other customer introductions). As a result, they are my first call whenever I have a big problem or big win. I can't recommend them enough to founders looking for investors with the unique combination of 110% hustle, unrelenting support, and elevated strategic thinking.