Dave McClure - AngelList

I invest in 125 startups @ $25-$250K a year

How I like to add value

Strengths: product & marketing, metrics. Experience: internet mktg + developer platforms, product mgmt. SW engineer late 80s+90s; then entrepreneur, marketer, investor. Ran developer mktg PayPal (pre-IPO). Investor 250+ co's: Mint.com, SlideShare, Twilio, Wildfire, Sendgrid. 75K+ Twitter followers.

Skills

Angel Investing, Bluster & Bullshit, Internet Marketing, Product Management, Startup Metrics, Venture Capital

What I'm looking for

Markets

Analytics, Big Data, Business Productivity, CRM, Cloud Computing, Consumer Internet, Crowdsourcing, Design, Developer Tools, Development Platforms, E-Commerce, Education, Email, Email Newsletters, Families, Fashion, Financial Services, Food and Beverages, Health Care, Health and Wellness, Information Technology, Infrastructure, Internet, Kids, Lead Generation, Local, Marketplaces, Mobile, Mobile Commerce, Music, Parenting, Payments, Platforms, Productivity Software, Publishing, Real Estate, Restaurants, SaaS, Sales and Marketing, Search, Small and Medium Businesses, Social Commerce, Social Media, Subscription Businesses, Video, Web Design, Weddings, Women, iPad, iPhone

Locations

Atlanta, Austin, Beijing, Boston, Boulder, Chicago, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hong Kong, Illinois, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, Mountain View, New York, New York City, Northern California, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Southern California, Texas, Tokyo, Toronto, Turkey, United Kingdom, Utah, Vancouver, Virginia, Washington, Washington, DC

What I've done

I'm the Founding Partner for 500 Startups, an internet seed fund and incubator program in Silicon Valley. I've invested in 250+ startups in 15+ countries, including Mint.com, SlideShare, Twilio, SendGrid, and Wildfire Interactive. I've been an engineer and written code. I've been an entrepreneur, founded a company, grew it & sold it (small exit). I've been a marketer; ran PayPal developer marketing, managed email campaigns, search marketing, wrote copy for both PayPal & Simply Hired. I've been a tech blogger for over 10 years, and i've written hundreds of posts. I've been an angel investor (personal) and venture capitalist (professional). I've run user groups & conferences in Silicon Valley for 20 years. I started the early-stage investment program for Founders Fund in 2008, and ran the Facebook fbFund incubator program in 2009. I created the "AARRR" / startup metrics for pirates concept & framework. I've given hundreds of talks on startups & tech entrepreneurship. I swear a lot.

Founder

500 Startups (Fund) , Aslan Computing

Investor

500 Startups (Fund) , ActivityHero , AllTrails , Alltuition , Appbistro , Appstack , Appstores , Artsicle , AwayFind , Bankons , BarkBox , Baydin , Bionic Panda Games , Bit.ly , Bitly , BizeeBee , blissmo , Bloodhound , BoostCTR , Brainient , BrandBoards , BrightNest , BugHerd , Bunndle , Cadee , Cake Health , CapLinked , CardFlick , CardMunch , Cashie Commerce , Centrally , Chalkable , Chill , Chirply , Chromatik , Cinemacraft , Coderbuddy , COLOURlovers , Commagere Ventures , Console.fm , Contactually , Credit Karma , Crocodoc , CrowdFlower , Culture Kitchen , Curebit , Curios.me , DailyWorth , drumbi , ecomom , EventVue , Everpix , ExCo / AQUSH , FanBridge , Farmeron , FastCustomer , FeeFighters , Fileboard , Flowtown , Fontacto , Formative Labs , Forrst , Free Gifts , From.Us , Geckoboard , Ginzametrics , Gizmo , GoSpotCheck , Graphicly , Groupiter , GroupSpaces , Habit Labs , Hapyrus , HiGear , HighScore House , Humanoid , Immersive Labs , Intercom , InternMatch , Kibin , LaunchBit , LaunchRock , Leaky , Lexity , Life360 , Linkdex , Loku , LOOKK , Love With Food , Lucidchart , Manpacks , Mashery , Massive Joe Studios , MeMeTales , MightyText , Mile High Organics , Mill River Labs , MindSnacks , Mint , Mint.com , MixRank , Mocavo , MogoTix , Monogram , Moonfruit , MoPix , Motion Math , NetPlenish , Nettle , Ninua , oneforty , OtherInbox , OVIA , PayByGroup , PicCollage , Picplum , Pixowl , PocketOffice , Postling , PostRocket , Proven , Rapportive , Recurly , Relevant , Relevvant , Rentlord , Rewardli , Richrelevance , Road Hero , Safe Shepherd , Saygent , Scaffold , SendGrid , Senzari , Shareaholic , simplehoney , Simply Hired , Sitejabber , Skipola , Slideshare , Snapette , SocialWire , Space Pencil , Spoondate , Sqoot , StartupDigest , Stickery , StyleSeat , Tailored , TeachStreet , Teamly , TeliportMe , Tello , TenderTree , TextualAds , The RealReal , Tie Society , Tinfoil Security , Tokyo Otaku Mode , Toshl Finance , Tout , Triptrotting , Twilio , Twitmusic , Udemy , Unbounce , Uscoop , UserVoice , Vayable , VidCaster , Visually , Vittana , Votizen , Vungle , WeddingLovely , Welcu , WePay , Wildfire Interactive , WillCall , Worldly Developments , Yogome , Zappli , Zerply , 我搭车 Wodache

Advisor

Astrid Francesca Walk , FounderDating , GazeHawk , Jambool , Jambool , KISSmetrics , Samasource , Switchcam , TextualAds , Triptrotting

Worked At

Mint

PayPal

Credentials

QUALIFIED

An accredited U.S. investor

REVIEWED

51 out of 52 recommended Dave

ACTIVE

149 confirmed investments in popular companies on AngelList

“Problem, NOT solution. Customer, NOT technology. UX, NOT code. Distribtn, NOT PR. Acq cost, NOT revenue projectns. Conversion, NOT engagmt.”

19 days ago

Khuram Hussain Ha, this is a permanent note on my desktop ever since you posted the tweet a while ago!

19 days ago

Employee

500 Startups (Fund)

Silicon Valley micro-VC fund & accelerator fou...
Investor

Slideshare
Investor

Twilio

Build apps that communicate
Employee

Mint

52 Reviews

17143 Followers

2906 Following

Reviews

51 out of 52 people recommended Dave.

Interested, decisive and a lot of fun. Hard to catch at times but really cares

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
One of the best you can ask for. Dave's network (500Startups) is INVALUABLE

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave the man is hard to get ahold of. In my experience, he's good for introductions, but not a whole lot else. That said, the 500 Startups email list is PURE GOLD. Absolutely one of my favorite and most utilized resources as an entrepreneur.

Also, FYI, when Dave says he'll invest, expect it to take 2-10 weeks for him to get the money to you. Yes, really. #500Promises

Bottom Line: If you're not part of the 500S network, you're missing out.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave makes fast decisions and gives no bullshit feedback on product, team, and market. He can be hard to get in touch with (text seems to work best for us) but once you get his attention he'll engage wherever you need him to.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave goes out of his way to help the people he invests in.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Don't be fooled by his colorful rants and common use of the F word. Dave is a very nice person. He's well connected, tells it as it is (which gets him in trouble sometimes), and most importantly, he makes his own decisions so he's often the first investor in a lot of startups.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
There is no one else like Dave. Sure, due to his constant hustling, he's not the easiest to get ahold of...but he's a real person and much easier to get ahold than too-cool-for-school-VCs that don't spend 1/10th of the time helping out their portfolio companies. Dave is growing an ecosystem, and the support network around 500 Startups is second to none. Dave is fantastic, and he's there when you need him, but more importantly, getting involved in the network will be a huge boon for any entrepreneur.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave saw the value of what we were doing before anybody. He's very generous with his time and has provided great advice -- even prior to signing a check. We're lucky to count him among CodeLesson's seed investors.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
He's awesome.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave loves entrepreneurs and has incredibly good instincts when it comes to deciding who to back. Because he is spread thin I have learned to make infrequent and specific asks, to which he has always replied quickly. The day to day value comes from the team he has in place and the 500 startups network of founders and mentors. If you want in, get at least 2-3 (more is better) people already in the network to commit even small amounts.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
500Startups is an amazing resource as a network. Dave isn't so bad either.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
This is the hardest working man in the angel business. Although he has no time, he always makes time for his investments. And he genuinely cares about his companies.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
hard working and large rolodex

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
I wish they could replicate him. I wish they could make him President. nuff' said.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
One of the most well connected guys I've ever met. He has helped us tremendously.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave is a great investor for any startup! He is fast to decide on investments and easy to work with thought the funding process.

— Co-investor in company Dave invested in
Dave is awesome! Great investor -- makes fast decisions, straight-shooter about his thoughts on your company, and always makes the time even though he's so busy. Has made so many intros for me and has given me great advice. Also, he is the most honest person in this business -- very upfront about his motivations, biases, and potential conflicts of interest.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
dave is a genuine person. hes smart and im honestly surprised more people dont stalk him for his advice.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave is incredible. I don't know how anyone can work 34 jobs and still manage to drink himself silly. Seriously though, he's hard-working and massively useful to each of his startups; he genuinely cares. A bit tough to get a hold of, but when you can, do it.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave is a startup guy's startup guy. Don't let his rockstar reputation and personality scare you away-- he's very real and "<expletive> awesome>. I couldn't wish his success on a better person.

— Founder of a company Dave took an intro to
He invested in us.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Tremendously responsive, has an unmatched network, understands technology.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
500 Mafia is an incredible network for anyone to be a part of.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
The value he adds is many magnitudes larger than the money he invests.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Generally awesome guy. Gives us the time of day and is super useful with advice and connections despite having 200+ investments.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave is super smart and has a wealth of experience and connections that can help you. People will invest in you just on the basis that he has.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
simply brilliant on all level. loyal, hard working and driven by results. @jason calacanis

— Co-investor in company Dave invested in
Dave's energy is a constant inspiration to me. The way he manages to find time advising our company and helping us grow is fascinating - and we wouldn't be where we are today without him and @500 crew.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave is SO awesome. What a great marketing guy - AND he works more hours than any startup founder I know - including me!

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
crazy helpful

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave is like a delayed job queue – might not be instant, be he always follows up when you need him.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave is awesome. Down to earth and very helpful!

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Super helpful and connected - you definitely want Dave on your side!

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Dave thinks outside the box, invests outside the box. Without him, many atypical startups (e.g. international, minority, single-founders) would've not given a fair shot and gotten funded. He works hard to help you every step of the way! #500strong

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Spend a day with Dave--no, 5 minutes with him--and you'll understand why he can supercharge early stage start-ups into a business. Don't think you'll find more ideas, connections or resources per minute than McClure. Takes his shit seriously and himself less so.

— Co-investor in company Dave invested in
Dave is the catalyst for entrepreneurs everywhere. He offers potent advice and the helping hand to execute. He really gets the vision that organic e-grocery has bountiful opportunity.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Busiest guy in the Valley but in a good way. Hustles like he asks his investments to and then backs you up when you need a connection, conference invite, a shout out or a kick in the butt. If you aren't shipping and iterating you aren't doing it right.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in
Relentlessly dedicated, high energy, hustling to help and support Entrepreneurs to be successful.

— Advisor of a company Dave invested in
Dave McClure has been an excellent resource to us in a number of ways - but specifically in terms of advocating for our company to other investors. His broad reach to other investors is among the best in the technology eco-system.

— Founder of a company Dave invested in

View all reviews »