We’re taking a deep breath this week, as we dive into a conversation with Tyler Tringas, General Partner and Founder of the Calm Company Fund. In this episode, Tyler shares with us two very important experiences: raising capital for the GP to prepare for scale; and going to institutional allocators to raise larger funds. Importantly, these experiences taught him critical lessons that any investor should pay attention to. Tyler also talks about the rebrand of Earnest Capital to Calm Fund, how Calm makes sure that the interests are aligned between funder and founder, the challenges Calm has overcome while scaling, and their steady, patient approach to growth.
Key Takeaways
[2:21] Rebranding Earnest Capital to the Calm Company Fund.
[3:08] Calm has invested in about 80 companies, but Tyler aims for thousands.
[3:45] The typical check size and use of funds.
[7:13] Tyler shares two examples where he wished he had the Calm fund in his own career.
[10:20] What’s more challenging - being an entrepreneur or a fund manager?
[13:30] Creating the shared earnings structure.
[14:06] How often do Calm’s portfolio companies go out and raise a subsequent round of capital?
[18:53] Building in public.
[21:09] Why Tyler still feels like an entrepreneur.
[22:02] Calm’s 80 companies and 200 mentors provide the opportunity for strong networking and connectivity.
[23:51] Tyler’s experience shifting into the institutional allocator market.
[24:46] Raising from large institutional allocators.
[25:08] Investing out of their fourth fund and keeping it small and fast on purpose.
[26:53] Shifting their approach away from the “interestingness”.
[32:33] How Tyler thought about the infrastructure he was building and how he approached it.
[33:17] Overcoming budget constraints.
[37:37] Raising capital for the GP, ad hiring the team, and building the technology.
[42:17] Making the tough choice to downsize and prioritizing patience over scaling and fund size.
[45:35] How they landed on the name Calm.
[46:12] Tyler’s predictions for the future.
[51:40] What has surprised Tyler the most is Calm’s growth, and how things are going better than expected.
Resources:
RBF Network
Keith’s Twitter
Chisos Capital
Backstage Capital
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