Philo Ventures

Several of us here at Philo love to mountain bike. We're inviting you Philo friends to join us next week for a fun morning of mountain biking up Traverse Mountain! We’ll meet at 9 am on Thursday, July 11th, at South Maple Hollow Trailhead in Draper, where we’ll enjoy breakfast followed by mountain biking on either Vertigo or Levitate. Register at https://lu.ma/04fbg2ix or reach out to Scott Evanson with any questions. Invite anyone you think would want to join us. Excited to see you all next week in the mountains!

Last week, those of us at Philo had the unique opportunity to head down to Southern Utah and raft the Colorado River in Moab. Luckily, three of our Philo members had served as river guides there before, and already knew every potentially dangerous rapid. Our Philo guys took great care of us, guiding us on exactly where and how to paddle to keep us safe. We compare our rafting experience to our role as a venture studio. At Philo, we focus on that important but underserved 0 to 1 space, with the goal to remove as much risk as possible from the startup process. In the business world, your raft would be the business idea. Before you EVER set foot in the water, you would make sure your raft is durable enough to handle the weight it carries, the speed and size of the river, and the impact upon the rocks. For a new business, we at Philo do everything possible so that a business idea meets what’s needed for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and weathers the validation process. Our process takes a business idea and litmus tests it against the market, making sure there are customers who'd be interested in the idea, and that the business will maintain its competitive advantage. As a studio, we have the capital resources to infuse a business with the finances needed to design, develop, scale, and market accordingly. Philo ensures that a business builds a raft large enough and durable enough to weather whatever unexpected rapids transpire. Once you’ve built your raft, it’s time to take it out to float. The business has made it past ideation and development and is ready to go to market. This part of the business process is incredibly fun and rewarding – but can also be daunting. Here’s the good news when building with a venture studio like Philo: we’ve already taken the raft out to float during the concept phase, so we already know with some certainty how it will handle the rapids. Just like rafting, when you launch a business, you know you’ll encounter unforeseen obstacles. Yet many businesses, shortly after launch, will run into an obstacle that tips them upside down and they’re unable to recover. The silver lining to building a business with a venture studio is that those rigorous testing and validation processes – combined with the wealth of in-house resources available to startups – actually remove many of the common pitfalls (i.e. rapids) that a traditional startup will encounter. We not only back a company with the funding necessary to go to market and continue to innovate, we also provide a business with a wealth of additional resources to launch, scale, and grow appropriately. When a startup within a venture studio does encounter a rapid, the company has access to the resources necessary to fix the issue. If you have a business idea you think is gold, but don’t want to absorb all of the risk of the startup yourself, reach out to us. We’d love to help move your business from idea to reality – safely and successfully.

One final call for any Philo friends who want to join us this week for a fun mountain biking event up Traverse Mountain! We’ll meet at 9 am on Thursday, July 11th, at South Maple Hollow Trailhead in Draper, where we’ll enjoy breakfast followed by mountain biking on either Vertigo or Levitate. Again, register at https://lu.ma/04fbg2ix or reach out to Scott Evanson with any questions. Invite anyone you think would want to join us. Excited to see you Thursday morning!

Thanks TechBuzz News for the great article on our investment of capital and resources in ADDAX Overland. https://lnkd.in/eik9ByW6

We at Philo are thrilled to invest $2.5M into ADDAX Overland, a provider of rugged, durable overland equipment that has been making waves in the outdoor industry. At Philo, we're all about backing companies that get people outside and exploring the incredible world around us. ADDAX Overland perfectly fits that bill, and we're excited to contribute to their trailblazing journey. The new strategic investment will enable ADDAX to further invest in innovation, manufacturing, and R&D–ensuring that production of the company’s premier overlanding equipment keeps up with the growing demand. New CEO Marshall Smith comes to ADDAX as a seasoned chief executive, having co-led two successful e-commerce companies to over 300% growth. The former president of Manly Bands and COO of Taft Shoes, Smith brings a wealth of operational and manufacturing experience to fuel growth and product expansion, such as bringing the company’s new Gladiator Overlanding Cap and Camper to market late this summer. Philo has been hitting the road with ADDAX, joining them at awesome industry events like Moab's Jeep Safari, Daytona's Jeep Beach Expo, and most recently, the Overland Expo Pacific Northwest. We're having a blast getting our hands dirty (and maybe a little dusty) alongside the ADDAX crew. In addition to the investment, Philo will also provide robust operational resources and expertise across strategy, sales, and operation and focus on growing our partnership with Jeep. If you are a friend of Philo and interested in giving the ADDAX trailer a try, let us know, and stay tuned for more Addax news!

Exciting Announcement: Suzanne Campbell has accepted the role of Content and Communication Lead at Philo Ventures! Suzanne brings nearly three decades of content and communications experience to Philo. She has developed communication strategies for a variety of organizations, ranging from agency, government, and tech, to consumer products. Suzanne began her career using communications and PR to ensure traffic flowed smoothly during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. She then spent several years at Ancestry, managing promotional campaigns that broke multiple site traffic records and led to nationwide press, including mentions on Good Morning America, the Today Show 4th Hour, the Martha Stewart Show, and several more. Suzanne also had the opportunity to spearhead communications strategies as Ancestry worked in partnership with CNBC to drive viewership to the hit show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” Suzanne received her Master of Business Administration (MBA) and undergraduate degree in Communications from Brigham Young University. Away from work, Suzanne enjoys running, cycling, and spending time with her husband and 4 kids. Please join us in welcoming Suzanne to the Philo Team. We look forward to working with Suzanne as she provides communications and content support to our portcos and Philo brand.

Great read from Maddy Bergen at Zephyr on how venture studios are leveling up the startup space. Unlike traditional firms, studios provide startups with hands-on support all the way from ideation to launch and beyond, providing a way to mitigate risk and accelerate the timeline to launch. Data cited in Maddy's article show that studio start-ups: ✔ Take 33% less time to be acquired ✔ Take 31% less time to IPO ✔ Average a 53% investment return ✔ Reach seed rounds twice as quickly https://lnkd.in/gZmF-Vv9 

Last night's Founder 100 honoree event was incredible thanks to Venture Capital Podcast. The energy of bringing founders, investors, and innovators together was electric. Shout out to the many Philo portco founders honored, including Aaron McReynolds, Blake Rouse, Dallin Bentley, Gentry Davies, Parker Gentry, and Jeff Handy. Several BYU Sandbox founders (run by Philo Venture Partner Scott Evanson) received mentions as well, including Brice Douglas, Daniel J., Ethan Webb, and Sandbox creator Chris Crittenden. Other friends of Philo honored at last night’s event include Gilbert Lee, Jon Richards, Richie S., and Ryan Westwood. Jon Bradshaw and Peter Harris thanks for putting on this event. Looking forward to the next one! (Great write-up by TechBuzz News) https://lnkd.in/eDE2yiac

Another great story for Alysio!

Awesome buzz for Alysio! Can't wait to help build out their next chapter. https://lnkd.in/e4zX_Szb