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Happy 2nd Birthday 500 Startups

2012.07.01

500 Global Team

500 Global Team

Yes! 500 Startups turned 2 today! Woot, it’s our birthday.  It feels like we should be a lot older.  Here are some memories from some of the early 500 Startups Team members:

On Thurs 7/29 am, we realized we had enough money wired (min $5M) to do the initial closing.

– On Thurs afternoon, we initiated the SEC filing for the fund with a $30M target.

– On Thurs night (late), I started drafting the “Moneyball for Startups” fund thesis / blog post (but gave up @ 1am):  http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2010/07/moneyball-for-startups.html

– Early Fri 4-6am PST, in Europe, Robin Wauters (TechCrunch UK) discovered the SEC filing, *and* our 99 Designs brief:  http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/30/dave-mcclure-500-startups/

– By Friday 6am, I woke up, realized our SEC filing was found, and finished the Moneyball post by 8am – Within a few hours, my post, the TechCrunch post, and several others were trending on Techmeme:   http://www.techmeme.com/100730/p24#a100730p24

– By noon Friday, we did the initial closing, and David J. walked over some blank starter checks to me at Stanford.

– By 3pm Friday, I dropped by the Wildfire office in downtown Palo Alto and had made our 1st investment.

– By 5pm Friday at the 2010 TechCrunch/August Capital party, I had made our 3rd investment in Tello:  http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/31/photographic-evidence-of-stealth-startup-tello-raising-100k/

– On Sat afternoon, I dropped by 444 Castro management office, signed our lease, and wrote a check for $300K security deposit.

I remember I did not get any sleep.

– Dave McClure
Founding Partner

Dave was my client and he would call me to talk about his plans for the new fund. At the time, I didn’t realize the magnitude of what he was doing, but I could tell from his excitement about it that it would be BIG. One day, he called to talk about what he could name the fund. He was really leaning towards Sandworm Ventures (i.e. Dune) which he explained to me was a ‘geek thing’ after I told him I didn’t like it AT ALL. I just couldn’t imagine what the logo would look like, or how serious anyone would take it outside of the geek community. I was really happy when he went with 500 Startups, the extension of his 500 Hats branding. It just felt right. Happy bday 500 – you don’t look a day over 499 startups.

– Christen O’brien
Partner

It was two years ago today, on July 30, 2010 that 500 Startups, LP held the first closing of the first fund.  I remember driving over to Stanford that afternoon where Dave was giving a talk, so that I could get his signature on some documents and hand over paper checks for the first two investments and one for the security deposit on the office. It was a humble beginning for sure.

 David Jaques
Chief Financial Officer

While I was still at Google, I remember getting several calls from Dave. He haggled me to get someone into the Google I/O conference, but he also wanted to talk about this new fund he was raising and how Google and 500 could work together on helping the 500 portfolio with distribution. The last thing I would have thought was that I’d end up joining him on what has turned into a crazy, amazing adventure. I also remember how he badly wanted to call this place Fail Factory, and that first meeting at the Marriott Hotel in Burlingame with Enrique and Craig. I have never gotten so many parking tickets in my life than in those first couple months. This was before we had our office to work out of. How 2 years have flown by!

–       Christine Tsai
Partner

 

Happy birthday 500 Startups! Keep growing and stay #500strong!

1. AS OF 30 JUNE 2023. ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT (“AUM”) STATED HEREIN ARE ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST $100M AND ARE CALCULATED IN ACCORDANCE WITH SEC FORM ADV PART 1A INSTRUCTION 5.B. TO INCLUDE THE CURRENT MARKET VALUE (OR FAIR VALUE) OF ALL PRIVATE FUND ASSETS AND THE CONTRACTUAL AMOUNT OF ANY UNCALLED COMMITMENTS TO SUCH PRIVATE FUNDS, TOGETHER WITH THE CURRENT MARKET VALUE OF ALL OTHER SECURITIES PORTFOLIOS FOR WHICH 500 STARTUPS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, L.L.C. OR ITS AFFILIATES PROVIDES ONGOING DISCRETIONARY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES, WITH MARKET VALUE DETERMINED USING THE SAME METHOD USED TO REPORT ACCOUNT VALUES TO CLIENTS OR TO CALCULATE FEES FOR INVESTMENT ADVISORY SERVICES. ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT MAY INCREASE OR DECREASE SIGNIFICANTLY OVER TIME.

2. AS OF 30 JUNE 2023 AND INCLUDES PRIVATE, PUBLIC AND EXITED COMPANIES. FOR EXITED POSITIONS, VALUATION DATE IS DATE OF EXIT. THESE FIGURES ARE ESTIMATES, AGGREGATED ACROSS ALL PORTFOLIO COMPANIES HELD ACROSS ALL FUNDS ADVISED BY 500 STARTUPS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, LLC AND ITS AFFILIATES, AND ARE BASED ON INTERNAL DATA THAT HAS NOT BEEN EXTERNALLY VERIFIED AND RELIES ON PORTFOLIO INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY EXTERNAL SOURCES WHICH HAS NOT BEEN VERIFIED, MAY NOT BE ACCURATE OR UPDATED. THESE VALUATIONS ARE ESTIMATED IN ACCORDANCE WITH 500 GLOBAL’S VALUATION POLICY. SEE 500.CO/COMPANIES FOR A FULL LIST OF PORTFOLIO COMPANIES. PAST PERFORMANCE DOES NOT GUARANTEE FUTURE RETURNS. PORTFOLIO COMPANIES DISPLAYED ON THIS PAGE ARE NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTATIVE OF ALL INVESTMENTS IN VEHICLES MANAGED BY 500 STARTUPS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, L.L.C. (TOGETHER WITH ITS AFFILIATES, “500 GLOBAL”) AND THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THAT THE INVESTMENTS WILL BE PROFITABLE OR THAT OTHER INVESTMENTS MADE IN THE FUTURE WILL HAVE SIMILAR CHARACTERISTICS OR RESULTS. THIS LIST INCLUDES CURRENT AND FORMER 500 GLOBAL PORTFOLIO COMPANIES WHICH HAVE BEEN ACQUIRED AS WELL AS COMPANIES WHICH HAVE UNDERGONE AN INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING. THIS LIST IS UPDATED PERIODICALLY AND AS SUCH MAY NOT REFLECT RECENT 500 GLOBAL INVESTMENTS. PAST RESULTS OF 500 GLOBAL INVESTMENTS, POOLED INVESTMENT VEHICLES, OR INVESTMENT STRATEGIES ARE NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. NO CONTENT ON THIS PAGE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS AN OFFER TO SELL OR SOLICITATION OF INTEREST TO PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES, CONSTRUCTED AS FUND MARKETING MATERIALS BY PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS CONSIDERING AN INVESTMENT INTO ANY 500 GLOBAL FUND, OR USED AS THE BASIS FOR ANY INVESTMENT DECISIONS. ALL LOGOS, NAMES, AND TRADEMARKS OF THIRD PARTIES REFERENCED HEREIN ARE THE TRADEMARKS AND LOGOS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. ANY INCLUSION OF SUCH TRADEMARKS OR LOGOS DOES NOT IMPLY OR CONSTITUTE ANY APPROVAL, ENDORSEMENT OR SPONSORSHIP OF 500 GLOBAL BY SUCH OWNERS.

3. AS OF 30 JUNE 2023. INCLUDES LOCATION OF EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS AND CONSULTANTS.
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