Esalen Ventures

We focus on pre-seed and seed stage investing. Our portfolio construction strategy has three tactical elements: Limited Partnerships in PE Funds. Fund criteria: $10-$50M AUM, Emerging Managers, Kaufman & Oper8r Alumni, track record of previous investing or operating successes, Side-Car or SPV (special purpose vehicles) and Syndicates in parallel with the best performing portco's from our LP relationships. Directly in start-ups, on the cap table selected after rigorous due diligence, vetting and working side by side. A benefit of our world class network, official advisor and mentor roles in top tier accelerators, LP Portals with hundreds of vetted and scored deals that don't meet the funds thesis but fit ours. Our model leverages a classic private equity fund power law and due diligence process to discover and determine outlier founder(s) and teams with the five attributes proven essential to a successful material return on investment: TIMING 1) PEOPLE-Founder/Team/Execution, 2) Product (Unique/Innovative/Disruptive) 3) Attracting Talent 4) Business Model and 5) Raising Capital