What is Early Stage Venture Investing & Why Does it Matter?
VC in 33 Seconds
What makes early-stage venture investing so powerful — and risky? In this short video, Michael Collins breaks down why investing in startups at their earliest stages, often before they have a product or customers, can lead to transformative impact and returns. Learn how high risk can bring high reward — for both investors and society.
VC in 33: What is Early Stage Venture Investing & Why Does it Matter?
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Michael Collins explains the unique potential of early-stage venture investing — where small teams and big ideas meet high risk and even higher reward. Discover how backing startups from day one can lead to meaningful impact and life-changing returns.
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Michael Collins
CEO, Alumni VenturesMike has been involved in almost every facet of venturing, from angel investing to venture capital, new business and product launches, and innovation consulting. He is the CEO of Alumni Ventures and launched AV’s first alumni fund, Green D Ventures, where he oversaw the portfolio as Managing Partner and is now Managing Partner Emeritus. Mike is a serial entrepreneur who has started multiple companies, including Kid Galaxy, Big Idea Group (partially owned by WPP), and RDM. He began his career at VC firm TA Associates. He holds an undergraduate degree in Engineering Science from Dartmouth and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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You can find the full transcript below:
Michael Collins:
Early stage venture investing is making an investment in the very early stages of a startup’s journey. It’s a smallteam. They might not have a product, they might not have a market, they might not have customers yet. It’s the highest risk, but the highest reward type of investing kind of there is in a capitalist system. This is where you really can have an opportunity to make life-changing investments, both helping these companies achieve success, providing huge benefits to society, and potentially really life-changing returns for you.
This communication is from Alumni Ventures, a for-profit venture capital company that is not affiliated with or endorsed by any school. It is not personalized advice, and AV only provides advice to its client funds. This communication is neither an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security. Such offers are made only pursuant to the formal offering documents for the fund(s) concerned, and describe significant risks and other material information that should be carefully considered before investing. For additional information, please see here. Example portfolio companies are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not necessarily indicative of any AV fund or the outcomes experienced by any investor. Example portfolio companies shown are not available to future investors, except potentially in the case of follow-on investments. Venture capital investing involves substantial risk, including risk of loss of all capital invested. This communication includes forward-looking statements, generally consisting of any statement pertaining to any issue other than historical fact, including without limitation predictions, financial projections, the anticipated results of the execution of any plan or strategy, the expectation or belief of the speaker, or other events or circumstances to exist in the future. Forward-looking statements are not representations of actual fact, depend on certain assumptions that may not be realized, and are not guaranteed to occur. Any forward-looking statements included in this communication speak only as of the date of the communication. AV and its affiliates disclaim any obligation to update, amend, or alter such forward-looking statements, whether due to subsequent events, new information, or otherwise.