The $1.9B AUM LA Fund Targeting 100x Returns

**Carter Reum** (0:00)
We believe ideas are cheap, execution is dear. There are five or 10 companies going after every idea right now. They're all well pedigreed, they're all well funded. We wake up every day and say, look, we just got to out execute everyone, we got to get 1% better every day. And if we can do that, we can be 37 times better by the end of the year. Our portfolio companies have raised about $800 million behind rounds we've led the last three years. And they're raising those Series Bs about 30% faster, at about 25% higher valuations. That means our hands-on approach is working. We're filling in the gaps, getting those companies up the J-curve, and just giving them a slightly better odds to create the next unicorn.

**Courtney Reum** (0:40)
We've already spent well more than a million since we started. It just wasn't called AI then, but we kind of called it this idea of like harnessing the collective brain of us, of our partners, of Evo and the network. LA venture market is still 10x Miami's. As Carter said, I think there's certain types of companies that will always be better suited to be here. When we first moved here 15 years ago, the fundamental question was like, can you build big companies out of it?

**Molly O'Shea** (1:00)
Really drop great one-liners consistently. Courtney and Carter, welcome to Sourcery.

**Carter Reum** (1:17)
Thanks so much for having us.

**Courtney Reum** (1:19)
It's great to be here.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:20)
Thank you for having me in your lovely home. This is so peaceful, it feels like a spa.

**Courtney Reum** (1:24)
We like to, you know, life's stressful enough as it is, we like to make the house feel like a little modern Zen sanctuary.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:30)
It was funny, because when we walked in, you're like, this is the pod house because of Maggie's pod, and then also a previous pod was here, and so now we also have a pod here. So what is the history?

**Courtney Reum** (1:41)
Well, yeah, the house was previously owned by Will Arnett, so it hopefully has good podcast juju because he takes smart lists here, which I think is, you know, I don't listen to too many podcasts outside of yours, my wife's and a few others, but really popular podcasts. And as I showed you, he has his podcast room downstairs, but he doesn't do video. So we're on the next iteration, Podcast 2.0.

**Carter Reum** (2:02)
And now Maggie's is in the house, top 50 in the country. This does have good podcast juju.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:08)
It's huge. I know, I'm like, this is a good way to start the year.

**Courtney Reum** (2:11)
We've done the feng shui of podcasting for this house.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:15)
Okay, so we have to talk about YouTube. You've also built a very large tech investing empire here in LA, $1.9 billion AUM and 54 exits. So what are you focused on right now?

**Carter Reum** (2:31)
Yeah, I think right now, you know, we break the world into two buckets. Those companies that are trying to find product market fit and those companies are trying to hyperscale. So we're focused on the early stage where companies are trying to find product market fit, you know, writing seed and series A checks. And we really focus on the future of work, health, commerce and money. And so it means we have a broad swath of things that we can invest in. And, you know, we've been lucky, I think the last two years, we've backed nine previous Unicorn founders, but we're just trying to find great founders that are trying to disrupt big spaces. And I think we'll obviously talk about it and we won't go too long between without talking about AI and hype cycles, but it's a fantastic time to be investing right now.

**Molly O'Shea** (3:14)
The core of the fun, you guys are Unicorn Magnets as well, I guess. So what were some of the first early exits and some of the big names that you backed?

**Courtney Reum** (3:23)
As one that's an LA local one, we're really proud to have put some of the first million into Ring. Video doorbells kind of become ubiquitous. We use them here, obviously. Been in other things early that are household names now, like Pinterest and Lyft. What else?

**Carter Reum** (3:37)
Yeah, I think we've been lucky. We've been in the Cedar Series A investor in 15 unicorns, so I think we're pretty good at picking them. I think what's great is that we've just been able to continue that pattern recognition. And so, so much of early stage investing is kind of, if you've ever read Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink, it's just intuition. But really what intuition is, is just that constant pattern recognition. And I think why we're at an exciting inflection point at the firm is, when you can back second time founders who have previously built unicorns, you know, I like our chances even more because, you know, in Fund One, when we had 13 unicorns in just that fund, you know, they were unproven founders and now we're getting access to the best of the best.