Investible Founders Trevor Folsom and Creel Price
Investible is one of Australia’s most active seed-stage investors.
It closed its first Fund, the $22m+ Investible Early Stage Fund, late last year but it has been supporting and investing in early-stage businesses for over 5 years, with more than 70 investments including the likes of Canva, Ipsy, Booksy, Car Next Door and more.
Investible’s journey started in 1998 when co-founders Creel Price and Trevor Folsom founded Blueprint Management Group. Over ten years, the pair scaled that business to more than 1,000 staff and successfully exited in 2008 for $109 million.
From there, Trevor spent time in Silicon Valley learning from some of the world’s best entrepreneurs and angel investors, while Creel dedicated his time to fostering entrepreneurship – writing two books and developing the curriculum for the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in South Africa. The co-founders reunited in 2010, combining Trevor’s investing expertise with Creel’s entrepreneur development and education programs. This collaboration morphed to become Investible in 2014.
Today, Investible’s mission is to match the world’s brightest founders with the smartest capital, giving founders the human and financial capital needed to scale. Investing across Australia as well as internationally, it is focused on helping investors build strong, diversified early-stage portfolios.
While there are many VC funds in the ecosystem, Investible is unique in that it offers what it calls a ‘hybrid model’ – combining traditional investment early-stage Funds with Club Investible, an invite-only network of 60+ active, high-net worth investors and family offices. Members of Club Investible invest in Investible Funds with the opportunity to co-invest on a discretionary basis. Club Investible members also assist in sourcing investment opportunities and mentoring, giving feedback to and making introductions for portfolio founders.
Daniel Veytsblit, Investment Director of Investible said, “What really sets us apart is the active, hands-on involvement with our startups from Club Investible members. It’s so much more than the capital they invest. Each of the members comes from a different background, many of them having been successful entrepreneurs themselves. Others have run global corporations and are instrumental in helping our startups understand and access global markets through their connections.”
Investible is also recognised for its commitment to entrepreneurial development. It’s workshops and events are all based on its proven business model and investment IP.
Investible’s new event series, The Investible Games, is designed for early-stage founders who want to put their business in the best possible position to raise capital. The elimination-style event puts up to 20 founder teams through two days of challenges that test their business model, strategies, founder team compatibility and ability to communicate effectively with investors.
Veytsblit says the ‘Games’ are something completely unique to the ecosystem – it’s not a pitch competition, hackathon or even traditional accelerator.
“It’s a high-impact event for founders who want to learn what it truly takes to be investible and understand the value of connecting with investors early on in your capital raising process.”
“As an early-stage investor, we believe in building long-term relationships with high-potential founders. We want to get to know founders and their businesses before they’re ready to raise capital and maintain that partnership long after we invest. The Investible Games is a great way to establish relationships between founders and investors, resulting in stronger startups and investment opportunities.”
The next Investible Games take place in Sydney from March 4th to 5th. Applications are still open for companies that have raised less than $500,000 in institutional investment.
Daniel Veytsblit
