Today we announced the completion of Year One Labs’s incubation phase. I’ve been working on Year One Labs since April, 2010. For those that don’t know, it’s an early stage accelerator using the Lean Startup methodology. We made five investments (which was our plan) and have been very pleased with the results so far. In June, I wrote a fairly extensive post about my lessons learned running Year one Labs, so I don’t know if there will be future “lessons learned” posts (but probably!)
When we (Raymond Luk, Ian Rae, Alistair Croll and myself) started Year One Labs, it was designed as a 1-year experiment. We wanted to see if we could create value at the earliest stages of startup incubation, find a group of entrepreneurs we wanted to work with, and help build great companies. The first two goals were achieved, and the third is on its way. Three of the startups have raised follow-on capital – and as an initial benchmark of success that’s a good one. Now it’s up to the founders to build great companies. The partners at Year One Labs remain involved, but we see this stage as “active management” of the portfolio; we’re there to help, guide, connect, etc. This means we won’t be repeating Year One Labs, and we won’t be making any further investments.
Some people may be curious as to why we’re not doing it again. Fundamentally it comes down to the fact that the partners are all entrepreneurs ourselves, and we each got pulled in different directions, to pursue new opportunities and take on new challenges. Year One Labs was the perfect antidote to my experiences just prior to starting it (which involved trying to build a company in the recruitment space during a recession). The ability to focus on a bunch of different projects, take a step back, build my network, rinse and repeat on the lean startup methodology, etc. were all fantastic experiences. I learned an insane amount, just as I had prior to that as the CEO/founder of a startup. But now, I want something different. It’s time for me to do something new, leveraging my collective experience as an entrepreneur, investor, and partner at Year One Labs to take on new challenges…
I want to personally thank all the mentors and investors at Year One Labs that have been instrumental in its success. I want to thank my partners – Alistair, Ian and Ray – with whom I shared a unique experience. And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank all of the entrepreneurs that participated in Year One Labs – Theo, Kyle, Lenny, Beau, Mitch, Dov, Jon, Elan, Garry and Ken. It’s quite the gang! And it’ll be fantastic to watch each and every one of them continue their journeys.
As for what’s next? Stay tuned…
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