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Venture capital is a team sport. A great team makes better decisions, wins more deals, and provides more resources to companies. Investing in startups is like whitewater rafting. A great team navigates rapids by playing different roles on the boat. There is a navigator, the paddlers, and the fearless souls in front surveying obstacles while getting drenched. Should the adventurers harness the current of the river at the right spot, ...

I am thrilled to join the Origin Ventures Team as the first hire in Utah, helping Brent Hill grow Origin’s presence in both Utah and the Western United States.  My path to Origin Ventures was nontraditional. I spent the first 6 years of my career as a social studies teacher in Houston, TX and East San Jose, CA. Teaching low-income communities forced me to confront the many issues my students ...

Ty Blunt would endlessly scour online marketplaces, stores, and estate and garage sales for hidden gems – Nintendo games, antiques, arbitrage products – anything he thought could fetch a decent premium. He quickly grew his reseller business to almost $2M a year in revenue, living out of the warehouse that held his inventory. But as he scaled, the administrative burden of running his business – listing and delisting products across ...

I initially approached the Origin Ventures team out of curiosity: I wanted to learn about venture investing and I was impressed with their portfolio, thesis, and values. I asked if I could volunteer my time in exchange for being a fly on the wall in their meetings and discussions. They agreed, and after a few weeks I was hooked. The fit was mutual, and, shortly thereafter, I joined the investing ...

On January 19th, 2021, I added myself to the waitlist for a paid sneaker enthusiast community called “SoleSavy”. A quick Twitter search revealed hundreds of posts from members raving about what the platform enabled them to do: acquire hard-to-find sneakers at reasonable retail prices. Once I was accepted off the waitlist by the CEO and co-founder – Dejan Pralica, who has personally processed more than 5,000 members – I discovered ...

Reviewing my monthly credit card bill is a chore I often dread as my eyes scroll through the rows on the statement. But there is always one glimmer of joy, with a charge I'm delighted to pay – my monthly membership in Vivrelle. For $99 per month, I have access to a shared closet of luxury fashion accessories and a large network of benefits from brand partners. I love fashion ...

One of the most unsettling shows I’ve ever watched is Hoarders. Each episode is a journey into a condemned living space, choked with unnecessary trinkets and papers. The show is personal for me, as my aunt was a hoarder. After she died, while piecing together her financial life was a painstaking archeological affair, it revealed the singular advantage of hoarding: every piece of information we needed was in her townhome. ...

Every ant knows the formula of its ant-hill, every bee knows the formula of its beehive. They know it in their own way, not in our way. Only humankind does not know its own formula. – Fyodor Dostoevsky As investors who are obsessed with the Future of Work, Origin Ventures has invested in its fair share of companies that are revolutionizing the workforce. For the vast majority of VCs, this ...

  At Origin Ventures, we like to invest in companies that make the world “the way it should be.” The average American family has a median checking account balance of $2,000 and younger generations have an average credit limit of <$10,000. Putting a hold down of even a few hundred dollars can meaningfully pinch the available credit or bank balance for wide swaths of Americans. Enter BlackCart, which allows online ...

A Glimpse of the Future of Product Placement   Showrooms and malls have been in decline as the share of retail spending via e-commerce steadily grows year-after-year – a trend that the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated. The opportunities for consumers to sample products in showrooms and stores are becoming scarce and brands need new ways to place products in front of consumers for sampling, feedback, and impressions. Origin Ventures is ...