Start Up

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

  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 ...

The campus at the University of California at Berkeley includes an oversized bulletin board, where students and organizations can post a variety of announcements – ride sharing, concerts, stand-up comedy nights, and kitesurfing lessons are just a few examples. Known as the “blueboard,” it has become a vital source of entertainment news and information for students. The original “Blueboard” on the campus of the University of California (Berkeley) In 2015, ...

The past months have changed the way we live, work, and play. Companies of all sizes, including those in Origin Ventures’ portfolio, are re-assessing their internal processes. The focus on capital efficiency shifts the focus from rapid sales growth to sustainable sales. Now is a good time to redesign go-to-market strategy in the increasingly competitive SaaS market. Shake up the sales team, focus on customer personas, redefine territories, or build ...

COVID-19 has created widespread impact for startups. Perhaps no functional area has been disrupted more than the sales organization for B2B software companies. Origin Ventures recently facilitated a sales leadership discussion with our B2B SaaS portfolio companies to discuss and share strategic and tactical shifts in their sales processes. The questions we used to frame the discussion included: For benchmarking purposes… what’s your Q1 and Q2 updated forecast vs. your ...

We are pleased to announce our investment in Everee. Origin Ventures is co-leading a $10M Series A financing for this Salt Lake City-based software company. The round was co-led by Signal Peak Ventures. Changing Paydays for a Changing Workforce Since 2008, the ‘gig economy’ has allowed individuals to create an income from a variety of on-demand jobs. In addition to flexibility, one of the primary benefits of freelance work is ...

There are many things that bind us together at Origin. One of our values – and a daily refrain – is that we believe it's a privilege to work with entrepreneurs. Working with startups is not all glory and fame. While we are not taking nearly the risk of entrepreneurs performing high wire acts with no nets, we ride through the ups and downs of companies' fortunes alongside founders. The ...