- Gutter Capital announced that it closed $25 million for Fund I.
Gutter Capital – an early-stage venture capital firm that is focused on affordability, economic mobility, and climate change – announced the closing of its $25 million Fund I. And the firm is founded by Dan Teran, Founder of Managed by Q and former WeWork Executive, and James Gettinger, a computer scientist, and former professional gambler.
Gutter is currently backed by notable investors Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Hunter Walk and Satya Patel of Homebrew, and Eileen Murray, former Co-CEO of Bridgewater Group. The fund’s LPs include founders of Bark, Casper, Honor, Olo, Envoy, Honor and WeWork and they were joined by institutional investors Tiger Global, Bain Capital Ventures, FJ Labs and Kapor Center Investments, etc.
Gutter Capital makes investments on 3 critical mission areas:
— Improve accessibility and affordability of healthcare, housing, and education
— Empower individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses to thrive
— Reduce the carbon emissions and prepare at-risk communities to cope with a changing climate
The founders had met on the rugby pitch at the Johns Hopkins University where Dan Teran studied International Relations and James Gettinger studied Economics and Computer Science. After college, Teran started his first company, Managed by Q.
In 2019, Teran sold the company to WeWork where he went on to lead Global Corporate Development and Ventures following the acquisition. After Gettinger’s first start-up failed, he supported himself by gambling online – first with poker and then daily fantasy sports. Plus Gettinger developed a software-driven process to predict athlete performance and opponent behavior, and became one of the most successful gamblers in the world, winning multiple world competitions.
In 2017, the pair started investing Gettinger’s gambling winnings and later Teran’s Managed by Q proceeds to build a portfolio of over 100 angel investments, which included Bowery Farming, Electric.ai, and Ribbon Homes, realizing top quartile returns. After Teran and Gettinger set out to raise external capital, they quickly surpassed an initial fundraising goal of $15 million as a result of avid investor demand.
Teran and Gettinger are joined by Richard Hughes – who is an Operating Partner. Prior to joining Gutter Capital, Hughes oversaw talent acquisition at Primary Venture Partners, Alma, and Managed by Q where he worked under Teran for over 3 years.
Gutter Capital focuses on building strong founding teams. Last year, the firm supported 46 of the 89 hires made by the Gutter Capital portfolio.
Beyond a mission-driven portfolio, Gutter Capital has invested in 38% women, 48% non-white founders, and 15% Black or Latinx founders. And Gutter Capital is committed to building companies of consequence with initial $1.5 million checks with a focus on Software-as-a-service and Marketplace businesses.
KEY QUOTES:
“Dan and I started our companies at the same time and came up together in the early days of New York tech. He has a hard earned reputation for being a strong operator and is a great partner to early-stage founders. I am excited to back Dan and James in this next chapter at Gutter.”
— Phil Krim, Founder and CEO of Casper
“We believe that the great companies of our time will be built in response to humanity’s greatest challenges. We know that one company can’t solve these massive, systemic problems, but a generation of entrepreneurs certainly can. We started Gutter Capital to make sure that they do.”
“Talent is destiny in startups. The most pain I felt as a founder came from bad hiring decisions, so we help our founders avoid those expensive mistakes.”
— Dan Teran, Co-Founder of Gutter Capital
“Dan and James have a track record of investing in and building successful businesses. Gutter Capital is well positioned to build a generation of great companies in response to real world problems and I am excited to support them in this process. Dan is a smart, disciplined operator with a history of rolling up his sleeves and helping founders win. His experience building Managed by Q from the ground up sets him apart.”
— Eileen Murray, former co-CEO at Bridgewater Associates
