- Seed-stage venture capital firm Overline announced recently that it has oversubscribed its first fund with $27.4 million in total capital commitments. These are the details.
Atlanta-based seed-stage venture capital firm Overline announced recently that it has oversubscribed its first fund with $27.4 million in total capital commitments. And Overline Managing Partners Michael Cohn and Sean O’Brien had established Overline as one of the only Founder/Operator-led firms focused on seed venture deals in the Southeast U.S.
Overline is aiming to be the first institutional investor for high-potential and established founding teams building differentiated companies in large markets. And Cohn and O’Brien utilize their experience as longtime Atlanta-based entrepreneurs, angel investors, and operators leading companies through massive growth stages.
The founders had created Overline to fill the gap in institutional early-stage startup funding in the Southeast, a region that received less than 10% of total VC funding in 2020. And in a survey of more than 100 Atlanta-based founders who had raised institutional seed funding, the Overline team found that only 7% had found that capital locally.
Overline’s approach capitalizes on the partners’ experience as successful entrepreneurs, angel investors, and company leaders. And Cohn co-founded Cloud Sherpas, serving as the company’s initial CEO and in other senior leadership roles through its 2015 acquisition for over $400 million by Accenture. Then he spent 3 years as the founding Managing Director of the Techstars Atlanta accelerator program.
O’Brien had served as President, Strategic Initiatives, and Chief Strategy Officer of PGi, helping to grow the public technology company to almost $600 million in revenue through over 30 acquisitions, before helping sell the business to private equity in 2015 for $1.1 billion. And prior to PGi, O’Brien spent time as a hedge fund manager and equity analyst.
Overline is supported by a bench of impressive partners who reflects the firm’s roots in the Southeast. Anchored by a marketing platform, Mailchimp, additional partners include Cox Enterprises, Social Leverage, Hallett Capital, Atlanta Tech Village founder David Cummings, and Techstars co-founder David Cohen.
KEY QUOTES:
“The data reflects what we have seen throughout our careers building, growing, and investing in startups. There is no shortage of phenomenal founders and businesses coming out of Atlanta and the Southeast, but they often struggle to find institutional capital at their earliest stages. Overline will lead as the first institutional check for these companies and be a true partner to the Founders throughout their lifecycle—supporting them on the strategic and operational business initiatives and decisions that are critical to a company’s success.”
— Sean O’Brien
“In our research, every founder we spoke with indicated that they would prefer to partner with a seed investor who has direct experience as a founder and operator leading companies through their early growth stages—an investor who has been in their shoes and done it before. This directly shaped Overline’s philosophy of transparency, accountability, and collaboration with founders. When Overline invests in a company, we lean in to help accelerate their success.”
— Michael Cohn
“At Mailchimp, we love our hometown of Atlanta, and are proud of the robust startup ecosystem that’s growing in our city. The Overline founding team’s vision of deploying smart, local capital into startups in Atlanta and the Southeast aligns with our goals of promoting and advancing local innovation. Michael and Sean have strong track records of identifying high-potential companies and bringing the expertise, operator mindset, and hands-on support to help them succeed.”
— Rick Lynch, CFO, Mailchimp
“When you look at the number of world-class companies that have emerged from the Southeast in recent years, it is clear that there is something special going on in this ecosystem. We are increasingly looking for opportunities to back emerging managers like Sean and Michael who share our values of investing in exceptional founders and who consistently see the best deals in their region.”
— Howard Lindzon, founder and General Partner of Social Leverage
“Michael was one of our very first supporters back when we went through the Techstars Atlanta program in 2018, and he was one of our first investors as well. His active, direct approach to helping entrepreneurs was one of the defining features of our experience in Techstars, and Overline has followed that same approach in their interactions with portfolio companies.”
— Atticus LeBlanc, founder and CEO of Padsplit
