Open in app

Sign In

Write

Sign In

defy.vc
defy.vc

61 Followers

Home

About

Apr 11

“Social’s Defining Decade: The Revival of Horizontal Platforms and More”

Madison McIlwain Partner, Seed, discusses how consumer social transforms alongside search and how it affects everyone; consumers, platforms, and businesses. “Horizontal social platforms celebrate the weird, the quirky, and the niche interests that people are passionate about, while also providing a sense of belonging and connection across the collective.” This…

Consumer

1 min read

“Social’s Defining Decade: The Revival of Horizontal Platforms and More”
“Social’s Defining Decade: The Revival of Horizontal Platforms and More”
Consumer

1 min read


Sep 16, 2022

Arena Club | dust off your trading cards from the closet..

It has been a week since Brian Lee and Derek Jeter launched Arena Club, an incredible platform built for collectors to buy, sell, grade and trade. While this is my first post after leading the seed round a year ago, the news is already out via The Today Show, WSJ…

Card Collector

2 min read

Arena Club | dust off your trading cards from the closet..
Arena Club | dust off your trading cards from the closet..
Card Collector

2 min read


Jun 15, 2022

Pawlicy - A Friendship Story

“Friends — how many of us have them?” — Whodini Venture capital often looks like individuals or teams making astute and sometimes prophetic investment decisions into exceptional entrepreneurs who want to change the world. While in hindsight that is often the case, at defy we believe the crux of being…

4 min read

Pawlicy - A Friendship Story
Pawlicy - A Friendship Story

4 min read


Apr 25, 2022

The Perfect Venue

“Hey Brian, I’m Luke. I liked your SaaS to Marketplaces talk, there are parallels to what we’re building at Perfect Venue. I’d love to tell you more about it.” It started like any friendly conversation with a new connection at a conference. Luke, the Founder and CEO of Perfect Venue…

Entrepreneurship

3 min read

The Perfect Venue
The Perfect Venue
Entrepreneurship

3 min read


Mar 15, 2022

Bazaar continues its journey to be a generational company in Pakistan

At defy, we believe that special companies can be born anywhere. “Special” is the exact word that came to mind 10 minutes into our first meeting with Hamza and Saad as they pitched Bazaar. Their vision to build a lighthouse company in Pakistan, one that attracts top talent to help…

3 min read

Bazaar continues its journey to be a generational company in Pakistan
Bazaar continues its journey to be a generational company in Pakistan

3 min read


Dec 3, 2021

All I Want for Christmas is a Delayed Package Notification…

Said no one ever. Have you ordered Starbucks recently? Tried to buy a car? Already worried about your backordered Mattel toys? We feel you. As many of you know, we’re experiencing yet another ripple effect of COVID-19, the global supply chain crisis. While the pandemic has brought this crisis to…

Ecommerce

4 min read

All I Want for Christmas is a Delayed Package Notification…
All I Want for Christmas is a Delayed Package Notification…
Ecommerce

4 min read


Nov 4, 2021

You can’t always get to a deal.

The day Alessya Visnjic walked in our front door at defy is still vivid in my mind because we could not get a deal done. It was a sunny day in Woodside and it was my partner Madison’s first day at the firm. We had just been introduced to Alessya’s…

4 min read

You can’t always get to a deal.
You can’t always get to a deal.

4 min read


Jun 10, 2021

Nautilus: (S)ujal and (P)arag — (A)dvancing and (C)reating a new future in drug development

Today our Defy portfolio company, Nautilus Biotechnology, began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker NAUT after its successful merger with the Arya III SPAC. The event and financial outcome is much less important than what Nautilus hopes to achieve: leveraging technology to change the scale of what is possible…

Spac

2 min read

Nautilus: (S)ujal and (P)arag — (A)dvancing and (C)reating a new future in drug development
Nautilus: (S)ujal and (P)arag — (A)dvancing and (C)reating a new future in drug development
Spac

2 min read


Apr 8, 2021

The Skubana Story: Spicy Sichuan to Exit

Yesterday, a Defy portfolio company, Skubana, announced its successful acquisition by 3PL Central and its partner, Mainsail Partners. While it serves as a meaningful exit for Defy and the founders of Skubana, Chad Rubin and DJ Kunovac, the team will remain to build a next-generation end-to-end commerce platform that combines…

Ecommerce

4 min read

The Skubana Story: Spicy Sichuan to Exit
The Skubana Story: Spicy Sichuan to Exit
Ecommerce

4 min read


Mar 17, 2021

The ‘Education’ of a lifelong VC

For years, the education market was persona non-grata for many in the venture capital community including myself. After 20 years of investing, it was difficult for me to understand the desire to deal with school administration, long sales cycles, difficult installations and (gasp) budget cycles. Then I met Tory Patterson…

Education

3 min read

The ‘Education’ of a lifelong VC
The ‘Education’ of a lifelong VC
Education

3 min read

defy.vc

defy.vc

61 Followers

We fund the future by backing exceptional early stage entrepreneurs

Following
  • Lightspeed

    Lightspeed

  • Greycroft

    Greycroft

  • Arthur Hayes

    Arthur Hayes

  • AI2

    AI2

  • Lerer Hippeau

    Lerer Hippeau

See all (88)

Help

Status

Writers

Blog

Careers

Privacy

Terms

About

Text to speech

Teams