Investment Process
Exploring critical technology. Elevating great companies.
From intro to exit, Squadra works alongside early-stage companies throughout their journey.
Our experience as founders and early members of venture-backed startups has influenced the way we look at companies to maximize the value we create post-investment.
We leave no stone unturned.
Squadra’s network spans far and wide across numerous industries and verticals. This reach, combined with our experienced team, enables us to access market intelligence and insights to identify magnetic teams with impactful technologies able to deliver outsized results.
We believe everyone has a unique view of the market, and, therefore, we embrace the opportunity to listen and learn. We strive for transparency and respect in every interaction across all companies we engage with, even when we say no.
We are a lead investor.
Squadra targets 1-2 investments per quarter. We take the time to build a deep relationship with our founders and their teams in order to establish foundational trust. Doing so enables us to effectively support our portfolio companies through all phases of growth.
As a lead investor, Squadra takes an active role in due diligence, valuation, deal structuring, identifying strategic syndicates, and jointly developing a post-investment strategy. We partner in building great companies, working as one team united by a common mission. We maintain our pro rata rights in follow-on rounds and stand by our companies every step of the way.
We invest in Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A companies.
Our typical check size is between $1M and $4M. We are often the first institutional capital after friends-and-family, angel, or accelerator funding with established product-market fit, or a clear path to get there.
We specialize in priced equity rounds and prefer industry-standard, clean deal structures.
We invest in the plan.
Squadra’s investment process is rooted in learning about the current state of the business and strategizing tangible milestones over an 18-24 month horizon.
We analyze your target markets, ideal customer persona, business model, product strategy, competitive positioning, and growth drivers to collaboratively develop a tactical plan to 2-3x the business.
We respect the "Man in the Arena."
We recognize that entrepreneurs are chasing their dreams and holding the risk on their shoulders. We firmly abide by the mantra that “It is not the critic who counts.”
We strive to bring humility and positive energy everyday in our role as listeners, supporters, advisors, and partners on the journey.
The Process
How we evaluate your team and technology involves our whole team.
Complete the Squadra Intake Form
Provide key foundational information on your business, product, and vision to assess if there might be a fit. With everyone on the team better prepared and informed, we can dive deeper quickly and be more efficient with time.
Pitch our Team
Meet the investment team during a half-hour intro call to learn more about Squadra and pitch your product, business plan, and strategy. Ideally, we would conclude this meeting with a good understanding of the problem being addressed, product use cases, and customer value prop.
Meet our Venture Partners
Pitch Squadra’s Venture Partner Network (VPN), a network of 50+ industry executives, practitioners, and potential customers across cyber and national security. This session and Q&A is mutually beneficial as both a source of external validation and feedback on business development pathways.
Team 1:1s
Members of the Squadra team hold informal discussions with key team members to understand respective strengths and potential areas for augmentation and value-creation. This is also an opportunity to assess cultural alignment for a fruitful long-term relationship.
Reference Calls
Interviews with external references, including: prospective customers, end-users, advisors, and relevant industry stakeholders. Our goal here is twofold: First, to understand the product’s specific value proposition and external demand signal to secure near-term paying customers. Second, to gather insight on the team’s work style, culture, and long-term vision.
Product and Plan
A deep dive on the company’s product roadmap and go-to-market strategy to identify specific entry points, channels, and key relationships to target post-investment. Reconcile the extended network and relationships to formulate potential opportunities for value creation in business development and sales efforts.
What We Do
As we're gathering this data and spending time getting to know your team, we're running deep analysis to understand the size of the market your company is taking on, evaluate the industry trends and tailwinds that will influence success, and analyze the product value chain, competitive landscape, and positioning opportunity. This analysis combined with your input, helps our team to effectively quantify the value proposition, develop an aligned pro forma financial model and form our investment thesis on the potential outcomes for the business.
What Stands Out
We seek investments with 2-3x+ potential in the next 24 months with the elements of a 10x+ investment.
A Team That’s Ready to Build
With magnetic leadership, external and internal credibility, strong culture and alignment to grow.
A Strong Business
With a sustainable model, strong fundamentals and bias for action.
A Massive Market Opportunity
With a clear value proposition, differentiation and massive vertical expansion potential.
Ready to meet with us?
We're excited to learn about your company. Fill out our intake form and a member of our investment team will be in touch to schedule a call.
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