These Florida Investors Built A Startup Community Before They Raised A Venture Fund.
GAINESVILLE, August 13 (Hypepotamus) - In their mid-20s, Floridians Justis Mendez (in featured photo) and Pablo Casilimas raised their first VC fund, a $5 million flagship fund that got LP (limited partner) backing from “notable UF alumni” like the Gatorade family and former CFO at Tableau.
Mendez said that the two partners met while at the University of Florida. They recognized that while the university had a strong tech and engineering talent pool, there was not the infrastructure to support and build the local startup and VC community. So before they went fundraising, they hosted meetups, pitch nights, workshops, and roundtables around Gainesville. That ultimately helped create momentum and interest in their tech investing thesis.
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To date, OneSixOne has invested in more than a handful of companies, including companies Hypepotamus readers will know like Chattanooga-based Clockout. Fund I’s focused was on AI and Cloud infrastructure companies, DeepTech ventures, and dual-use technologies.
But as it says on the firm’s Luma page, events are OneSixOne’s “superpower,” helping the firm connect with a national base of startup founders. The partners criss-cross the nation, hosting events in Seattle, New York, and tech hubs in between.
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Hypepotamus asked Mendez about OneSixOne Ventures’ investing thesis. His answer?
“I look for people that understand something about the world that others do not. Also, we look for hungry talent that has a high pain tolerance,” he told Hypepotamus. “Most fund managers look for people that have done exceptional things in their life. I think that's where the conversation starts, not where it ends. I wanna understand also: what hardships have they been through? How have they overcome them? How do they solve problems in their own life?”
Today, the two founders are in their early thirties and have their eyes set on Fund II…so watch this space, as they say…to see what’s next for these young VCs.
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