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Happy Monday everyone!
I’m psyched to release the newest episode of The Takeoff Podcast with Joshua Rahn (Co-founder & Managing Partner at Oceans). Oceans is a new, NYC-based early-stage venture fund working to help build the next trillion-dollar businesses. Oceans recently announced the close of Fund I, an $11M fund designed to make this mission a reality. Early investments include Famer, Mealco, Uppercampus, Teal, and Tembo Health, among others.
Prior to founding Oceans, Josh spent 9 years at Facebook, where he helped grow their NYC office. Josh also had two successful exits as a founder before joining Facebook. He is a WashU alum!
In the episode, Josh and I discuss:
His new venture firm Oceans and the firm’s mission
Oceans’ focus areas
How Oceans differentiates from other VCs
What is was like raising Fund I during COVID
Why $11m for Fund I made sense, and why Josh and the other partners’ friends, peers, and former coworkers thought they were crazy for launching an $11M fund: “Raise a $200M fund.”
Finding product-market fit as a fund
How to get more recent grads to join startups or start companies of their own
& much more.
I had a ton of fun recording this episode. It’s not every day that I find a native New Yorker who went to WashU and works in the venture capital space.
I hope you all enjoy the listen! And, Happy Holidays!
— Michael
(Huge shoutout to the legend Lungile Tshuma for the intro!)
You can find us on Twitter @_TheTakeoff.
Interview by Michael Spiro (Founder at The Takeoff. Senior at Washington University in St. Louis. JMI Equity, Equal Ventures, Ground Up Ventures, Intello).
I’m on Twitter @mspiro3 👋 (direct any thoughts / comments / questions to my DMs)
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