How Nichole Wischoff Won The Internet To Raise $50 Million For Her VC Firm

Forbes

The prolific online poster at Wischoff Ventures plans to write checks of $1 million or so into startups in areas like the “new supply chain” from her Nashville-based fund.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2024/09/04/nichole-wischoff-wins-internet-and-50-million/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, how Nicole Wischoff won the internet to raise $50 million for her VC firm.

00:09When shopping startup Checkmate went viral in December 2022, its little team was caught

00:14by surprise.

00:16Their app, which offers personalized deals to users, promised a cashback bonus for referring

00:21new users.

00:22As it soared to the top slot in Apple's App Store, bots swarmed the program, and Checkmate's

00:27back-end software couldn't keep up.

00:30Human shoppers who didn't see their bonuses started filing thousands of customer support

00:34tickets to complain.

00:36One of Checkmate's co-founders vomited from the stress.

00:39Another, CTO Rory Garton-Smith, started having panic attacks.

00:44Then, he called Nicole Wischoff.

00:47The founder and sole general partner at Wischoff Ventures, Wischoff was a late addition to Checkmate's

00:52cap table, a so-called, quote, wild card, who had shouldered her way into its $5 million

00:58seed round through her hustle and promise of operational help.

01:02Just three months later, she proved it.

01:05Her fortitude in the face of crisis and her advice, hire an operations expert and over-communicate

01:10with users, helped Checkmate weather the storm.

01:14Garton-Smith, who asked Wischoff to join his board as an observer following the crisis,

01:19said, quote,

01:27Checkmate's story is unusual for Wischoff only because it's a consumer startup in a

01:31portfolio of mostly business-to-business companies.

01:34Otherwise, in the four years since she started investing, Wischoff is used to punching above

01:39her weight.

01:41Investing out of past $5 million and $20 million funds, she's backed 40 companies to date.

01:47And on social media, she now counts nearly 90,000 followers on X and 40,000 on TikTok,

01:53the vast majority gained in recent years, who tune in for a mix of company building

01:57and personal insights.

01:59Now, Wischoff Ventures has raised $50 million for its third fund, the investor exclusively

02:05told Forbes, tripling its assets under management after previous fund sizes of $5 million and

02:11$20 million to date.

02:13The fund will look to invest $800,000 to $1.6 million in 30-plus startups, seeking

02:19ownership of between about 7% and 10%.

02:23A generalist fund, Wischoff said her firm will continue to focus on mostly enterprise

02:28companies, particularly in fintech, logistics, and manufacturing.

02:33She's also hired a senior associate, Neil Mintz, to join the firm's budding investment

02:37team.

02:39Wischoff's focus areas, and success so far, are no surprise to her supporters, a combination

02:44of overcoming a difficult personal background and leveraging her own experience across multiple

02:49startup roles.

02:51The fifth of seven siblings, Wischoff grew up in financial insecurity in central New

02:55York.

02:56In and out of public housing, and without consistent access to food and clean clothes,

03:01Wischoff was a poor student, she said, until she spent a year in Belgium with a host family

03:05that encouraged her to study and join her host mother in distance running.

03:10Back home for a fifth year of high school, she impressed the cross-country coach at nearby

03:13SUNY New Paltz, who threw her a lifeline to compete for his college.

03:18Relatively early in her career, in San Francisco, she caught the startup bug, joining mortgage

03:23software startup Blend to work closely under its CEO on special projects.

03:29Years later, after writing personal checks into several fellow Blend alumni-led startups

03:33in 2020, a venture capitalist told Wischoff she should consider raising a small fund of

03:38her own.

03:40Under the mentorship of Midas List investor Lee Fixel, and others, she sought $1 million

03:45and quickly raised $5 million to invest part-time.

03:49Wischoff made 26 investments from that first fund, with an average check size of $150,000

03:56and 16 markups, good for a gross internal rate of return, or IRR, so far of about 20%.

04:03She raised her larger, second fund in 2022.

04:07That fund backed 15 companies at an average $650,000 check size, for an IRR, so far, of

04:1426%.

04:15In unusual transparency, Wischoff has shared many details around her performance to date

04:20publicly on social media.

04:23For full coverage, check out Alex Conrad's piece on Forbes.com.

04:29This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:31Thanks for tuning in.

04:53Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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