- Steven Rosenblatt has raised his debut fund of $11 million to invest in seed-stage companies.
- Rosenblatt is best known as the ex-Apple advertising guru who helped lead Foursquare's transformation from a consumer app company into an enterprise location-data powerhouse that booked $100 million in revenue last year.
- Called Oceans Ventures, the firm is made up of five partners who have collectively sold more than 20 companies, opened satellite offices for Facebook, and led merger and acquisition strategy across the Time Warner ecosystem.
- The firm also has backing from high-powered investors like Ron Conway and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
In 2012, Steven Rosenblatt left his job at Apple and agreed to stay three months at Foursquare as a consultant.
The startup — best known for its the popular app that let users share their location with friends by "checking in" to restaurants and coffee shops — was burning cash and hadn't figured out a business model. Analysts and pundits prepared to write its eulogy.
But Rosenblatt, who had gone to Apple in the first place after it acquired his mobile app advertising company Quattro Networks, was determined to save it.
"The more I started to get under the hood, the more I was like, 'I don't know if you guys have realized it but you're actually sitting on a tremendous amount of gold,'" Rosenblatt told The New Yorker in 2017.
Over the next six years, the advertising guru led the transformation of Foursquare from a fast-fading consumer app to an enterprise powerhouse, selling its software tools and location data to app developers, advertisers, and brands that want to know where consumers are and where they're headed next. In 2019, Foursquare's revenue hit $100 million, marking a stark turnaround for a company that had already been written off by many.
Now, Rosenblatt wants to help other startups find their own path to prosperity.
$11 million for seed-stage companies
His debut fund, Oceans Ventures, has raised $11 million to invest in seed-stage companies. It's focused on software businesses across industries that are primarily based in New York City, where its five partners are located.
Related story
Oceans Ventures claims an all-star team of operators who have collectively sold more than 20 companies, opened satellite offices for Facebook, and led merger and acquisition strategy across the Time Warner ecosystem.
He said his firm's partners have been in the trenches at fast-growing companies and know where the landmines are buried (figuratively speaking, of course). They can help founders figure out how to hire, who their customers are, and when to raise more money.
"You don't just get one partner, you get the whole team," Rosenblatt told Business Insider.
Seed investments are dropping off
The number of startup investments at the seed and early stage has dropped off this year, reports data provider PitchBook, and one explanation is that VCs are spending their reserves on portfolio companies that are struggling in a pandemic world. The decline in seed capital could create an opening for a modestly sized fund like Oceans Ventures. The firm has already made 18 investments out of its debut fund, alongside firms with deeper pockets.
"We get invited by a lot of those late-stage funds into deals. Most of them, their model is not set up to spend a whole lot of time supporting founders in the seed stage," Rosenblatt told Business Insider. "They're chips, they're bets. They want to get in the door early so they can lead the later stage rounds. So they pull us in to support the founders."
The firm also has backing from high-powered investors like Ron Conway and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley.
Crowley, who is now the company's executive chairman, says he met for breakfast with the firm's founding partners before the pandemic shut down New York. Each partner came to the table with their own "superpower," he said.
"A high-quality person attracts other high-quality people," Crowley said.
Are you a venture insider with insight to share? Contact Melia Russell via email at mrussell@businessinsider.com or on encrypted chat app Signal at (603) 913-3085 (no PR inquiries, please). Open DMs on Twitter @meliarobin.
