A story of why a Boston-based VC moved with his wife and dog to NYC

1. The State of NYC Investing
A story of why a Boston-based VC
moved with his wife and dog to
NYC

2. I’m Matt
I’m Matt

3. I’m a Principal at Flybridge Capital Partners

4. This is my wife and our lovechild, The Beast

5. We met in Boston
(at a bar … without The Beast)

6. Bought a home in
Boston

7. And are Red Sox fans

8. But as of two months ago,
we’re NYers
(The Beast included)

9. WHY?

10. Hint…
It’s not because of
your baseball team
Which finished the season the same as
Boston: as NOT World Series Champs

11. First, some data…

12. Confession: to say I’ve only recently become a
NYer isn’t totally true

13. I was what I like to call a
“bridge and tunnel investor”
for 2 years

14. Bridge and tunnel investor (n) /ˈbrij əәn(d) ˈtəә-nəәl in-ˈvest-or /
An investor who parachutes in from a remote office to spend
a few days a month in NYC but lives elsewhere
Note: the number of b&t investors has increased dramatically
over the past 12 months

15. I was b&ting for two years because NYC was
representing a larger number of deals for both
Me and The Firm
Number of NYC Companies Number of NYC Companies
Evaluated by Year Evaluated by Year
2009 2010 2011 2012E 2009 2010 2011 2012E

16. So in the spring of this year our
team sat down, reviewed the
data and I committed to move
to NYC

17. But not because of
your shitty sports
teams

18. So…
WHY?

19. Four key
observations

20. 1: Strong and welcoming entrepreneurial community

21. 2: Large, West Coast based technology companies are
setting up shops here

22. 3: NY has technology leaders in a wide variety of verticals

23. 3: NY has technology leaders in a wide variety of verticals

24. 4: The is broad macro support for the entrepreneurial
community in NYC

25. These suggest to me that tech
in NYC is real and here to stay

26. So my wife, The Beast and I turned
our backs on Boston to move to NYC

27. …even though the Yankees suck

28. Don’t get me wrong,
there are still risks

29. There’s a mismatch in the number of seed funds and
the number of series-A+ funds that is not sustainable
Seed/Angel funds with Seed to scale funds with
fulltime people in NYC fulltime people in NYC

30. The NYC exit environment
gets knocked

31. There is a greater number of
experienced engineers in SF

32. Valuations have grown
with the increased
attention

33. But these won’t hold
us back because we’re
NYers

34. And I’m proud to be
one of you

35. The End
Questions?
matt@flybridge.com