Two years ago, we founded ScaleX Ventures with the mission to help founders reach their full potential. Our team is made up of successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who have been there and understand the hard work it takes from the early days through the journey for a startup to succeed in today’s competitive market and turbulent times. We know it’s not just capital.
Since inception, we have invested in fifteen passionate technical founders across Europe & US since day one over the past 2 years. Before they find their product market fit, before they scale, sometimes even before they take their first check—that’s when we get to work. We collaborate with technical founders well before company scaling, lead early rounds, and rally our network to help turn bold ideas into category-creating iconic companies. We’ve been in the trenches with Resmo, Kondukto, Code2, Hipporello, Locomation, Upstash (and so many more) from the early days.
We are entrepreneurs first and so we wanted to create a program that would make our entrepreneurs a part of our ScaleX team just like stock options do for startups. Stock options at startups give employees incentives beyond just salaries; it gives them a sense of ownership over what they're building together as a team and allows them to feel valued by being invested in something special that they helped create. It's no wonder why so many successful companies today started out with humble beginnings rooted in generous stock option packages given out at launch.
We thought; why not do the same for ScaleX entrepreneurs?
"Technically, we don’t have to share our carry like 99.9% of the other funds with anyone but there are some really good reasons behind our decision. We are changing the conventional VC model upside down. We wanted to make sure that every founder we invest in feels rewarded for their hard work and has a sense of ownership to share and help each other in between our founders that are going through similar things at the same time - that’s why we created our the Founders’ Partner Program." - Dilek Dayınlarlı, Founding General Partner at ScaleX Ventures.
The founders of our portfolio companies become part of what we create collectively at ScaleX with the Founders’ Partner Program. All the founders we invest in get a share of the profits we make.
Entrepreneurs who took risks from the beginning should be rewarded.
First, we believe that any carry at ScaleX will be a fractional share of the portfolio founders’ cumulative achievements. While the VC firms are the primary risk takers and determine how their portfolio companies may perform, as a team we believe that our eventual success will be due to our entrepreneurs’ efforts. Therefore, entrepreneurs who took risks from the beginning should be rewarded for their initial risks no matter how the story ends.
“My journey as a startup founder and CEO has been filled with many challenges, each one more challenging than the last. At critical junctures and throughout that journey, talking with other founders was the most helpful for me. This is why we want to foster an environment for our entrepreneurs to benefit from each other’s success." - Berkay Mollamustafaoğlu, Founding General Partner at ScaleX Ventures.
Second, we aim to create a friendly atmosphere, one that fosters collaboration and support amongst our founders as well as sharing best practices to improve the fund’s overall success. This dynamic will actually work in two ways. Founders will receive protection in the event of an unexpected failure, which can give them an upside when no matter what happens. Also, founders will be able to share their experiences with one another to create more success stories, thereby nurturing an active, supportive community environment.
Our ambition is to make a great team out of this community, where every founder has each other’s back and amplifies each other!
Join us and become part of what we create collectively…
