Venture capitalist and former tech executive Chris Lynch might look like the frontman for a hardcore punk band, but that's not why he's getting on a tour bus within the next few weeks.
Lynch has been a co-founder and general partner at Accomplice, the Cambridge venture capital firm that has backed high-profile startups like DraftKings, PillPack and AngelList. But he's now leaving that behind to focus on two major passions: raising money for pediatric cancer research and boosting cybersecurity and data science startups.
"I have too much respect for my partners to half-ass it."
Lynch, who has two exits under his belt as a former CEO, told me on Thursday evening that he decided to leave Accomplice because he wanted to focus more on Hack/Reduce and Hack/Secure, his two groups that focus on boosting the cybersecurity and data science community, along with the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a pediatric cancer charity.
While he's already been working on all three initiatives, Lynch said the timing was right because Accomplice was planning to raise a new fund in the fourth quarter, which would have distracted him from his passion projects.
"I have too much respect for my partners to half-ass it," Lynch said of Accomplice.
Beyond raising a new fund, which will be equally split between Massachusetts and California startups, Accomplice is also in the midst of expanding to an office in San Francisco, with plans to hire a partner and up to two junior investment professionals, co-founder and general partner Jeff Fagnan confirmed to me. Fortune and Axios first reported the news.
So why is Lynch getting on a bus? To promote his three big endeavors, all at once.
Lynch said his plan is to get sponsors and invite like-minded individuals — in addition to his Hack/Reduce and Hack/Secure co-founder Cort Johnson — to tour with him from Boston to Austin, with stops in between in New York, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. His goal is to find new cybersecurity and data science startups to fund and provide mentorship to, as well as raise money towards his $100 million fundraising goal for St. Baldrick's.
While Lynch said he's not necessarily making it a requirement for future companies he works with to become involved with St. Baldrick's, he's really hoping they will.
"Ninety percent of the time I pick special people that will understand and do the right thing," he said.
His other hope is to find people who are interested in expanding the communities for Hack/Reduce and Hack/Secure to the cities he'll be touring through. With that effort, Lynch said he wants to prove that you don't have to be on the West Coast to build large and powerful companies working in cybersecurity and data science — something Boston has already done well.
But Lynch won't be leaving everything behind from his Accomplice days. He said he will still maintain a board seat for the startups he led investments in through the firm: DataRobot, Threat Stack, Sqrrl, Nutonian and Recorded Future.
"As long as those companies are alive, there's a relationship between us," he said. "I'm forever connected."
