A young Chicago VC firm that's quickly gaining traction for backing ambitious consumer startups is reloading with its second fund a year and a half after launching its first.
Starting Line, founded by former Chicago Ventures VC Ezra Galston, announced Monday it raised $30 million for its second fund. Galston said Starting Line plans to back around 25 companies in the latest fund, writing checks of about $1 million.
Starting Line's breakout investment from its first fund is Cameo, which last month raised $100 million in new funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Starting Line led Cameo's seed round and was one of its first outside investors.
Starting Line has also invested in Made In Cookware, an Austin startup that's also backed by Alinea Group co-founders Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas and is used by hundreds of celebrity chefs. Other portfolio companies from fund one include Unchained Capital, a bitcoin-backed lending company with more than $1 billion of assets under management, and Xena, a Milwaukee startup making a stylish steel toe work boot for women.
Galston says Starting Line's goal is to back consumers startups building products "for the 99 percent." And its success from its first fund is based on its philosophy of not operating like a "traditional" Midwest VC firm.
"We wrote big checks and took big bets early, and some of those are really paying out in markets that were seemingly too niche," Galston said. "We've always been focused on being creative, having fun and investing along our own passions. We know what the traditional Midwestern venture capital firm looks like. We do not want to be that."
Starting Line has so far invested in six startups through its second fund, four of which are in Chicago. Its most recent bets include Spot, a startup from Chicagoan Greg Caplan that's reducing "Zoom fatigue" through walking meetings, and The Player's Trunk, a marketplace that helps college athletes make money by selling their game-worn shoes, jerseys and other products after they graduate.
Starting Line is also led by former Trunk Club executive, Haley Kwait Zollo, former Formstack and Formspring founder Ade Olonoh, and Foxtrot SVP of operations Scott Holloway, who was also employee No. 10 at Instacart. Galston and the Starting Line team have also made personal investments in a handful of fast-growing consumer startups like SpotHero, Chowbus, M1 Finance and Substack.
"Thanks to some of our early bets, our returns are in the top 1% of all ventures capital firms globally," Galston said. "(We want to be a firm) where even if someone takes a small check from us, overnight they're on the map and credible to hundreds or thousands of people watching around them."
LPs in Starting Line's second fund include notable consumer startup founders in Chicago like Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney, M1 Finance CEO Brian Barnes, Kin CEO Sean Harper, Tovala CEO David Rabie, Clearcover CEO Kyle Nakatsuji, Factor CEO Mike Apostal and Sprout Social co-founder and CTO Aaron Rankin. Institutional investors like such as Foundry Group, Vintage Investment Partners, Bracket Capital, 50 South Capital and Wicklow Capital also participated.
