Why We Invested in Turbine

As early stage investors, any investment we make is a bet on the founding team just as much as the business itself. Repeat founders hold a lot of weight for us in making our decision – we’ve seen them overcome challenges to lead a business through to a successful exit, and we believe they can do it again.

Over the course of our 25 year history, we’ve had the opportunity to invest in multiple repeat founders as they launch their next big idea.

‘We came on board as early investors in ShopKeep (acquired by Lightspeed in 2020) and Bookkeep; both were founded by Jason Richelson, who went from wine store owner to startup founder by building his own point-of-sale software. Another example is Kevin Nazemi, who co-founded Oscar Health and is now leading Charlie. And our recent investment in Turbine stems from our connection to Mike Hurst, who previously founded Exactuals, another TTV portfolio company.

Mike is a great example of a founder who sees a problem and wants to solve it. In 2010 while leading a sales team at Oracle, he made a site visit to the largest entertainment union in Hollywood and saw an entire office building floor filled with hundreds of bankers boxes full of paper checks. He asked what they were for and was told they were residual payments for actors and musicians. The checks came through the front door from studios and payroll companies and were manually processed one by one and then sent to more than 200,000 recipients. The end to end processing of these payments was taking months and many of the checks were written for less than the cost of postage.

To Mike, the solution was obvious. If these payments could be digitized and automated, it would save hours of sorting and mailing, plus the recipients would be able to receive their funds much faster. It was a lightbulb moment that led him to found Exactuals, a software company that processes recurring, high-volume, non-payroll payments – like royalties and residuals – quickly and securely.

Mike had a similar lightbulb moment with Turbine. As a venture investor himself, he saw how general and limited partners wanted to invest in new funds while maintaining their positions in earlier vintages that had not yet exited. Mike believed there was an opportunity for a liquidity platform that would provide credit facilities to private equity and venture capital investors – which is exactly what he built.

In a first-of-its-kind approach, Turbine’s lending platform will provide general partners and limited partners the option to borrow against the value of their existing portfolio investments without reducing exposure to these positions. LPs can also choose to leverage existing investments to make commitments to new fund vintages or SPV allocations, and to fulfill capital calls for existing commitments. By partnering directly with firms to underwrite and secure portfolios, Turbine will allow for seamless and cost-effective lending, unlocking capital that has historically been inaccessible.

One of our guiding principles at TTV is that we work for founders, not the other way around. We invest in smart, hard-working fintech entrepreneurs who are rethinking how business is done, and then we get out of the way and let them lead. Turbine has compiled an exceptional founding team to bring this solution to market, and we’re proud to support Mike as he brings his second startup through a successful fundraise and launch.