We dive deep into our sectors. Our research drives our insights and thesis-driven approach.

At Equal, we love partnering with founders that are building verticalized software platforms. We believe that there are many markets and sectors that have important nuances that horizontal solutions are unable to fully capture, and the restaurant industry is no exception. Over the past decade, online restaurant ordering and delivery have exploded in popularity. As demand grew, delivery service platforms like Grubhub, Doordash, and UberEats gained prominence, with the promise of streamlining delivery operations and helping restaurants find new customers.

The last decade has undoubtedly seen one of the most fundamental changes to the benefits ecosystem in known history. While the long-term impacts of the pandemic on our healthcare system are still unknown, we’ve also seen a continued (and unrelated) evolution of the way healthcare and other benefits are funded. Given a highly competitive employment environment and rising healthcare costs, the benefits market has needed to evolve. With the adoption of the Affordable Care Act, we’ve seen the industry’s cost structure continue to evolve even more, further incentivizing employers to self-fund and identify creative ways to cut costs while expanding coverage. The benefits industry of today is so radically different from the cookie cutter plans of the past, that we’re referring to this newly formed dynamic as Benefits 2.0.

Prior to becoming a VC, I spent the first half of my career in the clean energy space before “pivoting” into technology investing about 10 years ago. I spent my early years running around the Department of Energy and working with utility clients, but the last 18 months of my tenure at Deloitte was spent working in our Emerging Markets practice. I got to work on some amazing projects, playing a role in the deployment of billions of dollars into clean energy infrastructure projects.

Early hiring in a startup is one of the make or break moments in a company. A lot of 1st time founders carry the world on their shoulders during these early days, staying scrappy to save money. As the best CEOs grow, they learn the best ROI they can drive is Return on Time. The CEO is special for a reason. Inherently, they have a super power (or powers) that make them special. That said, most 1st time CEOs aren’t spending their time as specialists leaning in on their super powers, they’re being the jack of all trades. This dilutes their strength.

I was reading an interview with Danny Rimer from Index discussing the acquisition of Figma and I was enamored with the way he spoke about both Dylan and the company. While Danny has an incredibly impressive array of investments, it’s clear that this one was special for him. As I was reading the interview it reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my mentors. They once told me: ‘Return on time will become your biggest constraint in VC. With that, ask “Will this deal change my life?”. For Danny, Figma was clearly one of those deals.