Full Circle Moment: From RevUp Founders to RevUp Investors
A few weeks ago we had the first close on our newest Fund. Means we’ve been investing without interruption since 2016. A nice milestone…but not why I found myself weeping.
At the same time, I was packing my kid off to college–the kid who sat with me in his Phineas and Ferb PJs while I wrote investor updates for RevUp Fund 1. Somehow he went from spilling Cheerios on my laptop to moving into a dorm room.
In this moment of transition I felt the pang of uncertainty that many working parents feel. What did I miss while building a business? What did he miss while I was talking a founder off the ledge, scanning decks, or slipping out to take that ‘urgent’ call?
No math will ever solve that equation, and the answer seems to change with the season. I’m not saying what happened next resolved my uncertainty. But, it helped.
A few days before he moved out, my kid casually commented that it was “cool” that more former RevUp founders had become investors in the newest fund. “I guess they don’t hate you,” he said, the deadpan delivery embellished with a grin…a brand of good natured snark that he most certainly inherited from his mother.
The goodness of it hit me like a coconut on the head. When a founder becomes an investor it IS the highest compliment, a clarion affirmation that our work had meaning beyond investor profit. When the moment came, these founders chose our fund. For them, it was a way to express gratitude for whatever help we gave them, pay it forward to the next founder, and (hopefully) make money doing what they loved: building businesses. That my baby-to-grown-ass-man-overnight child saw the significance in their decision was almost too much.
Made me blubber like a baby.
A few of our founders-turned-LPs came into a lot of money after a successful exit. They have invested into many things, not just RevUp. But others just reached a point where they could comfortably carve out a little money to place a bet in the private market. In both scenarios, the significance is the same: They don’t hate me. 😂
Now, they are supporting us the way we supported them. And, for the same reason: because they believe that funding entrepreneurship in more ways is mission critical.
Sometimes we get lost in the mechanics of early stage investing. Lost in jargon about valuations, dilution, exit multiples, whatever. The tactical aspects can be so demanding that there’s little bandwidth left to revel in the magic of bringing new things the life.
But for those of us at the bottom of the investing pyramid—the early stage fools who take risks on fledgling companies and their bravely delusional founders—the mechanics are but a diversion. The feels will get you every time.
———
More About RevUp Capital
RevUp Capital invests in B2B and B2C companies that are revenue-driven and ready to double down on growth. We deploy cash and capacity to help companies grow from $1-3M to $10-30M, quickly and efficiently, using a revenue-based model. Companies enter our portfolio with $500K-$3M in revenue, a strong growth rate, and a team that’s ready to scale. Our typical investment range is $300K-$500K.
To learn more about RevUp and our most recent fund, visit https://www.revupfund.com/blog/athena-growth-fund-2025
And if the idea of expanding the toolkit for early stage investing sounds good to you, check out a recent recording that Melissa produced on the economic upsides of investing beyond unicorns.
Learn More at www.revupfund.com
More About the Author
RevUp Capital Managing Partner Melissa Withers is a bullish advocate for innovating the ways in which new companies are funded and supported. Beyond building new economic models for early stage investing, Melissa is also committed to directing more entrepreneurial funding to those underserved and overlooked by traditional VC.