How Lorenzo Thione Is Scaling Support For Diverse Founders With Gaingels
Lorenzo Thione is the Managing Director of Gaingels, a leading LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate and one of the largest and most active private investors in North America. He is also the co-founding Chairman of StartOut, Chairman of the Board at Social Edge, and previously co-founded Powerset, a natural-language search engine startup sold to Microsoft for $100 million in 2008.
Lorenzo Thione, Managing Director of Gaingels
We sat down with one of the most influential people in tech, Lorenzo Thione, who shares his very inspiring journey and how that led him to be where he is today.
Lorenzo grew up in Milan, Italy and had a technical background at an early age. He completed his studies at the University of Texas at Austin, from which he holds a M.S. in Computer Engineering.
He is now the Managing Director of Gaingels, a leading LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate and one of the largest and most active private investors in North America. He is also the co-founding Chairman of StartOut, Chairman of the Board at Social Edge, and previously co-founded Powerset, a natural-language search engine startup sold to Microsoft for $100 million in 2008.
Lorenzo is named one of the most influential LGBT people in tech in 2014 and 2018 and his dedication in supporting and elevating leaders of the LGBTQ+ in the venture startup is amazing.
As the Managing Producer at Sing Out, Louis! Productions, he is also a Tony-Award winner (Hadestown, The Inheritance). He produced and co-created the Broadway musical, Allegiance starring George Takei and Lea Salonga. He is currently working in a new original musical, Indigo, as well as The Elephant Whisperer.
We covered a lot of ground in this episode, including:
Topics Discussed:
Where his passion comes from and how Lorenzo found entrepreneurship.
Helping others to build a diverse company by providing more than just funding.
The different companies that he had a part in building.
His mark on Broadway.
How your descent can make a difference in your future and your thinking.
How the model of angel groups is evolving to syndicates and SPV’s.
The role of a “Platform” strategy to help Gaingels portfolio companies.
What does Lorenzo think about the future of Venture Capital.
Quote of the Episode:
“Strategic Value, what is all being brought to the table”
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
His mentor told him to, “ be obsessive, about how you can add value, to your own network and relationships”
Links & show notes from this episode:
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Introducing Firehouse Ventures 🔥
The past few years I have been quietly building an AngelList Syndicate to share co-investment opportunities for some of my favorite companies. We are calling our syndicate, Firehouse Ventures, a constant reminder to serve the community of founders and never forget that without them (the relentless community of builders), we would be nothing. Here’s to the crazy ones. 🔥
The past few years I have been quietly building an AngelList Syndicate to share co-investment opportunities for some of my favorite companies. When you back a syndicate, you're under no obligation to invest in any deals. You are just committing to keeping any information you receive private and confidential. If you are interested in learning more, just drop your name and email at the button below (and keep reading if you are interested in the back story):
For over 8 years of my pre-New York City life, I was a volunteer fireman with the Swormville Fire Company. I went in burning buildings, ran transports as an EMT, worked up to the rank of Lieutenant, and served the local community 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. My hope was that I was making a meaningful impact on the people of my local community. I wanted to use my time on this planet to make a dent in the world and leave my mark.
One of the reasons I got into startups and venture capital almost a decade ago, was that I saw it as a way to make an even larger impact on the world. Startups were starting to touch the lives of billions of people. I thought, if I could help the founders do that better, then I could (through some magical butterfly effect) help improve the lives of billions of people. I saw venture capital as a way to have my time, serve a larger community and make a larger impact.
The funds & investors that I looked up to most, a decade ago, were predominantly founder and team-focused. Now you would call the stage they played at Pre-Seed and they called themselves “Super Angels” as that term didn’t exist yet.
It’s no secret that in the last decade, the venture capital industry has been the fastest-growing segment of the private capital industry. With lots of new entrants, the industry evolves every few years and we see new styles of investment. For example, Tiger Global is currently re-writing the playbook by playing a different game than how venture capital has been traditionally done. And Covid has also created “An Unpredictable Reopening In Venture Capital”, which Semil Shah of Haystack recently summed up nicely.
But to me, one thing still stays true throughout all of Venture Capital’s evolution. The people are what make the organizations truly excel. And just how the Firemen are there to serve the people of the community, Venture Capitalists are in the business of serving kickass founders. To keep the structures upright when a crisis happens. To reassure, when the unexpected occurs. To offer aid when it’s needed the most. And to help put out fires. There is a human connection that was key to my role as a firefighter, and it is still key today to my role as an investor.
During my time at Founder Institute, I was very fortunate to meet and work with Rachel Sheppard, who was the Director of Global Marketing. She helped scale FI to 180+ cities and 65+ countries. Now Rachel is the Director of Ventures at Mars Petcare as well as the Co-Creator of the Female Founder Initiative, supporting women founders from all over the world. With her on the west coast and me on the east coast, we are working together through our joint network of entrepreneurs, venture capital funds, and accelerators, to when we can syndicate our favorite deals.
We are calling our syndicate, Firehouse Ventures, a constant reminder to serve the community of founders and never forget that without them (the relentless community of builders), we would be nothing. Here’s to the crazy ones. 🔥