From Dubai to Silicon Valley: meet the brothers refining venture capital – The National

From Dubai to Silicon Valley: meet the brothers refining venture capital – The National

In an era that sees venture capitalists flock to Twitter to dispense their wisdom to the masses via threads, newsletters, podcasts and every other conceivable medium, Mohammed and Ammar Amdani – brothers and co-founders of Adapt Ventures, a year-old venture firm with $10 million to deploy and more than 40 investments under its belt – are refreshingly low-key. Their approach to venture is refined. It’s designed not to compete with, but to complement, that of Sequoia’s and a16z’s of the world.

As an early stage start-up, having the backing of a Silicon Valley incumbent is like being handed the keys to a shiny new kingdom where the money is easier to raise, the employees are easier to hire and the customers are easier to sell to. But it can leave “a gap in your needs as a nascent founder,” says Mohammed, who is most often in San Francisco, but both of them move around a lot, they concede.

“If an investor leads your seed round, you only want to put your best foot forward. This restricts you from sharing your vulnerabilities and, usually, vulnerabilities are the things you need to spend more time and attention on.”