Interview With Mike Collins, Founder and CEO of Alumni Ventures

This edition of Founder Spotlight features Mike Collins, the founder and CEO of Alumni Ventures, the largest venture capital firm in America focused on individual investors since its founding in 2014. Under his leadership, Alumni Ventures has grown rapidly and was ranked by Time as one of the top 25 venture capital firms. Mike built the firm on a customer-centric model that prioritizes making venture investing accessible, interesting, and long-term oriented. With a strong emphasis on co-investing alongside established VCs and maintaining a rigorous investment process, he has overseen a portfolio of over 1,400 companies and continues to add about 250 new startups each year.

In this interview with Eqvista, Mike discusses the key factors behind Alumni Ventures’ success, including their focus on networks, investment process, technology, and the wisdom of crowds. He also discusses how the firm sustains committed investor relationships and adapts to diverse alumni groups, while looking ahead to the profound impact of AI on the future economy. 

Alumni Ventures has grown into America’s largest venture firm for individual investors since 2014. You’ve also recently been ranked by Time as a top 25 VC firm. What do you see as the key factors behind this remarkable growth and success in democratizing venture capital?

The key to our success was laser focus on the customer. When I started the business in 2014, there were plenty of rich, sophisticated investors who had frankly pretty lousy means to access a venture capital startup, let alone a steady stream of quality deals. Also, the keys were (a) making investing easy and interesting, (b) co-investing alongside established VCs to always find their way into the best ventures, and (c) focusing on the long-term — we always try to do right by all our stakeholders — even if it’s painful in the short term. We’ve added lots to the formula since our launch, but those were essential differentiators.

Alumni Ventures has a portfolio of over 1,400 companies and continues to add around 250 new investments annually. How do you prioritize and select startups to maintain such a large and high-quality portfolio?

Our deal success formula: Networks, process, tech, and the wisdom of small crowds. Taking those in order, our own ~40 investing professionals (broken into 10 teams of four) continually search for the very best deals and work hard to earn our way into their next financing. That’s supplemented by a network of scouts, VCs, and other trusted connections who help us get deals done.

Second, our standardised evaluation process and technology ensure efficiency — from rapid initial triage to full diligence. We first look for fund-deal fit, and — as a routine co-investor — we require a strong lead investor whose opinion we trust. Then we do our vetting, looking for fund-deal fit, traction, moats, reasonable terms, experienced team, capital efficiency, etc. If that all adds up to a qualifying score, the deal goes for double-checks.

Here’s where the wisdom of small crowds comes in. Not only must the decision to invest be supported by the specific investing team, but also by their Investing Committee and our Office of Investments. That’s how we ensure both quantity and quality.

There’s been significant discussion about the “tourist money” that entered the venture during the boom years. How do you ensure Alumni Ventures maintains committed, long-term capital even when markets get choppy?

To date, we’ve had good repeat investing from our customers. But beyond that, I think we have educated our customers well about the importance of regular allocations to VC.

We also periodically offer our customers the opportunity to purchase equity in the AV management company. We like being partially owned by the folks who are literally invested with and now in us. This alignment gets everyone thinking about the key thing, which is investing in the most amazing ventures that we can.

Alumni Ventures operates across multiple university networks – MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and many others. How do you maintain consistency in the investment process while respecting the unique culture of each alumni community?

The investment process stays largely the same from community to community. Our standards, criteria, and process remain the same from deal to deal. 

We used to insist on investing only when there was an alumni connection. We found out that our alumni customers were more interested in investing together with other alums and owning a great portfolio, regardless of origin. Where we do observe and reflect community culture is through the nuance of communications with investors, IRL events, and on-campus presence.  

What advice do founders and investors need to maintain resilience in the face of market downturns or uncertainty?

We’re in an industry that encourages calculated risk-taking, new approaches, and a long-term mindset. Confidence, resilience, and optimism are baked into our bones.  “Strong beliefs loosely held” is a favourite quote. Entrepreneurship is having 10 ideas to test, with hopefully two or three working out, and those you scale. Remember, there’s always an opportunity for those who work hard and think creatively. Uber, WhatsApp, Cloudera, Slack, and Airbnb were all born during the Great Recession.

What is your perspective on how the world will evolve over the next 2 to 5 years with the widespread adoption and influence of AI? 

I think AI is the biggest technology of my lifetime. Everything is going to change: jobs, industries, society. It will take more than five years, as these changes always take longer than expected. Still, the deck is being reshuffled, and that’s good for the economy — especially for recent college graduates, who may be better equipped when it comes to AI-native skills. In fact, we’re leaning into a new model here at AV — entry-level AI-natives embedding with departments and executives to accelerate our business. Change: bring it on.