September 3, 2019, Providence, Rhode Island - Octane Venture Labs announced it is launching a pre-seed venture fund that could raise up to $10 million by Q2 2020. Initial LP commitments are already coming out of Silicon Valley, San Diego, Boston and Providence as of the date of this release.
Dan Rossignol, former Silicon Valley growth operator is the founder of Octane Venture Labs will lead the fund. This fund will be the first of its kind in Rhode Island and being run by a Haitian American it is anything less than a traditional venture capital firm. While the fund does not set out to exclusively invest in minorities such as a firm like Harlem Capital, Rossignol is bullish on the amount of diverse talent he is seeing in between NYC and Boston, which is the corridor where the fund plans to primarily make its pre-seed investments.
“It’s no secret that both NYC and Boston have some location base advantages, that said there is a strong amount of underestimated talent coming out of places like Providence and through our advisory work have built trust, relevance, and partnerships within the early stage founder community”said Rossignol.
"There is a clear gap for early-stage financing in Rhode Island and the surrounding ‘white space’ between Boston and NYC. Dan is seeking to establish a viable route for local entrepreneurs to gain access to funding and expertise from successful startup executives," says Carlos Ventura CEO of Feast and Fettle.
In addition to their first mover advantage the fund plans to also differentiate itself by being the best strategic partner focussed on helping talented founders solve for their early stage revenue growth goals.
“It’s becoming more common that early stage founders are being asked about their revenue strategies from potential investors, but unfortunately the majority of investors aren’t optimized to help the founders solve for that, Rossignol says”. Octane see this as a great opportunity and plans to help founders create sales and marketing playbooks, connect them to early customers, and provide tangible strategies to help grow their business on day one.
