Fairbridge—Annual Shareholder Update

Dear Fairbridge Partners,

I hope that that this quarter has been productive. I wish you balance and renewal this spring equinox! I am excited to share a comprehensive annual update at a defining moment in our journey at Fairbridge.

Founding Fairbridge was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream—merging my personal experience, a passion for investing and uniting people, technology, and capital to address critical societal challenges.

After moving to the U.S. in 2002 and observing many of my well-to-do college friends’ families fall out of the middle-class, it became clear to me that bridging the gap between technological progress and social progress would be one of the most important investment opportunities of our lifetime. This insight set me on a journey that prepared me for Fairbridge. The pandemic, the rapid advancement of technology, and the current political environment have added further clarity to the significance of Fairbridge’s thesis.

Where we are today—Fairbridge is primed to scale

I launched Fairbridge with strong conviction and clarity of the problem, but without the classical background of a traditional venture firm valued by large institutional investors. This allowed us more time and freedom to test and develop our business model. We also deliberately avoided easier paths—such as an explicit focus on narrow customer segments and verticals, or quick hiring—that could have positioned us to raise capital faster, but would have limited our scalability and impact down the road. The last three years have been an intensive journey of rapid learning and growth to build the foundation to pursue this opportunity—refining our investment thesis, sharpening our value proposition to founders, and strengthening our operational capabilities. We have worked tirelessly to transform our bold vision into a sharpened strategy and a compelling value proposition, supported by robust operational infrastructure. We are positioned to scale in partnership with values-aligned strategic partners. In the startup world, we call this finding product-market fit. I will elaborate below.

Market landscape—The market is ripe for addressing social problems

A rapidly changing venture landscape is challenging fund managers to answer difficult questions about their firms’ strategy and differentiation. Today, there are thousands of investment managers competing for the same capital and investment opportunities. Our approach of starting with a difficult problem instead of solving for a capital strategy has allowed us to build a differentiated business. We are confident that investors seeking alpha will find our proposition compelling. We are strategically positioned to benefit from the key factors affecting the venture industry:

AI and rapid technological progress: AI is challenging all conventional wisdom for how companies are launched, financed, and scaled. Efficiencies from AI are allowing small teams to scale quickly with small sums of capital, which will shift the power dynamics of our industry. Venture firms will require something extra to win competitive deals. Additionally, supercharged capital efficiency from AI will create a sub asset class where venture-scale return can be achieved with businesses of much smaller scale. And, finally, we are witnessing a technological shift from SaaS to AI, increasing technology’s ability to solve customers’ problems more directly without having to learn complex technological applications. This shift is similar to when Shopify arrived, allowing millions of ecommerce entrepreneurs who didn't know how to code a shopping cart to their site to sell online immediately without needing Demandware. 

(Geo)politics and the social environment: The current polarization of political allegiances to the extreme right and left is the result of a widening rift between technological and social progress that has caused worsening income inequality and disparity in the access to the benefits of human progress. It’s clear that the public, civic, and cultural institutions, traditionally tasked with addressing these discrepancies are insufficient and need help. Today, there is a growing number of people, desperate for decent service and willing to pay for it, but still cannot access products and services they need. This is a massive market gap.

Fundraising, opportunity cost, and inflation: The golden age of private equity investing buoyed by a permissive interest rate policy came to an end after the pandemic. This change has ushered in a difficult economic and social environment, making it challenging for funds and startups to raise capital. Limited Partners are flocking to credit, to larger venture funds, and have suspended allocations to programs that benefited funds led by underrepresented managers. Fairbridge deserves to exist because our differentiated thesis contributes meaningfully to global return—there is a unique opportunity to generate alpha by leveraging technology to address real needs of billions worldwide who are currently underserved by traditional venture.

Fairbridge business update—Building a differentiated business to confront a critical need

Fairbridge’s grand vision: To close of the gap between technological and social progress. We fund technology startups that create markets delivering benefits of human progress to the underserved. We execute our vision by being the earliest institutional partner (pre-seed/seed) of choice for the grittiest founders in our space. Our goal is to catalyze investment in social progress by creating a robust market upstream that serves as a pipeline for later stage investors.

Why now? Today, there’s no real venture capital market for tackling social problems. The brightest minds—investors and founders alike—are pursuing grand conquests like space and AGI, chasing high-income consumers, and courting corporate or government contracts. Impact investing? It’s bogged down in bureaucracy, paralyzed by the inherent tension between financial return and "impact." But the tide is shifting. We are tapping into the growing wave of high-caliber founders who want to fix the planet and the power of technology to create viable markets for lower-income, high-value segments. Add to that the $600BN waiting in the Giving Pledge and $250BN in DAFs sitting idle—all funds looking for a way to fund social progress. The opportunity isn’t just ripe; it’s urgent.

A sharp business model

What we are good at / a commitment to relationships: Our unfair advantage lies in our deep understanding of social challenges and our ability to build intimate, trust-based relationships with purposeful founders—especially immigrant entrepreneurs—early in their journey. Each fund is structured with a diversified portfolio of 30-40 investments, while keeping reserves for follow-on support to a few standout winners. Our advantage works best with smaller funds—an approach we can scale by growing our team or writing larger initial checks. Our philosophy is to align incentives with our investors and win through carried interest
A compelling value proposition: Our primary objective is to convert our companies into assets that pattern-match what Series A investors seek—making them must-have assets. Series A graduation is a key metric. We achieve this by helping our portfolio companies find product-market fit, scale their go-to-market strategies, and by facilitating table-setting with aligned stakeholders who unlock incremental return potential—e.g., through non-dilutive financing, strategic partnerships, and customer contracts
Investing super-early in the right startups: We prefer to be the earliest partner of choice and to invest up to $500K in B2B technology businesses
A focus on the widest discrepancies: We target areas with potential for highest return: Economic mobility, Access to health & wellness, and Access to a livable planet
Starting with North America: Progress Gaps are a massive global opportunity, but we are focused on building a commanding presence in North America first

Fairbridge goals for 2025—Strengthening the rails

Team building: Laying the foundation for Fairbridge has been rewarding and humbling. I am excited to invite a partner to the firm who shares our vision and mission, and can help propel us forward. Finding the right partner for a mission-driven fund is challenging, and I'm counting on your support in this critical endeavor. Additionally, we are hiring an associate who brings passion for our space, exceptional capabilities, and a strong drive to build networks that enhance sourcing and portfolio value
Strengthening proprietary sourcing: We are establishing ourselves as thought leaders in Bridging Progress Gaps^SM. Our sourcing strategy leverages insightful content that challenges the industry through its thought leadership, delivers demonstrable value to founders, and positions us as an essential part of their "tribe". This year, we are streamlining our sourcing channels to concentrate on high-value networks. We are also actively engaging with platforms that amplify our thought leadership and allow us to demonstrate our expertise to a broader audience  
Scaling the brand: Sharpening and promoting broader visibility of our Bridging Progress Gaps^SM brand is paramount and ongoing. Our focus this year is to unlock distribution through creative and efficient brand and performance marketing. Building upon our strengths in written content, we're adding video and offline events and cultivating strategic affiliations and partnerships with influential organizations and thought leaders in our field to further solidify our market presence
Reinforcing operations: We continue to strengthen our operational foundations, aiming for professional excellence. By the end of Q2, we will launch a comprehensive, end-to-end technology operating system designed to enhance our operational efficiency and professional capabilities, ensuring Fairbridge is well-positioned to scale sustainably and effectively

We need your help with Bridging Progress Gaps^SM 

We have opened our data room for Fairbridge’s second financing round to our extended network. We view this as our firm’s Seed financing round. Now that we have arrived at product-market fit, we are investing to grow our funnel of qualified leads and to execute on the best opportunities. We are also investing in our firm’s operational capabilities, especially people. Here is a link to our summary material [Please reach out to me for link]. Our goal is to conclude fundraising by the fall of this year. As you review the material, you can support us in the following ways:

1. Providing thoughtful feedback

2. Introducing us to friends, colleagues, or partner networks that are mission-aligned, and

3. Amplifying Fairbridge’s vision within your networks and spheres of influence

Please reach out to me with your feedback and thoughts.

Portfolio Update—Resilience in a difficult market

[Ping me for the details]

Our asks—It takes a village to build a fund

1. Team: Introductions to a partner-level hire. Ideally with experience / track record investing in the digital health space or with deep knowledge and passion for investing for social progress

2. Marketing: 

   1. Introductions to a marketer with capability to manage a budget for performance spend. We are active on the following platforms: Linkedin, YouTube, Beehiiv, etc.

   2. A partner to help us with our offline events series

3. Networks: Introductions at senior level executives at these organizations: Emerson Collective, Council for Inclusive Capitalism, Omidyar Network, Skoll Foundation and more

Gratitude—It takes a village to build a bridge

Mission aligned investors are the biggest moat for an early stage startup. I founded Fairbridge with a grand vision to build a practice to entice the best founders to tackle social problems. We do not yet have unicorn exits, but we have made tremendous progress towards our vision. I have benefited from your relentless support of and patience. Thank you. We are not going to stop until we win!

Happy spring!

My very best,

-David

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APPENDIX

We read a lot! Here is some of what we are reading

Private equity shares the wealth

Alpha in hard societal problems

Funding Utopia

An investment approach for maximizing impact

In the swarm – Digital prospects

Startup founders turning to seedstrapping

Why are more young people getting cancer?

AI will divide the best from the rest

The troubled energy transition

Choose Good Quests