FAQ

• What do you invest in?

  Our focus is on early-stage technology businesses that serve the Real Estate and Construction industries - Property Technology, or “PropTech” for short. We take a very broad view of what is included in PropTech, but have a preference for software over hardware, recurring revenue, and enterprise over consumer.
  

• At what stage do you invest?

  LAB Ventures typically first invests in companies from early seed to Series A, and we have reserved half of our capital to participate in follow-on financing rounds so we can accompany our portfolio companies as they grow and raise subsequent rounds.
  

• Check size?

  Our initial investment will usually be around $500K, as part of a larger round. We are collaborative and often co-invest with other funds. We will occasionally make smaller investments in early-stage companies.
  
  

• What do you look for in a startup?

  There are many factors, and no two startups are the same. But three critical elements are Market size, Traction, Team. The last is perhaps the most important, because we understand that the road to success probably won’t follow the path of your first strategic plan, so we seek to partner with amazing founders that have a deep understanding of their market/problem, the skills to execute, and the passion and grit to see the project through all of the inevitable ups and downs. In the early stages, there will likely still be many unknowns, but we do look for clear signals of product-market fit: typically revenues, but also users and usage / engagement. Lastly, the problem needs to be big enough that the ultimate payoff is worth the effort if you succeed.
  
  

• Are you a Corporate VC?

  No, we are a purely financial investor. However, we do have deep domain expertise in the real estate industry, and our investors (limited partners) come mostly from real estate and thus provide an invaluable network for our portfolio companies.
  

• Any specific geographic focus?

  we will invest in Startups located anywhere in the world, although we expect most investments will be US-based, or at least serving the US market. We especially want to connect with companies which we can assist in expanding their presence the South Florida and/or international markets.
  

• Why did you start LAB Ventures?

  We are a team of entrepreneurs which has been working for over a decade to build the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem in South Florida. We know how hard it is to build a startup business, because we have done it ourselves, and we want to help other entrepreneurs with our experience and network.
  
  We built The LAB Miami in 2012 to give entrepreneurs a place to work, to collaborate, and to meet investors and mentors. Out of The LAB, we helped to create Miami Angels, the largest network of angel investors in Florida. And in 2017 we launched LAB Ventures initially to help startups connect to large corporations, and to build our own startups.
  
  We have realized that two of the most important things that early stage companies usually lack are capital and corporate connections that can accelerate their growth. We launched our first fund in 2019 to help with both of those things.