A look at OATV's Indie.vc, a VC firm that invests modest amounts between $100K to $1M to power more sustainable tech startups and fund more diverse founders
Why a new approach to venture capital is powering more sustainable startups — and funding more diverse founders Tweets: @casey__allen , @joshuaogundu , @harryalford3 , @sirjrg , @jamieogrady , @sether , @bloombergtv , @jasminecrowe , and @joncoopertweets Tweets: Casey Allen / @casey__allen : “@indievc is going to be right about this. This will be a thing and be a meaningful category.” -@bryce https://marker.medium.com/... Josh / @joshuaogundu : “https://indie.vc/'s mortality rate is 10%. By comparison, about 44% of VC-backed companies die.” — Jennifer Alsever https://marker.medium.com/... Harry Alford / @harryalford3 : “@indievc makes diverse investments without being a self-professed diversity fund. You don't need to be a specialized fund to do the right thing. Just do the right thing.'” https://marker.medium.com/... Jason Garcia / @sirjrg : .@indievc is creating a model that works for the 81% of entrepreneurs who are left on the sidelines by traditional VC. No “pattern recognition” or “blitzscaling”. Just good ol' fashioned growth and business fundamentals to build enduring businesses. https://marker.medium.com/... @jamieogrady : Being black in Silicon Valley isn't easy. Important perspective in here on how racism impacts even those who've “made it.” https://www.bloomberg.com/... @sether : what @bryce is doing at @indievc is pretty special. great to see others taking notice. https://marker.medium.com/... Bloomberg TV / @bloombergtv : “A ‘friends and family round’ doesn't exist for Black founders,” says James Norman, who established and runs a tech startup, Pilotly Inc. “You come from a different place.” https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/... Jasmine Crowe / @jasminecrowe : I got this advice so much in the early days and I'm in Atlanta which is super diverse. Losing count of the times I heard “You need a white male co-founder or a white sales guy.” Say all this to say it's not just a Silicon Valley problem. https://twitter.com/... Jon Cooper / @joncoopertweets : For Black CEOs in Silicon Valley, Humiliation Is a Part of Doing Business A questionable piece of advice often given to Black business leaders: Hire a White wingman. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
In June 2020, at the height of the industry's reckoning over who gets funded, OATV's Indie.vc stood out for arguing that modest $100K–$1M checks could build durable companies instead of chasing unicorns — a direct counter to what Black tech founders were calling out as VC diversity theater that same week.
The pitch leaned on a striking stat: a 10% mortality rate across its portfolio versus roughly 44% for VC-backed companies generally. But the arc closes badly — Bryce Roberts' March 2021 postmortem on why the alternative-financing experiment failed makes this profile a snapshot of a model at its peak, not a template that won.
First-order effects
- Founders outside the traditional network — including the diverse founders Indie.vc explicitly targeted — gain access to six-figure capital without surrendering to the scale-or-die expectations of standard venture terms.
- Indie.vc's 10%-versus-44% mortality comparison hands limited partners and founders a concrete argument that smaller, sustainable portfolios can outlast conventional VC-backed cohorts.
Second-order effects
- The visibility of the model feeds the wave of diversity-focused funds and Zoom-accessible investors documented by December 2020, when Black startup founders reported it was getting easier to attract investors — rivals effectively validating the demand Indie.vc identified even as they competed for the same founders.
- Mainstream VCs face pressure to defend their 44% mortality norm, either by questioning whether small-check portfolios simply avoid ambitious bets or by adopting more founder-friendly structures themselves.
Third-order effects
- Roberts' own postmortem suggests the structural ceiling: an alternative financing model can show better survival rates yet still fail if it cannot deliver the returns or scale that the venture ecosystem's capital sources demand — a caution for every fund built on similar premises.
- If the pattern holds, sustainable-funding experiments persist not as replacements for venture but as a parallel tier, with their viability decided by whether LPs accept lower headline outcomes in exchange for durability and breadth of founder access.
The trend: Venture capital is fragmenting between the dominant big-check, high-mortality model and smaller-check alternatives aimed at sustainable companies and underrepresented founders — with Indie.vc's rise and collapse marking both the promise and the limits of that split.