Investible uses Marlee to back high-potential founders

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Investible, one of APAC's most active early-stage venture capital firms, has long believed the most critical variable in startup success is the founder. But predicting founder potential early on is notoriously hard.

That’s where Marlee comes in. By integrating Marlee into their due diligence and founder development programs, Investible gains deep insight into founder blind spots, motivational traits, and long-term potential. With access to more than ten years of data, Investible uses Marlee to sharpen its investment strategies and back the world’s most promising tech founders with confidence.

About Investible:

Investible is an early-stage venture capital firm backing visionary founders from Pre-Seed to Series A: those advancing humanity through bold innovation. Founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs-turned-angel investors Creel Price and Trevor Folsom, Investible combines deep founder experience with a data-driven approach to de-risk early-stage investing and deliver superior performance for investors.

With offices in Australia and Singapore, the firm pioneers novel ways to discover, invest in, and support high-potential technology companies. Investible’s mission is to elevate seed investment globally and help exceptional founders realise their full potential.

Industry: VC, Entrepreneurial development
Website: www.investible.com
‍Employees: 35

Challenges:

By its very nature, early-stage venture capital investments are inherently risky. Globally, 95% of startups fail (CB Insights), and with limited data to assess investment risk, it’s exceptionally difficult to predict which founders will succeed, especially early in their journey. Investible’s belief that the founder is the most important factor in determining startup success led them to seek a solution that could bring more data and consistency to their due diligence process.

Solution:

With human motivational data based on more than 20 years of research, Marlee identifies the critical blind spots of founders or founding teams and predicts the likelihood of venture success by comparing them to entrepreneurial success factor models.

Marlee provides Investible with deep insights into founder potential, revealing how individuals and teams can grow and where to focus development to increase their chances of success.

"No other tool is as powerful or insightful to identify and develop entrepreneurs as Marlee." —Creel Price, Co-founder and Director, Investible

Results:

By using evidence-based insights to identify and invest in high-potential tech startup founders, Investible achieves a superior financial return for investors and provides founders with the high-performing human capital needed to scale. The firm achieves returns in the top quartile of early-stage investors worldwide.

Marlee plays a key role in Investible’s due diligence process and founder programs, supporting the development of more investible businesses. Investible’s process extensively leverages data through its proprietary 16-point Investibility Index. The firm’s toolkit includes insights from Marlee, enabling the investment team to gain a deep understanding of founders and tailor support for maximum growth.

With more than ten years of Marlee data across its portfolio, Investible now tracks founder growth and compares behavioural patterns over time. The result is a portfolio of more than 150 companies—including Canva and Ipsy, valued at more than $49B and $1B respectively—and growing investor confidence in founder fit from the start.

"All entrepreneurs love data for running their business, but fall short on having any data on themselves. Since 2011, I've found Marlee an invaluable asset as an angel investor in backing founders." —Trevor Folsom, Entrepreneur and Angel Investor, Investible

Future:

Having now used Marlee for more than ten years, Investible has gained unique insights into the qualities and attributes that best correlate with venture success at the very beginning of a startup’s journey. It is now using those insights to develop new strategies and solutions to better support founders in achieving their full potential and delivering strong results for investors.

Why Marlee:

Collects and builds consistent founder data points to compare and research over time. Investible now has more than ten years of data on the growth and decision-making of startup founders.
Helps portfolio founders and program participants successfully grow and scale.
Assists Investible in developing success factor models: identifying common traits among founders who exited, fundraised later rounds, or failed.
The co-founders of Investible used Marlee in their own entrepreneurial journey, ultimately exiting their business for $109M in 2008.