{{expertise}}
Seven years ago, Brent Murri was M13’s first-ever investing hire. Today, he’s a partner at the firm.
This propensity to stick with things over the long term is a theme in Brent’s investing career. He looks to build relationships with founders that last decades, not quarterly reporting cycles. Unlike most M13 partners, he’s had a focused career in venture investing for 10+ years and takes an almost academic interest in the way venture markets function in the broader economy. And as a MasterClass-trained home chef, he has the patience not to open the smoker before a dish is truly ready.
M13 co-founders Carter and Courtney Reum won Brent over to M13 in 2017, and today, he looks for founders with the same qualities he saw in the Reum brothers back then: grit, a desire to do things differently, and enthusiasm for the second act, not just the debut.
We sat down with Brent to talk about where he’s excited to invest, changes in the macroeconomy and creator economy, and how he helped build M13’s investing team as investor hire No.1.
Brent’s recent publications
Q&A with venture investor Brent Murri
What is exciting to you about AI right now?
I’m interested in the convergence of AI and marketing/advertising. For B2C businesses, marketing to consumers has been extremely hard. CAC (customer acquisition costs) is rising, data privacy changes are making targeting harder, and many marketing channels that marketers used five or six years ago—like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok—are not the reliable sources of ROI they used to be.
B2B businesses are experiencing the same challenges across their channels: Email open rates are down, attribution is harder to measure, and the proliferation of point solutions make it hard to make sense of all the data being gathered.
I'm intrigued by how companies are using AI to better target their buyer, better track the end consumer, and more effectively measure their marketing efforts.
For example, say a brand wants to find a YouTube influencer who’s a natural fit to talk about them. Rather than a human spending hours—or weeks—watching videos to find those influencers, there are solutions that use AI to scrape and understand language in YouTube videos, then identify which users are most aligned with the brand. Using AI to find the right messengers for your product is a really interesting use case to me.
How is the creator economy changing?
The creator economy 1.0 was about making it possible for anyone to build an online audience. If someone had a unique or funny take on something, they could gain a huge following using massive distribution channels like YouTube and TikTok. The hard thing about that is that your success is directly tied to the amount of time you spend producing content, and that doesn’t scale.
Today, I’m looking for businesses that help creators build durable, lasting businesses that aren’t directly correlated with their time spent. These can be advertising platforms that help creators make money, or “business-in-a-box” offerings like Pietra that let creators build consumer product companies that can outlast them.
What is a common misconception about venture that you want to clear up?
I think the media often gives VCs way too much credit for having control over exit decisions. As a VC investor, I’m not sitting there with a red button that says, “SELL.” The decision to exit involves a much more complicated system, including founders, shareholders, the board, and most importantly, the buyer (an IPO, M&A, or secondary transaction).
Obviously, one of the best ways to get liquidity in venture is through an IPO. But if you look at what’s happened to the IPO ecosystem over the last ten years, you see that’s become much harder. In 2018, median revenue at IPO was $90M. Today, the median revenue at IPO is $190M.
In other words, market requirements for IPOs have more than doubled. That’s not up to VCs, though it does affect the way we return our funds. That’s why we explore all types of liquidity options for our founders and LPs, including secondary transactions when appropriate.
{{appearances}}
As an investor, what makes a founder stand out to you?
I'm drawn to founders who have a never-quit mentality. Whether they are multiple- time founders or a first-time founder with previous operating experience, I really admire grit and perseverance.
An example of where I've seen this play out well is with founders whose first startup did reasonably well—so they’ve seen what success looks like, and how growth happens—but they aren’t finished yet. Maybe they now feel like they sold too early, or the market shifted, or something happened in their personal life and they got out. So they come back to their next project with a bit of a chip on their shoulder, something more to prove. I like a good sequel.
Because we invest at the early stages, it’s likely that the idea we originally back will change significantly—so I look for founders who I believe, when the first or second or third iteration doesn’t work out, won’t quit.
For example, I backed a founder whose first business didn’t work out. We discussed two choices: (1) I take back the remaining investment, or (2) he puts that money toward a new idea that he was passionate about pursuing.
Other investors leapt at option one, but I told him, "We believe in you. Use our investment toward this next idea." The founder appreciated that I was backing him, not just his first idea, and the next idea turned out to be even better than the first.
I value that kind of resilience. It’s a quality I recognized early on in our co-founders Carter and Courtney, which played a role in why I joined M13.
How do you like to work with founders?
I don’t want to be a blue skies investor. Here’s what I mean by that.
When I started working with John and James Erck, the founders of Rebuy, I told them, “Every month at our check ins, I’m going to ask, What’s not working? What can we fix this month?” I think knowing that we could have that relationship really gave them a sense of security and has helped us solve problems much faster.
What is something unique that you bring to the table as an investor?
When a founder shares a challenge, I try to check my ego, listen, and not lean overly hard on past experience. Instead of prescribing solutions, I try to uncover and understand all the symptoms and get the diagnosis right.
If I don’t have the right answer myself, I’ll move heaven and earth to help my founders find someone who does. Recently, I had a founder ask me about API pricing strategies for a new product she is launching. That’s something I don’t have experience with myself, but within 24 hours, I had gotten her the expert she needed to have that discussion. Afterwards, we discussed the optimal strategy together.
I’d say my superpower is being able to connect people together very quickly and without ego. It's like being the “air traffic controller.” My job is not to fly all the planes, but to point them to where they need to go.
You were the very first investor Carter and Courtney brought on. What made you decide to join them?
I wouldn’t have joined M13 if it wasn’t for Carter and Courtney's vision of Propulsion. The co-founders pitched me on building a new type of venture firm with more operators than investors in order to support companies early on. That was a completely foreign concept to me. My former firm had about 50 full-time investors, and only two part-time operators to help the portfolio, so it was an entirely opposite ratio. But I knew this was exactly the kind of help founders would want as they scale.
What was it like to build a venture investing firm from scratch?
My first year and a half, we didn't even do any investing. It was all about setting up the firm. We formulated our investment strategy, portfolio construction and differentiation in a crowded VC market. We hired our first lawyers, accountants, and fund administrators, the infrastructure a firm needs to operate. I talked to a lot of people to introduce us to prospective LPs, then spent a lot of time traveling around the country pitching LPs. It was an intense first 18 months.
We wouldn’t have pulled it off without the countless fellow GPs, especially in LA, who graciously offered their time and counsel. I’ll be forever grateful for this.
What is something most people don’t know about you, outside of your life as an investor?
I’m actually a pretty good cook. I love to grill and smoke. I was constantly on MasterClass during lockdown—I watched classes by Thomas Keller, Gordon Ramsay—and I learned more of the fine techniques of cooking. Being in the kitchen or outside at the grill is my escape.
What’s a daily habit of yours?
I try to end my day by spending 15 minutes reading. Not social media, not news—just a book.
To close out, let’s do a quick lightning round:
First job?
My dad is a home builder, so my first (unofficial) job, starting around 12 years old, was going to the job site and helping out. I did everything from cleaning up scraps to sweeping to laying gravel. The experience really taught me the value of a hard day’s work early in my life.
Favorite app?
X. (I’m @brentmurri.)
Guilty pleasure?
I have a huge sweet tooth, and I’m a sucker for all ice cream.
Hidden talent?
I’m fluent in Spanish, which I learned while on a Mormon mission when I was 19. I went to Washington, DC, and I worked with a predominantly Hispanic population. I don’t get to use it a lot today, but I do still speak Spanish sometimes when I talk with my Chilean sister-in-law or order street tacos in LA.
Book, movie, or music rec?
Setting the Table, by Danny Meyer from Union Square Hospitality Book, really teaches you how to be a good host. I try to incorporate that hospitality into my business practice. Asking, How does someone really feel when they’re with you? Did they enjoy their time? Do they want to come back?
If you weren’t working in tech or venture, what would you be doing?
Probably hosting a cooking show—though my dream is to take over for Guy Fieri and host Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
{{expertise}}
Seven years ago, Brent Murri was M13’s first-ever investing hire. Today, he’s a partner at the firm.
This propensity to stick with things over the long term is a theme in Brent’s investing career. He looks to build relationships with founders that last decades, not quarterly reporting cycles. Unlike most M13 partners, he’s had a focused career in venture investing for 10+ years and takes an almost academic interest in the way venture markets function in the broader economy. And as a MasterClass-trained home chef, he has the patience not to open the smoker before a dish is truly ready.
M13 co-founders Carter and Courtney Reum won Brent over to M13 in 2017, and today, he looks for founders with the same qualities he saw in the Reum brothers back then: grit, a desire to do things differently, and enthusiasm for the second act, not just the debut.
We sat down with Brent to talk about where he’s excited to invest, changes in the macroeconomy and creator economy, and how he helped build M13’s investing team as investor hire No.1.
Brent’s recent publications
Q&A with venture investor Brent Murri
What is exciting to you about AI right now?
I’m interested in the convergence of AI and marketing/advertising. For B2C businesses, marketing to consumers has been extremely hard. CAC (customer acquisition costs) is rising, data privacy changes are making targeting harder, and many marketing channels that marketers used five or six years ago—like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok—are not the reliable sources of ROI they used to be.
B2B businesses are experiencing the same challenges across their channels: Email open rates are down, attribution is harder to measure, and the proliferation of point solutions make it hard to make sense of all the data being gathered.
I'm intrigued by how companies are using AI to better target their buyer, better track the end consumer, and more effectively measure their marketing efforts.
For example, say a brand wants to find a YouTube influencer who’s a natural fit to talk about them. Rather than a human spending hours—or weeks—watching videos to find those influencers, there are solutions that use AI to scrape and understand language in YouTube videos, then identify which users are most aligned with the brand. Using AI to find the right messengers for your product is a really interesting use case to me.
How is the creator economy changing?
The creator economy 1.0 was about making it possible for anyone to build an online audience. If someone had a unique or funny take on something, they could gain a huge following using massive distribution channels like YouTube and TikTok. The hard thing about that is that your success is directly tied to the amount of time you spend producing content, and that doesn’t scale.
Today, I’m looking for businesses that help creators build durable, lasting businesses that aren’t directly correlated with their time spent. These can be advertising platforms that help creators make money, or “business-in-a-box” offerings like Pietra that let creators build consumer product companies that can outlast them.
What is a common misconception about venture that you want to clear up?
I think the media often gives VCs way too much credit for having control over exit decisions. As a VC investor, I’m not sitting there with a red button that says, “SELL.” The decision to exit involves a much more complicated system, including founders, shareholders, the board, and most importantly, the buyer (an IPO, M&A, or secondary transaction).
Obviously, one of the best ways to get liquidity in venture is through an IPO. But if you look at what’s happened to the IPO ecosystem over the last ten years, you see that’s become much harder. In 2018, median revenue at IPO was $90M. Today, the median revenue at IPO is $190M.
In other words, market requirements for IPOs have more than doubled. That’s not up to VCs, though it does affect the way we return our funds. That’s why we explore all types of liquidity options for our founders and LPs, including secondary transactions when appropriate.
{{appearances}}
As an investor, what makes a founder stand out to you?
I'm drawn to founders who have a never-quit mentality. Whether they are multiple- time founders or a first-time founder with previous operating experience, I really admire grit and perseverance.
An example of where I've seen this play out well is with founders whose first startup did reasonably well—so they’ve seen what success looks like, and how growth happens—but they aren’t finished yet. Maybe they now feel like they sold too early, or the market shifted, or something happened in their personal life and they got out. So they come back to their next project with a bit of a chip on their shoulder, something more to prove. I like a good sequel.
Because we invest at the early stages, it’s likely that the idea we originally back will change significantly—so I look for founders who I believe, when the first or second or third iteration doesn’t work out, won’t quit.
For example, I backed a founder whose first business didn’t work out. We discussed two choices: (1) I take back the remaining investment, or (2) he puts that money toward a new idea that he was passionate about pursuing.
Other investors leapt at option one, but I told him, "We believe in you. Use our investment toward this next idea." The founder appreciated that I was backing him, not just his first idea, and the next idea turned out to be even better than the first.
I value that kind of resilience. It’s a quality I recognized early on in our co-founders Carter and Courtney, which played a role in why I joined M13.
How do you like to work with founders?
I don’t want to be a blue skies investor. Here’s what I mean by that.
When I started working with John and James Erck, the founders of Rebuy, I told them, “Every month at our check ins, I’m going to ask, What’s not working? What can we fix this month?” I think knowing that we could have that relationship really gave them a sense of security and has helped us solve problems much faster.
What is something unique that you bring to the table as an investor?
When a founder shares a challenge, I try to check my ego, listen, and not lean overly hard on past experience. Instead of prescribing solutions, I try to uncover and understand all the symptoms and get the diagnosis right.
If I don’t have the right answer myself, I’ll move heaven and earth to help my founders find someone who does. Recently, I had a founder ask me about API pricing strategies for a new product she is launching. That’s something I don’t have experience with myself, but within 24 hours, I had gotten her the expert she needed to have that discussion. Afterwards, we discussed the optimal strategy together.
I’d say my superpower is being able to connect people together very quickly and without ego. It's like being the “air traffic controller.” My job is not to fly all the planes, but to point them to where they need to go.
You were the very first investor Carter and Courtney brought on. What made you decide to join them?
I wouldn’t have joined M13 if it wasn’t for Carter and Courtney's vision of Propulsion. The co-founders pitched me on building a new type of venture firm with more operators than investors in order to support companies early on. That was a completely foreign concept to me. My former firm had about 50 full-time investors, and only two part-time operators to help the portfolio, so it was an entirely opposite ratio. But I knew this was exactly the kind of help founders would want as they scale.
What was it like to build a venture investing firm from scratch?
My first year and a half, we didn't even do any investing. It was all about setting up the firm. We formulated our investment strategy, portfolio construction and differentiation in a crowded VC market. We hired our first lawyers, accountants, and fund administrators, the infrastructure a firm needs to operate. I talked to a lot of people to introduce us to prospective LPs, then spent a lot of time traveling around the country pitching LPs. It was an intense first 18 months.
We wouldn’t have pulled it off without the countless fellow GPs, especially in LA, who graciously offered their time and counsel. I’ll be forever grateful for this.
What is something most people don’t know about you, outside of your life as an investor?
I’m actually a pretty good cook. I love to grill and smoke. I was constantly on MasterClass during lockdown—I watched classes by Thomas Keller, Gordon Ramsay—and I learned more of the fine techniques of cooking. Being in the kitchen or outside at the grill is my escape.
What’s a daily habit of yours?
I try to end my day by spending 15 minutes reading. Not social media, not news—just a book.
To close out, let’s do a quick lightning round:
First job?
My dad is a home builder, so my first (unofficial) job, starting around 12 years old, was going to the job site and helping out. I did everything from cleaning up scraps to sweeping to laying gravel. The experience really taught me the value of a hard day’s work early in my life.
Favorite app?
X. (I’m @brentmurri.)
Guilty pleasure?
I have a huge sweet tooth, and I’m a sucker for all ice cream.
Hidden talent?
I’m fluent in Spanish, which I learned while on a Mormon mission when I was 19. I went to Washington, DC, and I worked with a predominantly Hispanic population. I don’t get to use it a lot today, but I do still speak Spanish sometimes when I talk with my Chilean sister-in-law or order street tacos in LA.
Book, movie, or music rec?
Setting the Table, by Danny Meyer from Union Square Hospitality Book, really teaches you how to be a good host. I try to incorporate that hospitality into my business practice. Asking, How does someone really feel when they’re with you? Did they enjoy their time? Do they want to come back?
If you weren’t working in tech or venture, what would you be doing?
Probably hosting a cooking show—though my dream is to take over for Guy Fieri and host Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
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The views expressed here are those of the individual M13 personnel quoted and are not the views of M13 Holdings Company, LLC (“M13”) or its affiliates. This content is for general informational purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute legal, business, investment, tax or other advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters and should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this content. This content is not directed to any investors or potential investors, is not an offer or solicitation and may not be used or relied upon in connection with any offer or solicitation with respect to any current or future M13 investment partnership. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Unless otherwise noted, this content is intended to be current only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in funds managed by M13, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by M13 is available at m13.co/portfolio.