The Other Brother

my name is mark

In 1996, Mark Bezos acquired a $10,000 stake in Amazon

It’s now estimated to be worth $1B+

Mark is Jeff Bezos’s half brother, and the two are known to be close

Here’s a picture of Mark and Jeff going to space together

Contrary to popular belief, Mark is more than a side character in the story of Amazon

• Founded an ad agency, Bezos-Nathanson, that was acquired by East West Creative in 2005

• Head of Communications at the Robin Hood Foundation (Paul Tudor Jones-led charity)

• Founded HighPost Capital, a private equity firm, in 2019

In 2022, HighPost Capital raised $535M for their first fund

Last week, HighPost Capital closed on a $100M VC fund, HIPstr…

money trees

According to Carta, the number of startups that shutdown in Q1 2024 is up 58% compared to Q1 2023.

This data is conservative as Carta only included confirmed closures

Useful to keep this in mind as we dig into Mark launching a new VC fund

In 2022, Mark Bezos and David Moross, a private equity veteran, closed HighPost Capital Fund I, hauling in $420M as well as $115M in co-investment pools.

Some high profile backers included Jeff Bezos and The Azimut Group, a large European asset manager.

The aim was to do 7-8 platform deals, both control and minority investments, with a focus on consumer companies aided by technology.

Now back to HIPstr, the VC fund that closed on $100M last week

The HIPstr strategy is fairly straightforward:

• maintain the same discipline and focus as the later stage fund (HighPost). Leveraging HighPost’s later stage expertise will help the firm price and prioritize early stage deals

• Participate and lead Series A/B rounds (occasional seed round) for consumer/consumer tech companies in North America, Western Europe and Israel

The fund has already invested 40% of its fund in 6 portfolio companies including:

• Wild Common: $5M raised in Series A led by HIPstr. Jackson Hole based tequila brand founded in 2021.

• Sprinter: $12.7M raised in May 2024 round, HIPstr partcipated. Kylie Jenner’s vodka soda brand with fruit juice and no added sugar.

• EverFence: $7M raised in Series A led by HIPstr. Aims to be a one-stop shop for homeowners' fencing needs powered by a seamless online shopping experience

HIPstr is backed by 30 LPs, with more than half of investors being HighPost LPs as well.

Headlines

• Is Jeff Bezos in the mix to buy the Celtics? CBS Sports article here

  • NBA wants the Celtics to sell for at least $6B to establish a price floor for the expansion teams

  • A $6B price tag for each expansion team would lead to $400M checks for every owner in the NBA

• A breakdown of new Starbucks’ CEO pay. Axios article here

• Performance watch: Thoma Bravo’s buyout funds. PEI article here

• Former a16z VC Balaji Srinivasan obtained a private island for his new technocapitalist school. TechCrunch article here