Why I Started Outperform Ventures

Since January 2026, Outperform Ventures has been where my work with founders happens. It's a venture studio that partners directly with founders. We bring capital, strategy, growth, and creative storytelling into early-stage companies to help them scale.

It didn't start as a firm. It started as years of quiet work, and then a problem I couldn't solve on my own.

The years before

In 2018 I stepped away from LinkedIn and from public life to start a family. Before that I'd led M&A for a billion-dollar company and helped scale a bootstrapped software business to #143 on the Inc. 5000.

I never stopped working with founders. From 2019 through 2025 I invested in growth-stage software and service companies, and I supported founders directly across operations, marketing, sales, and technology. Sometimes for free. Sometimes for equity. Sometimes with my own money.

It worked for a handful of people at a time. Read more of that story on My Story.

Why it had to change

Working alone has a ceiling. The better it went, the more founders asked for help, and I started turning people away. Not because they weren't worth it, but because there was no structure to support more of them.

There are more founders building today than ever before. They need more support, not less. One person can't give that at the scale it's needed.

What Outperform Ventures is

Rob Peabody is my partner, and we have a team of nearly ten people. We invest money where money is the problem, and time and judgment where it isn't.

• Capital when it's what the company actually needs.
• Strategy on the decisions that shape the next few years.
• Growth: the systems that bring in revenue without the founder doing everything.
• Creative storytelling, so the right people understand what the company does.

The founder still builds the company. We support them.

Why the tools are free

Most founders don't need money from me. They need the answer to one question, fast, from someone with no agenda. That's why the tools on this site are free and need no signup.

If you're building something ambitious, visit Outperform Ventures or connect with me on LinkedIn.