Annual roundup includes the venture capital firms with the best track records of success backing entrepreneurs for growth.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA | October 31, 2023 – Advance Venture Partners (“AVP”) is proud to share that it has been named to Inc.’s 2023 Founder-Friendly Investors List. The award honors venture capital and private equity firms with the strongest track records of success in partnering with entrepreneurs and fostering growth for their businesses.

Inc. spoke with entrepreneurs who have partnered with venture capital and private equity firms to develop the Founder-Friendly Investors list. The entrepreneurs detailed their experiences with various firms and shared data on how their companies have grown during these partnerships. This award highlights AVP as one of the forty-seven venture capital firms selected as trusted partners for entrepreneurs.

“Now more than ever, founder-led companies need financing partners that offer guidance, expertise, and understanding—not just capital. These are the private equity, venture capital, and debt firms that have founders’ backs when it comes to accelerating growth,” said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Business Media.

Since its inception in 2015, AVP has been committed to supporting exceptional founders and operators who are building disruptive, landscape-changing businesses. The firm’s concentrated portfolio and flexible, long-duration investment strategy enables AVP to be a great partner to entrepreneurs, whether this is in developing and setting strategy, recruiting and building top-flight teams or providing analytical or operational support.

“AVP’s interpretation of “founder-friendly” can be simplified down to our desire to understand and align ourselves with the goals, objectives and timelines of the entrepreneurs whom we back as investors,” said David ibnAle, AVP’s Co-founder and Managing Partner. “It‘s difficult to be well-aligned with founders if you want to build something different or want to build it on a different timeline or don’t have enough bandwidth to help them build it. While there are lots of other criteria that matter, we have a strategy that enables us to focus on getting those things right and then building from there. This award is really a testament to our having backed great entrepreneurs who value that approach.”

“In my experience, a “founder-friendly” investor needs to share a founder’s vision, have strong conviction in their thesis and, as a partner, share their own perspectives with total candor,” said Michael Ramlet, the Founder and CEO of Morning Consult. “AVP did the work to understand our vision of what Morning Consult could be well before other investors could understand that potential. Later, when the COVID-19 pandemic sent the markets into turmoil, AVP’s conviction was unshaken and they supported Morning Consult when other investors balked. Along the way, the strength of the relationship we’ve built with AVP has enabled them to challenge us to evolve and transform our business as operating conditions have changed. I think this award is a well-deserved recognition of AVP’s approach to partnership with entrepreneurs.”

To see the complete list of 2023 Founder-Friendly Investors, go to: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors/2023

About AVP

Advance Venture Partners (AVP) is an investment firm targeting high-growth tech and tech-enabled businesses across a range of industry verticals and business models. The firm generally makes initial investments of $10 million to $25 million in businesses that are generating revenue and have evidence of product-market fit, sound fundamentals, compelling growth, large end markets, and excellent founding teams. AVP is differentiated in part by a flexible and long-duration investment mandate – an evergreen structure and permanent capital base enables AVP to be a unique long-term partner for founders and management teams at all stages. AVP has been built in partnership with Advance, a family-owned holding company with a diversified portfolio of exceptional media and technology companies. For more information, visit www.avp.vc or follow the firm on LinkedIn.

About Inc.

The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community they need to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.