Howard Lindzon Talks His Biggest Startup Exits and Spending the Summer in San Diego
The accomplished venture capitalist isn't afraid to say whatever he wants
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Howard Lindzon — a prolific investor that spends about half of the year living in Coronado, San Diego — knows how to build and invest in generational startups.
He was one of the first seed investors in Robinhood, which went public at a $30 billion valuation in 2021. StockTwits, the company he co-founded and chairs, has more than six million users and one million monthly active users. He is also the managing parter at Social Leverage, an early-stage venture fund which has offices in San Diego and Phoenix.
Though, Lindzon doesn’t like to be described as a “venture capitalist,” who explained over a 30-minute phone call over the summer, that he prefers instead to be called an investor — in great businesses.
Throughout his multi-decade investing career, Lindzon has participated in early funding rounds in Robinhood, Manscaped, and Beehiiv. He also cut a dozen other late-stage checks into Business Insider, eToro and launched his own SPAC, which I wrote about for The San Diego Business Journal two years ago, many which have delivered outsized returns for Lindzon and his partners.
But notable investments aren’t the only reason he’s so popular. He is also extremely online, blogging daily to his quarter million followers (@howardlindzon) and isn’t afraid to make bold predictions, or even calling out big-wig venture capitalists when he questions their credibility.
We talked about a lot of things — betting early on a local company called Manscaped, why he decided to purchase a home in San Diego, as well as his ability to spot fast-growing companies, before everyone else realizes it.
Investing Early in Manscaped
Social Leverage ended up being the first investor in the men’s grooming product startup Manscaped, which went public in a $1 Billion SPAC deal in what ranks as the biggest consumer-focused (CPG) deals San Diego has seen in the last decade.
The seed investment in Manscaped initially fell outside of its technology-focused thesis, Lindzon said. “It was a quirky idea at the time, I giggled when he pitched me the idea.” It later turned out to be a top startup investment the firm has made.
“Paul Tran is a legendary local founder,” he said. “He used to pitch me these different ideas all the time, and when he pitched me Manscaped — I told him this isn't a tech company, or something I and partners would typically invest in.”
With Social Leverage, we’ve been lucky enough to invest in great consumer-focused startups over the last 20 years, he said.
“We broke our own rules,” said Lindzon. “While Manscape has some tech, it’s not a technology company. We don’t try to make it a habit [investing outside our thesis], but most investors occasionally will say fuck it [and invest]. Assuming if they’re a great entrepreneur and can figure out the business model.”
Investing Early in Beehiiv
Lindzon’s portfolio company (Fund 4), Beehiiv had just announced raising a $12 million Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, two days before our call.
“Our best investments have been in products that we ourselves use Manscaped, Robinhood and Beehiiv,” said Lindzon, who recalled the founder pitching the idea to him and his investment partner at its office in San Diego during the covid pandemic.
Beehiiv closed a $2.6 million seed round led by Social Leverage in October 2021, with several hundred people on its waitlist. It reportedly brings in $3 million-plus in revenues, has amassed a network of more than 7,500 newsletters and was named no. 1 consumer startup by The Information.
The early-stage startups Social Leverage might invest in businesses today, are different from those it backed in the previous ten years, according to Lindzon.
“Everything has to be perfect from the product, the pricing, the margins, the team, the execution and the cap table,” he said. “When we make a bet on a product, we have to assume millions of people could use it.”
Helping Students From His Alma Mater
In February this year, roughly twenty ASU students had the opportunity to visit Social Leverage’s office in Phoenix to about talk startups and investing principles.
“I often tell people that they shouldn't start out as venture capitalists,” he said, adding that he recommends to start investing their own money and building out their portfolio first, by using platforms like Robinhood, for example.
Lindzon often advises college students to avoid entering the industry of venture investing right out of college. He believes investing early on, especially in a bear market, provides a competitive advantage.
“You can start out with $100 dollars up to $10,000,” but they need to build out a track record, said Lindzon. “It could be the S&P index, or picking 10 of your top companies.”
Thoughts on Living in Coronado, San Diego
Lindzon is an active investor in several San Diego-based startups, including Platform Science, BetFully, as well as Trident Coffee.
Lindzon’s prefers to spend his time in Southern California opposed to New York. It has been one of the best places to meet with entrepreneurs and investors, he said.
“Many people bash on San Diego, saying companies here don’t work as hard,” I said.
“Well I think they’re right,” he said, recalling his days scaling his startup here. “In San Diego — you are competing with the nice weather. I had to push my team really hard to work at the same pace as New York or San Francisco. But again, the whole point of living in San Diego is not to work every second.”