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.