New Venture Fund Puts The Building Of Top-Tier Teams At Fore

-- NYC-based Swell Partners Fund Founded by Jay Patil and Rusty Ralston is Sector-Agnostic, Human-Centric --

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Aug 15, 2019, 17:14 ET

NEW YORK, Aug. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Swell Partners is a new venture fund of $3.3 million. The fund was announced today and is founded and run by Jay Patil and Rusty Ralston, investors who have also guided the formation of teams for more than 50 successful start-ups over the past decade.

Swell is now actively investing in early-stage, category creating companies across sectors throughout the United States. The first two companies in their portfolio are Loft Orbital and Northstar Money.

"Our core belief is you win with people: People determine the outcome and success of a company, said Ralston. "If a start-up isn't focused on building staggeringly good teams, they may as well go home. We all know products evolve, markets fluctuate, strategies shift. But the only way to solve the hardest problems from scratch, and win, is to be obsessive about the team. That's the edge Swell gives its portfolio founders."

Prior to formalizing the fund, the team invested in Tapad (acquired for $360M), mParticle, and Blockstack, among others.

Tapad founder and CEO Are Traasdahl, who led the company to one of New York City's most substantial exits in the past several years, commented, "From inception through acquisition, Rusty and Jay were integral to Tapad's success. Building a high-performing team is not just about people, it's about the best people. Swell unlocked access to an exceptional talent pool that wasn't accessible via any other source. They're a huge asset for any founder attempting to build an industry leading company." Traasdahl is a Limited Partner (LP) for Swell Partners Fund.

Sector-agnostic, Swell's talent-building focus spans top-caliber Sales, BD, Growth, Product, and Marketing hires (non-engineering roles).

Jay Patil added, "Top talent requires very active, insightful recruitment. That begins with a real understanding about what incentivizes them and how to find the right fit for their career paths. By handling recruiting personally as an investor, a concept that is foundational to Swell, we're taking 'founder-investor' alignment to an unprecedented level."

Swell Partners is uniquely comprised of LPs with significant operating experience from the following companies: Mulesoft, Facebook, mParticle, Lattice, Mixpanel, Nextdoor, LiveRamp, Stash, Brightroll, Tapad, WeWork, DataLogix, Ardent Health, Criteo, Bombora, ActionIQ, and others.

SOURCE Swell Partners