- A seed-stage venture capital
firm focused on building the
next great businesses in
digital media. About Us
Although Crosscut was launched in 2008, the principals (Brian Garrett and Rick Smith) have nearly 40 years of combined experience investing in and advising businesses. We have worked together since 2001. We have managed funds that combined had over $1 billion under management.
We have an unsurpassed network and reputation within the Southern California venture community, built upon many years of successful investing and mentoring. What we have seen over the last several years is an underserved market for local venture money and a severe void of capital available for start-ups in their earliest, and neediest, phases of development.
At the same time, we have seen a post-bubble resurgence in opportunities in digital media, with over 20 significant and sizable companies started in Southern California, including MySpace, Overture, Jamdat, PriceGrabber, LowerMyBills, Shopzilla, Doubeclick, eHarmony and Rent.com.
These companies and the entrepreneurs behind them have established Southern California as the hub of digital media and the epicenter for new opportunities arising from the convergence of technology, media and entertainment.
Our goal is simple: Crosscut wants to be THE funding source that supports and drives this region and its continued innovation.
Rick Smith
Rick Smith is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures. Rick has been a leader across a broad spectrum of private equity in Southern California since 1987. His professional highlights include:
- Co-founded the leading seed fund based in LA (Crosscut Ventures)
- Advised the leading talent agency in the world (Creative Artists Agency) on the convergence of technology, media and entertainment
- Established two of the largest venture firms in Southern California (SunAmerica Ventures and Palomar)
- Worked for several years with the most successful entrepreneur in LA (Eli Broad), helping sell SunAmerica for $19 billion
- Co-founded a merchant bank that bought Steinway Piano Company and Selmer Instruments (NYSE:LVB)
- Helped establish the Los Angeles office of a Wall Street law firm (Milbank, Tweed).
He remains intricately involved in the Southern California venture community at all levels. He is currently working most actively with the following Crosscut portfolio companies: Affordit, Circle Street, Docstoc, Pulpo, Shoedazzle and Zadspace.
Over the last several years, Rick has led the investments in over a dozen companies that have been sold or gone public, including Berkeley Networks (sold to FORE Systems/Ericsson), ConvergeNet (sold to Dell), Entone (sold to Harmonic), Magma Design Automation (NASDAQ:LAVA), Maverick Networks (sold to Broadcom), Micromuse (NASDAQ:MUSE), PropertyFirst (merged with Loopnet), and TriVida (sold to Be Free/ValueClick).
Rick graduated from Harvard Law School, where he received his J.D., and from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he received his B.S. in Finance.
Brian Garrett
Brian Garrett is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures. For his entire career, Brian has been involved in building and funding early-stage technology and media companies.
Brian is very active in the Southern California start-up community and currently works with the Boards of GumGum, Verve Wireless, Pulpo Media, Shoedazzle, AffordIt and Circle Street. He is also an advisory board member for the following digital media companies: Jacked, Zannel and Quepasa.com
Prior to co-founding Crosscut, Brian was a Partner at one of the largest Southern California-based venture funds. He joined there in 2001 and played an active role in managing and investing three funds over six years totaling more than $500 million. He was the sponsor and/or an active board member of nine Palomar portfolio companies, including successes such as DataAllegro (data warehouse appliance company sold to Microsoft in 2008), Entone (video on demand server company sold to Harmonic in 2006), Gamma Enterprise Technologies (sold to Informatica in 2009) and Lombardi Software (stand-alone leader in the business process management software market).
Prior to Palomar, Brian was the Director of Business Development at Niku Corporation. Niku developed Professional Service Automation software for Global 2000 companies. He led business development efforts for iNiku.com, an online workplace for independent professionals. Niku subsequently went public and then was acquired by Computer Associates in 2006.
Prior to Niku, Brian was with a boutique strategy consulting firm called R.B. Webber & Company. He worked with many leading early-stage technology companies including CommerceOne, Inktomi, Sagent, Aurum and Broadbase. He worked with these companies in their earliest phases of growth and contributed strategically to their success by working on all facets of their business including business plan writing, market entry strategy, and primary market and pricing research. The firm also began formally investing in many of the early-stage companies with which it worked and this was his first exposure to and involvement in venture capital investing. He has continued to refine the skill of evaluating new business opportunities since 1995.
Brian received his MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and he graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.
The Advisors
Sharing our vision for being a driving force behind the Southern California digital media ecosystem, several prominent SoCal executives and entrepreneurs have partnered with Crosscut with both their time and their money. These individuals are advisors to the Fund and bring us unparalleled experience across all areas of digital media. They extend our reach for deal flow, our knowledge in due diligence and we are proud to have them as part of the Crosscut team.