Renegade’s Investment in Coda
Two years ago, before Renegade was anything more than a twinkle in our eyes, my now partner, Renata Quintini, and I got together to brainstorm about what is now our firm. I had just caught up with Coda’s CEO, Shishir Mehrotra. I was so excited about what he was building and energized by his passion. I remember telling Renata “our new firm could invest in Coda.” We imagined Coda in our portfolio and, as we dreamed about what kind of firm we would build, we did that dreaming in Coda.
Today, Renegade Partners is real, and our new firm’s first investment is in Coda.
The Supercritical Stage
We founded Renegade to invest specifically in companies at the stage of life that Coda is in today. We call this stage the Supercritical Stage (a nod to my prior-life as a chemist). A supercritical fluid is at a phase where distinct gas and liquid don't exist. It has some properties of a gas and some properties of a liquid, but it’s neither and both at the same time. We think about companies going through a similar phase, where they are not quite early stage companies but they’re not yet growth companies. Like a supercritical fluid, they are neither and both at the same time.
Supercritical Stage companies have raised institutional financing, have a product in market, and the budding signs of customer love, but are early, young organizations who are still writing their stories. Typically, these companies are raising Series A1s, Bs, or Cs, but this stage is more of a phase of life than a round of capital. In our years of investing, we saw that the decisions, processes, and infrastructure built at this supercritical phase of a company’s life could either create massive leverage or, alternatively, could drag a company down. Life is different for entrepreneurs today. The game is bigger. The size and impact companies can ultimately achieve hinges on doing the right things at this pivotal moment of inflection. We started Renegade because we believe our laser-focus on stage will help the companies we invest in reach massive scale.
Why Coda?
This brings us to Coda. Throughout my career and in my personal life, I’ve used hundreds of SaaS tools. I would find myself frustrated by using a wide variety of different apps for different use cases. I was experiencing a classic ‘Goldilocks Problem’. If you think about it, most SaaS applications are simply a workflow on top of a database, and what you are actually buying or using is that company’s methodology or workflow. Why can’t I use something ‘just right’ for my needs? Why can’t I spend my day in a piece of software that reflects how I am most productive and how my company actually operates?
Coda solves this pain point. Coda was the first product I have used that is deep and powerful enough to be truly flexible and allow me to live in one space. Rather than using a different tool for a different structure of work, with Coda I can have them all together for a richer, more efficient, more personalized experience.
Coda as a Verb
When we look to invest in companies, we love to ask ourselves “Could this be a verb?”. We believe that the best companies transcend delivering products and services - they usher in movements that change how their customers, competitors, partners, and underlying markets behave. Our shorthand for this is: Why now? Why this? and Why you? Coda checks all of our boxes.
Attacking a market at a tipping point. Over 60% of the workforce today are digital natives. Our entire careers have involved emailing on our phones and spending a huge amount of time using an app in a browser. The companies that we work for have become more collaborative and cross-functional than ever before. (I won’t even mention more remote...) We loved talking to Coda customers who showed us how they built docs that spanned across teams. Often, these docs are mission critical and used to run the core of what makes these companies unique and valuable - emphasizing why customization and self-creation is crucial.
Building a compounding advantage. Coda is a true platform that allows users to become creators of their own docs and makers of templates that they can distribute widely. We got so excited imagining the possibilities of being able to use and customize the workflows, processes, and knowledge of millions of makers, not handfuls of software companies. Decoupling app development from software development will create a whole new wave of creators and spawn a new generation of digital businesses.
Purpose-driven. The whole of Shishir and Alex’s careers have so clearly been leading up to building this company. At YouTube, Shishir predicted that online video would do to cable what cable did to broadcast. We now believe this same phenomenon is happening in the world of software, and Shishir and Alex will enable yet another revolution in user generated content. Coda calls this the Maker Generation, and we are proud members of it.
At Renegade, we’re honored that Shishir, Alex, and the Coda team allowed us to be a part of this amazing company and to help us write Renegade’s own story. We love that they’ve decided to #BeARenegade with us, and we can’t wait to dig in with them through the Supercritical Stage and beyond.