"Antler." Harvard Business School Case 122-090, April 2022. (Revised August 2022.)

Antler
Antler – A Unique Early-Stage Venture Capital Firm0F
The Antler Program
Brief Overview1F
Selection Process2F
Recruitment Criteria into the Program3F
 Strong inner drive: The ability to work in very independent environments and to set ambitious goals.
 Grit: The ability to overcome obstacles, to not give up at the first sign of trouble, and to go further than anyone thought possible.
 Domain expertise and interest: Deep understanding of a technology, function, or industry and an ability to execute and put their ideas into practice.
 Exceptional ability to influence and lead: The ability to competently communicate to and convince people to follow her or his vision.
 Analytical skills: A natural curiosity and a strong interest in and talent for identifying a problem, extracting valuable information related to the problem, and leveraging that data plus experience to build a solution.
 High achievers: individuals who have displayed ambition and drive in previous roles and experiences.
 Strong performance in entrepreneurial roles: Talent for starting something new and building traction, whether in the form of a previous personal founding experience, as an early employee of a startup, or as an innovator in academia or in a large cor...
A Journey through the Antler Program in New York: Sleuth and Marco Financial4F
Sleuth
Application
Interviews
 She was excited to build something big and was looking for a strong technologist to complement her core competencies and skills. She would make a great CEO, capable of defining the vision and executing on operations and sales.
 Her ideal co-founder was potentially someone who was capable of building the initial version of the product in-house and who was a strong communicator both in the world of technology and business.
 She wanted to leverage her experience in EdTech to explore the special needs space, with a specific focus on children. She was very much familiar with one of the hardest aspects of building a venture in EdTech - the painfully long sales cycles.
 She was interested in finding a co-founder who had the same core value system in regard to running a business. Pragmatically, she wanted someone who could help build the product.
 He was a strong engineer with a solid grasp of how to get from 0 to 1 when building a product.
 He was soft-spoken and thoughtful, very capable of expanding on topics within his area of expertise including using large datasets to extract value for various corporate functions such as marketing, finance, and strategic planning.
 He had the potential to make an excellent CTO as he was very focused on defining the vision of the product. It would be great to help connect him with a strong business lead who could really take ownership of the operations, sales and marketing side...
 He was inexperienced as an entrepreneur, but had the necessary skills and maturity to learn as he built.
Team Formation
Ideation
Pre-Seed Investment
TeamThis was a strong team where the founders had complementary skills. Sehreen had a great network and over the course of the program had been very thoughtful in pursuing her opportunities that allowed her to speak intelligently on the topic. Alex wa...
BusinessThis was a difficult space, and they potentially needed to implement a freemium model in order to generate significant revenue while the user base grew. They could potentially keep the ecosystem free for parents by monetizing brand partnership...
Marco Financial
Application
Interviews
 Jacob’s job history was a bit concerning given his limited tenure at each job.
 He was an exceptional speaker and, more importantly, great at forging connections.
 He did not have an impressive resume (not from a top tier institution or company) but had many of the qualities you look for in a CEO: determination, drive, enthusiasm, and relatability.
 He was self-aware in knowing his strengths and limitations. Wanted to find a co-founder who was more technical and internally focused.
 Had deep domain knowledge in trade and finance in Latin America based on previous experience and wanted to leverage that to build his next venture.
 Very entrepreneurial - started his first company at the age of 16 so he was comfortable with the nuances of building a business from scratch.
 His main lesson from building previous companies was that he needed to ask for help and understand how to leverage not only his own strengths but the strengths of others in his ecosystem - came across as very thoughtful and humble in his approach.
 Had multiple offers prior to joining Antler - one to be the Director of Free Trade in Uruguay as well as an offer in China but passionate about pursuing his own venture.
Team Formation
Ideation
Pre-Seed Investment
TeamThis was an interesting team. Peter had a limited number of years in the industry, but he had the domain knowledge to build a company in Latin America and was incredibly thoughtful in his approach in defining the initial go-to-market strategy. Jac...
BusinessThere were questions about the complexity of the business but also examples of other successful companies providing similar solutions for markets outside of Latin America. The business would be difficult to scale, but it was an exciting opport...
After the Pitch
Exhibit 1Key Events in Antler Timeline
Exhibit 2Example of Interview Questions
Exhibit 3Example of an Interview Scorecard
Exhibit 4Selection Funnel
Exhibit 5Antler Application and Founder Statistics
Exhibit 6aExample sections from due diligence dashboard
Exhibit 6bExample sections from due diligence dashboard
Exhibit 6cExample sections from due diligence dashboard
Exhibit 7Interview Scorecard for Sehreen NoorAli
Exhibit 8Interview Scorecard for Alexander Leeds
Exhibit 9Interview Scorecard for Jacob Shoihet
Exhibit 10Interview Scorecard for Peter Spradling