PHOENIX — A Valley-based entrepreneur is launching a new venture capital firm set up to provide both funding and expertise to help early-stage startups scale.
Justin Gray, along with sales and marketing expert Josh Wagner, co-founded In Revenue Capital, which utilizes an operator-immersive capital model, meaning the firm's partners are embedded within the startups it funds for three to six months to provide market guidance.
“We're not only investing, but providing extra time and a bit of guidance for those portfolio companies,” Gray said. "... All of the members of the fund are former operators, former experts, and current experts within the go-to market.”
Gray is the founder and former CEO of LeadMD, which was acquired by Trendline Interactive — now known as Shift Paradigm — in 2021. Gray was also named a Most Admired Leader by the Phoenix Business Journal in 2019.
Scottsdale-based In Revenue Capital operates under a special purpose vehicle syndicate model, meaning it funds each deal independently.
“I also liked that from a friendliness on the investor side. We're not raising a fund with a bunch of money that's kind of sitting there waiting to be deployed,” Gray said. “We're not getting pressured to deploy funds because now we've already called capital and we need to find something that fits the thesis of the firm."
