The View from the Office. 

I met up with Matthew Stafford, a London-based investor, at Mia’s Brooklyn Bakery. He had tea; I had a cappuccino and chocolate croissant. 

Matthew is in New York to connect with founders, build his network and source deals for his new fund. We were introduced by Matt Zeigler, a managing director at Sunpointe Investments.

He has built that network in part by hosting dinner parties for 14 years. He calls the events 9others, which is a reference to the number of people at the table (ten, including himself.)

He even wrote a book about what he learned from the process of hosting dinners called: “What’s Keeping You Up at Night.” 

That’s the question he poses to the people who attend. The idea is to go around the table and help the other founders with ideas to get unstuck. And naturally he’s hosting a meal with 9others in New York this week.

Having completed the first close, Matthew is continuing to raise a fund targeted at $5 million that will focus on early-stage startups. Most of the companies originate in Europe, but typically they have subsequently registered in the U.S. The aim is to help those companies expand globally. 

Matthew leveraged the Decile Group, founded by Adeo Ressi, a veteran entrepreneur and creator of the Founder Institute, to launch his fund. Decile provides end-to-end infrastructure including legal, operational, and administrative services to help emerging managers to set up and run institutional-quality funds efficiently.

You can connect with Matthew via LinkedIn or DM me for a warm intro.