RareBreed Ventures

RareBreed Ventures Research Document Investment Thesis RareBreed Ventures is a pre-seed and early-seed fund founded on the conviction that exceptional founders exist everywhere, not just in traditional venture epicenters like Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston. Founded and led by Mac Conwell, the fund invests in underrepresented and overlooked founders—particularly first-time entrepreneurs from Black and Brown communities—who have been systematically excluded from venture capital access despite building innovative companies solving real market problems. The fund's core belief is that traditional venture capital has created artificial scarcity by concentrating its attention on a narrow geographic footprint and demographic profile of founders. RareBreed believes this represents a massive market inefficiency: exceptional entrepreneurs exist across the entire United States and are building products in overlooked sectors, but lack access to the capital and network that more privileged founders take for granted. By deploying capital earlier than traditional VCs and focusing on founders outside major tech hubs, RareBreed captures higher-risk, higher-reward opportunities that other funds systematically miss. Founder Profile and Background McKeever "Mac" Conwell II is the Founder and Managing Partner of RareBreed Ventures. Mac's background is unconventional for venture capital: Studied at Morgan State University as a software engineer. Former DOD contractor with top-secret clearance, giving him unique insight into enterprise and infrastructure markets. Two-time founder—one company failed, the other achieved a successful exit. Kauffman Fellow (Class 26), indicating formal venture training and recognition as an emerging manager. Instrumental in founding Black Women in Venture Capital, reflecting commitment to diversifying the VC ecosystem itself. Famously raised his first pre-seed fund through Twitter engagement rather than traditional institutional LP networks, breaking the insider mold. Mac's background as a founder and engineer who worked outside the traditional venture establishment gives him credibility with founders outside Silicon Valley and a genuine understanding of their constraints and opportunities. Stage and Check Size Focus Primary Stage: Pre-Seed ($50K-$250K checks) and Seed ($100K-$250K range). Check Size Range: $50,000 - $250,000 per investment. RareBreed believes that $50K is transformative for founders outside major tech hubs who lack access to traditional fundraising networks. While small relative to venture capital as a whole, these checks are life-changing for exceptional founders and lead to outsized returns. The fund uses checks as the first or among the first institutional capital for portfolio companies. Checks are sized to fund initial product development, hiring, and customer acquisition runway while founders pursue follow-on funding from angels, accelerators, grants, and other sources. RareBreed positions itself as the catalyst that validates the founder and opens doors to additional funding sources. Sector and Model Focus Primary Sectors: CPG/D2C (Consumer Packaged Goods, Direct-to-Consumer) with emphasis on underrepresented founders in beauty, food/beverage, household goods; Ecommerce (marketplace and platform businesses, especially serving underrepresented categories); SaaS (business software and tools, particularly vertical SaaS for overlooked industries); Web3/Crypto (blockchain and cryptocurrency applications, especially inclusive finance); Healthcare/Digital Health (medical devices, health tech, telemedicine, health services for underserved communities). The fund shows clear preference for founders addressing real customer pain points with original products. Common threads in portfolio: solving problems for underserved communities, bringing innovation to traditionally overlooked markets, founders with authentic connection to the problem they're solving. Investment Activity and Momentum Fund Size: Approximately $10M pre-seed fund (initial raise). Portfolio Size: 45+ portfolio companies on website (company count has grown significantly since 2021 launch). Recent Activity Status: December 2025 - Fund remains actively deploying, with SuperCircle investment documented. Geographic Deployment: Initial focus was Baltimore/Midwest, but portfolio demonstrates national reach across Midwest (original focus, Baltimore region), West Coast (California expansion), South (Miami presence), Northeast (New York), reflecting thesis of finding founders anywhere. RareBreed leads pre-seed rounds or co-leads with other emerging managers. The fund's positioning as first institutional investor means it frequently sets terms and maintains board observer or advisor relationships. Solo founder-led structure under Mac Conwell with support from team. Decisions appear founder-driven with conviction-based thesis rather than committee-based. Founder Preferences and Decision Criteria RareBreed backs: Exceptional but Overlooked founders with genuine product vision and customer traction who lack access to traditional VC networks; Outside Tech Hubs founders (first-time founders, career-changers, industry veterans); Underrepresented Backgrounds with explicit focus on backing Black founders, Latinx founders, women, immigrants, LGBTQ+, and other systematically excluded groups; Customer-Focused founders who have thought deeply about customer acquisition and have evidence of market interest; Problem Solvers for Real Markets building in overlooked sectors; Out-of-the-Box Thinkers approaching problems differently than Silicon Valley consensus. RareBreed does NOT back: Generic Silicon Valley copy-cats; Founders without genuine connection to the problem they're solving; Ideas targeting only well-served, competitive markets; All-star pedigree syndrome (credentialism without real problem-solving). Beyond capital, RareBreed provides: Network Access to other founders, service providers, subsequent investors; Operational Support including market research, GTM guidance, hiring advice; Transparency as Mac publicly shares fundraising tactics and term sheet learnings; Community access to peer portfolio founders for support and collaboration. Geographic Focus and Fund Status Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland. Regional Presence: Multi-location offices in New York (Pennsylvania Plaza area), Miami, and Los Angeles, reflecting commitment to being accessible nationally. Investment Geography: Intentionally national, with portfolio companies distributed across all major US regions. As of February 2026, RareBreed is actively deploying capital with no announced Fund II yet (may be in preparation). Mac Conwell is recognized as influential emerging manager (mentioned as speaker at MIT Sloan Investment Conference 2026). The fund operates with a solo GP structure with Mac as primary decision-maker and supporting team members, maintaining lean organization typical of emerging manager pre-seed funds with focus on founder-founder relationships rather than institutional process. Investment Philosophy and Recognition RareBreed Ventures operates from first principles: venture capital's conventional wisdom about founder quality, market size, and geographic location is wrong. The fund's central insight is that this wrongness represents exploitable opportunity. By backing exceptional but overlooked founders, RareBreed achieves: Access to high-conviction founder pools with genuine market problems and authentic solutions; Reduced competition for deals in less crowded deal spaces than Silicon Valley; Alignment with Founders as Mac understands founder struggles personally; Social Impact by expanding VC to include founders systematically excluded for non-merit reasons; Financial Returns, believing that backing better founders in less competitive markets drives outsized returns. Mac Conwell and RareBreed have achieved increasing recognition: 40 Under 40 (Baltimore Business Journal, 2023); MIT Sloan Investment Conference speaker (2026); Featured in numerous startup media and VC publications; Growing institutional interest in the emerging manager model. The fund appears well-positioned to raise a larger Fund II based on demonstrated execution, founder satisfaction, and increasing mainstream acceptance that the traditional pre-seed model was leaving high-quality opportunities on the table.