Most investors look for founders in the same three cities. Mac Conwell built a firm on looking everywhere else.
On November 12, 2026, McKeever "Mac" Conwell II, Managing Partner of RareBreed Ventures, joins Adeo Ressi live for the next edition of Venture Trailblazers, the VC Lab series that brings the world's most influential investors into an open conversation with our global community of fund managers, founders, and LPs.
RSVP for free here: https://fi.co/e/407056
He Wrote the Thesis Down First
Plenty of firms publish an investment thesis. Most of them say the same four things, and then the firm invests like everyone else anyway.
Mac published the RareBreed Manifesto before he wrote a single check. One line in it: "You cannot use the traditional metrics to evaluate a company or, more importantly, the founders themselves."
He has 47 first checks against that line. Up to $250,000 each, as the first or one of the first investors, across 17 states and 4 countries. Almost none of them in Silicon Valley, New York or Boston.
If you're building a first fund, that's the part worth watching. Writing a thesis is easy. Deploying against it for years, in rooms where nobody else is bidding, is the hard part.
The Founders Everyone Else Screens Out
The Manifesto is blunt about who RareBreed backs: "Sometimes founders at the pre-seed stage aren't as polished, don't know all the VC lingo, don't have an amazing network."
That describes a lot of the founders our community sees, and a lot of the founders your fund will see if you invest outside the big hubs. Mac built a firm around them on purpose.
From Writing Code to Writing Checks
Mac was a software engineer before he was an investor. He founded two companies, one that exited and one that didn't, so he's sat on both sides of the table.
Before RareBreed he led the Builder Fund at TEDCO, the first state-backed pre-seed fund in the country for women and minority founders. He's a Kauffman Fellow, Class 26, and he testified before Congress in 2025 on access to capital.
What We Are Getting Into on November 12
- How he finds founders in markets most funds skip
- What he underwrites when the metrics don't exist yet
- What a differentiated thesis looks like once you actually have to deploy against it
- What being early in overlooked markets has taught him
- A live Q and A, so bring the question you'd actually ask an investor
A Strong Run of Guests
Mac closes out a busy stretch for the series. On October 1 we hosted Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures on how he builds conviction before the data arrives. On October 14 we hosted Adam Draper of Boost VC on writing the first check into hard technology.
Harry Stebbings of 20VC follows Mac on December 10.
Join Us
Venture Trailblazers is free and open to anyone. Register for the November 12 session with Mac here: https://fi.co/e/407056
VC Lab is the venture capital accelerator that has helped launch over 1,000 venture firms worldwide. If you're building your first fund, you can apply to VC Lab or learn more at govclab.com.