In this brief you’ll find:
NYC Female Founders Dinner | July 18, NYC
The evening brings together eight women currently building companies for an honest conversation about the realities of the work, and to grow the community of female founders we're forming within X26. The dinner will be hosted by Tina Yuan, a founder building in AI by way of an unusual path.
Status: Registration open
SF MIT x McKinsey Mixer | July 30, Hosted by Y Combinator in San Francisco
Y Combinator is bringing together the MIT and McKinsey alumni networks for an evening! A room of early-stage founders, some of which have found their co-founders, others who might find them during the course of the evening. Hosted by Reece Griffiths (X26 co-founder, sold Deasy Labs to Collibra) and Alexander Volz (X26 Founding Partner, CEO/Founder Coach).
Status: Registration open
SF Founders Coaching Workshop with Alexander Volz | July 31, San Francisco
Alexander Volz is in SF for the weekend – the Exec Founder coach behind recent breakouts like 11x.ai ($75 m+ raised) and CoachHub ($1 B+ valuation), and other founders backed by top-tier VCs such as General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and YC.
We are curating a group of 10 exceptional founders for an exclusive workshop with Alexander to build connection, trust, self-awareness and learn from each other. Priority to ex-McKinsey Series A+ and YC founders.
Status: Registration open
SF ·YC Founders Hike + Dinner | August 1, San Francisco
Saturday is our YC-focused day in San Francisco. We're starting with the Lands End Coastal Trail before heading off to dinner.
Leading the day: Reece Griffiths (X26 co-founder, ex-McKinsey, YC S23, founder of Deasy Labs, sold to Collibra) and Alexander Volz (X26 Founding Partner, ex-McKinsey, SaaS founder, CEO/Founder Coach).
Status: Registration open
Founder Retreat | August 9-13, Schliersee, Germany
Our four-day retreat is designed for a carefully selected group of founders. It works beneath the surface – a profound update of the inner operating system that drives everything else. Led by Alexander Volz (xMcKinsey, founder coach) and Dr. Jens Riese (former Senior Partner McKinsey, therapist).
Status: Learn More
X26 is launching a fund!
Since 2021, we've invested over $1M via SPVs into ex-McKinsey founders, with strong performance (4.5x+ net TVPI). Our portfolio has gone on to be backed by the best in the world – YC, A16Z, Sequoia, Benchmark, and General Catalyst. The main constraint hasn't been access to great companies, it's been the speed at which we can execute deals.
That's why we're formalising this into a dedicated fund – built to back McKinsey founders from the outset. We had over $5M in inbound interest for our inaugural fund!
We're aiming for our first close to take place over the summer. For those of you that have registered your interest, you should have received a commitment letter to sign.
For others, if you would like to learn more, reach out to [email protected] or book a call here. If you would like to commit to the fund, you can sign a non-binding commitment letter here.
Before then, we have some amazing founders in our network that are currently raising.
Seed | $2.5M | UK
Vertical lab-in-a-box automation for cell culture that captures rich, scalable data scientists have never had access to before — helping teams develop cell therapies and biologics faster and cheaper, in a $1bn+ tools market unlocking $30bn+ of biomanufacturing.
Core single-use consumable productised and validated across pharma, biotech, and academic users, on multiple cell types. 5 ALPHA instruments currently in operation as the customer-facing instrument is de-risked and built out.
$12M raised over 6 years of development, with 7 patent families (2 granted) and deep in-house expertise across automation, analytics hardware, manufacturing, and bioprocess. First use case data showed 65% more cells while keeping them healthier and higher-quality.
Antoine Espinet (CEO) is ex-McKinsey (EM, Brussels and Sydney) with a PhD in Engineering from Cornell University.
Email us if you would like an introduction
Seed | $3M | San Francisco
Helps automate the repetitive, administrative phone calls providers make to payors – built by a team of YC founders.
Signed a contract with a total estimated ARR of $985,000.
Sneh Patel (CEO) is a former McKinsey EM. She's seen payor/provider/patient friction firsthand from over 5 years at Walgreens Pharmacy, holds a PharmD, and is a Harvard Business School graduate.
Email us if you would like an introduction
Ex-McKinsey Founder’s Database
Ex-McKinsey Investor’s Database
Thanks for being a part of this amazing community. We’re excited for everything that’s to come.
Love,
The X26 team.