Mac Conwell on Building RareBreed and Supporting Overlooked Founders

McKeever ‘Mac the VC’ Conwell II worked as a software engineer and government contractor and founded two companies. After his second startup failed, he worked at a marketing firm, then applied to the State of Maryland's investment arm. He says that, despite lacking a college degree and finance background, his startup experience and local network helped him enter venture.

Conwell describes responding poorly to the startup failure: burned out and depressed, he withdrew at home for months and feared explaining the outcome to supporters. Friends and family helped him see that their care and respect did not depend on that company's success. He presents this as his own experience, not a general account of depression.

He wants founders to be able to discuss difficult personal and business issues with him. Remembering how lonely it was to be a young founder unfamiliar with venture and networking, he tries to offer the kind of support he wanted then.

Conwell says two killings of Black men influenced the timing of his career. He recounts leaving a marketing job after the killing of Philando Castile and a potential client relationship he found ethically troubling. Later, George Floyd's killing coincided with his growing interest in starting RareBreed and writing more on Twitter. These are his account of his decisions.

He initially wanted to organize a single investment for a founder in Texas. A mentor instead offered $250,000 and encouraged him to raise a fund. Conwell says he used Twitter to contact investors who followed him, first seeking advice, then discovering some general partners wanted to invest in his fund.

He recalls holding more than 1,100 meetings between mid-June and September 2020 and initially securing about $2 million in soft commitments. Other investors reviewed his materials and offered guidance. These numbers and the relationships are his recollections of the fundraising process.

Conwell says he rejected several conventions in structuring the fund: an early first close, repeated closes and several payment schedules for limited partners. He wanted to access capital and begin investing without repeatedly chasing very small checks. His description concerns his own fund and is not general legal or tax advice.

He says he did not make a general-partner commitment because he lacked the money, and that a lawyer he met through Twitter deferred charging him. He sees this as an example of finding a structure and support that matched his circumstances, rather than assuming every emerging manager has the same resources.

Conwell rejects the idea that an emerging manager must enter a ‘hot’ round alongside a famous firm to find a good investment. He argues the relevant question is whether a company produces returns, not the prestige of its co-investors. Stebbings adds that managers may seek high-profile rounds to signal access to future backers.

On diversity, Conwell says institutional allocators and their decision-makers should be part of the conversation, not only venture firms hiring junior staff. He questions whether public commitments translate into capital allocation and calls for ways for institutions to support emerging managers with smaller funds. These are his observations and proposals, not a finding about every institution.

He also warns against treating diverse hiring as a box-checking exercise. He describes associates whose work he believes was undervalued within their firms and argues that hiring someone should be accompanied by real opportunities and fair evaluation.

RareBreed's then-planned $10 million fund focused on early checks, typically around $100,000 to $250,000, with a target of roughly 40 to 45 companies and some follow-on investments. Conwell wanted investments with the potential to return the fund, while acknowledging future results were unknown. The figures are historical plans, not achieved returns.

He says the strategy concentrated on founders outside major technology hubs, while reserving a small portion for other opportunities. He describes a later-stage investment in MainStreet as an exception and says quality matters more than a company fitting every label. RareBreed's investments give him a financial interest in the examples.

His biggest fundraising challenges included self-doubt, lack of an established limited-partner network and the cost of travel. In his account, remote meetings during the pandemic helped him reach investors without paying for frequent trips. He says encouragement from peers and an investor education program helped him recognize his existing skills.

Conwell warns against mistaking early paper markups for realized success. He remembers the first three companies in a Maryland pre-seed program going to zero, a humbling reminder that a portfolio can look promising and later lose value. At the time of the interview, he says later investments remained active; that is not a complete performance record.

His Twitter audience grew rapidly during the fundraising period, creating unexpected opportunities to meet investors and speak publicly. He describes the change as surprising rather than something he had planned at the outset. Audience size at the interview is a historical snapshot.

He considered rolling funds but preferred a conventional fund in which a limited partner could share in investments made across the fund's life, rather than needing to participate in a specific quarter. His concern reflects the structure he evaluated; fund terms and investor eligibility can differ.

He says RareBreed combined a traditional fund with online subscription paperwork and frequent closes to make access easier for eligible investors. He describes using a publicly solicited offering structure. These are historical details of his arrangement, not instructions or a statement that all investors were eligible.

His advice to emerging managers is that fundraising may be harder than expected and that they should understand which conventions are choices rather than necessities. He encourages examining alternative structures with appropriate professional support, while recognizing that legal requirements still apply.

Conwell's long-term ambition is to build a major multi-stage firm based in Baltimore, drawing inspiration from local investors who mentored him. He describes that as a goal for the future, not an outcome already achieved.

Asked whether later-stage investors will support companies outside established hubs, he believes strong growth and margins can attract funding despite geographic bias. That is his assessment, not a guarantee that metrics eliminate bias or secure a financing round.

He says the hardest part of managing RareBreed is being present for his family while meeting the long-term demands of a fund. He wants venture to become more diverse across limited partners and general partners, and more patient with first-time founders unfamiliar with industry conventions.

For a recent announced investment, Conwell names unspun, describing its custom clothing and ambition to reduce waste in manufacturing. He credits his colleague with sourcing the company and praises its founders. RareBreed's investment creates a financial interest, and the manufacturing and waste-reduction claims are the guest's description rather than independently verified results.