Boris Wertz on why VCs Are Betting Everything on "Outliers" Now
Guests
Boris Wertz
Boris Wertz is the founding partner of Version One Ventures and a leading early-stage technology investor in North America. Before becoming an investor, he built an online marketplace for used and out-of-print books, which was acquired by AbeBooks and later sold to Amazon.
Description
Boris Wertz, General Partner at Version One Ventures, sits down with Willson on Make It Click to break down how he deploys roughly half a billion dollars (CAD) into early-stage, mission-driven founders.He shares why he backs founders well before a category hits the mainstream, how his new $78M Fund Five and $30M opportunity fund allow him to double down on breakout companies like Clio, Jobber, Ada, and Coinbase, and why he believes the biggest outcomes concentrate in a vanishing few. Along the way, he retraces his own journey from founder — JustBooks, acquired by Amazon through AbeBooks — to full-time investor, and offers candid perspectives on AI's impact on the app layer, marketplaces, Canadian deal flow, and what truly sets an outlier company apart.
