As a teenager, I was a semi-professional drummer and audio engineer. At some point I got a day job as an executive assistant at Universal Music Group, where I was lucky to be able to help with internet-related projects. I helped come up with the plan for Vevo and then split off from Universal to build that venture. As an analyst and junior generalist, I fell in love with starting something from scratch – there's no way to learn faster – and got to see millions of people interact with my work.

I was fortunate to work with early team members at Facebook and YouTube, who inspired me to move to Silicon Valley. I noticed that many of my music industry colleagues were more interested in proximity to celebrity, but I aspired to build something meaningful and work with brilliant people. So I moved west.

As a musician, I thought I needed to learn about business, so I went to business school. I was wrong about that – you don't learn much about business in business school – but I started working with the guys who would become my cofounders at DoorDash. I wrote a little on how that got started here.

In 2014 I joined Opendoor to lead product and ended up building several early teams there. By the time the team was 800 people or so, I found that general management grated on me, and I was better suited to getting things started than serving as an executive.

I joined Khosla Ventures in 2018 to invest in startups. Working with ~30 founding teams on behalf of Khosla was an honor, as was learning from some legendary investors at the firm.

In 2024 I decided to leave VC and pursue building things, but I continue to work with founders as an independent investor.

How I invest in startups

I aim to invest with a very high ratio of value-add to check size, typically $100k.

I work with startups that have a shot at being Important. There's no market cap goal or IRR goal. In the early days, I find importance is a helpful proxy for long term value.

I primarily try to assess if customers really care about a product. New products have to matter to someone to get adoption, and the degree to which it matters is a predictor of how easy or hard growth is going to be. (Note to self: write post about Big Distribution Energy)

The major companies I've been involved with were new business models without a clear reference point at the time. I'm happy to invest in saas or marketplaces, but I am open to models that aren't yet embraced by the VC community.

I do occasionally serve as a board member but will be extremely selective about making that commitment. I keep board positions current on my LinkedIn, with the exception of stealth companies.

I also invest in early stage venture funds and sub-institutional real estate managers.

You can reach me at evancharlesmoore at gmail dot com.