1107 McDonough Place, McDonough, GA 30253 Mon–Fri 10 AM–5 PM
1010Computers
404-585-6253

March 30, 2020

Anorak’s Greg Castle on early-stage investing during a crisis

As the venture landscape adjusts to the COVID-19 pandemic and seismic shifts in public markets, early-stage VCs are reassessing which bets they’re making, along with questions they’re asking of founders who are exploring bleeding-edge technology.

Anorak’s Greg Castle

Anorak Ventures is a small seed-investment firm that bets on emerging tech like AR/VR, machine learning and robotics. I recently hopped on a Zoom call with founder Greg Castle to talk about what he’s seen recently in seed investing and how the sector is responding to the crisis. Castle was an early investor in Oculus; his other bets at Anorak include Against Gravity, 6D.ai and Anduril.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

TechCrunch: Has this pandemic affected the types of companies that you’re looking at?

Greg Castle: From my experience as an investor thus far, being reactive as an investor and looking at “hot” areas has a lot of pitfalls to be mindful of. I think a lot of the areas that excite me as an investor could benefit from what’s going on here, those areas including robotics, automation, immersive entertainment and immersive computing.

Just generally, do you feel like a recession is likely to negatively impact emerging tech more so than other areas?

Powered by WPeMatico

Need practical help?

Start with the problem your technology is causing.

404-585-6253

Start service

Choose the right service path

In-store visits can be scheduled now. Mobile and remote service begin as requests that require supervisor review before any service appointment is confirmed.

In-Store RepairChoose an available repair-center time. Completing the RepairShopr form creates a valid in-store visit appointment without waiting for staff confirmation.
Your selected time is your in-store appointment

Complete the RepairShopr booking form after choosing a time. The appointment and contact details are saved as a RepairShopr Lead so the team can find the visit when you arrive and begin customer-account and ticket entry faster.

Choose an In-Store Appointment Time

Current limitation: the hosted booking form records the selected time and contact information, but it does not currently ask for device or issue details. Please have that information ready at check-in.

Prefer to speak with someone? Call 404-585-6253.