Marlon Nichols: The Influential Investor Scaling Seed Stage Startups

Marlon Nichols is one of the most prolific venture capitalists in the United States.

Since launching his first venture fund in 2015, Nichols has invested directly and indirectly in over 200 startups. His impressive U.S. and African portfolio has included Airspace, Blavity, FINESSE, MongoDB, Pipe, and Shekel Mobility, among others. The Cornell grad’s unique eye for global trends and shifts in consumer behavior has helped him capture many high-potential investments. 

Nichols’ talent hasn’t gone unnoticed. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including MVMT50’s SXSW 2018 Innovator of the Year and Business Insider’s Seed 100 Top Early-Stage Investors list. He also ranks 25th on the Kauffman Fellows Fund Returners Index.

Still, most days, Nichols is busy scaling his VC firm, MaC Venture Capital. But who’s the man behind the rave, and what is his venture capital story? Let’s dive in. 

Meet Award-Winning Investor, Marlon C. Nichols

“I started my undergraduate studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts,” Marlon Nichols told UrbanGeekz in an exclusive interview. He studied Management Information Systems and wanted to enter the technology industry after graduation. Fortunately, he landed a position as an early employee at Frictionless Commerce, an enterprise software company focused on supplier relationship management.

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The company was at the seed stage when he joined, so he contributed to its growth. Eventually, they raised their Series A funding and saw significant traction in the UK and Europe. The company asked him to move and grow the company in the UK. “I spent two to three years building and reinventing the startup,” he said.

Frictionless Commerce eventually exited and was acquired. Nichols had a decision to make: He could either stay in the UK and work for the large company or move back to the U.S. and figure out what he would do next.

Left to right: MaC Venture Capital partners: Adrian Fenty, Marlon Nichols, Charles King, and Mike Palank

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Choosing the latter, he got into consulting and worked with companies like the Blackstone Group, Warner Music, and McGraw Hill. He did this for five years before deciding to move on. “I decided to return to business school to figure it out. I set my sights on venture capital and decided to attend Cornell SC Johnson College of Business because they had an MBA-led venture fund.”

It was the ideal environment to develop his business acumen, understand what works, and hone his investment lens. It worked out, and Nichols ended up at Intel Capital after graduating from business school in 2011. This was when Intel Capital invested anywhere from $200 to $300 million per year in Series A and Series B startups. “I then became a Kauffman fellow during that time and realized it was possible to create my kind of venture firm. I decided that was the path I wanted to take.”

So he went off, met a couple of co-founders, and built his first venture firm, Cross-Culture Ventures, in April 2015. About $15M was raised and deployed. In 2019, after deciding it was time to scale up, he collaborated with his current partners, who ran a similar-stage venture firm called M Ventures. 

His partners were Mike Palank, a former talent agent who’d worked at the Men In Black star’s Overbrook Entertainment; Adrian Fenty, who served as mayor of Washington, D.C. from 2007 to 2011; and Charles King —entrepreneur and Oscar-winning producer.

After trial and error, they decided they’d be stronger together and built MaC Venture Capital, signifying M Ventures and Cross-culture. “We invest in seed-stage companies, primarily in North America, but about up to 10 percent internationally. The international focus has been on African companies, mostly Nigeria and Kenya.” He invested in his first company in Senegal in 2024.

MaC Venture Capital’s Solid Investment Strategy

Funding for U.S. tech startups has plummeted in recent years since the 2021 boom, and Black-led businesses have been the biggest hit. In 2022, Black-founded startups received 1.1% of the total startup funding raised in the United States. Meanwhile, it was 0.5% of the $140.4 billion raised by U.S.-based startups from venture funding, according to Crunchbase.

Despite this dip, MaC has been a ray of sunshine. Between 2019 and 2024, the Black-led venture capital firm raised three different funds. The VC firm announced $110 million in March 2021, the largest first fund for a majority Black-led team. They got $203 million for the second fund in June 2022, nearly double the first round, and then $150 million in October 2024 for the third round. 

Related Post: MaC VC Secures $150M for Third Fund

The firm’s assets under management total $600M, a remarkable feat for a four-year-old company. Nichols believes this fundraising success indicates they selected good limited partners and institutions who see the value in what MaC is building.

Furthermore, he states their strategy deeply resonates with investors. “We picked a strategy, and we’ve been running our playbook against that strategy. We’ll continue to do that.”

The investor-founder relationship is crucial in business. Learning how to navigate it successfully could determine whether the investor receives returns or the entrepreneur gets funding.

In a recent interview, some of MaC Venture Capital’s startup founders had nothing but glowing words for them. Wonder Dynamics CEO and Co-founder Nikola Todorovic found their advice vital and said, “They are the kind of folks that I can text at 1 a.m.” 

Nigerian-based Shekel Mobility CEO and Co-founder Sanmi Olukanmi was introduced to MaC by another investor after going through Y Combinator. He describes his relationship with the VC as “running a business with a brother.”

What MaC Venture Capital Looks For Founders

Most investors have key traits they look out for in the founders they work with, and it isn’t different for Nichols. For personality traits, he expects founders to have extreme grit and humble confidence. “I’d say that the humility piece is essential because, if you think you know everything, you’re not willing to listen to other perspectives, you’re likely not going to succeed.”

He also expects a unique tie for the business they’re building. This can be a professional tie, like that of a domain expert or someone who has worked in the space for years. It can also be bringing a particular perspective or having lived through the challenge they’re trying to solve.

From the skills perspective, he said that MaC Venture Capital is looking for a trilogy of skills: the ability to sell the product, sell the idea to investors, and sell the dream to employees. 

In addition, technical talent. This talent will have experience turning thoughts into things. The talent understands what needs to be built from a technology perspective and can lead an internal or external technical team.

Pitching Mistakes Founders Should Avoid 

Nichols advises founders to avoid overstating the market opportunity. Stop taking as big a market as possible and claiming that your business has the potential to capture all of it when you can only do a sliver. Investors will always see through that, so be honest about it.

Additionally, understanding the space that you’re building in. Most entrepreneurs don’t understand the competitive landscape. Look around, see who else is doing this, and understand where your competition can come from. “If you don’t do that and claim we’re the only ones doing this, and I can do a quick internet search and uncover four or five other companies, then that’s problematic,” he added.

Instead, be specific about your challenge and put numbers around it. Mention the novel solution/approach to solve the challenge and why you and your team will be the category winners.

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Marlon Nichols’s Attraction To the African Tech Ecosystem

“Yeah, it wasn’t intentional. I met an African founder through a mutual connection. He was visiting California, and I was doing our mutual connection a favor by sitting and talking with the founder,” he said.

He liked the business in Kenya, and they hit it off. Nichols thought he would be a competent founder and loved what he was building as a company. He invested, joined his board of directors, and would visit Nairobi once a year.

During those visits, he had the opportunity to meet other investors, founders, and ecosystem players. When they raised MaC’s fund one in 2019, Nichols was fortunate to have a Nigeria-based LP. “We learned about Nigerian Tech and the investing ecosystem in the same way. There were things I loved about the market, and as I met more founders. They were building interesting things that were solving key problems.”

Once you invest in one brilliant founder, they’ll introduce you to another founder, and from there, you’re in 10 to 12 companies.

Final Thoughts

Nichols recommends that Black founders believe in themselves and their team. The road is hard and challenging, so you must rely on your personal why, whatever you’re building, and dig into that. “Additionally, build something valuable. A lot of people build things that are not creating value. If you build things that create real value, you will be recognized, capital will be raised, and you will find success.”

Main image Marlon Nichols (courtesy of MaC Venture Capital)