Rafael Corrales

Founder @ Background Capital

About

I founded Background Capital to invest in early stage startups that become fundamental businesses Previously: early advisor to Instacart (IPO $CART) and a first round angel to Blockchain ($14b by Lightspeed), Webflow ($4b by YC Continuity), Clearbit (acq. HubSpot), and Luxe (acq. Volvo). Founding investor at Vercel ($9.3b by Accel and GIC). Before that, founding CEO of LearnBoost, which was acquired by WordPress (Automattic)

Country

City

United States

Industry

Computer Software

Skill

Start-ups, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Business Development, Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Leadership, Executive Management, Corporate Development, SEO, SaaS, Global Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Marketing, Analysis, Online Marketing, Product Management, Competitive Analysis, Sales Management, Business Strategy

Experience

Founder

Background Capital

2018-1 - Present · 8 yrs 9 mos

I invest in early stage startups with a path to becoming fundamental businesses. Now investing out of Fund 5, I am backed by top founders, executives, and super connectors - this is to create a multiplier on my own efforts to support the next wave of great founders. Before, I was an early advisor to Instacart (IPO $CART) and a first round angel to Blockchain ($14b by DST), Webflow ($4b by YC Continuity), Clearbit (acq. HubSpot), and Luxe (acq. Volvo). Because this is my full time profession and I take the same dilution alongside the teams I back, I am the most aligned early stage individual investor for founders.

Founding Investor, Board Member

Vercel

2016-1 - 2017-12 · 2 yrs

San Francisco

Founding investor and board member of Vercel (f.k.a. ZEIT) from solo founder / idea stage.

Partner

CRV

2013 - 2017 · 4 yrs

San Francisco

I led the initial round for Vercel ($9.3b by Accel and GIC) as well as the pre-launch round in Amino Health (acq. Capital Rx). Also as a partner I sourced two companies that got over the line: Airtable ($11.7b by XN, Franklin Templeton, Silver Lake) and PillPack (acq. Amazon for ~$1b).