VC Spotlight: Peter Boyce II, Stellation Capital
Careers can start at varying ages. For Peter Boyce II, Founder and Managing Partner of Stellation Capital and a Tech:NYC board member, his career started “around age 12 fixing computers and signing members of the community up for Windows to use the internet at the New York Public Library.”
Fast forward a few years, and that passion for helping others has fueled him to his current role at Stellation, where he invests in philomath founding teams. Think: AI productivity tools, new social graphs, creative communities, and climate and consumer health.
Peter is also on the VC Council for our Startup:NYC initiative. As a member of the Council, he advises on the direction of the program, including helping to select participating founders and deciding on the themes of each cohort. (Our inaugural season focused on health and wellness tech companies!)
We caught up with Peter to discuss his career, why he founded Stellation Capital, and what resources he recommends for early-stage founders.
Where did your career start?
Peter Boyce II: I started my ’formal’ career around age 12 fixing computers and printers, shelving books, and signing members of the community up for windows to use the internet at the New York Public Library. Before that I was learning to appreciate marketplaces and software buying / selling / trading Magic The Gathering cards and modding Xboxes.
From there I started a computer consulting business to help fix computers of busy executives in NYC (many of whom became my very first mentors and role models in technology and investing).
I was then lucky to follow my passion for learning and education spending my time in college interning and working with at NYC-based startup Skillshare (in the USV, Founder Collective & Spark portfolio – venture firms I admire tremendously). I’m forever grateful for Mike Karnj the founder for taking a chance on a very precocious & unproven college sophomore, and to Rob Go from NextView for introducing us.
My true calling came senior year in college when I co-founded Rough Draft Ventures (aka GC Fellows) to empower students to fund and support fellow student entrepreneurs. That’s what landed me into my 8+ year education and partnership at General Catalyst where I worked alongside an amazing team, helping to launch the NYC office and co-lead the seed program.
You founded Stellation Capital in 2021 — what was the catalyst for doing so?
A confluence of 1- a desire to serve founders in an aligned way, having founder-founder empathy in a new way, 2- wanting to create a complimentary addition to the venture ecosystem in NYC, 3- excitement at the prospect of following in the footsteps of my mentors, in particular David and Joel the founders of GC, and 4- craving a new steep learning curve, with advice from LPs and peer fund managers. Oh– and did I mention Covid?! As Paul Sagan from GC reminded me: ‘never waste a crisis…’
What stage do you invest at and what's your average check size?
We invest in companies as early as possible: it’s the style of investing I enjoy and cherish where conviction in the team is really at the core.
We typically write checks of $250K - 2.5M to lead & co-lead at the pre-seed & seed stages.
What's an investment from the last 12 months that you're especially excited by? Why?
Our most recent investment Mainframe really epitomizes what we’re excited about in a lot of ways:
1 - Very high levels of the founding team’s identities are reflected in the company’s vision, mission & intentionality.
2 - Phenomenal coinvestors in Alana Anderson, Lachy Groom, Matt Hartman, Ryan Hoover, and great operator angels.
3 - ‘If everything works out’ we should see a tectonic transformation in the world of interfacing with AI tools.
At Stellation Capital, you invest in what you call “mission-driven” companies and individuals — what's a trend you are watching closely in this area or in the tech industry in general?
We’ve loved seeing new waves of serial founders (and often members of their founding teams) launching their next companies — this time around often even more near and dear to their personal obsessions: whether that be from a childhood fascination, a family member’s health or productivity pain point, or an existential threat impacting us all like climate.
What are some of the top resources you recommend for founders who are beginning their startup journeys?
Patrick O’Shaugnessy’s podcast, Stripe Press, Stanford’s ‘View from the Top’ series, Talks at Google, USV’s blog posts, 20VC, Naval & Thiel’s writing. So many these days! Which is a great way our industry has evolved and grown over the years: when I was in college it felt like we didn’t have much more than TechCrunch, Twitter, and Paul Graham essays (key foundations).
What’s your favorite/most frequently used AI tool?
Allow me to ‘shill’ for a moment for my friends at Clay, they’ve built one of my favorite AI tools and I was very lucky to invest in their work during my time at GC. I am big on relationships and love their approach to helping illuminate folks in your network to engage with in a thoughtful way. It also has a level of design polish I absolutely love to see in a product– ‘chef’s kiss’ level.
You have a founder or LP in from out of town… where are you taking them?The Shed in Hudson Yards, Dumbo House in Brooklyn, or The Ned in Nomad.
Choose one: power breakfast, power lunch, or work dinner. Where?
Have to go two: power lunch at The Crosby Hotel in SoHo, followed by ‘early bird’ dinner at Place des Fetes in Brooklyn.
And, because we always ask our founders… what's the best slice of pizza in NYC?
Easy: Grandma-style pizza at Dan Kluger’s Loring Place 🍕
