In the fall of 2014 he started Roniin, a startup incubator that pairs serial entrepreneurs who have been around the block a few times with fresh-faced and enthusiastic beginners. The goal is to find the best early stage startups in a particular vertical and set them up with mentorship, seed capital, operational resources, and whatever else they need to churn out a product. The mentors will help the entrepreneurs think through aspects of building a business such as human resources or or administrative processes. These are the less fun parts of business, but just as critical to a company’s success. Lee hasn’t wasted any time since starting Roniin with cofounders Arman Ghosh, Ryan Jeffrey and Kathryn Saluke. In the six months or so since launching, they’ve helmed five new companies. Three of the five are based in Chicago, with the other two based in NYC and Los Angeles. Only two of the startups, OfficeLuv, and Attendant, have come out of stealth. Along with helping their companies raise money, Roniin has been successful in its own funding. They recently raised a $3 million seed round led by San Francisco-based venture fund Formation 8 with participation from Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Dom Capital, Raise.com founder and CEO George Bousis, venture capitalist Lon Chow, innovation consultant Chris Conley, ContextMedia founder and CEO Rishi Shah, Fieldglass founder and CEO Jai Shekhawat and real estate developer Jason Scher. Roniin is changing the way that companies are being built. By pairing experienced entrepreneurs with new CEOs who are willing to learn and put in extra work, the number of new companies succeeding could skyrocket.
