Ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo image: The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

As first reported by Axios, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and ex-Twitter COO Adam Bain have launched a startup advisory and investment firm named 01 Advisors. According to recently disclosed SEC filing, the San Francisco-based firm has raised roughly $135 million out of a targeted $200 million. 31 investors have put money into the firm so far.

Costolo and Bain are no new players in the startup world. Costolo joined Twitter from Google in 2009, serving as its COO for a year before mounting the CEO position which he held for five years. After his Twitter stint, he founded a fitness startup, Chorus [which he later shut down], and also joined Index Ventures as a partner.

Bain, likewise, has been angel investing and advising startups for some years. He became a board member at sneaker marketplace GOAT in 2017. GOAT has seen some good fortunes since then, having raised $100 million earlier this year at a $550 million valuation.

There’s also a third ex-Twitter executive — David Rivinus — involved in 01 Advisors. Rivinus was previously an investor relations executive at Twitter and also held a similar position at Yahoo. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has been a ‘Partner’ at 01 Advisors for a year, indicating the startup advisory firm had already been in the works for a significant time.

Axios reports 01 Advisors is raising funding so that it can get startup equity beyond “advisory shares”. In such way, it operates in a similar way as Tusk Ventures, a VC fund that’s led by former Uber adviser Bradley Tusk. Tusk was instrumental in helping Uber to surmount regulatory barriers.

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