There from the start. Aligned on the future.
We're intentional investors—keeping our funds around $100M with a small, mighty team that works exceptionally hard on behalf of our portfolio companies.
We back founders we have high conviction in and build those relationships early, sometimes sourcing pre-seed deals through Next Wave and following through to our opportunity fund. This focused partnership approach creates unparalleled access and support for the entrepreneurs we serve.
There from the start. Aligned on the future.
We're intentional investors—keeping our funds around $100M with a small, mighty team that works exceptionally hard on behalf of our portfolio companies.
We back founders we have high conviction in and build those relationships early, sometimes sourcing pre-seed deals through Next Wave and following through to our opportunity fund. This focused partnership approach creates unparalleled access and support for the entrepreneurs we serve.
Our Founder Framework
At the earliest stages of investing, the founder is everything. We've distilled two decades of experience into the Minimum Viable Founder framework, a method for evaluating the founders we meet.
The Minimum Viable Founder in our eyes is someone with singular obsession around a specific problem, high agency to believe in themselves and drive forward, and unconventional thinking that challenges the status quo. When these three traits combine, you get founders who see what others miss and have the relentless drive to build the future.
Markets matter, technology matters, but in every pitch we're ultimately evaluating the founder, someone we'll back for the long haul and who we're confident can build something that changes everything.
Pre-Seed
Up to $250K Check Size
WHEN We InvestEarly-stage investors who can double down.
Seed
$1M to $3M Check Size
Led by our GPs and investment team members, we lead or co-lead rounds and are high-conviction but not unanimous decision-makers.
Post -Series A
$10M+ Check Size
Occasionally, we make late-stage investments into companies we bet on early - this allows us to support your growth and stay on the journey.
Early-stage investors who can double down.
WHEN We InvestPre-Seed
Up to $250K Check Size
Seed
Led by our GPs and investment team members, we lead or co-lead rounds and are high-conviction but not unanimous decision-makers.
$1M to $3M Check Size
Post -Series A
Occasionally, we make late-stage investments into companies we bet on early - this allows us to support your growth and stay on the journey.
$10M+ Check Size
Our Investment Process
If you're building something massive, we want to hear from you. We honor your time and can't meet with everyone, but when we do, the process generally goes like this:
Initial Conversation
Phone/Zoom/IRL conversation with a member of our investment team to understand your vision and explore alignment.
Team Engagement
Follow-ups with individual team members leading the opportunity and potentially 1-2 other investment team members.
Due Diligence
Comprehensive evaluation of your business model, market opportunity, and team capabilities.
Team Meeting
Invitation to present to our full investment team if we see strong potential for partnership.
Internal Discussion
Our team evaluates the opportunity and makes an investment decision based on strategic fit and potential.
Pass/Offer Decision
We provide clear feedback and either extend an investment offer or explain our decision to pass.
Investment & Partnership
If aligned, we move forward with investment terms and begin our long-term partnership journey.
Interested in reverse engineering this process and understanding how we think? We built an AI Investment Memo Generator based on hundreds of deal evaluations.
Investment Criteria
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As early stage investors we know that the founding team has an outsized impact on company success.
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A massive market in the multi-billions achieved through an initial insertion point and a combination of “second and third acts” to expand TAM across additional customer segments or additional product lines -- just like a bowling ball can knock down all ten pins by striking the right head pin.
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Successful startup teams building AI-powered companies don’t need to be full of ML PhDs but do need to be sophisticated about AI architecture, platforms, and tooling while still keeping the focus on delivering an excellent product that drives significant benefits to end-users and becomes recursively more valuable with more usage and users.
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Ease of use and human-centered product design that allows humans to trust and augment the AI will ultimately drive adoption, usage, results, and industry penetration.
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Early-stage Applied AI companies need a unique distribution approach to break through the clutter, get beyond pilots (where many startups get stuck), prove product-market fit, and drive rapid customer adoption without building massive and capital-intensive sales and marketing machines.
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The best data will win. The most specific and specialized knowledge will win. Companies will transform into mission-critical systems of records with deep specialization and data moats.
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Founders with deep domain expertise and insights that competitors can’t quickly obtain will more successfully navigate to a sustainable competitive advantage within a complex vertical. An earned secret is a critical edge.