What We Invest In
Here are a few guidelines about what we look for when investing:
1. What impact? We invest in innovations that are addressing critical problems for U.S. consumers and businesses. We’re especially keen on startups that are meetings the needs of overlooked communities in the United States, including women, rural communities, immigrants, and people of color.
2. Which industries do we like? We invest in companies whose primary product is software, predominantly in four main verticals:
- Digital health
- Fintech
- Cybersecurity
- SaaS
3. What industries do we not invest in? There are some industries in which we do not invest:
- No hardware or physical products
- No vice (alcohol, gambling, controlled substances, etc.)
- No beauty, fashion or CPG
- No dating
- No media
- No luxury offerings
- No e-commerce
- No biotech/pharmaceuticals
- No crypto, metaverse, or NFTs (other blockchain implementations are ok!)
4. What stage do we invest? We invest $150K – $350K in pre-seed and seed stage companies. We define this as:
- Company is beyond the idea stage: it has a prototype or product in the market
- Rounds are $2M or less with valuations/valuation caps that are $10M or less
5. Where do we invest? We invest in companies that are headquartered in rising tech hubs in the United States. This means all U.S. regions, except those based in the Bay Area/Silicon Valley. We do not currently invest in companies headquartered outside the U.S.
6. Who do we invest in? We do not qualify or disqualify investment opportunities based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. Decisions are based on the market opportunity, traction, whether the business meets the above criteria (#1-5), and whether we believe the founding team brings the right skills to execute on the vision.
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What is our investment process?
We try to make quick decisions. End-to-end, we aim to make an investment decision within 6–8 weeks.
1. It all starts with our open-access intake form: To ensure that any founder has access to our deal team, we require all founders seeking investment to submit their pitch through our quick intake form.
2. In the next stage, we request additional information to inform a conversation with our investment team.
3. If all still aligns, we have an introductory one-hour call with the partners.
4. After a review of additional materials (data room), we have a follow-up call to meet all the founders.
5. Final diligence includes a one-week collaboration surrounding a challenge the founders select.