When you’re just starting out, we believe there’s nothing more important than building the right product for the right people. We helped Flatiron Health, Digit, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Slack figure it out fast — and we can help you, too.
⚡️ Character Labs is our new sprint program for pre-seed founders. Learn more →
Author of Sprint. Former design partner at GV and design leader at YouTube.
Early-stage startup investor. Former general partner at Capital Midwest Fund.
Creator of the Design Sprint. Author of Sprint. Former design partner at GV.
Our startup advisors are Jeanette Mellinger, Charles Adler, and David Cirilli.
We are backed by nearly 100 LPs, who act as an extended team to help us find and support startups. Our LPs include founders and operators from YouTube, Google, Slack, Square, Uber, Mozilla, Opendoor, Clubhouse, Coinbase, Flatiron Health, and many other tech companies.
Sometimes it’s all one check, sometimes it’s two, but we always make our first investment in rounds with “seed” in the name.
Especially in climate, enterprise, healthcare, creators, commerce, web3, no-code, fintech, and team productivity — where software can unlock meaningful behavior changes that are aligned with customer goals.
Great founders know how to leverage remote work to build amazing teams, and when to gather the team to sprint and connect. We’re a remote-native firm investing in companies located anywhere in the USA.
Which customers should you focus on? How should the product look? What should you build next? Early-stage startups need to answer these questions ASAP, and we can help.
We’re not just talking about playbooks and resources — we actually clear our calendars and sprint with your team. Ask any founder we've worked with.
We've used sprints to help 200+ startups answer questions and validate hypotheses. Thousands more have read our book and embraced the process. It works.
AI industrial control systems that save energy and money.
Sales data platform that prioritizes qualified leads.
Audio collaboration for musicians and podcasters.
Platform for medically integrated specialty pharmacy.
Gifting platform for ecommerce brands and shoppers.
Video platform for timed 1:1 meetings and interviews.
Zoom plugin that makes meeting notes obsolete.
Measure and share your company's carbon footprint.
Calendar assistant that schedules tasks and meetings.
AI learning tools built by students for students.
AI/ML platform that accelerates drug development.
Psychedelic-assisted coaching and therapy.
Cybersecurity solution for insurance brokers.
All-in-one customer research platform from Y Combinator.
UI platform that helps teams build products faster.
Empower kids to write books with generative AI.
Collaborative goals and accountable progress.
Helping merchants accept social service benefits.
Collective intelligence for modern teams.
Smart patient management for mental health.
Patient outreach and engagement for digital health.
Social platform to exchange space and experiences.
AI platform for designing new materials.
AI control systems for robots in the real world.
Notable investments from our previous roles at GV and Capital Midwest Fund
Messaging, search, and collaboration platform for teams.
Improving lives by learning from the experience of every cancer patient.
Sourcing, roasting, and serving great coffee to the world.
Exceptional primary care supported by custom technology and design.
World's largest digital coupon marketplace.
Jobs and training for skilled workers in manufacturing.
Puts money on autopilot with machine learning.
Cellular platform makes it easy to set up and manage connected devices.
All-in-one platform for third-party risk management.
Bringing simplicity and delight to payroll, benefits, HR, and finance.
We exist to help founders like you build the right product for the right people. We invest capital and time to help you figure it out fast.
But it’s not just about technology and money. For us, it’s personal, because time is our only finite resource. An hour spent at work is an hour we can’t spend with family or friends, or taking care of ourselves or our communities.
We believe the best use of our time is helping you build products and services that create meaningful change for your customers. Let’s work together to make it count.
Character Labs is our new sprint program for pre-seed founders. Learn more →
