Hi, we’re Character.

A new seed fund supporting founders with capital and sprints.

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 →

Drawing of John Zeratsky
John Zeratsky
Co-Founder & General Partner

Author of Sprint. Former design partner at GV and design leader at YouTube.

Drawing of Eli Blee-Goldman
Eli Blee-Goldman
Co-Founder & General Partner

Early-stage startup investor. Former general partner at Capital Midwest Fund.

Drawing of Jake Knapp
Jake Knapp
Co-Founder & Startup Advisor

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, Gusto, Clubhouse, Coinbase, Flatiron Health, and many other technology companies.

Seed Capital

We raised a $30 million dollar fund so we can invest early and amplify our support as you build your company.

Investing up to $1 million at seed stage

We invest flexibly across the spectrum of seed stage, including Character Labs, our sprint program for pre-seed founders.

Focused on startups with technical edge and behavioral insight

Especially in AI/ML, enterprise, industry, climate, healthcare, and the life sciences — where software can unlock meaningful behavior changes that are aligned with customer goals.

Located anywhere — or everywhere

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.

Design Sprints and more

We work hand-in-hand with your team, using the Sprint method we created at GV, to help you find and expand product-market fit.

Answering high-stakes questions

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.

Diagram showing a loop of Plan, Build, Launch, Learn, with a shortcut from Plan to Learn
Together with your team

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.

A proven recipe for startups

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.

Investments

Phaidra

AI industrial control systems that save energy and money.

HeadsUp

Sales data platform that prioritizes qualified leads.

Highnote

Audio collaboration for musicians and podcasters.

House Rx

Platform for medically integrated specialty pharmacy.

Zest

Gifting platform for ecommerce brands and shoppers.

Waitroom

Video platform for timed 1:1 meetings and interviews.

Fathom

Zoom plugin that makes meeting notes obsolete.

Bend

Measure and share your company's carbon footprint.

Reclaim

Calendar assistant that schedules tasks and meetings.

Digest

AI learning tools built by students for students.

Coming soon

AI/ML platform that accelerates drug development.

Coming soon

Psychedelic-assisted coaching and therapy.

Coming soon

Cybersecurity solution for insurance brokers.

Coming soon

All-in-one customer research platform from Y Combinator.

Coming soon

UI platform that helps teams build products faster.

Coming soon

Empower kids to write books with generative AI.

Coming soon

Collaborative goals and accountable progress.

Coming soon

Helping merchants accept social service benefits.

Coming soon

Collective intelligence for modern teams.

Coming soon

Smart patient management for mental health.

Coming soon

Patient outreach and engagement for digital health.

Coming soon

Social platform to exchange space and experiences.

Coming soon

AI platform for designing new materials.

Coming soon

AI control systems for robots in the real world.

Coming soon

Knowledge base and generative AI for life science.

Coming soon

AI platform for customizing critical internal software.

Coming soon

AI phone system that automates voice calls.

Coming soon

Collaborative video editor with AI power-ups.

Coming soon

AI copilot for military training exercises.

Coming soon

Developer platform for monitoring and iterating APIs.

Earlier Investments

Notable investments from our previous roles at GV and Capital Midwest Fund

About Character

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.

We’d love to learn about what you’re building.

Character Labs is our new sprint program for pre-seed founders. Learn more →