# Paige Finn Doherty

> Paige Finn Doherty is the founding partner of Behind Genius Ventures, a San Francisco-based pre-seed and seed VC firm managing ~$14M AUM across two funds. One of the youngest women in the world to start a venture fund (at age 22), she is also the author of 'Seed to Harvest: A Simple Explanation of Venture Capital,' host of the Seed to Harvest podcast, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Venture Capital (2022). A San Diego native and SDSU computer science graduate, she built her fund from a book she wrote to explain VC to her parents, using Twitter to raise her first $60K syndicate from 17 investors. She invests in 'technical storytellers' building 'clipboard companies' — verticalized AI applied to legacy industries.

- **Role:** Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures
- **Organizations:** Behind Genius Ventures, SDSU Lavin Entrepreneur Fellowship
- **From:** San Diego, California, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Computer Science, San Diego State University (SDSU), Fellowship, On Deck Angel Investing Fellowship, Program, Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship (Rome Study Abroad)
- **Known for:** Forbes 30 Under 30 - Venture Capital (2022) - one of the youngest women to raise a VC fund, Raised $5M Fund I at age 23 with USV, Freestyle, Human Ventures as LPs, Raised $8.9M Fund II with Cendana Capital as cornerstone LP at age 24

## Career timeline

- **2015-2016** — High school intern at Northrop Grumman; won Paul Marchisotto Memorial Scholarship
- **2016-2020** — B.S. Computer Science, SDSU; Lavin Entrepreneur Fellowship; music journalist at Aztec Music Group
- **2019** — 2nd Place in VC Investment Competition Silicon Valley Regionals at Google HQ; Forbes Under 30 Scholar
- **2019-2020** — Internship at TVC Capital (San Diego) after winning VC competition
- **2020** — Wrote 'Seed to Harvest' book during COVID lockdown; illustrated by brother Owen; foreword by Ann Miura-Ko
- **2020** — Joined WorkOS as Developer Success Engineer 2 days after SDSU graduation
- **2020-2021** — Ran investment syndicates part-time; raised $300K across 6+ deals including first deal: Pallet ($60K from 17 investors in 2 weeks via Twitter)
- **2021** — Left WorkOS; co-founded Behind Genius Ventures with Joshua Schlisserman at age 22
- **2022** — Raised $5M Fund I at age 23; Forbes 30 Under 30 (Venture Capital) cover honoree
- **2023** — Named Business Insider Top VC Funding the Creator Economy; appeared on The Pitch (Seasons 10-14)
- **2024** — Closed $8.9M Fund II with Cendana Capital as cornerstone LP at age 24; relocated to San Francisco
- **2025** — Named SDSU Rising Aztec; managing ~$14M AUM across 50+ portfolio companies

## Achievements

- Forbes 30 Under 30 - Venture Capital (2022) - one of the youngest women to raise a VC fund
- Raised $5M Fund I at age 23 with USV, Freestyle, Human Ventures as LPs
- Raised $8.9M Fund II with Cendana Capital as cornerstone LP at age 24
- Author of 'Seed to Harvest: A Simple Explanation of Venture Capital' - sold 185 copies in first 5 days
- Grew Twitter following from 300 to 30,000+ through 'learning in public'
- Business Insider Top VC Funding the Creator Economy (2023)
- SDSU Rising Aztec Award (2025)
- 2nd Place VC Investment Competition Silicon Valley Regionals at Google (2019)
- Forbes Under 30 Scholar (2019) - selected from 20,000+ applications
- Raised first syndicate of $60K from 17 investors in 2 weeks via Twitter
- ~$14M AUM and 50+ portfolio companies as of 2024-2025
- 21 episodes on The Pitch (podcast/show) across Seasons 10-14

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Named SDSU Rising Aztec - one of 10 outstanding alumni selected by SDSU Alumni
- **2024-04** — Closed $8.9M Fund II for Behind Genius Ventures with Cendana Capital as cornerstone LP (Fortune coverage)
- **2024-05** — Relocated from San Diego to San Francisco
- **2023-12** — Named Business Insider Top VC Funding the Creator Economy
- **2023-01** — Appeared on The Pitch podcast/show across Seasons 10-14 (21 episodes total)

## Links

- Website: https://paigefinndoherty.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigedoherty/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/paigefinnn
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@seedtoharvest
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paigeefinn/

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/paige-finn-doherty
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-26