early-stage-venture-capital
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Third Prime Is Betting the Next Big Software Company Wears Work Boots
The New York and Nashville venture firm hunts for software in places where clipboards, compliance binders and fragmented workflows still run the day. Its portfolio shows a consistent wager: overlooked industries can become unusually durable technology markets.
The 98 Is Betting the Venture Gap Is a Market Mispricing
Women-led startups still receive a sliver of venture funding. The 98 treats that gap not as a charity brief, but as an investable inefficiency - then brings an operator network to the cap table.
The Venture Firm That Bet the Midwest Wasn't Flyover Country
Cultivation Capital filled a funding gap in St. Louis, then turned that local thesis into a network of specialist funds. Its wager is simple: useful companies can start anywhere, but they still need capital, counsel and the right introductions at exactly the right moment.
The Small-Check Strategy Behind A.Capital’s Biggest Bets
A.Capital built its pitch around a Silicon Valley heresy: a venture firm does not need a fixed ownership target to matter. Its wager is that recruiting muscle, technical judgment and the right introduction can make a small slice unusually consequential.
Chemistry’s $350 Million Bet: Small Team, Big-Firm Memory
Three veteran investors left Bessemer, Andreessen Horowitz and Index to build a venture firm around an unfashionable promise: fewer bets, shared conviction and actual partner time.
The $100,000 Checks Turning Knoxville Into a Startup Town
Market Square Ventures is making a simple regional bet: good founders do not become less investable when they live outside the usual venture map. Its small checks, operator network, and rapidly expanding portfolio are testing how much a hometown fund can change a startup ecosystem.
Footwork Built a $400 Million Venture Firm on Two People Saying Yes
Footwork pairs an investor's pattern recognition with an operator's scar tissue, then asks both partners to own every decision. Five years in, that compact design is becoming a case study in how a small venture firm can stay concentrated while its market changes underneath it.