founder-first
(10)
The Firm That Writes the First Check Before the Company Has a Name
Flybridge has spent more than two decades writing the earliest checks in tech. Now it is betting the whole firm on founders building the AI-powered version of everything.
The Venture Studio Betting That the Best Startups Will Be Hybrids
Walsh Karra Holdings is assembling a portfolio where AI meets farms, finance meets infrastructure, and capital comes with operators attached. Its wager is that the next durable companies will be built between sectors, not inside a single lane.
Album VC Bet on Fewer Founders - Then Utah Started Minting Unicorns
Album VC built a sizable fund by doing something venture capital says it values but rarely scales: keeping the check count low and the partner relationship close. Its record traces the rise of Utah tech from overlooked outpost to repeat-company factory.
The Fund That Only Swings at the Ones It Can Hit
A Boston venture firm borrowed its name from the last man to hit .400 in baseball - and built a discipline of only swinging at cybersecurity, healthcare, and data + AI deals where it holds an unfair advantage.
The Pritzker Family Turned One Buddhist Parable Into a $190M Venture Fund
One family office. One $190 million fund. A portfolio that already includes two unicorns - and a name borrowed from an ancient story about a pilgrim who needed 53 teachers to figure things out.
The VC Who Sells Before He Wires
Jordan Wan spent ten years staffing the sales teams of a thousand startups. Now he invests in the founders before they have one - and helps them figure out how to sell.
The Orlando Fund Betting That the Next Big Startup Won't Come From Silicon Valley
A venture firm in Orlando is wagering that the founders worth backing are the ones nobody in Silicon Valley has a flight booked to meet - and it wants to be the first money in.
The Fund That Bets on 30 Companies and Backs Teenagers
While rivals raise billion-dollar megafunds, A* is doing the opposite: fewer bets, bigger conviction, and a willingness to wire money to founders who are not old enough to rent a car.
RRE Ventures Has Been Playing the Long Game Since 1994 - and It Shows
The New York firm wrote early checks into Palantir, Datadog and Venmo, then stayed in the boardroom for the parts that actually get hard.
David Cheng
David Cheng is a General Partner at Costanoa Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm in Palo Alto focused on data, AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and fintech. With over a decade of investing experience - including nine years at DCM Ventures, where he became the youngest VP in the firm's 30-year history - Cheng has backed breakout companies including EvenUp (now valued at $2B+) and Brigit (acquired for up to $460M). A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Wharton graduate, he is also co-founder of Coreline Ventures and publishes the 'Earned Intuition' newsletter on Substack, sharing lessons from a decade of early-stage investing.