san-francisco-vc
(9)
The VC Firm Betting the Next Giant Will Look Boring at First
1984 Ventures hunts for software companies in the places hype forgot - then tries to become the call founders make before the rest of Sand Hill Road notices.
The Venture Fund That Turned the YC Alumni Group Chat Into an AI Investing Machine
Orange Collective has made a narrow bet with a wide network: let more than 150 YC alumni help spot the AI founders worth backing. The result is part venture fund, part expert panel and part software-assisted research desk.
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 Venture Firm That Makes One Bet a Year - Then Won't Leave the Room
Emergence turned an unfashionably narrow bet on cloud software into a durable venture franchise. Now its $1 billion seventh fund is testing whether the same low-volume, high-touch playbook can find the defining companies of the AI workplace.
The Venture Firm That Treats Your Shopping Habits Like a Map of the Future
Maveron has spent more than a quarter-century betting that small changes in daily behavior become large companies. Its product is patient partnership - and its raw material is the way people live.
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.
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.
Forerunner
Forerunner made its name by noticing what consumers wanted before spreadsheets could prove it. Now the firm behind Chime, Oura and Glossier is applying that habit to AI - with $3 billion, a compact team and an unusually broad definition of consumer.
CapitalX
CapitalX is a San Francisco early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2020 by general partner Cindy Bi. It writes $100K-$500K seed checks into enterprise, SaaS, AI, fintech and developer-tools startups, with larger follow-on positions through SPVs, and runs an online-first, high-conviction model backed by an unusually operator-heavy base of limited partners. The firm points to a portfolio that includes Zapier, Rippling, Cruise, Turing, Flutterwave and Boom Supersonic, and a run of unicorn outcomes as its calling card.