# Work-Bench

> Work-Bench is a New York seed-stage venture firm focused on enterprise software, including AI and machine learning, cybersecurity, infrastructure, developer tools, and vertical and horizontal applications. It leads concentrated seed rounds and pairs capital with practical go-to-market support, buyer introductions, tactical playbooks, and a long-running community of founders, operators, and corporate technology executives.

- **Founded:** 2013
- **Headquarters:** New York City, United States
- **Founders:** Jonathan Lehr (Co-Founder and General Partner), Jessica Lin (Co-Founder and General Partner)
- **Team size:** Approximately 42 employees in supplied company data; the public team page presents a smaller core investment and operations team.
- **Products:** Seed-stage enterprise investing, Zero-to-one go-to-market support, Enterprise Playbook Library, Corporate engagement and customer introductions, NY Enterprise Tech Meetup and community events
- **Notable:** Raised four primary funds, growing from a $10 million proof-of-concept vehicle to a $160 million Fund IV., Backed enterprise companies including Cockroach Labs, Socure, Spring Health, Dialpad, FireHydrant, Arthur AI, AuthZed, and Goodfire at early stages., Work-Bench portfolio companies have included unicorns Cockroach Labs, Socure, Spring Health, and Goodfire.

## Products & services

- **Seed-stage enterprise investing** — Work-Bench leads concentrated seed rounds in AI and machine learning, cybersecurity, infrastructure and developer tools, and vertical and horizontal enterprise applications; Fund IV targets initial checks of $2 million to $4 million.
- **Zero-to-one go-to-market support** — Hands-on help with customer discovery, ideal customer profiles, messaging, demos, pricing, procurement, security reviews, early sales hiring, and Series A preparation.
- **Enterprise Playbook Library** — A public library of tactical guides and templates covering sales, marketing, fundraising, metrics, legal work, procurement, SOC 2, and customer acquisition.
- **Corporate engagement and customer introductions** — Curated connections between portfolio founders and relevant enterprise decision-makers, supported by buyer research and preparation.
- **NY Enterprise Tech Meetup and community events** — Meetups, roundtables, summits, dinners, and peer programs connecting startup founders, operators, investors, and corporate technology executives.
- **Work-Bench Next NYC Network** — A curated network of functional leaders across sales, marketing, product, customer success, and engineering who advise and connect enterprise founders.
- **#Womenterprise** — A summit and community created to support women building and operating in enterprise software.
- **cofounders.nyc** — A curated, in-person New York community for people seeking co-founders and early startup team members.
- **GTM Weekly** — A newsletter distributing B2B go-to-market tactics to more than 35,000 subscribers, according to Work-Bench's website.

## Achievements

- Raised four primary funds, growing from a $10 million proof-of-concept vehicle to a $160 million Fund IV.
- Backed enterprise companies including Cockroach Labs, Socure, Spring Health, Dialpad, FireHydrant, Arthur AI, AuthZed, and Goodfire at early stages.
- Work-Bench portfolio companies have included unicorns Cockroach Labs, Socure, Spring Health, and Goodfire.
- Early portfolio company CoreOS was acquired by Red Hat in 2018 for approximately $250 million.
- Other disclosed portfolio exits include Semmle to GitHub, Scytale to HPE, Uplevel Security to McAfee, and x.ai to Bizzabo.
- Built the NY Enterprise Tech Meetup into a community of more than 10,000 people, according to its team page.
- Says its corporate engagement work has helped portfolio companies secure tens of millions of dollars in enterprise contract value.
- Built GTM Weekly to more than 35,000 subscribers, according to its website.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Work-Bench opened a chief of staff role spanning community, portfolio support, brand, and investment operations.
- **2026-02** — Work-Bench led Flock AI's $6 million seed round for AI-native retail content infrastructure.
- **2026-02** — Portfolio company Goodfire raised a $150 million Series B at a reported $1.25 billion valuation after Work-Bench backed its seed and Series A rounds.
- **2026-01** — Work-Bench led Chamelio's $5.7 million seed round for an AI system of record for in-house legal teams.
- **2025-12** — Work-Bench led Built AI's $6 million seed round and co-led AIR Platforms' $6.1 million seed round.
- **2025-10** — Work-Bench led Runhouse's $5 million seed round for AI post-training infrastructure.
- **2025-07** — Work-Bench led Paratus's $2.5 million pre-seed round for military readiness workflow software.
- **2025-05** — The firm closed a $160 million Fund IV to lead seed rounds with $2 million to $4 million checks.

## Links

- Website: https://www.work-bench.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/work-bench
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/Work_Bench
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@work-bench
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/work.bench.vc/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/work-bench
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-16