Seattle VC Firms Led Just 11% of Early-Stage Funding Rounds in 2023

By: Nate Bek

If you’re a Seattle startup looking to raise venture capital, odds are most of that money will come from out-of-town investors.

Seattle is home to more than 25 active venture firms with about $2.1 billion in AUM. The ecosystem ranks fifth nationally for early-stage investments and has captured 3% of the nation's pre-seed and seed-on-SAFE dollars since 2020, according to an analysis by Carta’s Peter Walker. On a per capita basis, it ranks sixth among metros, averaging $448 in startup capital invested per person. 

Despite these figures suggesting a strong local funding scene, there’s a hidden dependence on external capital.

The statistics paint a clear image: Out of the roughly $1.6 billion poured into Seattle startups across 162 seed through Series B rounds in 2023, Seattle’s venture firms led or co-led just 18 of those deals, according to data from Crunchbase, analyzed by Ascend. 

A closer look reveals that in 2023, Seattle VCs contributed roughly 12% of the funding from seed to Series B rounds (methodology below). There’s a sharp decline post-seed stage; Seattle VCs accounted for about 25% of seed-stage funding but this plummeted to just 4% at the Series A level.

The issue cuts deeper than numbers. It’s about the ecosystem’s vitality. The recent departure of Techstars Seattle from the region — which cited a lack of venture dollars — was a telling blow. While the city is an AI hub and burgeons with technical talent, local investment is not scaling with startup growth. 

This, in turn, creates a gap. More and more out-of-town investors are eying Seattle’s startups as an investment opportunity. Notably, Point72 and Bonfire have set up shop in Seattle, while investments flowing from the Bay Area is a well-documented phenomenon. (Here’s a deeper look at out-of-town investors that invest in Seattle.)

Local firms are also stepping in to fill the void, especially at the earlier stages. The Alliance of Angels says it’s raising new cash; Breakwater, led by William Finney and Peter Mueller, announced a fresh $10 million fund to buoy Pacific Northwest startups; Seattle-based Breakers, led by Annie Lunchsinger, is backing early-stage startups; and Swizzle Ventures, led by Jessica Kamada, is raising cash. Here at Ascend we’ve backed more than 60 local pre-seed startups across two funds.

Despite this, most startups are expected to think outside of Seattle if they want to fill out their rounds. And they should expect their local angel and pre-seed investors to help make those connections with Silicon Valley funds. 

The ecosystem is not capital-constrained: Seattle is nationally recognized as a vital startup creation engine. With 10 and 11 figure exits becoming a yearly occurrence, the town is a magnet for talent and capital. The best companies and founders do indeed get funded — just, more often than not, by investors from outside the region.

We tracked early-stage funding rounds in Seattle in 2023. Search the index below for deal figures and lead investors.

Methodology: To calculate the total seed through Series B funding involving Seattle VCs in 2023, we analyzed Crunchbase for active Seattle VC firms leading deals. This involved comparing their contributions to the overall deal volume of the period. It's important to note some deals did not specify a lead investor and pre-seed rounds were excluded due to insufficient data in the seed-on-SAFEs category. The Seattle VCs' share of the funding was then determined by dividing the total seed to Series B funding by the deal value from rounds led or co-led by Seattle VCs.

*NOTE: Figures and analysis do not necessarily portray exact data and merely serve as a snapshot of Seattle’s VC landscape. For instance, some rounds that were led or co-led by Seattle VCs included participation from out-of-town investors (and vice-versa).

How the pursuit of exceptional people landed this New York VC in Seattle

By: Nate Bek

Antonio “Tono” Osio is all about people. 

The general partner of early-stage venture capital firm ANIMO Ventures made that clear during our conversation last week. My takeaway: human connection and shared values largely define Tono’s investment posture. It’s even baked into his fund’s mantra: “People backing people.” 

Tono’s people-first approach to investment has become a sort of credo — one that gets to the heart of his thesis around early-stage investing. At the core, founder-investor relationships will inevitably be tested during the tumultuous startup journey, so it helps to be on the same page from the jump. 

“Venture, especially at the seed stage, is all about the people,” Tono told me. “That is why we are focused on building the most people-centric firm in the industry.”

Tono’s investment philosophies have largely been shaped by his path into VC. Originally from Mexico, he graduated from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) with degrees in law and economics. His initial career trajectory spanned corporate law, economic development, and traditional finance before veering into the world of early-stage tech investing. 

Tono developed an interest in the space during his involvement in Mexico’s then-nascent startup ecosystem, where he got involved with a few early-stage companies. 

Working with startups inspired him to pursue a career in venture investing. In 2012 he decided to enroll at MIT, with a focus on VC. While there, Tono worked part-time at New York venture firm FJ Labs. From then on, he decided that VC would become his life’s work. 

Returning to Mexico in 2014, he decided to partner with a close friend and mentor to launch Capital Invent, which he said was one of the first early-stage VC firms in the region. 

A year after launching the fund in Mexico, Tono joined the Kauffman Fellows Program. That’s where he met his friend and eventual fund partner Nico Berardi. The duo discovered a mix of shared values and ideals that eventually drove them to team up and start a new venture firm, ANIMO Ventures. 

Since launching in 2018, the firm has raised two funds, totaling $140 million in AUM. It has 36 portfolio companies, and it’s actively deploying checks at the pre-seed and seed stages across the US with an aggressive generalist approach. (More below on the firm’s funding strategy and details.)

A lot has changed in seed investing during the past years, but Tono thinks that one thing will remain consistent in the coming decades: while sectors and verticals will come and go, people will always remain.

Here’s what ANIMO believes: 

“The only constant will be exceptional people. It is exceptional people that build exceptional companies. It is exceptional people that create and destroy entire markets. Our commitment to backing people is born out of it being the only 30-year strategy, and thus will remain open to any industry or sector; to simply backing exceptional people building wherever their will takes them. It is that will that bends the universe and generates outsized returns.”

This has manifested across the fund’s portfolio. 

Tono pointed to Zócalo Health, a Seattle-based startup with a primary care platform. Founded in 2021 by ex-Amazon Care leaders Erik Cardenas and Mariza Hardin, both of whom are Latino, the startup’s mission is to address the underserved Latino community in healthcare. 

“Erik and Mariza are exceptional founders that have a real founder-market fit story. They really understand the target customers they’re serving — because they are them,” Tono said. The company has raised more than $5 million and recently signed a couple of large business-to-business contracts. “It’s really taking off,” Tono said.

In other words, he invested in the right people. 🚀

Tono was kind enough to sit down with Ascend for our VC profile series, where we showcase early-stage investor friends from across the US. We talked in more depth about his VC passion, Animo, and his bullish views and thoughts about the Seattle tech ecosystem. Read to the end for carve-outs.

*We’ve edited this conversation for brevity. Enjoy! — Nate 👾

Nate: Thanks so much for chatting with us, Antonio. What made you fall in love with VC? 

Tono: I've been in venture capital for more than 12 years. Venture, for me, is a craft with no end — you’re always building and building to try and improve, by continuously raising the bar and never reaching a ceiling. Venture perfectly aligns with my life’s mission, values and goals, and I can’t see myself doing something different. I have realized this is my calling and serving founders is my life’s work. 

It’s also very exciting in the sense that you are learning new things all the time, meeting and learning from exceptional people. Founders that are reimagining industries and re-inventing our future. Being a small part of that is very fulfilling and rewarding.

I love this phrase from Josh Wolfe at Lux Capital that we, as VCs, “like to believe before others understand.” 

Can you go deeper on ANIMO?

We lead pre-seed and seed deals. We are aggressive generalists and invest across the US. Here’s the breakdown: 

• ANIMO has about $140 million in AUM across two funds. It now has 36 companies in its portfolio. 

• The firm raised its first fund of $60 million in 2018; it landed $78 million for Fund II in mid 2022, which is the one it is currently deploying out of. 

• Check sizes range from $500,000 to $2.5 million for startups raising their first $500,000-to-$5 million. 

• ANIMO is industry agnostic, with a ratio of about 60% enterprise and 40% consumer. 

Sell us on ANIMO. Why should founders want you on their cap table? 

We're striving to create the most people-focused and relationship-driven fund in the industry. We're usually the most active investor on the cap table. We’re very present, we deeply care and we're hustling all the time for our founders. Given that we only do between 7-10 deals a year, we have a very hands-on, white-glove type of approach in the way we work with our founders.

I’m sold! You mentioned earlier that you plan to visit Seattle soon. What draws you here? And what’s your bull case for the region? 

I’ve been going there for a couple years now. What makes the city and region so unique is its talent base. You have some of the largest and most successful tech companies ever based there, so I think that's a magnet and breeding ground for new founders. 

One other thing that I've been pleasantly surprised about is how collaborative and friendly the investor community is in Seattle. I've gotten to know a bunch of the early-stage funds, angels and investors there, and I’ve become close friends with many of them. They’re always really open and willing to help.

It’s always interesting to get an outside view on the ecosystem. I recently chatted with a valley VC about Seattle's big bet on AI/ML. He pointed out that much of our infrastructure and talent pool is riding on it. The VC told me that if AI doesn't take off like we all think it will, we might not be in the best spot. What about you? Any other concerns or thoughts on the local startup ecosystem? 

On the AI front, a concern is the good AI talent from Seattle ends up moving out of the city. If the center of the universe around AI is in the Bay Area, that might attract a lot of the good AI founders out of Seattle.

But I also understand that there's been a lot of work on that front. There’s institutions like the Allen Institute for AI (AI2), as well as a lot of big tech companies investing heavily in the space. The conditions are being created for founders to be able to build their companies and not have to leave. 

The other one, which we’re really excited about, is that we're starting to see more interesting consumer companies coming out of Seattle (i.e. Zocalo), whereas the region has been known more for its enterprise and B2B startups.

Brain drain is always top of mind. But, like you said, there’s so many great people and institutions working to keep that talent in Seattle. Also, I remember reading about Zocalo in GeekWire. I loved Erik and Mariza’s founding story. At the time, I thought it seemed like a rare consumer healthcare play in Seattle. 

Erik and Mariza both have a lot of experience in healthcare, but they also worked at Amazon. I think it's part of that talent you can find in Seattle. There's not that many cities like that, where so much talent works in big tech, along with backgrounds across different industries and company stages.

Let’s pivot to more fun questions… What song is getting the most play on your Spotify/Apple Music? 

There’s an indie rock band from Mexico called Zoé, which has a song named Arrullo De Estrellas which I really like. That’s one. I’m also a big '90s rock fan. Foo Fighters is one of my favorite bands and I love their Seattle origin story. I have seen them live in concert a few times, and they are one of my favorite bands.

That’s more of a personal question to find new music. And, of course, shout out to the Foo Fighters. What’s your favorite pair of shoes? 

I know Kirby’s a big sneakerhead! I’m training for the Boston marathon, which I’ll be running  in a few weeks. Just two days ago, I bought the new Kayano 30 by Asics, and they are my go-to shoe for running. 

Good luck! What’s your go-to ingredient in the kitchen?

I’m from Mexico, so I like spicy food, really spicy food. I would say anything with chiles or salsa. 

Any parting thoughts? 

We gravitate to other investors and founders that are not just exceptional but also just good people — and I think Seattle is full of them. ☔🔥☔

Read More: Mapping the Emerald City’s Growing AI Dominance

Mapping the Emerald City’s Growing AI Dominance

By: Nate Bek

Make no mistake, Seattle is the epicenter of AI.

Yet, for anyone outside of the AI bubble, the Emerald City can easily be overlooked, often snubbed by Silicon Valley and other tech hubs in the national discourse. 

We’re here to set the record straight, spotlighting the city’s understated but growing AI dominance. 

Seattle’s ascent in the tech world is a story of quiet progress and strategic foresight. Its foundations — laid by tech giants, universities, and research institutions — are creating an AI epoch set to take center stage in the Pacific Northwest. 

This revolution didn't occur overnight or by chance — it’s the culmination of innovation and strategic expansion, decades in the making.

The legacy of Microsoft’s software dominion and Amazon’s cloud empire are providing the technical muscle and infrastructure. The presence of tech behemoths such as Meta, Google, and Apple add a cadre of elite talent to the area. Seattle’s density of AI expertise ranks second in the nation.

Institutions like the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for AI (AI2) serve as the city’s brain trust, pumping out a steady stream of top-tier engineers, entrepreneurs, and research. AI2 recently rolled out its open-source model Olmo, and its incubator has launched more than 20 startups, some of which were snapped up by tech giants like Apple and Baidu.

The city also spawned AI Tinkerers, now a global network connecting thousands of top AI innovators across more than 28 cities.

These players aren’t just capitalizing on the AI wave — they’re building it, layer by layer, byte by byte. 

There’s an open-secret that the city’s founders and technical experts can be understated, playing down their own skills and the impact of their technology. That modesty can hurt, costing the region venture capital dollars and global attention. 

We found that the city’s breadth of talent flowing out of the major tech companies and institutions are creating an entrepreneurial tinderbox. These founders and engineers often come pre-programmed with domain expertise, helping them quickly launch and go to market with unique solutions that address the most pressing business and consumer problems of today. 

These companies also find it easier than ever to hire a support staff, thanks to nearly 20 domestic unicorn companies producing thousands of experienced growth marketers and operators.

By taking a step back, we can see that Seattle excels at both the AI infrastructure level and its broader applications across sectors. One Seattle startup, for instance, is training a video foundation model to generate short-form video content on phones. Another is applying advanced computer vision to autonomous farm robots to thump out weeds. 

We mapped out more than 50 AI startups and products built in Seattle, categorized from the compute layer all the way up to vertical application. 

Here’s what we found:

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We also created a searchable index, listing Seattle AI startups by category with their current funding figures. This is in no way a complete menu; we intend to regularly input new companies, so check back for updates.

*Total funding numbers are pulled from the latest available online data and may not be current

If you are building in Seattle and think you belong on our index, we would love to hear from you.  Please send an email to nate @ ascend dot VC. :-)

Navigating Early-Stage Investment: Insights and Strategies from Aditya Naganath, Principal Investor at Kleiner Perkins

Aditya Naganath’s venture capital philosophy is straightforward: “If you build it, they will come.”

As Principal Investor at Kleiner Perkins, Naganath has built quite the resume for himself, including a blend of operational roles at major tech companies and expertise in business strategy. 

Naganath’s professional journey is marked by his hands-on engineering positions. Post-graduation, he served as technical lead at Palantir, where he played a role in developing the software giant’s Foundry Platform. He went on to earn an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and took on the position of product manager at Google, overseeing tools that helped SMBs during the pandemic.

Joining Kleiner full-time in 2022, Naganath is now part of the firm’s elite team of investors. His focus is on early-stage enterprise software, including application infrastructure, security, and AI. 

Naganath was a recent guest at Ascend’s AMA, a monthly session for portfolio founders where we bring in experts on relevant topics (this month's focus: getting to Series A). He shared insights on fundraising strategies, crafting compelling narratives, and advice for out-of-geo startups. Keep reading for our main takeaways from that conversation.

“You need to be able to zoom in and out of your business:” Founders should strive to deeply understand their market and parlay that understanding into compelling storytelling as well as sound justification of their approach. The best ones often combine this with an obsession about the details of their product and their company's operations and finances. 

Product craft: Founders should be obsessed with product craftsmanship. “It’s about the details and having a taste for the product,” he said. He sees this as a crucial factor in successful investments like Rippling, Figma, and Loom.

Not all metrics are created equal: Revenue, while important, should not be the sole indicator of potential. Naganath recommends focusing on “atomic units of value” rather than data like NRR, ARR, or burn rate. He points out that measures like net new ARR better indicate growth pace. For instance, infrastructure companies face delayed monetization, and it’s up to investors to understand these trajectories. 

Naganath’s three tips for raising your Series A: 

1. Avoid making hasty decisions and accepting initial offers without consideration. “Think about your cap table construction,” he said. 

2. Do not raise too early just to get more dollars into your company. This can turn away quality investors. “I’m not saying to wait until you have three months of runway left,” he said. “But the risk you run is that a good investor might say, ‘Hey, I don’t think you’re quite ready.” 

3. Be authentic and transparent about why you are fundraising and the current situation that your startup is encountering. “The investors who shy away from that will probably not be a good fit anyway,” he said. 

Effective investor engagement: Be transparent about the framing of your outreach and meetings with investors, whether that’s a formal pitch meeting or relationship building. In the latter case, it creates the option of building a relationship with the investor at a more authentic level, and avoids pushing the investor to make an immediate investment decision. It’s also wise to be considerate of your own time to avoid spending too much time on relationship building, rather than working on your startup, which can appear as a negative signal to investors. 

Navigating VC pitches for founders outside major tech hubs: The challenge for founders outside major tech hubs, like the Bay Area and New York, is proving you can attract top talent, especially in fields like AI. “You have to make the case for your talent pool,” Naganath said. 

Investors may have biases about talent from big companies like Microsoft and Amazon, assuming they lack startup DNA. He adds, “On the flip side of this is that there are certain values. Founders who are too plugged in for their own good just come across as bravado, arrogance or immaturity.” 

Parting thoughts: Founders should continually refresh their perspective to deeply understand the market they are venturing into and commit to their craft. 

“Good things will follow,” he said. 

SaaS 3.0: Why the Software Business Model Will Continue to Thrive in the Age of In-House AI Development

The rise of OpenAI’s API and Anthropic’s Claude model brings up a big question: Is this the end of SaaS?

The concept is bold: Train AI models on company data to handle boring tasks like employee onboarding and customer-relationship management. The allure is to do it all in-house, bypassing the need to pay for a slew of off-the-shelf software tools. It’s a direct challenge to the established software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. A do-it-yourself future for businesses.

It’s an easy argument to make. More than 2 million engineers have downloaded OpenAI’s API, while Claude and other open-source models are quickly gaining traction in the enterprise. Consulting firms are offering services to help companies implement AI. And blog after blog contend that SaaS as we know it is all but dead.  

That’s ludicrous.

We’re not seeing the death of SaaS. Instead, we’re just moving to its new phase: SaaS 3.0. 

Evolution of SaaS

SaaS 1.0 represented the initial leap from physical software installations to cloud-based solutions, changing the way businesses accessed and scaled technology (think Salesforce). SaaS 2.0 built on the concept, embracing mobile integration, enhanced user interfaces, and collaboration tools to meet the evolving demands of enterprises (think Slack). 

For decades, machine learning and iterations of AI have been embedded into these B2B applications. Everything from semantic search, automated content generation, recommendation engines, and big data have found their way into product suites. This made managing backend operations much easier for enterprises.

Now, with the emergence of large language models (LLMs), AI isn’t just an add-on but at the core of the application. 

Enter SaaS 3.0: In this new phase, AI and machine learning are enhancing B2B applications to more effectively handle business-critical tasks. Through LLMs and deep learning, B2B vendors can automate entire processes, including payments, HR, CRM, content creation, and so much more. 

To be fair, OpenAI’s API and enterprise-grade chatbot, along with other LLM vendors, have enabled some tech-savvy startups and hyperscalers to build their own tools to automate tasks. 

But the reality is that most companies suddenly aren’t engineering powerhouses, capable of pumping out their own vertical software just by downloading an API. Engineers lack the time and expertise to build proprietary tech. And executives don’t want to invest in developing tools that already exist — ones that benefit from the experiences of thousands of customers and come with the assurance of being third-party provided.

The SaaS business model is alive and well. 

SaaS 3.0 in Action: Insights from our portfolio

Our portfolio companies are living proof of the demand for ready-made software solutions, now supercharged by AI: 

• AI speech coach platform Yoodli teamed up with Toastmasters, one of the largest international speech improvement communities, to offer a customized version of its speech-training platform to Toastmasters’ hundreds of thousands of users. 

• Mesh, which uses AI, is partnering with large enterprise customers like Amazon and Plaid to help with business identification processes; meanwhile, Vouched helps customers like Hims and Tennessee State Bank verify identities through its AI tech. 

• Clarity is stepping in to combat the rise of AI-generated deepfakes, providing essential content moderation tools. The startup’s tech recently detected a deep fake audio message from President Joe Biden, even as other digital-detection software tools and officials failed to sound the alarm.   

While Coca Cola might dabble in a custom-built AI art competition, its CRM backbone remains Salesforce. The scenario is similar across industries; long-standing businesses are not rushing to create in-house tax management software or identity verification solutions. Yet, these functions remain essential cogs in the machinery of modern business.

Investor confidence in the space remains strong, despite the broader pull back in venture capital funding. Essential.AI raised $56 million to automate workflows. Slope scooped up $30 million for B2B payments. And Kognitos landed $20 million to streamline back-office tasks.

To suggest that the rise of in-house AI development will eclipse SaaS is to overlook the complexity of technology development and conventional business wisdom. 

As we enter the SaaS 3.0 era, expect to see an undeniable surge of its market capture.

Best Practices for Requesting Warm Intros From Your Investors

Your investors hold extensive networks that can be invaluable for warm introductions to potential customers, advisors, and candidates. Making this process seamless for your investor is key. Here's a straightforward guide to assist you.

1. Identify Your Targets on LinkedIn:

• Ensure you are connected to your investor

• Click on their "connections" list 

• Use the "All Filters" tab to refine your search. Free text in the Keywords section "Title" and "Company" can be most helpful. (Pro-tip: LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers a free trial and has much more robust search filters available.)

2. Create a Target List:

• Compile a concise list of no more than 20 targets connected to your investor. 

• Include the target's name, title, company, and LinkedIn profile

• Send to your investor and ask them to identify which folks they feel comfortable reaching out to

(example)

3. Prepare the Forwardable Emails

• Once your investor identifies which targets they can reach out to, craft individual forwardable emails

• Ensure the emails are easy for your investor to forward with a personal note

(example)

Pro-Tips for a Great Forwardable

• Include a link to the target's LinkedIn profile so your investor can quickly orient

• Add specific language to show you've done your research on this person (the above example notes the target's past work experience)

• Keep it short and to the point

• Make a clear ask (ex. "Would you be open to a call to discuss?")

• Add additional supporting info about your company below your signature line

Seattle VC Profile: Matt Wang

When I started Ascend in 2019, I realized even though I was o-l-d OLD, I had more in common with the folks in town who were earlier in their professional investing journeys than the venerable VC’s I’d pitched as a founder. I admire and respect the new wave of Seattle/Pacific Northwest venture capitalists, and thought it would be fun to profile some of our region’s up and coming VC talents in these pages. —KW

Matt Wang is the New Ventures Lead at Pioneer Square Labs, a startup studio and early-stage VC fund in Seattle.

What made you decide to be a professional investor?

Like 90% of people in venture, I didn’t have a super linear path into investing. Before my current role, I was a consultant with BCG, but knew that I wanted to pursue a career in technology investing afterwards because I dabbled in growth equity investing in college. There were a few different potential paths I could take, so I reached out to Greg Gottesman at PSL to see if he had any thoughts on what might be the most interesting, and it just so happened that Greg was thinking about hiring a Chief of Staff at the time. We got along super well after taking a walk in Pioneer Park on Mercer Island, and I was signed up with PSL within the next week. 

What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?

It’s not the most fashionable thing in this industry, but I had been a consultant at two different firms: BCG, and before that, Innosight, which is Clayton Chirstensen’s firm. I also spent a year between the two working on incubation and new verticals at DoorDash’s NYC office. Seeing the breadth of problems that incumbents and scaling companies faced in those roles gave me a ton of perspective - not only into the functional challenges of managing and growing a business, but also on the many different ways that companies build their strategy (deliberately or not). Having those experiences to draw on has helped me work with our founders on a wide breadth of issues, like helping our climate-focused spinout ever.green understand the layered incentives of a potential enterprise customer, or thinking through how a credit hedge fund analyst might engage with LoansIntel, which is a debt intelligence platform that we invested in. 

Why should founders want you on their cap table?

It’s simple - PSL is a firm of operators and investors. As a studio, we build businesses from scratch, which gives us an intimate understanding of the challenges of starting companies, and as a venture firm, we’ve collectively seen and helped with multiple industry-defining companies. I personally work across both sides of our business, and will also lead studio projects as the on-point person to execute on creating a company out of an idea (which often results in killing it too!) Our network, experiences, and operating strength equip us to know how we can provide the most leverage to the founders we work with, and also gives us a good idea of when to help vs. when to get out of the way. 

How many new pitches (actual calls/zooms) do you take per month?

I have a unique role working both across the PSL Studio and Fund, so I mainly take inbound pitches in industries that I’m excited about. I would say that I take around 20 new meetings a month. 

How many new investments do you make per year?

Our fund invests in 4 - 5 new deals per year, and our studio aims to spin out 4 - 5 new companies per year. 

What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?

While we invest across Formation, Seed, and Series A stages, Formation is our sweet spot. 70% of our first checks are within 60 days of incorporation. We prefer to lead, and initial check sizes range from $1-3M. 

What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?

I love companies that disrupt entrenched industries and try to make the world a better place to live in, and especially love companies and teams that have a good story for why they are the ones to do it. Last year, we spun out a company called Felix and Fido that provides end-to-end veterinary services through both a clinic and through mobile services. The veterinary care space was at a bit of a breaking point - coming off of the pandemic, there was an explosion in pet ownership, and the increased demand collided with the decreasing number of veterinarians in the US (who have a job that is remarkably demanding and stressful). We thought we could build a company that treats customers better while also providing veterinarians with the work environment that they deserve, and we were incredibly fortunate to find that Gavin Woody, now the founder of Felix and Fido (as well as a record-breaking ultra athlete, former airborne ranger, and whose parents both had careers in veterinary medicine), agreed with us. It was exciting to watch an idea go from a whiteboard to a clinic opening party. 

What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?

PSL was founded on a geographical thesis: we believe that Seattle is one of the nation’s greatest sources of startup talent on account of the exceptional companies and universities in the area. The PNW hosts the centers of cloud computing, logistics, ecommerce, and enterprise software, and I believe that success begets success. With the recent excitement in generative AI, and the incredible community of builders that we’re lucky to have here, I think that the next generational tech company will be founded (or perhaps has already been founded) in Seattle. 

What song is currently getting the most run on your Spotify/Apple Music?

Geoff Entress showed me Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert. It helps me focus! 

Favorite shoes?

Whatever is closest to the door on my way out. Right now it’s a pair of goretex Nike sneakers. This was after catching a lot of flack for wearing a pair of dusty Alden loafers during our summer party. 

Favorite cooking ingredient?

Paprika! Also have you ever noticed how much soy and corn is in everything we eat? My fiance is allergic to both. Try avoiding them for a week.

FOUNDERS BASH 2023 - SEATTLE STARTUP PHOTO GALLERY

More than 1100 founders and investors registered for Founders Bash 2023, what a night. Shouts to our partners at AWS Startups, Stifel Venture Banking, Summit Trail Advisors, WSGR, Reverb, and Mary’s Place and Special Olympics of Washington!

Seattle VC Profile: Colin Tobias

When I started Ascend in 2019, I realized even though I was o-l-d OLD, I had more in common with the folks in town who were earlier in their professional investing journeys than the venerable VC’s I’d pitched as a founder. I admire and respect the new wave of Seattle/Pacific Northwest venture capitalists, and thought it would be fun to profile some of our region’s up and coming VC talents in these pages. —KW

Colin Tobias is a Partner at Semper Virens, investing in technology transforming work, health, and financial wellness.

What made you decide to be a professional investor?

My path into venture was non-linear, but I have always been interested in  technology, finance and investing so, in retrospect, it seems natural that I have ended up as a venture investor. I didn’t intentionally plan on working in VC, however as the opportunity arose I loved the idea of combining my interests and working alongside incredible entrepreneurs as they build enduring, impactful businesses! I was lucky enough to start my investing career at a growth-stage fund called Tenaya Capital learning under some amazing investors / mentors and now feel lucky to be a part of the awesome team at SemperVirens.

What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?

I started my career at a large finance and accounting firm in the Bay Area serving venture-backed startups as well as their investors (VC funds). I worked there for three years, during which I spent time across their valuation, audit and tax teams. That experience was a valuable foundation for how I think about and help our portfolio companies today as much of the financial engineering and corporate strategy is typically overlooked until it is too late. This experience is a great compliment to the benefit that our fund and ecosystem offers, which is focused on accelerating a company’s GTM (more on that below).

Why should founders want you on their cap table?

At SemperVirens, we have a very focused, thesis-driven investment strategy – investing in workforce, healthcare and financial companies that primarily sell B2B. We have built a strategic people-focused ecosystem that supercharges our portfolio by unlocking thousands of customer introductions and channel partnerships across 100+ CHROs of publicly traded companies like UPS, Visa, and Disney, as well as key systems partners, insurance carriers / payers , hospital systems, and brokers. It’s easier to show rather than tell, so view our awesome ecosystem here.

How many new pitches (actual calls/zooms) do you take per month?

As a team, we’re lucky to meet with between 100-125 entrepreneurs each month.

How many new investments do you make per year?

We make 8-12 new investments each year out of our core Seed / Series A fund, as well as 3-4 growth deals out of our later-stage fund.

What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?

We typically invest in Seed and Series A companies with an initial check size between $500k - $5 million depending on round dynamics (stage, valuation, etc.).  We invest across three core verticals:

• Workforce - essential solutions and services that are redefining the way employers and employees work.

• Healthcare - technology-enabled healthcare products that help employers, payers and providers offer better care, reduce costs, and comply with new regulations.

• Financial - software products that are used by businesses and consumers to enable, enhance, and disrupt financial services.

What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?

I’d be remiss not to mention our sole PNW investment, Karat. Karat created the Interviewing Cloud to conduct technical interviews on behalf of organizations hiring software engineers. Mo and Jeff are incredible founders and we’re lucky to be partners with them along this incredible journey.

What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?

While I am relatively new to the PNW, I am extremely bullish on the ecosystem - there is incredible energy and excitement as entrepreneurs are building the next wave of category-defining businesses supported by some great investors like Kirby and Jen. While my fund is based in the Bay Area, my goal is to make the PNW the second largest investment geography outside of Northern California!

What song is currently getting the most run on your Spotify/Apple Music?

I’m a big fan of the Spotify personalized playlists which tend to surface a lot of EDM / house music. That said, we’ve recently bought a record player which has reawakened my love for the classics – Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac have been the staples.

Favorite shoes?

I am typically always seen in my Nike Killshot 2’s which are my daily wear - so much so that I have back-up pairs (my wife has been successful in getting me to branch out though!).

Favorite cooking ingredient?

Onions - such a staple to many incredible dishes and the smell of sauteed onions is always a sign that an incredible meal is around the corner.

Seattle VC Profile: James Wu, First Round

When I started Ascend in 2019, I realized even though I was o-l-d OLD, I had more in common with the folks in town who were earlier in their professional investing journeys than the venerable VC’s I’d pitched as a founder. I admire and respect the new wave of Seattle/Pacific Northwest venture capitalists, and thought it would be fun to profile some of our region’s up and coming VC talents in these pages. —KW

I was fortunate enough to meet James Wu when he had the idea for his first startup, and we invested shortly thereafter. James has a high EQ and is intellectually honest, a combo that makes him a great bet to become a steallar VC at First Round now that he has switched sides of the table.

What made you decide to be a professional investor?

Early on in my career, I cofounded AdaptiLab to help companies grow their machine learning and data science teams from hiring to productivity. As a technical CEO, I was able to empathize with the pain points of our customers, who were Heads of Machine Learning, and understand the unique challenges they faced. At the same time, I had to learn many key elements of company building, such as founder-led sales, team-building, and fundraising – all while iterating on a complex product and staying aware of the newest machine learning trends and innovations. Through this experience, I felt there was a growing opportunity for more specialized investors to support technical founders building their companies from zero-to-one.

When the opportunity to be First Round’s dedicated AI/ML & Infrastructure Investor came up, I was excited to leverage my unique skill set and experiences as a founder, operator, and researcher to help the next generation of technical founders. I understand the value of having investors who can assist with hard problems like sharing feedback on early prototypes, providing guidance on growing a developer community, architecting a complex machine learning system, sharing context around shifting trends in open-source software, making introductions to elusive MLE or DevOps candidates, and more.

In my current role at First Round, I focus on partnering with founders building AI/ML, Data, Devtools, and Security companies at the earliest stages of their company’s journeys.

What did you do before becoming an investor and how does that benefit your founders?

From conducting ML and data privacy research in academia, to rolling up my sleeves and building a startup from founding to acquisition, to leading new machine learning projects at a fast-growing unicorn, I’ve experienced first hand the pains of building a startup and growing into the role of CEO as a technical founder.

After a research stint in academia, I cofounded AdaptiLab as a technical cofounder with one of my best friends to help companies scale their machine learning and data science teams. Being first-time founders, we had to quickly learn how to conduct customer discovery interviews, iterate on product feedback, figure out pricing and enterprise business models, fundraise from VCs and angels, and many more exciting elements of company building. We raised a seed round and signed Fortune1000s and Unicorns as customers. After AdaptiLab was acquired, I joined Amperity, a unicorn startup building an enterprise customer data platform, where I led new applied machine learning projects and contributed to patents and research papers on their core machine learning and data systems. 

All of these experiences have prepared me to become a partner that founders, especially technical ones, can rely on. Throughout a founder’s journey, they will encounter questions or challenges that their backgrounds will not have prepared them for. I hope to be the investor they turn to when they need additional context or a collaborative working session to figure out the right strategy to move forward. Whether it’s figuring out how to incorporate machine learning into your product, understanding best practices for hiring and leading teams, or learning how to conduct customer discovery calls and sell your product as a technical founder, I’ve gone through many of the same experiences, and can empathize with the same thorny problems.

Why should founders want you on their cap table?

First Round is focused on being the world’s best partner for founders at the very first stages of company creation. When founders work with us, they get investment team members (including me!) working side-by-side with them on their business' challenges. 

On top of that, our Operating Team is ready to support founders through the toughest parts of company building. Whether it’s our Pitch Assist Team crafting a Series A deck, our GTM Team finding prospective customers through Discovery Assist or our Talent Team connecting them to top-tier candidates, we're here to help across all their needs!

What's your sweet spot(s) in terms of check size, valuation, and vertical?

While First Round is a generalist firm (our portfolio), we have a number of distinct practice areas. I personally focus my investing on AI/ML & Infrastructure. This means I spend most of my time with AI/ML, dev tools, data infrastructure, and security founders. I'm also very interested in applications of ML to specific verticals or business problems, recently healthcare and life sciences.

Typical check size ranges from $1.5M to $4M, but we’ve gone higher and lower in some cases. Currently, our average initial investment is around $3 million.

What one portfolio company do you want to hype for us here?

Rewind.ai! Rewind is building the search engine for your life that enables you to find anything you’ve seen, said, or heard. It creates a searchable recording of what happened when, who said what during that Zoom meeting and every instance someone has ever brought up expense reporting hacks. You can try out their product now for free. Cofounded by Dan Siroker and Brett Bejcek.

What do you think the next ten years looks like for Seattle/Pacific Northwest startups?

I'm very excited for the future of Seattle's startup ecosystem. So many talented founders have been locked up at Amazon and Microsoft for the last decade, and I think the recent economic downturn combined with the wave of advancements in AI/ML has spurred many more founders to take the leap on starting a company. As a Bellevue native who built my startup primarily in Seattle, I'm looking forward to supporting the next wave of infrastructure companies being built in the region.

What song is currently getting the most run on your Spotify/Apple Music?

I don't really listen to much music but love podcasts. I've listened to every podcast from Acquired.fm and The Logan Bartlett Show. They're the best prepped podcasts telling interesting founder stories and startup journeys.

Favorite shoes?

Adidas Ultraboosts 1.0-3.0

Favorite cooking ingredient?

I could eat eggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I have go-to dishes I'd cook for each.