Best Early-Stage Investors

4/2/2021 The Seed 100: the Best Early-Stage Investors
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The Seed 100: The best early-stage investors
Margaux MacColl , Melia Russell , Candy Cheng , and Michael Haley 4 hours ago
From left: Alfred Lin, Kaitlyn Doyle, Michael Seibel, Kirsten Green, Sheel Mohnot, and Ruchi Sanghvi. Sequoia
Capital; TechNexus; Michael Seibel; Forerunner Ventures; Sheel Mohnot; Wikimedia Commons; Skye Gould/Insider
Tens of thousands of institutions and individuals are active seed investors.

H O M E PA G E
Many of them make money. But only a few succeed repeatedly.

https://www.businessinsider.com/seed-100-top-early-stage-vc-investors-2021-4?r=US&IR=T 1/130
The Seed 100 is a list of VCs who have mastered early-stage investing, based on
data analysis from Tribe Capital.
Also read the Seed 25 list of the best female seed VCs.
The venture capitalists who write the earliest checks — known as seed investors —
take the biggest risks. But when they choose well, they also reap the biggest rewards.
With huge pro ts at stake, thousands of institutions and individuals are active seed
investors.
But seed investing is more an art than a science and only a few succeed regularly.
Tribe Capital, a seed venture-capital rm and an investor in other funds, set out to
nd the top investors by analyzing data on about 1,000 of them. The result is this list
of the top 100 as well as the Seed 25, a list of the top female seed investors.
The table below o ers the Seed 100 at a glance, with links to each person's pro le and
an additional link to their Twitter account. It lets you search by name or sector and
sort by rank, name, and city. Scroll down below the table to browse through the whole
list.
How Tribe Capital selected and ranked the Seed 100 and Seed 25
Seed
Click on a row to read more
Search
RANK INVESTOR SECTORS CITY
# Justin Mateen Consumer Las Vegas

H O M E PA G E
# Lee Linden Software New York
# Sheel Mohnot Fintech, Software San Francisco

# Eric Paley Consumer, Cambridge

Software
# Zach Software, New York

Weinberg Consumer
# David Frankel Software, Cambridge

Consumer
# Nat Turner Software, New York

Consumer
# Elad Gil Software, San Francisco

Consumer
# Salil Software, Palo Alto

Deshpande Consumer
# Chad Byers Software, San Francisco

Consumer
Source: Tribe Capital

Table: Sawyer Click
100. Nitesh Banta
H O M E PA G E
Nitesh Banta, the cofounder and CEO of B12. Twitter/@nbanta
Title: Cofounder and CEO, B12
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Clara Health, Pilot, Radar, Room, TileDB
Banta can make fast decisions on deals based on a decade of investing experience. A
serial entrepreneur, he started his venture career at General Catalyst but has doubled
back to startups with a new company called B12.
It makes software for helping businesses with front-o ce tasks. Banta says on
AngelList that he continues to invest in 15 to 25 companies a year.
Back to table
99. Jesse Robbins
H O M E PA G E
Jesse Robbins, a partner at Heavybit and the founder of Orion Labs. Jesse Robbins
Title: Partner, Heavybit; founder, Orion Labs
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Chef Software, Conjur, LaunchDarkly, Zymergen
Robbins is the right investor to call in an emergency. A former volunteer re ghter,

he worked for ve years as Amazon's "master of disaster," responsible for keeping the
website running during unexpected outages.
Now Robbins is helping founders weather storms as a partner at Heavybit, an

accelerator and venture fund for developer and enterprise startups.
Back to table
98. Andy Dunn
H O M E PA G E
Andy Dunn, a cofounder of Bonobos and Red Swan Ventures. Sarah Jacobs/Business Insider
Title: Cofounder, Bonobos; cofounder, Red Swan Ventures; chairman, Monica + Andy
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Away, Coinbase, Glossier, Oscar, Scopely, Warby Parker
When Dunn isn't building his own successful consumer company, he's investing in
one.
Halfway through his 11-year tenure as the CEO of the menswear company Bonobos,
Dunn started a venture rm, Red Swan, to back founders creating delightful
consumer products and services.
The rm stopped raising new funds in 2016, but Dunn has continued to write checks
H O M E PA G E
as an angel investor.
Back to table
97. Charles Moldow
Charles Moldow, a general partner at Foundation Capital. Foundation Capital
Title: General partner, Foundation Capital
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: CloudOn, Hey Inc., Mirror Emoji Keyboard, Motif, Porch
HOME
Moldow isPA G E for his track record of investments in a ntech niche: lending. His
known
startup bets include LendingClub and OnDeck Capital, which both went public in
2014
2014.
The Foundation Capital general partner has company-building in his bones. Before
joining the early-stage venture rm, Moldow lived the startup hustle as an early
employee of two startups, the internet service provider @Home Network and the
speech-recognition app Tellme Networks.
Back to table
96. Larry Marcus
Larry Marcus, a cofounder and managing director of Marcy Venture Partners. Marcy Venture Partners
H O M E PA G E
Title: Cofounder and managing director, Marcy Venture Partners
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Fetch, Jukely, Wingz
Marcus is the career investor who joined forces with Jay Z, hip-hop's rst billionaire,
to form a consumer-focused venture rm. The pair's stacked network has led to
investments in an electric-mobility startup, a catering company, and Rihanna's
lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty.
Marcus previously backed companies like Net ix and Pandora as an angel investor.
Back to table
95. Jared Friedman
H O M E PA G E
Jared Friedman, a group partner at Y Combinator. Y Combinator
Title: Group partner, Y Combinator
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: The Athletic, MessageBird, Rappi, Scale AI, Solugen,
Substack
Friedman is an investor at Y Combinator, where he started an internet company

before he invested in other entrepreneurs. His company, Scribd, was part of an early
batch of startups funded in 2006, and it went on to become one of the most popular
websites.
Friedman said his favorite part of the job was working with founders from the earliest
days.
"It's crazy when ve years later they are running a giant company and we can look
back on our rst o ce hours and see how uncertain everything was," Friedman said.
Back to table
94. E. Bora Uygun
H O M E PA G E
E. Bora Uygun, a cofounder of Bora & Sons. E. Bora Uygun
Title: Cofounder, Bora & Sons
City: Vancouver
Notable seed investments: Carbon Health, Eligible, OccamzRazor, Remote Team,

Rescale, Robinhood
Uygun is a serial entrepreneur with four startups and a doctorate in information

technology and telecoms on his résumé. Originally from Turkey, Uygun says he
invests in founders who are attacking large markets with software solutions that
remove pain points for customers.
His advice to aspiring seed investors is that they start today with "as little as $1,000."
H O M E PA G E
"I believe they won't regret it," Uygun said.
Back to table
93. Sam Altman
Sam Altman, the cofounder and CEO of OpenAI. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Title: Cofounder and CEO, OpenAI
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Heap, Nervana, Optimizely, PlanGrid, Teespring
Altman
H O Mis oneGofE tech's most in uential investors. He was the president of the storied
E PA
startup accelerator Y Combinator, whose graduates include Airbnb, Dropbox, and
Stripe
Stripe.
He's no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of the incubator and has shifted
focus to OpenAI, an organization that creates free and open-source arti cial-
intelligence technologies.
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92. Justin Waldron
Justin Waldron, the cofounder and president of Playco. Playco
Title:
HOM Cofounder
E PA G E and president, Playco
City: San Francisco

Notable seed investments: Lambda School, Snackpass, Soomgo, Sprig, Substack
Waldron is best known as one of the eight cofounders of Zynga, where he stayed long
enough to see the company list on the public markets and become the largest player
in social games.
Last year, he pulled back the curtain on his new venture, the mobile gaming startup
Playco, which has already raised $100 million in Series A funding at a valuation above
$1 billion.
Waldron's background has helped him score stakes in ultra-

competitive funding rounds at Substack and Lambda School, for example.
Back to table
91. Jerry Neumann
H O M E PA G E
Jerry Neumann, a managing director of Neu Venture Capital. Jerry Neumann
Title: Managing director, Neu Venture Capital
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Clubhouse, Datadog, Scoot Science, Sila Money, The
Trade Desk
Neumann started investing with his own money at the bottom of the last nancial
crisis, having previously started a company and run Omnicom's venture arm. He said
his goal as an investor is to give clear feedback based on 25 years of helping people
jump-start companies.
"I'm looking for people who feel driven to build what they are building and will work
at learning all they can to make their idea real," Neumann said.
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90. Tim Kopp
H O M E PA G E
Tim Kopp, the CEO of Terminus and a general partner of Hyde Park Venture Partners. Terminus
Title: CEO, Terminus; general partner, Hyde Park Venture Partners
City: Carmel, Indiana
Notable seed investments: DemandJump, Emplify, G2, Lessonly, Terminus
Hyde Park Venture Partners is one of the most active venture rms in the Great Lakes
region, with partners in Chicago and Indianapolis scouring the middle of the country
for hot deals.
These days, Kopp is working overtime as a partner and a startup executive. In 2019,
Terminus, an enterprise marketing company, tapped the investor-director to take
over as CEO.
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
89. Drew Houston

Drew Houston, the cofounder and CEO of Dropbox. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Title: Cofounder and CEO, Dropbox
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Convoy, Cruise, Gem, Mixhalo, Triplebyte, Vurb
Dropbox is one of the most successful companies ever funded by Y Combinator, and
now its cofounder and CEO is putting other entrepreneurs on the path to success as
an angel investor.
H O M E PA G E
Houston focuses on software-enabled businesses and has already nabbed an exit with
the acquisition of Vurb, a recommendation-and-search app, by Snapchat for $100
million.
Back to table
88. Jerry Yang
Jerry Yang, a founder and partner at AME Cloud Ventures. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Title: Founder and partner, AME Cloud Ventures
City: Palo Alto, California
H O M Eseed
Notable PA Ginvestments:
E GrubMarket, Osaro, Rakuten Ready, Savioke, Zendrive
For his second act as a venture capitalist Yang is focused on investing in data-driven
For his second act as a venture capitalist, Yang is focused on investing in data driven
companies.
Despite spending most of his career in consumer technology, Yang got interested in
the "big data" space after Yahoo, the company he cofounded, made an investment in
the Hadoop startup Hortonworks and he saw the massive potential of data-analytics
technologies, Yang previously told Insider.
Now his venture rm bets on companies building infrastructure and value chains
around data.
Back to table
87. Haim Sadger
H O M E PA G E
Haim Sadger, a founding partner of S Capital VC. S Capital VC
Title: Founder and partner, S Capital VC
City: Tel Aviv, Israel
Notable seed investments: Amobee, Capitolis, Contendo, Lemonade, Pecan, Solt,

Wilocity
In 1999, Sequoia Capital hired Sadger to set up a subsidiary in Israel, where he had
opened an o ce for Intel's investment arm. Through his e orts, Sequoia has become
one of the most active venture rms in the country's startup ecosystem, according to
PitchBook data.
Sadger, who also invests out of his own rm, S Capital, said there is no singular
quality he looks for in a potential investment. Startups, he said, "do not come in one
color or shape."
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86. Bill Tai
H O M E PA G E
Bill Tai, an angel investor and founder of Actai Global. Bill Tai
Title: Angel investor and founder, Actai Global
Notable seed investments: Canva, Color, Dapper Labs, TweetDeck, Wish, Zoom
Tai said the most important quality he looks for in a founder is "great judgment."
The venture capitalist and kiteboarding enthusiast has also shown great judgment
over three decades of investing. Tai says he was the rst investor in Zoom, whose
market cap has increased tenfold, to $100 billion, since its initial public o ering in
2019.
He's backed 23 early-stage companies that grew to become publicly traded, and he's
continued to support founders by serving at times on eight public-company boards
from his portfolio.
Back to table
85.HAmish
O M E PA G E
Jani
Amish Jani, the founder and managing director of FirstMark. FirstMark
Title: Founder and managing director, FirstMark
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Bluecore, Bonusly, Guru, InVision, Optimus Ride, Starry
Jani cut his teeth at a prominent hedge fund before it spun out the venture arm into
its own company, called FirstMark. He raised the rst fund at the end of the last
recession and, alongside his partner Rick Heitzmann, grew the rm into New York's
preeminent early-stage rm.
Now FirstMark has its own blank-check company to buy a startup and take it public.
H O M E PA G E
"We uniquely support and serve on the boards of companies from our entry at the
seed all the way into the public markets," Jani said. "It's an incredible privilege to help
businesses with the di erent range of challenges they face on that journey."
Back to table
84. Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen, a cofounder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Justin Sullivan/Getty
Title: Cofounder and general partner, Andreessen Horowitz
City: Menlo Park, California

H O M E PA G E
Notable seed investments: Asana, Business Insider, Pinterest, Slack, Skype
Andreessen's venture rm has shifted away from its almost exclusive focus on early-
stage software deals, but it continues to invest in the best companies regardless of
stage.
An inventor of the rst widely used web browser, Andreessen serves on the board of
companies including Applied Intuition, Carta, Dialpad, Facebook, and Samara.
Back to table
83. Alfred Lin
H OLin,
Alfred M aEpartner
PA G Eat Sequoia Capital. Sequoia Capital
Title: Partner, Sequoia Capital

City: Menlo Park, California
Notable seed investments: Airbnb, Appbistro, Faire, Jelli, OpenTable, Uber, Zipline
Before he became an investor, Lin was the highest-ranking executive at Zappos other
than Tony Hsieh when it sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion. He left the online retailer to
join Sequoia, where he became a board member of such hot companies as Airbnb and
DoorDash.
Lin is an applied mathematician and statistician by training and enjoys geeking out
on metrics.
Back to table
82. Chris Sacca
H O M E PA G E
Chris Sacca, the chairman and managing director of Lowercase Capital and Lowercarbon Capital. Lowercarbon
Capital
Title: Chairman and managing director, Lowercase Capital and Lowercarbon Capital
City: Jackson, Wyoming
Notable seed investments: Instagram, Optimizely, Tala, Twilio, Twitter, Uber
Sacca has come out of retirement to invest in companies that are saving the world,
literally.
His new rm, Lowercarbon Capital, backs startups working to mitigate the worst
e ects of climate change. The clean-tech sector is expected to bloom this year as
major corporations and governments pledge to lower their emissions and some turn
to startups for green solutions.
Back to table
81. Thomas Lehrman
H O M E PA G E
Thomas Lehrman, a managing partner at Teamworthy Ventures. Teamworthy Ventures
Title: Managing partner, Teamworthy Ventures
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Factual, Greenhouse Software, Grovo, Maven Clinic,

Smarterer
Lehrman's path to venture investing was atypical. He started his career as a nancial
analyst but took a detour working in the State Department's group on weapons of
mass destruction. He also spent three years at the helm of Gerson Lehrman Group, a
consulting rm he cofounded.
Now Lehrman works shoulder-to-shoulder with founders building software

companies.
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
80. Jonah Goodhart

Jonah Goodhart, a cofounder of WGI Group and the cofounder and CEO of Moat. Jonah Goodhart
Title: Cofounder, WGI Group; cofounder and CEO, Moat
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Beeswax, Clay Software, David Energy, Memo,

mParticle, SafeGraph, Saturn
Goodhart is well known as the rst investor in Right Media, an ads business that sold
to Yahoo for $680 million in 2007. The monster exit gave him the personal funds to
seed an investment fund started with his brother, Noah Goodhart, and the founder
H O M E PA G E
and CEO of Right Media, Michael Walrath. Together, they've invested in more than 60
internet companies.
Goodhart said the most important quality he looks for in an investment is "the right
culture."
Back to table
79. Ali Partovi
Ali Partovi, the founder and CEO of Neo. Ali Partovi
Title: Founder and CEO, Neo
H OSan
City: M EFrancisco
PA G E
Notable seed investments: Clara Foods Convoy DeepScale Nervana VigLink

Notable seed investments: Clara Foods, Convoy, DeepScale, Nervana, VigLink
Partovi's Neo is a community of tech leaders who o er mentorship to brilliant young

engineers, in the hopes that they will someday build their own transformational
technologies. In 2018, the company raised a debut fund totaling $80 million to back
those future entrepreneurs.
Before Neo, Partovi cofounded the internet ad business LinkExchange, which he sold
to Microsoft.
Back to table
78. Jeff Kearl
H O M E PA G E
Jeff Kearl, a managing director of Pelion Venture Partners. Jeff Kearl

Jeff Kearl, a managing director of Pelion Venture Partners. Jeff Kearl
Title: Managing director, Pelion Venture Partners
City: San Clemente, California
Notable seed investments: Away, Domo, Dynamic Signal, Just Water, Omniture,
Skullcandy
Kearl is a strategic investor for any consumer business because of his domain
expertise. He turned socks into a global retail empire with his company Stance, last
valued at $400 million.
In 2019, Kearl left Stance to pursue investing full time at Pelion Venture Partners,
where he opened an o ce near Los Angeles and now scours the area for the coolest
startups.
"I try to be the investor I always wanted when I was an entrepreneur," Kearl said.
Back to table
77. Amitt Mahajan
H O M E PA G E
Amitt Mahajan, a cofounder and managing partner at Presence Capital. Twitter/@amittm
Title: Cofounder and managing partner, Presence Capital
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Airtable, Carnivore, Hipmunk, Luxe, UploadVR
Mahajan is the ultimate investor for a gaming founder who wants industry experts at
the table.
In 2009, he sold his company to Zynga, and its software laid the foundation for
Farmville. He stayed on for two years, becoming a director of engineering and then
the chief technical o cer for Zynga Japan.
Mahajan worked at three more startups before setting aside his entrepreneurial
pursuits to become a full-time investor focused on virtual-reality and augmented-
reality companies.
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
76. Steve Anderson

Steve Anderson, a founder and partner at Baseline Ventures. Baseline Ventures
Title: Founder and partner, Baseline Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Apiary, Dishcraft Robotics, Dusty Robotics, Instagram,

Path
Anderson is known as a "one-man deal machine." The rst investor in Instagram, he

had a 12% ownership stake in the photo app when it sold to Facebook for $1 billion.
Since then, Anderson has crafted his one-partner venture rm into one of the most
H O M E PA G E
successful investment companies.
Before Baseline, Anderson was a partner at Kleiner Perkins and a senior director at
Microsoft.
Back to table
75. Eytan Elbaz
Eytan Elbaz, the cofounder and chief strategy officer of Social Native. Eytan Elbaz
Title: Cofounder and chief strategy o cer, Social Native
City: Los Angeles

H O M E PA G E
Notable seed investments: Anduril, AppOnboard, Climate Corporation, FabFitFun,
Ordermark
Ordermark
Before he was an investor, Elbaz and his brother, Gil, built a company they later sold
to Google that laid the groundwork for Google AdSense, which helps websites earn
money on ads.
Elbaz is also a seed investor in two other companies he helped start: Scopely, a
mobile-games company, and Social Native, a marketplace for brands to discover
content creators.
Elbaz's advice for aspiring investors at the seed stage is to "invest in industries you
understand well" and to "make sure you love the founder much or more than the
business itself."
Back to table
74. Max Levchin
H O M E PA G E
Max Levchin, the founder and CEO of Affirm. Affirm
Title: Founder and CEO, A rm
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: ClearTax, SmartThings, Vurb, WePay, Zendrive
Levchin is a member of the "PayPal Ma a," a group of famous founders who all
worked at the payments company. Now he's using his wealth to give others a shot at
building their own successful businesses. The newly minted billionaire invests at all
stages, but Levchin's sweet spot is seed-stage companies in consumer internet,
payments, security, and marketplaces.
Back to table
73. David Beisel
H O M E PA G E
David Beisel, a cofounder and partner of NextView Ventures. NextView Ventures
Title: Cofounder and partner, NextView Ventures
City: Boston
Notable seed investments: Attentive, The Nudge, Parsec, ThredUp, TripleLift
Beisel has spent his career focused on early-stage internet startups. He started an
email-marketing company during the dot-com era that sold to About.com in 2002.
He became an investor focused on the early days of company-building because, he

said, "I just love the beginning and want to be a part of it over and over again."
"Previously a founder myself, I see my primary role as a true thought partner to help
entrepreneurs nd product-market t," he said.
At NextView Ventures, he leads or coleads only two or three deals a year, according to
the rm's website, ensuring a hands-on approach in every company he's invested in.
Back to table
72. Naval Ravikant

H O M E PA G E
Naval Ravikant, the cofounder and chairman of AngelList. Noam Galai/Getty Images
Title: Cofounder and chairman, AngelList
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: ClearTax, Optimizely, Postmates, Uber, Wish
Ravikant is a proli c early-stage investor with over 150 investments, including more
than a few with valuations above $1 billion. Still, his greatest contribution to the
ecosystem is starting AngelList, a website that connects companies that need funding
with individual investors.
The website has been credited with removing the friction for angel investors to nd
H O M E PA G E
and get into deals.
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71. Garry Tan
Garry Tan, a cofounder and managing partner of Initialized Capital. Garry Tan
Title: Cofounder and managing partner, Initialized Capital
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Coinbase, Flexport, Instacart, Patreon, Standard
Initialized
H O M E PACapital
G E is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the seed-stage investing
arena, in large part thanks to Tan, a designer, engineer, and founder turned investor.
He's well known for writing the rst check to Coinbase. When the startup's founders
needed more working capital in the early days, he wrote to investors to raise the
Series A.
Tan's advice for people looking to break into seed-stage investing is to identify "great
builders."
"You can tell a lot more about whether someone is a good engineer and designer by
trying and using their product than you can by looking at their résumé," Tan said.
Back to table
70. Morgan Flager
H O M E PA G E
Morgan Flager, a managing partner at Silverton Partners. Silverton Partners
Title: Managing partner, Silverton Partners
City: Austin, Texas
Notable seed investments: Aceable, Convey, SourceDay, TrendKite, Wheel
Flager joined Silverton Partners, an early-stage venture rm based in Austin, as a

principal and has climbed the ranks over the past decade to become a managing
partner.
He's focused on investments in clean tech, consumer, mobile, and enterprise

software, and his portfolio reveals a bias for companies headquartered in the
booming tech hub of Austin.
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69. Aileen Lee
H O M E PA G E
Aileen Lee, the founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures. Cowboy Ventures
Title: Founder and managing partner, Cowboy Ventures
Notable seed investments: August Home, Dollar Shave Club, Drop, Rent the
Runway, Rise
After 13 years at Kleiner Perkins, Lee started her own rm in 2012 so she could spend
less time on partner meetings and politics and more time working shoulder to
shoulder with founders.
Cowboy Ventures, which has $195 million in assets under management, according to
PitchBook data, is widely considered one of the rst women-founded venture rms.
The rm prefers to lead or colead seed rounds up to $5 million for software-powered
tech companies.
Lee is also a cofounder of AllRaise, a nonpro t organization focused on adding more

female investors to the ecosystem and accelerating the success of female founders.
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
68. Chip Hazard

Chip Hazard, a cofounder and general partner of Flybridge. Flybridge
Title: Cofounder and general partner, Flybridge
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Apostrophe, Feature Labs, Firebase, MongoDB, Redox,

Scitara, StackHawk, Stormpath
Hazard — the venture investor, not to be confused with the cartoon villain of the
same name — was a general partner at Greylock who left in 2002 to spin up his own
venture fund, Flybridge.
H O M E PA G E
He knows the importance of partnering with founders early. "Seed-stage company-

building is all about getting the foundation right," Hazard said — everything from the
team to the go-to-market strategy.
He also cuts checks out of XFactor Ventures, a Flybridge fund focused on investing in
female founders and mixed-gender teams "attacking billion-dollar market
opportunities."
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67. Benjamin Ling
Benjamin Ling, a general partner at Bling Capital. Bling Capital

H O M E PA G E
Title: General partner, Bling Capital
Location: Miami
Notable seed investments: GitLab, PagerDuty, Rippling, Sprout Therapy, Tempo,

Udemy, Web ow
Ling is a founding general partner at Bling Capital, a VC rm focused on seed and

Series A investments.
Previously, he was a general partner at Khosla Ventures, where he led investments in

Wattpad, Tapingo, GitLab, TrueAccord, Web ow, and many others.
Ling has served in senior operating roles at Google, YouTube, and Facebook. He also
is an active angel investor with early stakes in Airtable, Lyft, Square, Palantir, Quora,
Gusto, Udemy, and others.
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66. Ashmeet Sidana
H O M E PA G E
Ashmeet Sidana, the chief engineer at Engineering Capital. Engineering Capital
Title: Chief engineer, Engineering Capital
Location: Menlo Park, California
Notable seed investments: Auditoria, Azure Power, Kentik, Menlo Security, Robust
Intelligence, SignalFx
Sidana is the chief engineer of Engineering Capital, a seed-stage VC rm for

engineers. His previous investments include Palerra, which was acquired by Oracle;
FreeWheel, which was acquired by Comcast; Appurify, which was acquired by Google;
and PrivateCore, which was acquired by Facebook.
"I specialize in being the rst investor in companies taking technical risk as compared
to traditional VCs who focus mainly on market risk/traction," Sidana told Insider.
Earlier in his career, Sidana worked at VMware, where he ran product management,
and at Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics as an engineer.
"Venture is a business that is simple but not easy," he said. "There is no hidden secret
to making great investments — invest in large markets, great founders, breakthrough
technologies."
H O M E PA G E
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65. Kaitlyn Doyle
Kaitlyn Doyle, an investor at TechNexus Venture Collaborative. LinkedIn/Kaitlyn Doyle
Title: Investor, TechNexus Venture Collaborative
Location: Chicago
Notable seed investments: Catalyst OrthoScience, MarginEdge, The Mom Project,

The Renewal Workshop, ShotTracker
As the director of "venturing" at TechNexus Venture Collaborative, Doyle assists in

sourcing,
H O M E due
PA Gdiligence,
E post-investment collaboration, deal syndication, and venture
operations.
Before TechNexus, Doyle was an early employee at IrishAngels, an angel network

a liated with Notre Dame. She helped to grow the network to over 200 individual
investors and 30-plus investments.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago Booth
School of Business, Doyle specializes in nance and entrepreneurship. Outside work,
she can be found running on the Lake Shore path, reading a new book, or playing with
her golden retriever.
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64. Leo Polovets
H O M E PA G E
Leo Polovets, a general partner at Susa Ventures. Susa Ventures

, g p
Title: General partner, Susa Ventures; software engineer
Location: Portland, Oregon
Notable seed investments: Outlier, Pex, Scalyr, and Stedi
Polovets has led the Susa Ventures' investments in dozens of companies, including
Outlier, Pex, Scalyr, and Stedi.
Before Susa, Polovets was the second engineering hire at LinkedIn, where he helped
to build the rst versions of products like Jobs and Groups. Earlier in his career, he
was a software engineer at Google.
Back to table
63. Jeff Seibert
H O M E PA G E
Jeff Seibert, a cofounder of Digits. Jeff Seibert
Title: Cofounder, Digits
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Desktop Metal, Gusto, Notarize, Opendoor
As an angel investor, Seibert has invested in over 50 startups, including Planet Labs,
Opendoor, and SoFi.
"I've found that most early-stage companies generally need help in a few key areas:
shaping their initial product, plotting their Series A funding, and evaluating potential
M&A opportunities. So I tend to dive deep with the founders when they're focused on
those topics," Seibert told Insider.
"Seed investing is all about getting access to the right deals before anyone else
notices, before anyone else knows what's up, and before the founders have proven
enough to become an obvious investment opportunity," Seibert said.
He previously served as Twitter's head of consumer product, leading its product

e orts across iOS, Android, and the web, as well as its developer and data platforms.
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
62. Adrian Aoun
Adrian Aoun, the founder and CEO of Forward. Adrian Aoun
Title: Founder and CEO, Forward.
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: ClassPass, Convoy, Everlane, Modern Health, Opendoor,

Pinterest, Wish
As the founder and CEO of Forward, Aoun has made it his mission to help personalize
healthcare through AI technology. Along his path working in healthcare and at
Google, Aoun has been an active angel investor in companies such as Everlane,
Pinterest, and Clara Health. But at his core, Aoun is an operator.
H O M E PA G E
"Unlike professional investors who potentially haven't operated in decades, I like to
be hands-on and as involved as the company would like me to be," Aoun told Insider.
"I'm also very technical. I love to focus and get involved in a company's most pivotal
moments — a strategic hire, fundraise, or big product decision — all of which are
pivotal moments that can take a company's direction in one of many ways," Aoun
said.
In 2015, he was involved with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology.
Back to table
61. Mitchel Laskey
H O M E PA G E
Mitchel Laskey, a cofounder and managing partner of DeepWork Capital. DeepWork Capital
Title: Cofounder and managing partner, DeepWork Capital
City: Orlando, Florida
Notable seed investments: AireHealth, Homee, Streann Media
Laskey is the cofounder and managing general partner of DeepWork Capital, an early-
stage VC rm managing funds that invest in high-growth companies in the
technology or life-science sectors.
He is also on the board of directors of Cogent Bank and was a cofounder of CNLBank,
which was acquired by Valley National Bancorp in 2015.
Laskey's bio on DeepWork's website says he enjoys Peloton competition, gol ng,
skiing, and spending time with his four grandchildren.
Back to table
60. Lauren DeLuca
H O M E PA G E
Lauren DeLuca, a managing partner at Motivate Venture Capital. LinkedIn/Lauren DeLuca
Title: Founder and managing partner, Motivate Venture Capital
City: Chicago
Notable seed investments: Chime, Conservation Labs, Gatsby, Home Chef, Popular
Pays, TradingView
DeLuca cofounded Motivate Venture Capital with David Wieland in 2019, a $43
million fund. It invests in early-stage ntech, HR-tech, and ed-tech startups.
DeLuca was a managing partner at Lakepoint Ventures for 14 years, having invested
in Chime, TradingView, and Home Chef.
DeLuca told Insider that his best advice for an aspiring investor who wants to break
into seed funding is to "understand your precise value-add and be honest about it."
"Then work your tail o to deliver on commitments," he continued. "That will make
you invaluable to startups and co-investors alike, which will invariably beget more
investment opportunities for you."
H O M E PA G E
Back to table
59. Jeremy Yap
Jeremy Yap, a board advisor at TravelBank. YouTube/Slush
Title: Board advisor, TravelBank
City: London
Notable seed investments: Amino Apps, Azimo, Maven Clinic, Meero, Monzo
Yap is an accomplished angel investor whose investments span companies in Europe,

Israel, and North America. Among them are Citymapper, Monzo, Maven Clinic, and
GoTenna. He G
H O M E PA previously
E held positions at Merrill Lynch and was a lieutenant in the
Singapore Armed Forces.
Yap is also a board member of AgSquared, is an advisor for Golden Gate Ventures, and
is on the advisory board for Cendana Capital.
Back to table
58. Mike Dodd
Mike Dodd, a general partner at Silverton Partners. Silverton Partners
Title: General partner, Silverton Partners
City: Austin, Texas

H O M E PA G E
Notable seed investments: Apprentice.io, Billie, Figg, Kazoo, Khoros, Liquidity

Services, MapMyFitness, Ontic, Restream
As a general partner of Silverton Partners, Dodd has focused his investments on tech
startups, which he's had experience with for over 20 years. Before Silverton, Dodd was
a partner at Austin Ventures, where he also focused on tech startups in the enterprise
and consumer spaces.
"Persistence, curiosity, and determination are the most important qualities I look for
in an early-stage founder," Dodd told Insider. "Rarely do they get it exactly right the
rst time, so they have to be persistent. Strong curiosity pushes them to be a student
of markets and business models, which will likely be needed to evolve their company.
And determination almost to the point of absurdity is often necessary to make a
startup work."
Dodd also serves as a board member for companies such as Ontic Technologies,
Claravine, and Apprentice.io.
Back to table
57. David Tisch
H O M E PA G E
David Tisch, a managing partner at BoxGroup. BoxGroup
Title: Managing partner, BoxGroup
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Airtable, Blue Apron, Flatiron Health, Kustomer,

PillPack, Plaid, Ramp, RigUp, Ro, Scopely
Tisch is the managing partner of BoxGroup, a seed-stage venture-capital rm that has

invested in over 250 companies such as Blue Apron, Warby Parker, Clubhouse, and
Glossier. Investing runs in Tisch's family — his grandfather, Laurence Tisch, was a
longtime Wall Street investor and part owner of Loews Corp.
Tisch also is a cofounder of the accelerator program TechStars NYC and the chairman
of Good Dog, an app for people to connect with dog breeders and shelters.
"We look for wildly ambitious founders who have a unique insight into a market they
get us excited about," Tisch said. "We seek founders who we can envision inspiring
great people to join their company and help build the vision. Determination and
ambition are the most important qualities a founder can have early on."
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
56. Henry McNamara

Henry McNamara, a partner at Great Oaks Venture Capital. Henry McNamara
Title: Partner, Great Oaks Venture Capital
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Allbirds, Bolt, EquipmentShare, Fetch Rewards, Maven

Clinic, RigUp, Vise
In just eight years at Great Oaks Venture Capital, McNamara has risen from analyst to
principal to partner. McNamara's investments with Great Oaks have ranged from
nance (Acorns) to healthcare (Virta Health) to retail (Allbirds).
H O M E PA G E
McNamara said that the most important quality he looks for in a seed-stage startup
founder is persistence.
"Inevitably there will be many dead ends, nos, disappointments, speed bumps, and
challenges for any founder," he said.
"In order to break through, founders must not be deterred by rejection or long odds.
Persistence is a necessary ingredient to be a founder," McNamara said. "Starting a
company is not for the faint of heart!"
He is also a board member of Runway for Recovery, a nonpro t support fund for
families a ected by breast cancer.
Back to table
55. Ann Miura-Ko
H O M E PA G E
Ann Miura-Ko, a cofounder and partner of Floodgate. Floodgate
Title: Cofounding partner, Floodgate
Notable seed investments: Bot MD, Lyft, Merlin Labs, ModCloth, Re nery29,
Thinkful
As the cofounding partner of the seed-stage VC rm Floodgate, Miura-Ko has focused

her investments in innovative companies in the e-commerce, radical-science, and
big-data industries.
Miura-Ko's passion for technology started in her childhood, when her father was a
rocket scientist at NASA, and continued as she studied at Yale, where she took part in
robotics competitions around the world.
She is also a cosponsor of AI Grant, a nonpro t that funds work on open-source AI-
technology research.
Back to table
54. Deborah Quazzo
H O M E PA G E
Deborah Quazzo, a managing partner at GSV Ventures. YouTube/SALT
Title: Managing partner, GSV Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Andela, BookClub, Chalk Talk Solutions, Fiveable,

GoPeer, Gradescope, QuillBot
GSV Ventures, led by Quazzo, has focused on investments in companies in

educational tech, an industry that has thrived during the past year as virtual learning
took the place of in-person classes.
"As a sector investor, namely in ed tech, I try to be very hands-on with seed-stage
entrepreneurs, whether it's testing go-to-market ideas or helping them secure initial
customers or anticipating unexpected friction in the education sector," Quazzo told
H O M E PA G E
Insider. "I/we look for the ve P's in a startup and startup founder: people, product,
potential, predictability, and purpose."
In March, Quazzo and GSV announced that they had raised their second fund for $180
million to target more ed-tech startups.
Quazzo also is the cofounder of the ASU GSV Summit, a yearly seminar on education
innovation.
Back to table
53. Jishnu Bhattacharjee
Jishnu Bhattacharjee, a managing director at Nexus Venture Partners. Courtesy of Jishnu Bhattacharjee
H O M E PA G E
Title: Managing director, Nexus Venture Partners
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: H2O.ai, Okera, Postman, Squadcast, Unmetric,

WootCloud
Bhattacharjee is the managing director at Nexus Venture Partners. He was previously

a founding team member at Scintera Networks, which sold to Maxim Integrated
Products in 2014.
He has invested in companies like the enterprise startup H2O.ai, the data company
Okera, and the developer platform Postman.
Back to table
52. Gale Wilkinson
H O M E PA G E
Gale Wilkinson, a managing partner at Vitalize Venture Group. LinkedIn/Gale Wilkinson
Title: Managing partner, Vitalize Venture Group
City: Chicago
Notable seed investments: Alembic, Chime, Catalyst OrthoScience, The Mom

Project, TradingView
Wilkinson is the managing partner at Vitalize Venture Group, which runs two funding
arms, VitalizeVC, a $16 million fund focused on scalable software companies, and
IrishAngels, an angel network of 270 investors focused on B2B and B2C.
Read: Top seed investor Gale Wilkinson says her past failures as a founder help
her coach her startups to succeed
Wilkinson's group, which she founded in 2012, has invested in over 70 companies and
deployed $10 million each year. She is also a Kau man fellow, helping to coach and
mentor leaders in VC.
Back to table
51. Ilya Fushman
H O M E PA G E
Ilya Fushman, a partner at Kleiner Perkins. Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Title: Partner, Kleiner Perkins
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Fountain, Labelbox, Nova Credit, Productboard,

Uber ip
Fushman grew up in four countries: Russia (the USSR at the time), Israel, Germany,
and the US. It taught him a few lessons about venture.
"Building companies isn't dissimilar to taking immigration-scale risks," he's quoted as

saying on Kleiner Perkins' website. "It's all about a leap of faith, starting fresh, and the
willingness to go all in on your ideas."
H O M E PA G E
Fushman is now a partner at Kleiner Perkins. He was previously a general partner at
Index Ventures and the head of product at Dropbox.
Back to table
50. Ed Sim
Ed Sim, the founder and managing partner of Boldstart Ventures. Courtesy of Ed Sim
Title: Founder and managing partner, Boldstart Ventures
City: Montclair, New Jersey
Notable seed investments: BigID, Front, Kustomer, SecurityScorecard, Snyk,

H O M E PA G E
Superhuman
Sim is the founder and managing partner of Boldstart Ventures an early-stage rm

Sim is the founder and managing partner of Boldstart Ventures, an early-stage rm
investing in enterprise and software-as-a-service startups.
He said that creating technologies in SaaS can be incredibly di cult, so he tries to be

a cheerleader for founders when things get hard.
"Founders need a true believer in their corner to cheer them in the tough times,
challenge them in the best, and chill when they need to get work done," Sim said.
"The emotional aspects of the founder journey are just as important as the technical
ones."
Back to table
49. Stuart Ellman
H O M E PA G E
Stuart Ellman, the founding partner of RRE Ventures. Courtesy of Stuart Ellman
Title: Founding partner of RRE Ventures
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Giphy, Players' Lounge, Ready Robotics, Relationship

Science, Thinkful
Ellman likes to be a founder's rst call when there's a problem.
"I see my role as a mentor and advisor to young CEOs," he said. "I believe I know how
much to help while not being intrusive."
Ellman is a founding partner at RRE Ventures, one of the largest and oldest VC rms
in New York City. He's been among the rst investors in companies like the GIF
startup Giphy and the enterprise company Stella Connect. He was also an investor in
Insider (then Business Insider) before the company sold to Axel Springer in 2015.
Back to table
48. Bryan Rosenblatt
H O M E PA G E
Bryan Rosenblatt, a principal at Craft Ventures. Craft Ventures
Title: Principal, Craft Ventures
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Citizen, Dapper Labs, Joe Co ee, Kapwing, Lambda
School, Superplastic
Rosenblatt is the lone investor at Craft Ventures — the rm started by David Sacks —
who's based in New York, where he's tasked with growing the rm's East Coast
portfolio. Before Craft, Rosenblatt was hired by Reddit to run the New York o ce and
its brand-partnerships team.
Rosenblatt said he got into investing because he enjoys being in the trenches with
founders.
"I like to know what's going well and what's not — no sugarcoating required," he said.
"It makes me nervous if there's nothing that needs xing, nothing that's going
H O M E PA G E
poorly."
Back to table
47. Seth Berman
Seth Berman, a general partner at Susa Ventures. Susa Ventures
Title: General partner, Susa Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Expanse, Mux, Rigetti Computing, Viz, Vurb
HOME
Berman isPA GE
a cofounder of Susa Ventures — an early investor in Robinhood — where
he focuses on companies making waves in frontier tech, logistics, marketplaces, and
consumer
consumer.
Before Susa, Berman was the vice president of marketing at the Swiss luxury-goods
holding company Richemont, which owns brands like Cartier, Net-a-Porter, and
Montblanc.
Back to table
46. Ryan Moore
Ryan Moore, the founder of Accomplice. Twitter/@rm_acc
Title:
HOM Founder,
E PA G EAccomplice
City: Boston
Notable seed investments: DraftKings, Drizly, HqO, Clypd, Ocean Freight Exchange
For DraftKings' rst two years, Moore was the only institutional investor. The sports-
betting company would go on to raise $719.4 million and go public via a special-
purpose acquisition company in 2020.
It was one of many big wins for Moore. He's the founder of Accomplice, a Boston rm
investing in tech companies. It's invested early in startups like Drizly, which Uber
recently bought for $1.1 billion, and the advertising platform Clypd.
Back to table
45. Tom Williams
H O M E PA G E
Angel investor and rolling funds operator Tom Williams Christopher Michael
Title: Entrepreneur
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Aspect Biosystems, Brightwheel, Glowforge, Grove

Collaborative
Williams has earned a reputation as a proli c angel investor, getting in on deals like
the ed-tech company Brightwheel and the 3D-printing startup Glowforge.
His advice for aspiring seed investors? Work as an early employee at both a successful
and a failed startup.
"You will never develop empathy for a founder if you haven't worked to support one
or more founders," he said. "Without empathy, you are destined to be commodity
capital."
Back to table
44. Daniel Gross
H O M E PA G E
Daniel Gross, the founder of Pioneer. Pioneer
Title: Founder, Pioneer
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Cruise, Embark Trucks, Lattice, Rippling, Triplebyte
At 23, Gross sold a personal-assistant app he had created to Apple and joined the tech
giant to work on machine learning. The experience taught him the importance of
having people who believed in him by his side, and it inspired him to start Pioneer, a
new kind of startup accelerator.
Unlike other incubators, Pioneer takes on founders without full- edged business
ideas. It also embraced a remote- rst approach long before the start of the pandemic.
Back to table
43. Howard Morgan

H O M E PA G E
Howard Morgan, the chairman of B Capital Group. B Capital Group
Title: Chairman, B Capital Group
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Abra, Augury, DogVacay, Gem, Numerai
Morgan, a cofounder of First Round Capital, is a mentor to some of the investors on

this list.
He's been seeding young companies for about four decades, ever since he left
academia to join a prominent hedge fund in the early 1980s. Now Morgan is the
chairman of B Capital Group, a venture rm started and funded in part by Eduardo
H O M E PA G E
Saverin, one of the Facebook cofounders.
Back to table
42. Andy McLoughlin
Andy McLoughlin, a partner at Uncork Capital. Uncork Capital
Title: Partner, Uncork Capital
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Calm, Coder, Crossbeam, Human Interest, Intercom,

Postmates
H O M E PA G E
Focused on enterprise-software businesses, McLoughlin has a knack for investing in
companies that may seem unsexy but create lasting value for their customers Before
companies that may seem unsexy but create lasting value for their customers. Before
Uncork Capital, he started a business-to-business software startup called Huddle,
which he sold in 2017.
McLoughlin said his advice to aspiring seed investors is to, if they can, start a business
rst.
"The hard lessons learnt rsthand during those rst two or three years will serve you
well as you seek to advise the next generation of entrepreneurs," McLoughlin said.
Back to table
41. Charlie Songhurst
H O M E PA G E
Charlie Songhurst, the founding partner of Katana Capital. LinkedIn/Charlie Songhurst

Charlie Songhurst, the founding partner of Katana Capital. LinkedIn/Charlie Songhurst
Title: Founding partner, Katana Capital
City: Kirkland, Washington
Notable seed investments: Bear Robotics, Cera, ClassPass, Convoy, Rigetti

Computing
Songhurst is a veteran executive of Microsoft, where he led corporate strategy and

was closely involved in the search and online-advertising deal with Yahoo, as well as
the Skype acquisition.
He has invested in nearly 500 companies, both public and private, throughout his
career.
Back to table
40. Paul Buchheit
H O M E PA G E
Paul Buchheit, a partner at Y Combinator. Y Combinator
Title: Partner, Y Combinator
City: Mountain View, California
Notable seed investments: Boom, Brex, Cruise, DoorDash, Front, Gusto, Instacart,
Justin.tv, Lambda School, Rappi, Relativity Space, Stripe
Buchheit has been credited with creating Google's original motto, "Don't be evil." He
was the 23rd employee at the company and is the creator of Gmail.
The rest of his career is just as impressive — he has been an angel investor in over 200
companies and is now a partner at Y Combinator. He's gotten in at the ground level
for dream deals like DoorDash, Squire, and Stripe.
Back to table
39. Eric Kwan
H O M E PA G E
Erik Kwan, a cofounder and managing partner of Locus Ventures. Locus Ventures
Title: Cofounder and managing partner, Locus Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Ironclad, Meesho, Razorpay, Very Good Security, Whill
Facebook hired Kwan as a software engineer in 2007, and he worked on the social
network's international expansion and language support during a period of rocketing
growth.
Now Kwan invests in companies in Silicon Valley and Asia at Locus Ventures, an
early-stage venture rm he started with former employees of Google, Facebook,
Yahoo, and Oracle.
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
38. Ruchi Sanghvi

Ruchi Sanghvi, a partner at South Park Commons. Ruchi Sanghvi
Title: Partner, South Park Commons
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Asana, ClearTax, Forethought, Nervana, Pilot
Hired at 23 as the rst female engineer at Facebook, Sanghvi left the social network to
start her own software company, called Cove, and sold it to Dropbox two years later.
Read: Facebook's rst female engineer Ruchi Sanghvi is breaking the glass
H O M E PA G E
ceiling again as an angel investor and founder of an 'anti-accelerator'
h i ff d
https://www.businessinsider.com/seed-100-top-early-stage-vc-investors-2021-4?r=US&IR=T di h d ib i lf 82/130
Now she runs a community of founders, operators, and investors that describes itself
as the "anti-incubator." South Park Commons helps people build and validate their
business ideas, without the strict fundraising timelines or massive startup cohorts of
a traditional accelerator.
Back to table
37. Kevin Colleran
John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Title: Managing director, Slow Ventures

H O M E PA G E
City: Boston
Notable seed investments: Allbirds, Good Dog, Livongo, PillPack, Ro
Colleran is the investor who founders call when they need help selling themselves
and their business vision to their team, potential investors, and customers. At 24
years old, he was hired by Facebook to build the internal ad business, and he laid the
foundation for Facebook Pages.
In 2011, Colleran left as the longest-serving employee other than Mark Zuckerberg.
Now he's the cofounder of Slow Ventures, a venture rm started by ex-Facebook

employees, where he helps founders navigate the early stages of business growth and
fundraising.
Back to table
36. Jason Finger
H O M E PA G E
Jason Finger, the chairman of Finger Group and Upper90 Capital Management. Upper90
Title: Chairman, Finger Group and Upper90 Capital Management
City: Los Angeles
Notable seed investments: Betterment, Blue Apron, Clearbanc, Omaze, Procore

Technologies, Zocdoc
If you've ordered from a food-delivery app, you can thank Finger. Online food
delivery was basically unheard of in 1999 when Finger cofounded the ordering
website Seamless Meals, later shortened to Seamless.
After selling the company in 2006, Finger turned his focus to the venture world,
becoming the chairman of the venture rm Finger Group and Upper90 Capital
Management.
Back to table
35. Keith Rabois
H O M E PA G E
Keith Rabois, a general partner at Founders Fund. TechCrunch Disrupt, Photo by Max Whittaker
Title: General partner, Founders Fund
City: Miami
Notable seed investments: Airbnb, DoorDash, Faire, Lyft, Wish
You might know Rabois from his campaign to move venture to Miami or his role in
the PayPal Ma a — or perhaps you've heard some of his "contrarian" viewpoints.
Rabois, a general partner at Founders Fund, has backed more than a dozen unicorn
startups. He previously told Insider that he tried to nd companies other VCs
wouldn't touch.
"When they pitch me, I ask myself the questions: What are other VCs not going to like
about this? What are they not going to appreciate?" he said.
Back to table
34.HKevin
O M E PA G E
Hartz
Kevin Hartz, the chairman and cofounder of Eventbrite. Kevin Hartz
Title: Chairman and cofounder, Eventbrite
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Airbnb, PayPal, Pinterest
Hartz says the two most important qualities he looks for in a founder are intellect and
hustle.
He knows something about hustling from starting the ticketing website Eventbrite
and serving as its CEO for a decade. In 2016 he passed the reins to his cofounder and
wife, Julia Hartz, so he could focus on investing. Now Hartz uses his insights to help
H O M E PA G E
others build companies.
Back to table
33. Micah Rosenbloom
Micah Rosenbloom, a managing partner at Founder Collective. Founder Collective
Title: Managing partner, Founder Collective
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Ampleforth, Lovevery, Plated, SkipTheDishes, Trans x,

Trusted Health
H O M E PA G E
Rosenbloom thinks Hollywood and venture capital have a lot in common.
"Both tech and entertainment satisfy needs, mint celebrities, and can generate huge
amounts of wealth," he said.
He would know — he worked for the Endeavor Talent Agency (the agency that
partially inspired the hit show "Entourage") before diving into venture. He's now a
managing partner at Founder Collective, investing in companies like the
transportation startup Trans x and the cryptocurrency company Ampleforth.
As for whether he prefers Silicon Valley or Hollywood, the answer is clear.
"Tech isn't perfect, but the amount of permissionless innovation it enables makes it
one of the most entertaining industries on the planet," he said.
Back to table
32. Michael Brown
H O M E PA G E
Michael Brown, the founder and managing partner of Bowery Capital. LinkedIn
Title: Founder and managing partner, Bowery Capital
City: New York
Notable seed investments: ActionIQ, Electric, Sailthru, Trans x, Zeus Living
Brown is the founder and managing partner at Bowery Capital. Previously he was a
cofounder and general partner at AOL Ventures. Brown also serves on the board of
directors of the National Forest Foundation.
Back to table
31. Kevin Mahaffey
H O M E PA G E
Kevin Mahaffey, the founder of Lookout and chairman of Stork Club. Courtesy of Kevin Mahaffey
Title: Founder, Lookout; chairman, Stork Club
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Airtable, Benchling, Lattice, People.ai, SendBird, Split

Software
Maha ey has been building software since he was 8 years old. He's come a long way,
founding the cybersecurity company Lookout and becoming the chairman of Stork
Club, a parental-bene ts company.
Maha ey's advice for seed investors? Trust your gut.
"Come to your own conclusion when deciding to invest in a company," he said. "At the
early stage, signal from other investors is noisy at best."
Back to table
30. Michael Seibel
H O M E PA G E
Michael Seibel, a managing director and group partner at Y Combinator. Courtesy of Michael Seibel
Title: Managing director and group partner, Y Combinator
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Burrow, Cruise, Paystack, Transcelestial Technologies,

Triplebyte
Seibel made headlines when he became the rst Black member of Reddit's board, but
his career has pretty much always been newsworthy. He cofounded Justin.tv, which
became Twitch and then was acquired by Amazon for $970 million, and Socialcam,
which sold to Autodesk for $60 million.
He's now a partner at the renowned Y Combinator, where he strives to be candid with
founders.
H O M E PA G E
"As a founder, I really appreciated blunt honesty," he said. "My goal when advising
founders is to be as honest as possible."
Back to table
29. Josh Kopelman
Josh Kopelman, a founding partner at First Round Capital. First Round Capital
Title: Founding partner, First Round Capital
City: Philadelphia
H O M Eseed
E The Black Tux, Curalate, Drop, Snackpass, PandoDaily,
Upstart
As a three-time founder, Kopelman knows "how lonely it can be," his bio says. He uses
his experience to empathize and help other founders as a founding partner at First
Round Capital.
He invested in the seed rounds of Upstart, the social food app Snackpass, and the tux-
rental service The Black Tux.
Back to table
28. Scott Belsky
HO
Scott M E PA
Belsky, G E product officer at Adobe. Eric Einwiller
the chief
Title: Chief product o cer, Adobe; executive vice president, Adobe Creative Cloud
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Airtable, Anchor, Carta, Flexport, Pinterest, Ro, Uber
When Adobe bought Belsky's startup, Behance, for a reported $150 million, half of his
employees became millionaires. Belsky has become Adobe's chief product o cer, the
executive vice president of Adobe's Creative Cloud, and an incredibly successful seed
investor.
Belsky says he looks for founders who are passionate but realistic.
"They are optimistic about the future but pessimistic enough about execution," he
said. "And they are never ever satis ed with the current state of their product."
Back to table
27. Brian Matthews
H O M E PA G E
Brian Matthews, a cofounder and general partner at Cultivation Capital. Cultivation Capital
Title: Cofounder and general partner, Cultivation Capital
City: St. Louis
Notable seed investments: BenchmarkOne, Gainsight, Noonlight, Popwallet,

TopOpps
When Matthews cofounded CDM Fantasy Sports, he kick-started a craze that would
last for decades. CDM Fantasy Sports, one of the rst major fantasy-sports companies,
was eventually acquired by Fun Technologies in 2006.
Matthews later cofounded Cultivation Capital, an early-stage rm in St. Louis with

about $223 million assets under management, according to Crunchbase.
Back to table
26. Darian Shirazi
H O M E PA G E
Darian Shirazi, a general partner at Gradient Ventures. Gradient Ventures
Title: General partner, Gradient Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Carbon Health, Collective, Contractbook, Loft Brazil,

MainStreet, Mural, Udemy
Shirazi was among Facebook's rst engineers. He's now a renowned investor, writing
the rst check for Carbon Health, a healthcare company that raised $100 million in its
Series C round.
"My job as an investor is to be a con dant during tough and complex times," Shirazi
said. "Great founders problem-solve continuously, and working through these
problems with founders brings me joy."
H O M E PA G E
Back to table
25. Brad Flora
Brad Flora, a group partner at Y Combinator. YouTube/Mercury - Banking for Startups
Title: Group partner, Y Combinator
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Function of Beauty, Modern Health, Payfazz, Razorpay,

Retool
HOM
When E PAsold
Flora G E his company, Perfect Audience, in 2014 for $25.5 million, he rushed
to announce that he was "a new, minor footnote in the annals of Silicon Valley startup
successes "
successes.
He would become not just a footnote but one of the most proli c seed investors in the
business. Flora's now a group partner at the prestigious Y Combinator, where he loves
discovering new talent.
"Seeing great founders come out of nowhere and use YC to build epic companies is a
special thrill," he said.
Back to table
24. Avichal Garg
H O M E PA G E
Avichal Garg, a cofounder and managing partner at Electric Capital. Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Title: Cofounder and managing partner, Electric Capital
City: Stanford, California
Notable seed investments: Cruise, dYdX, Nova Credit, Optimizely, WayUp
When Garg was in grade school, his mom found hundreds of dollars shoved into his
dresser. Garg said on the podcast "The Full Ratchet" that she was "probably worried I
was selling drugs or something."
But Garg had programmed his calculator with homework answers and then sold the
program to his peers. It was his rst taste of the tech world. After that, Garg couldn't
get enough.
He went on to work at Apple, Facebook, and Google before cofounding Electric

Capital, an early-stage venture rm focused on crypto technologies and ntech.
Back to table
23. Phin Barnes
H O M E PA G E
Phin Barnes, a partner at First Round Capital. First Round Capital
Title: Partner, First Round Capital
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Blue Apron, Modern Fertility, SmartThings, Splice, Stedi
Barnes o ered to work at First Round Capital for free, insisting that he "had no plans
to become a partner," his bio on the website says.
But it turned out Barnes had a knack for investing, and his "summer apprentice"
position turned into 11 years at the rm. He's now a partner, investing early in
companies like the meal-kit service Blue Apron and the music company Splice.
Back to table
22. Andrew Mitchell
H O M E PA G E
Andrew Mitchell, a general partner at Brand Foundry Ventures. Andrew Mitchell / Twitter
Title: General partner, Brand Foundry Ventures
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Birchbox, Contently, DoubleDutch, Peloton, Stella

Connect, Zozi
Mitchell has been cool since at least 2014, when Insider named him one of the coolest
people in New York City tech.
That was right as he was leaving ZIG Capital to found Brand Foundry Ventures, an
early-stage "consumer only" rm. Since then, he's invested in companies like the
software startup DoubleDutch, the enterprise company Stella Connect, and Peloton.
Back to table
21.HGil
O M E PA G E
Dibner
Gil Dibner, the founder and general partner of Angular Ventures. Courtesy of Gil Dibner
Title: Founder and general partner, Angular Ventures
City: London
Notable seed investments: Aquant, Firebolt, Front, JFrog, Levity, Siemplify,

Sisense, Snyk
Dibner's life has spanned three continents: He was raised in Boston and has invested
from London and Tel Aviv.
As a founder and general partner at Angular Ventures, Dibner invests in early-stage

startups throughout Europe and Israel. Dibner said his rm tends to back companies
H O M E PA G E
that "no one else wants to touch."
"The best venture outcomes typically look insane at the seed stage," he said. "If no one
seems to get what you are doing or why it's a big deal, call us."
Back to table
20. Brad Svrluga
Brad Svrluga, a cofounder and general partner of Primary Venture Partners. Courtesy of Brad Svrluga
Title: Cofounder and general partner, Primary Venture Partners
City: New York

H O M E PA G E
Notable seed investments: Alloy, Divide, Electric, K Health, Kinetic, Latch, Pump
Audio Reonomy Savored Ticket y TxVia Vestwell
Audio, Reonomy, Savored, Ticket y, TxVia, Vestwell
Svrluga's rst job was repairing wooden lobster traps. When the company failed to
switch to wire traps, Svrluga learned his " rst lesson in disruptive technology
innovation," his bio says.
He's put this lesson to good use as a cofounder and general partner at Primary
Venture Partners. He led many of his rm's investments, including in Divide and
TxVia, which both sold to Google.
"Seed is so much about sourcing great founders and opportunities at the earliest days,
often before the companies are even formed," Svrluga said to Insider.
"The best thing you can do if you want to break into the business is relentlessly
network with great founders-to-be and get in with them as they're just getting
started," Svruga said.
Back to table
19. Bill Trenchard
H O M E PA G E
Bill Trenchard, a partner at First Round Capital. First Round Capital
Title: Partner, First Round Capital
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Flexport, Looker, Superhuman, Uber, Verkada
Trenchard understands what founders go through because he's been one — ve

times. He founded companies including Liveops and Jump Networks, which was
acquired by Microsoft.
Now he helps founders as a partner at First Round Capital. Trenchard says he likes to
work "intensely" with founders, checking up on them with weekly calls or texts.
"My favorite part of it is being the coach," he said. "I love coaching and helping
founders that I believe in achieve what they are capable of achieving."
Back to table
18. Gaurav Jain

H O M E PA G E
Gaurav Jain, a cofounder and managing partner at Afore Capital. Courtesy of Gaurav Jain
Title: Cofounder and managing partner, Afore Capital
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Cruise, Firebase, Flat le, Modern Health, Petal, Socure
Afore Capital's website gives visitors a warning: "Partnering with Afore may greatly
increase your chance of kicking ass."
Jain has the track record to back it up. He invested in the seed rounds of Modern
Health, a recent unicorn; Cruise, a self-driving-vehicle company; and Petal, a ntech
startup.
H O M E PA G E
Back to table
17. Itamar Novick
Itamar Novick, a managing partner at Recursive Ventures and the chief business officer at Life360. Courtesy of
Itamar Novick
Title: Managing partner, Recursive Ventures; chief business o cer, Life360
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Abra, Armory, Cherre, Credible, Deel, Life360, May
Mobility, SafeGraph, Tile, Placer.ai
H O M E PA G E
Novick is the managing partner at Recursive Ventures and the chief business o cer
at Life360, a family-oriented technology startup. He's a proli c seed investor, backing
companies such as the student-loan startup Credible, the self-driving-car company

May Mobility, and the cryptocurrency startup Abra.
Novick said aspiring seed investors should learn to think long term.
"If you are risking your own capital, you should have con dence in your ability to
sustain a 10-to-15-year cycle with very little or no liquidity," Novick said.
Back to table
16. Wesley Chan
H O M E PA G E
Wesley Chan, a managing director at Felicis Ventures. Courtesy of Wesley Chan
Title: Managing director, Felicis Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Astranis, Checkr, Flexport, Gusto, HelloSign, Parse,

Plaid, Robinhood, SkipTheDishes, Vungle, Zipline
If you've ever used Google, then you're familiar with Chan's work. He was at the
company for 14 years, founding Google Analytics and Google Voice and building out
its early advertising products.
Chan was also a general partner at Google Ventures, where he wrote the rst
institutional check for the ntech unicorn Plaid. He's now a managing director at
Felicis Ventures.
Back to table
15. Brian Spaly
H O M E PA G E
Brian Spaly, a general partner at Brand Foundry Ventures. Brian Spaly
Title: General partner, Brand Foundry Ventures
City: Chicago
Notable seed investments: Blitsy, The Bouqs Company, Bucketfeet, Happy Returns,
Koio
Spaly started his career by sewing pants. While he was getting his MBA at Stanford, he
founded the apparel company Bonobos, originally sewing the pants himself.
After Bonobos' sale to Walmart in 2017, Spaly served as the executive chairman of the
clothing company Tecovas before becoming a general partner at Brand Foundry
Ventures. He's since invested in companies such as the ower-delivery service The
Bouqs Company, the e-commerce startup Happy Returns, and the luxury sneaker
brand Koio.
Back to table
14. Auren Hoffman
H O M E PA G E
Auren Hoffman, the CEO of SafeGraph. Courtesy of Auren Hoffman
Title: CEO, SafeGraph
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: BrightRoll, Dynamic Yield, Euclid, Factual, Figure Eight,
Klout
You know you've made it when you're sitting across from Ho man and Peter Thiel,
plotting how to change the world. It's a real thing — Ho man and Thiel created the
Dialog Retreat, where global leaders discuss the state of the planet (by invitation, of
course).
Ho man, now the CEO of the data company SafeGraph, previously cofounded
LiveRamp, which sold to Acxiom for $310 million. He's proli c angel investor,
H O M E PA G E
investing in the advertising company BrightRoll, the enterprise startup Dynamic
Yield, and the data company Euclid.
Back to table
13. Jon Soberg
Jon Soberg, a managing partner at MS&AD Ventures. Courtesy of Jon Soberg
Title: Managing partner, MS&AD Ventures
Notable seed investments: Addepar, Braze, Mercury, Parse.ly, Reef Technology,

H OLink
True M E PA GE
Financial, Trulioo
Soberg is truly a global investor with over 120 investments across ve continents But
Soberg is truly a global investor, with over 120 investments across ve continents. But
Soberg is still hands-on with his portfolio companies.
"I like to be the rst call when a company needs help," he said.
After making a seed investment in Reef Technology, Soberg even took on the role of
chief operating o cer to help build out its products. He is now a managing partner at
MS&AD Ventures.
Back to table
12. Kirsten Green
H O M E PA G E
Kirsten Green, a founding partner at Forerunner Ventures. Courtesy of Kirsten Green
Title: Founding partner, Forerunner Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Chime, Dollar Shave Club, Faire, Glossier, Hims,
HotelTonight, The Yes
Before Green founded Forerunner Ventures, she had never worked at a traditional
venture-capital rm, founded a company, or gone to business school.
"I had a lot of people looking at me like I was crazy," Green said.
Read: Inside Kirsten Green's rise from accountant to unicorn investor of

brands like Warby Parker and Dollar Shave Club
But her gamble paid o : She's since invested in six unicorn startups.
Green was among the rst investors in companies like the makeup juggernaut
Glossier, Dollar Shave Club, and the wholesale marketplace Faire.
Back to table
11. Michael Dearing
H O M E PA G E
Michael Dearing, the founder of Harrison Metal. Harrison Metal
Title: Founder, Harrison Metal
City: Jackson, Wyoming
Notable seed investments: Grand Rounds, Guild Education, Harry's, PagerDuty,

Signal Sciences
Dearing is as much a teacher as he is a VC. He taught engineering at Stanford for eight

years before founding Harrison Metal, an early-stage rm where he teaches business
administration to founders he invests in.
Dearing was among the rst investors in the enterprise startup PagerDuty, the
security company Signal Sciences, and shaving startup Harry's.
Back to table
10.HChad
O M E PA G E
Byers
Chad Byers, a founder and general partner of Susa Ventures. Courtesy of Chad Byers
Title: Founder and general partner, Susa Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Andela, Flexport, Mux, Newfront Insurance,

Policygenius, Robinhood, Stord, Viz.ai
In 2013, Byers was in the audience of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." The guest,
Peter Dinklage, joked that people got "nerd glaze" when they binged "Game of
Thrones." Stewart loved the term and insisted that Dinklage had to register the
domain.
H O M E PA G E
But before Dinklage ever had a shot, Byers registered NerdGlaze.com. He tweeted the
story years later, reminiscing about the thousands of hits his webpage got when the
episode aired.
He ran the blog for about a year before founding Susa Ventures.
Back to table
9. Salil Deshpande
Salil Deshpande, a general partner at Uncorrelated Ventures. Twitter/@salil
Title: General partner, Uncorrelated Ventures
H OPalo
City: M E PA G ECalifornia
Alto,
Notable seed investments: Astranis CoinDCX Dynatrace MuleSoft Pipe Quantum

Notable seed investments: Astranis, CoinDCX, Dynatrace, MuleSoft, Pipe, Quantum
Metric, Redis Labs, Sysdig
Deshpande's LinkedIn cover photo says, "Open source is good for me. I will fully
embrace it."
Deshpande, a general partner at Uncorrelated Ventures, is a passionate proponent of

open-source technology and invests accordingly. He's invested in companies such as
Quantum Metric, a software startup, and MuleSoft, which was acquired by Salesforce
for $6.5 billion.
Back to table
8. Elad Gil
H O M E PA G E
Elad Gil, a cofounder of Color Genomics and Mixer Labs. YouTube/Y Combinator
Title: Cofounder, Color Genomics and Mixer Labs
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Anduril, Brex, Checkr, Clubhouse, Gitlab, PagerDuty,

Wish
Gil has played crucial roles at massive companies, rst as a product manager at
Google and then as the vice president of corporate strategy at Twitter.
He also cofounded two companies — Color Genomics and Mixer Labs, which was
acquired by Twitter — before jumping head rst into venture.
Gil has since gotten in on dream deals like Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, and Square.
Back to table
7. Nat Turner
H O M E PA G E
Nat Turner, the cofounder and CEO of Flatiron Health. Flatiron Health
Title: Cofounder and CEO, Flatiron Health
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Atom Finance, Blue Apron, Breakthrough Behavioral,

Petal, Troops
Turner's Twitter bio is clear: "F**k cancer."
After Turner discovered that his 6-year-old cousin had cancer, he cofounded Flatiron
Health, a healthcare company that gathers patient data to improve treatments. The
startup, founded with Zach Weinberg, was acquired by Roche for $2 billion.
Turner is now the CEO of Flatiron Health and an active angel investor. He's invested
in companies like the enterprise startup Troops, the mental-health company
Breakthrough Behavioral, and the ntech startup Petal.
Back to table
6. David Frankel
H O M E PA G E
David Frankel, a managing partner at Founder Collective. YouTube/Harvard Business School
Title: Cofounder and managing partner, Founder Collective
City: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Notable seed investments: BuzzFeed, Coupang, Olo, PillPack, SeatGeek
"Who ever said building a company is easy?" Frankel says in his Founder Collective
bio.
He would know — he cofounded Internet Solutions, which his bio described as the
largest private internet service provider in Africa.
H O M E PA G E
He's now a cofounder and managing partner of Founder Collective, a prominent seed-
stage fund in the Boston area. He was an early investor in the digital pharmacy
PillPack, the media juggernaut BuzzFeed, and the ticket search engine SeatGeek.
Back to table
5. Zach Weinberg
Zach Weinberg, a cofounder of Flatiron Health and Invite Media. Courtesy of Zach Weinberg
Title: Cofounder, Flatiron Health and Invite Media
City: New York
H O M Eseed
E Ally, Atom Finance, Blue Apron, Clover Health, Imagen
Technologies, Lolli, Managed by Q, Plaid, Scoop Technologies
It's rare for lightning to strike the same place twice. But as a founder, Weinberg had
two phenomenal exits: Invite Media, acquired by Google for $81 million, and Flatiron
Health, acquired by Roche for a staggering $2 billion.
He's had the same good fortune as a seed investor, getting in on deals like the meal-
delivery service Blue Apron and the corporate-carpooling app Scoop Technologies.
Back to table
4. Eric Paley
EricHPaley,
O M aEmanaging
PA G E partner of Founder Collective. Courtesy of Eric Paley
Title: Managing partner, Founder Collective

City: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Notable seed investments: Airtable, Cruise, The Trade Desk, Uber, Whoop
Paley is a managing partner of Founder Collective, a rm with about $185 million in

assets under management. He's invested in the seed round of Uber, the software
company Optimizely, and the self-driving-car company Cruise.
Paley says he looks for founders who think outside the box.
"One of our core beliefs is that many of the best founders pursue ideas that seem
'weird and wonderful' at rst glance," he said. "We don't place much value in hot
themes or new technologies."
Back to table
3. Sheel Mohnot
H O M E PA G E
Sheel Mohnot, a cofounder of Better Tomorrow Ventures. Courtesy of Sheel Mohnot
Title: Cofounder, Better Tomorrow Ventures
City: San Francisco
Notable seed investments: Albert, Chipper Cash, Ironclad, Kin Insurance, Flexport,
Unit
Mohnot is basically a pop star. Well, not really. But he was brie y featured in Justin
Bieber and Ariana Grande's music video for "Stuck with U." ("It's a long story," Mohnot
said.)
Read: VC Sheel Mohnot is one of the best seed investors out there. He was also
in a Justin Bieber music video.
In addition to his brush with stardom, Mohnot has made a name for himself in the
venture world. He cofounded Better Tomorrow Ventures, a rm specializing in
ntech startups, and invested early in companies such as Flexport, valued at $3.2
billion, and Albert, which recently raised $100 million.
Back to table
H O M E PA G E
2. Lee Linden
Lee Linden, a managing partner at Quiet Capital. YouTube/TechCrunch
Title: Managing partner, Quiet Capital
City: New York
Notable seed investments: Cruise, KeepTruckin, PlanGrid, Rippling, Vungle
Linden is a product guru who's known for his high energy and mental horsepower.
The investor cut his teeth as a consumer-product developer at Microsoft and created
apps such as Tapjoy and Karma, which he sold to Facebook in 2012. He became the
H O M E PA G E
head of commerce at the social network and was in charge of Facebook Gifts, a now
defunct feature that let users send gifts.
His venture rm, Quiet Capital, is based in Houston but invests in companies coast to
coast.
Back to table
1. Justin Mateen
Justin Mateen, a cofounder of Tinder. Courtesy of Justin Mateen
Title: Principal, JAM Fund
H OLas
City: M EVegas
PA G E
Notable seed investments: Alto Pharmacy ABL Space Brex Curative Dutchie
Notable seed investments: Alto Pharmacy, ABL Space, Brex, Curative, Dutchie,
Home Chef, FabFitFun, Kalshi, Ready Responders
Mateen is one of the most proli c seed investors. He's invested in at least 87 startups
and was among the rst investors in companies like Varda Space and FabFitFun. He
scored in the top 20% of all the metrics that Tribe Capital measured, meaning he's not
only active but achieving good outcomes.
Mateen earned fame, fortune, and notoriety as a cofounder of Tinder, his rst major
gig in tech. In 2014, Whitney Wolfe Herd, a former VP of marketing, sued the
company, alleging that she had faced sexual harassment and discrimination. The case
was settled without admission of wrongdoing.
Read: Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen backs founders with a 'chip on their
shoulder,' he says. Now he's the No. 1 seed investor.
"If a founder has a crazy sense of drive that's almost irrational, I look for that," he said,
"because I think that's what keeps someone going when others may give up."
Back to table
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4/2/2021 The Seed 100: the Best Early-Stage Investors

DOW S&P 500 NASDAQ 100

The Seed 100: The best early-stage investors

Tens of thousands of institutions and individuals are active seed investors.

Many of them make money. But only a few succeed repeatedly.

RANK INVESTOR SECTORS CITY

# Justin Mateen Consumer Las Vegas

# Sheel Mohnot Fintech, Software San Francisco

# Eric Paley Consumer, Cambridge

# Zach Software, New York

# David Frankel Software, Cambridge

# Nat Turner Software, New York

# Elad Gil Software, San Francisco

# Salil Software, Palo Alto

# Chad Byers Software, San Francisco

Source: Tribe Capital

100. Nitesh Banta

Nitesh Banta, the cofounder and CEO of B12. Twitter/@nbanta

Title: Cofounder and CEO, B12

City: New York

Notable seed investments: Clara Health, Pilot, Radar, Room, TileDB

99. Jesse Robbins

Title: Partner, Heavybit; founder, Orion Labs

City: San Francisco

Notable seed investments: Chef Software, Conjur, LaunchDarkly, Zymergen

Robbins is the right investor to call in an emergency. A former volunteer re ghter,

website running during unexpected outages.

Now Robbins is helping founders weather storms as a partner at Heavybit, an

98. Andy Dunn

City: New York

97. Charles Moldow

Charles Moldow, a general partner at Foundation Capital. Foundation Capital

Title: General partner, Foundation Capital

City: San Francisco

96. Larry Marcus

City: San Francisco

Notable seed investments: Fetch, Jukely, Wingz

95. Jared Friedman

Jared Friedman, a group partner at Y Combinator. Y Combinator

Title: Group partner, Y Combinator

City: San Francisco

Friedman is an investor at Y Combinator, where he started an internet company

94. E. Bora Uygun

E. Bora Uygun, a cofounder of Bora & Sons. E. Bora Uygun

Title: Cofounder, Bora & Sons

Notable seed investments: Carbon Health, Eligible, OccamzRazor, Remote Team,

Uygun is a serial entrepreneur with four startups and a doctorate in information

93. Sam Altman

Title: Cofounder and CEO, OpenAI

City: San Francisco

Notable seed investments: Heap, Nervana, Optimizely, PlanGrid, Teespring

92. Justin Waldron

Justin Waldron, the cofounder and president of Playco. Playco

City: San Francisco

Notable seed investments: Lambda School, Snackpass, Soomgo, Sprig, Substack

Waldron's background has helped him score stakes in ultra-

91. Jerry Neumann

Jerry Neumann, a managing director of Neu Venture Capital. Jerry Neumann

Title: Managing director, Neu Venture Capital

City: New York

90. Tim Kopp

Title: CEO, Terminus; general partner, Hyde Park Venture Partners

City: Carmel, Indiana

Notable seed investments: DemandJump, Emplify, G2, Lessonly, Terminus