When you’re just starting out, we believe there’s nothing more important than building the right product for the right people. We helped Flatiron Health, Digit, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Slack figure it out fast — and we can help you, too.
⚡️ Character Labs is our sprint program for pre-seed AI founders. Learn more →
Author of Sprint. Former design partner at GV and design leader at YouTube.
Early-stage startup investor. Former general partner at Capital Midwest Fund.
Creator of the Design Sprint. Author of Sprint. Former design partner at GV.
Our startup advisors are Jeanette Mellinger, Charles Adler, and David Cirilli.
We are backed by more than 100 LPs, who act as an extended team to help us find and support startups. Our LPs include founders and executives from YouTube, Google, Slack, Square, Uber, Mozilla, Gusto, Clubhouse, Coinbase, Flatiron Health, and many other technology companies.
We invest flexibly across the spectrum of seed stage, including Character Labs, our sprint program for pre-seed founders.
Especially in AI/ML, enterprise, industry, climate, healthcare, and the life sciences — where software can unlock meaningful behavior changes that are aligned with customer goals.
Great founders know how to leverage remote work to build amazing teams, and when to gather the team to sprint and connect. We’re a remote-native firm investing in companies incorporated in the USA.
Which customers should you focus on? How should the product look? What should you build next? Early-stage startups need to answer these questions ASAP, and we can help.
We’re not just talking about playbooks and resources — we actually clear our calendars and sprint with your team. Ask any founder we've worked with.
We've used sprints to help more than 200 startups answer questions and validate hypotheses. Thousands more have read our book and embraced the process. It works.
AI industrial control systems that save energy and money.
Smart calendar assistant.
AI platform that accelerates drug development.
Platform for medically integrated specialty pharmacy.
Cross-platform AI notetaker.
AI for prioritizing sales opportunities.
Audio collaboration for musicians and podcasters.
Video meeting platform with AI built in.
The freest, fastest gifting platform for businesses.
Generative AI for materials science.
AI agent for financial analysts.
Platform for building AI workflows around unstructured data.
Tools for patient groups driving rare-disease research.
The marketing platform built for healthcare.
Measure and share your company's carbon footprint.
A novel technical approach to safer, faster ML models.
AI data platform for nonprofit fundraising.
Commercial insurance automation.
Programmable proxy platform for APIs and services.
Quality cancer care for everyone, everywhere.
Personal AI tutor for students, schools, and governments.
Engineering OS that accelerates manufacturing.
All-in-one platform for understanding your customers.
Improve reading education with AI-generated content.
Accelerate investigational new drug applications.
UI platform that helps teams build products faster.
AI control systems for robots in the real world.
Legal operating system for enterprises.
AI video generator for storytellers.
AI copilot for military training exercises.
Research-grade experiential data for chronic disease.
AI companions that spark curiosity in children.
Tools for fans to remix and produce fandom culture.
Co-design tool that produces automatic design reviews.
AI-generated demo environments for technical products.
Prevent software supply chain security threats.
AI software for autonomous healthcare.
AI assistant for customs brokers and forwarders.
Use AI to analyze medical bills and negotiate discounts.
AI teammates for small businesses.
Daily pet care companion app.
New ecommerce platform for artisans.
AI that streamlines the scientific research lifecycle.
Realistic simulations of end-user website experiences.
Notable investments from our previous roles at GV and Capital Midwest Fund
Messaging, search, and collaboration platform for teams.
Improving lives by learning from the experience of every cancer patient.
Sourcing, roasting, and serving great coffee to the world.
Exceptional primary care supported by custom technology and design.
World's largest digital coupon marketplace.
Jobs and training for skilled workers in manufacturing.
Puts money on autopilot with machine learning.
Cellular platform makes it easy to set up and manage connected devices.
All-in-one platform for third-party risk management.
Bringing simplicity and delight to payroll, benefits, HR, and finance.
We exist to help founders like you build the right product for the right people. We invest capital and time to help you figure it out fast.
But it’s not just about technology and money. For us, it’s personal, because time is our only finite resource. An hour spent at work is an hour we can’t spend with family or friends, or taking care of ourselves or our communities.
We believe the best use of our time is helping you build products and services that create meaningful change for your customers. Let’s work together to make it count.
Character Labs is our sprint program for pre-seed founders working in AI. Learn more →
