In a market that often optimizes for the next round, we take a different approach. We invest in companies building for the long term — businesses that would be worth building even if venture capital didn't exist.
What We Look For
Strong Unit Economics Early
We want to see a clear path to profitability at the unit level, even if the company is investing heavily in growth. Key indicators:
- LTV/CAC above 3x within the first 12 months of a cohort
- Gross margins above 70% for software, 40%+ for marketplaces
- Payback period under 12 months
Genuine Product-Market Fit
Not manufactured metrics — real pull from the market. We distinguish between:
- Paid growth — customers acquired through ad spend (fragile)
- Viral growth — customers acquired through product mechanics (durable)
- Organic growth — customers acquired through word-of-mouth (strongest signal)
Founders Who Think in Decades
We'd rather back a company growing 30% year-over-year with strong margins than one growing 300% while burning through capital.
The founders we partner with are building companies they'd want to run for 20 years. That mindset changes everything — from hiring decisions to architectural choices to customer relationships.
Our Process
Every investment we make follows a structured evaluation:
- Thesis alignment — does this fit our areas of expertise?
- Founder deep-dive — 3-5 hours of conversation before any due diligence
- Technical review — our team evaluates the architecture and engineering culture
- Customer references — we talk to 5-10 customers without the founder present
- Market sizing — bottoms-up TAM, not top-down "if we get 1% of a $100B market"
This process takes 4-6 weeks. We don't do term sheets on first meetings.