Early-Stage Investment
"Most investors evaluate companies from a spreadsheet. I evaluate them from the operator's chair because that's where I've spent my career."
Our Investment Principles
Most early-stage investors evaluate companies from a financial lens. We evaluate them from an operator’s lens. The same perspective Dan has used to build GTM motions from scratch, hire first revenue teams, and scale B2B products as a CMO and CEO.We back early-stage B2B software founders and then get to work alongside them. Not from a boardroom. In the trenches.
Primary Focus: Product-Led Growth
Software that sells itself. Users sign up, reach value fast, and invite their teammates without a salesperson in the loop. Think early Slack, Notion, or Figma. We look for short time-to-value, natural collaboration hooks, and retention that shows genuine habituation.
Secondary Focus: Sales-Led Growth
Early-stage B2B companies where the right go-to-market strategy is the competitive advantage. Where the difference between winning and losing is how well you find, reach, and close your ideal customer. We bring direct experience building these motions from the ground up.
Sector Focus: GTM & Marketing Tech
Tools that help companies find and convert customers. Dan has been the buyer, the user, and the evaluator of these tools. Deepest evaluation edge — we can spot what works and what doesn’t before most investors even understand the product.
Simple terms. Serious involvement.
We keep the mechanics simple so we can focus on what matters: helping you build. Every investment is a SAFE note. Every founder gets a direct line to Dan. We are selective with just eight to ten investments per year, not forty. That means every founder in the portfolio gets real attention, not just a name on a cap table. We invest on conviction: if we can’t articulate exactly why a company will work and exactly what we’ll do to help it, we don’t write the check.
GTM strategy that works
Dan has built go-to-market motions from zero. Skilled at finding the ICP, nailing the positioning, and building the first revenue motion without burning cash on the wrong channels.
Peer-level counsel
As a former CEO, Dan gives advice from the same seat you’re sitting in. Not theory. Not “what I’ve seen other companies do.” What it actually feels like to make these decisions.
Hands-on when it counts
For the right companies, Dan steps in as a fractional CMO or CEO. Getting in the business, owning a specific outcome for a defined period. Rare for an investor to offer this.
Warm introductions
A founder network built over a career, not a spreadsheet of LinkedIn connections. When you need a customer intro, a hire, or a lead investor for your next round, we make the call.
Honest feedback
We’ll tell you what we think even when it’s not what you want to hear. The best thing an investor can do for a founder is tell the truth early, not validate bad decisions to protect the relationship.
Long-term commitment
We’re not optimizing for a quick flip. We invest to hold through the hard parts: the pivots, the slow quarters, the moments where most investors go quiet. That’s when being in the portfolio matters most.