The first Yes for founders building vertical AI
The Founders VC is a $5M fund run by operators who’ve founded, scaled, and exited their own companies. We write the first check — often the very first Yes — before the best VCs in the world follow.
Often the first Yes
Often theFirst Yes.
And the best follow.
The Founders VC is frequently the very first check in a founder’s round. Our conviction — and our diligence — help the round come together. Then world-class VCs price it and pile in.
The Founders VC was the first ‘Yes’ in our pre-seed round. Their diligence pushed us to sharpen our thinking, and their engagement made our funding a reality.— A founder we backed, on the first check
Why vertical AI
We see the coming wave of vertical AI applications disrupting every aspect of our consumer and professional lives — creating trillions of dollars of value in the process. We back visionary founders who pair deep domain expertise with an AI-native vision to build the category leaders of tomorrow.
Vertical AI is 1% built.
Structural data advantage
A defensible, proprietary data position no incumbent can copy — the moat that compounds while the models commoditize.
Workflow-native
AI built into how an industry actually works — not a chatbot bolted on. Products that live where the work already happens.
Hyper-personalized
The experience layer only an AI-native product can deliver — a customer relationship incumbents structurally can’t match.
Seven companies. Five with at least one Seattle founder. Every one, the first check we were proud to write.
Daydream ↗
CommerceA conversational AI fashion-shopping agent — natural-language and image search across 10,000+ brands.
$50M seed · Index + Forerunner + GV
Potato ↗
ScienceAutonomous AI scientists — turning research goals into executable lab experiments, from hypothesis to protocol.
$4.5M · Draper-led · Seattle
Liminary ↗
ProductivityAI-native memory for high-stakes work — save anything in any format, auto-linked and instantly recalled.
Ex-Google Docs · Ex-Dropbox ML
Planette ↗
ClimateLong-range weather and climate-risk AI for business resilience — forecasts from next week to two years out.
Selected by NASA to build QubitCast
Catchouse ↗
Real estateA voice-AI home-buying platform — MLS-integrated, matching buyers with the right local pros. Local knowledge from real people.
Live in WA · AZ · CA · FLRidge AI ↗
Data infraAI-native analytics dashboards and data agents for SaaS — embedded, customer-facing, running in-browser.
$2.6M · Madrona · SeattleOperators,
not spectators
We walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Four builders who founded, scaled, and exited their own companies — collectively creating more than $2B in exit value. We’ve sat in the founder’s chair. That’s why we’re often the first to say Yes.
Meet the teamMia Lewin
Trained VC turned 3x founder CEO with two exits to public companies. Sold StyleGenome to Wayfair, then led personalization to $1B in revenue. Stanford GSB MBA.
LinkedInPaul Longhenry
Founder CEO and 5x growth-stage operator; led product, strategy and corp dev through Tapjoy’s sale to ironSource / Unity. ~$1.4B realized across DE Shaw Ventures and 3i.
LinkedInShail Kaveti
CS engineer turned investor. She built AI/ML recommendation systems serving 1.2B+ customers at Amazon and Wayfair; earlier in high-frequency trading. Angel in Perplexity. Tuck MBA.
LinkedInJay Bartot
AI veteran and multi-time founder with four exits (to Hulu, Microsoft, Nielsen, Alliance Health). Former CTO at Madrona Venture Labs; teaches entrepreneurship at UW.
LinkedInMore than a check
The TFVC Community connects our founders with operators who’ve built and exited before — for the unglamorous, high-leverage help that actually moves a company: first hires, first enterprise deals, the next round. The first Yes is only the start.
Explore the community →Operators writing first checks
- Check size$100K – $250K
- StagePre-seed & Seed
- FocusVertical AI only
- GeographyU.S. · Seattle + SF
- Fund I$5M · ~60 LPs
- Our roleOften the first Yes
What to send: a working product or a sharp prototype, the industry wedge you’re driving into, why your data compounds — and why you’re the founder to build it. We read every pitch.
“We back visionary founders who combine deep domain expertise with an AI-native vision to build the category leaders of tomorrow.”
— Mia Lewin, Founding PartnerBuilding in vertical AI? We’d love the first look.
Send us what you’re building. If it’s a fit, you could have your first Yes within the week.
Pitch us →team@thefounder.vc · Seattle + SF Bay Area