Investing in The Future of Human
$150M to bet on the most exceptional founders of our time working on the biggest ideas possible
We hold a fundamental conviction: technology entrepreneurs are going to solve humanity's most pressing issues and unlock the most exciting opportunities. From profound wealth disparities to the urgent threat of climate change to the growing sense of social isolation and mental health crisis, tech founders will be our lifeline toward a more abundant, diverse, sustainable, and joyful future.
As these founders charge forward to address the world’s most daunting challenges, the divide between technology and society remains a critical hurdle. 90% of Americans are more concerned than excited about the role of AI in daily life. 75% aren’t confident in crypto’s safety and reliability. Meanwhile, both technologies are stepping stones for a more abundant and better future. From day one, we’ve believed in the transformative power of storytelling, art, and culture to bridge this gap. We’re on a mission to help society love and understand what tech founders are building and why their innovations are important to help humanity thrive.
We’re proud of everything we’ve accomplished in the past six years. We’ve backed 8 unicorns and have had 22 exits and 1 IPO. We have $450 million AUM. We’d been supporting financial app Truebill (now Rocket Money) with PR from seed stage with nearly zero revenue to a $1.3B acquisition with more than $100 million revenue at that time. They became the fund-returner for fund I in less than three years after the start of the fund, which is 50x better than the median fund of our vintage.
Fund II has been a rewarding and intense journey, both in terms of successful investments (our net IRR is 48%) and especially in terms of how we've refined our approach to identifying and supporting founders. One of the most special memories is meeting Alex Blania on social media, inviting him to Silicon Valley and the US for the first time in his life and seeing him co-founding Worldcoin with Sam Altman, growing it into an unstoppable leader of the network that’s worth dozens of billions of dollars. Worldcoin is now bringing financial opportunity to over 10 million users in 160 countries and growing. In addition to strategic fundraising and comms advice, we’ve helped them recruit some key executives and founding team members who are shaping Worldcoin into one of the most important and exciting projects that humanity needs in the age of AGI. This project alone lifted our expectations over the scale of ideas and founders we are looking for.
The next era of Day One
When we launched Day One Ventures six years ago, we introduced a new model of venture capital by investing in early-stage startups and spearheading their communications. D1V Fund III marks a new chapter, encompassing a deeper integration of art and culture alongside our established expertise in storytelling and PR.
We believe that the preservation of our humanity hinges on the coalition of storytellers, artists, technologists, engineers, researchers, scientists, and mathematicians. History has proved this to us time and time again, from Leonardo da Vinci's fusion of art and science in “Vitruvian Man” to Steve Jobs showing the first-ever Macbook to his friends Keith Haring and Yoko Ono to Bell Labs’ art residencies. Connecting tech founders with artists is also our way to help them be the best humans they can possibly be and ensure that whatever they’re working on will be done for the better of humanity and in ethical ways.
Our collaboration with OpenAI for the first-ever physical DALL-E art show, which attracted 400+ tech founders, investors, and executives, exemplifies how artists enrich our understanding of AI. Building on this, we plan to leverage art, storytelling, and culture to inspire, shift the minds of our companies’ skeptics, challenge perceptions, and spark meaningful conversations.
In addition to betting on the top early-stage founders in AI, climate, enterprise software, fintech / crypto, and deep tech, we’ll also be introducing a 'Future of Human' focus category as one of the key investment targets, aiming to redefine humans’ future as species through each bet we make. Whether harnessing whole genome sequencing in embryos, exploring the latest brain-computer interface technology, cryopreservation, or delving into new reproductive and fertility paradigms, our aspirations have never been more ambitious or exhilarating.
This wouldn’t have been possible without our LPs. We’re grateful for new & existing partners who we’re excited to be in the business with for the next 20 years. We're backed by a few US and European institutional investors, a number of tech founders including 10 unicorn founders and 14 of our own portfolio founders, several family offices, and a few heads of private equity firms and larger funds. We are proud to have secured funding from 9 female LPs for fund III, a significant increase from 0 in Fund II. Our LPs come from nearly 20 countries.
Backing the modern-day Prometheus
With the launch of Fund III, we liken the founders we invest into Prometheus. In ancient Greek mythology, Prometheus defied the gods to bring fire upon humanity, symbolizing the spark of innovation and progress. Inspired by Prometheus's daring act, we at Day One Ventures believe in the power of rebellion and resilience to drive transformative change.
We value certain traits in founders:
•Extreme: Maniacal intensity in everything they do, strive for excellence.
•Speed: Decisiveness in both decisions big and small.
•Focus: Intuitive ability to identify the most important thing to focus on at any point in time and fully immerse themselves into working on it.
•Hunger for change: Being comfortable in one mode: constant change. Constant internal reinvention, constant work on themselves, and eagerness to try new things.
•Kindness: Conscientious consideration of others and treating other people well as a north star.
We’ll continue investing at the pre-seed and seed-stage. Our first checks are $500K-$2M and follow-on checks are up to $15M (and sometimes more).
Our basic tenets remain the same
The urgency with which we’ll find founders to fight back against the negative elements of the world has never been stronger. However, our foundational truths remain:
•Founder-first approach: We fiercely defend and empathize with our founders at every turn. We’re pro-founder, first and always.
•Extremely operational: We handle 90% of the work to get your story out, while you focus on product-market fit or scaling to your next dozens of millions in revenue. We nurture excellence in operations in our companies and exemplify the culture we invest in.
•Safe community: Being a founder is hard. We strongly vet everyone we get involved with and cultivate a safe environment where founders can rely on us and trust our contacts. Most of the people in our community we’ve known for over five years and can ensure everyone creates a positive experience for others.
•Longevity of relationships: We assess our founders and LPs for fund III based on who we’d want to be involved with in business for at least the next 20 years. Once you're in, we spare no effort in facilitating connections and granting you access to individuals who can help you level up.
•Beauty and inspiration: We strive to bring more beauty and inspiration in everything we touch because it’s the greatest source of new ideas and energy to thrive.
If you’re a founder solving an extremely hard problem and want to build toward an abundant, diverse and sustainable future, reach out to us here.
Masha Bucher & the Day One Ventures team