Conventional VC is often at odds with the ambitions of purpose-driven entrepreneurs and their founding values and missions. These founders are interested in more than growth for growth’s sake. They want to build lasting, impactful businesses and preserve their mission in the future.
Funds that lead pre-seeds — Curated VC Funds
A curated list of investors who write first checks at the earliest stage, backing founders before traction when conviction matters most. View this sheet and more on VC Sheet, where founders find the right investors for their round. Curated by Mat Vogels.
How To Be Successful
I’ve observed thousands of founders and thought a lot about what it takes to make a huge amount of money or to create something important. Usually, people start off wanting the former and end up...
V_labs 4 Phases: Validate
In venture building, validation is key. We test hypotheses and prototype business ideas to ensure successful market fit and growth.
Traits of Founding Teams That Win — An IT VC’s perspective
By Christopher J. Rust, Founding Partner, Clear Ventures
Founders Hub | Transform Finance
The founder playbook for building a company that lasts and stays true to why you started it. Research, case studies, and practical tools for incorporation, fundraising terms, board structure, ownership, and culture.
Philanthropy 2.0: What the Evolution of For-Profit Investment Tells Us About the Future of Giving
Gaps in philanthropic funding for era-defining science and discovery demand a new approach. In this piece, we look at how learning from venture capital is a game changer for catalytic philanthropy.
Philanthropy 2.0: What the Evolution of For-Profit Investment Tells Us About the Future of Giving
Gaps in philanthropic funding for era-defining science and discovery demand a new approach. In this piece, we look at how learning from venture capital is a game changer for catalytic philanthropy.
V_labs 4 Phases: Explore
The explore phase uncovers concrete venture opportunities by analyzing markets, customer needs, trends, and corporate capabilities for validation.
Pivot to People: It’s Time to Build the New Economy
Today’s calls for ethical, humane, responsible, regulated and beneficial technology, compounded with venture capital’s virtue signaling in…
Highline Beta | Corporate Venture Studios & Venture Building
We build ventures and venture studios with corporate partners and family offices through rigorous process, entrepreneurial grit, and capital.
A Different Approach To VC - AVC
I wrote this to my partner the other day. I’m not going to provide the context. It doesn’t matter. It could have been about almost anything in the startup sector right now. “the biggest thing that is wrong with the startup sector right now is entrepreneurs and their teams are too focused on valuation and […]
Gallery Ventures | Venture is an art
We are a stage-agnostic venture capital firm investing in exceptional founders building the companies that shape our world.
Introducing The Unusual Method
From Unusual Ventures’ inception, our mission has been clear: to redefine seed stage investing and build a firm that would provide founders with a distinct advantage through the hardest leg of a startup journey—from Idea to Product Market fit. Today we’ve taken an important step towards fulfilling our mission. We are proud to officially make available The Unusual Method and our Unusual Field Guide.
How to communicate why your startup is worth joining | Wasp
Except for a handful of companies who send people to Mars or develop AGI, most startups don’t seem to offer a good reason to join them. You go to their websites and all you see is vague, baseless, overly generic mission-schmission/values-schvalues HR nonsense that supposedly should turn you into a raving fan of whatever they’re doing and make you hit that “Join” button until their servers crash. Well…
crawshaw - 2026-04-22
Today is fundraising announcement day. As is the nature of writing for a larger audience, it is a formal, safe announcement. As it should be. Writing must necessarily become impersonal at scale. But I would like to write something personal about why I am doing this. What is the goal of building exe.dev? I am already the co-founder of one startup that is doing very well, selling a product I love as much as when I first helped design and build it.