Chad Byers, General Partner and Co-founder at Susa Ventures, announced that the firm launched a $175 million fund to help seed-stage founders launch and scale companies. Since 2013, the firm has been dedicated to pre-seed and seed-stage company building.
Susa Ventures looks for “spiky” founders. Spiky means that they are “multiple standard deviations away from normal across one or more of the following traits: intelligence, ambition, and determination.”
The firm is currently interested in the following:
Alternative AI Architectures – New compute and model designs beyond today’s dominant paradigms (LLMs)
Custom Software – AI applications tailored for enterprises
AI Research Assistants – Applied across science, engineering, and medicine
Energy – Getting us back on the Henry Adams Curve
Consumer – Applications for a post-AGI world
Risk Management – Novel data and devices
AI Supply Chain – Efficient and resilient supply chains
KEY QUOTES:
Every company starts at day one, but only a few become category-defining businesses. The winners find momentum early and compound it for decades. Our job is to help you build momentum early – by providing capital, customers and talent. Susa founders are on average more successful and own more of their companies than industry peers. Susa companies become unicorns ~10x more often than the average venture-funded startup. 10% of Susa I and II companies have become unicorns – compared to a 1% industry average. Susa-backed companies raise Series A rounds at ~2x higher valuations than industry average, resulting in lower founder dilution. Susa founders tend to own more of their companies at exit.
Choosing Susa means your success drives impact beyond your company. We manage capital from US-based institutions, including non-profit foundations, education endowments and leading healthcare providers.
- Chad Byers, General Partner and Co-founder at Susa Ventures
