Building the Future: The Power of Partnership

I’m delighted to share that we’ve hard capped our fifth early-stage fund at $275m, and raised another nearly $120m in our third Opportunity Fund. This is exciting for a lot of reasons.

First, investing in a seed-stage venture fund is an incredible act of faith and a commitment to long-term partnership. We’re deeply grateful for the support of our LPs, both those who’ve been with us since I founded Costanoa in 2012, and those who have joined us more recently. You all are the best and we feel very fortunate to have you in our community and in our corner.

Second, now the fun starts! We get to invest this capital as early as Day One (and as late as Series A) in amazing startups across AI-Enabled SaaS, Data & AI Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, National Security, and Fintech. Having already made a handful of investments in Fund V, we continue to look for the next group of amazing founders who are driven to use AI to solve big problems, or to use other technology to solve the problems AI can cause.

Third, while consistency is one of our hallmarks, this is a moment to highlight two significant developments: 

1. John Cowgill has been promoted to General Partner. Having led our investments in industry leaders like AppOmni, Cyberhaven, Kepler Communications and Muon Space, John has not only built our Cybersecurity and Space practices, but has also proven himself to be an exceptional partner to founders;
2. National Security has emerged as one of our core sectors. We started down this path with Auterion in 2018 and Vannevar in 2019, adding Kepler, Cape, Muon and several yet-to-be announced investments that have only added to our conviction and commitment to this area. 

Speaking of conviction, founders have always been the center of what we do, as we believe our entire ecosystem thrives when they do. So we’ve built Costanoa to help us find amazing founders solving big problems, provide the right kind of support when they need it, and stay out of the way when they don’t.

Our goal has always been to create an environment where founders can take on hard problems and create extraordinary companies. No matter how great a founder is, or how many other companies they’ve founded, they’re essentially building a plane while they’re flying it. This is especially true at Seed, where scoping the problem, investing in the product and finding the elusive Product Market Fit can be unpredictable and random. So it takes a special kind of support to help them build the capabilities they and their companies need to succeed at each stage of their journey. 

We’ve also always been committed to building the right kind of support, especially for technical founders. Our best-in-class BuilderOps team is filled with experienced operators who know what early-stage companies need most, and are continually iterating on how we can best help them succeed at every stage.

The most fun way we do this is also my favorite event of the year: our CEO Summit, which we just held last week. As always, it was a treat to bring together this incredible group of founders, introduce them to each other, and listen to and help guide their conversations and learnings.  For me, this year’s highlight was watching them gamely (and often hilariously) try to shepherd actual lambs and play night golf, and then dive into deep conversations to learn new tools and “sharpen the saw” after months of chopping wood. I feel so lucky to be part of this amazing community who have chosen each other to create great things.

To make this all work requires a commitment to communicating clearly and honestly – even when (or sometimes especially when) it’s difficult. We want to be our founders’ first call, whether they’ve just signed a big new contract or hit a major speedbump. For that to happen, we have to invest in our relationships and create a safe environment where founders can share what’s truly going on so we can help them solve real problems. Building a company is hard. It just is. That’s why we’ve built Costanoa to be the most helpful possible partner to early stage founders. 

As a new founder, you want the right people in your corner. We want to be those people. So if you or someone you know is building an exciting company in one of our core sectors, let us know. We’d love to start a conversation.