Who we are
We are a venture capital firm that invests in startups led by creative thinkers. We partner with entrepreneurs who make products and services for consumers as well as business people. We are proud supporters of companies such as AdMeld, Oculus, Postmates, Slack, Tumblr, Twitter, Warby Parker, Wayfair, and Wealthfront.
We have offices in SoMA in San Francisco, Astor Place in New York City, and the Back Bay in Boston,
Spark Capital was founded ten years ago, and today we invest out of a $450M early-stage venture fund, and a $375M venture growth fund. In total we manage five funds with $2B under management.
What we believe
We believe the world can never get enough of magical products and experiences. Making them requires a balance of art and technology, as well as a maniacal focus on delivering joy to the people who use them. When a product is truly special, it leaves an indelible mark. You feel it. It changes you.
The people who make those products are creative, high-energy, and have a sharp intellect. They are technologists with the heart of an artist. They have imagination, guts, and drive. They have unique insights into how people work and play, and they aim to touch the lives of hundreds of millions of people. They might be equally as likely to be inspired by the work of Frank Gehry and Jeff Koons as Jonathan Ive and Yves Behar or Larry Page and Elon Musk. We think working with those people is about as much fun as you can have in this world.
How we invest
At Spark Capital market and model be damned — we take risks on visionary people and products that move us. We look for three things: Founder, Product, and Vision. The traditional VC approach (Market/Model/Team) doesn’t work for us.
When we are considering a new opportunity, we spend time using the product and getting to know the founders. We view each product as an extension of the founder and an expression of his or her vision. Just like Tumblr is a reflection of David Karp’s view on the world, Twitter is a reflection of the point of view of its founders: Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Ev Williams. Using a product can often tell you more than any pitch deck.
We have seen that when a product is the perfect balance of art + people + tech, users catch on. Desire builds among a particular audience, momentum picks up, and the market becomes clear. When the product/market fit gathers momentum, we deploy our growth fund to deepen our commitment to our founders or support the companies we wish we had partnered with earlier.
What we offer
We aim to be the best, most loyal long-term partner to entrepreneurs. We are founder-first, even when it may not be in our best interest.
This is personal. We invest with our minds, our eyes, and our hearts. Our partners choose to work with founders one-on-one. We are available, open, trusted advisers to all of the people who build the companies in which we invest—especially when they feel they have nowhere else to turn. WYSIWYG: We don’t hide our intentions, opinions, or motives.
We love technology and we are early adopters. We are often our companies’ most active, vocal users.
Our founders have said that the hardest part of starting up is the lonely experience of doing everything for the first time, even with the best of teams. So we have internal support dedicated to facilitating knowledge-sharing and relationship building for everyone at the companies in which we invest, from CEOs, to product managers, to marketing folks and customer experience associates.
If you think we can build something amazing together, please get in touch.
