We raised new funds earlier this year. Our core fund is now $85M. We invest at pre-seed and seed. Our companion fund, Needles III, is $25M. We’ve been focused on the early stage since 2013. Since our inception 13 years ago, Haystack’s approach hasn’t changed.... Read More
On paper, there are many reasons we should not have invested in Birches Health. The company is focused on providing mental health services to millions who suffer from various addictions, but it’s also operating at the frontier of behaviors amplified by being online, by social... Read More
In early 2020, right smack before the pandemic arrived on our shores, my new colleague at the time, Aashay — not even a year out of college — surfaced this fledgling open source security company he found by doing some web research, Pomerium. We all... Read More
This is gonna be a fun backstory to recount. It’s not often we get the chance to collaborate with so many industry friends around one opportunity, but this story presents just that. Years ago, our friend Bilal from Lux put us in touch with a... Read More
In the throes of summer ‘23, our team caught wind of a larger seed round for an AI company led by John Nay. As soon as we had our first interaction, we decided we needed to fight to be in his round. Oftentimes at the... Read More
It’s that time of year, traveling with family, trying to get mentally prepared for the next year, but alas, there are still a few days left of 2023. As I start to look back on the year that was, I review my notes from the... Read More
I know readers are not going to love this choice. I apologize in advance. Is the company I’m about to pick below even a startup? What about highlighting the “little guy,” a new startup that’s quietly about to take off from the runway, a young... Read More
I knew at some point I would write this post. I didn’t know exactly when, though recently with all the inside baseball chatter I’m privy to, I knew it would go this way, that Figma would not be acquired by Adobe. There are surely many... Read More
A bit more than a decade ago, when I was just starting Haystack (a $1M “debut” Fund I), I was a venture partner with Bullpen Capital, juggling lots of consulting roles with a variety of VC firms, and recently became a father, all in the... Read More
On behalf of Haystack, I am incredibly proud to make some big announcements this morning. Before these updates, I wanted to quickly take stock of where Haystack stands after a full decade of investing. Please note, these stats are close approximations that hopefully provide some... Read More
The start of 2022 marked a change in financial markets. Since then, many believed risk capital would dry up, early-stage valuations would fall (just like all other valuations). Now that we are nearly two years into this downturn, I wanted to briefly take stock of... Read More
Haystack is fortunate to be in a position where we work closely with a variety of pre-seed firms, small to large seed funds, and all the big top tier VC funds. We are collaborative by nature, and I’ve always personally felt that the best part... Read More
Earlier this spring, an old friend of ours, Matt Garratt, was kind enough to refer us to two founders he liked personally but felt things were a bit too early for him to take on the investment. Haystack is fortunate to have built long-term, organic... Read More
In the summer of 2019, we met Alex Gallego – a force-of-nature technical entrepreneur with a big idea for the future of data infrastructure and distributed systems. Haystack ended up investing in the seed round of Alex’s company – then called Vectorized – alongside Arif... Read More
Below is a short note we sent to our portfolio founders yesterday. It’s no secret that “AI” is all the rage in startup technology today, but we felt that most of the discussion on this topic centered around new startups. What about existing startups? Those... Read More
I’m on a plane today headed to NYC for the week. I’ve refrained from tweeting too much directly about the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the threat to other regional banks. This is in part because it’s a complicated topic where there are... Read More
As an unofficial tradition, I attempt to “look back” on the previous year in technology startups and tease out the big themes. Looking back on 2022, I’ll admit I found it harder to step back from the noise of work and family life, to zoom... Read More
Each year, when the summer ends, I begin to think about what I’ll write in this annual “breakout company” post, which has turned into a mini-annual tradition for me here on this blog. Until a few days ago, I kept thinking – just like in... Read More
As an early-stage startup investor, this year, 2022, has been marked by one thing: Hard Conversations. Lots of them. Each conversation is different, but depending on the situation, they fall into one a few buckets. The hardest are with founders who are already in your... Read More
In the summer of 2020, an odd time for sure, my friend and Lightspeed colleague Guru told me about a team he loved but felt was way too early. We took the intro from Guru, and wow am I glad I did. Guru, we owe... Read More