Company Performance Metrics
- Jay Bartot: Technical Advisor and Chief TechnologistPast Role: Zeitworks, CEO and Co-founder
- Paul Longhenry: Venture PartnerPast Role: Bolt, VP Strategy and Corporate Development
TheFounderVC is a pre-seed and seed venture fund based in Seattle and San Francisco Bay Area, focused exclusively on early-stage Vertical AI companies in the US. TFVC team combines deep AI start-up and product building expertise with a founder-centric approach to help entrepreneurs build category-defining businesses.
TheFounderVC
("TFVC") invests in AI start-ups that are building on top of frontier AI models for vertical-specific applications. Massive opportunities are emerging as founders build new competitive moats where structural data advantages can be combined with workflow-native and hyper-personalized user experiences.
The fund is led by a team of multi-time founders and AI product builders from 0-1 to exits and multi billion $ in revenue. The team brings deep expertise in scaling AI-native products from concept to market leadership, providing hands-on guidance in product development, AI strategy, and go-to-market execution.
Notable TFVC portfolio companies include Daydream (conversation AI shopping platform, $50M seed led by Index and Forerunner Ventures), Catchouse (Gen AI home buying platform, $3.5M pre-seed led by NEA), and Potato AI (AI scientists accelerating breakthroughs, $5.7M seed led by Draper Associates).
