We invest in builders

Diego knew he'd start a company—eventually.

But first, he wanted to spend more time learning. Learning from founders, learning the ropes of a high-growth early stage startup, learning about the data analytics space. Learning what would make him a better founder. Eventually.

We connected him to Digit as employee 12 and the first data scientist. Within four years, he was running the data team and half the engineering organization.

He felt the itch to start something, but he wasn’t sure what the “something” was yet, and he didn’t want to leave his job until he knew. We knew as long as he was building something he cared about, we wanted to be behind him.

A few months later, Diego became our first Entrepreneur-in-Residence. And he’s officially found his idea: Able, an AI-driven platform that reduces the global cost of access to capital for businesses.

Anduril’s vast ecosystem of technology is a sight to behold.

Its technology is matched only by the potential of its ambition. (It didn’t hurt that its founder, Palmer Luckey, who previously founded Oculus VR, had a seasoned track record of being ahead of the curve.)

Its cutting-edge tech, small (but growing) size, and hands-on culture have made it a magnet for ambitious engineers, eager to learn in a tight-knit environment. (Among them is Nikhil Reddy, a voracious learner with an undeniable growth mindset who we connected them with in 2019).

We participated in Anduril’s Series A, B, and C rounds, and placed 32 of its first 100 engineers.

Henrique and Pedro were coding and launching companies in their teens. By the time they met, when they were 16, Pedro had already built software to make Siri speak in Portugese and Henrique had started a video game company. (Both were recipients of Apple patent infringements along the way, but that’s a different story.)

They sold their first startup, pagar.me, to go to Stanford in 2016. That’s when we first met them—or, actually, that’s when a few engineers we knew at Harvard told us we had to drop everything and meet these two engineers from Brazil. So we did. And they were right.

Pedro and Henrique were in full explore and learn mode—focused on finding the right next idea to build an incredible company around. We were amazed by their curiosity, desire to learn, and ability to devour information and iterate on ideas. We spent hours working with and learning from them as they explored different directions, including the thrilling but short-lived Veyond VR phase.

We were lucky enough to write them their first check when they pivoted to fintech and launched Brex, then helped place three of their first engineers. We’ve invested in every round since.

Literature, coding—it doesn’t matter. If it involves language, Katie knows how to craft it into a good story.

Katie’s obsession with language is nothing new. As a teenager, she self-published three books (the first when she was 12 years old). Around the same time, she ran a non-profit that taught middle schoolers the design and logic engineering behind computer science.

Her unique passion for both narrative and code are the driving force behind her startup idea: a company to help brands and public figures build stronger connections with their fans through interactive, customizable media content.

We were blown away by Katie’s passions and potential, and brought her on as part of the first cohort of Delta Fellows.

She began the program with a prototype. Over the course of the 3-month program, she iterated on the concept; met her co-founder; brought on new advisors; raised seed financing; rebranded the company; and completed a successful beta test.

Benoit Dageville, Thierry Cruanes and Marcin Zukowski saw the cloud industry as a series of pipes—pipes in need of a house.

That’s how the idea for their company, Snowflake, came to life: the desire to house different cloud companies together—like AWS, GCP, Azure—into one agnostic platform.

Benoit, Thierry and Marcin’s unique vision for the cloud industry is matched by their ability to attract top talent. It’s no surprise that the brightest engineers want to work on challenging and interesting technical problems. Cloud infrastructure, specifically Snowflake’s infrastructure, is exactly that.

We helped place six out of the first 100 engineers at Snowflake, including Arthur Shi, whose interests in large-scale computer systems were warmly welcomed.

We invested in Snowflake’s Series E, when they were still valued below $1 billion, and before they went public—the biggest software IPO in history.