Haystack

Haystack is an early-stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, specializing in seed-stage investments in technology and consumer startups. Founded in 2013, the firm has a proven track record of backing outlier founders at the earliest stages, providing hands-on mentorship, strategic support, and capital to help founders navigate early growth and scale effectively. Over the past decade, Haystack has led or participated in over 200 seed investments, with 35 companies valued at over $100 million and 8 exceeding $1 billion. Notable portfolio companies include DoorDash, Instacart, Figma, HashiCorp, and Applied Intuition. The firm typically invests between $500K and $2M in initial rounds, focusing on sectors such as consumer and commerce, intelligent software and services, vertical and industry software, hardware and frontier technology, developer tools, infrastructure, security, and healthcare and life sciences. Haystack partners with early-stage companies at the intersection of technology and consumer adoption, looking for founders with bold ideas and resilience to execute in competitive, fast-moving markets. The firm's team has 15–20 years of deep operational and investing backgrounds across multiple sectors, providing valuable insights and support to their portfolio companies. With a focus on early-stage investments, Haystack has a diverse portfolio across various technology sectors, demonstrating a commitment to fostering innovation and growth in the startup ecosystem. The firm's investment philosophy centers on identifying and supporting exceptional founders who are poised to make a significant impact in their respective industries, offering not only capital but also strategic guidance to help them succeed in the competitive venture landscape. Haystack's approach combines a deep understanding of market dynamics with a hands-on, founder-centric support model, enabling their portfolio companies to scale effectively and achieve long-term success in the market.