Decibel Partners Research
Investment Thesis
Decibel Partners is an independent venture capital firm founded in partnership with Cisco that invests exclusively in essential infrastructure software used by engineering, security, and data teams. The firm believes that the most impactful technology companies are built by technical founders who have deep domain expertise and a passion for solving critical infrastructure challenges.
Sector Focus
Decibel focuses on three primary domains:
Developer Platforms & Infrastructure:
- Cloud-native application delivery (Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability)
- Backend development platforms and tools
- Open source infrastructure projects
- Software supply chain security
- Design and prototyping tools for technical teams
Cybersecurity:
- Application security and vulnerability management
- Identity and access management
- Email and endpoint security
- Attack surface management
- Threat detection and response
- Cloud security compliance
- AI-powered security solutions (agentic threat hunting, autonomous alert investigation)
Data, ML, and AI Infrastructure:
- Data pipelines and orchestration
- ML operations and management
- AI agent platforms and sandboxes
- Responsible AI and governance
- Real-time analytics and business intelligence
- Autonomous software solutions
Stage Focus
Decibel invests primarily in early-stage companies:
- Seed and early growth companies with initial product-market validation
- Companies with technical founders and differentiated approaches
- Strategic follow-on investments in portfolio companies
The firm explicitly maintains a small portfolio to provide focused, hands-on support to each founder.
Investment Approach
Decibel takes a founder-first, expertise-driven approach centered on four core values:
- Know Your Domain - Partners maintain deep technical expertise in their focus areas and decline investments outside their domain knowledge
- Build Trust Through Transparency - Founders can reach the firm 24/7 with direct, honest feedback
- Put Founders First - Success is measured through founder success and the firm actively helps portfolio companies leverage Decibel's resources
- Have Conviction. Invest Early - The firm commits resources and time when companies are unproven, recognizing the critical nature of early-stage investment
- Play the Long Game - Long-term focus on supporting founders through the many twists and turns of building enduring businesses
Team & Advisory Board
Core Team:
- Jon Sakoda, Founder & General Partner - Serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor. Former General Partner at New Enterprise Associates where he started their seed program and worked with BlueJeans (Verizon), Cloudflare (NYSE), Elastic (NYSE), MongoDB (NASDAQ), and others. Previously CTO/VP Products at IMlogic (acquired by Symantec). Harvard College graduate.
- Dan Nguyen-Huu, Partner - Focus on ML/AI, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Former VP at Battery Ventures leading investments in Databricks, SumoLogic, Expel, Contrast Security, InfluxData. Earlier experience at VMware and UBS technology banking. Forbes 30 Under 30 in VC (2019).
- Alessio Fanelli, Partner
- Jess Leão, Partner
Founder Advisors (all entrepreneurs with successful exits):
- Amy Chang (Accompany founder)
- Andrew Peterson (Signal Sciences founder)
- Bhaskar Sunkara (AppDynamics founder)
- Dug Song (Duo Security co-founder)
- François Dufour (Founder Advisor)
- Jon Oberheide (Duo Security co-founder)
- Mallik Mahalingam (Springpath founder)
- Marty Roesch (Sourcefire founder)
- Mohit Lad (ThousandEyes founder)
- Ricardo Oliveira (ThousandEyes founder)
Portfolio Companies
Decibel has built a substantial portfolio with 50+ portfolio companies across all three focus areas. Notable recent investments and active portfolio companies include:
Developer Platforms:
- Akuity (Advanced Kubernetes delivery, from Argo creators)
- Penpot (Open source design platform)
- Platformatic (Fast backend development)
- Root.io (Container supply chain security)
- NocoDB (Open source no-code database tool)
- Cube (Semantic layer for data apps)
- UserClouds (Privacy-as-a-service)
- Botpress (AI conversational platform) - $25M Series B (Jul 2025)
Cybersecurity:
- Censys (Attack surface management)
- Blameless (SRE platform, incident response)
- Pixee (AI-powered application security)
- SpecterOps (Identity attack path management)
- Sublime Security (Email threat detection)
- Pangea (Security services platform)
- Prowler (Cloud security management)
- Push Security (Browser-based identity security)
- Knocknoc (Network orchestration, dynamic access control)
- Dropzone AI (Autonomous alert investigation)
- Nebulock (Agentic threat hunting)
- Nira (Access control for documents, acquired by Dropbox)
- Censys (Acquired by Elastic)
Data/ML/AI Infrastructure:
- Abacus (End-to-end AI platform for real-time deep learning)
- Answer.AI (AI R&D lab with practical products)
- Veris.ai (Training environment for enterprise AI agents)
- E2B (Secure sandboxes for AI code execution)
- Scrunch (AI customer experience platform)
- Brightwave (AI investment research assistant)
- Strella AI (Customer research platform with AI interviews)
- Aomni (AI platform for B2B sales)
- Credo AI (Responsible AI governance)
- Magnify (Customer lifecycle management with AI)
- Fixify (AI-powered IT support)
- Unconv.ai (AI-optimized computing infrastructure)
- Pachyderm (ML data pipelines, acquired by HP Enterprise)
Founders in Other Sectors:
- Spotnana (Travel-as-a-service platform)
- Mantis BioTech (Simulative AI for biomedical data)
Recent Activity & Deployment
Decibel has been actively deploying capital throughout 2025:
- Botpress raised $25M Series B (July 2025) with Decibel participation
- Recent investments in AI security (Nebulock, Veris.ai, Dreadnode, Scrunch)
- Heavy focus on autonomous AI and agentic solutions
- Strong engagement in developer-focused PLG and community strategies
The firm demonstrates continued commitment to its focus areas with regular investment activity and portfolio support through published playbooks, founder spotlights, and educational content.
Decision Process & Terms
- Partnership-based decision making
- Conviction-driven, founder-first approach
- Transparent communication and 24/7 founder access
- Hands-on operational support and strategic guidance
- Leverages firm's founder advisor network extensively
Geographic Focus
Primarily US-based with concentration in technology hubs. Portfolio spans North America with selective international investments.
Competitive Advantages
- Technical Depth - All partners come from technical founder/operator backgrounds, not traditional VC careers
- Founder Network - Exceptional advisor board of successful founders across multiple exits
- Domain Expertise - Deep focus on three sectors with genuine operational expertise
- Accessibility - 24/7 founder access and hands-on support model
- Portfolio Synergies - Opportunities for founder learning across portfolio companies
- Track Record - Founded in partnership with Cisco, successfully spun out as independent firm
Thesis on Modern Infrastructure
Decibel believes that the next generation of valuable companies will be built on essential infrastructure software that enables engineering teams, security teams, and data teams to build and protect the digital world. The firm sees particular opportunity in:
- Open source and community-driven infrastructure
- Product-led growth for developer tools
- AI/ML becoming foundational to all software
- Shift toward autonomous and agentic solutions
- Security becoming a top-of-mind concern for all enterprises