Florida Funders Research
Investment Thesis
Florida Funders (FLF) is a hybrid venture capital fund and accredited-investor network founded in 2016 by Tom Wallace, Marc Blumenthal, and Kevin Adamek, later joined by Saxon Baum and Michael Kadow. The firm's founding mission was to keep talented Florida founders from having to relocate to San Francisco or Boston to raise capital, by building an institutional first-check and follow-on capital source rooted in Florida. FLF backs early-stage B2B technology companies and positions itself as more than a capital provider, offering a structured network (advisory boards, founder circles, direct introductions to customers and later-stage investors), a media-driven distribution engine that amplifies portfolio companies to customers, talent, and follow-on investors, and an in-person community built around an annual Founder Summit and ongoing founder/investor gatherings.
Stage Focus
FLF invests from pre-seed through Series B, getting involved early and following on as companies scale. In 2026 the firm added a new, even-earlier entry point: the FLF Accelerate Fund, a $5M hard-cap vehicle that invests in companies coming out of a16z's speedrun accelerator, and Florida First Check, an evergreen pre-seed strategy run in partnership with The Florida Institute that writes $75,000-$100,000 first checks to Florida-based technology founders.
Check Size
Explicit check sizes are only disclosed for the Florida First Check program ($75,000-$100,000 at pre-seed) and the FLF Accelerate Fund ($5M fund hard cap). The main fund's per-company check size is not published; LP-side minimums are $5,000 (Investor Network) and $50,000 (Portfolio Select), which are investor commitment minimums, not startup check sizes.
Lead Tendency
Not clearly disclosed. FLF operates a hybrid model where its Fund co-invests alongside a 2,000+ member accredited Investor Network, and portfolio milestones (e.g., Flex's Series B1) were led by outside firms (Halo Fund) with FLF as an existing, non-lead investor. Treat lead tendency as unknown/mixed pending more deal-level detail.
Recent Activity
Fund 3 (roughly $60M in total commitments, per PitchBook) is actively deploying; Fund 1 and Fund 2 are fully deployed, with Fund 1 approaching the end of its lifecycle and prioritizing liquidity. Q2 2026 was described by Managing Partner Saxon Baum as the firm's most consequential quarter to date: portfolio company Flex raised a $70M Series B1 led by Halo Fund at a $1.2B post-money valuation (FLF's second unicorn out of the Fund 2 portfolio), and Fund 1 portfolio company RepScrubs was acquired, delivering a realized 11.84x gross MOIC and returning roughly 30% of Fund 1's paid-in capital in a single exit. In August 2026 FLF launched Florida First Check with The Florida Institute, debuting with a first investment in Stello AI, a Tampa-based agentic AI HR platform.
Portfolio Highlights
FLF has invested over $300M into 100+ early-stage tech startups. Notable active and exited companies surfaced on the public portfolio page include Flex (fintech, unicorn), Betr (sports micro-betting), Archive (AI/creator discovery, notable for founder Paul Benigeri's media appearances), Worth AI, Manifest, Cast.ai, Togal.AI (construction AI), HealthSnap (digital health), WiTricity (wireless power), Passes (creator monetization), Stoke Space (reusable "Nova" rockets), Mesh Connect (crypto payments infra), Pocket Network, RapidFort, Secberus, Presence, and RepScrubs (exited via acquisition, Fund 1).
Team
- Saxon Baum, Managing Partner
- Tom Wallace, Executive Chairman (co-founder)
- Kevin Adamek, General Partner (co-founder)
- Marc Blumenthal, General Partner (co-founder)
- Michael Kadow, General Partner
- Rachael Ferm, Director, Investments (focus: vertical software, cybersecurity, AI orchestration; hosts "The Founder Playbook" video series)
- Jake Felman, Director, Legal
- Zach Brodsky, Senior Associate, Investments (manages the Florida First Check partnership)
- Guy Levy, Associate, Investor Relations (joined May 2026)
- Cheyenne Stopford, Executive Assistant
Advisory board and venture partners include Slater Bayliss, Corey Hynes, Mark Steele (Venture Partners), Steve MacDonald (Board Member & Investment Committee), Rachel Sapoznik (Board Member), Jerry Miller (Advisory Board Member), Marc Sokol (Advisory Board Member), and a dedicated Cybersecurity Advisory Board (Deniz Sagnaklar, Sean Robinson, Sunny Singh).
Decision Process
The presence of multiple General Partners, a Managing Partner, and a named Board Member & Investment Committee role (Steve MacDonald) indicates an investment-committee-style decision process rather than a solo-GP structure.
Founder Preferences
Per Senior Investment Associate Zach Brodsky: "We look for three things in every company we back: rapid growth, founders who can sell, and teams that have done it before." The firm's Q2 2026 letter emphasizes evidence of revenue durability at investment time (six-figure ACV contracts, not just logo count) given rising AI-company formation and competition.
Geographic Focus
FLF invests nationally ("anywhere in the US") but is deeply rooted in Florida, with deep knowledge of Tampa, Miami, Orlando, and St. Petersburg markets specifically, plus relationships extending to Silicon Valley and New York. Its newest program, Florida First Check, is explicitly Florida-only at the pre-seed stage. Headquarters: Tampa, FL.