Founders' Co-op Research
Overview
Founders' Co-op is a Seattle-based seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2008 by Chris DeVore. Now operating with two General Partners (Chris DeVore and Aviel Ginzburg), the firm has built a 17-year track record as the Pacific Northwest's leading first-check investor. Their sixth fund ($50M, closed November 2025) continues their mission of backing the most ambitious technical founding teams in the region.
Investment Thesis
Founders' Co-op bets on "unreasonable people relentlessly pursuing impossible things." Rather than defining themselves by sector or technology trend (they explicitly reject the "AI fund" label despite the current environment), they focus on the quality of the founding team and the difficulty of the problem. Their positioning: "THE BEST FIRST-CHECK INVESTOR IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST."
The thesis is built on three convictions:
- The best companies come from people deeply committed to solving genuinely hard problems
- Community and founder networks compound over time — the Pacific Northwest ecosystem has unique strengths the fund amplifies through their Foundations community space
- Fund size is strategy — staying at $50M allows them to write first checks rather than competing with larger capital providers for ownership
Stage Focus
Pre-seed and seed stage only. The firm specifically targets companies at the pre-product, pre-revenue stage when conviction about the founder matters most and valuations reflect the earliest risk. They prioritize companies that have not yet raised institutional capital.
Check Size
Average first check: $1M–$1.5M with a portfolio of approximately 30 companies per $50M fund. They target approximately 10% ownership at first investment. The practical range runs from $250K (pre-seed/prototype support) to $2M for seed rounds. The firm reserves capital for follow-on investments in its best performers.
Lead Tendency
Founders' Co-op consistently leads first rounds, consistent with their positioning as the first institutional check. They initiate relationships with founders early and structure the initial round.
Geographic Focus
Pacific Northwest, primarily Seattle and surrounding region. Approximately 80–90% of investments go to Pacific Northwest founders. The firm is deliberately regional, leveraging deep community ties through the Foundations space — an invite-only community for regional founders at 1605 Boylston Ave, Seattle, WA 98122.
Sector Focus
While not sector-constrained, the portfolio skews toward enterprise software, developer tools, and technical B2B applications. Notable portfolio companies span enterprise software (Outreach, Temporal), fintech (Remitly), developer infrastructure, and AI-native applications (Logic, Aarden AI, Ravenna). The firm backs companies across consumer and enterprise, with increasing AI exposure as a technology layer rather than a thesis.
Fund History & Status
- Fund I (2008): Initial fund, anchored early Seattle startup ecosystem
- Fund II, III: Built foundational portfolio including Auth0 and Remitly early bets
- Fund IV: Announced April 2019
- Fund V: $50M, closed March 2021
- Fund VI: $50M, closed November 2025 — actively deploying
Fund VI targets ~30 companies at $1M–$1.5M average first check. The fund was raised in "a very different world" from 2021, positioned to capitalize on the end of the zero-interest-rate era, genuine AI use cases emerging, and continued PNW tech ecosystem growth.
Portfolio Performance
Over 120+ investments since 2008:
- 5 unicorns including Temporal (workflow orchestration) and Karat (technical interviewing)
- 1 IPO: Remitly (NASDAQ: RELY) — the firm's flagship public market success in fintech
- 39+ acquisitions including Auth0 (acquired by Okta for $6.5B) and Simply Measured (acquired by Sprout Social)
- $2.5B+ in follow-on capital raised by portfolio companies collectively
- 128 first-check investments led by the firm
Recent Investments (2024–2026)
- AZX — Custom AI solutions for the energy industry ($6M pre-seed, 2026; with AI2 Incubator, SFV, and Ascend.vc)
- Aarden AI — AI platform for landowners navigating data center deals (Seed, Oct 2025, Seattle)
- Logic — Plain-English AI automation platform ($4.3M Seed, 2025; with Audacious, Neo/Ali Partovi, and others)
- Ravenna — Slack-first AI helpdesk for internal IT/Operations (participating in $15M round led by Madrona and Khosla Ventures, 2025)
- RowZero — Spreadsheet software connecting to enterprise data warehouses ($10M Seed, 2025; led by IA Ventures)
Team
Chris DeVore — Founding Managing Partner
Chris co-founded Founders' Co-op in 2008. Before venture, he served as VP at Sapient Corporation (joining via the 1999 acquisition of Adjacency, an e-commerce consultancy he bootstrapped to $15M in revenue and 50 employees). He also served as Patagonia's Director of eCommerce building their first online retail presence, and co-founded Judy's Book (social local search). He co-founded and led Techstars Seattle from 2010 to 2019. Notably, he led the seed rounds for Remitly and Outreach, and was an early backer of Auth0. He holds a BA from Yale and attended Stanford GSB. LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/devore
Aviel Ginzburg — General Partner
Aviel joined Founders' Co-op as General Partner in 2018, having been a portfolio company founder (Simply Measured) and Venture Partner. He co-founded Simply Measured in 2010 (one of Founders' Co-op's first investments), which grew to become a leading social media analytics platform backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures before being acquired by Sprout Social in 2017. He was previously Managing Director of the Amazon Alexa Accelerator (Techstars), and began his career as a software engineer at Appature (also a Founders' Co-op portfolio company, acquired by IMS Health). He holds a BS in Economics from Vanderbilt University. LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/avielginzburg
Decision Process
Two-partner firm with no associates or gatekeepers. Decisions are made jointly by Chris DeVore and Aviel Ginzburg. This lean structure enables fast decisions — their "customer experience promise to founders" is a core operational value. Founders apply directly via their website.
Anti-Thesis
The firm does not invest outside the Pacific Northwest except in exceptional circumstances. They are explicitly not a sector-specific fund (not an "AI fund"). They back technical founding teams and are unlikely to invest in companies without a strong technical co-founder. They prefer the earliest possible stage and avoid companies that have already raised multiple institutional rounds.
Notable Co-Investors
Madrona Venture Group (dominant Seattle VC, frequent co-investor), Trilogy Equity Partners, AI2 Incubator, Khosla Ventures, IA Ventures, Audacious, Neo (Ali Partovi), First Round Capital.