Next Play Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Next Play Ventures was founded by Jeff Weiner, the former CEO of LinkedIn (11 years tenure), and Brian Rumao, his longtime Chief of Staff and strategic partner. The fund applies LinkedIn's proven leadership and organizational development playbook to venture investing. The core thesis centers on coaching entrepreneurial leaders, not just providing capital. The firm believes that great companies are built by great leaders, and that combining financial investment with active coaching and leadership development creates disproportionate value.
The firm's mission statement encapsulates this: "Coach and invest in entrepreneurial leaders building world-class, purpose-driven organizations." The emphasis on "coach" is deliberate—when Next Play invests, they commit to helping develop the next generation of leaders, helping them realize their vision while staying grounded in values. The firm emphasizes that doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive, and that managing compassionately builds stronger teams and companies.
Sector and Model Focus
Next Play Ventures has a deliberately broad but deep sector focus:
Primary Sectors:
- B2B / Enterprise Software and SaaS
- Financial Technology (Fintech) and Payments
- Consumer Apps and Social platforms
- Health and Wellness (including healthcare tech)
- Education Technology (EdTech)
Subsector Specialization:
- Productivity software and virtual work tools
- Direct-to-consumer and e-commerce platforms
- Data and AI/ML-powered platforms
- Developer tools and infrastructure
- Purpose-driven and social impact businesses
The portfolio reflects this diversity. Notable investments include Figma (design), Notion (productivity), Slack (workplace communication), Brex (fintech), Esusu (credit building for underserved communities), Bicycle Health (addiction recovery), Brilliant (STEM education), Browser Company (modern web), Speak (language learning), and Warp (developer tools).
Stage Focus and Check Size
Next Play Ventures primarily invests in early-stage companies:
- Pre-Seed: $100K-$500K
- Seed: $500K-$5M
- Series A: $1M-$5M
- Selective later-stage follow-ons: For exceptional portfolio companies
Check Size Range: $100K-$5M, with sweet spot around $1.5M. The firm is flexible and will write both small checks ($100K pre-seeds) and larger $5M+ checks for strategic follow-ons in existing portfolio companies.
Lead Tendency: Next Play leads and co-leads rounds regularly. They were lead investor in companies like Figma, Notion, and many others. However, they also participate in co-led and syndicated rounds.
Team
Jeff Weiner, Founding Partner
- Former CEO of LinkedIn (11 years, 2009-2020)
- Grew LinkedIn from 33M to 690M+ members
- Scaled revenue from $78M to $7.9B+
- Scaled team from 338 to 16,000+ employees
- Executive Chairman of LinkedIn post-CEO transition
- Co-founded The Compassion Project (nonprofit teaching compassion in US elementary schools)
- Founding LP and investment committee member of Westbound Equity Partners (social impact fund for diverse founders)
- Advisor to Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula
- Former board member: Intuit, DonorsChoose, The Paley Center for Media
- Education: BS in Economics from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
Brian Rumao, Managing Director
- VP and Chief of Staff to Jeff Weiner at LinkedIn (10 years)
- Led cross-functional integration of Microsoft-LinkedIn post-acquisition (2016)
- Business operations and growth strategy experience at LinkedIn
- Former McKinsey consultant (Los Angeles office)
- Board member: Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula
- Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow
- Education: Bachelor's and Master's in Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan
Sean Mendy, Venture Partner
- Founding Partner of Westbound Equity Partners (Next Play's social impact affiliate)
- Former head of development for Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula
- Entrepreneur in Residence at Sixth Street Partners
- Board member: StreetCode Academy, USC's Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab
- Advisor: Prison University Project
- Focus: Capitalizing underrepresented founders, companies serving underrepresented consumers, diversity team building
Investment Decision Process
Next Play operates as a partnership with relatively quick decision timelines (2-4 weeks for seed/Series A). Partners lead deal sourcing and investment discussions, with ~50%+ of fund reserved for follow-on investments in portfolio companies.
Geographic Focus
Primary focus on US, especially Bay Area given Menlo Park headquarters. Open to high-quality founders nationwide, particularly through social impact lens via Westbound Equity Partners.
Recent Activity
Based on available data, Next Play Ventures continues actively deploying capital:
- Latest investment tracked: Arbor (Seed, July 2025) - operational intelligence platform
- 69-74 total investments in portfolio (as of Feb 2026)
- 3 new investments in last 12 months (as of Feb 2026)
- Fund status: Actively deploying
Notable Portfolio Activity:
- Multiple IPOs and acquisitions in historical portfolio (Slack, Cloudera)
- Consistent follow-on investments in successful companies
- Focus on both growth and social impact returns
Portfolio Characteristics
The portfolio reveals several patterns:
Strong Technical Founding Teams: Companies like Figma (design), Notion (productivity), Slack (collaboration), Warp (developer tools), and Browser Company indicate deep comfort with technical founders and infrastructure plays.
Purpose-Driven Mission Alignment: Heavy presence of mission-driven companies: Esusu (credit building for underserved), Bicycle Health (addiction treatment), Brilliant (STEM education), Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula, The Compassion Project.
Market Leaders: Portfolio includes many category-defining companies (Figma in design, Notion in productivity, Slack in workplace communication).
Diversity and Inclusion: Through Westbound Equity Partners, Next Play actively invests in diverse founders and companies serving underrepresented communities.
Founder Preferences
Next Play seeks entrepreneurial leaders with:
- Vision for world-class, purpose-driven organizations
- Openness to coaching and leadership development
- Strong values alignment (doing well and doing good together)
- Ability to scale teams and organizations
- Deep domain expertise in their problem space
Fund Strategy and Support Model
Next Play's differentiation is the coaching model applied to venture investing:
- Active board participation
- Leadership coaching with access to Jeff's LinkedIn playbook
- Team building and org structure support
- Strategic guidance and cross-portfolio learnings
- Network access to LinkedIn's extensive CEO and operator networks
- Optional social impact integration through Westbound Equity Partners
Notable exits include Slack (IPO), Cloudera (IPO), and Figma (unicorn-valued). Active high-value companies include Notion, Slack (now Salesforce subsidiary), Figma, and Brex.