Susa Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Susa Ventures is a premier seed-stage venture capital fund focused on partnering with "spiky founders" building category-defining companies. Founded in 2013, Susa has evolved into a specialized fund with particular emphasis on AI-driven innovation across multiple verticals. The fund partners with companies from inception through the seed stage, providing not just capital but strategic guidance, operational support, and access to Susa's extensive network of technical and business expertise.
The fund's core philosophy centers on identifying and backing exceptional founders solving fundamental problems with novel technological approaches. Susa explicitly targets founders with unique perspectives, deep technical expertise, and the ambition to build transformative companies rather than incremental improvements on existing solutions.
Fund History and AUM
Susa Ventures has successfully raised multiple funds demonstrating consistent institutional confidence:
- Fund I (2013-2016): Early seed-stage fund establishing the firm's reputation and methodology
- Fund II: Expanded institutional backing with strong portfolio performance
- Fund III: Significant fund with robust deployment capacity
- Fund IV: Continued growth enabling larger check sizes and more extensive support
- Fund V (2025): $175 million fund closed recently for continued seed-stage investing
- Total AUM: Multiple funds under management with combined capital base enabling flexible investment sizing
As of November 2025, Susa has invested in 168 portfolio companies with 9 new investments in the last 12 months, demonstrating active and selective deployment.
Investment Strategy & Philosophy
Founder-Centric Approach: Susa's primary focus is on identifying "spiky founders" - individuals with uncommon insights, deep technical expertise, and unusual experiences that give them unfair advantages. The fund explicitly states it does not believe "founders should ever be removed" and takes a long-term partnership view with portfolio companies.
Sector Focus on AI Innovation: While historically diversified, Susa has increasingly concentrated on AI-driven opportunities across multiple verticals:
- Alternative AI Architectures (new compute models beyond current paradigms)
- Custom Software & GenAI (enterprise AI applications)
- AI Research Assistants (applied in science, engineering, medicine)
- TechBio (therapeutics combining biology and AI)
- Energy (clean energy and infrastructure)
- AI Infrastructure (chips, data centers, power systems)
- Consumer AI (applications built for a post-AGI world)
- Risk Management (novel data and device-based approaches)
- AI Supply Chain (efficient and resilient supply chains)
Operational Support Beyond Capital: Susa emphasizes providing more than capital: capital provision ($1-5M typical), customer introductions, frameworks from lived experience, talent recruitment support, and technical advisory relationships.
Portfolio Approach: Susa takes a long-term view with portfolio companies, expecting partnerships rather than quick exits. The fund's willingness to do follow-on investments in strong performers indicates flexibility in allocation.
Portfolio Companies & Recent Activity
Susa has invested in 168+ portfolio companies since 2013 with active deployment from Fund V ($175M, 2025). Recent investments include Cavela (November 2025, seed in automated product sourcing) and Adapt.com (January 2026).
Notable Exits (High Exit Values):
- Casetext - AI platform for legal professionals, acquired by Thomson Reuters for $650 million
- Expanse - AI cybersecurity platform, acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $800 million
- Robinhood - Digital brokerage, IPO
- Guilded - Gaming chat, Roblox acquisition
- Scalyr - Logging infrastructure, SentinelOne acquisition
- Periscope Data - Analytics platform, Sisense acquisition
Active Portfolio Highlights:
- Together AI - Platform for developing, training, and deploying GenAI models
- Mux - Video streaming APIs and infrastructure
- Flexport - Digital freight forwarder
- Henry AI - AI deal assistant for commercial real estate
- Hanover Park - AI fund administration
- Cluely - AI assistant for virtual meetings and sales calls
- Human Interest - 401(k)s for small businesses
- Stedi - API-first healthcare clearinghouse
- Newfront Insurance - Modern commercial insurance brokerage
Stage Focus & Check Size
Investment Stages:
- Primary: Seed stage ($1-5M typical)
- Secondary: Pre-seed for exceptional founders ($500K-$1M)
- Selective: Series A follow-ons for strong portfolio performance
- Reserve: Significant follow-on capacity in later rounds for winning companies
The fund's philosophy is to provide enough capital for companies to reach meaningful milestones while preserving founder ownership.
Team & Leadership
Chad Byers, Co-founder and General Partner: Background in early internet commerce and regulated infrastructure expertise. Extensive network across technology and infrastructure.
Derick En'Wezoh, MD, Partner: Physician and founder background with healthcare and life sciences expertise, particularly strong on TechBio.
Misha Gordon-Rowe, Partner: Investment and portfolio operations expertise with focus on operations and portfolio management.
Pratyush Buddiga, Partner: Technical founder and investor focused on AI and infrastructure trends.
Shaheer Sandhu, Investor: Supporting the core partnership.
Emeritus: Leo Polovets (founder of CodingVC, maintains advisory relationship) and Seth Berman (advisor).
Investment Decision Process
Structure: Partnership-based decision making with all general partners evaluating investments together. The "spiky founder" philosophy emphasizes human judgment about founder qualities.
Timeline: Estimated 2-4 weeks for seed stage decisions, with acceleration for strong founder fits.
Approach: Initial founder conversation assessing founder uniqueness and vision, technical deep dive if applicable, market sizing assessment, reference calls, and partnership consensus.
Geographic Focus
Primary: San Francisco Bay Area based with network concentration in Northern California
Secondary: New York City tech community
Selective: Global with willingness to invest internationally if founder quality aligns
Macro Context & Market Positioning
With approximately 50 percent of global venture funding in 2025 directed to AI (211 billion dollars, up 85 percent year over year), Susa's thesis focus on AI-driven innovation is well-positioned. The fund's long-term track record since 2013 shows 10 percent of Fund I and II companies became unicorns (vs. 1 percent industry average), demonstrating exceptional founder selection and support quality.
Seed-stage focus positions Susa perfectly to back the next generation of category-defining companies before they become Series A competitive.
Summary
Susa Ventures is a founder-focused, AI-specialized seed-stage venture fund with an exceptional 12+ year track record of identifying category-defining companies. The partnership combines technical expertise, operational support, and network access to create valuable long-term partnerships with spiky founders solving meaningful problems through novel technological approaches.