TenOneTen Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
TenOneTen Ventures is a Los Angeles-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technical teams transforming essential industries. The firm explicitly targets sectors facing both existential threats and tremendous opportunities—including healthcare, logistics, real estate, manufacturing, and other industries where technical innovation can solve critical operational problems.
The fund's philosophy centers on "technical founders backing technical founders." The team is composed of experienced entrepreneurs and technologists who understand the complexities of building scalable technical products. They lead rounds 75% of the time, with typical round sizes of $500K-$5M, making them a strong lead investor at the seed and Series A stages.
Stage Focus
TenOneTen invests primarily at three stages:
- Pre-Seed: $250K-$500K for prototype development and initial traction
- Seed: $500K-$2M for early product and customer validation
- Series A: $1M-$5M for companies demonstrating product-market fit
They invest in approximately 10 companies per year, indicating a focused, hands-on approach rather than a high-volume strategy.
Check Size
The firm's typical investment range is $500K-$5M, with:
- Minimum check size: $250K (for exceptional pre-seed opportunities)
- Maximum check size: $5M (for strong Series A investments)
- They lead 75% of rounds they participate in
Lead Tendency
Primary strategy: LEADS
TenOneTen explicitly states they lead 75% of the rounds in which they invest. This leadership position, combined with their hands-on founder experience and technical depth, makes them well-suited for taking board seats and actively supporting portfolio companies through critical milestones.
Recent Activity (2024-2025)
TenOneTen demonstrates strong recent activity with several notable portfolio exits and new investments:
Recent Investments:
- Loman (Aug 2025): 24/7 AI phone agent for restaurants - $3.5M
- Urban Sky (Aug 2025): Stratospheric balloons for defense - $30M raise
- BuildOps (2025): Unicorn status achieved - commercial services platform
- Blox (2024): Financial AI automation for real estate
- Linker Finance (2024): Digital banking for community banks
- Opstream (2024): AI procurement orchestration
Portfolio Exits:
- Memorable AI: Acquired by Reddit (2024)
- Goodreads (acquired by Amazon)
- Pluto TV (acquired by Paramount)
- Divshot (acquired by Google)
- Kaggle (acquired by Google)
- DataScience (acquired by Oracle)
Fund Status: Actively deploying, with strong momentum in 2025 investments
Portfolio Highlights
TenOneTen has built an exceptional portfolio of 100+ companies spanning healthcare, logistics, real estate, manufacturing, and emerging sectors.
Healthcare:
- Regard: AI for patient diagnosis and clinical notes
- Artera: Healthcare communications platform
- August Health: SaaS for long-term care facilities
- Honeybee Health: Direct-to-consumer prescriptions
- Sensate: Vagus nerve stimulation devices
- Rhythm Science: Cloud-based cardiac monitoring
Logistics & Supply Chain:
- Flock Freight: Algorithmic freight pooling
- Optimal Dynamics: Dynamic routing for long-haul freight
- Shippabo: Sea freight booking and visibility
- BeyondTrucks: All-in-one trucking fleet management
Real Estate & Construction:
- Crexi: Commercial real estate transactions platform
- BuildOps: Cloud-based operations for contractors (unicorn)
- Builders Patch: Multi-family housing deal management
- Genda: Construction's digital assistant
AI & Data:
- Datasaur: Custom private LLMs
- Nomad Data: AI-driven data marketplace
- RagaAI: AI testing platform
- Alation: Enterprise data accessibility
Gaming & Entertainment:
- Scopely: Mobile games (acquired by Savvy Games)
- FitXR: VR fitness and gamified workouts
Enterprise Software:
- Tailscale: Zero config VPN ($1.5B valuation)
- Daily: Developer API for video calls
Team & Leadership
David Waxman (General Partner, Co-founder)
- Serial founder: Firefly (acq. Microsoft), PeoplePC (IPO), SpotRunner
- MIT Media Lab (Masters), UC Berkeley (undergrad)
- Focus: HealthTech, IoT, AI, Future of Work
Gil Elbaz (General Partner, Co-founder)
- Pioneer in natural language technology and structured data
- Founded: Applied Semantics/AdSense (acq. Google 2003), Factual, Common Crawl Foundation
- Caltech (BS)
- Focus: FinTech, Data Analytics, AdTech, ClimateTech
Minnie Ingersoll (General Partner)
- 11+ years at Google as early product manager
- Founded: Shift.com (online car marketplace)
- Stanford Computer Science
- Focus: Legacy industry SaaS, logistics, climate tech
- Hosts: LA Venture Podcast
Eric Pakravan (General Partner)
- VP at Amplify.LA Capital
- Early employee at Scopely (mobile gaming)
- USC (Student Body President)
- Focus: SMB software, tech for legacy industries
Decision Process
Process Type: Partnership/Collaborative
The four co-founding partners share decision-making authority. The team's emphasis on collective founder experience and hands-on support suggests collaborative decision-making with consensus required.
Geographic Focus
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California Investment Focus: Global with emphasis on US tech hubs (LA, SF Bay Area, NYC) and selective international investments. Deeply committed to LA's tech ecosystem through community engagement.
Founder Preferences
The ideal TenOneTen founder:
- Technical expertise and deep domain knowledge
- Market intimacy (founders must know their market)
- Ambition and perseverance
- Problem-solver mentality
- Evidence of prior execution or shipping
- Familiarity with hyperscale tech companies (Google, AWS, Stripe)
Deal Breakers:
- Founders who don't know their market
- Non-technical founding teams
- Lack of customer validation
Investment Philosophy
TenOneTen targets sectors facing existential disruption where technology creates competitive advantages. They invest in technical solutions for essential industries: healthcare, logistics, real estate, manufacturing, and other sectors where innovation solves critical operational problems. The firm reserves heavily for milestone-based follow-ons, indicating flexibility and founder-friendly terms.