Visible Hands Research
Investment Thesis
Visible Hands is a mission-driven pre-seed venture capital fund focused on investing in visionary founders before the crowd recognizes their potential. The fund's core thesis addresses a critical market inefficiency: women and people of color receive less than 5% of venture capital funding. Rather than treating this as a pipeline problem, Visible Hands believes the real barrier is access to capital, resources, and connections at the earliest stages of company building. By investing in underrepresented founders—women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ founders—at pre-seed, the firm captures outsized returns while advancing systemic change in venture capital.
The fund's investment philosophy is grounded in research showing that female founders exit 11 months faster on average, and that underrepresented founders who overcome institutional barriers develop the resilience and learning required to build unicorns. Visible Hands explicitly states their mission: "We envision a world where overlooked founders need no champions."
Fund History and Scale
Visible Hands was founded with a mission-driven mandate to support exceptional, overlooked founders. The firm closed its first institutional fund (Fund I) in June 2022 at $10.5 million in committed capital. As of their latest public metrics, the firm has:
- 60+ portfolio investments across the United States
- $8.3 million in total capital deployed to date
- 36 portfolio companies that have closed Pre-Seed and Seed rounds
- $50+ million raised by portfolio companies post-investment
This demonstrates strong follow-on capital attraction and strong portfolio momentum.
Stage Focus and Check Size
Visible Hands is exclusively focused on the pre-seed stage, with selective investments in early seed rounds. Their check sizes typically range from:
- Fellowship program initial grants: $10,000 non-dilutive funding
- Pre-seed investments: $25,000 to $150,000 through their fellowship programs
- Follow-on capacity: Reserved capital for winners from their programs
While the firm can write larger checks, they operate in the micro-pre-seed category where other VCs are either absent or underutilizing their capital. This represents the fund's greatest competitive advantage: moving capital to founders when institutional VCs view companies as too early.
Investment Sectors and Model Preferences
Based on portfolio analysis, Visible Hands invests across diverse sectors:
Sector Distribution:
- Enterprise Software (8+ companies): Including SignSpeak, Hire Henry, Groflo, Plot, Oatfin, Kimoyo Insights, Undock, and others
- Creator Tools (7+ companies): Including BingeWave/Invirtu, Crafted, Creobase, Preneur, VIIRA, WriteSea, Highnote
- Healthcare (5+ companies): Including Akoma Health, Levl, Relavo Medical, Sanarai, and others
- Financial Services (4+ companies): Including Aura Finance, Oarbt, Let's Get Set, TANGApp, Tuma
- Real Estate (3+ companies): Including Churchspace, Retell, Tourus
- Education (3+ companies): Including Candoor, Welfie, SWYE360 Learning
- Beauty (4+ companies): Including Habit Skin, Parfait, Opal, Swella, The Social Club
- Consumer Products (1+ company): Including Opal
- Food & Beverage (1+ company): Including PrepShift
- Family & Caretaking (2+ companies): Including Care CoPilot, Hearth Display
- Other: Sports & Entertainment, Transportation & Logistics, Sustainability, Social Media
The portfolio is intentionally sector-agnostic, with emphasis on business model rather than industry vertical. They invest in both B2B SaaS and consumer applications, provided founders demonstrate:
- Early customer validation
- Strong founding team (particularly underrepresented)
- High-growth potential
- Coachability and openness to support
Geographic Focus
Visible Hands operates with national reach, with particular concentration in:
- New York City (VHNYC Founder Fellowship - 15 founders per cohort, quarterly programs)
- Boston (headquarters, VHBOS Founder Fellowship)
- Tulsa, Oklahoma (Blueprint: Tulsa program, partnership with local ecosystem)
- Secondary markets across US (Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Chicago, Austin, Philadelphia, Houston, etc.)
The firm also invests internationally, with portfolio companies in Lagos (Akoma Health), Kenya (Sanarai), and Amsterdam (Swella).
Portfolio Highlights and Recent Activity
Notable Recent Investments:
- Parfait (Mar 2022): Beauty tech company, MIT PhD + Wharton MBA founders. Disrupting the $13 billion wig industry. Company raised follow-on funding and achieved significant revenue by 2025.
- Spill (Mar 2025): Social/Platform Software company, latest investment documented by PitchBook
- Highnote (Visionaries 2022 cohort): Creator tools platform from St. Louis
- Levl (Visionaries 2022 cohort): Healthcare company from New York
- Sanarai (Visionaries 2022 cohort): Healthcare company from Nairobi, Kenya
- Swella (Visionaries 2022 cohort): Beauty company from Amsterdam
Fund Status: Fund I is actively deploying capital and conducting follow-on investments in strong performers. The firm is "doubling down on disciplined pre-seed investing and real founder support in 2026" per their recent messaging.
Team and Leadership
General Partners (GPs):
- Yasmin Cruz Ferrine - GP, former entrepreneur with deep understanding of underrepresented founder challenges
- Daniel Acheampong - GP, brings operational expertise and network
- Justin Kang - GP, focuses on portfolio support and founder success
Operations & Support:
- Hannah Griffin - Director of Platform Strategy & Operations (manages founder support infrastructure)
- Kerry Ingram - Director of Brand & Marketing
- Monica Roman - Chief of Staff, Investments
- Eli Ogues - Executive Assistant
The team composition itself reflects the firm's mission: a diverse leadership team that genuinely understands the founder experience of underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Decision Process and Involvement
Visible Hands operates with a partnership-based decision model:
- Decision-making: Partnership consensus among GPs (appears to be consensus-based rather than solo GP)
- Check authority: All checks require partnership approval due to fund size
- Lead tendency: The firm leads their pre-seed investments through fellowship programs
- Board involvement: Typically takes board seat or observer role to provide hands-on support
- Advisory depth: Board of Directors includes seasoned executives (Samantha Simmons from Spur Sports, Jessica Patton from 5th Century Partners, etc.)
- Founder support: Substantive operational involvement beyond capital - provides workshops, mentorship, wellness sessions, and bespoke support
Decision Timeline: Not explicitly stated, but fellowship-based model suggests 4-14 week decision cycles aligned with program cohorts.
Founder Preferences
Visible Hands explicitly targets:
- Founder Identity: Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ founders, and others historically overlooked by traditional VC
- Stage: Pre-seed founders with minimum viable product (MVP) or early customer validation
- Mindset: Founders with entrepreneurial resilience and coachability
- Location: Now distributed across US (formerly Boston-centric, now national with NYC expansion)
- Business Model: Broad openness - tech, tech-enabled, B2B, B2C all welcome
- Team Structure: No founder-type stereotype - solo founders to founding teams of 3+
The firm's messaging highlights: "Our founders have had to work harder. But the learning that comes from breaking institutional barriers is the same stuff that builds unicorns."
Warm Introductions and Access
Warm Introduction: Not strictly required but helpful
Primary Access Channels:
- Fellowship Applications: Open competitive applications (VHNYC, VHBOS, Blueprint: Tulsa)
- Grant Partnerships: Meta, AWS competitions that route to Visible Hands
- Founder Referrals: 10,000+ network of repeat builders and entrepreneurs
- Direct Outreach: [email protected]
Recent Fund Status
- Fund I Status: Actively deploying (closed June 2022, deploying through 2025-2026)
- Fund II Status: Not publicly announced (suggests Fund I still in deployment phase)
- Recent Activity: Latest documented investment March 12, 2025 (Spill)
- Messaging: "Doubling down on disciplined pre-seed investing" suggests ongoing Fund I deployment
Competitive Positioning
Visible Hands operates in a relatively uncrowded market:
- Fewer competitors: Most micro VCs and pre-seed funds avoid explicit diversity mandates
- Founder brand: Exceptional reputation for seeing and supporting overlooked talent
- Pattern matching advantage: GPs have lived experience of being overlooked (reduces unconscious bias)
- Value-add depth: Not just capital, but genuine founder support infrastructure
- Exit bias: Female founders in portfolio exit 11+ months faster (documented advantage)
Notable Exits and Follow-On Success
The firm has documented success in portfolio follow-ons:
- Hollow Games: Acquired by Take-Two Interactive (2024) - major exit for early pre-seed investor
- Velocity Studios: 25M+ downloads on mobile
- Prism Entertainment: Critically acclaimed indie RPG
- Parfait: Went from pre-seed to raising major follow-on rounds
These exits demonstrate that early identification of exceptional founders, not just diversity mandate, drives returns.
Mentorship and Ecosystem
Visible Hands has built an extensive ecosystem:
Board of Directors:
- Samantha Simmons (VP People & Culture at Spur Sports)
- Jessica Patton (Co-Founder at 5th Century Partners)
- Devin Nash (VP at Underscore VC)
- Ann Stanberry (EVP, Chief Strategy Officer at Liberty Mutual)
Advisory Committees:
- Talent Advisory Committee: 15+ members including executives from Salesforce, JPMorgan Chase, Indeed, HubSpot, Wayfair, etc.
- Product Advisory Committee: Curated for founder support
- Ecosystem Advisory Committee: Partners for non-dilutive funding and resources
- Portfolio Advisory Committee: GP peer mentorship
This infrastructure means founders get access to mentorship far beyond typical pre-seed checks.
Partnerships and Non-Dilutive Capital
Corporate Partners:
- Meta (fellowship routing, access to Meta's founder programs)
- AWS (grant competitions)
- NYCEDC (Venture Access NYC initiative for VHNYC)
- Various grant providers (Posse Foundation, MassChallenge, etc.)
Founders in Visible Hands fellowship programs can stack:
- $10,000 fellowship grant (non-dilutive)
- Meta/AWS grants
- Future $25-150K investment from VH
This capital stacking is unusual in pre-seed and attractive to early founders.
Investment Thesis Summary
Visible Hands' investment thesis can be summarized as:
"Exceptional founders from overlooked backgrounds can build unicorns if given capital, support, and belief at the right moment. We invest before institutional bias catches up, capturing outsized returns while advancing founder diversity."
The fund's returns come from:
- Pattern matching advantage: GPs see potential others miss due to founder identity
- Founder resilience: Underrepresented founders with barriers become more resilient founders
- Network effects: Being first to back creates founder loyalty and follow-on returns
- Market timing: Pre-seed investing before Series A/B VCs recognize companies
- Operational support: Active support increases founder success rates
Confidence Assessment
Based on website, portfolio analysis, team research, and public reporting:
- Thesis: 0.95 (explicitly stated and clearly articulated)
- Check Size: 0.85 (range clear from fellowship structure; may have variation)
- Stage Preferences: 0.98 (exclusively pre-seed, crystal clear)
- Fund Status: 0.90 (Fund I active, no Fund II announced yet)
- Portfolio Companies: 0.85 (60+ documented on website, some limited company info)
- Sector Tags: 0.90 (broad across sectors, no singular focus)
- Team: 0.95 (all team members documented with LinkedIn URLs)
- Geography: 0.90 (documented expansion from Boston to national)