Not Boring Capital
ActiveVenture Capital
Updated: ·
Financial History
Total Raised
N/A
Valuation
N/A
Leadership Team
Key people at Not Boring Capital.
Key people at Not Boring Capital.
Key people at Not Boring Capital.
# Not Boring Capital: The Media-Backed Venture Fund Redefining Early-Stage Investing
Not Boring Capital is a media-first venture capital firm founded by Packy McCormick that merges content creation with early-stage investing.[2] The firm operates on a distinctive thesis: that stories shape strategy, and the best investments are those with compelling narratives worth amplifying to a broad audience.[3] Rather than competing as a traditional mega-fund, Not Boring Capital deploys capital through small, nimble funds focused on Seed through Series B companies, with occasional pre-seed and growth-stage investments.[2]
The firm's investment philosophy centers on backing "worldbuilders"—founders executing unconventional, non-obvious strategies toward ambitious visions.[5] Not Boring Capital invests primarily in fintech, AI, health tech, and software, with a particular emphasis on companies pursuing disruptive business models.[1] What sets the firm apart is its dual mandate: not only to identify high-potential companies but to help tell their stories through the Not Boring Substack publication, which reaches a large, engaged audience of technology enthusiasts and investors.[1] This creates a flywheel where media amplification drives awareness, credibility, and follow-on investment opportunities.
Not Boring Capital emerged from Packy McCormick's evolution as a technology analyst and writer. McCormick founded the Not Boring Substack publication in 2019, establishing himself as a thoughtful voice analyzing ambitious technology companies and fostering optimism about innovation.[1][5] The venture investing component began organically: McCormick launched the Not Boring Syndicate in 2020, deploying approximately $4 million across twenty companies through AngelList syndication.[2] This proved successful enough to warrant formalization.
In 2021, McCormick raised $8 million for Not Boring Capital Fund I, anchored by Thrive Capital, a firm McCormick had long admired.[2][5] The fund was structured deliberately small—not as a constraint, but as a strategic advantage. Rather than raising a $50 million fund and competing for allocation in large rounds, McCormick opted for rapid deployment cycles, raising $8-9 million funds every 9-12 months.[2] By 2023, the firm had scaled to raise $30 million for Fund II, demonstrating strong LP confidence in the model.[5] As of the most recent data, Not Boring Capital has made over 100 investments with 8 exits, establishing a meaningful track record in early-stage venture.[5]
Not Boring Capital operates as what McCormick calls "the world's smallest multi-stage fund."[2] Rather than deploying large checks to maintain meaningful ownership percentages, the firm targets 80+ deals per fund at approximately $100,000 per investment, with average checks growing to $175,000-$290,000 as the firm matures.[2][4] This approach allows the firm to move faster than larger competitors, winning allocation in deals it wants and maintaining dry powder for follow-ons through SPVs and future funds.[2]
The integration of the Not Boring Substack publication—which reaches tens of thousands of subscribers—creates a unique value proposition. Portfolio companies gain access to an engaged, high-quality audience for storytelling and recruitment. This media amplification becomes particularly valuable for early-stage companies struggling to build brand awareness, creating a tangible operating benefit beyond capital.[1][3]
The fund manager brings deep experience from over 50 prior investments across North America and Europe, with notable exits including multi-billion dollar acquisitions.[1] This background enables data-driven deal sourcing and hands-on support for portfolio companies, fostering innovation and sustainable growth rather than passive capital deployment.[1]
Not Boring Capital explicitly targets founders building unconventional solutions to complex problems—companies with unique narratives and disruptive potential.[1][2] This clarity attracts aligned founders and allows the firm to maintain a high bar despite high deal volume.
Not Boring Capital sits at the intersection of several powerful trends reshaping venture capital. First, it represents a reaction against mega-fund consolidation: as traditional VCs raise increasingly large funds, smaller, specialized vehicles are proving more nimble and effective at early-stage deployment. Not Boring's model demonstrates that smaller funds can generate strong returns through higher deal volume, better follow-on participation, and faster decision-making.
Second, the firm capitalizes on the professionalization of angel investing and syndication. By formalizing what began as AngelList syndication into a structured fund, McCormick tapped into demand from LPs seeking exposure to early-stage tech without the overhead of traditional venture infrastructure.
Third, Not Boring Capital exemplifies the blurring of media and venture capital. As information asymmetries in tech investing narrow, the ability to tell compelling stories and reach influential audiences becomes a genuine competitive advantage. The firm's Substack publication—which analyzes technology trends and company strategies—serves as both content and deal sourcing engine, creating a virtuous cycle where editorial credibility drives investment opportunities.
Finally, the firm's focus on AI, fintech, and health tech positions it at the center of the most capital-intensive innovation trends of the 2020s. By maintaining conviction in these sectors while staying early and nimble, Not Boring Capital captures outsized returns during periods of rapid market expansion.
Not Boring Capital has cracked a code that many venture firms struggle with: how to remain intellectually rigorous and mission-driven while scaling capital deployment. By refusing to chase mega-fund status and instead optimizing for speed, storytelling, and follow-on participation, the firm has built a sustainable model that aligns incentives between founders, LPs, and the broader ecosystem.
Looking ahead, the firm's trajectory will likely follow several paths. Fund size will probably continue to grow modestly—McCormick has signaled that average check sizes are increasing and follow-on participation is rising, suggesting the firm is finding its optimal scale without abandoning its core thesis.[4] Sector focus will likely deepen in AI and fintech, where the firm has demonstrated conviction and where capital deployment remains robust. The media-venture integration will deepen, potentially inspiring other VCs to build content operations or creating opportunities for Not Boring to become a platform for founder storytelling.
The broader significance is this: Not Boring Capital proves that venture capital doesn't require massive fund sizes or traditional institutional structures to generate strong returns. Instead, clarity of thesis, speed of execution, and genuine value-add through storytelling and operator support can outperform capital-heavy approaches. In an era where information travels instantly and founder optionality is high, this model may represent the future of early-stage venture—smaller, faster, and more intellectually honest than the mega-fund paradigm that has dominated the past decade.
