Sarah Smith Fund

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Jan 7, 2026 ·

About

The Sarah Smith Fund is a pre-seed and seed fund that invests $250K+ into founder CEOs, focusing on building trusting relationships and providing operational expertise.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Nov 1, 2025	Muse Software	$5.0M Seed	—	Banana Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Davidovs VC, Foundry Group, Kepler Operator’s Fund, LAUNCH, Resolute Ventures, Roo Partners, Stellar Capital, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Trust Fund, Bobby Goodlatte, David J. Phillips, Diego Oppenheimer, Roger Dickey
Oct 1, 2025	Supermemory	$3.0M Seed	—	Banana Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Browder Capital, Davidovs VC, Foundry Group, Kepler Operator’s Fund, LAUNCH, Resolute Ventures, Roo Partners, Stellar Capital, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Trust Fund, Bobby Goodlatte, David J. Phillips, Diego Oppenheimer, Roger Dickey
Sep 1, 2025	Howie	$6.0M Seed	—	99VC, Banana Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Davidovs VC, Foundry Group, Kepler Operator’s Fund, LAUNCH, Resolute Ventures, Roo Partners, Stellar Capital, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Trust Fund, Bobby Goodlatte, David J. Phillips, Diego Oppenheimer, Roger Dickey, Siqi Chen
Jun 1, 2025	Clidey	$500K Seed	—	SeedInvest, Y Combinator
Feb 1, 2025	Comulate	$20.0M Series B	—	Bond, Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mischief Venture Capital, Parallax Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Sharin Fisher Dibrov
Feb 1, 2025	Alloy	$2.0M Seed	—	Air Street Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Bond, Brand Foundry Ventures, Greylock, Menlo Ventures, Mischief Venture Capital, Picus Capital, TQ Ventures, Don MacAskill, Gideon Valkin, Neha Narkhede
Feb 1, 2025	Archive	$30.0M Series B	—	9Yards Capital, Acrew Capital, Energize Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Greylock, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Long Journey Ventures, Operator Collective, Andrew Jones, JD Ross, Karim Atiyeh, Sam Corcos, Steven Alan
Dec 1, 2024	Vooma	$14.0M Series A	—	Craft Ventures, General Catalyst, Lainy, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Oct 1, 2024	Highlight	$10.0M Seed	—	Craft Ventures, General Catalyst, Lainy
Oct 1, 2024	Sapien	$11.0M Seed	—	Accel, Aleph VC, Alumni Ventures, Bam Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Betaworks Ventures, Browder Capital, Coatue, Company Capital, Corner Ventures, Craft Ventures, Davidovs VC, Divergence Ventures, First Round Capital, Frontline Ventures, General Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Haystack, Kamran Ansari, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Insight Partners, Intuit Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Lainy, LGF, LocalGlobe, MMC Ventures, NEO, Next Play Capital, Otherwise Fund, Point Nine Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Seedcamp, Seguin Ventures, SOSV, SRB Ventures, Stellar Capital, Stride VC, Vera Equity, Vibe Capital, Bartek Pucek, Charlie Songhurst, Harsh Sinha, Julia Kagan, Karim Atiyeh, Max Mullen, Ron Pragides, Sahil Lavingia, Scott Banister, Siqi Chen, Sri Batchu, Tekin Salimi, Tikhon Bernstam, Youcef Es-skouri, Zander Lurie
Sep 1, 2024	DubClub	$8.0M Series A	—	Kevin Hartz, Lakestar, Manresa Ventures, Renegade Partners, Emily Chiu, Julia Hartz, Louis Beryl, Omri Dahan, William Hockey
Aug 1, 2024	Pylon	$17.0M Series A	—	Andreessen Horowitz, ARCH Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Conversion Capital, Conviction Partners, Craft Ventures, Daffy, Endure Capital, Fifth Wall, FINTOP Capital, Fort Ross Ventures, Founders Fund, F-Prime Capital Partners, FTAC Ventures, FTX Ventures, General Catalyst, Lainy, Lux Capital, Mubadala, QED Investors, Ravelin Capital, The Hit Forge, Village Global, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Eoghan McCabe, Karim Atiyeh, Scott Belsky
Jul 1, 2024	Slope	$15.0M Venture Round	—	Alt Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, C2 Investment, Conviction Partners, General Catalyst, Greylock, Index Ventures, Kepler Operator’s Fund, Lerer Hippeau, QED Investors, Saga, Village Global, Y Combinator, Rob Bernshteyn, Sahil Lavingia
Apr 1, 2024	Edia Learning	$9.0M Series A	—	9Yards Capital, Acrew Capital, Energize Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Greylock, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Long Journey Ventures, Operator Collective, Andrew Jones, Karim Atiyeh, Sam Corcos, Steven Alan
Mar 1, 2024	Grupago	$4.0M Seed	—	Craft Ventures, Deciens Capital, General Catalyst, Lainy, Paul Sawaya
Mar 1, 2024	InStride Health	$30.0M Series B	—	Bain Capital Ventures, General Catalyst, Lerer Hippeau, Y Combinator
Dec 1, 2023	Essential AI	$57.0M Series A	—	Amplify Partners, Benchmark, Bling Capital, BoxGroup, Caffeinated Capital, CITG Capital, Coatue, Conviction Partners, CRV, Founder Collective, Franklin Templeton Investments, Freestyle Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Inspired Capital, March Capital, Matrix, Presence Capital, SNR, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Aaron Harris, Eric Wu, Evan Lee, Joshua Reeves, Mei Z., Michael Birch, Othman Laraki, Scott Belsky
Sep 1, 2023	Slope	$30.0M Series A	—	Abstract Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Alt Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, C2 Investment, Conviction Partners, Crowberry Capital, Felix Capital, Female Founders Fund, foobar.vc, Framework Ventures, General Catalyst, Global Founders Capital, Gradient Ventures, Greycroft, Greylock, GSV Acceleration, Index Ventures, Kepler Operator’s Fund, Lerer Hippeau, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Long Journey Ventures, Luminar Ventures, Lux Capital, Maven Ventures, monashees, Motier Ventures, Niu Ventures, Pantera Capital, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, QED Investors, Saga, Sarona Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Sweater Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Village Global, Y Combinator, Aaron Levie, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Charles Gorintin, Charlie Cheever, Christina Cacioppo, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Eric Wu, Frederic Kerrest, Jawed Karim, Jean Charles Samuelian, Jeremy Yap, John Collison, Julia Hartz, Mark Cuban, Mathilde Collin, Nicolas Brusson, Rob Bernshteyn, Romain Niccoli, Sahil Lavingia, Sam Altman, Stanley Tang, Tim Griffin, Tobias Lutke, William Hockey
Sep 1, 2023	Mentra	$4.0M Seed	—	9Yards Capital, Acrew Capital, Brewer Lane Ventures, C2 Investment, Coatue, Collaborative Seed & Growth Partners, DNX Ventures, Drummond Road Capital, eFounders, Electric Capital, Energize Ventures, Felicis Ventures, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital, Greylock, Highbury Group, Index Ventures, LGF, Lightspeed Venture Partners, LombardStreet Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, New Stack Ventures, Operator Collective, Otherwise Fund, Sherpalo Ventures, Shine Capital, The Hit Forge, Third Kind Ventures, Andrew Jones, Christian Reber, Elad Gil, J.D. Fagan, JD Ross, Karim Atiyeh, Matt Macinnis, Mike Vernal, Sam Corcos, Scott Belsky, Steven Alan, Thibaud Elziere
Sep 1, 2023	Bandana	$4.0M Seed	—	Alt Capital, Ardent Venture Partners, Blossom Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Craft Ventures, Engineering Capital, Expa, General Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Graduate Entrepreneur, Lainy, LGF, Jared Hecht, NextView Ventures, Presight Capital, QED Investors, SeedInvest, Sound Ventures, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Aaron Levie, Adrian Aoun, Chad Nitschke, Dylan Field, Eddie Hartman, Eric Wu, Gokul Rajaram, Gordon Wintrob, Jenna Hannon, Kevin Lin, Saturnin Pugnet, Scott Belsky, Steve Chen, Vivek Patel
Aug 1, 2023	Creatify AI	$3.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Atomico, Basis Set Ventures, DCM, Joe Kraus, Infinite Niches, Nokia Growth Partners, Hans Tung, Primitive Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Ed Baker, Gabriel Jarrosson, Josh Mohrer, Rashaun Williams
Aug 1, 2023	Birdstop	$2.0M Venture Round	—	Bain Capital Ventures, Data Tech Fund, General Catalyst, Lerer Hippeau, Morpheus Ventures, WGI Group, Y Combinator
Aug 1, 2023	Rightfoot	$15.0M Series A	—	Kevin Hartz, Coinbase Ventures, Greylock, Jett Fein, Lakestar, Manresa Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Renegade Partners, XYZ Venture Capital, Akshay Kothari, Brandon Leonardo, Emily Chiu, Julia Hartz, Louis Beryl, Max Mullen, Omri Dahan, William Hockey
Jul 1, 2023	Pylon	$3.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, ARCH Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Conversion Capital, Craft Ventures, Daffy, Endure Capital, Fifth Wall, Founders Fund, F-Prime Capital Partners, FTAC Ventures, FTX Ventures, General Catalyst, Lainy, Lux Capital, Mubadala, QED Investors, Ravelin Capital, The Hit Forge, Village Global, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Eoghan McCabe, Karim Atiyeh, Scott Belsky
May 1, 2023	Essential AI	$8.0M Seed	—	Amplify Partners, Battery Ventures, Benchmark, Bling Capital, BoxGroup, Caffeinated Capital, CITG Capital, Coatue, Conviction Partners, CRV, Founder Collective, Franklin Templeton Investments, Freestyle Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Greylock, Inspired Capital, Matrix, Presence Capital, SNR, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Aaron Harris, Bob Muglia, Eric Wu, Evan Lee, Joshua Reeves, Michael Birch, Othman Laraki, Scott Belsky

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Sarah Smith Fund.

Sarah Smith

General Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at Sarah Smith Fund.

Sarah Smith

General Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Sarah Smith Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2022 by Sarah Smith, a solo general partner with deep ties to the Stanford University ecosystem. The fund invests primarily in pre-seed and seed-stage technology startups, focusing on founder quality and product vision rather than chasing trends. While sector-agnostic, it leans towards companies benefiting from artificial intelligence and operational leverage. The fund operates with a lean, AI-native model that enables rapid decision-making and deep founder support, positioning itself as a next-generation solo GP fund. Its portfolio spans future-of-work, marketplaces, fintech, and developer tools, with investments typically ranging from $100K to $250K+ and a strong emphasis on startups connected to Stanford[1][2][3][6].

Origin Story

Sarah Smith launched the fund in late 2022 after a seven-year tenure at Bain Capital Ventures and extensive experience at companies like Meta/Facebook, Quora, and BCG. A Stanford alumna, she built the fund around the university’s innovation ecosystem, which she regards as the most fertile ground globally for unicorn creation. Initially starting with a Rolling Fund structure on AngelList, she raised $3 million before transitioning to a traditional $16 million Fund I, which closed in mid-2025. Smith’s solo GP approach leverages AI to scale portfolio management and founder engagement efficiently, reflecting her belief that early-stage investing can be best done solo with the right technology and discipline[1][3][4][6].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Solo GP fund leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity and founder support, enabling rapid, precise decision-making without a large team.
Network Strength: Deep integration with the Stanford community, with about half the portfolio founders affiliated with Stanford, tapping into a top global innovation hub.
Track Record: Early success with 17 investments in Fund I and a focus on backing "irrationally intense" founder CEOs with strong technical teams.
Operating Support: Provides founder CEOs with unique resources such as CEO 360 Reviews and People Operations Office Hours, fostering close, personalized relationships via Slack and WhatsApp.
Sector Focus: Sector-agnostic but with a strategic emphasis on AI-enabled startups and operational leverage, spanning future-of-work, fintech, marketplaces, and developer tools[1][2][3][4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Sarah Smith Fund rides the wave of AI-driven transformation in venture capital and startup ecosystems. Its timing is critical as AI tools unlock new efficiencies for solo GPs, allowing smaller funds to compete with larger firms by scaling support and portfolio size effectively. The fund’s focus on the Stanford ecosystem leverages a proven source of high-value innovation and unicorn creation, aligning with market forces favoring early-stage AI-native startups. By emphasizing founder intensity and technical excellence, the fund influences the broader ecosystem by championing a new model of venture investing that combines institutional rigor with personal engagement and AI augmentation[1][4][6].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Sarah Smith Fund is poised to expand its portfolio within the Stanford and broader Bay Area ecosystem, continuing to back AI-enabled startups and founder-driven innovation. Trends such as AI augmentation in venture capital, increased solo GP models, and founder-centric operational support will shape its trajectory. The fund’s influence may grow as it demonstrates the viability of AI-native solo GP funds, potentially inspiring similar models and further democratizing early-stage venture capital. Its commitment to deep founder relationships and operational excellence positions it well to identify and nurture the next generation of breakout startups[1][4][6].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Solo GP fund leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity and founder support, enabling rapid, precise decision-making without a large team.
Network Strength: Deep integration with the Stanford community, with about half the portfolio founders affiliated with Stanford, tapping into a top global innovation hub.
Track Record: Early success with 17 investments in Fund I and a focus on backing "irrationally intense" founder CEOs with strong technical teams.
Operating Support: Provides founder CEOs with unique resources such as CEO 360 Reviews and People Operations Office Hours, fostering close, personalized relationships via Slack and WhatsApp.
Sector Focus: Sector-agnostic but with a strategic emphasis on AI-enabled startups and operational leverage, spanning future-of-work, fintech, marketplaces, and developer tools[1][2][3][4].