Seattle’s newest early stage fund makes a bet on vertical AI startups

TheFounderVC (TFVC), a new early stage fund based in Seattle and San Francisco, announced the public launch Tuesday of its inaugural $5 million fund.

The firm is focused on “vertical AI” — startups building industry-specific products on top of increasingly powerful AI models. It’s led by a team that includes:

• Mia Lewin, founding partner based in Seattle, previously launched three startups including StyleGenome, which was acquired by Wayfair.
• Paul Longhenry, partner based in San Francisco, a longtime investor and former exec at Tapjoy, Pinpoint Predictive, and Bolt.
• Shail Kaveti, partner based in San Francisco, former Wayfair exec and Amazon senior manager, angel investor in Perplexity.
• Jay Bartot, founding CTO based in Seattle, founded multiple startups in the Seattle area and was previously managing director at Madrona Venture Labs.

In a LinkedIn post, Lewin said the biggest opportunities in AI are in applications that combine structural data advantages with workflow-native products and highly personalized user experiences. “We back visionary founders who combine deep domain expertise with an AI-native vision to build category leaders of tomorrow,” she wrote.

TFVC invests at the pre-seed and seed stage. It plans to make 25 to 30 investments, with initial check sizes of $100,000 to $250,000. TFVC said it has about 60 limited partners.

The firm invests across the U.S., but is deeply tied to Seattle: five of the fund’s seven portfolio companies have at least one founder based in Seattle. Those include Potato, which is automating science experiments; Liminary, an AI-powered knowledge storage company; Planette, which helps businesses plan for weather and climate risks; and Ridge AI, a data analytics dashboard startup.

Its portfolio also includes fashion AI startup Daydream and home-buying company Catchouse.