byFounders

Backing those who define what's next.

The community powered VC of the New Nordics.

byFounders was built by a collective of founders who want to help the next generation of ambitious founders emerging from the New Nordics.

Invite us on board as your first investor, and we will be your trusted ally. This is when we can add the most value, and it's something we've done many times before with companies like Lovable, Verda, Sumary, Safetywing, Bob W, Parahelp, Corti, and many, many more. We will encourage, challenge, push, open doors, and serve as your sounding board. Day and night.

What that looks like day-to-day depends entirely on you. Our job is to support, not to control you. There's no set playbook, because no two founders need the same thing — but we'll always go above and beyond for you. Whatever you need, whenever you need it. That could be cold-DMing a candidate to close a hire. Sitting in as chief of staff for six months. Testing the product and telling you what's broken. Tearing apart your deck for the next funding round. Or staying out of the way, when that's your ask.

As a generalist tech fund, we don't hold a sector thesis. We go where the talent is, and we invest in people before ideas. What we're after is the history and the drive that explain why you keep going when things get tough. That's why we'd rather spend time on the hardest things you've been through than overanalyzing market sizing.

Being early also means being genuinely on the same side, so we don't stack the term sheet in our favor with a bunch of protective clauses. We sit in the same share class as you, so there's no version of the outcome where our interests and yours point in different directions. Our full term sheet is public, and we encourage you to read it to understand our approach.

Remember, it's never too early to start a conversation with us — though it can definitely be too late. Reach out, and let's start building our relationship.

Questions

Occasionally, when it makes sense. If another investor's competencies and network complement ours, we're glad to bring them along.

It depends, but our process typically runs 2–4 weeks.

We use our 8T framework. It structures how we think about your company and the opportunity it represents. It isn't a checklist you need to tick off, but we encourage you to consider how you'd address each T. Read more

We've removed almost all downside protection in our term sheet and published it online. Read our term sheet

Our community is our portfolio founders, our core team, and the byFounders Collective: 35+ of the most accomplished founders, operators, and angels in the New Nordics. We selected them for their competencies, their networks, and their desire to give back to the ecosystems that made them. They work directly with our portfolio companies wherever they add the most value — advising on strategy, hosting workshops, coaching, opening their networks, sometimes taking a board seat on our behalf. They also help our core team, bringing us companies and helping us evaluate the ones in their areas of expertise. All of them have pledged to contribute, and many have invested in the fund themselves. Several are active angels who invest alongside us. Our interests and yours point the same direction.

Why we invested in Cota Robotics

The real bottleneck in physical AI is operating robots reliably, at economics that work. Cota Robotics is building that layer, starting with overnight retail.

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