Foundation Capital
Foundation Capital was founded in 1995. As an early-stage venture capital firm, our fintech, enterprise, and consumer investments have reinvented industries and defined new markets. For over a quarter of a century—through boom and bust, prosperity or calamity—Foundation Capital has endured, evolved, and thrived, with over $3B assets under management, 34 IPOs and ICOs, and 80+ acquisitions to our name. Building companies is in our bones.
We back individuals who want to nudge the world ahead in some way, using a transformative business as their fulcrum. Great companies, like Apple or Amazon or Netflix, aren’t formed from code and corporate charters. They’re built on a foundation of dreams and desires; raised up through struggle and sacrifice. For such companies to succeed, the people who start and lead them have to want success badly. It has to come from the deepest part of them—a hunger to create something consequential, something lasting; a need to prove themselves, whether out of a sense of mission, or a yearning for significance, or a heart full for disobedience. We look for people who believe—even if they would never speak it out loud—that the purpose of life is to be briefly extraordinary.
Founders at Foundation Capital
We think that since the beginning of invention, humanity has advanced because the remarkable have pushed us forward. Because select women and men of their times have dared to think different, to build it better, to do what’s never been done. Across the ages, we’ve had many names for these people. Today, at Foundation Capital: we call them founders.
Learn more about Foundation Capital on LinkedIn.
AI Strategy Evolution
The enterprise AI market is evolving from path 1 to path 2:
Path 1: Automated workflows aka traditional automation
- Rule-based processes
- Manual data inputs
- Human oversight at every step
- Limited to structured data
Path 2: Systems of Agents (the future)
- Networks of specialized AI workers
- Real-time data capture and analysis
- Continuous learning from each interaction
- End-to-end business capabilities
Repetitive, rule-based tasks were the low-hanging fruit. Meaningful breakthroughs happen when we build systems that enhance human teams' capabilities.
External link for Foundation Capital: Foundation Capital
The Future of Supply Chain Software
Traditional supply chain software is leaving $1.6T on the table annually. The average company loses half a year's profit over a decade to disruptions. The core problem is fractured data across three systems:
- Communication tools run on unstructured data (emails, PDFs, scanned documents)
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems from the 1960s
- Multiple disconnected management systems (ERP, WMS, TMS)
This fragmentation cost market leaders:
- Tesla missed chip shortage warnings in emails, leading to 190,000 fewer vehicles in Q3 2021
- Walmart's legacy EDI system caused delays in their drop-shipping initiative
- Unilever saw 23% more stockouts and 17% higher excess inventory from poor ERP-WMS communication
Learn more about Foundation Capital on LinkedIn.
Reshaping Enterprise Expertise with AI
A provocative piece in the Harvard Business Review from industry experts charts how AI will reshape enterprise expertise and strategy. AI is raising the floor for everyone, benefitting lower-skilled workers significantly.
Discover the full analysis from Foundation Capital Partner Jaya Gupta: https://lnkd.in/gCJrPZ5g
Innovating in Digital Banking
The digital banking paradox: high volume, low value. Our Fintech team's latest analysis examines how banks can use generative AI to transform transactional touchpoints into deeper relationships.
Read the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/er4DBMA3
Advancing Healthcare with AI
Over 112 million Americans struggle to pay for healthcare. AI will help level the playing field in healthcare.
The Future of Data Solutions
The Open Data Lakes(ide) gathering at Foundation Capital brought together technical builders tackling massive-scale data challenges.
Foundation Capital General Partner Steve Vassallo and our friends at dltHub curated an evening focused on practical solutions for solving data problems, with powerful demonstrations from Alexander Butler (Harness), and others.
