Investor profile
Compound
VC
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Analyse your fitInvestment thesis
Compound is a thesis-driven, research-centric investment firm focused on early-stage ventures across deeply technical and science-driven areas — most notably AI/ML, Robotics, Biology, and Crypto. The firm's mission is to help founders solve previously unsolvable technical problems, communicate breakthroughs to the world, and scale commercialization, leveraging a team of investors, researchers, and operators with deep domain expertise. Compound's investment philosophy centers on backing 'n-of-1' opportunities: early movers to fundamental breakthroughs and 'Final Movers' who understand the limits of existing consensus approaches and take more sophisticated, contrarian technological bets. The firm deliberately deploys capital during periods of low industry consensus, seeking asymmetric risk in underappreciated categories, and publishes its research theses openly to connect with the founders it wants to back.
Notable quotes
“Our core competency at Compound is not necessarily an ability to pick the best company in a crowded, overfunded area, but instead to notice 'n-of-1' approaches or company types that are underappreciated or could be special for a variety of reasons.”
“Venture is in many ways about survival, so time and progress also continues to validate our mission of building a world class venture firm and portfolio while continuing to improve our ability to manage the complexities of deploying capital amongst cycles of low industry consensus.”
“I think I wasn't vibes based... companies need to think about value capture properly and competitive dynamics, and it's not just about doing fast ARR and expecting it to stick around.”
Team
David Hirsch
General Partner
0xSmac
Partner
Shelby Newsad
Partner
Mackenzie Morehead
Researcher
John Palmer
Venture Partner - Crypto
Recent investments
| Company | Round | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runway | Seed | — | — |
| Wayve | Series A | $200m | 2022-01-01 |
| Deepgram | Seed | — | — |
| The Graph | Seed | — | — |
| Arbitrum | Seed | — | — |
| Dapper Labs | Seed | — | — |
| Orbital Materials | Series B | — | 2024-01-01 |
| Prime Intellect | Seed | — | 2024-01-01 |
| Fort Robotics | Series A | — | — |
| Culture Biosciences | Seed | — | — |
Frequent co-investors
| VC firm | Deals together |
|---|---|
| Union Square Ventures | 5 |
| Paradigm | 4 |
| Electric Capital | 4 |
| Andreessen Horowitz | 3 |
| Balderton Capital | 3 |
| Blockchain Capital | 3 |
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