Investor profile
Cowboy Ventures
VC
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Cowboy Ventures is a purpose-built seed fund that backs the most promising pre-seed and seed-stage, US-based, software-driven companies. The firm invests in enterprise and consumer-oriented startups across AI, fintech, software infrastructure, security, vertical SaaS, healthcare, and the future of work — with roughly 70% of investments made before a product exists. Cowboy leads or co-leads seed rounds (typically $1–5M) and reserves capital for follow-on at Series A and beyond. Cowboy backs founders with a unique insight into solving an important business problem in a potentially large and growing market. Their product may replace incumbent software or an existing business process with a measurably better, tech-driven solution, or create an entirely new category. The team takes a hands-on, founder-first approach — rolling up their sleeves on recruiting, GTM, fundraising, and product strategy — and aims to prove that being great at venture and being a thoughtful human being are not mutually exclusive.
Notable quotes
“We're not a social impact fund, but we get out of bed every day a little bit excited to prove that you can be great at this job and also be a thoughtful human being at the same time.”
“We'll continue to invest in founders who have a unique insight into solving an important business problem in a potentially large and growing market. Our team has built a specialty partnering at the 'pre-product' stage (~70% of our prior investments) with many founders coming to us with design mock-ups and sketches before any code has been written.”
“I was drawn to Cowboy by a shared ethos: they are a collaborative team deeply committed to the craft of venture. At a time when hype cycles and heat chasing abound, they've built their reputation on high-conviction, non-consensus bets backed by rigorous analysis and sector expertise.”
Team
Rohan Puranik
Principal and Chief of Staff
Ted Wang
Board Partner
Kathy Huang
Investor
Donna Boyer
Executive-in-Residence
Recent investments
| Company | Round | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basata | Series A | $21m | 2026-05-08 |
| Petual | Seed | $20m | 2026-04-23 |
| Standard Kernel | Seed | $20m | 2026-03-12 |
| Drata | Seed | — | 2020-01-01 |
| Guild Education | Seed | — | 2015-01-01 |
| Homebase | Seed | — | 2016-01-01 |
| Dollar Shave Club | Seed | — | 2012-01-01 |
| Vic.ai | Seed | — | 2017-01-01 |
| Ironclad | Seed | — | 2017-01-01 |
| Mutiny | Seed | — | 2019-01-01 |
Frequent co-investors
| VC firm | Deals together |
|---|---|
| Andreessen Horowitz | 8 |
| First Round Capital | 6 |
| Kleiner Perkins | 5 |
| Sequoia Capital | 4 |
| Y Combinator | 4 |
| Khosla Ventures | 3 |
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