Standard Capital
The AI-native Series A firm.
Series A for the best founders.
Fundraising is distracting. At best.
Great founders spend their time on important things like writing code and talking to customers, not doing investor “coffee dates,” or slogging through months of non-deterministic fundraising processes. A fast “no” is not the worst outcome in an investor discussion. Rather, wasting time on an investor that seems interested but ends up passing after months of back-and-forth is actively harmful to a startup.
The best founders value their own equity and understand that the Series A is often the highest dilution round in their company’s history. Holding your equity close, maintaining board control, and raising more dollars in later rounds are often the best strategies for a fast-growing startup. Founder control doesn’t happen by accident: Facebook sold ~12% of the company in its Series A, and Mark Zuckerberg owned 28.2% at the IPO.
Great founders have heard the horror stories about what can happen with board members. They don’t want a boss. The best founders understand the best advice and support will come from peers they respect.
We created Standard Capital to serve the best founders.
An Overview of Standard Capital
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Standard Capital leads Series A rounds in the top post-PMF companies.
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Standard Capital makes investment decisions via a fast application + interview process. Any startup can apply on our website and get a quick decision, no warm intro needed.
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When filling out the Standard Capital application, founders specify how much money they want to raise and name their own (reasonable) valuation. A lead investment from Standard Capital requires only 10% ownership.
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Standard Capital provides standardized documents so that founders know exactly what the terms are before they apply. Standard Capital does not charge portfolio companies for our legal fees.
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Standard Capital does not take board seats. Instead of board meetings, Standard portfolio companies are invited to quarterly in-person group meetings in SF with other portfolio founders. We believe that the best advice and support for post-PMF companies will come from other top founders.
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Once a year, Standard Capital will re-sort the small groups of portfolio companies to best match companies with similar levels of traction that are best suited to learn and support from each other.
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Standard Capital will invest in ~5 companies per cycle four times a year. Standard Capital isn’t a program with a start and end date. Instead, portfolio founders will continue to be supported via office hours and quarterly group meetings for the life of their company.
What people are saying
Portfolio
A few of the companies in the Standard Capital founder community.
Weave
Weave shows you the ROI of every AI dollar, benchmarked against thousands of engineering orgs
Insight Health
AI Clinical Agents for end-to-end care delivery
Andromeda Surgical
Autonomous robots to make surgery safe, easier and more efficient.
Magic Patterns
Magic Patterns is an AI design tool to go from idea to production.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I know if I am ready for a Series A from Standard Capital?
We are interested in funding companies that already have product-market fit in some form. Different types of startups have different definitions of product market fit, but in summary we are looking for companies that have already made something people want. We are happy to consider companies with less than $1M ARR. Growth rate and market opportunity are the most important things we are looking for, rather than absolute numbers.
- Is there a downside to applying if I might not be ready?
We encourage founders to apply to Standard Capital even if they are not 100% sure they are ready for 2 reasons: first, it can be useful to go through the application process as a way of clarifying your thinking and increases your Series A preparedness, and second, a company that applies to Standard Capital across multiple cycles has a higher likelihood of being funded by us if we can see consistent progress and improvement in the business across multiple cycles.
- I am applying to Standard Capital, what valuation should I choose?
Think of your chosen valuation as the “bar” for acceptance: the higher the valuation, the higher the bar by which you’ll be measured. A regret minimization framework could be helpful here: at what valuation does the regret of not being accepted by Standard Capital outweigh the regret of not choosing a higher valuation?
It’s worth considering that comparing a Standard Capital valuation to a traditional VC offer is not apples-to-apples: an offer where a founder doesn’t give up a board seat, gives just 10% to the lead investor, and includes entry into the Standard Capital network is about more than just money. If a founder is solely optimizing for the highest possible valuation and is ambivalent about the other terms, Standard Capital is likely not the best fit.
- Can I apply outside of a funding cycle?
Yes. We will consider applications outside of funding cycles on a case-by-case basis.
- Are you only for post-PMF companies?
Yes. Standard is designed for companies that already have product-market fit and are raising to scale—not to search.
- How does Standard Capital use AI?
A significant amount of work done at a VC firm involves research, analysis, and crafting memos. These are just the sort of tasks AI is good (and rapidly getting better) at.
- Who sets the terms?
Founders do. You propose the round; we provide feedback and move quickly if there’s a fit.
- How much ownership do you target?
We take a minimum of 10% post-close equity and are open to 20% if founders want a larger lead.
- Can founders add other investors to a Standard Series A round?
Yes, if founders want to add additional investors to the round being led by Standard, they are free to do so.
- What documents will govern Standard Capital’s investment?
Standard Capital uses a set of published, standard documents for all investments. You can review the documents and download them at our docs page.
- Will you take a board seat?
No. We intentionally replace board seats with cohorts + group office hours to deliver structured help to startups without needing to take a board seat.
In addition, the Standard Capital partners are available to hold office hours on an as-needed basis.
- What does “group office hours” look like?
It’s a lot like a board meeting, but with founder peers rather than board members. The group office hours format is also a key part of the Y Combinator program and was originally created by Paul Buchheit.
- Who are the partners?
Paul Buchheit (Gmail creator, YC Partner, original investor in OpenAI), Dalton Caldwell (long-time YC Managing Partner), and Bryan Berg (early Stripe infrastructure/security).
- Do I need to live in the Bay Area?
The quarterly group office hours are held in person in San Francisco. Portfolio founders aren’t required to live in SF full-time, but it’s helpful for all of our founders to visit at least once a quarter. The Standard partners and other portfolio founders will provide a great network in SF.
- How do I contact Standard Capital?
If you’re interested in applying to Standard Capital, use our application form. For questions about the application process itself, or if you’ve run into a problem submitting an application, you can email us at apply@standardcap.com. We’re not able to accept applications submitted via email.