Founders' Co-op
Seattle seed-stage venture firm founded in 2008, positioning itself as the Pacific Northwest's leading first-check investor for ambitious technical founding teams. Fund VI closed at $50M in November 2025 (matching Fund V), targeting roughly 30 companies with average initial checks of $1M–$1.5M and ~10% ownership at first investment. Portfolio includes Remitly, Outreach, and Auth0 (Okta acquisition).
Typical check size
$250K-$3M (stage-based estimate)
Founded
2008
Headquarters
Seattle, WA
AUM
N/A
Rounds they lead
Pre-Seed
Seed
Rounds they invest
Pre-Seed
Seed
Series A
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FAQs about Founders' Co-op
Stage fit, check size, thesis, and how founders typically approach this firm — based on public sources and our directory.
Seattle, Washington. The firm backs Pacific Northwest founders — roughly 80–90% of investments stay in-region per 2025 fund announcements.
Fund VI targets $1M–$1.5M average first checks, with a practical range from about $250K (pre-seed support) to $2M for seed rounds (GeekWire, Nov 2025).
Pre-seed and seed, often pre-product or pre-revenue. The firm reserves capital for follow-ons in breakout portfolio companies.
Generalist within technical B2B — enterprise SaaS, fintech, and cloud infrastructure are common, but the firm emphasizes founder quality over vertical mandates.
$50M, closed November 2025 — same size as Fund V (2021). The firm deliberately keeps fund size modest so it can lead first checks rather than compete on AUM.
Founders' Co-op created and led Techstars Seattle for over a decade. It is a venture fund, not a batch accelerator program today.
Apply via founderscoop.com with a technical team story and enterprise problem thesis. The partnership is two GPs (Chris DeVore and Aviel Ginzburg) — no associate gatekeeping.
Founders' Co-op is the specialist first institutional check at seed; Madrona can participate from day one but often shows up at larger seed or Series A with more reserves. Many PNW companies start with Founders' Co-op.