Sectors:
Locations:
Min Investment:
Max Investment:
Target Investment:
Computer Science
Total Funding: $150M
Total Funding: $60M
Total Funding: $11M
Total Funding: $170M
Total Funding: $2M
Total Funding: $23M
Total Funding: $120M
Total Funding: $340M
Total Funding: $67M
Total Funding: $80M
2012
2014
Spark Capital is an early stage venture capital firm. We invest in phenomenal products we love and the creative humans behind them. We do things a little differently and aren't afraid of risk. Spark-backed companies include Twitter, Discord, Anthropic, Cruise, Niantic, Oculus, Warby Parker, and tumblr. I joined in 2012, founded the west coast office, and have led early investments and/or sit on the board of Discord, Postmates (acquired by Uber), Sonder (IPO), Cruise (acquired by GM), Adept AI, Capella Space, Descript, Instawork, Zum, AllStripes, Sonera, Standard Metrics, Wild Type, Particle, Harmonix (acquired by Epic Games), Proletariat (acquired by Activision), and North (acquired by Google). My primary drive is being in service to founders on the search for new markets. There are plenty of investors focused on implementing playbooks, I study what it takes for truly risky, new, interesting things to create new markets. I tend to look for products in which the underlying technology or systems can be extremely complex, but are presented as a simple, magical experience to the people who use them. That rare mix of design and technology.
2012 - 2014
Am I really sure I want to be a VC?
2016
2016
We led a round into Discord a few months after the product launched, when they had a few thousand users.
2016
2016
We led the Series A into Sonder, at the time it was called Flatbook and operating just in Montreal. $2.2b IPO in 2022.
2014 - 2020
2014 - 2020
We invested when Postmates was ~10 employees and I served on the board for six years. Acquired by Uber that closed at $5b in 2020, awful lot happened in between.
2015 - 2016
2015 - 2016
We led the Series A a few weeks after their first private demo of a fully autonomous driving system. Acquired by GM for over $1b, then spun back out, now valued over $30b.
2010 - 2012
2010 - 2012
Early stage through IPO. Headed up a studio, built and launched Indiana Jones' Adventure World, which Kutaku called "an actually fun social game", the highest ARPU Zynga title that year, and reached over 60m users.
2007 - 2010
2007 - 2010
Founding through exit. Early OG social gaming company. Building live, synchronous, music social spaces and games. Acquired by Zynga.
2001 - 2005
2001 - 2005
Co-founded. A spin-out from the MIT Media Lab, we built a consumer hardware startup that sold "internet information" devices everywhere from the Museum of Modern Art to Best Buy to Radioshack. Well loved products, but ultimately never broke through to the mainstream. Named as one of the Ideas of the Year in NY Times Magazine, 2003.
1999 - 2001
1999 - 2001
Early through exit / IPO. Online sports media rollup (today you would call it a blog network). Started as soccerspot, rolled-up into internetsoccer, rolled into IPO as Teamtalk plc in 2001, then acquired by bSkyb in 2007. Teamtalk was the most trafficked sports site in the UK and much of western europe, and managed content for FIFA, MLS, and other leagues. Oversaw product and operations.