Helen Boniske, Partner at Lemnos VC, San Francisco, CA — Helen Zelman Boniske is the Co-Founder and Partner at Lemnos VC. See sector focus and contact routes.
Helen Zelman Boniske is the Co-Founder and Partner at Lemnos VC, an early-stage venture capital firm in San Francisco that she established in 2011 to address funding gaps for physical product startups. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and previously worked five seasons in the front office of the Arizona Diamondbacks before launching the firm. Her investment thesis targets pre-seed and seed stages in robotics, aerospace, AI hardware, advanced manufacturing, IoT, and sustainable technology, with a geographic focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle/Portland, and Colorado/Utah. Typical check sizes range from $500,000 to $1.3 million, with a sweet spot around $750,000, and she often leads or closely follows early hardware deals. Notable portfolio companies include Spire Global, Swift Navigation, Built Robotics, and Airware, all of which build physical products or infrastructure. Boniske is recognized for her distinctive focus on the earliest stages of hardware development, where she emphasizes that every dollar and decision is crucial to a startup’s success.
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