Manu Kumar is the Founder & Chief Firestarter of K9 Ventures. See sector focus and contact routes.
Manu Kumar is the Founder & Chief Firestarter of K9 Ventures, a Palo Alto-based micro-VC firm he launched in 2010 after selling his first company, SneakerLabs, for over $100M. He invests primarily at the Pre-Seed stage in technical founders creating new technologies or markets with direct revenue models, focusing on teams based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Initial checks typically range from $400,000 to $500,000, with K9 often leading the round and following through Seed, Series A, and Series B, potentially totaling up to $4 million per company. Notable portfolio companies include Lyft, Twilio, Auth0, and Carta, all of which he invested in at their earliest stages. Kumar is widely recognized as “The O.G. for Pre-Seed” and coined the term “Pre-seed” to describe his focus on the earliest institutional investment phase. He emphasizes being the first institutional money in a company, a principle he calls “Frighteningly Early,” and has invested in over 55 startups while founding seven companies himself.
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