Susa Ventures

Firm Profile

Seed specialist, founded 2013, HQ San Francisco. Susa is a “purpose-built seed specialist” — it invests pre-seed and seed only (described as “pre-idea all the way through early product-market-fit”), with check sizes of $500K–$5M (Misha is “frequently cited as a go-to investor for $1M–$1.5M checks”).^[Fund V Substack + vcsheet]

• Current fund: Susa Ventures V — $175M\ast \ast ,announcedMarch18,2025.Prior:FundIV/2021cohortclosed\ast \ast$375M across two vehicles ($125Mseedfund+$250M opportunity fund); Fund III (2018) = $90Mseed+$50M opportunity. LP base = “US-based institutions, including non-profit foundations, education endowments and leading healthcare providers.”
• Model (the differentiator): highly concentrated. Each partner does only 2–3 new investments per year (some sources say 6–8 companies per partner lifetime); historically **capped fund size at ~$125–150M\ast \ast topreservethemodel(FundVat$175M is a modest step up). Founder-first: they never take board seats and tout that in 12 years they’ve “never voted a founder out of their business.”
• Track record claims (self-reported): ~10% of Fund I/II companies became unicorns (vs. ~1% industry average); portfolio companies raise Series A at ~2x the industry-average valuation (less founder dilution). Notable early bets: Robinhood, Flexport, Human Interest, Andela, Okra, Casetext (acquired by Thomson Reuters, $650M), Cluely.
• Thesis / posture: sector-agnostic with a software/data-centric core; bullish AI — Fund V announcement states “AI is underhyped.” Distinctive independent-conviction posture: “We build independent conviction — we don’t care who else is in the round” (Chad Byers) — i.e., they’ll lead even if no other firm is committed. Global mandate (sourced deals in 5+ countries; meaningful Africa exposure: Andela, Okra, Powered by People).
• Fund family (important for disambiguation): Susa is the parent of two sibling funds — Humba Ventures (deep tech / American Dynamism / defense; 40M Fund II, Dec 2024; run by co-founder Leo Polovets) and **Kivu Ventures** (Series A/B vertical-AI & AI-infra, up to 15M checks; founded by co-founder Seth Berman). Title-inflation nuance (CRM-flagged, confirmed): aggregators (vcsheet, Tracxn) report “~23 team / 11 partners,” but the actual core seed-fund deal-doers are ~5–6 (1 GP + 3 Partners + 1 Venture Partner + 1 Investor — see Partners). The inflated counts fold in Humba/Kivu teams, Partner-Emeritus co-founders, and platform/back-office staff. Use the firm site + Substack bylines (not aggregators) for who actually does deals. ^[inferred]

Partners

The core seed-fund investing team is small (~5–6 deal-doers), which is the reality behind the “title-inflation” nuance:

• Chad Byers — Co-founder & General Partner (since 2013). Author of firm-voice posts; the public face of the “independent conviction” thesis. (deprioritized in our raise — keep light/dormant)
• Misha Gordon-Rowe — Partner (joined 2020 as investor → Principal → recently promoted to Partner ~mid-2025 ^[inferred from first “Partner”-bylined Substack memo, Jul 2025]). Our primary contact. Does the AI / vertical-software deals (Memories.ai, Nuvo).
• Pratyush Buddiga — Partner (joined 2021 as Investor & Chief of Staff → Senior Associate → Partner). Former competitive Scrabble champion; deals incl. Hanover Park.
• Derick En’Wezoh, MD — Partner (healthcare/health-IT focus; led Oya Care’s $2M seed with Courtney Buie Lipkin). ^[Founder Signal + ZoomInfo]
• Courtney Buie Lipkin — Venture Partner (co-led Oya Care; women’s-health / consumer health angle).
• Shaheer Sandhu — Investor (pre-seed/seed; AI software apps/infra, consumer, healthcare). Runs the Susa Venture Fellows program. Running parallel to Misha in our process.

Co-founders (firm formation, not all on core seed team today): Chad Byers, Seth Berman (now leads Kivu; “Partner Emeritus” at Susa), Leo Polovets (now leads Humba; “Partner Emeritus”), Eva Ho (departed; now Fika Ventures). ^[Berman/Polovets/Ho roles cross-verified via Kivu/Humba pages + Founder Signal]

Recent pre-seed/seed activity (Pass-1 sketch — ≤5 deals; exhaustive 18–24mo pull is Pass 2)

• Optura — $6.5Mseed,\ast \ast co-led\ast \ast w/Matrix(May2025);healthcareROAIplatform;Susafollowedonintothe$17.5M Series A (May 2026, led by Salesforce Ventures). Memo by Chad Byers.
• Memories.ai — $8M seed, led by Susa (Jul 2025); long-context video AI; memo authored by Misha Gordon-Rowe; Samsung Next strategic.
• Powered by People — ~$5M seed, led (2024); Kenya B2B wholesale marketplace (Africa thesis). ^[single-source]
• Supermemory ($2.6M,Oct2025),\ast \ast Cavela\ast \ast ($6.6M, Nov 2025), Fynn ($36M seed+debt, Jan 2026) — Susa participated; amounts/roles aggregator-sourced, ❓ unverified.
• Nuvo — Misha’s early seed (2022, out of window); Series A led by Sequoia + Spark (Apr 2025).

Full data → /Users/sazzad14/seed-market-scan/firms/susa-ventures.csv.

Best data channels for this firm

• Best primary source: Susa’s own Substack (susaventures.substack.com) — they publish per-deal “Our Investment in X” memos bylined by the actual deal partner (this is the cleanest partner-attribution channel for Susa, which the Codex spine lacks). Fund announcements live here too.
• Firm site susaventures.com (+ /working-with-us) for team/titles and curated portfolio.
• TechCrunch / FinSMEs / FierceHealthcare good for round confirmation; Launch Base Africa / regional press for the Africa deals (no SEC trail).
• Treat aggregators (vcsheet, Tracxn, Crunchbase) with caution on TITLES and TEAM SIZE — they inflate (count Humba/Kivu + platform staff as “partners”; still list Misha as “Principal”). Use the firm site + Substack bylines as ground truth for who-does-what.

Fundraise Relationship (init.inc)

• Profile (relevance): Susa is a pure seed specialist with an “AI is underhyped” thesis; Misha’s published vertical-AI conviction (“moats come from differentiated datasets that improve through product use”; vertical AI > horizontal B2B SaaS) maps onto init.inc. Their independent-conviction / “we don’t care who else is in the round” posture means they can lead before a round is crowded. Per Juraj, Chad is post-economic, has a young kid, time-constrained, and would defer to Misha. The concentrated model (only 2–3 new deals/partner/yr) makes this a high-bar, high-touch process.
• Conversation log (newest first):
  • 2026-05-26 — Raise-open message sent to Misha Gordon-Rowe (internal sync pending since 5/4 meeting).
  • 2026-05-05 — Met Shaheer Sandhu (Investor). Read: “a little NPC but sharp questions.” Running parallel to Misha; awaiting internal feedback. (Intro via Toms Ce, 4/28.)
  • 2026-05-04 — Misha said he’d talk to the team Monday 5/4; awaiting readout.
  • 2026-05-01 (Fri) — Met Misha Gordon-Rowe; very impressed. misha@susaventures.com. Intro via Juraj Masar.
• Mutual connections / warm path: Juraj Masar (init’s angel + connector) → Misha (primary path). Toms Ce → Shaheer (parallel path). Two independent warm intros into the same firm — coordinate so they reinforce, not collide.
• Personal & rapport notes: Culture is founder-first, low-ego, hands-on, anti-board-control. They value independent conviction over social proof — an over-reliance on “X already committed” tends to underwhelm them.
• Live stage: tracked in the CRM (Google Sheet) — not duplicated here.

Cross-check vs existing wiki

• Toms Ce already lists “Susa Ventures / Shaheer Sandhu — Follow Up Phase” as one of his intros — consistent with this page (Shaheer = parallel track). No contradiction.
• Salesforce Ventures led Optura’s Series A where Susa followed on — a co-investment overlap with an existing wiki entity (Salesforce Ventures is in the competitor/strategic register). No conflict for our raise; noted for graph completeness.
• No existing competitor cap-table mention names Susa. ⚠️ none found.

Related

Misha Gordon-Rowe · Shaheer Sandhu · Chad Byers · Juraj Masar · Toms Ce · Salesforce Ventures

Pass 2 deal pattern (2026-05-25)

Exhaustive ~18-24mo pull (Nov 2024 → May 2026). Full source-tagged rows: /Users/sazzad14/seed-market-scan/firms/susa-ventures.csv (20 rows; net-new vs Pass-1: 8 confirmed deals + 1 follow-on context row). Reconciled three Pass-1 errors (Cavela role, Supermemory role/stage, and two out-of-window date mistakes — Powered by People & Fynn).

Seed lead-rate (the headline)

Susa leads or co-leads the large majority of its seeds — exactly as its “we build independent conviction, we don’t care who else is in the round” posture predicts. Of ~15 in-window investments: 4 LED (Scope, Asymmetric Security, Memories.ai, Supermemory), 7 CO-LED (Marble, Cavela, Rivet, Optura, Cluely, Henry AI, Hanover Park seed), 4 PARTICIPATED (Adapt.com, Aravolta, Edison Scientific, Human Delta). That’s a ~73% lead-or-co-lead rate — and where they merely participate, it’s usually a frontier mega-round (Edison $70M,Adapt$10M) where leading wasn’t on offer. Susa can and routinely does lead seeds.

Check size / stage

• Stage is genuinely pre-seed→seed (no Series A leads in window; they only follow-on into A’s of their own seeds — Optura, Hanover Park). Confirms “pure seed specialist.”
• Where Susa LED/CO-LED a disclosed round, the round sizes cluster $2.6M–$9M (Supermemory $2.6Mpre-seed\cdot HenryAI$4.3M · Asymmetric Security $4.2Mpre-seed\cdot Cluely$5.3M pre-seed · Optura $6.5M\cdot Cavela$6.6M · Memories.ai $8M\cdot Marble$9M). **Median Susa-led/co-led round ≈ $6M.\ast \ast Thisistheround\ast size\ast ,notSus{a}^{\prime }scheck—consistentwiththefir{m}^{\prime }sstated\ast \ast$500K–$5Mcheck\ast \ast (Mish{a}^{\prime }s$1M–$1.5M sweet spot). Several led rounds (Scope, Rivet, Hanover Park seed) had undisclosed amounts.
• AI-frontier outliers (where Susa only participates): Edison Scientific **$70M\ast \ast "seed,"Adapt.com$10M. These mega-seeds are a separate pricing universe — exclude from a “classic Susa seed” median.

Cadence

Roughly 8–10 disclosed new deals across the ~18-month window (≈5–6/yr firm-wide). Spread across the small partner team, this is fully consistent with the self-reported “2–3 new deals per partner per year” concentrated model — not a spray-and-pray shop. This is a high-bar, high-conviction process where a single partner’s “yes” effectively carries the deal.

Sector mix

Dominant theme = vertical AI applied to high-friction professional-services / regulated industries — and an explicit “AI services” thesis (AI-native firms that do the work, not just sell tools): Marble (tax), Rivet (corporate tax prep), Hanover Park (fund admin), Optura (healthcare AI ROI), Henry AI (CRE). Plus AI infra/memory (Supermemory, Memories.ai, Human Delta, Aravolta), AI security (Asymmetric Security DFIR), and AI-native ops (Cavela sourcing, Scope inspection, Adapt horizontal). Strong thesis adjacency to init.inc’s agentic-back-office / “AI employees” model — the “AI services” framing (AI prepares, humans verify; Hanover Park) is close to init.inc’s managed-outcome posture.

Partner attribution (got this right via Substack bylines — the cleanest channel)

• Chad Byers (GP): the firm-voice deal-doer — bylined Asymmetric Security, Marble, Cavela, Supermemory, Optura, Memories.ai press quote. Highest deal volume.
• Misha Gordon-Rowe (Partner) — init.inc’s primary contact: bylined Scope (May 2026) and Memories.ai memos; his AI/vertical-software lane (also Nuvo earlier). Now confirmed Partner on firm site.
• Pratyush Buddiga (Partner): bylined Rivet; co-credited on Hanover Park (founder LinkedIn). Owns the “AI services” / tax / fund-admin cluster.
• Roster reality (verified vs firm /working-with-us page): core seed-fund deal team = Chad Byers (GP) · Derick En’Wezoh MD · Misha Gordon-Rowe · Pratyush Buddiga (Partners) · Shaheer Sandhu (Investor) — i.e. ~5 deal-doers, matching the “title-inflation” nuance already on this page. ⚠️ Task-flagged roster check resolved: “Leo Polovets” and “Seth Berman” are NOT core Susa-seed partners — Polovets (Partner Emeritus) runs sibling Humba Ventures and now appears as a personal angel (e.g. Adapt) / historical GP (Fynn 2023); Berman runs sibling Kivu Ventures. Don’t attribute Susa-core seeds to them.

Notable seeds (for pattern + warm-context)

• Cluely ($5.3Mpre-seedco-ledw/Abstract,Apr2025)—viral;jumpedtoa16z$15M (~$120M post) within ~2 months. Shows Susa picking momentum-y founders early.
• Memories.ai ($8Mled,Jul2025,SamsungNextstrategic)and\ast \ast Supermemory\ast \ast ($2.6M pre-seed led, Oct 2025) — back-to-back AI-memory-infra bets, directly thesis-adjacent to init.inc’s context/memory layer.
• Hanover Park (seed led ~early-2025; followed into $27M Emergence-led Series A Mar 2026) — flagship “AI services” conviction bet; the “AI prepares, humans verify” model echoes init.inc’s managed-outcome framing.

Best data channels for this firm

• #1 = Susa’s own Substack (susaventures.substack.com) — per-deal “Our Investment in X” memos bylined by the actual deal partner, stating role (“led” / “co-lead”) and often the amount verbatim. This single channel resolved partner attribution AND corrected two Pass-1 role errors (Cavela, Supermemory). The static archive only renders ~13 latest posts (Substack JS-pagination) — for older memos, search Exa by company name + press.
• #2 = PitchBook investor profile (/profiles/investor/60139-90) — a clean chronological deal table (dates + deal type) that surfaced the participated deals the Substack omits (Adapt, Aravolta, Edison, Human Delta). Use it as the completeness spine.
• Press (FinSMEs, TechCrunch, BusinessWire, PRNewswire) good for amount/co-investor confirmation; regional press for international (TechMoran for the Kenya/Africa deals).
• ⚠️ EDGAR Form D = low-yield for Susa: seed-stage startups file under odd legal names or use SAFEs (no Form D); every company name I searched returned only same-name collisions (Adapt Fund, Marble/Bridgepoint, Rivet Industries) — confirms the playbook’s same-name trap. ⚠️ Aggregators (Crunchbase/Tracxn) gave the worst Pass-1 errors (Fynn mis-dated to 2026 from a 2023 round; Supermemory/Cavela mis-roled) — distrust them for role/date; verify against Substack + primary press.

COULDN’T-GET / open items

• Scope, Rivet, Hanover Park (seed) amounts — undisclosed in memos and no press release surfaced. Marked ⚠️ partial.
• Hanover Park seed exact date — inferred early-2025 from “first investors… last year” (Rivet memo, Oct 2025) + 2024 founding; not pinned to a month.
• Human Delta amount/lead — stealth; PitchBook lists investors but no amount or lead.