Humbition

humbition is a New York City-based venture capital firm founded in 2018 by Cyrus Massoumi, founder and former CEO of Zocdoc, and Slava Rubin, co-founder of Indiegogo. The firm was established with an inaugural fund of $30 million and focuses on supporting early-stage, founder-led startups, with the stated goal of connecting experienced operators with the next generation of New York City founders.

The firm's principal investment areas are marketplaces, consumer and health technology, with high-quality founders described as its main requirement for investment. It has stated a typical check size of $2-4 million, deployed after a company has assembled an early team and reached product-market fit. The firm maintains an advisory network of founders who are active operators, including Neil Blumenthal (Warby Parker), Payal Kadakia (ClassPass), Scott Harrison (charity: water) and Philip Krim (Casper).

Founding story

Both founders describe having benefited from operator-investors during their own company-building: Massoumi cited backers such as Marc Benioff, Jeff Bezos and the PayPal founders at Zocdoc, while Rubin pointed to Maynard Webb, Max Levchin, Richard Branson and the Partovi brothers at Indiegogo. Observing what they saw as a shortage of operator-investors in New York City, particularly at Series A, they created humbition in 2018 to provide capital and hands-on guidance to local founders. The name derives from 'humbition' — a term Massoumi used publicly beginning in 2013 to describe leaders who are humble enough to put the team before themselves while remaining ambitious and focused on improvement.

Business model

Venture capital fund investing capital in early-stage private companies, with an inaugural fund size of $30 million.

Traction

Investing out of an inaugural $30 million fund; by early 2019 the firm had made several investments, including in Burrow and additional companies then in stealth. Third-party listings also associate humbition with investments in Vincent (2020), Perle Labs (formerly Kiva AI) and River Markets.

Latest developments

Coverage of Massoumi notes that he went on to found the telehealth service Dr. B in February 2021 while remaining identified as a founder of humbition.