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Conviction
Venture capitalActively deployingSan Francisco · Pre-Seed–Series B · 3 people tracked
Also known as Conviction Partners · Conviction Partners Expansion · CONVICTION PARTNERS, LLC
Investment thesis
Conviction backs AI-native, 'Software 3.0' companies, believing the industry is very early in turning powerful AI models into products that transform industries. The firm invests early, frequently as the first investor, writing checks from $1M to $25M. It gravitates toward technical teams — engineers, researchers, product people, domain experts, and dropouts — that build with velocity and pragmatism. Conviction positions itself as hands-on with deep domain understanding and a broad network deployed on behalf of portfolio companies, aiming to help founders become their most ambitious selves.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 25, 2026.
Team · 3 people
from public directories
What they invest in
from 38 of 42 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×32Enterprise Software ×16Developer Tools ×11SaaS ×11Cloud Computing ×7Deep Tech ×5Consumer ×4Data & Infrastructure ×4
HQs:United States×28Argentina×1France×1United Kingdom×1Mexico×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 21 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×42 founders×93 founders×54+ founders×3
Where their founders studiedfrom 21 founders with education data
Stanford University ×6Harvard University ×5University of Southern California ×3The Harker School ×2
Where their founders worked beforefrom 28 founders with career history
DeepMind ×3Stanford University ×3Apple ×2Coursera ×2CS50 ×2Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ×2Google ×2Gumroad ×2
Accelerator rootsportfolio companies that came through a program
8 founders hold a PhD · 1 hold an MBA (of 25 with degree data)
Investments · 42 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2026 · 142025 · 52023 · 221 dated
Flapping Airplanes is a foundational AI research lab working on the data efficiency problem, aiming to build models that reach human-level reasoning without training on vast amounts of data.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechSan Francisco, US
ASHER SPECTOR(Executive Officer, Director)BENJAMIN SPECTOR(Executive Officer, Director)Aidan Smith(Founder)in
Co-investorsIndex VenturesArgoFundomoGV (Google Ventures)Menlo VenturesSequoia Capital+1 more
HeyGen is an AI video generation and dubbing platform that allows users to create and localize videos by writing scripts and selecting AI-generated voices, eliminating the need for cameras, actors, and traditional production resources.
AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechMedia & EntertainmentSaaSLos Angeles, US
Joshua Xu(Co-founder & CEO)inWayne Liang(Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer)Joshua X.(Founder)inJoshua X(Founder)
BoardSarah Guo(Board member; founder of Conviction)
Co-investorsBenchmarkThrive CapitalBONDDylan FieldElad GilIDG Capital+2 more
Lone Palm Labs is a consumer technology company building social applications for friends and family.
ConsumerSocialSan Francisco, US
Nathan Sharp(Co-Founder & CEO)inRyan Olson(Co-Founder & CTO)NATHAN SHARP(Executive Officer, Director)RYAN OLSON(Executive Officer, Director)
Co-investorsDylan FieldScribble VenturesThrive Capital
Nova builds AI-powered documentation that creates a searchable record of software objects, dependencies, and actual usage, and lets users query it in plain language.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSBrookline, US
Emma Qian(Co-Founder & CEO)inRobert May(Executive Officer, Director)
Co-investorsAccelPosition VenturesBee Partners
Primero connects legacy tools, records, spreadsheets, and internal APIs into a semantic layer and deploys AI agents and applications inside real business workflows, with an emphasis on auditability, data residency, and control.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareMexico City, MX
José Murillo(Co-CEO)inAndrés Rosales(Co-CEO)inSantiago Buenahora(CTO)in
Co-investorsGeneral Catalyst8VCDefinitionKaszek Ventures
Ridge helps companies visualize and act on data through embedded analytics tools.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureSaaS
Ellie Fields(Co-Founder)inJeff Heer(Co-Founder)in
Co-investorsSequoia CapitalMadrona Venture Group
Sequence Holdings is a permanent holding company that acquires, operates, and transforms businesses in the American service economy by embedding its own engineers and applying AI to core operations.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareNew York City, US
Alexander Rubin(Founder)in
Co-investors8VCAvenirDefinitionLux Capital
New York, US
Nicolae Rusan(Director)Kareem Amin(Executive Officer, Director)
Board seatMike Vernal· per SEC Form D · $40M raise · filed Jan 2025
Co-investorsboldstart venturesBoxCapitalGFirst Round CapitalMeritech Capital PartnersSequoia Capital
Adaptive is an AI-native healthcare provider that delivers home health services by combining artificial intelligence-driven operations with in-home clinicians to improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtech
Ronak Massand(Founder)in
Co-investorsBain Capital VenturesFelicis VenturesBoxGroupConstellationOptum Ventures
Baseten provides AI inference and infrastructure services that optimize model deployment, serving, and orchestration across the full stack.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSan Francisco, US
Tuhin Srivastava(CEO and Co-Founder)inAmir Haghighat(CTO and Co-Founder)inPhil Howes(Co-Founder & Chief Scientist)inPankaj Gupta(Co-Founder)inPhilip Howes(Co-Founder and Chief Scientist)Danielle Herzberg(Executive Officer)
Co-investors01 AdvisorsAI FundAlpha PartnersAspire11Athletic VenturesBattery Ventures+23 more
Baseten provides infrastructure and tooling for high-performance AI model inference, letting teams deploy open-source, custom, and fine-tuned models with optimizations for image generation, transcription, text-to-speech, LLMs, and embeddings.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper Tools
Amir Haghighat(Founder)in
Co-investorsHorizonAltimeter CapitalCapitalGIVP (Institutional Venture Partners)NVIDIASands Capital Ventures+1 more
Cartesia provides a text-to-speech API for developers, offering low-latency multilingual voice generation, voice cloning from short audio clips, and fine control over pitch, speed, and emotion.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDeveloper ToolsMedia & EntertainmentSaaSSan Francisco, US
Arjun Desai(Founder)inKaran Goel(Founder)
Co-investorsCoho DeeptechGeneral CatalystIndex VenturesKleiner PerkinsLeonis CapitalPosition Ventures+3 more
Cognition develops Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer agent that plans, writes, tests, and deploys production code within existing development environments to augment human engineering teams.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Scott Wu(Co-founder & CEO)inWalden Yan(Founder)Steven Hao(Founder)in
Co-investors137 Ventures8VCAbstract VenturesAlpha Wave GlobalAntiAvenir Growth Capital+11 more
Corridor is a San Francisco security platform that embeds real-time vulnerability guardrails and automated PR review into AI coding workflows.
Jack Cable(Founder)inAshwin Ramaswami(Founder)in
Co-investorsFelicis Ventures
Culminate Security developed an AI-powered security analyst that autonomously triages and investigates SOC alerts and SIEM signals, delivering evidence-based verdicts and remediation recommendations.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingCybersecurity
Vera ChanRon FeldmanRex Guo
Day AI is an AI-native CRM that assembles and maintains customer records automatically from a company's communications, replacing manual data entry with generated, always-current context.
Michael Pici(Co-founder)inChristopher O'Donnell(Co-founder)in
Co-investorsInspired CapitalPermanent Capital VenturesPillar VCStage 2 CapitalGreenoaksSequoia Capital+1 more
Distributed Spectrum builds software for radio spectrum management that combines machine learning, signal processing, and embedded systems.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechHardwareNew York, US
Alex Wulff(Founder & CEO)Ben Harpe(Founder & COO)inIsaac Struhl(Founder & CTO)in
Co-investorsFelicis VenturesShield CapitalXfund
Enigma provides a Web3-based ticketing and event management platform for artists and event organizers, using blockchain technology to ensure ticket authenticity and reduce fraud.
B2B MarketplacesCrypto & Web3Buenos Aires, AR
Co-investorsNewtopia VCIndex VenturesRibbit Capital
Essential AI builds an open platform for AI research and development, providing open models, tooling, and evaluation frameworks designed for global collaboration.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Ashish Vaswani(CEO)
Co-investorsMarch Capital PartnersKB InvestmentNVIDIAThrive Capital
Fractile designs processors for AI acceleration, offering the next generation of computing hardware.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechHardwareSemiconductorsBristol, GB
Walter Goodwin(Founder & CEO)in
Co-investorsAccelFactorial FundsFelicis VenturesGigascale CapitalInovia CapitalOxford Science Enterprises+3 more
Harvey provides domain-specific AI products for legal and professional services firms, enabling contract analysis, due diligence, compliance, and litigation tasks.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareLegalTech
Winston Weinberg(Co-founder & CEO)inGabe Pereyra(Founder)inGabriel Pereyra(Co-founder & President)in
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzKleiner PerkinsOpenAI Startup FundArtisanal VenturesCaesar VenturesCoatue Management+15 more
Instinct is an AI personal assistant that connects to a user's email, messaging, screen, audio, location, and devices, and operates a phone and computer the way a human would to handle everyday tasks.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerSan Francisco, US
Noah Shinn(Founder)Ashwin Datta(Founder)in
Co-investorsGreenoaksKleiner Perkins
Latent builds software to optimize the prescription fulfillment process for health systems, enabling faster access to medications for patients.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthEnterprise SoftwareHealthtechInsurTechSan Francisco, US
Rishabh Jain(Co-founder)inSri Somasundaram(Founder)inSriram Somasundaram(Co-founder)in
Co-investorsMcKesson VenturesSpark CapitalTRANSFORMATION CAPITALY CombinatorGeneral Catalyst
Listen Labs offers an AI-moderated video interview platform that recruits and interviews verified customers in parallel, then synthesizes the findings into memos, slides, and highlight reels.
AI & Machine LearningFintechMarketing TechSaaS
Alfred Wahlforss(Founder)in
Co-investorsPear VCRibbit CapitalSequoia Capital
Mistral builds and open-sources frontier AI models, developer tools, and applications for organizations in finance, manufacturing, defense, energy, and the public sector to solve complex problems.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareParis, FR
Arthur Mensch(Co-founder & CEO)inGuillaume Lample(Co-founder & Chief Scientist)Timothee Lacroix(Co-founder and CTO)Timothée Lacroix(Co-founder & CTO)
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzEuropean Investment FundFactorial Fundsfirstminute capitalIndex VenturesIntegra Groupe+14 more
Mithril provides cloud compute infrastructure for AI developers, aiming to make compute resources more accessible and efficient without requiring teams to handle capacity planning.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & InfrastructurePalo Alto, US
Jared Quincy Davis(Founder)in
Co-investorsMulticoin CapitalRedpoint VenturesSequoia CapitalLaude Ventures
Nova provides sales pipeline management software that uses AI to recommend prioritized actions for sellers and tracks customer flow and revenue across the sales organization.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSales TechSan Francisco, US
Will Dinkel(Founder)inBryan Pirtle(Founder)in
Co-investorsY CombinatorAccelChemistry
Nova provides software for deal management and data sharing in private markets, serving investors and financial professionals.
FintechSaaSDallas, US
Pradyuman Vig(Founder/CEO)in
Co-investorsCoinbase VenturesOyster VenturesY CombinatorAccelChemistryIndustrious Ventures+3 more
Onyx builds a secure AI control plane that lets enterprise security, governance, and infrastructure teams oversee, secure, and measure the use of autonomous AI agents across their systems.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareAstoria, US
Gil Elbaz(Founder)inMaxim Bar Kogan(Founder)in
Co-investorsBessemer Venture PartnersCyberstartsFirstMark CapitalG SquaredTCV
AI company developing a medical search engine used by physicians for clinical decision support.
Daniel Nadler(Founder & CEO)inZachary Ziegler(Founder)
Co-investorsAlkeon InnovationAmity VenturesAndreessen HorowitzBreyer CapitalCatalio Capital Management, LPCoatue Management+15 more
Radical Aero builds StratoSats, autonomous solar-powered aircraft that operate at 65,000 feet for extended periods to deliver persistent high-performance infrastructure.
Advanced ManufacturingDeep TechDefense TechHardwareSpace TechSeattle, US
James Thomas(Founder)inCyriel Notteboom(Founder)in
Co-investorsInflection.xyzScout VenturesScout VenturesY CombinatorBessemer Venture PartnersBoxGroup+1 more
RunSybil provides AI-powered active defense and offensive security capabilities for enterprise security teams, automating hacker-level threat detection and response.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecuritySan Francisco, US
Ari Herbert-Voss(Executive Officer, Director)inAriel Herbert-Voss(Founder)Vlad Ionescu(Founder)inBrian Byun(Director)
Co-investorsMenlo VenturesS32
Sierra builds AI agents that handle customer service for large companies — answering questions and completing transactions in a brand's own voice across chat, voice, email and messaging, in 59 languages.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US
Bret Taylor(Co-Founder)inClay Bavor(Co-Founder)in
Co-investorsComcast VenturesEverybody VenturesGV (Google Ventures)ICONIQKleiner PerkinsMech Ventures+8 more
Sola develops process automation software that uses AI and bots to handle repetitive tasks for enterprise teams.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSNew York City, US
Jessica Wu(Founder)inNeil Deshmukh(Founder)in
Co-investorsY CombinatorGlilot Capital PartnersNew Era Capital PartnersS CapitalS32
Spur provides an AI-powered autonomous testing platform that automatically plans, executes, and reports software tests across web and mobile applications.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareNew York City, US
Sneha Sivakumar(Founder)inAnushka Nijhawan(Founder)in
Co-investorsPredictive VCY CombinatorFirst Round CapitalInsight PartnersNeoPear VC+1 more
StackBlitz provides a browser-based development environment for creating and launching web applications, with code execution happening entirely within the user's browser using WebAssembly technology.
Cloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Eric Simons(CEO & Co-Founder)Albert Pai(CTO & Co-Founder)Alexander Berger(Chief Operating Officer)Bryan Adams(Vice President of Sales)Mitchell Wright(Head of Growth Marketing and Data)Hyllarie Colyer(Head of People)
Co-investorsEmergence CapitalGreylock PartnersGV (Google Ventures)Insight PartnersMadrona Venture GroupMantis Capital+3 more
Sunday builds household robots that learn from human demonstration to automate everyday tasks in real homes.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerHardwareRoboticsSilicon Valley, US
Tony Zhao(CEO, Co-Founder)inCheng Chi(CTO, Co-Founder)in
Co-investorsBain Capital VenturesCoatue ManagementScribble Ventures
Tomo is a personal AI assistant accessible via text messaging that helps users achieve their goals through accountability, scheduling, and life organization.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerWellness & FitnessSan Francisco, US
Co-investorsBain Capital VenturesAccelBasis Set VenturesPear VC
Town offers AI-powered personal assistants ("Townies") that automate work tasks like email management, scheduling, research, and routine workflows for knowledge workers.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US
Tony Vincent(Founder)in
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzForerunner VenturesJetstreamMischiefPosition VenturesAlt Capital+6 more
Uplimit is an AI-native corporate learning system that delivers personalized instruction, practice, and feedback to a company's workforce, with tools to measure training outcomes.
AI & Machine LearningEdTechEnterprise SoftwareHR TechSan Francisco, US
Julia Stiglitz(Chief Executive Officer)inSourabh Bajaj(Co-Founder & CTO)inJacob Samuelson(Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer)
BoardReid Hoffman(Greylock Partner (board/investor representative))Sarah Guo(Investor (Greylock, later Conviction))
Co-investorsCowboy VenturesGreylock PartnersGSV VenturesTransLink CapitalSalesforce VenturesWorkday Ventures
Wabi provides a no-code platform for content creators and coaches in Latin America to build branded websites, manage online programs, and process payments in a single integrated system.
Creator EconomyEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US
Gabriel Luque(Founder)inJavier Méndez(Founder)in
Co-investorsArray Ventures Management LlcY CombinatorAndreessen Horowitz
Yutori builds web agents that automate tasks on the web, enabling users to delegate browsing and task execution to background agents rather than doing it manually.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsSaaSSan Francisco, US
Devi Parikh(Founder)inAbhishek Das(Founder)
Co-investorsFelicis VenturesRadical VenturesValia Ventures
Rows marked “SEC filing” are inferred from directors named on the company's SEC Form D — public regulatory data, not a portfolio list published by the firm.
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesInstinct · Forbes · Aug 26, 2026
Primero · marketscreener.com · Aug 25, 2026
Baseten · tumisangbogwasi.com · Aug 24, 2026
Cognition AI · techcrunch.com · Aug 19, 2026
Baseten · aitoolly.com · Aug 3, 2026
Onyx · citybiz.co · Aug 3, 2026
Mithril · dwarfeatsmountain.wiki · Aug 1, 2026
Flapping Airplanes · forbes.com · Jul 31, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Conviction made?
- Conviction has 21 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited via acquisition or IPO, including 3 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does Conviction invest at?
- Conviction invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B stages.
- What is Conviction's typical check size?
- Conviction typically writes checks of $1M – $25M.
- What sectors does Conviction focus on?
- Conviction focuses on AI & Machine Learning.
- Where is Conviction located?
- Conviction is headquartered in San Francisco, US.
- Does Conviction lead rounds?
- Yes, Conviction leads investment rounds.
- Who does Conviction co-invest with?
- Conviction most often shares deals with Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, among 109 tracked co-investors.
Media · Podcasts & interviews
featuring the teamSarah Guo: On Her New $101M Fund; How AI Impacts Inequality; AI Startups vs Incumbents | E1007
20VC with Harry Stebbings · Sarah Guo
Why “the labs will build it” is the wrong startup fear | Sarah Guo (Conviction)
Rippling · Sarah Guo
Build 2026 Podcast: Satya Nadella, Sarah Guo and Elad Gil from No Priors, and Swyx from Latent Space
Microsoft · Sarah Guo
No Priors Ep. 138 | The Best of 2025 (So Far) with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil
No Priors: AI, Machine Learning, Tech, & Startups · Sarah Guo
State of Startups and AI 2025 - Sarah Guo, Conviction
AI Engineer · Sarah Guo
Ep. 7: Pranav Reddy, Conviction Partner
Delta Institute · Pranav Reddy
Images
Co-investors · 65
Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm that partners with founders to build technology companies.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, known for pioneering the platform model with a large team of operators supporting founders across stages.
Felicis Ventures is a venture capital firm that backs founders primarily at the Seed and Series A stages, frequently leading or co-leading rounds. It operates with a founder-first approach, including a founder pledge and voting commitments.
BCV Labs is the platform and hands-on support arm of Bain Capital Ventures, providing portfolio founders with go-to-market strategy, brand development, hiring assistance, and customer introductions.
Accel is a venture capital firm that partners with exceptional teams, positioning itself as a first partner to founders globally.
Index Ventures is a multi-stage venture capital firm that backs companies from Seed to IPO and beyond, including through its dedicated seed fund Index Origin.
Thrive Capital invests in internet, software, and technology-enabled companies. The firm focuses on early-stage and growth-stage ventures.
Greylock Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with founders building companies from inception. Its partners make only one or two new investments per year to focus deeply on each partnership.
First Round Capital is an early-stage venture firm that backs companies at their earliest moments, often before they are named, across enterprise, AI, consumer, healthcare, fintech and hardware sectors.
Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in transformative, early-stage AI companies across every layer of the modern AI stack, from applications and middleware to data infrastructure and foundation models.
Pear VC is a venture capital firm that backs founders from the earliest stages through its PearX accelerator and seed investing programs.
Founders Fund is a venture capital firm that backs technology companies building transformative products.
▶53 more co-investors
Khosla VenturesInsight PartnersBenchmarkSpark CapitalMadrona Venture Group01 AdvisorsRadical VenturesRedpoint VenturesIVP (Institutional Venture Partners)Tiger Global ManagementBattery VenturesGreycroftForerunner VenturesCyberstartsArray Ventures Management LlcCowboy VenturesPreston-Werner VenturesMulticoin CapitalAI FundTRANSFORMATION CAPITALGSV VenturesUncork CapitalFoundation CapitalNorwest Venture PartnersGradient VenturesGoat CapitalC2 InvestmentsLookout VenturesAmplify PartnersBond Capital ManagementStride VCParadigmHanabi CapitalWingGSV AccelerationSalesforce Japan Co.,Ltd.Eclipse VenturesRenegade PartnersCisco InvestmentsMosaic VenturesWalden InternationalAlvenPropeller VCPlaid1984 Ventures Management, LlcGreatPoint VenturesSyngenta Group VenturesChingona VenturesMatchstick VenturesEnergize CapitalAir Street CapitalBlossom CapitalGSR
Firms observed investing alongside Conviction, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Conviction's recorded portfolio.
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