Fundraising FoxNotre Dame Founders Fund
Venture capitalNotre Dame · Pre-Seed–Seed · 28 people tracked
Find your way into Notre Dame Founders Fund
Each arrow is one introduction. Sign up to fill in the first one.
Ask Wally Hansen to introduce you to Hannah Dopico
You →Wally · together at Platform Venture Studio →Hannah
Sign up to find every way you can get introduced to Notre Dame Founders Fund
- Your email: who you already know at Notre Dame Founders Fund, and who your contacts know
- 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: people you know who worked, studied or invested with the Notre Dame Founders Fund team
- Your LinkedIn: the connections who can make the intro for you
We rank every route by how warm it is, so you raise on warm intros instead of cold emails.
Investment thesis
The fund is a student-run early-stage vehicle housed at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, operating since 2017. It sources, diligences, and writes real pre-seed and seed checks of $10k-$25k into startups, frequently co-investing alongside top-tier established firms. Its positioning emphasizes the student perspective as next-generation consumers and technology adopters, fast decision-making (weeks rather than months) via a small committee and clear thesis, and hands-on support including recruiting, campus distribution, and strategy help. It also leverages the 140,000-strong Notre Dame alumni network and long-term partnerships that persist across student leadership changes.
Source: firm website, verified Oct 2, 2026.
Team · 28 people
from the firm's website & public directories
What they invest in
from 18 of 23 portfolio companiesSaaS ×9AI & Machine Learning ×4Consumer ×3EdTech ×3Enterprise Software ×3HR Tech ×3Climate Tech ×2Fintech ×2
HQs:United States×9
Who they back
founder profiles across 8 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×72 founders×1
Investments · 23 tracked
founders shown can be your intro path
Autostep is an AI-powered operations intelligence platform that automatically discovers repetitive tasks and inefficiencies across a company's workflows, prices them in real dollars, and generates custom agents and process improvements deployed into existing tools.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US
Aidan Pratt 🥑(Founder)in
Co-investorsSpider CapitalY CombinatorAct One VenturesAndreessen HorowitzCory LevyDoomers Media LLC+8 more
Conservation Labs develops H2know, a smart water monitoring system that uses machine learning to detect leaks and optimize water consumption through sound analysis in plumbing pipes for residential and commercial properties.
AI & Machine LearningCleantechClimate TechInsurTechIoTBrownsville, US
Mark Kovscek(Executive Officer, Director)in
Co-investors412 Venture FundIrishAngelsMomenta VenturesRET VenturesRiverfront Ventures, LLCSerra Ventures+3 more
Ecomedes develops a digital platform for sustainable building products data, helping architects, builders, and manufacturers discover, compare, and document environmentally certified construction materials.
B2B MarketplacesConstruction TechSaaSDenver, US
Paul Shahriari(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)inKathleen Egan(CEO)in
BoardTimothy Connors(Director)Michael Levinthal(Director)
Co-investors2.12 AngelsDreamit VenturesHamilton VenturesHomeTeam VenturesM12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund)
Radio.com is a mobile music-discovery app that turns finding new songs into a game: users listen to short clips from emerging artists and "claim" tracks they believe will break out, earning points and genre leaderboard rankings when other listeners later claim the same songs.
ConsumerGamingMedia & Entertainment
FloVision retrofits meat processing lines with computer-vision and machine-learning inspection that measures yield, giveaway, quality, throughput, and foreign bodies in real time across beef, pork, and poultry.
Advanced ManufacturingAgTechAI & Machine LearningFoodTech
Co-investorsElevate VenturesRockstartInsight PartnersPlug and Play VenturesSerra VenturesSOSV
Hadley is an app and SEC-registered investment advisor that helps families save for education through 529 plans, letting users link a 529 so friends and family can contribute and guiding them to top-rated, low-fee plans.
EdTechFintechSaaS
Yosh Miller(Founder)
Co-investorsInterplay Ventures Early Stage Management Llc
Matter is an employee recognition platform that integrates with Slack to let teams send kudos and rewards (coins) tied to company values.
Future of WorkHR TechSaaS
Co-investorsBreakpoint Capital
Network Perception offers NP-View, software that generates and maintains network maps to help organizations assess risk, verify network segmentation, and evaluate the security posture of their environments.
CybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareSaaSChicago, US
Robin Berthier(Chief Executive Officer, President, & Director)Ted Greene(Chief Operating Officer)inWilliam Sanders(Director)
BoardJeff Bocan(Director)Steve Westly(Director)inRobert Schultz(Director)in
Co-investorsEarly Light VenturesEarth FoundryEnergy FoundryEnergy Impact PartnersIllinois VenturesOkapi Venture Capital+3 more
Yelo is a rideshare app aimed at Gen Z that lets riders be picked up by mutuals rather than strangers and offers lower fares by having drivers keep the full fare.
ConsumerMarketplacesMobility & Transportation
Co-investorsTeamworthy Ventures
Ritual is an audio-based app offering a library of guided wellbeing practices—including meditation, prayer, breathwork, journaling, and affirmations—led by human teachers, authors, and caregivers.
ConsumerMental HealthWellness & Fitness
Co-investorsHuman Ventures
Denver-based image platform delivering hyperlocal, audience-targeted photography for digital marketing; acquired by Shutterstock in 2021.
EdTechDenver, US
Frank Cardello(Founder)Mark Lemmons(Founder)
BoardBrian Wallace(Director)in
Co-investorsAccess Venture PartnersElevate VenturesFirstMile VenturesLumos Capital GroupSpringTime VenturesRethink Capital Partners
Thatch provides APIs and embeddable components that enable platforms and software providers to offer ICHRA (Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement) benefits to their customers.
Enterprise SoftwareFintechHealthtechHR TechInsurTechSaaS
Adam Stevenson(Founder)in
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzAvid VenturesGeneral PartnershipIndex VenturesLux CapitalSemperVirens Venture Capital+4 more
TrackStreet provides brand protection software and managed services that monitor online marketplaces and retailers to enforce MAP pricing, remove unauthorized listings, and identify rogue resellers.
E-commerceRetail TechSaaSLas Vegas, US
Andrew Schydlowsky(Executive Officer, Director)in
Co-investors412 Venture FundCove FundEarly Light VenturesOkapi Venture CapitalRecurring Capital Partners
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
Cloud ApartmentsPattern89RoutoraSolve FinanceVinly
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesAutostep · ycombinator.com · Jun 23, 2026
FloVision · insightpartners.com · Aug 4, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Notre Dame Founders Fund made?
- Notre Dame Founders Fund has 23 tracked investments, 2 of which have exited.
- What stage does Notre Dame Founders Fund invest at?
- Notre Dame Founders Fund invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
- What is Notre Dame Founders Fund's typical check size?
- Notre Dame Founders Fund typically writes checks of $10K – $25K.
- What sectors does Notre Dame Founders Fund focus on?
- Notre Dame Founders Fund focuses on Enterprise Software, Sector Agnostic.
- Where is Notre Dame Founders Fund located?
- Notre Dame Founders Fund is headquartered in Notre Dame, US.
- Who does Notre Dame Founders Fund co-invest with?
- Notre Dame Founders Fund most often shares deals with Early Light Ventures, Elevate Ventures, IrishAngels, among 40 tracked co-investors.
Similar investors
4DI Ventures was co-founded by repeat tech operator and ESET Southern Africa founder Justin Stanford, giving it unusually deep cybersecurity and software operating experience rather than a purely financial background, and originated from Stanford's own angel-investing experiments that directly led to both the firm's creation and the launch of the Silicon Cape Initiative. The firm explicitly describes its style as "nurture capital" with intensive, hands-on engagement, and Stanford is vocal about avoiding the "unicorn at all costs" mentality in African tech, instead emphasizing sustainable market readiness and fundamentals in a more conservative, durability-focused investment approach.
8VC is a venture capital firm investing across logistics, life sciences, healthcare, IT infrastructure, and government/defense, guided by its Smart Enterprise thesis focused on data integration and platform network effects.
AirTree Ventures runs Pathfinders, a free four-week in-person program in Sydney for young builders (high-school graduates up to age 23) to work on a real product, access the AirTree team and founders, and build a peer network.
Amadeus Capital Partners is a UK-based deep tech venture capital firm founded in 1997 that invests in technology companies from seed to growth stage. Since inception it has backed over 200 companies and raised more than $1.3 billion.
August Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in a small number of companies, providing hands-on support to entrepreneurs building their businesses.