Outcast Ventures

Profile

Outcast Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco, established to focus on the founding teams rather than just ideas. Co-founded by Andy Chen and Amy Lin, the venture has a unique approach to form partnerships and investments through their Catalyst program, stressing the importance of co-founder selection. Andy previously launched and co-led venture initiatives at Coatue and held a pivotal role at Kleiner Perkins, while Amy was the Chief Product Officer at NFX and a seasoned entrepreneur with a background at Microsoft.

Outcast Ventures invests primarily in the pre-seed and seed stages, offering capital in the range of $500K to $1M. Their investment scope is broad, focusing primarily on the formation of strong, cohesive founding teams. The firm operates out of its office in San Francisco's South Park and pairs their investment with $1M+ in cloud and compute credits for newly formed companies through their Catalyst program.

Some notable investments by Outcast Ventures include companies like Figma, Scale AI, and Chime, which have achieved significant growth and market presence. Their strategic focus on team development rather than specific industry niches contributes to their diverse portfolio.