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How to Pitch CRV

How CRV leads seed and Series A rounds from its $750M twentieth fund, the 20% ownership it targets, the 24-hour yes any partner can give, and the sectors each general partner covers.

CRV at a glance

Checked against CRV's own pages and filings, November 2026

Firm
CRV, founded in 1970 as Charles River Ventures: "Leading Seed and Series A Rounds Since 1970." "More than 80 CRV backed companies have achieved public company status."1 Palo Alto, per its SEC filing.3
Funds
CRV XX: the firm "manages $750 million through its latest fund."2 The SEC Form D for CRV XX, LP was signed August 1, 2025 with a $750M offering and 80 investors at filing;3 the firm's counsel reports the fund "was oversubscribed and closed on its cap of $750 million in LP commitments" and "will be devoted to leading early stage and Series A rounds."4
Stages
"Exclusively dedicated to seed and Series A investments."2 Saar Gur: "I lead seed and Series A investments - often when the product is only days or weeks old."6
First check
Dollar size not published. "Check sizes targeting over 20 percent ownership stakes."2
Focus
"Technical founders building AI-native companies, cybersecurity solutions, developer tools."2 By partner: vertical AI, enterprise software and infrastructure (Murat Bicer); "AI across dev tools, infra and applications" (Reid Christian); consumer breakthroughs such as DoorDash, Ring, ClassPass and Patreon (Saar Gur).7,8,6
Geography
No policy is published. "The firm has been in the Bay Area for decades."1 It co-led Oak's seed, a Tel Aviv and San Francisco company, in 2026 and led Factorial's Series A in Barcelona.11,8
Partners
Saar Gur (general partner; consumer, "post-product, pre-traction"), Murat Bicer (general partner; vertical AI, enterprise software, infrastructure), Reid Christian (general partner; AI across dev tools, infrastructure and applications), James Green (general partner; cybersecurity and fintech), Caitlin Bolnick Rellas (general partner; vertical SaaS), Brittany Walker (general partner), Anja Zehfuss (investor; healthcare) and Nadine Fattah (investor; the application layer). The team page lists names without titles; titles are from the profiles.5
Recent seed leads
  • Deductive AI, $7.5M seed, led, November 20259
  • STLabs, $49M seed, co-led with ICONIQ, March 202610,7
  • Oak, $60M seed, co-led with Accel and Greylock, July 202611
Amounts are whole rounds, not CRV's share.
Process
"Any partner can say yes to a founder within 24 hours without investment committee approval," and it invests "rather than waiting for social proof."2 The team page: "We don't do 'deals.'"5
Programs
No accelerator, scout program or office hours. A library of about 200 founder guides on fundraising and company building.13
How to reach
No pitch form, submission email or contact page; the partner profiles carry no email or social links.6 The published invitations: "If you're building something non-obvious - a new behavior or a market that doesn't quite exist yet - please say hello" (Saar Gur)6 and "reach out to us to see if we'd be a good fit."2 Portfolio: crv.com/companies.12
  1. CRV: Home
  2. CRV: Early-stage VC
  3. SEC Form D: CRV XX, LP (August 2025)
  4. Proskauer: Proskauer advises CRV on formation of $750 million fund (August 2025)
  5. CRV: Team
  6. CRV: Saar Gur
  7. CRV: Murat Bicer
  8. CRV: Reid Christian
  9. Deductive AI: Introducing Deductive (November 2025)
  10. STLabs: Newsroom, $49 million seed (March 2026)
  11. Oak: Oak raises $60M in seed funding (company release, July 2026)
  12. CRV: Companies
  13. CRV: Content library

Compare 27 top firms side by side

CRV is the oldest firm in this series: Charles River Ventures was founded in 1970, and its homepage now reads "Leading Seed and Series A Rounds Since 1970." Its companies page lists DoorDash, Dropbox, Airtable, Datadog, Cursor, Vercel, Mercury, ClassPass, Cribl, Browserbase and Clerk. Its twentieth fund, CRV XX, closed at $750 million in 2025, smaller than its previous fund by the firm's own design.

What CRV Is

CRV describes itself as "exclusively dedicated to seed and Series A investments," and it publishes two numbers most firms keep to themselves. It targets "over 20 percent ownership stakes," so a CRV lead is a large check for the round. And "any partner can say yes to a founder within 24 hours without investment committee approval," which it pairs with investing "rather than waiting for social proof." Saar Gur's profile puts the stage in his own words: "I lead seed and Series A investments - often when the product is only days or weeks old."

Its 2026 seed record shows both ends of that range: a $7.5 million seed for Deductive AI, and two large co-led seeds, STLabs at $49 million (with ICONIQ) and Oak at $60 million (with Accel and Greylock).

What CRV Looks For

1. An insight that feels almost unfair. The homepage: "founders with depth, conviction and an insight that feels almost unfair." Gur's version: "I get excited about founders who know something the rest of the world doesn't yet."

2. Seeing it before the rest of the world. "For 55 years, we've backed founders who see something real before the rest of the world catches up."

3. Technical founders. The firm backs "technical founders building AI-native companies, cybersecurity solutions, developer tools," and says those founders "want direct partner engagement, fast decisions."

4. Post-product, pre-traction. Gur: "My sweet spot is post-product, pre-traction: I don't need huge adoption or obvious proof points to invest." The seed rounds it leads are often "when the product is only days or weeks old."

5. Craft over the current version. "Products will evolve a hundred times; dedication to craft is what carries a company through."

What CRV Needs to See

CRV publishes no revenue or usage thresholds, and its own words say it does not need them: not "huge adoption or obvious proof points," and not social proof from other investors. What it asks for instead is a product it can touch and an insight it can test. Gur's phrase for a consumer bet is "a sharp original insight wrapped in something people genuinely can't stop using." For the enterprise side, Murat Bicer's and Reid Christian's profiles describe vertical AI, enterprise software, infrastructure and developer tools. If your company is AI-native, technical and days or weeks past its first product, you are describing CRV's stated sweet spot.

How to Get a CRV Meeting

  • Pick the partner, then say hello: CRV has no pitch form, no submission email and no contact page, and its profiles carry no email addresses. What it publishes is each general partner's focus and an open invitation: "please say hello" and "reach out to us to see if we'd be a good fit"
  • Match the sector: consumer to Saar Gur; vertical AI, enterprise software and infrastructure to Murat Bicer; AI developer tools, infrastructure and applications to Reid Christian; cybersecurity and fintech to James Green; vertical SaaS to Caitlin Bolnick Rellas; healthcare to Anja Zehfuss
  • Portfolio founders and co-investors: CRV's 2026 seeds were shared with ICONIQ, Accel and Greylock, and its companies page names the partner behind many of its investments
  • Read its content library: about 200 founder guides on fundraising, which is both useful and a map of how the firm thinks

What Gets You Passed

  • Past Series A: the firm says it is exclusively seed and Series A
  • A round that cannot give 20%: CRV targets over 20 percent ownership, so a small allocation in a crowded round is not its model
  • Waiting on other investors: CRV invests "rather than waiting for social proof" and expects to decide inside a day; a process built around who else is in does not match

A second track: Pitch Protocol

Warm paths into a fund like CRV take time. Pitch Protocol is not a route into CRV; it is a second track you can run alongside your outreach. Applying is free, your own AI agent submits one application in about ten minutes with no web form, and the funds in our network whose thesis matches reach out to you directly. Apply to the First 100 Founders Cohort →

Founder FAQ

Which CRV partner should I pitch for my sector?

CRV's team page lists names only; each profile states a focus. Consumer: Saar Gur. Vertical AI, enterprise software and infrastructure: Murat Bicer. "AI across dev tools, infra and applications": Reid Christian. Cybersecurity and fintech: James Green. Vertical SaaS: Caitlin Bolnick Rellas. Healthcare: Anja Zehfuss. The application layer: Nadine Fattah.

Does CRV lead seed rounds?

Yes. Its homepage reads "Leading Seed and Series A Rounds Since 1970," its early-stage page says it is "exclusively dedicated to seed and Series A investments," and in the last year it led Deductive AI's $7.5M seed and co-led STLabs's $49M and Oak's $60M seeds.

What is CRV's typical check size?

CRV does not publish a dollar figure. It publishes the target instead: "check sizes targeting over 20 percent ownership stakes," per its early-stage page.

Does CRV invest outside the United States?

CRV publishes no geographic policy. Its homepage says the firm "has been in the Bay Area for decades"; in 2026 it co-led the seed of Oak, a Tel Aviv and San Francisco company, and Reid Christian's profile notes it led Factorial's Series A in Barcelona.

How long does CRV take to decide?

Its early-stage page says "any partner can say yes to a founder within 24 hours without investment committee approval," and that it invests "rather than waiting for social proof." No fuller process is published.

Does CRV take cold inbound?

CRV publishes no pitch form, submission email or contact page (its /contact path does not exist), and its partner profiles carry no email or social links. The published invitations are Saar Gur's "please say hello" and the early-stage page's "reach out to us to see if we'd be a good fit." It states no preference for warm intros.

What does CRV look for in a founder?

In its own words: "founders with depth, conviction and an insight that feels almost unfair" (homepage); "technical founders who want direct partner engagement, fast decisions" (early-stage page); and, for Saar Gur, a "post-product, pre-traction" company where he does not "need huge adoption or obvious proof points to invest."

Frequently Asked Questions

Does CRV take board seats or require an investment committee?

It publishes no board policy. On process it says any partner can say yes "without investment committee approval," per its early-stage page.

Can I apply through Pitch Protocol instead of waiting for a warm intro?

Pitch Protocol is not a back door into CRV, and we do not share which funds review an application before it is in. What it does: applying is free, your own AI agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any agent that can read a URL) submits one application in about ten minutes with no web form, and the funds in our network whose thesis matches reach out to you directly. Founders anywhere can apply. Keep working your warm path to CRV in parallel. Apply to the First 100 Founders Cohort →