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How to Pitch Initialized Capital

How Initialized Capital leads pre-seed and seed rounds, what its SEC filings say about Fund VII, the founders it says it backs, and how little else it publishes.

Initialized at a glance

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

Firm
"Initialized is an early stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco." Founded by Y Combinator partners, including YC's president and CEO Garry Tan, "to write follow on checks into the YC companies they were working with"; "In 2016 we became a standalone firm."1 Founding year and assets under management not published.
Funds
Initialized VII L.P.: a $150M target filed with the SEC in September 2025; the amended Form D of September 18, 2026 reports $114.35M sold and $35.65M remaining.2 Fund VI raised $520M (December 2021).3 The firm has not announced Fund VII on its own site.
Stages
"Leading pre-seed and seed investment rounds, working closely with the founders on their path to product market fit and a Series A." It "makes larger investments into fewer companies."1
First check
Not published. No check size or ownership target appears on the site.
Focus
"We invest across all sectors because we believe founders know best what the technologies and markets of the future will be."1 Homepage: "Backing founders obsessed with hard problems."4 Portfolio filters: AI, Consumer, Crypto, Defense, Energy, Enterprise, Fintech, Hardware, Healthcare and Biotech, Robotics, Space.5
Geography
Not published beyond "based in San Francisco."1
Partners
Brett Gibson (managing partner; the SEC filing names him managing member of Fund VII's general partner), Kim-Mai Cutler, Abdul Ly and Zoe Perret (partners), and Garry Tan (founder and board partner). The people page lists names and titles only, with links to LinkedIn and X; no profile pages or focus areas are published.6,2
Recent seed leads
  • Feanix, seed, led, December 2025 (size not stated)7
  • The Bland Company, pre-seed, led, February 2026 (size not stated)8
  • Enhanced Radar, $7M round, led, May 20269
  • Arcturus, $8M seed, led, June 202610
  • Robocurve, $10M seed, led, September 202611
Amounts are whole rounds, not Initialized's share.
Programs
"We run dedicated programs for the portfolio in talent and culture, communications and storytelling, and raising follow-on capital."1 No accelerator, scout program or office hours are published.
How to reach
Not published. No email address, pitch form or inbound statement appears on the site; /contact resolves to the about page, which says "we'd love to hear about what you're working on" without a method.1
Process
Not published.
  1. Initialized: About
  2. SEC Form D/A: Initialized VII L.P. (September 2026)
  3. SEC Form D: Initialized VI L.P. (December 2021)
  4. Initialized: Home
  5. Initialized: Portfolio
  6. Initialized: People
  7. Initialized: Feanix (December 2025)
  8. Initialized: The Bland Company (February 2026)
  9. Initialized: Initialized leads $7M round for Enhanced Radar (May 2026)
  10. Initialized: Arcturus (June 2026)
  11. Robocurve: Seed raise (September 2026)

Compare 27 top firms side by side

Initialized Capital started inside Y Combinator: its founders were YC partners, Garry Tan among them, writing follow-on checks into the companies they were already working with. It became a standalone firm in 2016 and its portfolio page now lists more than 200 companies, Coinbase, Algolia, Clever, Clipboard Health, Athelas, Ava Labs, CoinTracker, Blend and Astranis among them. It keeps, in its own words, "Y Combinator's founder-centric ethos."

What Initialized Is

The about page states the model in one sentence: "leading pre-seed and seed investment rounds, working closely with the founders on their path to product market fit and a Series A." It describes the shift in 2016 as making "larger investments into fewer companies," and its 2026 record shows it leading: Robocurve's $10 million seed, Arcturus's $8 million seed, Enhanced Radar's $7 million round, The Bland Company's pre-seed and Feanix's seed.

The fund behind those checks is smaller than the last one. SEC filings show Initialized VII with a $150 million target, $114 million of it sold by September 2026, against a $520 million Fund VI in 2021. The firm has not commented on the change, and it has not announced Fund VII on its site. For a founder the practical reading is that each lead check is a larger share of a smaller fund, so the "fewer companies" line is now a constraint, not a slogan.

What Initialized Looks For

1. Hard problems. The homepage headline is "Backing founders obsessed with hard problems," and the about page repeats it: "Initialized is looking for founders working on hard problems."

2. Net new capability. From the partner's post on The Bland Company: "the investments I have the deepest conviction in are the ones building net new capability." A better version of an existing product is not what that sentence describes.

3. Obsession plus clarity. The Arcturus post describes the founder it backed as "obsessed, strategically clear, and willing to do the unsexy work." That is the firm's own portrait of the founder it wants.

4. Leaning into the moment. "The type of founder we work with is leaning into this moment," the about page says, in the context of what new technology makes possible now.

5. Any sector. "We invest across all sectors because we believe founders know best what the technologies and markets of the future will be." Its portfolio filters run from AI and enterprise to defense, energy, robotics and space.

What Initialized Needs to See

Initialized publishes no traction thresholds, no check size and no process. Its stated job, taking a company from pre-seed or seed to product-market fit and a Series A, tells you what it is underwriting: the path, not the metrics. The 2026 leads were a radar company (Enhanced Radar), a robotics company (Robocurve), a biotech (Feanix) and a defense-adjacent hardware company (Arcturus, co-invested by Toyota Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Discovery), so "hard problems" in practice has meant physical and scientific products as often as software.

How to Get an Initialized Meeting

  • No published route: the site carries no email, no pitch form and no statement about cold inbound; its contact link goes to the about page
  • The partners on LinkedIn and X: the people page links each investor's profiles. Brett Gibson is the managing partner; Kim-Mai Cutler, Abdul Ly and Zoe Perret are partners; Garry Tan is founder and board partner. No focus areas are published, so read their posts and the companies they have written about
  • The YC lineage: the firm was built to back YC companies and its founder runs YC. Founders in the portfolio, and YC alumni, are the network it came from
  • Co-investors: its 2026 rounds were shared with Y Combinator, Notable Capital, Decasonic, Toyota Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, 1517 and Wireframe Ventures

What Gets You Passed

  • An incremental product: the firm's own conviction line is "net new capability"
  • Past seed: it leads pre-seed and seed and works toward the Series A; it is not the Series A lead
  • A round that needs a filler: "larger investments into fewer companies" describes a lead, and every 2026 round on its site was one it led

A second track: Pitch Protocol

Warm paths into a fund like Initialized take time. Pitch Protocol is not a route into Initialized; 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 Initialized partner should I pitch for my sector?

Initialized does not publish partner focus areas. Its people page lists Brett Gibson (managing partner), Kim-Mai Cutler, Abdul Ly and Zoe Perret (partners) and Garry Tan (founder and board partner), with links to LinkedIn and X and no profile pages. The firm's blog posts are signed by the partner who led the deal, which is the best published guide to who covers what.

Does Initialized lead seed rounds?

Yes. Its about page says it is "leading pre-seed and seed investment rounds," and in the last year it led the seeds of Robocurve ($10M), Arcturus ($8M) and Feanix, a $7M round for Enhanced Radar, and The Bland Company's pre-seed.

What is Initialized's typical check size?

Initialized does not publish a check size or ownership target. Its about page says only that since 2016 it "makes larger investments into fewer companies." Its Fund VII has a $150M target per its SEC filing, down from a $520M Fund VI.

Does Initialized invest outside the United States?

Initialized publishes no geographic policy. Its about page says only that it is "based in San Francisco."

How long does Initialized take to decide?

Initialized does not publish a decision process or timeline. Its stated model is working with founders "on their path to product market fit and a Series A."

Does Initialized take cold inbound?

Initialized publishes no email address, pitch form or inbound policy; its contact link resolves to the about page, which says "we'd love to hear about what you're working on" without naming a method. The partners link their LinkedIn and X profiles from the people page.

What does Initialized invest in?

Any sector: "We invest across all sectors because we believe founders know best what the technologies and markets of the future will be" (about page). Its portfolio filters cover AI, consumer, crypto, defense, energy, enterprise, fintech, hardware, healthcare and biotech, robotics and space, and its homepage headline is "Backing founders obsessed with hard problems."

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Initialized's connection to Y Combinator?

It was founded by YC partners, including Garry Tan, who is now YC's president and CEO and remains Initialized's founder and board partner, "to write follow on checks into the YC companies they were working with." It became a standalone firm in 2016, per its about page.

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

Pitch Protocol is not a back door into Initialized, 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 Initialized in parallel. Apply to the First 100 Founders Cohort →