Announcing our Fund 11: A new $600M fund in support of our enduring commitment to founders

The story of Foundation Capital is the story of Silicon Valley.

We share a legacy of constant reinvention, of standing alongside singular individuals who pull the future into the present. As a 30-year-old firm, we’ve lived through – and helped shape – the Valley’s most important inflection points: the dot-com era, social media’s rise, cloud computing, mobile, crypto, and AI.

Our story comes to life in the founders we back. While platforms and markets shift, what remains unchanged is our commitment to supporting entrepreneurs at the earliest stages. We embrace the raw potential of new ventures before there’s product or revenue – often before there’s a line of code. We’ve been told by more than a few of our founders that we believed in them before they fully believed in themselves.

What guides us now, and has guided us for thirty years, is our firm belief that true transformation rarely comes from incumbents adapting – it comes from outsiders who reimagine what’s possible. These builders see opportunities that others dismiss, envisioning futures that seem impossible – until they become inevitable.

Today, we’re proud to announce our Fund 11, a $600M vehicle focused on backing these extraordinary founders as early as possible.

A strategy built for day zero

For us, early doesn’t simply mean early-stage. It means being there at day zero, side by side with founders as they tackle their earliest and most fundamental challenges. Sometimes that means spending many months ideating with a founder at the whiteboard before their company has a name. Other times, it means recognizing the spark in a prototype built in a dorm room.

Our focus on day-zero companies demands deep, sustained engagement. 80% of our investments happen before a company has generated a single dollar of revenue. At this stage, founders don’t just need capital – they need allies who can help them navigate their first, most defining choices, from making key initial hires to securing design partners willing to take a chance on an unproven vision. We’ve built networks of talent, customers, and domain experts to support our founders with these trajectory-shifting decisions. On any given day, we’re strategists, recruiters, and sounding boards – whatever it takes.

Creating something from nothing is never straightforward. It’s messy, imperfect, and relentless work. But when you’ve been with a founder from the very beginning, you develop a deep sense for not only what they have been through, but also what they have yet to become. We stand by our founders for the full journey, not just the path to the next round.

From impossible to inevitable

Conviction, not consensus, motivates each of our investments. We look for what we call “zero-billion-dollar markets” – opportunities that don’t appear in industry forecasts because they’re only visible to those who see beyond what exists today. 

This approach requires the courage to look wrong before being proven right. Our first AI investment was in 2009, over a decade before ChatGPT brought AI to the mainstream. We’ve been investing in blockchain since 2014, unfazed by frigid crypto winters. In each case, what drives us is finding founders who share our conviction – who believe that something fundamental can work differently, better. 

The story of Foundation Capital continues to be written by these builders. Thirty years in, we remain steadfast in our role as their earliest believer and longest-term partner.

Invest in the right people, and the future follows. With our Fund 11 as fuel, we’re more excited than ever to partner with the next generation of founders and help them create what’s next.