Craft Ventures is a U.S.-centric software investor that backs companies from Pre-Seed through Growth, with a strong concentration in B2B SaaS, infrastructure, security, fintech, and enterprise marketplaces. The firm is unusually explicit about its operating thresholds, using a public metrics framework centered on growth, sales efficiency, capital efficiency, and engagement to identify companies that can become durable category leaders.
Evaluation weights
How much weight this firm places on each dimension. Totals 100%.
Revenue, growth, and unit economics
Size, timing, and competitive landscape
Founder experience and execution ability
Differentiation and technical quality
- Favors efficient growth over growth-at-any-cost
- Strong bias toward high-margin B2B software over tech-enabled services
- More conviction when traction data already shows repeatability
- Prefers companies with a credible path to category leadership, not niche point solutions
Pitch difficulty
How hard it is to get a meeting and close funding from this firm.
- Funded / yr
- 33Deals closed in a typical year.
- Led / yr
- 7Rounds led in the last 12 months.
- Pitches / yr
- ~3848Decks reviewed in a typical year.
- Acceptance rate
- 0.9%Share of pitches that get funded.
Estimated — public data is not fully disclosed.
Why it's hard
- Metrics are gating, especially Magic Number, Burn Multiple, growth, and engagement
- The firm avoids low-margin and services-heavy models outright
- Preference for category-leading B2B software narrows fit materially
- Standards rise meaningfully from Seed to Series A/B as efficiency must improve
Craft is approachable across stages, but the bar is high because the firm uses explicit quantitative thresholds and strongly prefers software businesses with elite growth efficiency. Companies that miss on burn, gross margin, sales efficiency, or retention are unlikely to advance, even with a strong narrative.
Green flags
What drives a yes for this firm.
- Evidence of efficient growth, especially strong MoM revenue growth at seed and strong sales efficiency at Series A+
- High-margin recurring-revenue model with real software leverage
- A path to category leadership in a large enterprise market
- Founders who execute quickly through the Wilderness Period and cross the Penny Gap
- Clear product engagement signals such as strong retention or DAU/MAU for freemium/PLG products
Red flags
What kills deals and gets a fast no.
- Low gross margins or a business that looks like tech-enabled services
- Weak sales efficiency, especially low Magic Number or poor CAC payback
- Burn that is too high relative to net new ARR growth
- High churn or shallow product engagement
- A market story without evidence of scalable recurring-revenue economics
How to win
Patterns that lead to successful pitches.
- Show a tight metrics dashboard with MoM growth, burn, sales efficiency, retention, and engagement
- Frame the company as a high-margin software business with real operating leverage
- Explain clearly how the business crosses the Penny Gap and becomes repeatable
- Demonstrate category leadership potential, not just a useful product
- Pitch an execution-oriented team that understands both product velocity and capital discipline
Fund strategy & identity
Who they are and how they operate.
- Invest from Pre-Seed to Growth through dedicated early and growth vehicles
- Concentrate on recurring-revenue, high-margin software and software-like marketplace models
- Use SaaSGrid-style benchmarks to evaluate PMF, go-to-market efficiency, and burn discipline
- Lead and double down on winners as data strengthens conviction
- Avoid low-margin tech-enabled services that lack software operating leverage
Firm identity
Investment focus
Industries, themes, and typical ARR expectations.
Industries
Investment themes
Typical check by stage
Typical ARR by stage
Investment thesis
Core beliefs and strategy behind their investing approach.
Craft Ventures invests primarily in B2B software companies—including SaaS, data and infrastructure platforms, developer tools, security, fintech, and enterprise marketplaces—that are positioned to become category leaders. The firm believes high‑growth, high‑margin, recurring‑revenue models compound value over time, especially when a company can lock in a defensible market position. Generative AI is highlighted as a new platform wave opening additional product opportunities for these software businesses. Craft applies a public, metrics‑driven playbook (the SaaSGrid framework) to evaluate growth, sales efficiency, capital efficiency, and user engagement at each stage. The firm’s fund structure (early‑stage Craft IV and growth‑stage Growth II) enables support from Angel/Seed through Series A/B and later growth rounds. Geographically, the focus is U.S.‑centric, though the portfolio contains a handful of global software franchises. Craft avoids “tech‑enabled services” that lack true SaaS operating leverage, as well as low‑margin models that do not meet their gross‑margin and efficiency standards. The core belief is that durable value is created when a company can achieve and sustain category leadership with a scalable, recurring‑revenue engine.
Decision patterns
How they evaluate and make investment decisions.
Craft Ventures makes investment decisions through a data‑driven, metrics‑focused framework that treats growth as the primary proof of product‑market fit. At the Series‑A level the firm looks for a Magic Number greater than 1, a CAC payback period that is reasonable, and a Burn Multiple under 2 (under 1 is considered exceptional). Engagement metrics such as DAU/MAU around 40% for freemium products are also required. Early‑stage (seed) investments are evaluated during the "Wilderness Period" – the phase between MVP launch and the first repeatable sales, which Craft calls crossing the "Penny Gap." The firm expects month‑over‑month growth of roughly 20% below $1M ARR and 10% above it as a signal of strong traction. While Craft emphasizes outstanding founders and a bias toward strong teams, traction and efficiency metrics are gating; deal‑breakers include low gross margins (non‑software businesses), weak sales efficiency (low Magic Number, high CAC), high churn, or a Burn Multiple that signals uncontrolled burn. The combination of quantitative thresholds and a preference for teams that can execute in high‑margin B2B SaaS shapes every investment decision.
Risk appetite
Craft Ventures displays a disciplined but assertive risk posture. It leads rounds when its quantitative thresholds—such as a Burn Multiple under 2 and a Magic Number above 1—are satisfied, exemplified by its $100 M Series A lead in Upwind Security. At the seed stage, the firm is willing to back companies still navigating the "Wilderness Period," provided they show early revenue (the "Penny Gap") and solid month‑over‑month growth, but it expects rapid learning loops and swift improvement in efficiency metrics as the company matures. As startups progress to Series A and beyond, Craft raises the bar on capital efficiency, demanding lower Burn Multiples and stronger sales metrics. Overall, the firm prefers to lead when data signals product‑market fit and efficient growth, while avoiding capital‑inefficient, low‑margin, or poorly performing businesses.
Notable investments
Key portfolio companies and why they fit the thesis.
- OnehouseLeadOpen, interoperable data lakehouse platform in big-data infrastructure aligns with Craft's focus on B2B data tooling; Craft led the $35M Series B.
- SupabaseLeadOpen-source Postgres backend used by developers worldwide; a category-defining developer platform that fits Craft's developer-infrastructure thesis; Craft co-led the $80M Series C with Peak XV.
- Upwind SecurityLeadeBPF-driven cloud security platform for enterprises; fits Craft's security and infrastructure focus; Craft led the $100M Series A.
- KnockLeadDeveloper notifications infrastructure (APIs/components) squarely in the dev-tools/SaaS space; Craft led the $12M Series A.
- SecodaLeadAI-powered data discovery/search improving analytics workflows; fits Craft's data-tooling thesis; Craft led the $14M Series A.
- EchoMarkLeadInformation-protection solution with invisible watermarking; enterprise security/SaaS aligns with Craft's focus; Craft led the $10M seed round.
- RoboflowLeadComputer-vision developer tooling that enables teams to build CV models; core dev-tools thesis; Craft led the $20M Series A (2021).
- Daylight SecurityLeadManaged Agentic Security Services (MASS) for AI-driven SOC workflows; enterprise security + AI aligns with Craft's focus; Craft led the $33M Series A (Nov 2025), bringing total to $40M.
- ParadeDBLeadPostgres-first search infrastructure; fits Craft's developer-infrastructure and Postgres ecosystem bets; Craft led the Series A.
- Oasis SecurityLeadAgentic/non-human identity security platform at enterprise scale; AI-era security fits Craft's thesis; Craft led the $120M Series B (March 2026).
Co-invested with
Other firms in this catalog who've backed the same companies.
No catalog overlap found yet. Co-investors are derived from each firm's notable investments — connections may surface as more firms are added.
Partners
Full firm roster — key partners, partners, and the wider team.
Key partners
David Sacks
Co-founder and Partner
Craft Ventures
David Sacks is co-founder and Partner at Craft Ventures, a longtime founder-investor known for PayPal, Yammer, and a focus on product-led and bottom-up SaaS companies.
Brian Murray
Partner & COO
Craft Ventures
Brian Murray is Partner & COO at Craft Ventures, where he invests and oversees firm operations after earlier leadership roles at B2B SaaS startups including Yammer and Zenefits.
Michael Robinson
Partner, Head of Investment Team
Craft Ventures
Michael Robinson is Partner and Head of the Investment Team at Craft Ventures, focused on horizontal and vertical B2B SaaS, infrastructure, cybersecurity, dev tools, and vertical SaaS.
Mike Marg
Partner
Craft Ventures
Mike Marg is a Partner at Craft Ventures based in San Francisco, focused on Generative AI, APIs, and Enterprise SaaS, with prior GTM leadership roles at Dropbox, Slack, and Clearbit.
Lainy Painter Singh
Partner
Craft Ventures
Lainy Painter Singh is a Partner on Craft Ventures' investment team. Her official profile says she focuses on platforms for complex vertical markets including real estate, healthcare, education, construction, and fintech.
Mark Woolway
President
Craft Ventures
Mark Woolway is President of Craft Ventures and a partner on the investment team. He leads Craft’s operations, finance, legal, fundraising, and LP relations, with prior executive experience at Zenefits, Intercom, Yammer, Clarium Capital, and PayPal.
Partners
Team
Taylor Durand
Investor
Craft Ventures
Craft Investor focused on frontier tech, infrastructure, physical AI, vertical SaaS, and defense.
Kevin Gabura
Principal
Craft Ventures
Craft Principal investing across cybersecurity, infrastructure, and application software.
Josiah Joner
Analyst
Craft Ventures
Craft investment analyst based in San Francisco.
Sean Whitney
Principal
Craft Ventures
Craft Principal investing in AI, creative tools, developer tools, APIs, and bottom-up SaaS.
Public voice
Notable statements and public positions.
- We focus on investing in B2B software companies because these are high‑growth, high‑margin businesses with recurring revenue… once these companies achieve category leadership, they are hard to dislodge and tend to compound value over time.
- The best companies don’t have to spend a lot of money to grow fast. Recessions have a way of separating the wheat from the chaff.
- For startups seeking a Series A funding round, the old benchmark used to be $1 million in ARR. But recently, the threshold has been around $500k ARR, as rounds get preempted and happen earlier.
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