Updated:
First Round Capital
Josh Kopelman’s First Round Capital wrote the first check into Uber and Square.
First Round Capital
Kopelman, a serial entrepreneur who sold Half.com to eBay, launched the San Francisco-based firm with an explicit bet that technology’s most valuable returns would accrue to investors willing to commit at idea-stage and seed. The firm operates from additional offices in New York and Philadelphia, and its partnership now includes former founders and operators Todd Jackson, Brett Berson, Hayley Barna, Liz Wessel, and Bill Trenchard. First Round targets initial round and Series A checks across enterprise, consumer, fintech, healthcare, and hardware. The firm’s portfolio history includes being first money into Roblox, where founder Dave Baszucki was on his eighty-seventh business-model iteration before raising, and Square, which Jack Dorsey tested against 140 reasons it would fail. Notion and Uber also appear in the firm’s disclosed track record. Investments span the United States with a concentration in technology hubs; the firm does not publicly disclose international deal activity. The team page lists over 40 professionals including dedicated recruiter, content, and go-to-market operations staff — a structural commitment unusual among early-stage venture managers. In May 2024, First Round promoted Hayley Barna and Liz Wessel to Partner, deepening its bench of operating partners who run founder-support functions alongside investment duties. The firm also maintains a venture platform that publishes proprietary frameworks for product-market fit and startup testing, turning internal operating knowledge into public IP. First Round’s structural differentiator is its platform-staffing ratio: more than a quarter of the named team works exclusively on post-investment support functions such as talent, editorial, marketing, and go-to-market enablement. This turns the firm into a hybrid of an early-stage fund and an in-house startup accelerator, designed to compress time-to-scale for pre-revenue portfolio companies without requiring formal accelerator cohorts.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2004
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Francisco
Corporate office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Additional offices
New York City, NY · Philadelphia, PA
Principals
Josh Kopelman
Partner
Todd Jackson
Partner
Brett Berson
Partner
Bill Trenchard
Partner
Liz Wessel
Partner
Hayley Barna
Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at First Round Capital?
Decisions are made by the firm’s six named partners: Josh Kopelman, Todd Jackson, Brett Berson, Bill Trenchard, Hayley Barna, and Liz Wessel. Each partner operates as both an investor and a hands-on resource for portfolio companies, with backgrounds spanning founding roles and C-suite operating experience. The firm does not disclose a formal investment committee structure.
How does First Round source proprietary deal flow?
First Round relies on a combination of founder referrals from its 20-year network and its public content platform, which publishes tactical startup-building frameworks. The firm’s brand as the first institutional money into companies like Uber and Roblox attracts early-stage founders who may not yet have formal fundraising processes. Partners are embedded in technical communities, but the firm does not disclose specifics around systematic sourcing or scouting.
Is First Round structured as a single family office or does it operate more like a venture firm?
First Round Capital is a traditional venture capital firm, not a family office. It raises funds from external limited partners and invests exclusively at the seed and early venture stages. The firm has no disclosed connection to a single-family wealth source.
Does First Round participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
The firm invests directly into startups rather than acting as a fund-of-funds. First Round focuses on being the first institutional check in a company’s lifecycle, typically at seed and Series A stages. There is no public evidence that it allocates capital to other venture funds.
What investment stages does First Round typically target?
First Round targets companies at the earliest stages — often when the founder has only an idea or a minimal prototype. The firm writes initial round and Series A checks, occasionally investing before a company has formally incorporated. Later-stage follow-on investments happen, but the primary deployment window is pre-revenue to early go-to-market.
Which sectors does First Round explicitly avoid?
The firm does not publish a formal exclusion list. However, its public materials and named portfolio companies emphasize technology-enabled businesses in enterprise software, consumer, fintech, digital health, and hardware. Hard-asset plays, infrastructure, and non-tech services do not appear in its disclosed focus areas.
Does First Round maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
First Round operates a venture capital firm, not a philanthropic foundation. No related charitable entity is disclosed on its website or in its public materials. Partners may engage in individual philanthropy, but that activity is not structurally integrated with the investment operation.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on private equity firms?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: