Flybridge

Day-to-day investment decisions for the core seed fund sit with General Partners Chip Hazard, Jeff Bussgang, and Jesse Middleton. The firm describes its decision-making as high-conviction but not unanimous, meaning any partner can lead a deal without requiring full partnership consensus. Venture Partners Dorothy Chang and Anna Palmer invest through the firm and lead Next Wave funds but are not listed among the GPs who lead core seed rounds.

Next Wave is a set of independent pre-seed funds, each led by an investment partner – typically a founder or operator – who originates and leads investments up to $250,000. XFactor Ventures, co-founded with Flybridge, focuses on women-founded companies and has made over 100 investments. Next Wave NYC, run by Head of Platform Cheraé Robinson, concentrates on consumer AI and underrepresented founders. Flybridge’s general partners can then lead priced seed rounds in the same companies if they show breakout potential.

Announced in May 2024, Flybridge 2025 is the firm’s seventh core seed fund and is sized at $100 million. The firm explicitly frames it as an AI-only vehicle organized around three layers: AI infrastructure and developer platforms, agentic business applications, and native AI for human potential. Prior funds invested across broader technology sectors, but this vintage concentrates the firm’s own commentary and portfolio construction entirely on the AI transition.

Flybridge operates a direct investment model, writing pre-seed, seed, and occasional post-Series A checks into operating companies. The firm does not market a fund-of-funds product or LP stakes in third-party venture funds. However, the Next Wave structure functions similarly to an internal venture partner program where Flybridge supplies capital and infrastructure while independent partners lead the pre-seed vehicles.

The firm splits deployment into three bands: pre-seed up to $250,000 through Next Wave funds, seed checks of $1 million to $3 million led by general partners, and post-Series A follow-on investments of $10 million or more reserved for existing portfolio companies. The firm states it leads or co-leads seed rounds, and more than twice as many of its portfolio companies graduate from seed to Series A compared with industry averages.

General Partner Jeff Bussgang serves on the HBS faculty, where he teaches Launching Technology Ventures, a course on entrepreneurship and AI. That academic role gives the firm a direct pipeline to MBA founders and student-run startups. Multiple team members, including Chip Hazard and Dorothy Chang, hold degrees from Harvard, though Bussgang’s teaching position is the ongoing institutional link.

Flybridge does not disclose a dedicated philanthropic foundation. However, the firm operates community-building programs such as the First-Time Founders Food Club in NYC and convenes enterprise AI forums that bring together founders and large-company executives. These sit under the platform team rather than a separate non-profit entity.