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Highland Ventures Group
JD Ross and Peter Bell's Boulder-based early-stage firm investing in enterprise software, AI, and hard tech outside coastal orthodoxy.
Highland Ventures Group
Highland Ventures Group launched in 2020 in Boulder, Colorado, led by Managing Partner Peter Bell and General Partner JD Ross. Both partners cut their teeth at Atomic, the San Francisco venture-studio behind Hims & Hers and Bungalow, before relocating to build a firm purposefully distanced from Sand Hill Road. The partnership emerged from a conviction that the next generation of durable enterprise and deep-tech companies would be built outside the Bay Area echo chamber, and that Boulder — with its density of engineering talent from University of Colorado and the nearby national labs — was an undercapitalized starting point. HVG runs a concentrated pre-seed and seed strategy, typically writing initial checks of $500K to $2M into companies at the formation stage. The firm invests across enterprise SaaS, applied AI/ML, climate and industrial tech, mobility, and healthcare IT. Rather than running a standardized program, HVG operates more like a small, high-touch partnership, with Ross and Bell often serving as the primary go-to-market sparring partners for founding teams in the 18 months following their first close. The geographic thesis is explicit: while the firm reviews select deals in peer markets like Salt Lake City and Denver, over two-thirds of its capital historically deploys into Colorado-headquartered companies. Confirmed portfolio positions, per public filings and the firm's communications, include JumpCloud (enterprise device management) and Houseware (revenue analytics). The firm remains deliberately small — team size stays below 10 to preserve decision velocity. HVG does not publicly disclose total AUM or fund sizes, though Form D filings suggest a first institutional fund vehicle was raised in 2021. Adjacent vehicles or separate philanthropic structures have not been disclosed. In June 2023, the firm opened applications for its second cohort of the HVG Founder Fellowship, a no-equity program providing stipends and mentorship to technical founders in the Mountain West. HVG's structural distinctiveness is rooted in a geographic arbitrage that has only sharpened since remote work normalized distributed founding. By operating a small, partner-heavy fund in a market where institutional seed capital is still scarce relative to the Bay Area, the firm can build concentrated ownership positions in deals that would be hypercompetitive on the coasts. The Boulder anchor positions HVG to source from University of Colorado engineering graduates and the spinout ecosystems of NIST and NOAA — a talent pipeline that larger coastal funds rarely cultivate directly.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
2020
AUM
< $50M (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Boulder
Corporate office
Boulder, CO, United States
Principals
Peter Bell
Managing Partner
JD Ross
General Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does Highland Ventures Group source deals differently from coastal seed funds?
HVG's primary sourcing edge is geographic. The firm is based in Boulder, Colorado, and focuses the majority of its capital on Colorado-headquartered startups, a market with strong engineering density from the University of Colorado, NIST, and NOAA labs but far less institutional seed competition than the Bay Area, New York, or Boston. Peter Bell and JD Ross have made this a deliberate part of their strategy since relocating from San Francisco in 2020, and they operate a Founder Fellowship to surface technical founders before they formally raise.
Who makes investment decisions at Highland Ventures Group?
Investment decisions are made by Managing Partner Peter Bell and General Partner JD Ross. The firm deliberately stays under 10 people to preserve decision speed and depth of partner involvement, with both partners typically acting as the primary go-to-market sounding boards for portfolio founders during the 18 months after a first close.
What check size and stage does Highland Ventures Group typically target?
HVG writes pre-seed and seed-stage checks, generally ranging from $500,000 to $2 million, into company formations. The firm leads or co-leads a meaningful share of its rounds and prefers concentrated ownership positions rather than small passive allocations, a posture enabled by the thinner institutional seed market in its core Colorado geography.
Does Highland Ventures Group invest outside of Colorado?
The firm reviews select deals in adjacent Mountain West markets like Denver and Salt Lake City, but public filings and portfolio disclosures indicate that over two-thirds of HVG's capital has historically been deployed into Colorado-headquartered companies. The Colorado focus is an explicit part of the firm's strategy rather than a passive outcome.
What is the Highland Ventures Group Founder Fellowship?
The HVG Founder Fellowship, launched in 2022, is a no-equity program providing stipends and mentorship to pre-seed technical founders based in the Mountain West. It runs in cohorts, with applications for the second cohort opening in June 2023, and serves dual purposes as community-building and early-access sourcing for the firm.
What sectors does Highland Ventures Group explicitly avoid?
HVG's stated focus is enterprise SaaS, applied artificial intelligence, climate and industrial technology, mobility, and healthcare IT. The firm does not publicly describe consumer social, crypto, or media/content as areas of active pursuit, and its portfolio — which includes companies like JumpCloud and Houseware — reflects a sustained preference for enterprise and deep-tech verticals.
How is Highland Ventures Group related to Atomic, the venture studio?
Both founding partners, Peter Bell and JD Ross, previously worked at Atomic — the San Francisco-based venture studio that co-founded companies like Hims & Hers and Bungalow. They left Atomic to relocate to Boulder and start HVG in 2020. While the two firms share a venture-studio heritage and founders who understand company-building at the formation stage, they are operationally separate entities with distinct investment teams, geographies, and fund structures.
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.
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