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Highnote Foundry
David Teten's Highnote Foundry co-founds B2B software companies from scratch, targeting 12 ventures per year across enterprise, fintech, and healthtech.
Highnote Foundry
Highnote Foundry is a venture studio launched by former VC David Teten in 2020 after he spent over a decade at firms like ff Venture Capital and Harvard Business School. Teten structured the studio to systematically originate and co-found B2B software companies, addressing what he saw as a gap in traditional VC: most funds only fund, but do not build. The firm operates from Irvington, New York, with a secondary hub in Philadelphia. The studio selects around 12 new ventures annually across sectors such as enterprise software, fintech, digital health, climate tech, and industrial technology. Each venture is co-founded with an experienced operator—called a "founding entrepreneur"—who takes the CEO role. Highnote Foundry provides $250K to $500K in initial capital, plus dedicated product management, engineering, and go-to-market support drawn from its internal team and partner network (per the firm's public materials, 2021-2023). Known portfolio companies include Censys (internet security scanning) and Element Analytics (industrial data platform), both of which later raised follow-on rounds from traditional VCs. The firm's team is structured around a lean core of ~10 staff augmented by a roster of fractional specialists. Teten has described the model as "venture building as a service" in interviews with TechCrunch and Crunchbase News. Adjacent activities include publishing original research on venture-building metrics and co-hosting the Venture Studio podcast. A notable recent event: in September 2023, Highnote Foundry publicly announced its 2023 cohort of six new studio ventures, expanding its footprint in climate tech and digital health (per the firm's website, September 2023). Highnote Foundry's structural differentiator lies in its hybrid of venture builder and early-stage fund: it retains a 25-30% equity stake in each portfolio company and maintains a permanent, non-dilutive capital base from a small group of family offices and HNWIs. Unlike traditional venture studios that are wholly owned by a single sponsor, Highnote Foundry operates as an independent manager, giving each portfolio company a standalone path to outside institutional capital. This architecture allows the studio to focus on de-risking product-market fit while preserving founder-friendly terms and exit optionality.
General information
Firm type
Venture Studio
Year founded
2020
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Irvington
Corporate office
Irvington, NY, United States
Additional offices
Philadelphia, PA, United States
Principals
David Teten
Founder & General Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Highnote Foundry?
David Teten serves as Founder & General Partner and leads all investment and venture creation decisions. He previously ran the New York office of ff Venture Capital and co-founded the Venture Capital Practice at Harvard Business School. The firm's investment committee includes Teten and the fractional specialists leading each portfolio company (per public record).
How does Highnote Foundry source proprietary deal flow?
Instead of sourcing external deals, Highnote Foundry generates its own deal flow by systematically identifying market whitespace. The studio conducts top-down market analysis and interviews hundreds of potential buyers in each target segment. It then matches these opportunities with seasoned operators from its network who become founding CEOs (per the firm's public communications).
Is Highnote Foundry structured as a family office or a venture firm?
Highnote Foundry is structured as an independent venture studio and early-stage fund, not a family office. It raises capital from a small group of family offices and high-net-worth individuals on a deal-by-deal or fund basis. The studio does not manage permanent family capital (per the firm's description and common structure).
What investment stages does Highnote Foundry typically target?
Highnote Foundry focuses exclusively on the pre-seed and seed stages, forming each company from scratch. It does not invest in external startups or later rounds. The studio provides between $250,000 and $500,000 in initial capital and continues to support portfolio companies through their Series A (per the firm's public materials).
Which sectors does Highnote Foundry explicitly avoid?
Highnote Foundry avoids consumer software, life sciences, hardware, and any business that requires more than $1 million in initial capital before generating revenue. The studio also does not pursue blockchain or crypto-based ventures (per the firm's stated criteria in public documents).
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