Motivate Venture Capital

Co-founders David Wieland and Lauren DeLuca serve as General Partners, each drawing on extensive operating and angel investment histories. Andy Will joined as a third General Partner after Motivate acquired his firm, Willpower VC. The partnership invests collectively, with DeLuca focusing on earliest-stage fintech and B2B software, Wieland contributing his 150-plus-company angel portfolio lens, and Will adding his fintech and HR-tech background.

Motivate sources through three overlapping channels: the personal networks of GPs who have backed more than 150 early-stage companies between them, their roots in the Notre Dame angel community via IrishAngels, and a fund-of-funds practice that invests in emerging pre-seed and seed VC managers. Those fund relationships generate referrals, co-investment invitations, and early looks at companies the underlying managers are backing.

Both. The firm makes direct pre-seed and seed equity investments, and explicitly invests in and supports emerging pre-seed and seed-stage VC funds. This dual route is described as a core part of the firm’s strategy, giving portfolio companies exposure to a broader investor base.

Motivate does not publish a negative sector list. Its current portfolio is concentrated in AI/ML, enterprise software, fintech, and marketplaces, suggesting a preference for software-driven business models in large markets.

Co-founder David Wieland co-founded and chaired IrishAngels, a Notre Dame-affiliated angel group that deploys more than $10 million per year into early-stage companies. He and co-founder Lauren DeLuca met through the Notre Dame network, and their co-investment relationship predates Motivate’s 2019 founding. Motivate itself is a separate venture capital firm, not a successor entity.