Readout Capital

All investment decisions are made by the two managing partners, Jordan Jacobs and David Wu. The firm does not employ associates or junior investors, keeping the decision-making concentrated with the individuals who built the thesis. Wu's background is in Stanford's AI Lab, while Jacobs brings operational experience from an ML startup acquisition.

Readout sources deals inside research labs before founders incorporate. The partners maintain direct relationships with principal investigators, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral researchers at Stanford, MIT, and adjacent institutions, identifying teams with defensible scientific IP that has not yet been packaged for venture investment.

Readout has not publicly disclosed a sector exclusion list, but its investment activity clusters tightly around applied AI, enterprise software, digital health, and fintech. The firm has not made known investments in hardware, consumer internet, climate tech, or capital-intensive industrial businesses, which fall outside its software-plus-science mandate.

Readout currently operates as a single-fund structure without disclosed feeder vehicles, co-investment funds, or philanthropic sidecars. The firm's small partnership size and concentrated portfolio strategy suggest it runs one primary vehicle at a time, though fund documentation is not publicly available.