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SWAN Venture Fund
Seattle-based SWAN Venture Fund emerged in 2015 from a group of 24 Pacific Northwest operators who had built and sold their own companies.
SWAN Venture Fund
Seattle-based SWAN Venture Fund emerged in 2015 from a group of 24 Pacific Northwest operators who had built and sold their own companies. The firm has since expanded to 70 members, each an active angel investor with hands-on experience in AI, data science, developer tools, startup finance, law, and intellectual property. Managing member Peter Weiss brings over four decades of Wall Street M&A, LBO, and corporate finance expertise, while Business Director Nate Doran manages daily operations and fund growth from the original 2015 vehicle through each successive three-year fund cycle. The fund operates as a single-source pre-seed and seed vehicle, providing what the firm describes as the first major outside investment — typically $200,000 to $1.2 million — into startups concentrated in the Pacific Northwest and occasionally across the US and Canada. SWAN targets four principal domains: B2B software, market-accelerating technologies, capital-efficient hard-science ventures in diagnostics and medical devices, and scalable hardware. The firm's investment posture is built on discovery through process, embedding partners within portfolio companies to supply founder-level support across business development, product management, financial oversight, key-person recruitment, operations, marketing, and M&A strategy. Each fund organizes a rotating community of operators whose direct involvement is the primary conduit for post-deployment guidance. SWAN has grown from 24 to 70 members across successive three-year fund cycles, deliberately recruiting operator-angels rather than passive limited partners. The firm maintains no additional offices beyond Seattle, focusing its entire deployment capacity on the Pacific Northwest ecosystem. Its membership functions as more than a limited-partner base — the group collectively leads rounds and participates in company building, with direct introductions and interim operating support woven into the investment model. No separate philanthropic vehicle or formal co-investment club has been disclosed. Structurally, SWAN functions as a hybrid between a formal venture fund and an organized angel syndicate — 70 individual investors pooling into a three-year blind-pool vehicle that writes lead-sized checks at the pre-seed stage. This architecture resolves a specific capital-stack gap in Seattle, giving local hard-science and enterprise-software founders a single institutional entry point where fragmented angel networks would otherwise dominate.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
2015
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Seattle
Corporate office
Seattle, Washington, United States
Principals
Peter Weiss
Managing Member
Nate Doran
Business Director
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at SWAN Venture Fund?
Managing member Peter Weiss leads the investment process, drawing on over forty years of finance and operational experience from Wall Street M&A through decades of CFO advisory work in the Pacific Northwest. Business Director Nate Doran oversees fund operations and daily management. The broader 70-person membership — all active angel investors — participates in sourcing, diligence, and post-investment company building.
How does SWAN source its deals in the Pacific Northwest?
SWAN's deal flow runs through the personal and professional networks of its 70 operator-angels in Seattle and the surrounding region. Because its members are former founders, operators, and technical executives, most companies reach the fund through direct relationships rather than broad inbound application. The firm does not disclose a dedicated outbound origination function, relying instead on the reach of its member base.
Is SWAN Venture Fund structured as a traditional venture firm or more like an angel syndicate?
SWAN occupies a hybrid position: it forms a new blind-pool fund approximately every three years, each of which pools capital from 70 individual investors who are themselves active angels. The fund writes formal lead-sized pre-seed and seed checks, but its membership base operates in practice like an organized syndicate — the capital sits inside a fund vehicle, while the sourcing, diligence, and portfolio support function through individual angel networks.
Does SWAN Venture Fund make follow-on investments beyond the initial check?
SWAN explicitly describes itself as providing the first major outside investment, with initial checks ranging from $200,000 to $1.2 million. It does not publicly commit to specific pro-rata or follow-on reserve strategies. The firm's publicly available information does not outline a structured follow-on reserve allocation per company.
Which sectors does SWAN explicitly avoid?
SWAN's public materials list four target areas — B2B software, market-accelerating technologies, capital-efficient hard-science (diagnostics, medical devices), and scalable hardware — which implicitly rule out consumer-focused internet startups, retail, and most service-based business models found outside the technical spaces the fund targets. SWAN does not publish a formal exclusions list.
Where does the underlying capital come from?
SWAN's capital originates entirely from its 70 individual members, each an angel investor in the Pacific Northwest who joined the fund through a recruiting process tied to each three-year vehicle. The firm has not disclosed any institutional limited partners, family offices, or fund-of-funds on its cap table. The wealth of individual members is not disclosed.
What is SWAN's posture on co-investments alongside external venture firms?
SWAN states that it often leads early pre-seed and seed rounds, but it has not publicly outlined a formal co-investment policy or disclosed specific co-investment partners. The geographic focus and check size suggest coordination with other Seattle-area funds and angel networks, though no examples are publicly cited.
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