Touchdown Ventures

Each corporate venture program Touchdown manages has its own investment committee, combining Touchdown's partners with senior executives from the sponsoring corporation. David Horowitz and Scott Lenet typically sit on these committees alongside the corporate parent's designated representatives, giving the corporate partner genuine governance over the portfolio while Touchdown's investors lead sourcing, diligence, and board service.

Touchdown leverages its corporate sponsors' brand and channel relationships to generate deal flow that standalone venture firms rarely see. A startup selling into food manufacturing, for example, will take a call from Kellogg's venture arm far more readily than from a generalist seed fund. Touchdown investors also maintain personal networks in their office cities — Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — and co-invest regularly with independent venture funds that share deal flow.

Touchdown is an asset manager that operates outsourced corporate venture capital programs for Fortune 500 companies — it is not a family office. It functions like a venture firm in its day-to-day investment operations — sourcing, diligence, portfolio management — but its capital comes from corporate balance sheets and strategic budgets, not blind-pool LP commitments. Touchdown's investors earn carry on their portfolio outcomes, aligning incentives with the venture talent market.

Touchdown's corporate venture programs overwhelmingly execute direct equity investments in startups. The firm will occasionally commit to early-stage venture funds as a strategic LP when doing so gives the corporate partner early visibility into relevant deal flow, but fund commitments are a secondary activity. The core model is direct check-writing into companies where the corporate parent can gain strategic value.

Touchdown does not publicly maintain a rigid sector-exclusion list, but its mandates reflect the strategic interests of its corporate sponsors. A consumer-packaged-goods sponsor like Kellogg will avoid weapons, adult-content, and purely speculative financial instruments. The firm's program-level investment policy statements typically screen out sectors that create material reputational risk for the corporate brand.

Touchdown welcomes co-investment from independent venture firms and corporate venture peers, viewing co-investor syndication as a validation signal and a way to access larger rounds without over-concentrating the corporate sponsor's balance sheet. The firm's programs have co-invested alongside top-tier Sand Hill Road VCs as well as sector-specialist funds, particularly in industrial tech and enterprise software deals where multiple strategic investors often participate.

Touchdown's core pitch is that this tension can be managed through proper structural design. Each program operates with a negotiated mandate that balances strategic fit with financial return expectations, and the partnership agreement gives the venture team operational independence on investment decisions. The corporate parent typically receives quarterly briefings and board observer rights rather than day-to-day control, reducing the risk that strategic meddling undermines venture outcomes.