TQ Ventures

Co-founders and Managing Partners Schuster Tanger and Andrew Marks share investment decision-making authority. Tanger brought operating experience from Google and private equity experience from Castanea Partners; Marks joined from L Catterton, the $35 billion consumer-focused platform. The two-partner structure means every term sheet requires alignment between both individuals — there is no investment committee beyond the partnership.

TQ Ventures leans heavily on the partners' operating networks. Tanger's Google alumni network and Marks's consumer-and-technology relationships from L Catterton produce differentiated top-of-funnel. The firm complements those networks with a semi-annual CEO summit that brings portfolio founders and prospective limited partners into a curated forum, functioning as both a community event and a sourcing channel for referrals.

The firm operates as an institutional venture capital manager running pooled funds, not a deal-by-deal scout vehicle. It raises capital from external limited partners through a traditional fund structure and maintains a parallel growth vehicle for follow-on investments. The partners' own capital commitments align their incentives with LPs.

TQ Ventures targets post-seed through Series A companies. It writes initial checks of $1 million to $5 million and reserves significant follow-on capital for subsequent rounds. The firm does not typically participate in pre-seed rounds below $1 million or lead later-stage growth rounds, though it will follow on through Series B and C for portfolio companies it already backs.

The firm models each initial investment with the expectation of participating in two to four subsequent rounds per company. It maintains TQ Ventures Growth, a dedicated follow-on vehicle, to execute those later commitments without cannibalizing its early-stage funds. This reserve-heavy posture means the partnership rarely holds more than fifteen active names per vintage year.

The firm does not invest in therapeutics, medical devices requiring FDA approval, hard gaming studios, or consumer packaged goods. While the partnership evaluates broadly across enterprise technology, it has publicly stated it will not back companies whose core value proposition depends on regulatory arbitrage or unproven consumer-internet monetization models.

Yes. The firm regularly co-invests alongside peer seed and Series A managers in New York and San Francisco. Confirmed co-investors on portfolio company boards include Felicis, Founders Fund, and GGV Capital, though composition varies by deal.