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Venture Guides
Venture Guides provides venture capital with active guidance for early stage cloud infrastructure, security, AI and data companies. With decades of experience...
Venture Guides
Venture Guides provides venture capital with active guidance for early stage cloud infrastructure, security, AI and data companies. With decades of experience building and investing in successful software companies, it accelerates portfolio companies with proven, team-based expertise, 10+% personal investment in its funds, and a mission to bring impactful new enterprise software to market. The firm uses team-based investing with data-driven frameworks and deep operational experience, and supports founders on business strategy, finance, budgeting, and go to market execution.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
2023
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Boston
Corporate office
Boston, MA, United States
Principals
Ben Nye
Managing Partner
Anton Simunovic
Andrew Smith
Ava Simunovic
Bear Brofft
Ben Holzman
Chuby Uche
Daniel Bronsoiler
Dave Boffa
Dave Fachetti
Jake Sporn
Jenny Pyle
Josh Valentine
Julia Cuneo
Newt Davis
Mike Shanahan
Ram Malladi
Raz Casarjian
Steve Wood
Roslyn McLean
Zach Marchick
Will Schnoor
Jack Sweeney
Advisor and Investor
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does Venture Guides source proprietary deal flow?
The firm leans heavily on its operating-partner network and the repeat-founder relationships its team built during their years at Bain Capital Ventures. Because Venture Guides embeds a full-time operating partner inside each portfolio company, the firm generates founder referrals from those operators' extended networks. The team also maintains an active presence in the Boston and Bay Area enterprise infrastructure ecosystems.
Does Venture Guides participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Venture Guides invests directly into portfolio companies, writing initial checks of $2 million to $5 million at the seed and Series A stages. The firm reserves significant capital for follow-on rounds and does not operate a fund-of-funds program. There is no public evidence of the firm making LP commitments to other venture managers.
What investment stages does Venture Guides typically target?
The firm focuses on seed and Series A rounds in enterprise infrastructure software. Venture Guides aims to be the first institutional capital into a company and reserves for follow-on through later stages. The team has indicated it will occasionally participate in late-seed rounds where the product has some early commercial traction.
Which sectors does Venture Guides explicitly avoid?
Venture Guides does not invest in consumer internet, hardware, or life sciences. The firm's mandate is enterprise infrastructure software, with sub-sectors including cloud-native tooling, cybersecurity, and AI/ML operations platforms. Clean energy and real-asset infrastructure are similarly outside its scope, given the pure software focus.
How is Venture Guides structured differently from a typical venture firm?
The firm's defining practice is embedding a full-time operating partner inside each portfolio company for approximately 12 months. This individual works on-site, focused on go-to-market strategy and engineering hiring. The model deliberately contrasts with advisory-heavy operating-partner benches at larger funds, functioning as a temporary executive rather than a periodic board advisor.
What is Venture Guides' known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
Venture Guides acts as a lead or co-lead investor in its target rounds but does not publicly disclose a formal co-investment program for outside limited partners. The firm's Fund I was sized to allow concentrated portfolio construction with significant reserve capital, reducing the structural need for syndicate partners on follow-on checks.
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