Vice Ventures

Catharine Dockery, the firm's founder and managing partner, leads all investment decisions. She launched the firm in 2019 with a solo-GP structure and has maintained that centralized decision-making model through both fundraises. Her prior operating experience at Samuelsohn, a menswear brand, gives her a non-traditional venture background that informs her thesis on consumer-facing vice brands.

The firm invests in legal but stigmatized categories that standard LP agreements typically exclude: cannabis, psychedelics, sex tech, alcohol alternatives, sports betting, and harm-reduction products. Dockery has described the thesis as targeting sectors where consumer demand is clear and legal frameworks are emerging, but institutional venture capital remains absent due to reputational or compliance constraints. The firm also backs enterprise software and infrastructure companies that serve these industries, such as age-verification platforms and compliant payment processors.

Vice Ventures explicitly courts LPs who do not have vice clauses or who are comfortable with exposure to restricted categories. The firm's fund documentation does not screen out vice industries, and Dockery has been transparent about the portfolio from the outset — this self-selection means the LP base consists of family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and mission-aligned institutions rather than the endowment and pension capital that typically dominates venture fundraises.

The firm makes direct seed and early-stage equity investments into operating companies and does not operate as a fund-of-funds. Dockery has not publicly raised co-investment vehicles or SPVs alongside the main funds, but the structure remains flexible enough to follow-on in portfolio companies through the fund lifecycle.

Vice Ventures focuses on pre-seed and seed rounds, occasionally extending into Series A follow-ons for existing portfolio companies. Dockery has stated her preference for being the first institutional check into a startup, entering at valuations and check sizes where other venture funds are still prohibited from participating due to internal compliance barriers.

The firm does not invest in illegal or unregulated activities — its thesis relies on legal-but-stigmatized markets. It also avoids categories where the regulatory pathway is unclear or unlikely, such as hard narcotics or unlicensed gambling. Dockery has drawn a bright line around investing only where a credible path to federal or state-level legalization exists.

Vice Ventures has not publicly structured formal co-investment programs, but Dockery has co-invested alongside angel syndicates and mission-aligned micro-VCs on a deal-by-deal basis. Given the niche, co-investors tend to be individuals or small funds without restrictive LP agreements rather than large institutional venture firms.