Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
First Round Capital
The Philadelphia-born, San Francisco-headquartered firm that turned "institutional seed" into a category — writing the first institutional cheque into Uber, Square, Roblox, Warby Parker, Looker and Notion — and built the industry's model of a founder-community "platform" around a deliberately small fund.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2004, West Conshohocken / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Founders
- Josh Kopelman (founder of Infonautics and Half.com) and Howard Morgan (early Idealab figure, founding president of Renaissance Technologies)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco; offices in New York and Philadelphia
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership; Kopelman is managing partner; no outside ownership stake in the management company reported
- Leadership (2026)
- Josh Kopelman (managing partner); partners include Bill Trenchard, Todd Jackson, Brett Berson, Hayley Barna, Meka Asonye and Liz Wessel (roster verify)
- AUM / capital raised
- Not disclosed; flagship funds of ~$125–175m (2008–2016), ~$200m+ plus opportunity capital from Fund VII (2018); total capital raised reported in the low billions (verify)
- Stage focus
- Seed and pre-seed (lead or co-lead the first institutional round); selective follow-on
- Signature investments
- Uber, Square, Roblox, Warby Parker, Flatiron Health, Looker, Notion, Mint, OnDeck, Clover Health, Verkada, Ring, Upstart; disappointments: Blue Apron, OnDeck after IPO, Clover Health after SPAC
10 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2007
Mint
Seed
2007
OnDeck
Early Round
2009
Roblox
Early Venture Round
2009
Square
Seed / Early Round
2010
Uber
Seed
2011
Warby Parker
Seed
2012
Flatiron Health
Seed
2013
Blue Apron
Seed
2013
Looker
Seed
2013
Notion
Seed