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Founders Fund

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About Founders Fund

Founders Fund is a VC firm focused on transformative technologies including space, biotech, AI, and Web3, backing companies like SpaceX, Palantir, and Stripe.

AI space investment

Founders Fund is a bold and contrarian venture capital firm that backs companies tackling some of the most difficult scientific, engineering, and societal challenges of our time. Established in 2005, the firm is rooted in a philosophy that real progress comes from solving hard technological problems, not optimizing for short-term trends. The partners at Founders Fund are not just investors—they are entrepreneurs, technologists, and independent thinkers who have personally committed significant capital to the firm’s funds.

Rather than chase hype, Founders Fund seeks out visionary founders who are determined to change the world. Whether it's sending rockets to space, disrupting defense, or rewriting the playbook for biotech, the firm takes big bets on ambitious ideas. Their approach is rooted in a deep belief in long-term value creation, intellectual courage, and the conviction that the future still holds radical technological breakthroughs.

Founders Fund was launched with a simple yet ambitious mission: to support technological development that advances humanity and generates substantial returns. Unlike many venture firms that follow safe, incrementalist strategies, Founders Fund specializes in backing ventures that are both contrarian and high-impact. The partners believe that venture capital lost its way after the 1990s by chasing low-risk, low-reward features and consumer apps. To restore venture to its roots, the firm prioritizes companies solving foundational problems in fields like aerospace, biotechnology, energy, AI, and advanced computing.

The firm's worldview is shaped by a historical analysis of venture capital’s golden eras—when funding went toward semiconductors, early computers, and breakthrough biotech—not messenger apps or pet supply e-commerce. This contrarian approach has led to successful investments in companies like SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril, each of which reflects a bold thesis about the future. The firm’s core partners, including Peter Thiel and Brian Singerman, are deeply involved in every decision and treat each investment as a long-term partnership, not a financial flip.

A key differentiator is that 20% of the capital in Founders Fund’s portfolios is their own—far above the VC industry norm. This level of skin in the game ensures full alignment with limited partners and portfolio companies. More importantly, it reinforces their belief that conviction is essential to venture success. The firm is known for backing ideas that may seem “crazy” to the mainstream but are grounded in deep technical feasibility and high long-term impact.

Their perspective on technology is refreshingly rigorous: not all software is innovation, and not every internet business is transformative. They separate “real technology” from trends by asking whether a company is solving a problem that actually matters, whether it involves difficult engineering, and whether it can have a lasting impact. These guiding principles enable them to filter out noise and focus on companies with audacious visions and market-changing potential.

While many other firms—like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Benchmark—have their own approaches, Founders Fund remains a uniquely iconoclastic force in Silicon Valley. Its manifesto makes clear that it doesn't just fund companies—it bets on the future itself.

Founders Fund offers a unique set of advantages and principles that define its distinctive place in the venture capital ecosystem:

Mission-Driven Investments: The firm backs founders building technologies that could reshape civilization, not just capture fleeting markets.
Skin in the Game: Around 20% of its fund capital comes directly from partners, showing unparalleled conviction and alignment.
Long-Term Thinking: Founders Fund does not chase short-term exits—it supports companies through multi-decade transformations.
Respect for Founders: The firm never removes founding CEOs. They believe founders are the best people to evolve the vision they initiated.
Contrarian by Design: Rather than mimic consensus thinking, Founders Fund bets on ideas that others dismiss—often where the greatest opportunities lie.
Sector Focus: Special emphasis on sectors like aerospace, biotech, energy, advanced software, and AI, which are typically underfunded by traditional VC.

Getting started with Founders Fund is a matter of alignment, vision, and readiness to take on world-shaping problems:

Explore the Vision: Start by reading the Founders Fund Manifesto to understand their long-term thesis and investment philosophy.
Understand Their History: Review their past investments in companies like SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril to see how they back bold, technical ventures.
Craft a Visionary Pitch: Your idea should be rooted in difficult science, engineering, or system design. Present a problem that matters and a team capable of solving it.
Contact Their Team: While they do not have a public pitch form, warm introductions through their network are the best path. Follow up with thoughtfully constructed outreach that shows alignment with their mission.
Stay Informed: Read their essays and articles to better understand their analytical depth and how they evaluate emerging technology sectors.

Founders Fund FAQ

Founders Fund believes that true progress comes from confronting and overcoming difficult engineering and scientific challenges—not from building another app for convenience. The firm intentionally seeks out companies with technology risk because those are the companies that can deliver decades of transformative value. As noted in their manifesto, they reject the incrementalism that plagues much of venture capital and instead focus on building the future people thought would already exist by now.
Philosophical alignment is essential. Founders Fund doesn’t just invest in companies—they invest in founders who share a deep belief that technology can radically improve the human condition. A founder’s long-term thinking, intellectual independence, and respect for truth are often more important than having a perfect pitch deck. Founders who reject hype and want to build real solutions to complex problems are more likely to resonate with the firm’s principles.
Radical ideas are not only welcome—they're the firm’s focus. If a concept is hard to explain and seems too ambitious for traditional investors, it may be a fit for Founders Fund. Their team includes engineers and technologists who are willing to engage with first-principles thinking and evaluate feasibility at the technical level. They prioritize vision, scalability, and originality over trend alignment. Read their contrarian philosophy at FoundersFund.com.
Founders Fund has a strict policy of founder empowerment. Unlike most firms, they have never removed a founding CEO, believing that the people who birth a vision are best suited to evolve and execute it. According to their team, founder removal often destroys the original DNA of the business and reduces long-term success. Instead, they support founders through voting structures and long-term alignment. Learn more at foundersfund.com.
To resonate with Founders Fund, a founder must show both technical depth and a clear ambition to redefine their industry. This means working on something difficult, with a path to real-world application and massive scale. The firm looks for obsession, originality, and a clear point of view on the future. Founders should emphasize why their mission matters to the world—and why now is the time to build it. Explore their thinking in detail at foundersfund.com/articles.