PSL Ventures

Early-stage investment in Pacific Northwest technology

Backing early-stage technology companies, PSL Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on startups in the Pacific Northwest. The fund calls itself a generalist technology investor, which means it does not confine itself to one technology niche. It invests at the pre-seed, seed and Series A stages, and it says it likes to lead, co-lead or take part in those rounds.

How the partners work with founders

The fund's partners are largely former founders who built companies of their own, and the fund presents that experience as the basis of its approach. It says its role is to understand what each founder is particularly good at and to help assemble the people and resources around a company so that those strengths count. The partners describe their collective work over roughly two decades as having covered the full journey of a company, from an early start to an exit, and they say that experience is what they bring to a new investment.

The network around each portfolio company

Beyond the money, the fund points to the wider PSL network. The company says this network is made up of chief executives, entrepreneurs, technologists, designers, data scientists, marketing specialists, seasoned operators and growth experts, and that portfolio companies can draw on them directly. The fund's own description is of a community that supports founders as a family would, so that a founding team is not left to solve every problem alone.

Where the fund invests and where it does not

The fund's focus is technology-driven businesses based in the Pacific Northwest, and it describes its reach in those terms. It states plainly that it does not invest in categories such as pure biotechnology, energy or pharmaceuticals. Its material explains that the fund knows the areas it is good at, and that these categories are not among them.

Its relationship with PSL Studio

The fund is linked to PSL Studio, but it describes itself as a separate venture fund. Its material says a company does not need any connection to PSL Studio to receive investment, and that the fund invests in companies with no connection to the studio. A portfolio company is welcome to use the studio's resources for support once it is in the portfolio. The fund says it is flexible about the rounds it takes part in and may lead, co-lead or join external financing rounds. Where it invests in companies that came out of PSL Studio, it says it does so alongside outside investors and does not lead those rounds.