Baseline Ventures

Reviewed Updated Mar 19, 2026

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Location Jackson, WY
Founded 2006
Fund Size Undisclosed (micro-VC)
Website https://www.baselinev.com
Stage Focus
seed
Sector Focus
consumer enterprise saas fintech social developer-tools

Team

Steve Anderson Founder & Managing Partner

About

Baseline Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2006 by Steve Anderson 12. The firm is headquartered in Jackson, Wyoming 3. It operates as a solo-GP micro-VC, with Anderson personally handling all sourcing, decision-making, and founder relationships 34.

Anderson founded Baseline to bridge the gap between individual angel investors and institutional venture capitalists, filling a seed-funding gap at a time when few firms focused on very early-stage companies 15. Forbes has called Baseline “one of Silicon Valley’s most successful — and smallest — investment firms” 2.

The firm has invested alongside over 100 founding teams since inception, with 50+ profitable exits for founders and investors 12. Anderson was recognized on Fortune’s 2012 list of “50 Businesspeople of the Year” and was included on the Forbes Midas List from 2015 to 2020 12.

Baseline’s most famous investment was as the first seed investor in Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012 2. Anderson’s typical check size ranges from $100K to $1M 34.

Prior to founding Baseline, Anderson held positions at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (investment analysis), eBay, Microsoft, Starbucks (store manager, later general manager for the Seattle region), and Digital Equipment Corporation 15. He holds a degree from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business 5.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Baseline Ventures says publicly about its approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Baseline Ventures is designed around realistic $50M-$200M outcomes rather than chasing billion-dollar exits, which Anderson believes allows founders to keep substantially more equity than traditional Sand Hill Road deals 4.

Anderson has stated that most of his investments are pre-product launch: “Generally speaking, most of my investments are pre-product launch; they’re just an idea. So, getting product-market fit is the most important goal of the round. My goal as an investor is to make sure there’s enough financing to give companies time to do that, a year to 18 months” 5.

On his approach to evaluating founders, Anderson has said: “I find it really hard to believe that any one person will have the perfect maniacal vision right from the start” 5. He emphasizes founders’ passion for their product and the belief that they are creating something of value 5.

Anderson makes investment decisions in roughly 30 minutes when he has conviction, emphasizing founder quality over elaborate financial modeling 4.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 16 verified portfolio investments, the following patterns emerge. Note: This represents approximately 16% of 100+ claimed investments, so percentages should be treated as directional.

Sector Distribution (16 verified investments): - Consumer / Social: 5 of 16 (31%) — Instagram, Twitter, Clubhouse (OMGPop), Weebly, TaskRabbit - Enterprise / SaaS: 4 of 16 (25%) — Heroku, ExactTarget, PagerDuty, Crashlytics - Fintech: 3 of 16 (19%) — SoFi, Expensify, Figure - Marketplace / Commerce: 2 of 16 (13%) — Stitch Fix, Dishcraft - Other: 2 of 16 (13%) — WeWork, Dusty Robotics

Stage: Almost exclusively seed. Anderson invests pre-product launch in most cases 5.

Notable patterns: - Despite designing the firm around $50M-$200M outcomes, Baseline’s most famous exits (Instagram at $1B, Twitter IPO) were outlier-scale outcomes - Strong track record of exits via acquisition: Instagram (Facebook), Heroku (Salesforce), TaskRabbit (IKEA), ExactTarget (Salesforce), Crashlytics (Twitter), Weebly (Square), Pocket (Mozilla) 12 - Multiple fintech investments (SoFi, Expensify, Figure) despite not prominently featuring fintech in stated thesis - Solo GP model means highly personal, relationship-driven investing with fast decision-making (30-minute decisions) 4 - Geographic outlier: based in Jackson, Wyoming rather than Silicon Valley, suggesting deal sourcing relies heavily on personal network rather than proximity 3 - The firm’s check size ($100K-$1M) and solo structure suggest very small fund sizes, consistent with the micro-VC model 34

Portfolio

Company Stage Year Sector Status Source
Instagram Seed ($500K, co-invested with a16z) 2010-03 Photo sharing Acquired (Facebook, $1B, 2012) 126
Twitter Seed 2007-01 Social media IPO 218
Heroku Seed + Series B participant ($10M Ignition-led, 2010-05-10) 2008 Developer tools Acquired (Salesforce) 27812
ExactTarget Seed ~2008 Marketing SaaS Acquired (Salesforce) 25
Crashlytics Seed ($1M, co-led with Flybridge Capital Partners) 2011-10-13 Developer tools Acquired (Twitter) 216
Weebly Seed 2007 Website builder Acquired (Square) 27
TaskRabbit Seed 2009-10-30 Marketplace Acquired (IKEA) 29
Stitch Fix Seed ($750K, led) 2011-04 E-commerce IPO (SFIX) 110
PagerDuty Seed ($1.9M, participant) + Series A participant ($10.7M a16z-led, 2013-01-31) 2010-09-29 DevOps IPO 11314
SoFi Series A 2011 Fintech IPO 111
Expensify Seed ($1M, co-invested with Hillsven Capital and Travis Kalanick) 2009-05 Fintech SaaS IPO 115
WeWork Seed (participant, $1M round) 2011-10-25 Co-working IPO 119
Figure Seed ~2018 Fintech Active 1
Pocket (Read It Later) First institutional round ($2.5M, Foundation Capital-led; co-investors Google Ventures, Founder Collective) 2011-07-26 Content curation Acquired (Mozilla) 217
Dishcraft Robotics Series A ($25M+, co-led with First Round Capital and Lemnos) 2019-06-18 Robotics Active 220
Dusty Robotics Seed (participant, returning investor in $5M extension led by NextGen Venture Partners) 2019-12-16 Construction robotics Active 321

Note: Years marked with “~” are approximate based on company founding dates and Baseline’s investment timing. This represents approximately 16% of 100+ claimed investments.

In Their Own Words

On his investment philosophy: “Generally speaking, most of my investments are pre-product launch; they’re just an idea. So, getting product-market fit is the most important goal of the round. My goal as an investor is to make sure there’s enough financing to give companies time to do that, a year to 18 months” 5.

On evaluating entrepreneurs: “I find it really hard to believe that any one person will have the perfect maniacal vision right from the start” 5.

On deal sourcing: “As a seed investor, I don’t know what exists until I find it… for me, it’s all about networks” 5.

On resilience and founding Baseline: “My advice to everyone, myself included, is to always keep your options open. When I founded Baseline Ventures, I believed strongly in its potential for success, despite receiving negative feedback from mentors, investors, and other peers in the venture community. Nevertheless, I remained steadfast in my belief while also preparing a backup plan” 5.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Anderson’s portfolio founders have not been widely quoted in publicly accessible sources about their experience working with Baseline Ventures specifically.

Sources

  1. Baseline Ventures website, “Steve Anderson - Founder,” accessed March 2026. https://www.baselinev.com/founder/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Crunchbase, “Baseline Ventures Company Profile,” accessed March 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/baseline-ventures↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. VCSheet, “Baseline Ventures - VC Fund Breakdown,” accessed March 2026. https://www.vcsheet.com/fund/baseline-ventures↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. VCSheet, “Steve Anderson (Baseline Ventures),” accessed March 2026. https://www.vcsheet.com/who/steve-anderson↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. Bold Business, “Bold Leader Spotlight: Steven Anderson, Founder Baseline Ventures,” accessed March 2026. https://insights.boldbusiness.com/human-achievement/bold-leader-spotlight-steven-anderson-founder-baseline-ventures↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. TechCrunch, “Andreessen Horowitz Made $78M Off $250,000 Investment in Instagram,” April 22, 2012. Confirms $500K seed round split between Baseline and a16z (March 2010). https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/22/andreessen-horowitz-made-78m-off-250000-investment-in-instagram/↩

  7. TechCrunch, “Founder Stories: Baseline Ventures, Steve Anderson: On Why He Invested In Heroku And Weebly,” October 25, 2011. Confirms Anderson participated in Heroku’s seed round in 2008 and led Weebly investment in 2007. https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/25/founder-stories-baseline-ventures-steve-anderson-on-why-he-invested-in-heroku-and-weebly/↩↩

  8. Crunchbase, “Heroku Seed Round,” dated 2008-01-01. Lists Baseline Ventures as participant. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/heroku-seed–6f177c5b↩

  9. Crunchbase, “Taskrabbit Seed Round,” dated October 30, 2009. Lists Baseline Ventures as participant alongside First Round Capital and Floodgate. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/taskrabbit-seed–10aa71ca↩

  10. Poets & Quants, “The Harvard MBA Behind Stitch Fix,” August 28, 2014. States “In April 2011, Lake received $750,000 from Baseline Venture’s Steve Anderson.” https://poetsandquants.com/2014/08/28/the-harvard-mba-behind-stitch-fix/↩

  11. Tracxn, “SoFi Funding Rounds & Investors,” accessed June 2026. Confirms Baseline Ventures’ first investment in SoFi was Series A in 2011 (not seed). https://tracxn.com/d/companies/sofi/__cHGYhdzQEdiwCQlsGyE0NXlFwVHnVsZOtiGHlaf0NRc/funding-and-investors↩

  12. TechCrunch, “Former Microsoft Execs Lead $10 Million Round In Ruby On Rails Startup Heroku,” May 10, 2010. Confirms Heroku Series B of $10M led by Ignition Partners with existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Baseline Ventures, and Harrison Metal Capital participating. Accessed June 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2010/05/10/former-microsoft-execs-lead-10-million-round-in-ruby-on-rails-startup-heroku/↩

  13. Tracxn, “PagerDuty Funding Rounds & Investors,” accessed June 2026. Confirms $1.9M Seed round dated 2010-09-29 with Baseline Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Harrison Metal as participants. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/pagerduty/__rK9VqMbFGMED31mcW4ShoKwAG0ukqH24TRB_In2c2RQ↩

  14. TechCrunch, “PagerDuty Raises $10.7M Round From Andreessen Horowitz For IT Alert Service Modeled On AWS System,” January 31, 2013. Confirms $10.7M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with existing seed investors Harrison Metal, Baseline Ventures and Ignition Partners participating. Accessed June 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2013/01/31/pagerduty-raises-10-2m-round-from-andreessen-horowitz-for-it-alert-service-modeled-on-aws-system/↩

  15. PR Newswire, “Expensify ‘Expense reports that don’t suck!’ Announces $5.7M Series A Financing, 100K Users,” 2010. Confirms $1M seed (May 2009) with Hillsven Capital, Baseline Capital, and Travis Kalanick — all participating again in Series A. Accessed June 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/expensify-expense-reports-that-dont-suck-announces-57m-series-a-financing-100k-users-102443404.html↩

  16. TechCrunch, “Crashlytics, A Crash-Reporting Solution For Mobile Developers, Raises $1 Million,” October 13, 2011. Confirms $1M seed co-led by Flybridge Capital Partners and Baseline Ventures, with multiple angel participants. Accessed June 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/13/crashlytics-a-crash-reporting-solution-for-mobile-developers-raises-1-million/↩

  17. TechCrunch, “Read It Later Raises $2.5 Million, Wants To Become The Dropbox Of Content,” July 26, 2011. Confirms first institutional round of $2.5M with Foundation Capital lead and Baseline Ventures, Google Ventures, Founder Collective as participants. Accessed June 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2011/07/26/read-it-later-raises-2-5-million-wants-to-become-the-dropbox-of-content/↩

  18. Crunchbase, “Seed Round - Twitter - 2007-01-01,” accessed June 2026. Lists Twitter’s seed round dated January 2007 with Baseline Ventures among early backers. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/twitter-seed–b58b178d↩

  19. Crunchbase, “Seed Round - WeWork - 2011-10-25,” accessed June 2026. Lists $1M seed round dated October 25, 2011. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/wework-seed–118b348e↩

  20. TechCrunch, “Dishcraft launches with a massive robotics-powered dishwashing system,” June 18, 2019. Confirms >$25M round with Baseline Ventures, First Round Capital, and Lemnos as lead investors; quotes Steve Anderson on his investment rationale. Accessed June 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/18/dishcraft-launches-with-a-massive-robotics-powered-dishwashing-system/↩

  21. PRWeb, “Dusty Robotics Raises $5M in Strategic Seed Funding,” December 16, 2019. Confirms $5M seed extension led by NextGen Venture Partners with Baseline Ventures, Root Ventures, and Cantos Ventures as returning investors; brought total to $7.2M. Accessed June 2026. https://www.prweb.com/releases/dusty-robotics-raises-5m-in-strategic-seed-funding-812594556.html↩