Conviction

Reviewed Updated Mar 20, 2026

This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.

Location San Francisco, CA
Founded 2022
Fund Size $331M total across 2 funds
Website https://www.conviction.com
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
ai machine-learning developer-tools enterprise robotics

Team

Sarah Guo Founder & General Partner
Mike Vernal General Partner
Pranav Reddy Team Member

About

Conviction (formerly Conviction Partners) is an AI-focused venture capital firm founded in mid-2022 by Sarah Guo, a former general partner at Greylock Partners 12. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California 3. Guo deliberately included “Partners” in the firm’s original name to signal her intention to eventually bring on additional general partners 1.

The firm raised $101 million for its inaugural fund in 2022 4. In January 2025, Conviction closed its second fund with $230 million in capital commitments, more than doubling the debut fund 1. The total assets under management across both funds are approximately $331 million.

Mike Vernal, formerly a partner at Sequoia Capital, joined as general partner in January 2025, becoming the first additional GP 1. Prior to Sequoia, Vernal held senior roles at Facebook/Meta. The firm maintains a small team of eight people total, including Guo and Vernal 2.

Conviction invests with check sizes between $1 million and $25 million 3. The firm describes itself as often being the first institutional investor in its portfolio companies 4.

Notable portfolio companies include Harvey (legal AI, valued at $11 billion), Mistral (French open-source AI, valued at $6 billion), Baseten (inference platform, valued at $5 billion as of January 2026 47), and Sierra (conversational AI, valued at $4.5 billion) 28. As of 2025, the portfolio includes over 30 companies with 5 unicorns 5.

Stated Thesis

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

Conviction publicly focuses on AI-native “Software 3.0” companies. The firm states it is “extremely early in the translation of powerful AI models to powerful products that transform industries” 3.

The firm seeks technical teams who build with “velocity and pragmatism” 3. Conviction positions itself as a hands-on partner providing domain expertise and a wide network 3.

Guo has described her investment philosophy: “One of my big beliefs about doing venture in 2025 in AI is that a lot of your priors, your existing beliefs about markets just don’t make sense anymore” 2. She has also stated: “I don’t care a lot about scale and power… I think they care about trust and understanding” 2.

The firm runs several ecosystem programs including the Embed grant program for early-stage founders, Mixture of Experts recruiting events, and the Commit fellowship 3. Guo and Elad Gil co-host the “No Priors” podcast, which covers AI technology and startups 6.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 19 verified portfolio companies, Conviction’s actual investment behavior shows:

Sector breakdown: The portfolio is almost entirely AI-focused. Of 19 verified companies: AI/ML infrastructure and models (Mistral, Baseten, Cartesia, Essential AI — 4 of 19, 21%), AI applications for specific industries including healthcare and legal (Harvey, Sierra, Open Evidence, Latent Health, Nova Intelligence — 5 of 19, 26%), AI security (RunSybil, Onyx Security, Corridor — 3 of 19, 16%), AI-powered media and content (HeyGen — 1 of 19, 5%), AI process automation (Sola — 1 of 19, 5%), robotics/hardware AI (Sunday — 1 of 19, 5%), other AI-adjacent tools (Cognition, Distributed Spectrum, Mithril, Listen Labs — 4 of 19, 21%) 3.

Stage distribution: Conviction predominantly invests at seed and Series A stages, with check sizes of $1M–$25M 3. The firm states it is “often the first investor” 4, suggesting a tilt toward seed.

Unicorn rate: 5 unicorns out of approximately 32 total investments (~16%) is a high hit rate for a fund this young 5.

Geographic patterns: Portfolio companies are predominantly US-based, with a notable exception in Mistral (Paris, France) 2.

Team background: Guo’s prior experience at Greylock and Vernal’s at Sequoia give the firm deep Silicon Valley networks, which likely drives deal flow toward technical AI teams with strong pedigrees.

Notable pattern: The firm does not invest outside AI. Unlike many generalist seed funds, Conviction appears fully thesis-driven around AI-native companies, with zero investments in non-AI sectors visible in the portfolio.

Portfolio

Company Stage Year Sector Status Source
Harvey Seed 2022-11-23 Legal AI Active (unicorn, $11B) 2784142
Mistral Series A 2023-12-11 AI Models Active (unicorn, $14B) 29
Baseten Series E (participated, $300M) 2026-01-23 AI Infrastructure Active ($5B) 2464748
Sierra Early ~2023 Conversational AI Active (unicorn, $4.5B) 2
Cognition Early ~2023 AI Coding Active 3
HeyGen Seed (led, $5.6M) 2023-11-29 AI Video Active 495051
Cartesia Seed 2024-12-12 AI Models Active (participated) 3101112
Open Evidence Series B (participated, $210M) 2025-07-15 Healthcare AI Active ($3.5B) 525354
Sunday Early ~2023 Robotics Active 3
Corridor Seed (led, $5.4M) 2025-08-05 AI Code Security Active 222324
Essential AI Seed (participated, $8.3M) ~2023 (disclosed 2023-12-11) Enterprise AI/Agents Active 3131415
RunSybil Series A (participated, $40M) 2026-03-18 AI Offensive Security Active 3282930
Sola Seed (led, $3.5M) 2025-08-14 (announced) AI Process Automation Active 252627
Latent (Latent Health) Seed (participated) 2023 Healthcare AI Active 192021
Latent (Latent Health) Series A (participated, $80M total) 2026-03-23 Healthcare AI Active 192021
Distributed Spectrum Series A ($25M, co-led) 2025-03-18 AI/RF Sensing/Defense Active 161718
Mithril (fka Foundry) Seed + Series A (participated, $80M total) 2024-03-21 AI compute / cloud infrastructure Active 3394043
Onyx Security Series A (co-led, $35M) 2026-03-12 AI Security / Agentic Control Plane Active 32333435
Listen Labs Seed + Series A (participated, $27M combined) 2025-04-23 AI Customer Research Active 3363738
Nova Intelligence Series A (participated, $31.5M) 2026-05-05 AI / Enterprise / SAP Modernization Active 31
Town Series A (participated, $55M total) 2026-06-03 Consumer AI / Personal Assistant Active 4445

Note: Investment years are approximate based on company founding timelines. This table represents approximately 18 of ~32 total investments (~56%); the remainder are in stealth or undisclosed 35.

In Their Own Words

“One of my big beliefs about doing venture in 2025 in AI is that a lot of your priors, your existing beliefs about markets just don’t make sense anymore.” — Sarah Guo, Fortune interview, April 2025 2.

“I don’t care a lot about scale and power… I think they care about trust and understanding.” — Sarah Guo, on what founders prioritize in early-stage partners, Fortune interview, April 2025 2.

“You are much more likely to find the truth if you are curious and willing to be wrong.” — Sarah Guo, as reported in Weekly Minds profile 6.

Sarah Guo has described herself as “pretty traditionalist,” believing that judgment matters in venture capital decisions rather than treating investments as random outcomes 2.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. The firm’s website describes its approach as providing domain expertise and wide network support, but no specific founder quotes could be verified from independent sources.

Sources

  1. TechCrunch, “Guo’s Conviction Partners adds Mike Vernal as GP, raises $230M fund,” January 31, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/31/guos-conviction-partners-adds-mike-vernal-as-gp-raises-230m-fund/↩↩↩↩

  2. Fortune, “Conviction founder Sarah Guo invests in AI,” April 14, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/04/14/conviction-ai-venture-sarah-guo-greylock-investor/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Conviction Partners website, accessed March 2026. https://www.conviction.com/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. Everything Startups, “New VC Funds - Conviction Partners,” accessed March 2026. https://www.everythingstartups.com/vc-funds/conviction-partners↩↩↩

  5. Tracxn, “Conviction - 2025 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/conviction/__Yj63_1Y5YODkJut20TruT239_nKxIIxTo5gMLVuL3HE↩↩↩

  6. Weekly Minds, “Sarah Guo: The AI Visionary Reshaping Venture Capital,” accessed March 2026. https://weeklyminds.com/sarah-guo/↩↩

  7. Harvey blog, “Sequoia and OpenAI Back Harvey to Redefine Professional Services, Starting with Legal,” April 2023, accessed March 2026. https://www.harvey.ai/blog/sequoia-and-openai-back-harvey-to-redefine-professional-services-starting-with-le↩

  8. CNBC, “Legal AI startup Harvey raises $200 million at $11 billion valuation,” March 25, 2026, accessed March 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/25/legal-ai-startup-harvey-raises-200-million-at-11-billion-valuation.html↩↩

  9. TechCrunch, “Mistral AI, a Paris-based OpenAI rival, closed its $415 million funding round,” December 11, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/11/mistral-ai-a-paris-based-openai-rival-closed-its-415-million-funding-round/ — Confirms Conviction as a participant in Mistral’s December 11, 2023 €385M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz at ~$2B valuation. ↩

  10. Cartesia blog, “Announcing our seed round,” December 12, 2024. https://cartesia.ai/blog/seed↩

  11. Index Ventures, “Building the Next Generation of Real-Time AI Models: Our Investment in Cartesia,” December 12, 2024. https://www.indexventures.com/perspectives/building-the-next-generation-of-real-time-ai-models-our-investment-in-cartesia/↩

  12. American Bazaar, “Cartesia AI wraps 2024 with a $27 million seed fund, predicts AI trends for 2025,” December 30, 2024. https://americanbazaaronline.com/2024/12/30/cartesia-ai-wraps-2024-with-a-27-million-seed-fund-predicts-ai-trends-for-2025457993/↩

  13. BusinessWire, “Essential AI Raises $56.5M Series A to Build the Enterprise Brain,” December 11, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231211867788/en/Essential-AI-Raises-$56.5M-Series-A-to-Build-the-Enterprise-Brain — Primary source confirming Essential AI’s $56.5M Series A led by March Capital with AMD, Franklin Venture Partners, Google, KB Investment, NVIDIA, and Thrive Capital participating; the same announcement disclosed the previously-undisclosed $8.3M seed round led by Thrive Capital with Conviction among the participants. ↩

  14. TechFundingNews, “Google, Nvidia and AMD just invested in a $56.5M funding round of this diverse AI startup,” December 14, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://techfundingnews.com/google-nvidia-and-amd-just-invested-in-a-56-5m-funding-round-of-this-diverse-ai-startup/ — Independent confirmation that Conviction participated in Essential AI’s $8.3M seed round (led by Thrive Capital), alongside Amjad Masad, Brad Gerstner, Elad Gil, Francis D’Souza, David H. Petraeus, Gustavo Sapoznik, Jamie Montgomery, and Mei Zuo. Series A ($56.5M) was led by March Capital and did not include Conviction. ↩

  15. Open Data Science, “Essential AI Raises $56.5 Million in Series A Funding,” December 12, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://opendatascience.com/essential-ai-raises-56-5-million-in-series-a/ — Third independent source confirming Conviction’s participation in Essential AI’s $8.3M seed round and the December 11, 2023 disclosure of both rounds. Essential AI was founded in 2023 by Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar, co-creators of the Transformer architecture; the seed round itself was raised earlier in 2023 prior to the Series A announcement that publicly disclosed it. ↩

  16. Distributed Spectrum, “Series A Announcement,” March 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.distributedspectrum.com/series-a-announcement — Company’s own announcement of the $25M Series A co-led by Conviction, Shield Capital, and Nat Friedman with participation from existing investors Felicis and XFund and angels including Stan McChrystal, Eric Glyman, Chris Re, Arash Ferdowsi, Matt MacInnis, Zak Stone, and executives from Palantir. ↩

  17. SignalBase (formerly LeadsOnTrees), “Distributed Spectrum Secures $25M in Series A Funding to Revolutionize Radio Spectrum Sensing,” March 18, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.trysignalbase.com/news/funding/distributed-spectrum-secures-25m-in-series-a-funding-to-revolutionize-radio-spectrum-sensing — Independent confirmation of the March 18, 2025 close date for the $25M Series A with Conviction, Shield Capital, Nat Friedman, Felicis, and XFund among the participants. ↩

  18. Defense Tech Signals, “Distributed Spectrum: Small Sensors and the Future of EW,” March 2025, accessed May 2026. https://defensetechsignals.beehiiv.com/p/distributedspectrum — Independent confirmation of the $25M Series A in March 2025 led by Conviction and Shield Capital with Nat Friedman, Felicis Ventures, XFund, Chris Re, and General Stanley McChrystal participating; total funding to date reported as $29M. ↩

  19. BusinessWire, “Latent Raises $80M to Close the Gap Between Diagnosis and Treatment,” March 23, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260330515802/en/Latent-Raises-$80M-to-Close-the-Gap-Between-Diagnosis-and-Treatment — Primary source for Latent (Latent Health, latenthealth.com) Series A on March 23, 2026 — $80M co-led by Spark Capital and Transformation Capital with participation from Conviction, McKesson Ventures, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator. Founders Sriram Somasundaram and Rishabh Jain; company founded 2022, YC Winter 2023 batch. ↩↩

  20. hlth.com, “Latent Raises $80M For AI Medication Approval Platform,” March 23, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://hlth.com/insights/news/latent-raises-80m-for-ai-medication-approval-platform-2026-03-23 — Independent confirmation of the $80M Series A on March 23, 2026 co-led by Spark Capital and Transformation Capital with Conviction participating among others. ↩↩

  21. Y Combinator, “Latent: Medical language models to automate healthcare operations,” accessed May 2026. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/latent — Confirms Latent Health’s YC Winter 2023 batch participation and 2022 founding date by Rishabh Jain and Sri Somasundaram. Conviction participated in the W23-vintage seed round alongside Y Combinator, Avra, Felicis, and General Catalyst per Tracxn and startup-seeker company profiles. ↩↩

  22. Axios, “Corridor raises $5.4M, hires Alex Stamos as chief security officer,” August 5, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.axios.com/2025/08/05/corridor-ai-startup-alex-stamos — Primary source for Corridor’s $5.4M seed round announced August 5, 2025, led by Conviction with angel participation from Casey Ellis (Bugcrowd), Jon Oberheide (Duo Security), and others. Founders Jack Cable (CEO, formerly led the Secure by Design initiative at CISA) and Ashwin Ramaswami (CTO). Alex Stamos joined as CSO. Corridor builds an AI security platform that integrates with AI coding tools to identify vulnerabilities in real time. ↩

  23. Conviction Partners, “Investing in Corridor,” accessed May 2026. https://www.conviction.com/launches/corridor.html — Conviction’s own announcement confirming its lead investment in Corridor’s seed round. Names founders Jack Cable, Ashwin Ramaswami, and CSO Alex Stamos; identifies early customers Cursor, Mercury, and GreyNoise. ↩

  24. Jack Cable, LinkedIn announcement post, August 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jackcable_today-im-thrilled-to-announce-corridor-activity-7358512117030764544-X7ye — Cable’s announcement post confirming the $5.4M seed round led by Conviction with named angels Sarah Guo, Mike Vernal, Isabella Garcia-Camargo (Conviction); Christina Cacioppo, Russell Kaplan, Casey Ellis, Ryan Kazanciyan, Freddy Dezeure, Feross Aboukhadijeh, and Jon Oberheide; founders Jack Cable and Ashwin Ramaswami; Alex Stamos joining as CSO. ↩

  25. Fortune, “Sola Solutions raises $21 million for enterprise AI,” Emma Hinchliffe, August 14, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://fortune.com/2025/08/14/sola-solutions-ai-startup-raised-21-million-andreessen-sarah-guo/ — Primary source for Sola Solutions’ total $21M raise: $3.5M seed led by Conviction (Sarah Guo) and $17.5M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz (Kimberly Tan and Jennifer Li). Founders Jessica Wu (CEO, MIT dropout, former Citadel and Thrive Capital) and Neil Deshmukh (CTO, age 23). Both rounds disclosed in the same August 14, 2025 announcement. Sola is an enterprise AI process automation platform — NOT a media company; the prior “AI Media” classification was incorrect. ↩

  26. Latham & Watkins, “Latham & Watkins Advises Sola in US$17 Million Series A Funding Round,” August 21, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.lw.com/en/news/2025/08/latham-watkins-advises-sola-in-us17-million-series-a-funding-round — Independent confirmation of Sola’s $17M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz (Kimberly Tan and Jennifer Li) following a $3.5M seed led by Sarah Guo at Conviction. Latham & Watkins represented Sola in the deal. ↩

  27. SiliconANGLE, “Sola Solutions raises $17.5M to enhance enterprise process automation,” August 14, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://siliconangle.com/2025/08/14/sola-solutions-raises-17-5m-enhance-enterprise-process-automation/ — Independent confirmation of $17.5M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with Sarah Guo’s Conviction having led the prior $3.5M seed; founders Jessica Wu (CEO) and Neil Deshmukh. ↩

  28. RunSybil blog, “RunSybil Raises $40M to Build the AI-Native Platform for Offensive Security,” March 18, 2026. https://www.runsybil.com/post/runsybil-raises-40m-to-build-the-ai-native-platform-for-offensive-security — Names Khosla Ventures lead with S32, Anthology Fund (Anthropic + Menlo Ventures), Conviction, and Elad Gil participating; angels include Nikesh Arora, Amit Agarwal, Jeff Dean. ↩

  29. Fortune, “Exclusive: AI cybersecurity startup RunSybil, founded by OpenAI’s first security hire, raises $40 million led by Khosla Ventures,” March 18, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/03/18/exclusive-ai-cybersecurity-startup-runsybil-founded-by-openais-first-security-hire-raises-40-million-led-by-khosla-ventures/ — Confirms $40M total funding, Khosla Ventures lead, Conviction participation. Co-founders Ari Herbert-Voss (OpenAI’s first security hire) and Vlad Ionescu (ex-Meta red team). ↩

  30. SiliconANGLE, “RunSybil raises $40M to automate offensive security with AI agents,” March 18, 2026. https://siliconangle.com/2026/03/18/runsybil-raises-40m-automate-offensive-security-ai-agents/ — Independent confirmation of round details and Conviction participation. ↩

  31. Fortune, “Exclusive: Nova Intelligence raises $31.5 million to bring agentic AI to SAP’s $89 billion migration wave,” May 5, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/05/05/exclusive-nova-intelligence-ai-sap-chemistry-emma-qian/ — San Francisco-based Nova Intelligence announced a $31.5M Series A on May 5, 2026 led by Chemistry; existing investors Accel, Conviction, and SAP.iO participated. Total raised over $40M. Co-founders: Emma Qian (CEO), Sam Yang, and Professor Alexander Zeier (co-inventor of SAP HANA). ↩

  32. BusinessWire, “Onyx Security Launches with $40M in Funding to Build the Secure AI Control Plane for the Agentic Era,” March 12, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260311837993/en/Onyx-Security-Launches-with-$40M-in-Funding-to-Build-the-Secure-AI-Control-Plane-for-the-Agentic-Era — Primary source for Onyx Security’s launch announcement on March 12, 2026 with $40M total funding from Conviction and Cyberstarts. Sarah Guo (Conviction) is quoted: “Maxim and Gil saw the need for an AI control plane before the market did.” Co-founders Maxim Bar Kogan (CEO) and Gil Elbaz, both Israeli defense veterans. Company has 70+ employees across Israel, the US, and Canada and counts multiple Fortune 500 companies as customers. ↩

  33. SecurityWeek, “Onyx Security Launches With $40 Million in Funding,” March 12, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.securityweek.com/onyx-security-launches-with-40-million-in-funding/amp/ — Independent confirmation of Onyx Security’s $40M launch funding from Conviction and Cyberstarts on March 12, 2026; describes the secure AI control plane platform that continuously discovers AI agents across cloud, endpoints, code, and SaaS deployments. ↩

  34. Calcalist (Ctech), “Cyber startup Onyx Security raises $35 million to control AI agents in organizations,” March 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hjmra11x911g — Disambiguates the round structure: a $5M seed round led by Cyberstarts in 2024, followed by a $35M Series A led by Conviction on March 12, 2026. Conviction did NOT participate in the 2024 seed; Conviction’s investment is the March 2026 Series A. Additional contributions from “leading angels in the cyber and AI sectors.” ↩

  35. CIO Influence, “Onyx Security Launches with $40M in Funding to Build the Secure AI Control Plane for the Agentic Era,” March 13, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://cioinfluence.com/security/onyx-security-launches-with-40m-in-funding-to-build-the-secure-ai-control-plane-for-the-agentic-era/ — Third independent confirmation of Onyx Security’s $40M total funding ($35M Series A + $5M prior seed) led by Conviction (Series A) and Cyberstarts (seed); company launched March 12, 2026. ↩

  36. Research Live, “Listen Labs launches with $27m funding,” April 25, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.research-live.com/article/news/listen-labs-launches-with-27m-funding-/id/5138323 — Primary source for Listen Labs’ combined $27M Seed and Series A round announced April 23, 2025, led by Bryan Schreier of Sequoia Capital with Conviction and Pear participating. Founders Florian Juengermann and Alfred Wahlforss (met at Harvard); previously built BeFake (image-generating app, 2023). Listen Labs is an AI customer research platform that runs voice/video interviews and generates reports/highlight reels. ↩

  37. Pear VC, “Partnering with Listen Labs: Automating customer research to create a human insights layer,” April 23, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://pear.vc/partnering-with-listen-labs-automating-customer-research-to-create-a-human-insights-layer/ — Pear VC’s announcement of their seed investment, confirming Listen Labs “recently closed their $27M Series A round, led by Sequoia with participation from Conviction and Pear.” Founders Alfred Wahlforss and Florian Juengermann. ↩

  38. Yahoo Finance / Fortune, “Exclusive: This Sequoia-backed AI startup can run thousands of voice interviews at once—and it’s raised $27M to disrupt market research,” April 23, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-sequoia-backed-ai-startup-120000058.html — Independent confirmation of $27M combined Seed and Series A on April 23, 2025 led by Sequoia’s Bryan Schreier (former Qualtrics investor); Conviction and Pear participating. Founders Florian Juengermann (German competitive programming champion) and Alfred Wahlforss (Swedish entrepreneur). Clients include Microsoft, Canva, Chubbies. ↩

  39. Mithril (fka Foundry) blog, “Introducing Foundry,” March 21, 2024, accessed May 2026. https://mithril.ai/blog/introducing-foundry — Company’s own announcement of $80M combined Seed and Series A funding co-led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Redpoint, Microsoft Ventures (M12), Conviction, NEA, plus angels including Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, George Roberts (KKR), Paul Milgrom, Matei Zaharia, Jure Leskovec, Alexandr Wang, Liam Fedus, Lachy Groom, Mario Gabriele, and David Vélez. Founder Jared Quincy Davis (DeepMind alum, Stanford CS PhD). Editor’s note (August 4, 2025) confirms Foundry rebranded to Mithril. ↩

  40. Fortune, “Exclusive: Foundry comes out of stealth with a $350 million valuation,” March 21, 2024, accessed May 2026. https://fortune.com/2024/03/21/foundry-stealth-launch-350-million-valuation/ — Independent confirmation of March 21, 2024 stealth launch with $80M total Seed and Series A funding co-led by Lightspeed and Sequoia, $350M valuation. ↩

  41. TechCrunch, “Harvey, which uses AI to answer legal questions, lands cash from OpenAI,” November 23, 2022, accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/23/harvey-which-uses-ai-to-answer-legal-questions-lands-cash-from-openai/ — Contemporaneous press confirming Harvey’s $5M seed announcement on November 23, 2022, led by the OpenAI Startup Fund with Jeff Dean (Google AI) and Elad Gil (Mixer Labs co-founder) among other angel backers. Sarah Guo (who founded Conviction in mid-2022) participated; the Harvey seed was Conviction’s first investment. ↩

  42. LawSites (LawNext), “Stealth Legal AI Startup Harvey Raises $5M In Round Led By OpenAI,” November 23, 2022, accessed May 2026. https://www.lawnext.com/2022/11/stealth-legal-ai-startup-harvey-raises-5m-in-round-led-by-openai.html — Independent contemporaneous press source confirming the November 23, 2022 announcement of Harvey’s $5M seed round led by OpenAI Startup Fund. ↩

  43. Sequoia Capital, “Partnering with Mithril: AI Compute, On Demand,” March 21, 2024, accessed May 2026. https://sequoiacap.com/article/partnering-with-mithril-ai-compute-on-demand/ — Sequoia’s own post confirming participation in Mithril’s seed (September 2022) and co-leading the Series A announced March 21, 2024. ↩

  44. Andreessen Horowitz, “Investing in Town,” by Alex Rampell and Justine Moore, June 3, 2026, accessed June 2026. https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-town/ — Primary source confirming Conviction’s participation in Town’s $55M Series A led by a16z, alongside Forerunner, First Round, and Alt Capital. ↩

  45. “Town Raises $55M Series A From a16z and Forerunner to Build the AI Assistant That Learns How You Work,” GlobeNewswire/Yahoo Finance, June 3, 2026, accessed June 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/town-raises-55m-series-a16z-134500847.html — Independent press confirmation of $55M Series A on June 3, 2026; Conviction listed among participants with Forerunner, First Round, and Alt Capital. ↩

  46. Baseten blog, “Announcing Baseten’s $300M Series E,” accessed May 2026. https://www.baseten.co/blog/announcing-baseten-s-300m-series-e/ — Company’s own announcement of the $300M Series E at a $5B valuation; round led by IVP and CapitalG with participation from 01A, Altimeter, Battery Ventures, BOND, BoxGroup, Blackbird Ventures, Conviction, Greylock, and NVIDIA. NVIDIA contributed $150M of the total. ↩

  47. BusinessWire, “Baseten Raises $300M at a $5B Valuation to Power a Multi-Model Future,” January 23, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260123035833/en/Baseten-Raises-$300M-at-a-$5B-Valuation-to-Power-a-Multi-Model-Future — Primary press release confirming announcement date of January 23, 2026, $300M Series E at $5B valuation, IVP and CapitalG leads, NVIDIA as $150M anchor, with prior investors including Conviction listed among the $585M total raised. ↩↩

  48. TechFundingNews, “Baseten nabs $300M from IVP, CapitalG to challenge Together AI in inference,” accessed May 2026. https://techfundingnews.com/baseten-raises-300m-5b-valuation-nvidia/ — Independent confirmation of $300M Series E announced January 23, 2026 at $5B valuation; IVP and CapitalG leads; Conviction among prior investors continuing to participate. ↩

  49. Voicebot.ai, “Generative AI Video Startup HeyGen Raises $5.6M,” December 1, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://voicebot.ai/2023/12/01/generative-ai-video-startup-heygen-raises-5-6m/ — Primary press source confirming HeyGen’s $5.6M round led by Conviction Ventures at a $75M valuation, announced in late November 2023; Sarah Guo joined HeyGen’s board. ↩

  50. Maginative, “HeyGen Launches Avatar 2.0 and Announces $5.6 Million in New Funding,” November 30, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://www.maginative.com/article/heygen-launches-avatar-2-0-and-announces-5-6-million-in-new-funding/ — Independent contemporaneous press confirming Conviction Partners led HeyGen’s $5.6M round; Sarah Guo joined the board. Announcement coincided with the launch of HeyGen’s Instant Avatar product. ↩

  51. HeyGen Wikipedia article, accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeyGen — Confirms November 2023 $5.6M round from Sarah Guo’s Conviction; Guo replaced HongShan’s board seat. Also confirms June 2024 $60M Series A led by Benchmark with Conviction, Bond, and Thrive participating, establishing the November 2023 round as Seed (pre-Series A). Tracxn records the close date as November 29, 2023. ↩

  52. PR Newswire, “OpenEvidence, the Fastest-Growing Application for Physicians in History, Announces $210 Million Round at $3.5 Billion Valuation,” July 15, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/openevidence-the-fastest-growing-application-for-physicians-in-history-announces-210-million-round-at-3-5-billion-valuation-302505806.html — Primary press release confirming July 15, 2025 announcement date; $210M Series B at $3.5B valuation co-led by Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, with Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Conviction, and Thrive participating. ↩

  53. hlth.com, “OpenEvidence Raises $210M, Launches Free AI Agent for Physicians,” July 17, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://hlth.com/insights/news/openevidence-raises-210m-launches-free-ai-agent-for-physicians-2025-07-17 — Independent confirmation of $210M Series B at $3.5B valuation announced July 15, 2025; GV and Kleiner Perkins co-led; Sequoia (Series A lead), Coatue, Conviction, and Thrive participated. ↩

  54. OpenEvidence Wikipedia article, accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenEvidence — Independent confirmation of July 2025 $210M Series B co-led by GV and Kleiner Perkins at $3.5B valuation, with Coatue, Conviction, and Thrive Capital participating. Establishes the round sequence: Series A (Feb 2025, $75M, Sequoia-led, $1B val), Series B (July 2025), Series C (Oct 2025, $200M, $6B val), Series D (Jan 2026, $250M, $12B val). ↩