Mischief

About

Mischief is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2021 and headquartered in Hayes Valley, San Francisco ¹. The firm was co-founded by Zach Perret, CEO and co-founder of Plaid, and Lauren Farleigh, former founder and CEO of Dote Shopping ². An SEC Form D filing on May 14, 2021 revealed the fund’s formation as Mischief 1, L.P., with a $30 million target raise ². Both Perret and Farleigh had been actively angel investing since 2017 before formalizing their partnership ³.

The firm operates with a deliberately small partnership of four general partners: Perret, Farleigh, Dustin Moring (former head of product at Cash App from 2014 to 2022), and Nate Abbott (former head of product at Front from 2018 to 2023 and founder of Everlater, acquired by AOL/MapQuest in 2012) ^{1 4 5}. Moring joined as co-founder and GP in March 2022 ⁴, and Abbott joined as GP in February 2023 ⁵.

Mischief raised an $80 million Fund II in 2024, bringing total assets under management to over $110 million ^{3 6}. The firm invests $1–5 million per deal in early-stage software companies, with a sweet spot of $1–4 million at pre-seed and seed stages ^{1 3}. The partners collectively bring experience from raising $1 billion in venture capital, hiring over 1,000 executives, and generating more than $1 billion in revenue ¹.

Stated Thesis

Mischief publicly describes itself as “the firm we always wanted on our own cap tables: a collection of operators whose diverse experiences enable us to empathize with and collaborate on the challenges early-stage founders face” ¹. The firm positions itself as generalist, stating that the partners “have successfully built companies in many different industries and know every market has its season” ¹.

The firm’s stated approach is people-driven rather than thesis-driven. Zach Perret has said the firm seeks to “identify the best people that we know and follow them around when they’re ready to start a company” ³. They emphasize that few VCs have true zero-to-one, product-market-fit-finding experience, and this gap is what Mischief aims to fill ³.

Mischief publicly covers six sector areas on its website: healthcare, climate, consumer marketplaces, crypto, fintech, and infrastructure & security, as well as SaaS ¹. Lauren Farleigh has stated that capital discipline is core to their approach: “We never want to be in a situation where we have too much capital and we don’t know where we’re going to put it” ³.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 20 verified investments below, Mischief’s actual portfolio reveals the following patterns:

Sector breakdown: Fintech dominates with 7 of 20 investments (35%) — Cardless, Propel, Found, Rutter, Gravy, Backpack, and Friday Harbor. Crypto/web3 accounts for 4 of 20 (20%) — Blackbird, Farcaster, Rainbow, and Rain. Infrastructure and security account for 3 of 20 (15%) — iVerify, Polar, and Hamming. Healthcare represents 2 of 20 (10%) — Flychain and Tivara. Developer tools account for 2 of 20 (10%) — Crafting and Twenty. Climate/energy accounts for 1 of 20 (5%) — Light Energy. Consumer accounts for 1 of 20 (5%) — Alpharun.

Stage distribution: The vast majority of verified investments are at seed stage, consistent with the firm’s stated focus. Based on available data, at least 14 of 20 verified investments (70%) were seed-stage, with a smaller number at Series A and growth stages.

Check size: Typically $1–4 million for seed investments, with the ability to invest up to $5 million ^{1 6}. The firm has transitioned to leading rounds more frequently after recognizing portfolio founders’ desire for deeper involvement ³.

Geographic patterns: Portfolio companies are concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, with occasional investments outside major tech hubs (e.g., Propel in Brooklyn).

Notable patterns: Mischief’s crypto/web3 allocation at 20% is meaningful but understated in their public messaging. The Plaid connection is evident — Rutter was described as “Plaid for commerce” and Mischief is noted as “the fund co-founded by Plaid’s Zach Perret” in Cardless’s press release ^{9 11}. The firm has a clear affinity for infrastructure and financial plumbing companies, consistent with Perret’s background building Plaid.

Co-investor patterns: Mischief frequently co-invests with a16z and its crypto arm, Y Combinator alumni networks, and individual angels from the broader fintech ecosystem.

Limitations: This analysis is based on 20 verified investments out of an estimated 40+ total portfolio companies listed on their website ¹. The sample represents approximately 50% of known investments, which limits precision of percentages.

Portfolio

Note: Entries marked with – have investment dates that could not be independently verified; these companies appear on the Mischief website portfolio page ¹ but no press coverage of the specific funding rounds was found. Mischief’s website lists 39 portfolio companies including Faire, Figma, Coinbase, Ramp, Mercury, and Retool ¹, though some of these may represent personal angel investments by the partners prior to Mischief’s formation.

In Their Own Words

Zach Perret has described Mischief’s value proposition in terms of timely founder-to-founder support: “It takes sometimes just one call at a critical inflection point with someone that’s been there before to meaningfully change the trajectory of the company” ³.

On the changing economics of startups, Perret has observed: “The cost of starting companies has gone down. Now you’re seeing 15 person companies with $20 million of revenue because they’re building these new AI tools that are growing incredibly quickly” ³.

Lauren Farleigh has emphasized the firm’s discipline around fund size: “We never want to be in a situation where we have too much capital and we don’t know where we’re going to put it” ³.

On their portfolio company iVerify’s seed round, Dustin Moring stated: “It’s rare for a seed startup to have the impressive portfolio of enterprise customers that iVerify already has” ¹⁰.

On Hamming’s seed round, Lauren Farleigh noted: “Testing and governance tools haven’t caught up to what developers actually need” ⁷.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. The firm’s portfolio founders have not been publicly quoted discussing their experience with Mischief in sources accessible during this research pass.

Sources