Brad Feld

Partner & Co-Founder, Foundry Group; Co-Founder, Techstars at foundry-group

Reviewed Updated Apr 29, 2026

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Co-founder of Foundry Group ($3.5B AUM, Boulder, CO) and Techstars (2006). Thematic investor across Human Computer Interaction, Glue, Protocol, Distribution, and Digital Life. Portfolio includes Fitbit (IPO 2015), MakerBot (acq. Stratasys 2013), SendGrid (IPO 2017, acq. Twilio), Zynga, Harmonix, Moz, Glowforge, Sphero, Rover. Foundry announced its 2022 fund would be its last; firm is winding down through ~2026. Author of nine books including 'Venture Deals' and 'Startup Communities'; daily blogger at FeldThoughts.com since 2004; pioneering voice on entrepreneur mental health.

Location Boulder, CO
Check Size $5M-$15M (over company lifetime)
Last Verified Investment Markup AI (Series A) — Sep 17, 2025
Social @bfeld LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
developer-tools hardware robotics 3d-printing enterprise-saas consumer marketplace ad-tech music-tech infrastructure

Background

Brad Feld is a partner and co-founder of Foundry Group, a Boulder, Colorado-based venture capital firm he started in 2007 with Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, and Jason Mendelson 12. He is also the co-founder of Techstars, the global startup accelerator he launched in 2006 with David Cohen, David Brown, and Jared Polis 13. He has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur for over 40 years 4.

Born December 1, 1965, in Arkansas and raised in Dallas, Texas, Feld moved to Cambridge in 1983 to attend MIT, where he earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Management Science 14. While still a student, he co-founded Feld Technologies in 1987, a custom software firm that grew to 20 employees and approximately $2 million in annual revenue before being acquired by AmeriData in 1993 for around $2 million; Feld served as CTO post-acquisition 1.

Feld began financing technology startups in the early 1990s, first as an angel and later as an institutional investor 1. He was originally affiliated with SoftBank alongside Fred Wilson, Rich Levandov, and Jerry Colonna; in 1996/1997 he co-founded the firm that began as SoftBank Technology Ventures and was later renamed Mobius Venture Capital 5. Mobius’s early investments included GeoCities, E-Loan, USWeb, and VeriSign 5. After Mobius wound down, Feld and three partners spent eight years working together at Mobius before launching Foundry Group in 2007 6.

Foundry has raised eight funds: five $225 million early-stage funds (2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016), a $225 million Foundry Group Select Fund (2013), a $500 million Foundry Group Next fund (2016) for later-stage and venture-fund-of-funds investing, and the final $500 million Foundry 2022 fund announced in May 2023 789. In January 2024, Foundry announced that the 2022 fund would be its last and the firm would not raise another, with deployment expected to complete around 2026 — a wind-down the partners say was planned from inception 9. The firm has invested in over 200 companies and backed nearly 50 venture firms, with approximately $3.5 billion in assets under management 9.

Beyond venture, Feld and his wife Amy Batchelor co-run the Anchor Point Foundation, which began with small donations to MIT and Wellesley and has grown into a multi-faceted philanthropic vehicle supporting innovative non-profits 1011. Feld personally funded MIT’s Banana Lounge, a student space that distributes hundreds of thousands of bananas annually 11. He has authored or co-authored nine books on entrepreneurship and venture capital, blogs daily at Feld Thoughts (founded in 2004 — one of the longest-running VC blogs), and is a notable advocate for openness around mental health in entrepreneurship, having publicly discussed his own experiences with major depressive episodes and an OCD diagnosis 41213.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Feld and Foundry Group say publicly about their approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Foundry Group is a thematic, early-stage investor. In a foundational 2008 firm post laying out the model, Feld wrote: “We are thematic investors, an approach we pioneered with a few other firms” 6. The firm operates under explicit, publicly stated rules: “We invest $5 million to $15 million in a company over its lifetime”; “We are early stage investors – if you’ve raised more than $3 million you are too late for us”; “We only invest in the US, but will invest anywhere in the US”; and “We are syndication agnostic – we’ll invest with other VCs or invest by ourselves” 6. Geography is deliberately distributed: “Each [fund] is roughly invested 1/3rd into companies in Colorado, 1/3rd into companies in the bay area, and 1/3rd into companies in the rest of the US” 6.

The firm’s themes have evolved over time but center on long-horizon technology trends. Feld has described the framework: “For us, a theme is an area that we believe has a 30+ year investment horizon. We go very deep within a theme, developing significant expertise that we believe allows us to quickly hone in on companies and products that will be interesting to us to invest in” 14. As of the firm’s published theme portfolios, the active themes are Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Glue, Protocol, Distribution, Digital Life, Adhesive (ad-tech infrastructure), and Marketplace 15.

On founder selection, Feld has articulated three criteria he applies to investment decisions: (1) “do we have affinity for the product”; (2) “the founders have to be completely and totally obsessed about the product”; and (3) “do the founders want to be partners with us as badly as we want to be partners with them?” 16. He has explicitly distinguished obsession from passion: “Passion is easy to fake. Obsession is not” 16.

Feld’s broader operating philosophy is “give before you get” — what Techstars later branded as “Give First.” In a 2013 essay he defined it as “helping others without an expectation of what you are going to get back,” distinguishing a true mentor (who asks “how can I help?”) from an advisor who creates transactional relationships 17. He frames it as long-term self-interest: “I’m playing a very long term game in business, and that my actions today will impact me in 20+ years” 17.

Inferred Thesis

This analysis is based on Foundry Group’s published theme portfolios, contemporaneous press coverage of specific rounds, and Brad Feld’s blog posts announcing investments 157. Foundry’s own portfolio listing includes 200+ companies; the 14 verified Feld-led or Feld-board-seat investments in the Portfolio table below are a subset chosen to anchor pattern claims with primary sources 18. Percentages below are directional, not statistical.

Stage discipline. Foundry’s own published rule sets the maximum prior-funding cutoff at $3 million, putting initial checks firmly at seed and Series A 6. Lifetime commitment per company is bounded between $5M-$15M 6. The Foundry Group Select fund (2013) and Foundry Group Next fund ($500M, 2016) extend the firm into later-stage follow-ons and into investing in other venture firms, but the core early-stage funds maintain the discipline 78.

Geography — the most distinctive pattern. Foundry deliberately invests one-third in Colorado, one-third in the Bay Area, and one-third elsewhere in the US, codified as a firm rule 6. This is in stark contrast to most $200M+ early-stage funds, which concentrate heavily in the Bay Area. Verified investments confirm the spread: Boulder (Glowforge moved later, SendGrid was Boulder, Sympoz, Gnip), Brooklyn (MakerBot), Boston (Harmonix), Seattle (Rover, Moz, Glowforge), San Francisco (Fitbit, Zynga). Feld and Foundry have written extensively on building startup communities outside the Bay Area; Boulder, where Foundry is headquartered, is the canonical case study and the subject of Feld’s 2012 book “Startup Communities” 19.

Sector composition (based on Foundry’s published theme breakdown of the verified portfolio). Hardware/HCI is the most distinctive concentration relative to peer firms: Foundry’s HCI theme bucket includes Fitbit, MakerBot, littleBits, 3D Robotics, Oblong, Occipital, Orbotix (Sphero), and (later) Glowforge and Formlabs — a deeper hardware/maker portfolio than nearly any other generalist seed/Series A fund of its era 15. Developer infrastructure and APIs (“Protocol”) is the second concentration: SendGrid, Moz, FullContact, JumpCloud, Urban Airship, Yesware, Authentic8 15. Glue (data/integration software) accounts for AppDirect, Chute, Cloudability, DataHero, Gnip, MapBox, Pantheon, VictorOps 15. Adhesive (ad-tech infrastructure — AdMeld, CrowdTap, Integrate, Sovrn) and Distribution (Zynga, Cheezburger, StockTwits, Betabrand) round out the portfolio 15.

Check size. Foundry’s stated lifetime range is $5M–$15M per company 6. Specific verified rounds are consistent: Foundry led MakerBot’s $10M round in August 2011 20; led Moz’s $18M Series B in 2012 with co-investor Ignition Partners 21; led Fitbit’s $9M Series B in 2010 with SoftTech and True Ventures 22; led Glowforge’s Series A and follow-on with True Ventures 23.

Co-investor patterns. Across Feld’s verified portfolio, the most frequent co-investors are True Ventures (MakerBot, Glowforge, Fitbit), SoftTech VC (Fitbit), Ignition Partners (Moz), Madrona Venture Group (Rover), Bezos Expeditions (MakerBot), and RRE Ventures (MakerBot) 2021222324. Within Foundry, Feld has frequently co-invested alongside partners Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, Jason Mendelson, Chris Moody, and Jaclyn Hester 25.

Founder profile. Feld’s verified portfolio skews toward technical founders building hardware or infrastructure (Bre Pettis at MakerBot, James Park at Fitbit, Dan Shapiro at Glowforge, Rand Fishkin at Moz, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy at Harmonix). His public criteria emphasize founder obsession over generic passion and product affinity from the investor’s side 16. He has written that he wants to invest in founders who appear “put on planet earth to work on this problem” 16.

Notable pattern: long-tenure board seats. Feld is unusually known among VCs for staying engaged through difficulty. He has written that he learned to “fight to the bitter end” and stay committed to companies where he has functional responsibility 26.

Portfolio

Company Stage Year Sector Status Source
Harmonix Angel/seed mid-1990s Music/Gaming (HCI) Acquired by MTV/Viacom 2006; later Epic Games 2021 2728
Zynga Early 2007 Gaming (Distribution) IPO (2011) 115
Fitbit Series B 2010 Wearables (HCI) IPO (2015); acq. Google 2021 2215
MakerBot Series B 2011-08 3D Printing (HCI) Acq. Stratasys 2013 ($403M) 20
SendGrid Early ~2009-2011 Email API (Protocol) IPO (2017); acq. Twilio (~$3B) 2019 1529
Moz (SEOmoz) Series B 2012 SaaS/SEO (Protocol) Active 21
Rover Series B/follow-on 2013-02 Marketplace Public via SPAC 2021 24
Gnip Early ~2008 Data API (Glue) Acq. Twitter 2014 15
~unknown MapBox Early — Maps/Glue Active
Sphero (Orbotix) Early ~2010 Robotics (HCI) Active 15
Glowforge Series A 2015 3D Laser Printer (HCI) Restructured 2025 23
Yesware Early — Email Tools (Protocol) Acq. Vendasta 2022 15
littleBits Early — Hardware (HCI) Acq. Sphero 2019 15
Markup AI Series A 2025-09-17 AI/Content Active 30

This table represents 14 of approximately 87 disclosed investments attributed to Brad Feld personally and a much larger set of investments made by Foundry Group as a firm (200+ portfolio companies) 309. Foundry’s full theme-organized portfolio is published at foundry.vc/investments 18. Several rounds where Feld was personally on the board are sourced individually above; rounds attributed to Foundry as firm are sourced via the firm’s theme posts at 15.

In Their Own Words

On the Foundry investment philosophy (2008 founding post):

“We view our jobs as taking a box full of money that our investors give us and giving them back a bigger box full of more money over time.” — Brad Feld, “Who Are We?”, Foundry Group blog 6

On the Foundry rules:

“We are early stage investors – if you’ve raised more than $3 million you are too late for us. We invest $5 million to $15 million in a company over its lifetime. We only invest in the US, but will invest anywhere in the US. We are syndication agnostic – we’ll invest with other VCs or invest by ourselves.” — Brad Feld 6

On obsession over passion:

“Passion is easy to fake. Obsession is not.” — Brad Feld, summarizing the Foundry approach to founder selection 16

On themes:

“For us, a theme is an area that we believe has a 30+ year investment horizon. We go very deep within a theme, developing significant expertise that we believe allows us to quickly hone in on companies and products that will be interesting to us to invest in.” — Brad Feld, AirTree interview 14

On Human Computer Interaction (his most-discussed theme):

“It’s the theme that fascinates me the most. It’s based on the premise that the way humans and computers will interact 30 years from now will be radically different than how they interact today.” — Brad Feld 14

On giving before you get:

“[Adopt] a philosophy of helping others without an expectation of what you are going to get back.” — Brad Feld, “Give Before You Get,” Feld Thoughts, January 2013 17

“I’m playing a very long term game in business, and that my actions today will impact me in 20+ years.” — Brad Feld 17

Distinguishing mentor from advisor:

“A mentor says, simply, ‘how can I help?’” — Brad Feld 17

On the MakerBot investment (2011):

“I have to invest in this company.” — Brad Feld, on his initial visit to MakerBot’s Brooklyn headquarters 20

“I believe that we’ll look back in 20 years and 3D printers will be as ubiquitous as laser printers are today.” — Brad Feld, Feld Thoughts, August 2011 20

On building relationships (Startup Grind interview):

“Don’t ask somebody else for something; instead do something useful for them.” — Brad Feld 31

On product affinity:

“Life is too short. You wanna actually care about the thing that the company is making.” — Brad Feld 31

On obsession (illustrated):

“Obsession is, ‘If that makes bread, I am going to make the best bread machine in the world.’” — Brad Feld 31

On long horizons in startup community building:

“The leaders have to be entrepreneurs… you have to take a long view — at least 20 years.” — Brad Feld 31

On life and entrepreneurship:

“We are all going to die, so pick a thing you want to do, and do it.” — Brad Feld 31

On depression (one of the first major VCs to write publicly about it):

“I was a very functional person. Even though I was depressed, I got up each morning, I worked hard.” — Brad Feld, “Encountering Depression and What It Means To Be Well,” Feld Thoughts, September 2015 13

“To be well means to wake up each day and be interested in what you’re going to spend your time on.” — Brad Feld 13

On board behavior (and why he wrote a book about it):

“While most investors tend to tell founders what to do, the best investors are just giving you data.” (paraphrasing common Feld framing on board feedback; see “Startup Boards” book and Full Ratchet podcast appearance.) 26

What Founders Say

Dan Shapiro, CEO/co-founder of Glowforge, on Foundry’s Series A:

“When I started working on my first startup in 2005, my go-to resource was Brad’s blog. It’s fair to say I was a bit of a Brad Feld fanboy.” — Dan Shapiro, Glowforge blog 23

“Brad told me that they had decided… to invest? We used Brad’s documents and Brad used our lawyer (saving us tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees). We signed and funded in a month. And today I want to welcome the whole Foundry and True families to Glowforge. Brad’s going to be joining our board of directors, and I’m looking forward to getting out to Boulder to visit.” — Dan Shapiro 23

Bre Pettis (MakerBot CEO/co-founder) on Foundry’s lead of the $10M round: A 2011 MAKE magazine interview captured Pettis describing Foundry’s leadership of the $10M MakerBot round and the working relationship the team built with Feld and the Foundry partners after Feld joined the board 32.

Beyond these, Brad Feld is widely cited by entrepreneurs across his Techstars and Foundry network for his “Give First” practice of responding to cold emails, helping founders he doesn’t invest in, and staying through difficulty — patterns documented across his published correspondence and the writings of Techstars founders, but most independently sourced testimonials originate from press interviews and blog posts by individual portfolio CEOs (above) rather than aggregated review platforms.

Connections

Foundry Group co-founders / partners (verified by firm team page) 25: - Seth Levine — Partner & Co-Founder, Foundry Group - Ryan McIntyre — Partner & Co-Founder, Foundry Group - Jason Mendelson — Co-Founder, Foundry Group; co-author of Venture Deals with Feld - Chris Moody — Partner, Foundry Group (former CEO of Gnip, a Foundry portfolio company acquired by Twitter) - Jaclyn (Freeman) Hester — Partner, Foundry Group - Lindel Eakman — Partner, Foundry Group (focus on Foundry Group Next / fund-of-fund)

Techstars co-founders 3: - David Cohen — Co-founder & longtime CEO of Techstars; co-author with Feld of Do More Faster (2010) and co-host of the Give First podcast - David Brown — Co-founder of Techstars; long-time Cohen partner from prior company Pinpoint Software - Jared Polis — Co-founder/early backer of Techstars; later Governor of Colorado

Notable board seats (current and past, sourced individually): - MakerBot Industries (joined 2011 with Foundry’s $10M round) 20 - Moz / SEOmoz (joined 2012 with Foundry’s $18M Series B) 21 - Glowforge (joined with Foundry/True Series A) 23 - Harmonix (rejoined the board in 2013 per Feld’s Feld Thoughts post) 27

Long-running peer relationships: - Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) — Feld and Wilson were both early-1990s SoftBank affiliates; both have maintained daily blogs (FeldThoughts since 2004; AVC since 2003) and cross-link each other’s writing frequently 5.

Philanthropy: - Anchor Point Foundation — Co-founded with wife Amy Batchelor; supports innovative non-profits, with major giving to MIT (Banana Lounge) and Wellesley College, among other recipients 1011.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Brad Feld,” accessed April 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Feld↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Foundry Group team page, “Brad Feld,” accessed April 2026. https://foundry.vc/team/brad-feld/↩

  3. Wikipedia, “David Cohen (entrepreneur),” accessed April 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cohen_(entrepreneur) ↩↩

  4. Feld Thoughts, “About,” accessed April 2026. https://feld.com/about/↩↩↩

  5. Feld Thoughts, “mobius Archives,” accessed April 2026. https://feld.com/archives/tag/mobius/↩↩↩

  6. Foundry Group blog, “Who Are We?”, April 2008. https://foundry.vc/blog/2008/04/who-are-we/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. Feld Thoughts, “Our 2016 Foundry Group Fund and A Little History,” July 2015. https://feld.com/archives/2015/07/2016-foundry-group-fund-little-history/↩↩↩

  8. TechCrunch, “Foundry Group quietly announces a big fat $750 million fund,” August 3, 2018. https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/03/foundry-group-quietly-announces-a-big-fat-750-million-fund/↩↩

  9. TechCrunch, “Foundry Group is shutting down and won’t raise another fund,” February 13, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/foundry-group-is-shutting-down-and-wont-raise-another-fund/↩↩↩↩

  10. Anchor Point Foundation, “What We Do,” accessed April 2026. https://anchorpointfoundation.org/what-we-do/↩↩

  11. Anchor Point Foundation, homepage, accessed April 2026. https://anchorpointfoundation.org/↩↩↩

  12. Feld Thoughts, “Mental Health Archives,” accessed April 2026. https://feld.com/archives/category/mental-health/↩

  13. Feld Thoughts, “Encountering Depression and What It Means To Be Well,” September 2015. https://feld.com/archives/2015/09/encountering-depression-means-well/↩↩↩

  14. AirTree Ventures (Medium), “Brad Feld on assessing founders, investment themes and reading superpowers,” accessed April 2026. https://airtreeventures.medium.com/brad-feld-on-assessing-founders-investment-themes-and-reading-superpowers-583aa54f9d4d↩↩↩

  15. Alexander Jarvis, “VC investment thesis: Foundry Group” (theme breakdown citing Foundry Group’s own posts), accessed April 2026. https://www.alexanderjarvis.com/investment-thesis-foundry-group/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  16. The Twenty Minute VC, “20 VC 065: Foundry Group Week 1: Brad Feld — Founders Should Be Obsessed, Passion Belongs In The Bedroom,” accessed April 2026. https://thetwentyminutevc.libsyn.com/20-vc-065-foundry-group-week-1-brad-feld↩↩↩↩↩

  17. Feld Thoughts, “Give Before You Get,” January 2013. https://feld.com/archives/2013/01/give-before-you-get/↩↩↩↩↩

  18. Foundry Group, “Investments,” accessed April 2026. https://foundry.vc/investments/↩↩↩

  19. Amazon, “Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City” (Brad Feld, 2012; 2nd edition 2020), accessed April 2026. https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Communities-Building-Entrepreneurial-Ecosystem/dp/111961765↩

  20. Feld Thoughts, “Foundry Group Invests In MakerBot Industries,” August 23, 2011. https://feld.com/archives/2011/08/foundry-group-invests-in-makerbot-industries/↩↩↩↩↩↩

  21. GeekWire, “SEOmoz raises $18 million, Brad Feld joining board — and yes, the deal has closed,” accessed April 2026. https://www.geekwire.com/2012/seomoz-raises-18-million-brad-feld-joining-board-deal-closed/↩↩↩↩

  22. GeekWire, “How this reluctant Fitbit investor almost missed a $1.6 billion windfall,” 2017. https://www.geekwire.com/2017/reluctant-fitbit-investor-almost-missed-1-6-billion-windfall/↩↩↩

  23. Glowforge blog, “Glowforge Completed its Series A with an Investor we Never Met,” accessed April 2026. https://glowforge.com/blog/article/glowforge-completed-its-series-a-with-an-investor-we-never-met↩↩↩↩↩↩

  24. Madrona, “Celebrating the Rover Journey,” accessed April 2026. https://www.madrona.com/celebrating-the-rover-journey/↩↩

  25. Foundry Group, “Team,” accessed April 2026. https://foundry.vc/team/↩↩

  26. The Full Ratchet podcast, “360. Stories, Advice, and Leveraging 35 Years of Startup Board Experience (Brad Feld),” accessed April 2026. https://fullratchet.net/360-stories-advice-and-leveraging-35-years-of-startup-board-experience-brad-feld/↩↩

  27. Feld Thoughts, “The Amazing Magic of Harmonix,” March 2013. https://feld.com/archives/2013/03/the-amazing-magic-of-harmonix/↩↩

  28. Wikipedia, “Harmonix,” accessed April 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonix↩

  29. TechCrunch / press coverage of SendGrid acquisition by Twilio (2019); cross-referenced via Foundry Group theme post on Protocol 15 and Foundry portfolio listing 18. ↩

  30. CB Insights, “Brad Feld — Investor Profile” (statistics: 87 investments, latest: Markup AI Series A, September 17, 2025), accessed April 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/brad-feld↩↩

  31. Startup Grind blog, “VC Corner: Brad Feld of Foundry Group & Techstars (Fitbit, Zynga, Moz, Sphero),” accessed April 2026. https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/vc-corner-brad-feld-of-foundry-group-techstars-fitbit-zynga-moz-sphero/↩↩↩↩↩

  32. MAKE magazine, “MAKE’s Exclusive Interview with Bre Pettis of MakerBot: Life, $10M in Funding, and Beyond,” accessed April 2026. https://makezine.com/article/digital-fabrication/3d-printing-workshop/makes-exclusive-interview-with-bre-pettis-of-makerbot-life-10m-in-funding-and-beyond/↩