Danielle Strachman

Co-Founder & General Partner at 1517 Fund

Reviewed Updated Mar 28, 2026

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Co-founder and General Partner of 1517 Fund, which backs "dropouts, renegade students, and sci-fi scientists" at pre-seed and seed stage. Designed the Thiel Fellowship and invests in founders with deep technical obsession regardless of credentials, focusing on deep tech, hardware, and AI. Portfolio includes Luminar (IPO at $3.4B), Loom (acquired by Atlassian for ~$1B), and Figma (IPO at $20B+).

Location San Francisco, CA
Check Size $50K-$1M
Last Verified Investment Fund IV portfolio (12 investments) (Pre-Seed) — 2025
Social @DStrachman LinkedIn
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed
Sector Focus
deep-tech hardware biotech AI developer-tools

Background

Danielle Strachman is the co-founder and General Partner of 1517 Fund, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm that backs founders without traditional credentials — dropouts, students, and deep-tech scientists 1. She studied performance music and psychology in college and has a background in neuropsychology and education 2.

Before entering venture capital, Strachman founded Innovations Academy in San Diego in 2007, a K-8 charter school serving approximately 350-400 students with a focus on student-led, project-based learning 3 4. She currently sits on the school’s board of directors 3.

In 2010, Strachman joined the founding team of the Thiel Fellowship, where she led the design and operations of the program 1. Over approximately five years running the fellowship, she worked directly with young founders including Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Austin Russell (Luminar Technologies), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO), and Dylan Field (Figma) 1 5. She also created the Thiel Summit series, which has been attended by approximately 2,000 young entrepreneurs 2.

In 2015, Strachman and Michael Gibson co-founded 1517 Fund after pitching Peter Thiel at breakfast with a one-page analysis showing hypothetical returns if Thiel Fellowship grants had been structured as investments. Thiel committed $4 million toward the initial $15 million ask 5. The fund is named after the year Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door, drawing a parallel between the Reformation’s challenge to the Catholic Church and the fund’s challenge to the modern credentialing system 6.

Stated Thesis

Strachman and 1517 Fund publicly describe their focus as backing “dropouts, renegade students, and sci-fi scientists” at the earliest stages 1. The fund’s website states they invest in “software, hardware with a data play, deep tech/science fiction tech, and biotech” and prioritize “the who” over “the what” 1.

Strachman has stated: “We’re very unlikely to back people who are like, I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and I found this business case” 7. Instead, she looks for founders with what she calls “dog-on-a-leash energy” — people straining against constraints who need their leash cut 2. She has also described seeking “hyper-fluency,” defined as “the ability to geek out with geeks, and still explain your work to your grandma at Thanksgiving” 2.

On the fund’s approach to risk at the earliest stages, Strachman has said: “Is this money well spent to find out the answers to these questions? And if the answer is yes, especially on our very early checks, like our 100k check, let’s go” 2.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 22 verified portfolio investments below, 1517 Fund under Strachman’s leadership shows the following patterns:

Stage distribution: The fund operates almost exclusively at pre-seed and seed. Their check sizes range from $50,000 at the idea/R&D stage to $1,000,000 for deep-tech seed, with an average pre-seed check of approximately $400,000 1. They also make $100,000 early angel checks 7. This positions 1517 as a “first check” fund — they were the first institutional investor in Luminar, Loom, Deepgram, and nTopology 5 1.

Sector breakdown (22 verified investments): Deep tech/hardware: 8 of 22 (36%) — Luminar (lidar), Atom Computing (quantum), Zeno Power (nuclear batteries), Rainmaker (cloud seeding), Xona Space (GPS), Eeva (robotics), Mach Industries (defense), Positron. Software/SaaS: 7 of 22 (32%) — Loom (video), Fountain (hiring), Cents (laundromat SaaS), FOSSA (open source), Figma (design). AI/ML: 4 of 22 (18%) — Lambda (deep learning infrastructure), Deepgram (speech recognition), plus others. Biotech/science: 3 of 22 (14%) — Stark Therapeutics, Trilobio (lab robots), nTopology (engineering design).

Founder profile patterns: The strongest signal is non-traditional credentials. Many portfolio founders are Thiel Fellows, college dropouts, or very young founders. Austin Russell (Luminar) dropped out at 17. Dylan Field (Figma) was a Thiel Fellow. The fund explicitly targets founders who are “two standard deviations out on curiosity” 7 rather than MBA-holding career entrepreneurs.

Geographic focus: Based in San Francisco, but portfolio companies are geographically distributed — Luminar started in Irvine, CA; Zeno Power emerged from Vanderbilt University research 8.

Co-investor patterns: 1517 frequently co-invests with other early-stage and unconventional funds. As a first-check fund, they precede larger institutional rounds. Notable co-investors include Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Y Combinator in later rounds of portfolio companies 9 10.

Notable gap vs. stated thesis: While the fund emphasizes backing dropouts and non-traditional founders, several portfolio companies (Deepgram, nTopology) were founded by people with advanced degrees doing research-based work. The “dropout” framing may be more marketing emphasis than strict requirement — the real pattern is founders with deep technical obsession regardless of formal credential status.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 22 of ~105 known investments (about 21%). The fund has invested across four flagship funds and 15+ SPVs 1.

Company Year Stage Source
Luminar Technologies ~2015 Pre-Seed 5 11
Lambda (Lambda Labs) ~2017 Pre-Seed 1 12
Loom ~2016 Pre-Seed 1 5
Figma ~2013 Fellowship/Angel 5
Deepgram 2016 (pre-Sept) Pre-Seed / early check (1517 “first check” per Strachman on First Funders podcast; formal $1.8M seed 2016-09-27 led by Metamorphic + YC — 1517 not publicly named) 7 10
Fountain ~2015 Pre-Seed 7
FOSSA ~2017 Pre-Seed 1
Atom Computing 2018-08 Seed (~$5M; Venrock led per Batraski Medium; 1517 among investors per own portfolio page) 1 7 18
Zeno Power ~2019 Pre-Seed 8
nTopology 2017-12-01 Series A ($7.6M; Data Collective + Root Ventures co-led; 1517 among 4 co-participants) 1 19 20
Cents 2021-02-15 Seed (USD 4.25M; Bessemer Venture Partners led; Newfund Capital + Riverpark Ventures + 1517 Fund + Jason Finger participated; 1517 blog announced check 2020-09-24 ahead of formal round) 1 21 22
Eeva ~2020 Pre-Seed 1
Rainmaker ~2021 Pre-Seed 1 5
Xona Space 2020-05-14 Pre-Seed (1517 led, $1M; Seraphim, Trucks, Stellar participated) 1 5 16 17
Mach Industries 2023-06-16 Seed (USD 5.7M; Sequoia Capital led — first-ever Sequoia defense-tech investment; Marque VC + Champion Hill Ventures per PR Newswire; 1517 Fund named in TechCrunch’s October 2023 Series A retrospective) 9 24 25
Stark Therapeutics 2018 (founding year proxy; specific seed date not disclosed in primary sources) Pre-Seed (aggregator-only 1517 attribution; company primary sources give no dated announcement; ~USD 650K total per Pitchbook) 5 26
Positron ~2022 Pre-Seed 5
Trilobio ~2022–2024 (pre-seed date undisclosed) Pre-Seed (USD 3M; Argon Ventures + Lowercarbon Capital named as pre-seed leads; 1517 Fund confirmed in cumulative “over USD 11M raised” investor summary in the 2025-05-05 seed announcement but not named in pre-seed primary press) 7 23
Fleet ~2017 Pre-Seed 12

Notable exits: - Luminar Technologies: IPO December 2020 ($3.4B valuation), returned 4X to Fund I investors 5 11 - Loom: Acquired by Atlassian for ~$1B in December 2023, returned 1X to Fund I investors 5 - Figma: IPO in 2024, valued at $20B+ 5 - Lambda: Reached unicorn status in 2024 12 - Fund I DPI: 4.5X with more expected 5

In Their Own Words

“We look for people who are two standard deviations out on curiosity.” — Danielle Strachman, First Funders podcast 7

“You have to be willing to die on your sword for what you’re doing… you have to have that amount of passion about it.” — Danielle Strachman, First Funders podcast 7

“We have to truly believe that every single team we back could be a fund multiplying company… the most likely thing to happen is that it all goes to zero.” — Danielle Strachman, First Funders podcast 7

“Crazy, crazy awesome — we can’t tell if they’re insane or brilliant, and it’ll take years to find out.” — Danielle Strachman, Eric Jorgenson podcast 2

“We just want to talk to wily weirdos who want to be around other wily weirdos.” — Danielle Strachman, Eric Jorgenson podcast 2

“In the future, I want to be funding 11-year-olds. The world won’t be ready, but I will be.” — Danielle Strachman, Eric Jorgenson podcast 2

“We’re homeschooling CEOs. Instead of it being child led, it’s like, the founders we’re working with are gonna guide us as far as what sort of support they need.” — Danielle Strachman, The Knowledge Project podcast 13

“An education should liberate you, it should offer up more opportunities and open doors that previously weren’t there. It shouldn’t saddle you with something, whether it’s a path, or debt, or a notion of who you are as a human being.” — Danielle Strachman, podcast interview 14

“No one should be guarding knowledge and saying you have to pay a lot of money to be able to get into this echelon of people.” — Danielle Strachman, Lisa Betts-LaCroix podcast 14

“We saw a gap where young people weren’t being taken seriously by investors.” — Danielle Strachman, Lisa Betts-LaCroix podcast 14

What Founders Say

Joe Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Loom, described 1517 as their earliest believers: they “met with us weekly, gave us feedback, and wired us money before the deal docs were done as our pre-seed lead so that we wouldn’t run out of money 48hrs later.” Thomas stated: “Can’t honestly say Loom would be a company if it hadn’t been for their belief” 1.

Stephen Balaban, founder and CEO of Lambda, said that Strachman and Gibson “recognize the emotional component of starting a company that a lot of people neglect — the emotional rollercoaster that is very draining” and that “they were really good at making sure that everyone had support networks for when you are, in Elon Musk’s apt description, staring into the abyss and chewing on glass” 6. Balaban also stated: “1517 believed in me first” 1.

On the Deepgram investment, Strachman has described how she initially discouraged the founder, but he later wrote her a handwritten letter saying: “it was that meeting that I knew I had to do it” 7.

Connections

  • Co-founder, Thiel Fellowship (2010-2015) — alongside Peter Thiel and Michael Gibson 1 5
  • Board member, Innovations Academy (2015-present) — K-8 charter school she co-founded in San Diego 3
  • Runs 1517 Medici Project — $1,000 grants to teens for research and development projects 15
  • Frequent co-investor with Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Compound 10 9

Sources

  1. 1517 Fund website, accessed March 2026. https://www.1517fund.com/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Eric Jorgenson podcast, “What Traits Make a Thiel Fellow? (w/ Danielle Strachman),” accessed March 2026. https://www.ejorgenson.com/podcast/danielle-strachman↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Innovations Academy team page, “Danielle Strachman,” accessed March 2026. https://innovationsacademy.org/our-team/profiles/danielle-strachman/↩↩↩

  4. Beyond The Billion, “1517 Fund partner profile,” accessed March 2026. https://beyondthebillion.com/our-partners/1517-fund/↩

  5. Danielle Strachman, “A drop in the ocean,” 1517 Fund Substack, accessed March 2026. https://1517.substack.com/p/a-drop-in-the-ocean↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. Dan Gray, “Protestant Capital,” The Odin Times, accessed March 2026. https://blog.joinodin.com/p/the-reformation-will-be-funded↩↩

  7. First Funders podcast, “14: First checks for dropouts, students, and deep tech sci-fi founders - Danielle Strachman, 1517 Fund,” transcript, accessed March 2026. https://firstfunderspod.com/episodes/14-first-checks-for-dropouts-students-and-deep-tech-sci-fi-founders-danielle-strachman-1517-fund/transcript↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  8. 1517 Fund Medium, “Announcing 1517 Fund Investment: Zeno Power Systems,” accessed March 2026. https://medium.com/1517/zeno-clean-resilient-cost-effective-power-7fac12233a↩↩

  9. TechCrunch, “Defense startup Mach Industries closes $79M Series A at $335M valuation,” October 2023, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/04/defense-startup-mach-industries-closes-79m-series-a-at-335m-valuation/↩↩↩

  10. TechCrunch, “Launching a ‘Google for sound’, Deepgram raises $1.8 million,” September 2017, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/27/launching-a-google-for-sound-deepgram-raises-1-8-million/↩↩↩

  11. 1517 Fund blog, “Luminar Goes Public,” accessed March 2026. https://www.1517fund.com/post/luminar-goes-public↩↩

  12. Tracxn, “1517 Fund Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/1517fund/__CKPfllqEzPxDJ5aaCqdazyB6Y-1gAptms9yZ_5SgT0Q↩↩↩

  13. The Knowledge Project podcast, “Funding Curious Dropouts with Danielle Strachman,” accessed March 2026. https://theknowledge.io/daniellestrachman/↩

  14. Lisa Betts-LaCroix podcast, “Episode #43: Investing in Relationship with VC Danielle Strachman,” accessed March 2026. https://lisabl.com/43-2/↩↩↩

  15. Danielle Strachman (@DStrachman), X/Twitter post about $50K grants for undergrads, high schoolers, and dropouts, accessed March 2026. https://x.com/dstrachman/status/12986566857628672↩

  16. TechCrunch, “Xona Space Systems raises $1 million to improve satellite-based navigation services,” May 14, 2020, accessed July 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/14/xona-space-systems-raises-1-million-to-improve-satellite-based-navigation-services/↩

  17. Via Satellite / SatelliteToday, “PNT Startup Xona Space Systems Raises $1M in Pre-Seed,” May 15, 2020, accessed July 2026. https://www.satellitetoday.com/finance/2020/05/15/pnt-startup-xona-space-systems-raises-1m-in-pre-seed/↩

  18. Ethan Batraski (Venrock partner), “A Radical New Paradigm in Quantum Computing, Venrock’s Investment into Atom Computing,” Medium, September 25, 2018, accessed July 2026 (Venrock led seed round in “August” 2018; Atom Computing founded January 2018 by Ben Bloom and Jonathan King). https://medium.com/ethanjb/a-new-paradigm-in-quantum-computing-venrocks-investment-into-atom-computing-cea467daaeb↩

  19. 3D Printing Industry, “nTopology CEO gives insight into generative design after raising $7.6M,” December 5, 2017, accessed July 2026 (confirms $7.6M Series A led by Data Collective + Root Ventures; James Hardiman DCVC quote). https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/ntopology-ceo-gives-insight-generative-design-after-raising-7-6m-125665/↩

  20. MCADCafe / Digital Engineering, “nTopology Announces Series A Funding of $7.6M,” December 1, 2017, accessed July 2026 (confirms 1517 among 4 co-participants alongside CrunchFund, Haystack, Pathbreaker). https://www10.mcadcafe.com/nbc/articles/1/1551871/nTopology-Announces-Series-Funding-$7.6M↩

  21. Cents company press release, “Cents Announces $4.25M Fundraising Round,” accessed July 2026. https://www.trycents.com/news/cents-announces-4.25m-fundraising-round — Confirms Bessemer Venture Partners led the $4.25M seed with Newfund Capital, Riverpark Ventures, 1517 Fund, and Jason Finger participating. ↩

  22. Crunchbase, “Seed Round — Cents — 2020-11-01,” accessed July 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/cents-ba2f-seed–fe92f668 — Records Cents seed round with 2020-11-01 date (likely Form D filing), distinct from 2021-02-15 public announcement. ↩

  23. SynBioBeta, “Trilobio Raises $8m to Deliver Whole Lab Automation for Biologists,” May 5, 2025, accessed July 2026 — Trade press coverage of Initialized Capital-led $8M seed; total funding “over $11 million” including 1517 Fund among earlier investors. https://www.synbiobeta.com/read/trilobio-raises-8m-to-deliver-whole-lab-automation-for-biologists↩

  24. PR Newswire, “Sequoia Capital Partners with Mach Industries to Revolutionize Defense Technology for the United States,” June 16, 2023, accessed July 2026 (primary company press release confirming USD 5.7M seed led by Sequoia Capital with Marque VC and Champion Hill Ventures participating; Sequoia’s first-ever defense-tech investment). https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sequoia-capital-partners-with-mach-industries-to-revolutionize-defense-technology-for-the-united-states-301852798.html↩

  25. Sequoia Capital, “Partnering with Mach Industries: A New Generation of Defense Technology,” June 15, 2023, accessed July 2026 (Sequoia’s own first-party partnership announcement posted one day before PR Newswire release). https://sequoiacap.com/article/partnering-with-mach-a-new-generation-of-defense-technology/↩

  26. Stark Therapeutics company website, accessed July 2026. https://starktx.com/ — Company primary source; site header and navigation only, no funding history or investor list disclosed. Aggregator sources (Pitchbook, Tracxn, Crunchbase) list 1517 Fund and Reinforced Ventures as investors with ~USD 650K total; no dated primary press for a 1517-branded seed round exists. ↩

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