Eric Hippeau

Background

Eric Hippeau is a Managing Partner and co-founder of Lerer Hippeau, a New York City-based early-stage venture capital firm he co-founded with Kenneth Lerer and Ben Lerer in 2010 ¹². Hippeau has been with the firm since its inception ¹.

Before entering venture capital full-time, Hippeau had a distinguished career in media and technology. He joined Ziff-Davis in 1989 as publisher of PC Magazine, became president in 1991, and was appointed chairman and CEO in 1993 ²³. During his tenure, he founded ZDTV, a cable channel dedicated to technology and the internet ³. In 1995, SoftBank acquired Ziff-Davis, and Hippeau continued as CEO until 2000, when the company was sold ³.

After Ziff-Davis, Hippeau joined SoftBank Capital in 2000 as Managing Partner ²³. He also served as President of SoftBank International Ventures, where he established SoftBank’s international private equity funds and expanded them into Europe, Latin America, and Asia ³. At SoftBank Capital, Hippeau was the board representative for direct investments in companies including Yahoo!, GeoCities, and CNET ³.

In June 2009, Hippeau became CEO of The Huffington Post, having previously invested in the company through SoftBank Capital and joined its board in 2006 ²³. He served as CEO through 2011.

Hippeau co-founded NowThis News (now NowThis Media) with Kenneth Lerer in September 2012, a social-media-first video news platform ⁴⁵. He also serves as Chairman of RebelMouse, a digital publishing platform ²⁶. He sits on the board of directors of Marriott International and BuzzFeed ⁶⁷.

Hippeau graduated from the Lycee Francais de Londres and attended the Sorbonne University in Paris ³.

Stated Thesis

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

Hippeau and Lerer Hippeau describe their approach as “seed first, New York first,” with a generalist investment philosophy across consumer and enterprise sectors ⁸⁹.

On evaluating startups, Hippeau has stated that it comes down to the idea, the timing, and the people: “Is it a big, timely idea and does the founding team have the background and grit to execute?” ⁷. He reviews approximately 2,000 investment opportunities annually ¹⁰.

Hippeau has emphasized founder mission-orientation: he looks for founders who “view their ventures as missions rather than merely jobs” ¹⁰. On AI, Hippeau stated in 2025: “As our industry well knows, this historic moment in AI is shifting technology and constitutes a sea change for what’s possible. It’s an exciting time to partner with our founders as they build businesses with AI embedded deeply into every decision they make” ¹¹.

On content and media, Hippeau has stated: “We’re bullish on companies using AI to augment and complement human ability rather than replace human ingenuity” and “We aren’t interested in AI that aims to replace human talent” ¹².

Regarding direct-to-consumer companies, Hippeau has advised: “You cannot be spending money… because your product has to go viral. It has to be widely adopted by really passionate users and buyers who will convince others, through their social media and other ways, to also buy this product” ¹³.

Inferred Thesis

The analysis below is based on verified investments from Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio page, Crunchbase, Tracxn, and press coverage. Note: Because Lerer Hippeau is a partnership where investments are made at the firm level, Eric Hippeau’s personal portfolio substantially overlaps with the firm’s. Lerer Hippeau has invested in 447 companies over 16 years ¹⁴.

Stage distribution (based on Tracxn data for Lerer Hippeau’s 447 investments): - Seed: 230 of 447 investments (51%) with average round size of $3.01M ¹⁴ - Series A: 106 of 447 (24%) with average round size of $6.49M ¹⁴ - Series B: 16 of 447 (4%) with average round size of $20.5M ¹⁴ - Pre-seed and other early stages: remainder ¹⁴

This confirms the firm’s “seed first” positioning. Over half of all investments are at the seed stage.

Sector breakdown (based on Tracxn categorization of 447 investments): - Consumer (B2C): 252 of 447 (56%) ¹⁴ - Enterprise (B2B): 203 of 447 (45%) ¹⁴ - Software: 208 of 447 (47%) ¹⁴

Note: Categories overlap as companies may be counted in multiple sectors. The firm is genuinely generalist but with a consumer tilt, consistent with the founding team’s media and D2C backgrounds.

Sector themes from portfolio composition: - D2C / Consumer brands: Allbirds, Warby Parker, Casper, Everlane, Glossier, Birchbox ¹¹⁵ - Media and entertainment: BuzzFeed, Axios, NowThis, Giphy ¹¹⁵ - Healthcare / digital health: K Health, GoodRx ⁸¹⁵ - Fintech: Guideline, Venmo ¹¹⁵ - Food and agriculture: Bowery Farming, Ayoh Foods ¹¹⁴ - Supply chain and logistics: Blade, Zipline ¹ - Hardware and robotics: MIRROR (acquired by Lululemon) ¹ - SaaS / enterprise: Blockdaemon, ZenBusiness, Thrive ¹

Geographic concentration: - Primarily New York City-based companies, consistent with the “New York first” strategy ⁸⁹ - Approximately one-third of portfolio on the West Coast ⁸ - Recent expansion into Israel (2025 venture partner hire) ¹⁶

Check size: $100K-$3M at seed, with a sweet spot of $1.5M ⁶¹⁷. Targets 10-15% ownership at seed stage in typical $3-4M rounds raising 20-25% equity ⁸.

Investment pace: Approximately 20 new investments per year ⁸. In 2025, the firm made 19 investments ¹⁴.

Co-investor patterns: The firm frequently co-invests with other NYC-based seed funds and has built a network of 250+ active portfolio companies that share resources ⁸.

Notable gap between stated and actual thesis: While Hippeau emphasizes being “seed first,” the firm also runs Select funds (LH Select IV) that invest from Series A through Series C ¹⁸. This follow-on strategy is not prominently marketed but represents a meaningful component of AUM.

Exit track record: 12 unicorns, 12 IPOs, and 159 acquisitions ¹⁴. Notable exits include Warby Parker (IPO), BuzzFeed (IPO), GoodRx (IPO), Allbirds (IPO, NASDAQ at $2.16B market cap), Scopely (acquisition), SmartThings (acquired by Samsung), MIRROR (acquired by Lululemon), Resy (acquired by American Express), Giphy (acquired by Facebook/Meta), and Venmo ¹⁴¹⁵.

Portfolio

The table below represents a sample of verified investments. Lerer Hippeau has 447 total investments ¹⁴; this table captures notable deals. Eric Hippeau’s individual investments substantially overlap with the firm’s portfolio.

Note: Many years are approximate (marked with ~), based on founding years or estimated investment timing. This table represents approximately 7% of 447 total investments. Precise dates for individual seed investments are often not publicly disclosed.

In Their Own Words

“It always comes down to the people. Do they have a sophisticated and proprietary sense of their market, product, and timing?” — Eric Hippeau, TheWrap, 2025 ¹²

“Formula suggests a sort of science, and I would say that our business is equal parts art and science.” — Eric Hippeau, TheWrap, 2025 ¹²

“We make decisions based on a million small signals.” — Eric Hippeau, TheWrap, 2025 ¹²

“Media and entertainment will continue to shift more and more toward smaller, independent teams or individual talent and solo creators.” — Eric Hippeau, TheWrap, 2025 ¹²

“We are concerned about what will happen to the quality of content with uncontrolled AI bot scraping. Creators and publishers need to be compensated for the writing and content they produce.” — Eric Hippeau, TheWrap, 2025 ¹²

“Find the best founders before they’re famous.” — Eric Hippeau, on Fund IX, TheWrap, 2025 ¹²

“As much as you can, in terms of timing and resources, build something. Don’t just talk about building something. Build it.” — Eric Hippeau, TechCrunch, 2020 ¹³

“You’re 25 years old or 30 years old. Are you ready for this to be your last job?” — Eric Hippeau, on the commitment required for venture capital, Crunchbase News ⁸

“You have to learn how to be somewhat more patient. You also have to remind yourself that you’re a minority shareholder, you’re not running the business.” — Eric Hippeau, on advising founders ¹³

“Make this really complex inefficient, unfair, super-expensive marketplace… make sense out of it, to the benefit of the patients.” — Eric Hippeau, on digital health opportunities, Crunchbase News ⁸

“There are fewer public companies in the U.S. than ever before.” — Eric Hippeau, Fortune op-ed, May 2024 ¹⁹

“We love to help build successful new companies. It’s hard. It takes a village.” — Eric Hippeau, NYC Founder Guide ⁷

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Lerer Hippeau’s website describes itself as taking “a hands-on approach post investment” with “support services as well as personal involvement of partners and investment team” ⁷, and notes that “dozens of portfolio founders have become investors in their funds” ¹, suggesting strong founder satisfaction. However, no specific verbatim quotes from portfolio founders about working with Eric Hippeau individually were identified through dedicated searching.

Connections

• Board member, Marriott International ⁶⁷
• Board member, BuzzFeed — portfolio company ⁶⁷
• Chairman, RebelMouse — digital publishing platform ²⁶
• Co-Founder, NowThis Media — co-founded with Kenneth Lerer in 2012 ⁴⁵
• Former CEO, The Huffington Post (2009-2011) — worked with Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer ²³
• Former Chairman & CEO, Ziff-Davis (1993-2000) — founded ZDTV ²³
• Former Managing Partner, SoftBank Capital (2000-2009) — board representative for Yahoo!, GeoCities, CNET ³
• Co-Founder, Lerer Hippeau — alongside Kenneth Lerer and Ben Lerer (2010) ¹²
• Frequent co-investor with NYC seed ecosystem — 250+ active portfolio company network ⁸
• Fortune contributor — wrote op-ed on declining public companies (May 2024) ¹⁹

Sources