Ethan Kurzweil

Founder & Managing Partner, Chemistry VC at Chemistry

Reviewed Updated Mar 19, 2026

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Ethan Kurzweil is Founder and Managing Partner of Chemistry VC ($350M Fund I, Oct 2024). Previously a Managing Partner at Bessemer Ventures for 16 years, where he led investments in PagerDuty (IPO 2019), SendGrid (IPO 2017), Twitch (Amazon $970M), and Intercom. Co-founded Chemistry with Mark Goldberg (Index) and Christina Shen (Bessemer/a16z). Chemistry writes $3-30M checks (average $10-12M) exclusively at seed and Series A. Son of inventor Ray Kurzweil.

Location San Francisco, CA

Check Size $3M-$30M

Last Verified Investment Chemistry VC Fund I (Fund Launch) — Oct 23, 2024

Social @ethankurz LinkedIn

Stage Focus

seed series-a series-b

Sector Focus

developer-tools saas consumer data-infrastructure gaming fintech

Background

Ethan Kurzweil is the Founder and Managing Partner of Chemistry VC, which he launched in October 2024 with a $350 million debut fund ¹². He is the son of inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil ³.

Kurzweil holds an A.B. in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School ⁴. Before entering venture capital, he worked at Linden Lab (creator of Second Life) and The Wall Street Journal ⁵.

Kurzweil joined Bessemer Venture Partners in 2008 and spent 16 years at the firm, rising to Managing Partner ⁵⁶. At Bessemer, he began with consumer investments before pivoting to B2B, where he developed particular expertise in developer platforms and cloud computing ⁶. He led Bessemer’s investments in several high-profile companies including PagerDuty (IPO 2019), Intercom, SendGrid (IPO 2017, acquired by Twilio), and Twitch (acquired by Amazon for ~$970M in 2014) ⁵⁶⁷.

In October 2024, Kurzweil co-founded Chemistry VC alongside Mark Goldberg (formerly of Index Ventures) and Christina Shen (formerly of Bessemer and Andreessen Horowitz) ¹². The firm focuses exclusively on seed and Series A investments, writing $3-30M checks with an average of $10-12M ²⁸.

Stated Thesis

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

Kurzweil’s publicly stated investment philosophy centers on several principles:

Conviction over consensus: Kurzweil’s early wins at Bessemer — particularly Twitch and PagerDuty — taught him to trust conviction over consensus, an ethos he carried into co-founding Chemistry ².
Venture capital is not meant to scale: Kurzweil has stated: “Venture capital isn’t meant to scale. Committing fully and wholeheartedly to each and every one of our investments may not be a recipe for rapid growth, but it’s our north star” ¹.
Product-market fit as the primary signal: For later-stage investments, Kurzweil has said: “We need to see that you’re solving a real need that exists in the world, that the product’s working, and that we think it can be bigger” ⁹.
Quiet support over self-promotion: At Bessemer, Kurzweil operated with a preference for working behind the scenes: “We don’t necessarily want to be known. We want to be working behind the scenes supporting entrepreneurs” ⁹.
Developer platforms and democratization: Kurzweil has focused extensively on companies that democratize development for knowledge workers worldwide, led Bessemer’s roadmap on developer platforms, and built structured frameworks for evaluating developer tools ⁵¹⁰.

Inferred Thesis

The analysis below is based on 22 verified investments attributed to Kurzweil across his Bessemer tenure and Chemistry VC. This represents his individually attributed deals.

Sector concentration (based on 22 verified investments): - Developer platforms/tools: 6 of 22 (27%) — Twilio, SendGrid, LaunchDarkly, Basis Theory, Applitools, Pangolin - Enterprise SaaS/cloud: 5 of 22 (23%) — PagerDuty, Intercom, Simply Measured, Hightower, VTS - Consumer internet/gaming: 5 of 22 (23%) — Twitch, Life360, Piazza, Playdom, Zoosk - Data infrastructure: 2 of 22 (9%) — Periscope Data, Okera - Fintech: 1 of 22 (5%) — ManyChat - Other (AI/misc): 3 of 22 (14%) — TRM Labs, Granola, Comfy

Key patterns:

Developer platform specialization: Kurzweil’s strongest sector is developer platforms and tools, representing over a quarter of his portfolio. His investments in Twilio, SendGrid, and LaunchDarkly all became category leaders in their respective spaces.
Career evolution from consumer to B2B: His earlier investments (Twitch, Playdom, Zoosk, Life360) skew consumer; his later investments increasingly focus on developer tools and enterprise SaaS. This trajectory mirrors his stated career arc from consumer to B2B investing ⁶.
Stage distribution: At Bessemer, Kurzweil invested across stages from seed through growth. At Chemistry, he is now focused exclusively on seed and Series A, with an average check size of $10-12M ²⁸.
Strong exit record: Multiple IPOs (PagerDuty, Twilio, SendGrid) and major acquisitions (Twitch/Amazon for ~$970M, Playdom/Disney, adap.tv/AOL, Periscope/Twitter) ⁵⁷.
Board involvement: Kurzweil has served on the boards of PagerDuty, Intercom (January 2014 through May 2025), LaunchDarkly, Pinpoint, and Team SoloMid ⁴⁵.
Geographic focus: Primarily US-based investments, with some exposure to Israel and Europe through Bessemer’s global platform ¹⁰.

Portfolio

Company	Stage	Year	Sector	Status	Source
PagerDuty	Series A+	~2013	Enterprise SaaS	IPO 2019	⁵⁶
Intercom	Series A	~2014	Enterprise SaaS	Active	⁵⁶
Twitch	Early Stage	~2012	Consumer/Gaming	Acq. by Amazon 2014	⁵⁷
SendGrid	Growth	—	Developer Platform	IPO 2017, Acq. by Twilio	⁵⁶
Twilio	Growth	—	Developer Platform	IPO 2016	⁵¹⁰
~unknown	LaunchDarkly	Series B+	—	Developer Tools	Active
~unknown	Life360	Early Stage	—	Consumer/Mobile	IPO
~unknown	Piazza	Early Stage	—	Consumer/EdTech	Active
~unknown	Playdom	Early Stage	—	Gaming	Acq. by Disney
~unknown	adap.tv	Growth	—	Ad Tech	Acq. by AOL
~unknown	Simply Measured	Early Stage	—	Analytics SaaS	Active
~unknown	Hightower	Early Stage	—	Enterprise SaaS	Active
~unknown	Zoosk	Growth	—	Consumer/Dating	Active
~unknown	Crowdflower	Early Stage	—	Data/AI	Active
~unknown	Reputation.com	Growth	—	Enterprise SaaS	Active
~unknown	Sweet Labs	Early Stage	—	Consumer	Active
~unknown	Skybox Imaging	Early Stage	—	Satellite/Data	Acq. by Google
~unknown	Mojave Networks	Early Stage	—	Security	Active
~unknown	Periscope Data	Early Stage	—	Data Infrastructure	Acq. by Sisense
~unknown	Basis Theory	Early Stage	—	Developer Platform	Active
~unknown	TRM Labs	Growth	—	Crypto/Compliance	Active
~unknown	VTS	Growth	—	Enterprise SaaS	Active

Note: This table represents 22 verified investments. Exact investment years are not publicly available for most entries. Kurzweil’s Chemistry VC portfolio (post-October 2024) is not yet widely documented.

In Their Own Words

On the mission of Chemistry VC: “Venture capital isn’t meant to scale. Committing fully and wholeheartedly to each and every one of our investments may not be a recipe for rapid growth, but it’s our north star” ¹.

On evaluating companies: “We need to see that you’re solving a real need that exists in the world, that the product’s working, and that we think it can be bigger” ⁹.

On working with founders: “We don’t necessarily want to be known. We want to be working behind the scenes supporting entrepreneurs” ⁹.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Kurzweil’s portfolio founders have not generated significant public commentary specifically about him as an investor. The Intercom blog hosted a podcast with Kurzweil discussing raising capital, suggesting a collaborative relationship, but specific founder endorsements could not be verified in public sources ⁹.