Geoff Lewis

Background

Geoff Lewis (born Geoffrey Lewis Tabachnick) is the Founder and Managing Partner of Bedrock, a technology investment firm he co-founded with Eric Stromberg in 2017, launching its first fund in March 2018 ¹². Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Lewis holds American-Canadian citizenship ³.

Lewis earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, in 2004 ³⁴. He began his career as a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble from 2004 to 2007, which sponsored his U.S. green card ³. In 2008, he joined Clarium Capital, Peter Thiel’s hedge fund ³.

From 2008 to 2011, Lewis co-founded and served as CEO of Topguest, a loyalty software platform for the travel industry whose clients included United Airlines, Hilton Worldwide, and Virgin America ⁴⁵. The company was acquired for approximately $10 million, with Founders Fund as a lead investor ⁵⁶.

After the Topguest acquisition, Founders Fund recruited Lewis as a Principal in 2012 ⁵. He rose to Partner and spent over five years at the firm, where he was an early lead investor in companies including Lyft, Wish, Privateer Holdings/Tilray, Nubank, and RigUp (now Workrise) ⁴⁵. At Founders Fund, Lewis joined the Lyft board of directors at a $90 million valuation in 2012 and led the Wish Series C at under a $300 million valuation (the company later IPO’d at approximately $30 billion) ⁵. He also did Founders Fund’s first fintech investment in Latin America, backing Nubank ⁷.

Lewis left Founders Fund in August 2017 to start Bedrock, with Founders Fund becoming one of his LPs ². Since founding Bedrock, he has scaled the firm from $127 million in AUM to over $2 billion by 2025 ¹. In 2019, Lewis was named one of the Top 100 Venture Capitalists globally by CB Insights and The New York Times ³⁴. Bedrock operates offices in Los Angeles and Austin ¹.

Stated Thesis

Lewis coined the term “narrative violations” in 2017 to describe Bedrock’s investment approach ³. In Bedrock’s founding letter “In Search of Narrative Violations,” Lewis and Stromberg describe their philosophy as investing in companies that are underestimated precisely because they are incongruent with prevailing market narratives ⁸.

The firm publicly states its core investment approach centers on “radical open-mindedness” and constantly questioning popular narratives to find hidden truths ⁸. On the Bedrock website, the firm describes itself as a “technology investment firm” with a concentrated portfolio across AI, defense, infrastructure, and digital assets ¹.

In a 2018 TechCrunch profile, Bedrock was described as seeking startups that “reject conventional wisdom” and buck industry trends rather than chase buzzwords or hot categories ⁹. Lewis has emphasized that Bedrock avoids overfunded markets and “narrative mirages” where inflated hype leads to unsustainable growth ⁹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 22 verified investments across both the Founders Fund era and the Bedrock era, Lewis’s actual investment behavior reveals the following patterns.

Stage distribution: Lewis invests across multiple stages but gravitates toward Series A and Series B, with occasional seed and later-stage concentration bets. Bedrock primarily leads Series A, B, and C rounds with check sizes ranging from $5 million to $200 million ¹⁰¹¹. The $200 million check into Rippling’s Series D represents the upper extreme ¹¹.

Sector breakdown: Based on 22 verified investments: fintech/financial services represents the largest cluster at 5 of 22 (23%) — Nubank, Upstart, Plaid, ClearCo, and the Bitcoin position; defense tech accounts for 3 of 22 (14%) — Epirus, Mach Industries, and related; developer tools/infrastructure at 3 of 22 (14%) — Vercel, OpenAI (AI infrastructure), and Flock Safety (public safety infrastructure); HR/workforce at 3 of 22 (14%) — Rippling, RigUp/Workrise, and Topguest (as founder); consumer/marketplace at 3 of 22 (14%) — Lyft, Wish, and Cameo; cannabis at 2 of 22 (9%) — Privateer Holdings/Tilray and Leafly. The remaining investments span esports (T1 Entertainment) and digital assets (Bitcoin). Note: the firm describes itself as “industry-agnostic” ¹⁰, which is partially supported — there is genuine breadth, but fintech and defense concentration is notable.

Geographic patterns: The portfolio is heavily U.S.-focused, with Nubank (Brazil) as the notable international outlier. Lewis moved Bedrock from San Francisco to Austin, TX, and has invested in companies outside traditional Silicon Valley including Flock Safety (Atlanta) and Mach Industries ¹⁷.

Founder profile preferences: Lewis has a strong preference for what he calls “narrative violation” founders — entrepreneurs whose backgrounds or companies defy conventional wisdom. He has specifically cited Parker Conrad (Rippling) as a paradigmatic example, a founder who was forced out of Zenefits and returned to build a larger company ¹¹. Lewis was the first seed investor in RigUp/Workrise, investing eight subsequent times ⁷.

Concentration strategy: Bedrock runs a highly concentrated portfolio compared to most venture firms, with only 75 investments across 7+ years of operation ¹². The firm makes very few new investments per year (2 in the most recent 12-month period as of August 2025) ¹² and reserves significant capital for follow-on financing. OpenAI is the largest position across Bedrock’s 3rd and 4th flagship funds ¹³.

Co-investor patterns: Frequent co-investors include Sequoia Capital (Mach Industries), Kleiner Perkins (Rippling Series D co-lead), Y Combinator and Founders Fund (Flock Safety), and 8VC (Epirus) ¹¹¹⁴¹⁵.

Notable gap between stated and actual thesis: While Bedrock markets itself as “industry-agnostic,” the portfolio shows clear clustering in fintech and defense tech. The “narrative violations” framing is genuine — many of Lewis’s best investments (Lyft in 2012, Rippling post-Zenefits, cannabis via Privateer) were genuinely contrarian at the time of entry. However, later investments like OpenAI (post-ChatGPT follow-ons) are less contrarian and more about conviction doubling-down.

Portfolio

Bedrock Era (2018-present)

Founders Fund Era (2012-2017)

This table represents approximately 21 investments. Tracxn reports 75 total Bedrock investments ¹², meaning this represents roughly 17% of the Bedrock-era portfolio (13 of ~75). Including the Founders Fund-era deals, the full list captures only a fraction of Lewis’s total investment activity.

In Their Own Words

“The best time to invest in a company is when it’s most in violation of a popular narrative.” — Geoff Lewis, “In Search of Narrative Violations” founding letter, Bedrock website ⁸

“Rather than chase the narrative, Bedrock’s approach is to invest in promising companies that are underestimated precisely because they are incongruent with the storyline.” — Geoff Lewis, “In Search of Narrative Violations” founding letter, Bedrock website ⁸

“Narratives are not synonymous with truth. They can reflect what people wish were true, what would make people rich if they were true, or simply what an algorithm spits out as truly profitable.” — Geoff Lewis, “In Search of Narrative Violations” founding letter, Bedrock website ⁸

“Against all odds, a few brave entrepreneurs violating the narrative today will come to define profound new truths tomorrow. We’re on a mission to find them.” — Geoff Lewis, “In Search of Narrative Violations” founding letter, Bedrock website ⁸

“Epirus counters the weak assumption baked into standard VC models that the economic and cultural gaps of defense-focused investments are too wide to overcome. We’re very excited to invest in a company that has quickly translated its transformative ideas into scalable technology with broad market potential across the defense sectors.” — Geoff Lewis, Epirus Series B press release, December 2020 ¹⁸

“I’d say it is analogous to crypto in sort of 2021 or so, where it is extremely overhyped, but there are probably a few things that are really going to endure.” — Geoff Lewis on AI sector hype, CNBC interview, February 2023 ¹⁹

“Rippling has the potential to be as big a company in employee data as Salesforce is in sales data.” — Geoff Lewis, 20VC podcast, discussing the Rippling Series D investment ¹¹

“I don’t think Silicon Valley has ever seen a comeback like this before.” — Geoff Lewis on Parker Conrad and Rippling, 20VC podcast ¹¹

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Bedrock’s own website describes a close relationship with portfolio founders like Garrett Langley of Flock Safety (noting that Lewis flew to Atlanta in 2018 to convince Langley to accept Bedrock’s $10 million Series A-1 investment, and that Flock has since accepted over $164 million from Bedrock) ¹⁴, but these are firm-produced narratives rather than independent founder statements.

Connections

• Board member, Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) — joined 2012 at $90M valuation while at Founders Fund ⁵
• Board member, Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU) — Nubank investment while at Founders Fund ¹
• Board member, Vercel — led Series C in 2021 ¹¹⁷
• Board member, Mach Industries — led Series A, co-led Series B with Keith Rabois / Khosla Ventures and Sequoia ¹¹⁵
• Board observer, Flock Safety — joined board as observer after 2018 Series A-1 lead ¹⁴
• Former Partner, Founders Fund (2012-2017) — worked under Peter Thiel; Founders Fund became Bedrock LP ²⁵
• Co-founder, Bedrock — alongside Eric Stromberg (Managing Partner) ⁴⁹
• Former employee, Clarium Capital (2008) — Peter Thiel’s hedge fund ³
• Former Brand Manager, Procter & Gamble (2004-2007) ³
• Named Top 100 VC by CB Insights and The New York Times, 2019 ³
• Frequent CNBC commentator — multiple appearances in 2024 discussing OpenAI and AI investing ²⁰²¹

Sources