Saar Gur

Background

Saar Gur is a General Partner at CRV (formerly Charles River Ventures), where he has invested since March 2007 ¹². Before joining CRV, Gur co-founded BrightRoll, a video advertising platform, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2014 for $640 million in cash ¹³. Prior to BrightRoll, he served as Vice President of customer acquisition at Adteractive from 2004 to 2006, helping build the company to over $160 million in revenue without outside funding ²⁴.

Gur’s earlier career included working as a technology analyst at Lehman Brothers from 1997 to 1999, followed by a role as a venture associate at Lehman Venture Capital from 1999 to 2001 ⁴. He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business (2001–2003) and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1994–1998) ⁴¹. Gur also served as an instructor for the Startup Garage program at Stanford GSB from 2011 to 2014 ⁵⁶.

Gur has been recognized multiple times on the Forbes Midas List of the world’s best venture capital investors, including #34 in 2021, #22 in 2023, and #27 in 2024 ⁷⁸⁹. He was also named one of the top 8 up-and-coming venture capitalists by Forbes and a top 10 VC under the age of 36 by Venture Capital Journal ¹³.

Stated Thesis

Gur publicly describes his investment focus as consumer and SMB software, stating on CRV’s website: “Feeling is first. I invest early in startups that tap into not-yet-obvious-but-soon-to-be-massive changes in consumer behavior — especially those that create and deliver experiences, rather than just things” ¹.

In an interview with Outlander VC, Gur emphasized that he looks for companies that are “pretty funky” and said “the weirder the better,” seeking novel solutions with early product-market fit ¹⁰. He has stated that CRV looks for “businesses that can generate billions of dollars in revenue” and that most of their investments are “in the first 18-to-36 months from incorporation” ¹⁰.

Gur has also expressed interest in gaming and interactive entertainment, telling TechCrunch in 2020 that he was looking for studios building games for VR, Twitch, and video chat environments ¹¹. More recently, he has invested in mission-driven healthcare and public safety startups, including Lotus Health (AI-powered free primary care) and Aerodome (drone-as-first-responder technology) ¹²¹³.

In a 2014 StrictlyVC interview, Gur stated: “Over 90 percent of our investments are seed and Series A… we really enjoy being partners with our entrepreneurs throughout their company’s journey, starting as early as possible,” with seed check sizes in the range of “$500,000 to $3 million” ¹⁴.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 25 verified investments, Gur’s actual portfolio reveals a strong consumer-first orientation with meaningful diversification into fintech and enterprise tools.

Sector distribution (25 verified investments): Consumer/marketplace represents the largest category at 11 of 25 (44%), including DoorDash, Ring, ClassPass, Patreon, Bird, Flixster, Viki, and Niantic. Fintech accounts for 5 of 25 (20%), including Mercury, Oportun, Jeeves, and Pilot. Enterprise/productivity tools represent 4 of 25 (16%), including Airtable, Vercel, Postman, and Kapwing. Healthcare/public safety accounts for 3 of 25 (12%), including Lotus Health, Color Health, and Aerodome. Other categories (gaming, media, education) account for 2 of 25 (8%).

Stage distribution: Gur invests overwhelmingly at seed and Series A. Of verified investments with known stages, seed rounds represent approximately 60% and Series A approximately 30%, consistent with his stated preference. He has participated in follow-on rounds for breakout companies (DoorDash seed through Series B, Mercury Series A).

Founder profile patterns: Gur has described looking for “lived-market fit” — founders with direct personal experience with the problem they are solving ¹⁵. He cited Tony Xu’s logistics-first mindset as the key differentiator behind DoorDash ¹⁵, and KJ Dhaliwal’s childhood experience translating medical information for his parents as motivation for Lotus Health ¹². He values founders who are “unit economic-oriented” from the start ¹⁰.

Geographic concentration: The portfolio is heavily concentrated in San Francisco and the broader Bay Area, consistent with CRV’s San Francisco office base.

Co-investor patterns: Gur has co-invested with Khosla Ventures (DoorDash seed), Freestyle (Patreon seed), Kleiner Perkins (Lotus Health Series A), and Y Combinator alumni companies (Jeeves YC S20, DoorDash YC W13).

Notable gaps: While Gur lists AI and biotech among CRV’s sector interests on VCSheet, his personal portfolio is predominantly consumer-oriented with limited deep tech or pure AI investments. His healthcare investments tend to be consumer-facing digital health rather than biotech.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 25 verified investments. CRV’s overall portfolio spans 600+ companies; Gur’s personal deal count is not publicly disclosed but is likely larger than what is independently verifiable here.

In Their Own Words

“Feeling is first. I invest early in startups that tap into not-yet-obvious-but-soon-to-be-massive changes in consumer behavior — especially those that create and deliver experiences, rather than just things.” — Saar Gur, CRV website ¹

“The weirder the better… Doing AI for customer support makes a ton of sense [but] it’s not totally clear to me why a startup is gonna win that.” — Saar Gur, Outlander VC podcast ¹⁰

“I was like, Oh my God, [this is what] I’ve been looking for.” — Saar Gur, describing his reaction to meeting DoorDash founder Tony Xu, Outlander VC podcast ¹⁰

“We were finishing each other’s sentences.” — Saar Gur, on his first meeting with Tony Xu ¹⁵

“I do think this could be a $500 billion-plus company.” — Saar Gur, on DoorDash’s growth potential post-IPO, TechCrunch, December 2020 ¹⁶

“The team came around to seeing that actually helping people process their email faster was a very exciting mission… A lot of people thought they were crazy, they thought we were nuts.” — Saar Gur, on Orchestra/Mailbox pivoting to an email app, The Next Web ¹⁹

“Betting on world-class teams that want to change the world and have huge impact.” — Saar Gur, on his investment strategy, The Next Web ¹⁹

“At CRV, our first priority is serving our entrepreneurs and promoting our companies, not ourselves.” — Saar Gur, StrictlyVC interview, December 2014 ¹⁴

“Over 90 percent of our investments are seed and Series A… we really enjoy being partners with our entrepreneurs throughout their company’s journey, starting as early as possible.” — Saar Gur, StrictlyVC interview, December 2014 ¹⁴

“Great entrepreneurs, more than anything else, are the key ingredient in the startup success equation.” — Saar Gur, StrictlyVC interview, December 2014 ¹⁴

“We were blown away with Jeeves’ growth, consistently hitting and exceeding targets month over month, and the overwhelming positive feedback from customers that just love the product.” — Saar Gur, on Jeeves Series B, September 2021 ²⁴

What Founders Say

“We chose CRV because we shared in common a passion and vision.” — DoorDash co-founders (Evan Moore, Andy Fang, Tony Xu, and Stanley Tang), CRV website ²⁵

Julia Enthoven, CEO of Kapwing, described Saar Gur as “a great person and coach in addition to an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and marketer” when announcing Kapwing’s Series A led by CRV ²¹.

“We’d been exploring the opportunity in B2B banking for many months but hadn’t found the perfect fit until we connected with Mercury,” Saar Gur and Matt Heiman wrote in CRV’s announcement of Mercury’s Series A. CRV noted they “rarely hear such strong praise from customer calls for such an early product” when describing Mercury’s early traction ²⁰.

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found beyond firm-published materials.

Connections

• Board member, Mercury (September 2019–present) ²
• Board member, Jeeves (September 2021–present) — joined alongside Series B led by CRV ²⁴
• Board member, Aerodome (2024–present) — joined alongside CRV-led Series A ¹³
• Board member, Kapwing (2019–present) — joined alongside CRV-led Series A ²¹
• Board member, Orchestra/Mailbox — lead investor and board member before Dropbox acquisition ¹⁹
• Advisory Board, NFX (April 2015–present) ²
• Advisory Board, Cendana Capital (January 2012–present) ²
• Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business — StartupGarage program instructor (2011–2014) ⁵⁶
• Co-founder, BrightRoll — alongside Tod Sacerdoti; acquired by Yahoo for $640M (2014) ³¹⁴
• Frequent co-investor with Khosla Ventures — DoorDash seed round ¹⁶
• Frequent co-investor with Kleiner Perkins — Lotus Health Series A ¹²

Sources