Sheel Mohnot

Background

Sheel Mohnot is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), an early-stage venture capital firm focused exclusively on fintech ¹². He co-founded BTV with Jake Gibson, co-founder of NerdWallet ³. The firm has raised $450 million across three funds: a $75 million debut fund in 2019, a $150 million Fund II in 2021, and a $140 million Fund III closed in October 2025 ³⁴.

Mohnot graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan ⁵⁶. He began his career in consulting at The Boston Consulting Group and also worked at Intel Capital and The Chartis Group ⁵⁶. He started his fintech career at Kiva, the non-profit peer-to-peer lender, where he lived in India on less than $2 a day to better understand microloan recipients ⁵⁶.

Mohnot is a two-time fintech founder with successful exits. In 2009, he co-founded FeeFighters, a payments startup that enabled reverse auctions for credit card processing; it raised a $1.6 million seed round and was acquired by Groupon in 2012 ⁵⁶. He then founded Innovative Auctions in 2013, a high-stakes auction company that was acquired in 2015 ⁵⁶.

In 2016, Mohnot joined 500 Startups as a mentor and then launched 500 Fintech, a fintech-focused accelerator cohort within 500 Startups ⁵⁶. He also co-founded The Pitch podcast, where founders pitch investors live; the podcast was acquired by Gimlet Media (later acquired by Spotify) and reached approximately 100,000 weekly listeners ²⁵. Additionally, he co-founded Thistle, a vegetarian food delivery company serving tens of thousands of customers weekly ².

BTV operates “The Mint,” a hands-on pre-seed accelerator currently in its fourth cohort, which recently moved to New York ⁷.

Stated Thesis

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

Mohnot’s core thesis is that “everything is fintech” — that vertical SaaS companies increasingly derive revenue from payments and financial services, making fintech a broader category than traditionally defined ³⁸.

He has stated: “Finance is all around us, and it can make people’s lives easier or harder” ¹.

On founder selection, Mohnot prioritizes speed and tenacity over specific ideas: “I think it all comes down to a founder and their ability to iterate fast. Are they tenacious? Are they breaking through walls to make stuff happen?” ³. He has also stated: “The product will change, the tech will pivot, but the founders are the constant” ⁷.

Mohnot emphasizes BTV’s all-founder team as a competitive advantage: “Everyone on our team is a founder, operator. Founders want to work with founders, and especially at the earliest stages” ³. He notes: “In private markets investing, you win the deal by being the best partner. The asset chooses the investor in venture, and that is unique to our asset class” ⁸.

On investment approach, he has said: “We’re more opportunistic than strictly thesis-driven… being persuaded by a founder’s conviction” ⁷.

BTV’s two investment sub-theses are “services as software” (AI replacing human-delivered services) and embedded fintech (financial services embedded within vertical SaaS platforms) ⁷.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 16 verified investments below:

Stage distribution: BTV invests exclusively at pre-seed and seed stages ¹². The Mint accelerator program extends their reach to pre-product companies ⁷.

Sector concentration (of 16 verified investments): - Payments/banking: 5 companies (31%) — Coast, Relay, Mercury, Ramp, Unit ³⁴ - Accounting/finance automation: 3 companies (19%) — Basis, Layer, InScope ³⁴ - Insurance: 2 companies (13%) — Kin, Ethos ⁴ - Embedded finance/infrastructure: 2 companies (13%) — Salsa, Unit ³ - Logistics/supply chain fintech: 1 company (6%) — Flexport ⁹ - Legal tech: 1 company (6%) — Ironclad ⁴ - Personal finance: 1 company (6%) — Albert ⁴ - Cross-border payments: 1 company (6%) — Chipper Cash ⁴

Geographic focus: Primarily San Francisco/Bay Area, with some global investments (Chipper Cash in Africa) ²⁹.

Check size: $500K-$2M with a target of $1.5M ⁹².

Founder profile patterns: Strong preference for repeat founders and those with deep domain expertise in financial services. BTV differentiates by having an all-founder GP team ³⁷.

Co-investor patterns: BTV portfolio companies have subsequently raised from Khosla Ventures (Basis Series A), and earlier angel investments overlapped with well-known fintech investors ³.

Notable patterns: Mohnot’s personal angel portfolio includes some of the most successful fintech companies of the past decade — Ramp ($22B valuation), Mercury ($3.5B), and Ethos (IPO filed) — suggesting strong deal flow and pattern recognition in fintech specifically ⁴. The “everything is fintech” thesis accurately describes the portfolio’s breadth within financial services but the concentration remains firmly in infrastructure and B2B fintech rather than consumer fintech.

Portfolio

This table represents 16 verified investments. BTV has made investments across three funds totaling $450M in AUM; the full portfolio is substantially larger ³⁴. Investment years marked with ~ are approximate based on public reporting.

In Their Own Words

“I think it all comes down to a founder and their ability to iterate fast. Are they tenacious? Are they breaking through walls to make stuff happen?” — Sheel Mohnot, Tearsheet podcast, 2025 ³

“Everyone on our team is a founder, operator. Founders want to work with founders, and especially at the earliest stages.” — Sheel Mohnot, Tearsheet podcast ³

“The product will change, the tech will pivot, but the founders are the constant.” — Sheel Mohnot, Stifel Builders & Buyers interview, 2025 ⁷

“AI is making everything faster, leaner, more scalable. You don’t have to be building AI to benefit from it.” — Sheel Mohnot, Stifel interview ⁷

“It has to come from a real place. You can spot a ghostwriter from a mile away.” — Sheel Mohnot, on authentic founder social media presence ⁷

“We’re more opportunistic than strictly thesis-driven… being persuaded by a founder’s conviction.” — Sheel Mohnot, Stifel interview ⁷

“In private markets investing, you win the deal by being the best partner. The asset chooses the investor in venture, and that is unique to our asset class.” — Sheel Mohnot ⁸

What Founders Say

One portfolio founder stated: “When we met Jake and Sheel, they fit the bill perfectly — it was an easy decision. They know how to be helpful (easily our most responsive investors!), how to push when needed, and how to trust founders to build amazing companies” ⁸.

A Coast founder stated: “I’m glad I went with Better Tomorrow Ventures. They’ve been critical to Coast in every lane: connecting and promoting us to follow-on investors, helping to close key candidates of every seniority, enabling key partnerships, and beyond” ⁸.

Mohnot has noted that founders have praised BTV’s approach even when passing on deals: “I have seen founders post on X saying, ‘I met Jake and he passed on my company, but I got so much out of the interaction.’ It makes me proud that someone said that about our team” ⁸.

Sources