Will Quist
Partner at slow-ventures
Reviewed Updated Jul 7, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Background
Will Quist is a Partner at Slow Ventures, which he joined in November 2015 12. Slow Ventures lists his title as “Excitable GP” on its team page, reflecting the firm’s informal branding 1. Before Slow, Quist spent more than eight years at Industry Ventures, and earlier in his career he worked in finance at Banc of America 23. He is a former collegiate water polo player who has described his path into venture in podcast interviews 4.
Slow Ventures itself is a generalist early-stage firm founded in 2011 by former Facebook employees Dave Morin, Kevin Colleran, and Sam Lessin; today the fund is run principally by Colleran, Lessin, and Quist 5. As of December 2024, Slow was raising a $165M Fund VI and a $110M opportunity fund, totalling $275M across two vehicles 5. Quist is one of three named partners on Slow’s core investing team, alongside Kevin Colleran (Managing Director) and Sam Lessin (GP) 1.
Stated Thesis
Quist publicly frames his approach around a program he designed at Slow called the “Slow PhD,” an engagement pattern meant for founders with subject-matter expertise and high opportunity cost. The stated premise: “Important companies and successful businesses can’t be hacked, forced, or faked” 6. In a September 2025 Snailmail essay, he distilled the philosophy as:
“You need slow conviction, not fast momentum.” 7
Signal by NFX lists his declared focus areas as “Banking, Future of Work, Health Care Services,” with strong preferences for Web3/crypto, consumer internet, SaaS, and health IT, and stated aversion to marketing technology, content platforms, and lending 2.
Slow itself markets a broad, sector-agnostic seed thesis spanning security, fintech, buyouts/rollups, SaaS, crypto, consumer, healthcare, and creator economy 1.
Inferred Thesis
Based on 8 unique verified portfolio companies (9 rounds) documented below, Quist’s investment behavior differs meaningfully from a generic seed generalist. The sample is small, so numerical percentages are omitted in favor of qualitative patterns.
Sector patterns. Quist’s verified deal history skews toward “picks-and-shovels for old-world systems being rewired” — food R&D (Starday), sustainable timber (Lumber Manufactory), prize-linked fintech (Yotta), Web3 infrastructure (Portal), music creator payments (Breakr), patient communication (Karuna Health), and AI agent tooling (AgentAI). Only Yotta and Portal sit clearly in the “banking / crypto” lanes Signal shows as his top declared interests; the majority are consumer/industrial hybrids.
Stage. Predominantly seed. Two of the nine verified rounds were Series A (Yotta 2021, Starday 2025); the remaining seven were seed or seed-extension rounds.
Check sizes. Signal reports a $500K–$2M range with a ~$1M sweet spot at seed 2. In Series A leads, the personal-attributed check has been materially larger — e.g., Slow led Starday’s $8M Series A equity tranche alongside Equal Ventures 8.
Deal role. Quist’s verified rounds skew toward participation alongside another lead (Portal, Yotta, Lumber Manufactory, Breakr) rather than sole leadership. The exception is Starday, where Slow Ventures was named co-lead with Equal Ventures on the April 2025 Series A 89.
Co-investors. Recurring co-investors across his verified rounds include Equal Ventures (Starday), Haun Ventures and Acrew Capital (Portal), Base10 Partners and Y Combinator (Yotta), and Precursor Ventures (Breakr) 8101112.
Founder pattern. Multiple investments back founders re-engineering physical/regulated industries (food formulation, sawmills, wallet infrastructure, patient outreach), consistent with the “Slow PhD” framing of long-cycle building over hype-driven momentum.
Sample-size caveat. Signal.nfx lists 9 individually attributed deals; Slow Ventures has funded 500+ companies as a firm, so Quist’s true attribution is likely larger than what public records surface. The inferred thesis above is grounded only in what is independently verifiable.
Portfolio
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karuna Health | 2019 | Seed | 2 |
| Yotta | 2020 | Seed | 13 |
| Yotta | 2021 | Series A | 11 |
| Portal | 2023 | Seed | 10 |
| Breakr | 2023 | Seed (extension) | 12 |
| AgentAI | 2024 | Seed | 2 |
| The Lumber Manufactory | 2024 | Seed | 14 |
| Starday | 2025 | Series A (co-lead) | 89 |
Note: Table represents 9 investments individually attributed to Quist per Signal.nfx. Slow Ventures as a firm has backed 500+ companies; this list captures only rounds where Quist is publicly identified as the deal lead or attributed investor.
In Their Own Words
On starting versus finishing (Snailmail, September 2025):
“‘Can I start this?’ when the much more important question is, ‘Should I?’” 7
On opportunity cost for experienced founders:
“When your alternative is $500K+ a year in cash and RSUs, sprinting toward incorporation becomes expensive.” 7
On walking away as a founder:
“Sometimes, after all that work, the best outcome is deciding not to start. That’s not failure—it’s efficiency.” 7
On time as an asset:
“Your time is your most expensive asset—don’t spend it lightly.” 7
On Yotta’s prize-linked savings model (Crunchbase News, October 2020):
“We think the power of random rewards is underrated in the U.S. as a way to drive significant behavior change, and we were ideating on when that would get properly applied to financial services.” 13
On Starday’s food-innovation model (Business Wire, April 2025):
“What excites us about Starday is how they’re rethinking the entire system for how food brands are created and scaled.” 9
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials about working with Will Quist were found in accessible public sources. Slow Ventures does not publish curated founder testimonials on its About page attributed to individual partners 1.
Sources
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“About,” Slow Ventures, accessed July 2026. https://slow.co/about/↩↩↩↩↩
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“William Quist’s Investing Profile,” Signal by NFX, accessed July 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/will-quist↩↩↩↩↩↩
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“Will Quist,” Bloomberg Markets Profile, accessed July 2026. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/15046223↩
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“20VC: Why 95% of Venture Capital is Not Really Venture Capital… with Will Quist, Partner @ Slow Ventures,” The Twenty Minute VC episode landing page, accessed July 2026. https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/will-quist↩
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Jessica Mathews, “Slow Ventures is raising $275 million across two new funds: Filings,” Fortune, December 18, 2024. https://fortune.com/2024/12/18/venture-firm-slow-ventures-sam-lessin-kevin-colleran-will-quist-raising-275-million-two-new-funds-filings/↩↩
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Bryce Roberts, “Slow Ventures PhD Program with Will Quist — indie Interview,” Medium, accessed July 2026. https://bryce.medium.com/slow-ventures-phd-program-with-will-quist-indie-interview-387e439c20f9↩
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Will Quist, “Experienced Founders Need Slow Conviction Over Fast Momentum,” Snailmail (Slow Ventures newsletter), September 18, 2025. https://snailmail.slow.co/p/experienced-founders-need-slow-conviction-over-fast-momentum↩↩↩↩↩
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“Starday Secures $11M Series A Funding Led By Slow Ventures And Equal Ventures,” TradedVC, April 2025. https://traded.co/vc/deal/starday-secures-11m-series-a-funding-led-by-slow-ventures-and-equal-ventures/↩↩↩↩
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“Starday Raises $11 Million in Series A Funding to Expand Data-Informed Food Innovation and Retail Partnerships,” Business Wire, April 8, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250408508297/en/Starday-Raises-$11-Million-in-Series-A-Funding-to-Expand-Data-Informed-Food-Innovation-and-Retail-Partnerships↩↩↩
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Nikhilesh De, “Web3 Infrastructure Startup Portal Raises $5.3M,” CoinDesk, February 28, 2023. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/02/28/web3-infrastructure-startup-portal-raises-53m↩↩
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Igor Bosilkovski, “Savings App Yotta Cofounded By Under 30 Entrepreneurs Raises $13 Million In Series A,” Forbes, January 28, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/igorbosilkovski/2021/01/28/savings-account-app-yotta-raises-13-million-in-series-a/↩↩
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Dominic-Madori Davis, “Startup Breakr raises more capital, pays $3.5M to creators,” TechCrunch, December 19, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/19/music-marketing-startup-breakr-raises-more-capital-pays-3-5m-to-creators/↩↩
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Christine Hall, “Yotta Savings Banks On $3.3M Seed Round To Propel Prize-linked Savings Accounts,” Crunchbase News, October 5, 2020. https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/yotta-savings-banks-on-3-3m-seed-round-to-propel-prize-linked-savings-accounts/↩↩
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“The Lumber Manufactory Raises $4.1 Million to Build Sustainable Sawmills,” citybiz, May 2024. https://www.citybiz.co/article/561932/the-lumber-manufactory-raises-4-1-million-to-build-sustainable-sawmills/↩