Haystack VII

Announcing our newest fund and some team updates

The Haystack team is proud to announce Haystack VII, a $75M fund designed to invest in founders at the earliest stages of company building. Throughout its decade of existence, Haystack has been one of the first investors in businesses like DoorDash, Instacart, Hashicorp, Figma, Carta, Applied Intuition, Ironclad, Redpanda, and many other startups. Our goals are simple – to remain focused on early stage investing, to remain nimble, and to be a choice partner for ambitious founders at the beginning of their journeys. 

Haystack would not be possible without three groups – the founders we work for and help support, our Limited Partners who believe in Haystack, and VC friends & collaborators who vouch for us in this ecosystem. Here is the clearest articulation of the Haystack ethos, written in 2017 – “we believe it is the founder who carries a special secret, and our job is to identify those with secrets and partner with them to bring those secrets to the world.”

With the announcement of the fund, we would also like to share some personnel updates:

We are thrilled to announce Divya Dhulipala’s promotion to Principal at Haystack. She has been a tireless force at Haystack the last couple years, and we are grateful for her for initiative, energy, and strategic thinking. Divya is a steady hand and an optimist that brings out the best in all of us. Thank you Divya for your friendship and continued push towards excellence! 

On the personal front, and going forward, I am excited to share that I will be a Partner at Haystack. I’m proud of our work here over the last 4+ years and incredibly excited for what the future holds. The truth is that I love being in the venture business – I feel lucky I’m able to practice this craft. And I’ve learned over time that it’s a job that pushes one to personally evolve alongside the companies you invest in, from digging through nooks and crannies to find new people and investment opportunities to the active management of a portfolio as it matures. 

I would also like to acknowledge my now partner(!) Semil Shah. We first met when I was in college, and he took a chance on me when I was completely unproven. He has guided me, both professionally and personally, and I’ve found that guidance to be invaluable. I have the utmost respect for him as an investor and as an entrepreneur in his own right with the way he’s built Haystack. 

Onwards!