Partner @ThresholdVC, co-lead Stanford’s Threshold Venture Fellows. Board member Upside Foods, Tia. Mom, dog lover. Podcast: The Startup Solution.
Silicon Valley
Joined May 2012
- Tweets897
- Following541
- Followers11.3K
- Likes795
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Soft launching +EV: plusev.tech/. @EV_Fellowship
I think this is *very* important for the world.. Otherwise I'd retire 🫠
Notes:
> It's NOT a venture fund
> The goal is to unblock top ambition/talent, underserved young people with big dreams. Where do small grants/mentorship make a *real* difference?
> Every company and person helping/contributing time, capital, compute credits is (obviously) doing this pro-bono.
> The goal is ambition with social good in *some* way... Meme coin trading apps, etc aren't the target. Again, this isn't a venture fund.
> Literally launching, so be patient if website issues etc
> If you want to help, please email: [email protected]!
> With the rise of AI, most applications for anything get a lot of noise & bullshit... It's easy to spam them! The vast majority of people will be rejected for obvious reasons. If you don't get an interview, you're rejected. The point of this is to cater to the top 1% underserved, young people who *could* change the world but don't have the connections, capital, mentorship. This does *not* cater to the 99%.
> Decisions are made by an independent committee. Harvard iLab mentors, ex/current founders, VCs, etc.
Heidi Roizen retweeted
What is old is new.
Today, we’re introducing a new identity for @laborup_usa.
Laborup is a bet on people and what becomes possible when they have better tools. The idea behind our new mark is more than 2,000 years old. 🧵
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Today, @autopoiesislab announced their $11M Seed round led by @thresholdvc.
Autopoiesis is building AI capable of autonomous scientific discovery - moving AI from assisting scientists to discovering new knowledge itself. We believe AI can fundamentally change the pace of scientific progress, and feel privileged to partner with Joseph, Eike, Larry and the brilliant team building toward that future.
More on why we invested: medium.com/@thresholdvc/auto…
Heidi Roizen retweeted
I was very sad to learn that Bill Draper passed away this week.
I had the privilege of knowing Bill for almost 30 years.
In 1999, when I was getting my startup off the ground, I pitched Bill and asked if he would invest $250,000. Bill said, “No... but if you let me invest $500,000, we have a deal.”
He then called his son @TimDraper and got me a meeting at @DFJvc, who ended up leading out Series A. Years later, after we sold the company, Tim gave me the opportunity to join DFJ as an investor.
I will always be grateful to Bill (and Tim) for taking that chance on me. That was who Bill was: a believer in people and ideas, and someone who found joy in opening doors for others. Bill was one of the true pioneers of the venture capital industry and there are countless founders and investors whose lives and careers he helped shape.
He and his wife Phyllis raised a wonderful and close-knit family. In his later years, he devoted much of his energy to philanthropy and the @DRKFoundation applying the same belief in entrepreneurs and ideas to provide seed funding to more than 250 new non-profits.
Bill was one of the most sincere, kind, optimistic and honorable people I have known. I will always remember him as a role model for what a life well lived can look like.
I will miss Bill deeply and will always be grateful to have known him, and for the extraordinary impact he had on my life and on so many others.
May his memory be a blessing.
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Huge congratulations to our portfolio company @sequen_ai on their $90M Series B, less than 6 months since we co-led their Series A 🚀
axios.com/pro/enterprise-sof…
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Thinking about the current pace of change got me thinking about the old days.
I started in venture capital in April 2004.
Top 10 companies, April 2004: Industrials, oil, pharma, banks.. and Microsoft/Intel. Combined market value: ~$2.4T.
Top 10 today: NVIDIA, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, Broadcom, Meta, Tesla and Aramco. 9 of 10 are tech. Combined value: ~$27.9T.
NVIDIA (~$4.9T) is ~15x the value of the 2004 number one. And double the value of the 2004 top 10, *combined*.
The game keeps changing. Faster, bigger, better. The one constant: be long on technology. The next decade or two are going to be incredible.
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Pretty fired up to be backing @MillionInt @_arohan_ @juliacvillagra and the rest of the elite crew at Core! An AI that builds for AI, from ground up! One of the most ambitious team that we've backed at @thresholdvc!
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Today we're announcing Core Automation
Our objective: systems that optimize and automate work, starting with research itself.
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Very excited to share that @thresholdvc led @Bluefish_AI's $43M Series B alongside @NEA and an incredible group of strategic and existing investors.
The future of brand discovery and evaluation runs through AI. Bluefish is building the full-stack agentic marketing platform for the enterprise.
Congrats to the entire Bluefish team. Let's go!! 🐟
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Excited to announce that we co-led a $16M Series A for @sequen_ai, the world's first behavior design engine for the enterprise.
Sequen enables consumer companies to deliver real-time, in-session personalization by training on live user behavior and making sub-second ranking decisions - driving real revenue lifts.
I'm so grateful that we at @thresholdvc get to partner with Zoe and the entire Sequen team as they build the foundational infrastructure for every consumer company that wants to compete in the AI era.
techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/se…
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Proud to share that @thresholdvc has invested in @adaptionlabs, which is announcing a $50M seed today.
I couldn't be more excited to partner with @sarahookr and @sudip_r0y as they build (at lightning speed!) fundamentally different AI systems - models that are highly efficient and adapt in real time.
Congrats to the entire Adaption Labs team on this milestone. Even more exciting things coming very soon - stay tuned! 🚀
Heidi Roizen retweeted
We’re thrilled to have partnered with @SpellbookLegal, a company with a bold vision of reimagining how lawyers do their work by leveraging the power of AI.
businesswire.com/news/home/2…
Empathy, Community, Impact: Heidi Roizen on the Threshold Venture Fellows Program stvp.stanford.edu/empathy-co…
Heidi Roizen retweeted
We started @laborup_usa with a simple belief: America can’t rebuild its industrial base without rebuilding how we hire the people who power it.
We raised $7.7M to build the defining AI solution that is Solving America's $1 Trillion Manufacturing Labor Crisis.
I sat down with @dasha_shunina at @Forbes too share more. Link in comments⬇️
And to our investors, we're proud to be on this mission with you @nvpcap @torch @thresholdvc @westboundequity @rex_woodbury @heartland @JeffDean @evancharles @jeff_jordan @marketplaceshq @Wemimo11 and more folks not on twitter!
I’ve noticed two common mistakes entrepreneurs make: one is thinking it’s all about them when it isn’t, and another is thinking it’s not about them when it actually is. Here’s why it’s so important for every entrepreneur to sort this out: threshold.vc/podcast/itrsquo…
Heidi Roizen retweeted
Congratulations @CloudZeroInc! 🔥
CloudZero raises $56M to help tame cloud costs axios.com/pro/enterprise-sof…
Does your VC ever behave in a way that makes you go “hmmm” – or worse? In this episode I unpack the inner workings of venture capital to explain what may seem like unexplainable behavior: threshold.vc/podcast/inside-…
Understanding your investor’s “zone of indifference” could be the key to getting your M&A deal over the finish line: threshold.vc/podcast/underst…
For anyone who wants to ask me a question, try this: The Ask Heidi AI has been trained on all Startup Solution podcast episodes, plus blog posts, speeches, and online interviews. Try it out and let me know what you think! heidi-ai.replit.app/