Founder First Fund, a new VC firm based in Portland, Ore., is raising its inaugural fund to back pre-seed and seed-stage startups in a variety of sectors across the Pacific Northwest.
The fund is led by Josh Carter, a longtime entrepreneur and former director at Washington Maritime Blue, a nonprofit based in Seattle that supports maritime startups.
Carter is general partner at the firm, along with Justin Vandehey, an entrepreneur who sold his startup Disco to Culture Amp in 2021 and is currently CEO of sales automation startup Thread.
Founder First Fund recently added former Twilio exec Bobby Napiltonia as a venture partner.
The firm announced Tuesday that it has raised investment from Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play, the Silicon Valley-based innovation group that recently planted its flag in the Seattle region.
The firm focuses on software, clean tech, deep tech, and AI/ML companies. It plans to invest between $100,000 and $500,000 in each company.
Carter, who was a manager at WeWork and CEO of a Techstars-backed bootcamp for military veterans, announced in 2019 that he was launching a fund called 1859 Ventures that would focus on Oregon’s underrepresented founders.
The pandemic and other hurdles kept that fund from taking off — but Carter is taking another swing with Founder First Fund.
The firm will still look to find startups led by what he describes as “ignored founders.”
Carter said Tuesday he’s excited about helping Pacific Northwest founders build connections to resources outside of the region, pointing to the investment from Amidi as an example.
