First Star Ventures

First Star Ventures Research Investment Thesis First Star Ventures believes in investing with conviction in visionary, technical founders inventing the future with frontier computing technology. Founded in 2014 and based in Cambridge/Boston, Massachusetts, First Star partners with entrepreneurs solving real-world problems using cutting-edge technology. They distinguish themselves through a strict "rebuildability bar"—they won't invest unless 3-5 Google engineers couldn't quit and recreate the product in 3-12 months—ensuring genuine technological innovation and defensibility. The firm explicitly positions against the last decade's SaaS/consumer-driven VC playbook, arguing that future venture outliers will look very different from past winners. They focus on technical founders with deep domain expertise who are building enduring companies, not just incremental improvements. Sector Focus First Star Ventures has a distinctive sector focus on "computing × real-world" startups across four primary areas: Techbio & Life Sciences : Companies applying computational advances to biological challenges, including precision medicine, genomics, and computational biology applications. Climate & Clean Energy : Deep tech solutions for climate mitigation, sustainable energy production, and environmental challenges. Recent investments include Bedrock Energy (2025). Robotics & Automation : Companies building physical AI, robotics platforms, and automation solutions for industrial and real-world applications. Portfolio includes Plus One Robotics and others. Industrial Infrastructure & Hardware : Deep tech hardware, materials science, semiconductors, and infrastructure enabling future computing paradigms including edge computing and decentralized systems. They also have emerging interest in AI/ML infrastructure and Web3/Crypto applications, particularly where these technologies enable computing×real-world solutions. Stage Focus First Star Ventures focuses exclusively on early-stage investments: Pre-Seed : Foundational investments for teams with compelling technical leadership and validated initial direction Seed : Investments for companies with early product validation and initial customer signals They have made 50+ total investments with 37 portfolio companies and average check size of $100K-$1M. Fund III was raised with a $40M target (2022), and the firm has made recent investments in 2025 including Extellis and Bedrock Energy. Check Size Average investment range: $100K - $1M Pre-seed checks: $250K-$500K Seed checks: $500K-$1M Follow-on participation: Case by case The fund does NOT lead rounds—they participate in lead-led rounds with strategic conviction. Lead Tendency First Star does NOT lead rounds. Instead, they make strategic, conviction-driven participations in pre-seed and seed rounds led by other investors. This positioning allows them to focus on founder partnership and value-add rather than round management. Recent Activity First Star Ventures is actively deploying from Fund III: November 2025 : Led investment in Extellis (Commercial Services / Deep Tech) 2025 : Investment in Bedrock Energy (Climate/Energy) 2024-2025 : Continued deployment across portfolio with follow-on support The firm maintains a 5-round-per-year pace with selective deal flow in their focus areas. They've demonstrated exits and strong track record with companies like acquisition/exits tracked in their portfolio. Portfolio Highlights Notable Current Portfolio (40+ companies including): Jellyfish (AI/Analytics) Zanskar (Climate/Energy) Enzymit (Computational Bio) Nomic.bio (Genomics/Precision Medicine) Salient Predictions (AI/ML) Scoot Science (Materials Science) En-Powered (Energy/Climate) Gradient (AI Infrastructure) Turso (Database/Infrastructure) Vista Path (Computer Vision) Native Voice (Speech/AI) The Kanary (AI/Enterprise) Fyto (Climate/Agriculture) Bedrock Energy (Geothermal/Climate) Robigo.bio (Biotech) Blumen Systems (Agriculture Tech) Parallel Wireless (Telecom Infrastructure) Plus One Robotics (Robotics/Automation) Genialis (Genomics) SIA (Robotics/Manufacturing) Plex Research (Materials/AI) And 20+ additional portfolio companies across deep tech sectors Exits & Acquisitions : The portfolio has demonstrated successful exits through acquisitions including Feature Labs (acquired by Alteryx for ML feature engineering), companies acquired by major tech players, and other M&A transactions. Team Drew Volpe, Founding Partner : An accomplished investor, entrepreneur, and technologist with deep experience in conversational AI, search, machine learning, sensors, mobile, computational biology, and blockchain. Previously Founding VP of Product Development at Semantic Machines (conversational AI startup), co-founder/CTO of Locately (acquired by SMG for location-based research platform), and Director of Product Development at Endeca Technologies (search/database pioneer, acquired by Oracle for $1.1B). Harvard CS graduate with 20+ years of technical and venture experience. Millie Liu, Founding Partner : Focused her career on helping deep tech entrepreneurs scale globally. Previously at APT (enterprise data analytics startup acquired by Mastercard for $600M) where she worked with Fortune 50 clients including Walmart and P&G. Co-founded Infervision (AI precision healthcare backed by Sequoia China) which later pivoted from MIT startup. MIT Computer Science and AI Lab advisory board member. MIT Master of Finance and University of Toronto BS Mathematics. Teddy Blank, Partner : Spent his career growing companies from earliest days, answering "how do we get our first ten customers?" Co-founder of Tempo (secure, differential privacy-enabled marketplace for athlete biometric data). Previously led Sales and BD for Symphony Commerce (ecommerce SaaS backed by $52M from CRV, Bain, FirstMark) which grew to $10M+ ARR in <3 years. Started career at Accenture across telecom, banking, transit industries. Harvard MBA and Amherst BA. Strong operational and go-to-market expertise. Decision Process First Star operates as a partnership with structured decision-making. With three founding partners each bringing deep technical expertise and operating experience, they apply a technical bar alongside founder conviction and market opportunity assessment. The partnership structure allows for rapid decision-making on aligned deals while maintaining quality standards. Founder Preferences First Star explicitly targets deeply technical founders with proven execution ability. Their portfolio skews heavily toward: PhDs and advanced degree holders in technical fields Ex-founders building second/third ventures Scientists and engineers from leading tech companies (Google, MIT, etc.) Founders with shipped products and technical credibility They are less interested in non-technical founding teams or founders without demonstrated depth in their domain. The firm values technical rigor, scientific credibility, and willingness to build long-term defensible technology over quick pivots. Geographic Focus Primarily United States with significant concentration in Boston/Cambridge ecosystem where the firm is headquartered. They work with founders across the US and have supported companies across different geographies. Notable Founder Quote From Matt Caulfield, CEO of Oort (portfolio company): "First Star made a quick decision to lead our pre-seed, back when it was just me and a slidedeck and have been great partners since, never wavering in their support and conviction in Oort's vision. Drew's been a valuable resource for fundraising, team building, and operations. I'd strongly recommend him to any founder." Market Positioning First Star positions itself as the premier early-stage investor for deep tech founders. Their differentiation centers on: Technical depth : All partners are technical founders/operators with proven execution Conviction investing : They make deliberate, conviction-based decisions in frontier tech areas Long-term thinking : Focus on enduring technology with defensible moats, not hype cycles Operational support : Active partner involvement in fundraising, hiring, and strategy Network across frontiers : Deep connections in biotech, robotics, AI/ML, climate, and deep tech ecosystems Unique Investment Philosophy The "rebuildability bar" is core to their thesis: if 3-5 Google engineers could recreate your product in 3-12 months, First Star isn't interested. This filters for genuine innovation and technical defensibility, not incremental SaaS improvements. They explicitly avoid investing in commoditized markets and generic B2B applications. They believe the next generation of venture outliers will come from computing×real-world sectors—not from another consumer app or generic SaaS vertical—and they're structured to win in those categories.