Zero Shot Fund

Zero Shot Fund Research Overview Zero Shot Fund is a $100M early-stage venture fund founded in 2026 by five partners — three with deep roots at OpenAI and two with complementary venture and operator experience. The fund takes its name from the AI training technique in which a model successfully handles tasks it has never seen before, signaling the fund's conviction that the most valuable companies will be built in spaces the broader market hasn't yet recognized. Based in San Francisco, Zero Shot raised an initial $20M first close in April 2026 and has already deployed capital into multiple portfolio companies. Investment Thesis Zero Shot's thesis is "Investing in the Post-AGI World" — backing founders building essential infrastructure and applications in a world where artificial general intelligence is imminent or already here. The partners leverage their direct experience building foundational AI systems at OpenAI to identify market gaps that most VCs cannot see. As co-founder Evan Morikawa put it: "There is a real skill in knowing how to predict where these models will be going next, because it's extremely not obvious." The fund focuses on areas where the partners believe the market is either dramatically under-investing or systematically wrong: AI-enhanced robotics and physical automation, enterprise workflow automation, energy, education, AI security, and biology. They are deliberately contrarian — actively avoiding several categories that have attracted significant venture capital. What They Avoid (Anti-Thesis) The Zero Shot partners are publicly skeptical of several categories that have attracted large amounts of venture capital: Vibe coding platforms : The partners believe that as foundation model makers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) expand their subscription products, they will effectively make standalone vibe coding tools obsolete through direct competition. Digital twins startups : After testing with reasoning models, the founders found that standard LLMs perform equally well at the tasks digital twin companies claim to require specialized solutions for — eliminating the moat. Ergo-centric/embodiment video data companies in robotics : The partners are skeptical that the embodiment transfer gap can be solved with current approaches to training data. Stage Focus Zero Shot invests at the earliest stages — seed and pre-seed. Both portfolio companies to date received seed funding, and the fund co-invested alongside lead investors (Khosla Ventures, Conviction, 8VC), suggesting a follow-on or co-lead posture in rounds. The fund targets companies at the formation and early traction stages. Check Size Check size is not publicly disclosed, but based on participation in $9.3M and $19M seed rounds alongside lead investors, the fund likely writes checks in the $500K–$3M range typical for seed-stage participation. Geographic Focus Primarily US-focused with a natural bias toward the San Francisco Bay Area given the founding team's roots in the OpenAI ecosystem. Portfolio Companies Worktrace AI (worktrace.ai) Founded by Angela Jiang (former OpenAI product manager who oversaw GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 launches) and Deepak Vasisht (UIUC CS professor and systems researcher). Worktrace observes real enterprise workflows, converts them into visual process maps, and continuously identifies high-impact opportunities for AI agents to automate repetitive tasks. The company raised $9.3M in seed funding led by Conviction and 8VC, with Zero Shot, OpenAI Fund, Mira Murati, Jason Kwon, and Logan Kilpatrick also investing. The company was named to Forbes 2026 AI 50 Brink List. Foundry Robotics (foundryrobotics.ai) Founded by Adarsh Kulkarni (former Scale AI Head of Robotics, early employee at Ghost Robotics which was acquired for $400M) and Isha. Foundry builds AI-first, assembly-focused contract manufacturing systems — intelligent robotic systems designed to improve efficiency, adaptability, productivity, and quality in factory operations. Raised $19M in seed funding with Khosla Ventures as lead, alongside Hanabi Capital, Red Glass Ventures, Zero Shot Fund, Garuda Ventures, Embark Ventures, and Spot VC. Headquartered in San Francisco with a team of 20+ engineers from Tesla, Blue Origin, and Scale AI. Stealth Company A third investment remains undisclosed as of May 2026. Team Evan Morikawa, General Partner Former Head of Applied Engineering at OpenAI where he oversaw the launches of DALL·E, Codex, and ChatGPT. Now also involved with Generalist, a robotics startup. Deep expertise in applied AI engineering and scaling AI products to millions of users. Andrew Mayne, General Partner OpenAI's original prompt engineer and host of The OpenAI podcast. Founded Interdimensional, an AI deployment consultancy, and is known for pioneering prompt engineering as a discipline. Brings unique insight into AI communication and developer experience. Shawn Jain, General Partner Former OpenAI engineer and researcher with background from MIT and Microsoft Research. Also founded Synthefy, a GenAI startup focused on time-series data. Combines technical research depth with first-hand startup operating experience. Kelly Kovacs, General Partner The fund's dedicated venture partner, previously a founding partner at 01A — the growth-stage venture firm founded by Dick Costello (former Twitter CEO) and Adam Bain (former Twitter COO). Brings institutional venture expertise and LP network to complement the technical OpenAI founders. Brett Rounsaville, General Partner Former operator at Twitter and Disney, and CEO of Interdimensional (Mayne's AI deployment consultancy). Brings product, operations, and media experience to portfolio support. Background from University of California, Davis. Advisors Diane Yoon — Former Head of People at OpenAI Steve Dowling — Former Head of Communications at OpenAI and Apple Luke Miller — Former Product Leader at OpenAI Decision Process Five general partners make investment decisions together. The fund's structure, with three technical AI researchers and two venture/operator partners, suggests a collaborative diligence model where the technical partners assess AI feasibility and the venture partners evaluate market and team dynamics. Founder Preferences The Zero Shot partners are drawn to founders who have: Deep technical backgrounds in AI/ML, particularly from frontier model labs Experience at scale (having shipped products used by millions) Contrarian views on where AI is heading, validated by hands-on model experience Ideas in sectors where the broader market is skeptical or underinvested Fund Status Zero Shot announced its first close of $20M in April 2026 with a $100M target. The fund was actively investing before the public announcement, with at least two disclosed portfolio companies. Backers include institutional investors and family offices.