super{set} Fund II: $90 million to intensify our serial focus on data+ai company building
My startup studio has a new fund!... PLUS: How you can co-found a company with me...
I am elated to announce that super{set}, the startup studio that I co-founded alongside Tom Chavez, has closed a $90 million second fund to invest in companies at formation.
super{set} is an incredibly simple but powerful concept: focus on building in the data+AI space we know best, collect lessons learned across startups to move up the learning curve and make each build better than the next, and bring in as many amazing people as possible to co-found alongside us.
Indeed, four years ago, super{set} was only a concept, a dream, just a sparkle in my eye. Back then, the company I had started in 2010, Krux, had been acquired by Salesforce and I had just completed a tenure as CTO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. I even wrote a book.
I learned a lot about myself and what really drives me during the buildout at Krux and it came down to two simple things:
(a) I love working with people and helping them achieve milestones that they didn’t think they were capable of, and
(b) I genuinely enjoy solving hard problems, especially in the data+AI space.
Enter super{set} Fund I and the 16 companies we’ve started out of super{set} in the last four years.
So why super{set} Fund II? Why now? Fund II brings our committed capital in active funds to $176M and comes on the heels of super{set}’s first exit: the acquisition of leading data collaboration company Habu for $200 million in January 2024. At the same time, the world has tilted in our favor - the data+AI companies we’ve specialized in since inception are now the hot topic du jour, (thankfully) crowding out the crypto mania. We’re revved up to kick-off Fund II with the next wave of investment.
We only build data+AI companies.
Every company we start at super{set}, and every company we will start with Fund II, stems from our technical prowess in data+AI. We are product-led and believe in proprietary technical advantage stemming from data management. Our companies generate, capture, orchestrate, analyze, and activate data to transform a data source into a data use.
In 2024, it doesn’t seem unusual for a new fund to be focused on AI - but don’t get it twisted, the last thing we are doing is following a trend. We’ve built companies with data+AI at the core for the last 25 years leading to multiple exits in the category. The trend has followed us.
We never die in the same ditch twice.
Taking a step back, I’m astonished to realize that I’ve founded over sixteen companies in the last four years. The exponential growth is astounding—as is the corresponding learning curve that comes with it. Each company is its own beast and brings its own challenges, but we now steer clear of obstacles and pain points that I wish I had known about in my first start-up.
Fundamentally, at super{set} we view company building as a reproducible craft where accumulating knowledge across startups produces stronger outcomes. This is a deliberate process and we manifest our craft in our playbooks. Some playbooks are practical, applied knowledge: like shared infrastructure (one of our companies, Kapstan, shows how practical wisdom can become a new startup opportunity). Other playbooks are strategic: such as how to approach product-led go-to-market. Tying it all together are shared mindsets, mantras, and culture.
Ultimately, what’s valuable about the super{set} startup studio isn’t the shared office space and back-office accounting, it’s the culture of collaboration and shared insights that ties our portfolio together during the roughest, earliest stages of company building. At super{set}, you never build alone.
We invest in people, not pedigree.
At super{set}, we talk a lot about joy. Building an early-stage company is mind-numbingly, hair-pullingly, and teeth-grindingly hard. So why do it? For us, the answer always comes down to the exceptional people that we build alongside.
Ask any founder what their #1 challenge is, and they will tell you that hiring is the hardest thing they do. It’s the same for us, but since we’ve done so much of it over the last four years, we have our own proprietary method for unearthing who has the right mix of grit, humility, organized thinking, and clock speed to co-found alongside us. We write a People Memo for every hire, helping us look past pedigree and find co-founders, whether they are from Big Tech or another startup.
We’ve already started - join us.
Fund II is still only the beginning. We’ve started two companies already, and have a bunch of “boring but bountiful” ideas in the pipeline. I’m exhilarated at the fantastic opportunities emerging in the data+AI space and thrilled we have this new round of capital to power super{set} forward.
Want to get involved with us at super{set}? Here are three ways:
Join us at a meetup! We have regular meetups at our San Francisco headquarters, in addition to global meetups such as one we just had in Bangalore. Follow our calendar here: https://lu.ma/superset-studio
Join a portfolio company! We have open roles from every company in our portfolio aggregated at careers.superset.com - if you don’t see an open role now, scroll down the page and input your email address to get alerts.
Become a co-founder! We’re launching a new way to become a co-founder - introducing super{set} VECTOR, a 12-week launchpad for technical product leaders to co-explore company creation opportunities rooted in AI alongside super{set}. Learn more and apply at superset.com/vector
Now, let’s build.
Vivek
The VECTOR program looks like a cool spin on the traditional accelerator/incubator model!