Active Capital

Founder-led pre-seed venture firm. Backing AI-native founders building the future of software. Email is best: [email protected]

[Active Capital @activecapitalvc]

Backing AI-native founders building the future of software

[Pat Matthews @patmatthews]

I’m excited and humbled to share that we’ve closed our third fund at Active Capital: $28M+ to invest in the future of enterprise software and cloud infrastructure.

I started Active Capital seven years ago with a belief: founders deserve early capital from someone who's walked in their shoes. Someone who truly understands the challenges of starting and building a great company.  With this new fund, we’re continuing to invest in the kinds of companies I helped build, many of which are building in underdog cities across America.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve helped lead companies through major shifts—from old-school software to SaaS, cloud, and mobile. Today, I couldn’t be more excited to back the next generation of founders who are re-shaping software and infrastructure in the AI era.

The strategy is working. Our first fund, raised in 2018, has already returned nearly 70% of capital, with a total value-to-paid-in (TVPI) multiple—meaning the current value relative to capital invested—now exceeding 4x.

While this is the largest fund we’ve raised to date, it’s still smaller than most funds you’ll read about. When I started Active Capital, I purposefully decided that part of our strategy would be to raise multiple similar-sized, $25M-ish funds—to stay focused, master our craft, and resist the urge to go upmarket.  This is a very unique strategy in venture capital as the temptation to raise bigger and bigger funds is extreme.

That said, small numbers add up too. This new fund brings us to over $100M in assets under management, across three similar-sized funds and several individual investments in breakout companies.

Since 2018, we’ve backed 50+ startups across the country, in cities like San Antonio, Austin, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Miami, Atlanta, Boulder, Portland and of course… NYC & SF.

Some of our early exits include:
- Altru, acquired by iCIMS
- Cloudsnap, acquired by Paylocity
- Finmark, acquired by https://t.co/bjbNMcLrQv
- Makeswift, acquired by BigCommerce
- RemoteTeam, acquired by Gusto

What we invest in:
- Lead or co-lead pre-seed rounds
- $500K–$1M checks in $500K–$3M rounds
- Strong preference for smaller rounds, low burn, and extreme focus on product market fit
- Technical founders, solo or team, building in cities across America

More about Active:
- Pre-seed firm focused on enterprise software & cloud infrastructure
- Solo GP firm & awesome team with 15+ years working together
- Repeatable, similar-sized funds; focused on mastery, not scale
- We’re long term investors–we don’t chase early markups or depend on secondary sales
- Backed entirely by successful founders, families, entrepreneurs, and operators—no institutional capital

I’m especially grateful to our investor base—from former Rackers, to incredibly successful families and entrepreneurs in San Antonio, to founders and friends I’ve met along the way… and of course, plenty of Virginia Tech Hokies. THANK YOU!

If you’re building something bold at the pre-seed stage, let’s connect.

[Hang Huang @hanghuang_]

I almost missed one of our top angel investors because he got lost in my X DMs.

@patmatthews found us on X, but I didn’t see his DM.

Later, he emailed me. I replied instantly, literally within the same minute.

30 minutes later (the same day), we were on a call.

Pat dropped out of Virginia Tech, started his first company, and later got acquired by Rackspace ($1.6B public company).

He ran cloud infrastructure there. So he understood what we were building with InsForge, and we clicked immediately.

10 minutes after the call ended, Pat decided to invest 3x his usual check size (according to the YC internal database).

If you're a founder who's fundraising, post more on X (and check your DMs)!

Also, reply to emails fast.

Investors are not just evaluating your pitch.

They are watching your speed and execution before they ever wire money.

[Chris Saum @christophersaum]

Just learned the term “rest and vest” — join a big, comfortable company, do the minimum, and ride out the equity.

I’m obsessed with the people who find that unbearable.

I’ve been building relationships with well‑connected operators inside companies that actually mint founders.

They know the 10 people around them who are obviously destined to start companies — and I bring that group together early for a small, high‑conviction retreat, years before they ever raise.

If this sounds like you (or your crew), I’d love to sponsor a retreat. DM or email.

[Chris Saum @christophersaum]

If you are solving for this and raising your first round of capital, I’d love to meet you. $500k - $1M checks. We move fast when making investment decisions.

[Pat Matthews @patmatthews]

Really good listen. I especially like the framing of the 250k effect at the end by @chudson:

“Oh my God, I was so afraid to make all these changes, and because I was forced to, I realized that our company was bloated. This is so much better.”

I’m like, “It could’ve always been this way. But you needed to experience this weird near-death moment to get the level of focus to do the things that are necessary for the business.”

And I just wish I could get people to have that experience without literally getting down to their last 250K.

[Ksenia Moskalenko @kseniam0s]

Weekend is the best time to do the work nobody else is doing. These pre-seed VC funds write first checks:

- @helen_min Articulate Capital (SF, CA)
- @activecapitalvc (San Antonio, TX)
- @restivevc (San Francisco, CA)
- @CrucibleCap (New York, NY)
- @EarthlingVC (San Francisco, CA)
- @ParkRangersCap (New York, NY)
- @WischoffVC (New York, NY)
- @WorklifeVC (San Francisco, CA)
- @gamechangersvc (New York, NY)
- @RobleVentures (Los Altos, CA)
- @EverywhereVC (New York, NY)

Send the cold email. Do the research. The competition is watching Netflix.

P.S. Build your data room before Monday. Takes under 10 minutes → @ThePageform

[Pat Matthews @patmatthews]

I’m excited and humbled to share that we’ve closed our third fund at Active Capital: $28M+ to invest in the future of enterprise software and cloud infrastructure.

I started Active Capital seven years ago with a belief: founders deserve early capital from someone who's walked in their shoes. Someone who truly understands the challenges of starting and building a great company.  With this new fund, we’re continuing to invest in the kinds of companies I helped build, many of which are building in underdog cities across America.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve helped lead companies through major shifts—from old-school software to SaaS, cloud, and mobile. Today, I couldn’t be more excited to back the next generation of founders who are re-shaping software and infrastructure in the AI era.

The strategy is working. Our first fund, raised in 2018, has already returned nearly 70% of capital, with a total value-to-paid-in (TVPI) multiple—meaning the current value relative to capital invested—now exceeding 4x.

While this is the largest fund we’ve raised to date, it’s still smaller than most funds you’ll read about. When I started Active Capital, I purposefully decided that part of our strategy would be to raise multiple similar-sized, $25M-ish funds—to stay focused, master our craft, and resist the urge to go upmarket.  This is a very unique strategy in venture capital as the temptation to raise bigger and bigger funds is extreme.

That said, small numbers add up too. This new fund brings us to over $100M in assets under management, across three similar-sized funds and several individual investments in breakout companies.

Since 2018, we’ve backed 50+ startups across the country, in cities like San Antonio, Austin, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Miami, Atlanta, Boulder, Portland and of course… NYC & SF.

Some of our early exits include:
- Altru, acquired by iCIMS
- Cloudsnap, acquired by Paylocity
- Finmark, acquired by https://t.co/bjbNMcLrQv
- Makeswift, acquired by BigCommerce
- RemoteTeam, acquired by Gusto

What we invest in:
- Lead or co-lead pre-seed rounds
- $500K–$1M checks in $500K–$3M rounds
- Strong preference for smaller rounds, low burn, and extreme focus on product market fit
- Technical founders, solo or team, building in cities across America

More about Active:
- Pre-seed firm focused on enterprise software & cloud infrastructure
- Solo GP firm & awesome team with 15+ years working together
- Repeatable, similar-sized funds; focused on mastery, not scale
- We’re long term investors–we don’t chase early markups or depend on secondary sales
- Backed entirely by successful founders, families, entrepreneurs, and operators—no institutional capital

I’m especially grateful to our investor base—from former Rackers, to incredibly successful families and entrepreneurs in San Antonio, to founders and friends I’ve met along the way… and of course, plenty of Virginia Tech Hokies. THANK YOU!

If you’re building something bold at the pre-seed stage, let’s connect.