Contrary

A talent and research-driven investment firm // Publishing research on private tech companies @contrary_res

[Kyle Harrison @kwharrison13]

Today, we’re launching The Anduril Thesis, a 300-page book 2 years in the making.

Of 500+ companies we’ve covered, Anduril could be the most important of all.

Because if it mission is successful, it could single-handedly deter a catastrophic global conflict.

Here's the story:

[Contrary @contrary]

Join us on March 18th to meet LangChain, Cognition, ElevenLabs, and Ando: https://t.co/T1yTh3VQd1

[Contrary @contrary]

We’re thrilled to be hosting our next SF Tech Talk of the year with engineering leads from @LangChain, @cognition, @elevenlabs, and @andocorporation.

Designed by engineers, for engineers — each company will deliver live demos of their latest features for leading builders in the Bay Area.

[Eric Glyman @eglyman]

Today, Ramp raised another $300M at a $32B valuation.

In the past year our revenue has doubled to over $1B, growing 10x faster than the median public SaaS.

We all know money talks — we're teaching it to think.

Getting big no longer means getting slow.

[Isaiah Taylor - making nuclear reactors @isaiah_p_taylor]

Today we're announcing Valar Atomics' $130m Series A, led by Doug Philippone at Snowpoint Ventures and co-lead by Day One and Dream.

Also joining Team Valar are Balerion, Contrary, DTX, Alumni, Crosscut, Triplepoint, Palmer Luckey, Shyam Sankar, and more great funds and angels.

[Contrary @contrary]

From Day 1, Contrary's mission has been to identify and invest in the world's most exceptional people. It’s enabled us to be early backers of companies like Zepto, Ramp, Hallow, Anduril, and many others.

Our student Venture Partners are a key part of this process. They’re an exceptional team of builders who work closely with us to discover the next generation of founders at universities across the US and Canada.

Each year, we run a rigorous recruitment and selection process to identify a small number of VPs to join our community. This year was one of our most selective and competitive years yet: we received nearly 1500 applications, of which we ultimately accepted 20.

They are a diverse group of exceptional builders, founders, researchers, investors, writers, engineers, and everything in between, and we are thrilled today to welcome them to the Contrary family.

This year’s class includes:
• Current and former founders who have raised over $15M+ in venture capital
• Thiel fellows, competitive programmers, Wimbledon players, published researchers, and former investors
• Product builders with apps that have served 1M+ users
• Musicians (tabla and jori players, jazz singers, and violinists) who have performed at venues around the world
• Builders of spectrofluorometers, mushroom-picking robots, solar plants, and photonic chips

As we’ve gotten to know them over the past few weeks, we couldn’t be more excited to start working together. We’re thrilled to welcome the following new Venture Partners to the Contrary family!

[Contrary @contrary]

Today, we're excited to announce our investment in @basepowerco's $1B Series C.

The round is being led by Addition, with participation from A16z, Lightspeed, @Contrary, and more.

https://t.co/9ZZvgQt3vD

[Contrary @contrary]

DualEntry is launching to the world today, with a @Contrary-led seed and $90M Series A led by Lightspeed, Khosla, and GV.

Their approach is simple. A new-age, AI-native ERP built from scratch with the general ledger at the center of the product.

https://t.co/pfIhXSXO88

[Rachel LeScoezec @rlescoezec]

We recently wrapped our Retreat weekend in Austin, TX, where we brought together current and past Venture Partners. It's always one of the most energizing weekends each year for me to reconnect with and be inspired by my Contrary peers.

Our community is now 300+ strong and filled with incredible founders, operators and investors. For those who are excited about joining us, applications are open until this Sunday, September 14th.

Apply here: https://t.co/fNU2Qol5lt

[Contrary @contrary]

Congratulations to @charliewu and the entire @orchard_robots team on their $22M Series A.

Orchard has built the foundational OS for precision crop management, trusted by modern farmers all over the country. With precise data and actionable insights, Orchard is bridging the real-world data gap and enabling farms to operate more profitably and efficiently than ever before.

We couldn't be more excited to deepen our partnership for the journey ahead.

[Charlie Wu @charliewu]

I'm excited to announce our $22M Series A here at Orchard!🍎

Here @Orchard_Robots, we’re securing America’s food supply by building the AI farmer that automates our nation’s farms.

Our mission is to make farming profitable, efficient, and sustainable again.

[Charlie Wu @charliewu]

I'm excited to announce our $22M Series A here at Orchard!🍎

Here @Orchard_Robots, we’re securing America’s food supply by building the AI farmer that automates our nation’s farms.

Our mission is to make farming profitable, efficient, and sustainable again.

[Rachel LeScoezec @rlescoezec]

Join us tonight at Contrary's National Info session, where we'll chat about Contrary and the VP program in more detail.

If you’re excited about joining the very best community in tech and startups, we’d love to meet you.

RSVP here: https://t.co/naPAApCwX9
Apply here: https://t.co/fNU2Qol5lt

[Contrary @contrary]

Contrary Venture Partner applications are now open!

If you're a builder on campus, interested in investing in exceptional startups, and want to be part of one of the most selective communities in tech, apply now.

Contrary invests and works directly alongside exceptional founders to build enduring companies, from seed to scale. With this approach, we’ve been fortunate to back iconic companies like Ramp, Anduril, Zepto, and many others.

Our Venture Partners are great builders and future founders who become the go-to resource for others on campus. As a VP, you’ll learn first-hand what it takes to build and invest in exceptional companies, from taking part in investment decisions to sitting in on fireside chats with seasoned founders and investors.

Best of all, you’ll be joining and learning from the best community in tech. Most VPs go on to become venture-backed founders, early engineers/operators, or investors, and enjoy the support of Contrary’s network for life.

Read more here: https://t.co/tLY2e2vvvX

Apply here by Sept 14th: https://t.co/JAbdu7XhT7

If you're looking for more information or want an opportunity to ask questions, we're hosting our National Info Session on the evening of Wednesday, Sept 3rd. See you there!

RSVP here: https://t.co/AYSJStCaKH

[Contrary @contrary]

Read more on our blog: https://t.co/tZqW0gAQ5q

For a deeper dive on the decentralization of the electrical grid: https://t.co/Q1tcRvSUDZ

[Contrary @contrary]

Congratulations to @alexstratmoen and @AryanAfrouzi on launching Voltra! The world is on the cusp of an energy revolution, and Voltra is building the operating system for an increasingly decentralized electrical grid.

We’re thrilled to have led their pre-seed, and are excited to partner on their journey to build the next generation of energy infrastructure.

[Contrary @contrary]

Join us on June 9th to meet Clay, Graphite, Hebbia, and Moment: https://t.co/DxEPDiZ5bt

[Contrary @contrary]

We’re thrilled to host our next NYC Tech Talk, this time featuring eng leads from @clay_gtm, @withgraphite, @hebbia, and Moment.

Designed by engineers, for engineers — each company will deliver live demos of their latest features for leading builders in NYC.

[Contrary @contrary]

We're excited to share https://t.co/2XW9N2zbIR with the world, and congratulate them on an $18M Series A!

The 21st Century is finally dawning for ERP systems. @wileycwj and Arnav are doing their part to bring systems of record to the cutting edge.

https://t.co/L3WlWiSx7y

[Contrary @contrary]

Register here to meet @ramp, @Notion, and @anthropic: https://t.co/lLzwwCVpZA

[Contrary @contrary]

Join us & @Ramp on April 3rd for Undo. Undo. Redo. — a night of design lightning talks where senior designers share their unabridged stories of failure, iteration & triumph.

Featuring:
📷 @ryanlyma, Contrary
📷 @diegozaks, Ramp
📷 @jenny_wen, Anthropic
📷 @randyjhunt , Notion