Semil Shah founded Haystack in 2013 as one of the original solo general partners in venture capital - a structure he adopted partly because he didn't fit what traditional firms were looking for at the time. He built his investor network the unconventional way, through frequent public writing about startups that drew in the early backers who funded his first checks. Within Haystack's first six months, Shah invested in DoorDash's $2.5 million seed round, a bet that would grow into a company worth tens of billions by its 2020 IPO. He has since backed Instacart, Figma, and HashiCorp - all of which went public or were acquired for billions of dollars - while keeping Haystack a small, tightly focused team built around founder selection above all else.
DoorDash's 2020 IPO - Semil Shah invested in DoorDash's $2.5 million seed round in 2013, one of Haystack's very first bets, made within six months of founding the firm