Most startups fail. It takes courage to go again.
Vlad and Baiju cofounded two startups before Robinhood. Immad Akhund started two startups before Mercury. Melanie Perkins started a company before Canva. Naval, Elon, Travis K, Patrick and John Collison, Elad Gil, and Reid Hoffman were all repeat founders when their startups hit and they became household names in Silicon Valley. The world is better thanks to their persistence.
Over the past year, I’ve spoken with dozens of founders who built startups in the 2010s. They’re getting back in the game to build with AI. It’s the most exciting tech inflection point since the iPhone, and it’s just getting started. Repeat founders bring experience, networks, and wisdom, but there’s still a lot to navigate in our new AI world.
Jetstream is the fund for repeat founders. I’m raising a $5M fund to support them with a network of top founders and investors, a sounding board to talk through messy issues, and a check. No BS. We’re here to help founders go again.
Here are a few examples of repeat founders we’ve backed: Tony Vincent, who sold his startup to Google and led their Applied AI team, partnered with former Plaid CTO Jean-Denis Greze to build tax prep startup Town. Ben Max Rubinstein, a former founder and Meta engineering manager, is building health-maxxing startup Protocols with repeat founder Farbood Nivi. Kira Wampler, a healthtech company builder and exec at Lyft, Trulia, and Art, cofounded Amara with real estate entrepreneur Jonathan McNulty.
They couldn’t imagine doing anything else. They won’t be employees again. They’ve tasted the highs, the lows, the impact, the freedom. They’re still hungry.
If that’s you, let’s talk. If you want to invest in repeat founders, contact me for details about the fund.
Let’s go again.
I love this approach — makes total sense and not a lot of funds out there doing this credibly. Jetstream is singular!