Foundry Group

Foundry backed early-stage companies — Fitbit, Zynga and AvidXchange among more than 200 — and also invested as a limited partner in other venture funds, an unusual double role for a firm of its size. It ran on a deliberate constraint: the partners decided at the outset not to build a generational firm meant to outlive them. That decision came due on 19 January 2024, when the firm told its investors that Foundry 2022, the $500M fund announced in May 2023, would be its last and that it would not raise again. It was not a collapse — the firm still had roughly a third of that fund to deploy and expected to finish investing around 2026, with Feld and partner Chris Moody staying until the work is done. Feld co-founded Techstars in 2006, the same year, and has written several books on venture capital including Venture Deals and Give First.