FAQs

The difference between a company that reaches Series A and one that stalls often comes down to these hires. At this stage, you're not filling an org chart. You're deciding which capabilities the company must own and in what order. AI raises the stakes because a smaller team can do more. We help you design the shape of the team, not just fill the next open role.

Start with the constraint, not the title. If customers want the product but it isn't ready, hire the engineer. If founder-led sales is working but can't keep up, consider the AE. If the product works but the market doesn't understand it, hire the marketing builder. A VP hired before there's something repeatable to lead can slow the whole company down.

The answer lives in the work you replace and the budget that pays for it. Software improves an existing workflow. AI-native services deliver an outcome people once performed. A new category asks the customer to understand and fund something different. Get this wrong and you may choose the wrong buyer, pricing model, and sales motion before the first call.

Answer pending — final copy to be provided.

Answer pending — final copy to be provided.

These decisions force you to hear what the company is already telling you. Raise when capital can accelerate something repeatable. Slow down when spending is masking a weak product or poor retention. Pursue profitability when control and durability matter more than growth at any cost. A good board member has that conversation early, because avoiding the truth is one of the most expensive things a startup can do.

The old SaaS playbook doesn't map cleanly onto AI-native companies. You may price against labor instead of seats, deploy agents instead of professional services, sell to buyers who can't afford to fall behind, and turn real usage into your best marketing. We help you pressure-test how you package, price, sell, and explain the product against what's working across the portfolio right now.

Series A doesn't start when you decide to raise. It starts months earlier. We help you understand what downstream investors will actually care about — which metrics matter, which milestones build conviction, which firms are thesis-aligned — and how to tell the story before you need the capital. When the signals say it's time, we help you build the narrative, sharpen the materials, and get in front of the right leads.

Bonfire Ventures is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on business-to-business (B2B) companies, leading seed through early A rounds for founders building AI-native businesses. The firm typically leads and invests $2 million to $6 million as its first check and reserves capital to continue backing companies as they grow. Bonfire invests across the United States, including New York City and San Francisco, and backs select Canadian teams. The firm leads roughly 95% of its investments, pairing capital with an active company-building partnership.

Founded in 2017 by Mark Mullen and Jim Andelman, Bonfire manages more than $1 billion in assets. Its $245 million Fund IV, which closed in February 2025, is the largest West Coast fund dedicated to leading B2B seed rounds. The team brings more than two decades of investing experience and have backed founders behind companies including The Trade Desk, TaxJar, MNTN and Scopely.

Bonfire stays close as founders turn an early product into a growing business. The partnership combines practical company-building help with support through Series A and beyond.

Bonfire Ventures backs AI-native B2B companies solving meaningful business problems at the seed stage. That includes the next generation of SaaS and companies delivering work businesses have traditionally bought as services—not just tools to help people do it.

The firm is industry-agnostic within B2B. Examples of its investment areas include:

• Commerce Infrastructure
• Enterprise AI
• Fintech
• GTM Tech
• Digital Health
• Industrial AI
• Logistics & Supply Chain Technology
• Physical AI
• Vertical AI

Read more: Our Thesis for AI-Era Software Winners at Bonfire.

Bonfire invests at the seed stage and leads approximately 95% of the seed rounds in which it participates. The firm focuses on seed because it’s a defining stage, when founders lay the foundation for the company they want to build. Early-stage company-building is Bonfire’s sweet spot, drawing on more than three decades of experience working alongside B2B founders.

Bonfire reserves 35% of its fund for follow-on investments, allowing it to continue backing portfolio companies as they raise Series A and later rounds. Seed is the starting point of the partnership, not the end of Bonfire’s support.

Bonfire’s initial seed check is typically $2 million to $6 million. That is Bonfire’s investment, not the total size of the seed round. The firm reserves 35% of its fund for additional investments in portfolio companies as they raise subsequent rounds.

The lead investor anchors the seed round, negotiates its terms, and usually writes the largest check. Other investors typically invest on the terms the lead negotiates. The lead often takes a board seat and becomes a long-term partner to the founders.

Bonfire leads approximately 95% of the seed rounds in which it participates. For the firm, leading means staying actively involved after the round closes, working closely with founders on company-building and future fundraising.

For more on choosing that partner, read Same Term Sheets, Very Different Leads.

Bonfire focuses exclusively on B2B and leads seed rounds. By making a focused number of new investments, the firm gives partners the capacity to learn each business and stay involved when important decisions arise. Staying close isn’t an extra service. It is the model.

The team brings decades of B2B investing and operating experience without assuming the old software playbook still fits. When AI changes what a small team can deliver or how customers expect to pay, founders need a partner who can work through those implications with them.

Bonfire uses its internal AI system, Bonnie, to make the firm’s research and accumulated knowledge more useful. That supports the people doing the work, rather than replacing the partnership. Founders work directly with partners who know the business and can draw on relevant experience across the firm and its network.

Explore Bonfire’s approach to working with founders.

Read more: Bonfire IV: $245M to Back the Builders Reshaping B2B Software.

Multi-stage firms invest across different stages, backing one company at seed, another at Series A, and another at Series C. That range describes their investment strategy, not a commitment to fund every round of each company they back. Some have dedicated seed teams, but their attention and resources span a broader set of company needs.

Bonfire focuses exclusively on leading seed rounds in B2B companies. Founders work directly with partners whose work centers on helping early businesses take shape, rather than applying a later-stage playbook before it fits.

That specialization does not limit the relationship to one round. Bonfire reserves 35% of its fund to continue backing select portfolio companies in Series A and later rounds. The team also helps founders build relationships with investors who can lead those rounds, remaining a sounding board and advocate as the company grows.

Angel investors can bring valuable experience, introductions, and hands-on help, but their involvement varies. A passive investor primarily provides capital, without taking an ongoing role in company-building. The distinction is the role an investor commits to playing after the check clears.

Bonfire is built to be an engaged lead partner. The firm typically joins the board when it leads and works alongside founders through the decisions that shape the company. The difference is not simply access to advice or introductions, but an ongoing partnership with a team that knows the business and stays involved when decisions get difficult.

For founders who want capital without an ongoing working relationship, Bonfire may not be the right fit. The firm is designed for founders who want an engaged partner—not just another name on the cap table.

Bonfire backs founders solving real business problems. The firm is especially drawn to founders who have lived the problem firsthand, found the existing solutions unacceptable, and set out to build something better. They understand where the work breaks down, what it costs their customers, and why a better answer matters.

Bonfire looks for founders using AI to solve those problems in a fundamentally better way. AI should be central to both what the company delivers and how the team works—not simply an added feature. The founders stay close to the product, build with AI themselves, and adjust when customer feedback challenges their assumptions.

The partnership is a fit for founders who want an engaged lead investor at seed, value candid discussion, and welcome a partner who can challenge their thinking while respecting that the founders lead.

Explore Bonfire’s investment criteria.

Bonfire invests in U.S.-incorporated companies, no matter where their founders and teams are located. The firm backs companies across the country, including San Francisco and the broader Bay Area, New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver. Its portfolio also includes companies with teams outside the United States, including Toronto. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Bonfire partners with founders wherever they build.

AI-native describes how a whole company is built—not just a feature in its product. AI is fundamental to what the product delivers and how the team operates. Rather than simply giving people tools to do a job, AI-native products can carry out meaningful work on their behalf. The strongest learn from real-world use and customer feedback, becoming more capable over time. For Bonfire, that mindset extends to the founders, who use AI themselves to build and run the company.

Read more: The Compounding Loop: Why AI-Native Companies Have Something SaaS Never Had.

AI is changing both what B2B software can do and what it takes to build a company. Software can increasingly carry out work that people once had to do themselves—not just organize information or manage a workflow. Smaller teams can build products for complex, industry-specific problems that were previously too costly to serve. The opportunity also extends beyond software budgets into the much larger amounts businesses spend on labor and services. That creates room for new companies to deliver work, not just sell tools.

Read more: How Systems of Action Are Replacing Systems of Record.

Code alone isn’t a lasting advantage. Bonfire looks for companies that understand a problem deeply and turn that understanding into a product competitors can’t easily reproduce. Proprietary data matters when the company can use it to deliver better results, not simply because it has collected more of it.

A customer’s correction, for example, can help a system learn how that business wants work done. When the product is designed to learn from those experiences, it becomes more useful and harder to replace. In the strongest businesses, serving more customers also improves the underlying product. Better AI models strengthen that advantage rather than make the company unnecessary.

Read more: The Compounding Loop.

Yes. Bonfire uses an internal AI system called Bonnie to help the team research companies and prepare for investment decisions. Rather than starting from scratch each time, the team can draw on relevant knowledge from past conversations and work across the firm.

The goal is for what Bonfire learns working with one company to inform how it evaluates and supports the next. Partners make the judgment calls; Bonnie helps them bring more context to those decisions. Bonfire believes a firm asking founders to build AI-native companies should be one itself.

Bonfire typically likes to see a business post-product build and in live revenuearound $250,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR), but that benchmark isn’t a hard minimum. The number matters less without evidence that customers genuinely need the product.

Bonfire looks at whether growing revenue is backed by customers who keep using the product and rely on it to get important work done. As part of diligence, the firm speaks with customers to understand why they stay and what makes the product essential to their work.

Bonfire typically invests in companies with a live product and early revenue, but can invest before revenue when conviction in the founders and opportunity is exceptional. In those cases, strong early usage or engaged design partners—customers actively using and helping shape the product—can provide evidence of customer need before revenue develops.

Consumer businesses, foundation models, chip design, frontier science, and are outside Bonfire’s focus. Within B2B, the firm is unlikely to invest in companies with these traits.

• A narrow tool whose core value a general-purpose AI model could easily absorb
• A product customers could readily build themselves, without losing meaningful expertise or capabilities
• An AI feature layered onto an existing workflow without fundamentally improving how the work gets done
• A data advantage competitors can quickly replicate
• A services business built on lower costs alone, without proprietary data, technology, or expertise that compounds
• A CEO who delegates all AI building to others rather than personally building with AI

Software serving physical industries and AI-native security can still be a fit.

Bonfire makes around 10 to 12 new investments per year, with each investing partner typically leading two to three. That’s a deliberate choice. Partners need time to understand each business and do useful work alongside its founders. Keeping the number focused makes room to work through an important hire or a change in go-to-market strategy, rather than only check in at the next board meeting.

Founders can submit their company through the Pitch Us form. Bonfire reviews inbound pitches and is particularly interested in B2B software companies at seed stage with early traction and a founding team with strong domain expertise.

Bonfire also highly values introductions through people the team knows and trusts, including portfolio founders, fellow investors, and others in its network. A warm introduction is helpful, but it isn’t required to start a conversation.

Whether reaching out directly or through an introduction, explain the customer problem and what the company is building to solve it. Share why the team understands that problem and what it has learned from customers so far. Include the company’s stage and fundraising plans so Bonfire can understand where it might fit.

For help preparing a pitch, read What Investors Actually Look for in a Seed Round Deck.

Bonfire works alongside founders to turn important decisions into practical next steps. A conversation about pricing can become a working session on the model itself. A discussion about a leadership hire can lead to introductions and help interviewing candidates. The team goes beyond offering a point of view to helping founders put it into practice.

Working sessions help Bonfire understand where it can be most useful. Founders work directly with their partner, with support from the broader team and access to relevant expertise across Bonfire’s network and founder community. The relationship continues through Series A and beyond, with support that evolves as the company grows.

For a practical example, read How to Build a Startup Team: VC-Backed Guide for Seed Stage Hiring.

Bonfire stays close without taking over. The team gets into the details and asks direct questions, with the aim of being a trusted first call rather than just a presence at board meetings. A founder should be able to bring an unfinished idea to their partner and work through it together.

That trust matters most when things aren’t going to plan. Bonfire combines candid feedback with calm, constructive support, so difficult news can lead to a useful conversation about what to do next. Founders lead their companies. Bonfire challenges their thinking and helps them move forward without taking over.

Bonfire’s platform team helps founders find useful resources and connections without having to build every relationship from scratch. When a company needs a recruiter or specialist, the team can help founders navigate vetted providers and connect with relevant experience across the network.

Founders can also access practical playbooks and company-building resources, along with perks that can reduce the cost of getting started. The platform team helps founders navigate what’s available and find support relevant to their stage, complementing the work they do with their Bonfire partner.

Bonfire helps founders build toward a Series A well before the fundraising process begins. The starting point is what the next lead investor will need to believe about the business. If that means proving customers keep using the product and expand what they spend, Bonfire helps founders make that a priority—not just find a way to explain it in a deck.

As the company gets ready to raise, Bonfire works with founders to turn that progress into a clear, credible story. The team helps build relationships with potential investors and makes targeted introductions to firms whose interests and investment size fit the company. Preparation follows the needs of the business rather than a fixed timetable.

Read more about what to expect from a seed partner: Same Term Sheets, Very Different Leads.

Bonfire typically takes a board seat in the rounds it leads. The firm views board engagement as a core part of how it adds value, not a formality. Partners come to board meetings prepared, engaged, and willing to have hard conversations when necessary.

When a company joins Bonfire’s portfolio, its founders become part of a community of B2B founders who can learn from one another’s experience. Someone making a first leadership hire can talk with a founder who has already been through it—not start from scratch.

Private Slack channels and peer leadership circles make those conversations accessible, while in-person gatherings help build the trust behind them. The goal is a peer group founders can turn to for candid perspective from people who understand the work.

See the community in practice: A Few Days in Ojai With the Bonfire Founder Community.

Companies in Bonfire’s first fund have grown their annual recurring revenue 96-fold since Bonfire invested. Portfolio company Boulevard raised an $80 million Series D in July 2025 at a reported valuation of nearly $800 million.

The partners’ experience also predates Bonfire. Before founding the firm, they backed founders behind companies including The Trade Desk, TaxJar, MNTN, and Scopely.

Read more: Bonfire IV: $245M to Back the Builders Reshaping B2B Software.

Bonfire’s investment team includes co-founders Mark Mullen and Jim Andelman, alongside partners Brett Queener and Tyler Churchill. Jen Richard is a principal, and Dominique and Jason are vice presidents.

Mark and Jim founded Bonfire in 2017. The team combines B2B investing and operating experience with a focus on helping founders build AI-native businesses.

Meet the Bonfire team.

Bonfire’s portfolio includes companies such as Boulevard, Supio, Rwazi, Alvys, and Branch. The portfolio spans AI-native applications, data businesses, and infrastructure. Visit the Companies page for the current list.

For an example of the firm’s investment thinking, read Why We Invested in The Trade Lab: Building an AI-Native Customs Brokerage.