Announcing XYZ Fund IV, and so much more as it turns out

Today marks a pretty big milestone for XYZ. We’re not just announcing our fourth fund, this is the first time we’re announcing any fund. With coverage in Forbes no less.

For the last seven years, we’ve been pretty quiet, relying on the folks we work with to share their experiences with us. For lack of better words, we were heads down on the things we know we see and do differently — investing in public sector tech reshaping the way citizens interact with government, partnering with companies in SaaS, fintech, healthcare, and climate placing big, industry-shifting bets — and most of all, helping founders who are fundraising get to that next round no matter how turbulent the times.

Nothing’s really changed, but we are going to start being a bit more vocal about what we’re seeing, learning, and excited about — and what the companies we work with closely are seeing, learning, and excited about. Just a bit more. For a few reasons.

When we hit this Fund IV milestone, it kicked off a little introspection, as milestones often do. And we realized what a plethora of stories we already have to tell, derived from the successes we’ve seen up close, and the work we’ve done with folks at Anduril, Apex, Cape, Chapter, Newfront, Verkada, Promise, Peregrine, and dozens more that have gone on to raise new rounds of funding and launch products with incredible impact. There’s just too much good stuff to share.

At the same time, we tentatively admitted to each other that we were feeling the signs of what can only be called “product-market fit” among the founders building early in the spaces that fascinate us. We’ve learned a great deal, and now have substantial networks and knowledge and lived experience to offer. So, we thought, perhaps it’s time to scale some of this?

A couple steps we’ve taken in that direction in addition raising this latest fund: We’ve brought on two new partners, Art Clarke, who formerly oversaw all product and programs for Apple’s AI/ML platforms and infrastructure (pretty good), and Camille Ricketts, known for her work as Notion’s first marketing leader (who helped define its brand and community) and starting an admirable publication called First Round Review.

Together, they bring ideally timed technical and analytical muscle, as well as some of the most innovative brand and story thinking our industry has seen. We plan to leverage them not just to help XYZ sharpen its skills in these areas, but to deeply engage with companies who can benefit from their experience, and to run diligence so we continue to find and forge the best bonds with founders while always adding value to everyone we speak to.

For now, I’ll let Art and Camille speak for themselves, and what it was about XYZ that made for the most compelling next chapter.
— Ross Fubini, Managing Partner

The why & why now from Art

Whenever anyone joins a VC firm, the usual questions follow. Why now? And why this firm? I’ll take them one at a time.

Why now? Simple: AI

Technology has always excited me, but AI takes it to another level.

At Apple, where I led product and program management for Apple’s AI/ML platforms and infrastructure, I had the honor of working with many fabulous teams to ship the latest AI innovations in Apple’s products. I went from launching the first user-facing feature at Apple using transformer architectures in 2019, to building the training, data and inference platforms needed to power Apple Intelligence, From Siri to Music to Photos and in many third-party Apple apps (through Core ML), I saw firsthand what is possible today and what some of the pitfalls of AI are.

This moment, this AI cambrian explosion, reminds me of similar moments in many technical revolutions that came before, such as mobile computing in the late 2000s, the Internet in the late 1990s, the steam engine in the 1700s, and (don’t get me started on this rabbit hole) double-entry bookkeeping in the 1400s. A great breakthrough is upon us, and now is the time for founders to experiment and find the use cases that will create immense value for people.

So far, I do not believe we’ve uncovered the applications that will really generate step change progress ... but they are coming, and soon. This is a vast search space, and I am looking forward to applying my experience (at one of the largest companies exploring this search space) to help founders find those step changes.

Why XYZ? Simple: the people.

I’m joining because XYZ knows how to consistently identify and help the right types of founders: founders who are curious; who learn; and who realize that execution solves many problems as they change the world. At both Palantir and Apple, I saw that technology is only a small part of the puzzle. It’s the people who apply that technology who matter.

And when I say it’s “the people,” it’s not just the founders we fund — it’s the XYZ team itself.

I’ve known and worked with Ross Fubini for twenty years. He has an uncanny taste for excellence, both in the selection of founders XYZ works with, but also in those he brings onto the team. As I’ve gotten to know the rest of the team over the last few months, they embody the same values Ross started the fund with. XYZ is a small, absurdly devoted team that exists to provide boutique, targeted services where founders actually need them.

They are an up at 6am or midnight-call kind of crew, who knows what it'll take to get them to that next round of funding — which at the end of the day, ends up being one of the most impactful things. In short, if you know me you'll agree: they're my kind of people.

As a partner, I will bring my lived experience from Apple, Palantir and more to coach and support our founders as they apply technology to solve the hardest problems in our society. I will find more great founders to fund, especially those applying AI to problems they have key insights for and lived experience with. Additionally, I’m helping our team scale XYZ Venture Capital itself.

I cannot imagine a better place to be. I've already been at this since the start of this year, and I wake up every day excited about every meeting on my calendar. This is a place, and a job where every conversation has purpose.

I am hoping to work with many of you out there who feel the same way about the work you're doing. — Art Clarke, Partner

Imagination & purpose from Camille

The jobs I’ve loved the most always took the lid off of what was possible. They came with mandates to work some sort of magic without a map, ideally by doing something that hadn’t really been done before. Whether it was starting First Round Review as the first blog to dig into tactical detail with operators, or building the Notion brand to transcend use cases, demographics, and borders — I’m drawn to places where there’s wild latitude to explore, and people who refuse the status quo.

Having found this twice in my life already, I’m stunned to have yet another mapless, exhilarating, terrifying opportunity handed to me here at XYZ. When Ross called me earlier this year to say I could be an investing partner with the ability to lead deals and sit on boards, it felt like a dream finally realized after 10+ years operating in venture and at startups, with one caveat. I was going to miss advising. I was going to miss the creative projects that come with brand building.

Then I was told I could do it all. We could just make up a role that’d carve out time for everything (!!). Something totally new and dubiously feasible? Sign me up.

From that moment, I knew XYZ would be a place where my imagination could play, and I would find plenty of out-of-the-box allies freeing me to think of entirely novel ways to source and work with founders, to share my startup lore in service to others, to create experiences and artifacts that move people (hopefully!).

Much like Art, I wake up every day excited about the relentless onslaught of learning that awaits, and all the amazing conversations I’ll get to have with remarkable people — founders, fellow investors, and this unique, quirky, brilliant, and utterly endearing troupe at XYZ.

So what does this mean for you, dear reader? What’s “actionable” here?

First and foremost, I’m excited to speak to founders building in spaces I’m passionate about and instantly relate to. My number one interest right now is in product-led growth companies and tools. PLG is dead? Long live PLG. At Notion, I saw firsthand the DNA of PLG that works, the challenges it inevitably invites, and the rampant, contagious enthusiasm that makes it great.

Bar none, I think it’s one of the most rewarding and energizing spaces to build in. And if you really think about it, most category winners started there. At the same time, not everyone has the DNA, even if what they’re building rhymes with it. Through hundreds of advisory calls with PLG builders, I’ve seen the nuance that separates early customer obsession from durable product-market fit, and the crevasse that must be navigated just right to leverage PLG into enterprise revenue.

I want to learn more. I want to help more. And now as an investor, I want to back more companies that are delivering value that people fall in love with and inherently want to share. It’s so human. And it’s so high potential. If you agree, we should chat :)

And what is it that I hope to make possible at XYZ?

To answer that, I’ll first say that XYZ is a place of incredible purpose. This became clear to me as I sat down with my new partners to articulate how we’re different from the other money in this crowded market. All the platitudes applied to us — we are indeed ready to roll up our sleeves and be founder centric and back big swings. But there was something beyond all that.

All of XYZ’s investments, from defense tech to modern social services to fintech to climate to enterprise SaaS are all aimed at building a safer, stabler society, where the government reliably meets people’s needs, and private sector innovation plays a massive role in quality of life. I personally want to live in the future these founders and companies create. It gives new meaning to every Zoom.

While I may not know exactly what it’ll look like right now, my goal here is to create new pathways for people building in these spaces to connect with one another, understand what’s going on in their markets broadly, feel supported within the context of a field, a discipline, and push methodologies, tactics, and progress forward faster than ever before.

Whatever it is will have to live up to the XYZ stamp of originality. Looking forward to all the brainstorms to come with the entire team here, and hopefully many of you. — Camille Ricketts, Partner & Head of Marketing