645 Ventures

Congrats to the @ForterraDrive team!

📣 @StradaHQ Workflows Announcement 👇

VC loves to talk about bold ideas, but how often does it fund real change? All Raiser @labunleashed joins @annimaniac, @peteflint & Aaron Holiday (@645ventures) on @BreakPrecedent to unpack access, power & the weight of precedent in the pitch room.🎧 breakingprecedent.com/summer-break-b…

645 ventures (@645ventures) • founded in 2013 by @thedatavc (nnamdi okike) and @aholidayiii (aaron holiday) • hq: union square nyc • capital: $550M deployed across 4 funds with ~$950M under management • notable: resident (acquired for $1B) @Iterable @goldbelly @panther__labs • recent ai: @JoinVantage @AlphaSenseInc • early on: 645 built its reputation on a data driven sourcing platform called voyager which tracks thousands of startups and surfaces breakout companies before they hit mainstream radars • ecosystem play: positions itself as a conviction early firm in nyc leaning into software infrastructure and ai while building one of the most diverse partner teams in venture

running a nyc gp search has been a reminder of how far the ecosystem has come. oai, cursor, thrive all in soho, flatiron still a gem for tech. city feels white hot right now. 6x growth in active vc firms since 2010 (2+ direct seed or series a investments) isn’t just noise, it’s a shift. sf still has the density (4x increase), but nyc feels different this time. s/o to the anchors: @RRE (1994) @insightpartners (1995) @Lux_Capital (2000) @usv (2003) @alley_corp (2007) @FirstMarkCap (2008). laid an excellent foundation. the breakouts: @ThriveCapital @BoxGroup @PrimaryVC @Work_Bench @645ventures one to watch: @stellation. what @badboyboyce has built so far is impressive and the window for ems who can get it right is very real. v2 is for other emerging funds + solos in nyc. i have a handful in mind but curious who else out east is raising or deploying fund 1 or 2 right now, esp in ai? (graph below: nyc vs bay area growth curve) 🧵 below.

If you're passionate about technology, have a sharp investment instinct, a proven track record, + are ready to partner with the next generation of transformative founders—we’d love to connect. #VentureCapital #Hiring #Investors #ConsumerTech #HealthTech #Cybersecurity [3/3]

These roles will focus on 1 or more of the following categories: Consumer, Healthtech, Cybersecurity, Enterprise, or Infrastructure / Developer Tools [2/3]

📣We’re hiring at 645 Ventures! We’re on a mission to bring the invisible to life—and we’re excited to grow our Investment & Research team in both New York City and San Francisco. We’re looking for exceptional investors to join us as: Partner (SF) + VP/Principal (SF or NYC) [1/3]

Thanks for having us! Catch @thedatavc breaking down the AI arms race with @JacksonFordyce.

Shop Circle at @Wimbledon! 🏆 Big thanks to @645ventures and Goodwin for having us - great tennis, great company, and a quick tiebreak from the usual Slack pings. 🎾

Congrats to 645 portco @shopcircleco for making the list👏

Check out our co-founder Nnamdi Okike @thedatavc featured on the latest episode of @TFR_Pod. Full episode below👇

🚨 Credit underwriting is broken. And honestly? Always has been. You: "Can I get your Q2 financials?" Them: "sure" sends FINAL_v3.docx two weeks later Then your analyst spends 12 hours spreading it in Excel like it’s 1999. Nah. We’re done with that. Introducing Accend 2.0 👇

Consumer investors are a dying breed. VC funding in consumer companies plunged from ~30% of global venture dollars in 2014 to just ~6% in 2024. Yet fundamental human needs haven’t changed. Massive opportunities exist, and AI has reignited excitement to build hyper-personalized, impactful experiences. I recently co-hosted a dinner gathering the most thoughtful consumer investors and founders to unpack what it takes to build enduring consumer businesses in the AI era. Lessons from the past: - Identify intense user love early. Genuine passion among even a small user base signals future scale. “You can grow the love, but you can’t fake the love.” - Minimize “time to magic.” Study how quickly target users reach their “wow” moment and whether it fundamentally transforms an existing experience or behavior pattern. The most successful consumer companies (Uber, Tinder, Instacart, etc) delivered this magic through dramatic friction reduction in existing behaviors. - Growth trajectory can beat market size. Airbnb had just 47k homestay guests in 2010 but dominated a rapidly expanding category. ​Insights for the Present: - Gen Z/alpha are redefining AI product behaviors. They're using ChatGPT to facilitate social interactions and games not just for productivity. - Embrace the "privilege expansion" thesis. AI is democratizing premium services (personal stylists, doctors, coaches) previously only available to the wealthy. - Watch behavior patterns outside your demographic. For example missing what’s happening on TikTok/Discord means missing what billions of people are doing. Bets on the future: - AI-native social networks built on personalization with a lot more context on you as a whole person - Creative tools that remove technical barriers - Healthcare transformation through consumer-first approaches The next wave of consumer companies won't just solve problems. They'll create entirely new behaviors we can't yet imagine. — Shout-outs for consumer companies to keep an eye on: Alta, Callie, Daz, Dovly AI, Ellis, @onton_ai , @gumloop, @higgsfield_ai, Inner Balance, Jars AI, Kino, Latitude, MiSalud Health, Plaicin, Storycraft, Super Teacher Inc., Volley, @WisprFlow, Zingroll Thanks Randi, @yasmeena__f, @AHolidayiii, @thedatavc at @645ventures and @shawnvc at @MenloVentures for co-hosting and Claire at @jpmorgan and Nehemiah at @AWSstartups for sponsoring! Stars at the table: @marrc, @ErikSchluntz, @thistrippjones, @cowboy_vc @labunleashed, @nbt, @wwshaef, @louisberyl, @denwezoh, @JoshConstine, @TheLisaWu, @JamesCurrier

Congrats to the @The_TrueAnomaly Team on their Series C! We are thrilled to support you on this journey! 🚀 If you'd like to build the future, check out True Anomaly's careers page here: trueanomaly.space/careers

We are excited to kickoff #SFTechWeek with a special happy hour at our South Park office. Founders, investors and tech operators/enthusiasts are welcome to join us on Monday, October 7th. RSVP here: lu.ma/gg1izazz & view the full calendar at tech-week.com

Big congratulations to the team at @AgentOpsAI on being featured in @TechCrunch! Your work in making AI agents more transparent and actionable is groundbreaking and we're proud to see your innovation shaping the future of AI.  🚀

A huge congratulations to Meredith Tibbals from @645ventures for being honored with the Rising Star Award in VCJ! 🏆 Your passion and dedication to the world of venture capital truly shines through! 🚀 venturecapitaljournal.com/venture-capita…

🗽The AI for Public Good Hackathon @cornell_tech was a success! Here are the incredible projects by theme: 🗽1. AI for Gov github.com/dbieber/city-3… AI for routing complains to agencies @flore75711500 @theandrewsiah github.com/samob917/311We… AI for summarizing 311 data @samob917 @d_r_farrell & Odaine Forbes github.com/xukai92/subway… AI for load balancing subway @xukai92 & Victoria Liao 🗽2. AI for Open Data github.com/ankitshah009/N… CitySavy: summarizes data on NYC Open Data @ashah0052 @noahpunintended @iamjdeleon, Edward Plata &Jon Chin github.com/EdwardPlata/AI… AI for ranking NYC Open Data @nitanisha github.com/ryanhlewis/Cro… AI for crowdsourced map data @rhardestylewis 🗽3. AI for Citizen Life github.com/Kaya-AI/ai-hack Demo: kaya-ai-demo.streamlit.app Agent AI that finds/applies to jobs @rolandgvc Zameer Raizada, Ojonimi Bako, Joshua Cohen github.com/hahnandrew/ai4… AI for sealing criminal records @jenny_wang23 @azizalto @adityachavan & Andrew Hahn github.com/vishnuravi/ope… AI Agent for lowering medical bills @rahul_sompuram @vishnuravi & Chethan Sarabu github.com/richabatra/nyc… AI chat for metabolic health @datarequena & Richa Batra github.com/LearnQuantum/f… Generative AI for learning STEM @richa_lq 🗽 🙌🏼 to our rockstar cohosts and speakers @volokuleshov @Bieber @2plus2make5 @samgbafa @npparikh @tanzeemc @soumithchintala @Mascobot 🗽and 🫶🏼 to our Incredible sponsors @AnthropicAI @a16z @Techweek_ @645ventures

Congratulations to the team at @shopcircleco for closing their $120 million Series A round. We are excited to be leading the round along with 3VC and with involvement from @QEDInvestors and @NFX! forbes.com/sites/alexyork…