Right Side Capital Management

Portfolio news: @BenefitBay closes an $18M Series A led by @tencovescapital Right Side Capital was an early investor, and we've been thrilled to be part of the company's journey. 40,000+ covered lives. Broker-first ICHRA infrastructure. Payments architecture built to scale. Congrats to Brandy Thompson and the whole team. 👏 einpresswire.com/article/914114… #ICHRA #employeebenefits #venturecapital

The founders winning the SaaSpocalypse aren't the best technologists. They're the best anthropologists. We held a panel last week with three of our founders/"anthropologists." Here are takeaways from each of them. 1. Study the workflow before you build the agent. Sean Green built @_ARTERNAL_ — a CRM for art galleries — by watching before he built. He followed the workflows, found a task that was pure drudgery and repetition, and built the agent around that. The observation came first. The technology came second. 2. Know what your customer needs before they do. Evan Chen's company @ahoyakia makes agentic tools for hotel and property operators. He calls his approach a "heartbeat" — an agent that doesn't sit waiting for someone to type a question. It already knows what the operator cares about and surfaces the right action before anyone has to ask. You can only build that if you've spent real time understanding what "urgent" means to your customer at 7am on a Tuesday. 3. Name the pain your customer has stopped trying to name. Elio Narciso's company @ScalestackA builds autonomous revenue tools for enterprise GTM teams. His point stuck with me: enterprise customers have lived with their worst problems so long they've gone quiet about them. The founders who break through aren't pitching — they're diagnosing. They walk in already knowing what's broken. The technology is almost beside the point. The real question is: Have you done the fieldwork or not?

David Lambert (@RightSideCapVC ) grew up in Denver and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s to attend Stanford. Long before “entrepreneur” was a polished career identity, he was already wired that way, from mowing lawns to selling cake door-to-door as a kid. He had only one truly “normal” job: working as a Wells Fargo bank teller during freshman year of college. After that, his path was almost entirely entrepreneurial. David built and ran a computer hardware company for more than a decade, serving Bay Area corporate clients and dot-com-era companies. He nearly got wiped out when the dot-com bubble burst, then turned the business back to profitability. He later launched a software company, Work Metro, focused on online job boards, raised capital from angels and venture investors, and sold it to a competitor in early 2008. Right Side Capital became David’s third startup. Though technically a venture capital firm, he describes it more like an operating company whose business happens to be funding startups. The firm’s model was born from a Black Swan insight: most successful technology startups are positive black swans. They look unlikely or unnecessary in foresight, then obvious in hindsight. Instead of trying to pick the next Google, Facebook, or generational founder, Right Side Capital built a quantitative model designed to capture exposure to many potential positive black swans through extreme diversification. The firm invests at the “pre-VC” stage, often in small rounds traditional professional investors overlook. Each fund may include hundreds of investments, compared with the 15 to 30 companies typical of many venture funds. Right Side does not evaluate each startup by asking, “Will this specific company win?” It evaluates companies as profiles inside a larger pool, more like an insurance actuary or credit underwriter evaluating expected outcomes across many similar risks. David believes price matters enormously. By investing early, in capital-efficient companies, at reasonable valuations, Right Side can make $80 million to $200 million exits meaningful in a way that many traditional VC firms cannot. The AI era may be a major tailwind for Right Side’s model because the cost and time required to build software, launch products, automate operations, and reach early revenue is collapsing. The deeper message: venture capital may not be as much about genius picking as the industry mythology suggests. Sometimes the better question is not whether you found the next superstar. It is whether you are sitting at the right table, at the right price, with enough exposure to the right category of opportunity. Why You Should Listen This ATOMIQ LEVEL conversation with David Lambert is not just a venture capital interview. It is a story about a lifelong entrepreneur who grew up selling, building, testing, surviving, and learning before turning that pattern recognition into a venture model that challenges almost every sacred belief of traditional early-stage investing. It is about a kid in Denver who sold cake door-to-door, mowed lawns, came to Stanford before entrepreneurship was cool, refused the corporate path, built a hardware company, survived the dot-com crash, launched a software company, sold it before the financial crisis, then helped build Right Side Capital around the idea that the venture industry may be overconfident in its ability to pick winners. It is about why successful startups often look like positive black swans: improbable before they work and obvious after they win. It is about why diversification, price discipline, capital efficiency, and exposure to many early-stage profiles may be a more rational way to capture venture returns than betting the farm on concentrated conviction. It is about AI, but not in the shallow “AI will change everything” way. David’s framework makes you think about what happens when the cost of building software collapses, when a few hundred thousand dollars can create what used to take millions, when early revenue can arrive faster, when small exits can produce meaningful returns, and when Series A, B, and C rounds may not be as necessary for as many companies as they once were. Most of all, this is a conversation about seeing the venture game without the mythology. No BS. No wizard costume. No pretending one person can perfectly predict the next outlier. Just math, markets, founders, price, diversification, and the humility to admit that the future often looks obvious only after someone else has already built it. Press play on this conversation with David Lambert of Right Side Capital Management if you want to understand how early-stage venture investing may change in the age of AI, why pre-VC capital could become even more valuable, and why the next wave of company creation may reward investors who know how to capture the category instead of chasing the legend. Because the future of venture may not belong only to the best picker. It may belong to the investor who understands how many shots it takes to let the black swans find you. Watch the full interview below on @Substack wealthmatterstome.com/p/the-man-who-…

The annual RSCM Founders Dinner at #SaaStr was a night to remember 🥂 Great founders, great conversations, and a panel on The SaaSpocalypse that had the whole room buzzing. Thank you to everyone who joined us. See you next year!

شركة @Aumetinc تغلق جولة استثمارية (Series A) بقيمة 12 مليون دولار المستثمرين: بقيادة إمكان كابيتال، وبمشاركة @QDBQA وصندوق SABAH الأذري وشركة AAIC اليابانية و@ShorooqPartners و@RightSideCapVC ومجموعة سقالة وشركة الصالحية التجارية - توفر Aumet أدوات وأنظمة تشغيل تعتمد على الذكاء الاصطناعي لإدارة المشتريات والمخزون في القطاع الصحي. - طورت Pulse وهو نظام سحابي وسوق لخدمة الصيدليات الفردية، وChain المخصص لسلاسل الصيدليات، وEnterprise المصمم للمستشفيات ووزارات الصحة والمنشآت الطبية. - تخدم أكثر من 12 ألف صيدلية وألف مورد للأدوية في السعودية والأردن ومصر، وفقًا لتصريحها. - سبق لها التعاون مع وزارة الصحة الأردنية وشركة Presight لتوفير حلولها في 32 مستشفى و500 مركز طبي. - ستوظف الاستثمار في تطوير قدرات الذكاء الاصطناعي والتوسع في أسواق الخليج والأسواق العالمية. - تأسست عن طريق يحيى عقل وعادل حداد وتتخذ حاليًا من السعودية مقرًا.

The #SaaSpocalypse isn't about #SaaS dying. It's about what survives when agents can execute the workflow underneath it. Our CEO @elius is joining the panel organized by @RightSideCapVC during @saastr 2026 this week to dig into exactly this: what the SaaSpocalypse means for your company, your fundraise, and your exit. 🤖 Because as more agents get deployed inside organizations, the question isn't "what can they do?" It's "what should they be allowed to do, and who controls that?"

Our annual Founders Dinner is Monday at SaaStr 2026! 🎉 Dinner, drinks & a panel on The SaaSpocalypse — how do SaaS companies reinvent for the agent era, and how do agentic companies beat the incumbent? No SaaStr badge needed. RSCM portfolio founders, we want you there.

We're delighted to be included on this list with so many fantastic Pre-Seed funds. Founders can apply directly on our website at rightsidecapital.com/submit

@kseniam0s @PrecursorVC @HustleFundVC @BoostVC @outlandervc @actionscapital Thank you for including us! Founders can apply directly on our website.

Finding pre-seed capital shouldn't feel like searching for unicorns in a haystack. These invest first $500K checks - @PrecursorVC (San Francisco, CA) - @HustleFundVC (San Francisco, CA) - @BoostVC (San Mateo, CA) - @outlandervc (New York, NY) - @actionscapital (fka K50 Ventures) - @redbudvc (Columbia, MO) - @2048vc (New York, NY) - @forumventures (New York, NY) - @Boldstartvc (Miami, FL) - @GoAhead (Menlo Park, CA) - @rightsidecap (San Francisco, CA) - @ldvcapital (New York, NY) - @ChargeVC (New York, NY) -- Most of these want to see some early traction, but they'll move fast when they see something they like.

Dave Lambert, Managing Director at Right Side Capital Management, joined the Startup Hustle podcast this week to talk about what actually gets a Pre-VC deal done — and what gets it killed. A few highlights from the conversation: → The automatic no. Great product, no revenue traction, wrong ask, wrong timing. That's the pattern Dave has watched play out across 2,000+ investments since 2012. → Traction over ideas. RSCM's quantitative process weighs revenue, growth, burn, capital efficiency, and founder profile — not pitch deck narrative. A yes or no in about a week, with honest reasoning either way. → The technical founder trap. The founders who can build the product often can't sell it. And you can't read your way out of that problem. "You have to get in the water, get it wrong. Then the book starts making sense." → What AI won't fix. AI is reshaping almost every function inside an early-stage company. But you still need to put the work into founder-led sales. → A little delusion helps. You have to believe something is possible before the data says it is. Give it a listen: startuphustlepodcast.com/the-secret-to-… @startupsxyz

Congratulations to our portfolio company @wavesportsent on four Webby Award nominations this year. This is a company we've had the privilege of backing since their 2017 founding. Their nominations: 🎙 Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce — Best New Podcast, Entertainment & Culture 🎙 Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce — Best Podcast Partnership, Entertainment & Culture (for "My Disney Spectacular" from Walt Disney World) 🏀 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony — Best Sports Show 🎯 Almost Athletes with Dude Perfect — Best Creator or Influencer Series This is a phenomenal achievement. Best of luck to all the nominees.

Saw this on @RightSideCapVC website and had to share it ... I just don't think VC hear themselves when they speak. Don't miss this!

At Right Side Capital Management, capital efficiency isn't a nice-to-have. It's one of the first things we look at. Not because we want founders to be cheap, but because a low burn rate tells us something important: this founder knows how to convert capital into learning. The companies that break out rarely do so right away. They squiggle sideways before they take off. Capital efficiency is what keeps them alive long enough to get there. That's why we've backed 2,000+ capital-efficient tech startups across 6 funds — and why that's what we'll keep looking for.

Top 10 VC Funds in CA worth bookmarking: @generalcatalyst Seed → growth. Healthcare, fintech, consumer, enterprise; heavy applied AI focus across the board. @lightspeedvp Seed → Series F. AI-first enterprise software, fintech, cybersecurity, healthtech, consumer. Multi-billion AUM. Over a decade as one of AI founders' first calls. @khoslaventures Seed → growth. Deep tech and science-driven bets; AI, enterprise, life sciences, energy, hard tech. @MaCVentureCap Seed → Series A ($1 – 4 million checks). Backs founders capitalizing on cultural and behavioral shifts; frontier tech, fintech, enterprise, consumer. @RightSideCapVC Pre-VC only (sub-$500K rounds). Capital-efficient tech startups, any sector, nationwide. $50K–$300K checks. 2,000+ investments since 2012. @Mana_Ventures Pre-seed → Series C. Deep tech; AI, data, robotics, automation, space, defense, healthtech, biotech. @foundersfund Seed → growth (stage-agnostic). Hard tech, AI, defense, biotech, space. Contrarian by design. @felicis Seed → Series. AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, health, defense, energy, vertical SaaS. $900M Fund X closed June 2025. @climatecap Pre-seed/seed. Backs the full decarbonization stack: energy, carbon, transportation, agriculture, biotech. @Liquid2V Pre-seed → Seed ($250K–$500K checks) + Series B+ ($2M–$5M). Generalist across all tech sectors. 👇🏻Who do you want to see on your cap table?

Reactive IT isn't an IT problem. It's a revenue problem. Great read from portfolio founder Joshua Aaron, CEO of @meetaidentech on why self-healing infrastructure isn't optional anymore. cybersecurity-insiders.com/turning-blue-s…

The future of SaaS: Not tools that scale with headcount. But tools that reduce it—or replace the work entirely. Founders should be asking: Does my revenue grow when my customer hires more people… or fewer? That answer matters more than ever. #saaspocalypse

We're hiring a fundraising & investor relations lead at Right Side Capital Management. RSCM has invested in 2,200+ startups since 2012 and manages $250M+ across 8 funds. Looking for someone with venture fundraising experience and a strong LP network to help lead capital formation. SF-based (hybrid). Know someone great? Encourage them to apply: lnkd.in/gHbVqpgb

When a SaaS company reaches ~$2–5M ARR, the most important questions usually aren’t about capital availability. They’re about alignment: • How big can this company become? • What risk profile are we comfortable with? • Do we want liquidity along the way? Different answers lead to very different capital paths — and very different companies.