Nick Tippmann

Big news: I’m thrilled to officially unveil @TipTopVC — a new pre-seed/seed stage, operator-led venture firm backing the next-gen of Vertical AI founders. After an amazing 8+ year run as founding head of marketing and CMO at Greenlight Guru — from $0 to tens of millions in ARR, creating the medtech QMS category, and raising $120M+ — I knew I had two paths: a) start another software company b) start a venture fund built the way I wish VC worked when I was a founder For nearly 13 years, it’s been a personal goal to build a top-tier VC firm that the best founders want to work with. But the marketer in me always said: “the world doesn’t need another undifferentiated B2B SaaS fund.” So I unplugged. Got a cabin in the Rockies with my then girlfriend, and now wife. And after some much-needed clarity, I had four big realizations: 1. I didn’t have one problem I wanted to solve for 10-15 years—but I had unique experience operating in vertical markets that founders could lean on 2. The future of software (and AI) is vertical 3. My experience gave me a unique right to win with the top founders 4. The best VC firms of the next decade would operate like AI-native startups themselves—brand-led, data-driven, community-built That’s when TipTop Ventures was born. The Vertical SaaS+ thesis I shared nearly 2 years ago unexpectedly went viral. That post pulled me forward. Fast forward to today—and after 30+ vertical SaaS+ angel deals, over a dozen LP checks written, and 9 TipTop investments closed—I’m proud to announce we’re live. While I’m just now announcing the firm, here’s what we’ve quietly built so far: - 9 investments across legacy and underserved industries - 3 companies marked up out of 6 investments made in 2024 - Raving founder feedback on our support-per-dollar invested - 30+ founding LPs from the likes of ServiceTitan, Procore, Mindbody, Greenlight Guru and more It hasn’t been easy going zero-to-one in this market—but the momentum is real. In fact, based on Carta’s latest fund data, if we were a 2023 vintage (we’re 2024), we’d already be tracking top decile. And yes, TipTop is led by a solo-GP, but not solo-built. I’d like to express my deep gratitude for all the support from these early believers: Thank you to my amazing wife Mari Tippmann for your unwavering support since day-minus-one Thank you to our LPs for your early belief and trust–it’s taken very seriously Thank you to Bill Loss for being a rock as founding advisor and LPAC member Thank you to Ershad Jamil for joining me as a Venture Partner And most of all — thank you to our founders. You chose us when we didn’t even have a website (or a fund in some cases). I’ll never forget that. We believe AI is the biggest platform shift since the internet. We believe the future of AI is vertical. And we believe the best founders aren’t just building tools — they’re reinventing industries. If you’re one of those founders: we’re writing $150k–400K checks at pre-seed/seed. Let’s build together. Join us on the journey to the TipTop.

@Jason_A_Scharf @TipTopVC Fun conversation, @Jason_A_Scharf! Thanks for having me back on for the epilogue. Lots of updates since last year!

A year ago I sat down with @ntippmann of @TipTopVC on investing and building in vertical AI. We left one question unresolved. Where do foundational AI models end and where do the applications begin? Since that time we have seen the launch of Claude Design, OpenAI's Rosalind, and other vertical applications from the frontier labs. I am re-releasing last year's episode with a new epilogue as I invited Nick back to discuss what has changed since our first conversation. The Agenda 00:00 Defining vertical AI 05:07 Where general AI fails 09:36 Vertical AI software, not just chatbots 16:44 Pricing logic after the seat model 24:04 Underwriting at pre-seed and seed 27:20 Capital intensity and seed-strapping 36:48 TAM analysis and the Frontiers Market example 41:46 OpenAI's Instacart hire and the gray zone 45:55 Austin as a vertical AI hub 58:21 Epilogue: Where the models end and applications begin.

@lacostejonathan @hawkeye360 @NYSE @HawkEye360CEO Huge congrats!!

Congratulations to our portfolio company @hawkeye360 on their IPO at the @NYSE this morning! This represents the first IPO for our firm 👏 Trading under HAWK, we're excited to watch @HawkEye360CEO & team continue to execute moving forward

Fun chat with AdMaiora Ventures and friends

@louisbookoff Thanks Louis!

@ntippmann Well deserved @ntippmann!

Meet 50 of the world's highest-signal emerging VC firms. Nominated by investors, selected by Confluence. Most venture lists reward what’s already obvious. The Confluence 50 is interesting because it looks for emerging managers who may be obvious in five years, but are still early enough today that the market hasn’t fully caught up. I’m proud to see @TipTopVC included.

Particularly alongside so many friends and firms I respect, like @GTMfund, @SarahSmith, @weekendfund, @Joshuabrowder, @footworkvc, @euclid_vc, @yonderventures, @breakersvc, @forward_deploy, @WischoffVC, @rexsalisbury, @redbudvc, and many more. Appreciate @ClayNorris10, @confluence_vc_, and @harmonic_ai for the work behind this and the recognition. Check out the full list here (paywall): confluencevcweekly.beehiiv.com/p/50

@ItzSuds Beast. Congrats, lfg!

Yesterday, 11 months after I started, I got the final commit for fund 1 I raised 525k in 2 days. I thought I was made. 6 mo later, on Oct 1, I’d only signed 1.7m Fund returns helped, but the only change I made was to unapologetically be me. Being authentic pays, it’s just hard.

@chamath Very cool @chrisstrobl !

Nice.

@alexbass @lukesophinos @NPoulos Thanks Alex! Hopefully some good nuggets in there for ya :)

@ntippmann @lukesophinos @NPoulos Ooh, fun! Excited to check it out!

I joined @lukesophinos + @npoulos on Verticals to talk: • Why “SaaS is dead” is the wrong frame • AI-native upstarts vs incumbents • Instrumenting GTM like a product (+ 7 Vertical AI Plays) • Pricing strategies in vertical AI • Seed → Series A benchmarks right now Platform shifts expand markets - but they also reshuffle winners. Full episode 👇

Luke’s recap + Trillion Dollar Battle Scorecard: newsletter.lukesophinos.com/p/linear-1645-…

Nic’s recap + 7 Vertical AI GTM Hacks Playbook: insights.euclid.vc/p/verticals-18…

@chrisstrobl Yessir! You can feel the energy on the ground here in Austin.

Very smart analysis about diversification. Nick you are at the right time at the right place. @ntippmann

@ColinGardiner Austin VC and startup ecosystem is on a roll indeed! Excited to be building here alongside such a strong cohort of emerging managers, my friend.

Austin VC is on a roll. I won’t say the epicenter is shifting but the green shoots of something big are forming. In particular the Austin Emerging Manager cohort that's forming right now is looking very promising. Lots of killer first funds that I am sprinting to keep up with. Here is who is top of mind in town but please tag other folks: @itsdanieldart - Rockyard Ventures (also putting on Future Titans conference) @ntippmann - TipTop Ventures (AI vSaaS with early investment in GC AI) @Magyer - Seaplane Ventures (network effect bizs with early investment in Micro1) @krdonnelly - Avalanche VC (early investments in Bluesky and Starbridge) @vsodera - Supercharge VC (killer investment rap sheet) @annieluchsinger - Breakers (heard great things from @Cashflow_Cowboy) @jaydimonte - Grid Capital (honorable mention since not here full time; supply chain all day and great track record at previous firm) The best part is I count many of them as friends. Let me know who I missed.

@chrisbarber @TipTopVC (2024) 👋

Charlie Songhurst and I are drafting (pls spot errors) a list of investors who started funds without working in VC: 1. @ItzSuds: SF1 (2025) 2. @gefkovicz, @benmtaft: Genius Ventures (2024) 3. Fiona Leng: Xtal (2024) 4. @kokoxsu, @carloagostinel2: Nova (2024) 5. Sunny Sandhu, Manraj Singh Sandhu: Vicus Ventures (2024) 6. @v_maini: Mythos (2023) 7. @erica_wenger: Park Rangers Capital (2023) 8. @mollyfmielke: Moth Fund (2022) 9. @alanaagoyal: Basecase Capital (2022) 10. @simarsmangat: Magic Ventures (2022) 11. @jm: LMNT Ventures (2022) 12. @andrewvigneault: Flexcap (2022) 13. @sophiaamoruso: Trust Fund (2022) 14. @NWischoff: Wischoff Ventures (2022) 15. @kanjun, @RohdeAli, @joshalbrecht: Outset (2022) 16. @packyM: Not Boring (2021) 17. @paigefinnn, @jslishi: Behind Genius (2021) 18. @davefontenot, @EmilyatHF0, @escliu: HF0 (2021) 19. @jackbplatts, @rphmeier: Hypersphere (2020) 20. @LFarleigh, @zachperret: Mischief (2020) 21. @cory: Z Fellows (2020) 22. @lachygroom: LGF (2020) 23. @Joshuabrowder: Browder Capital (2020) 24. @eladgil: Cosmic / Gil Capital / Gil & Co (2020) 25. @joshbuckley: Buckley Ventures (2019) 26. @tnachen: Essence VC (2019) 27. @avichal and @curtis0x: Electric Capital (2018) 28. @DakinSloss: Prime Movers Lab (2018) 29. @ramtinnaimi: Abstract Ventures (2018) 30. @etarczynski: Contrary (2017) 31. @zxocw: Polychain (2016) 32. @IanRountree: Cantos (2016) 33. @AriannaSimpson, @tikhon (@AlexBangash also involved): Crystal Towers (2015) 34. @pmarca and @bhorowitz: a16z (2009) 35. @peterthiel, @KenHowery, Luke Nosek: Founders Fund (2005) Excluded if one of the founders worked full-time in startup investing for >1 yr. Still included if: vc advisor, scout, intern or a <1 yr stint

Huge congrats to Tucker, Isaac, and team at @OureonTech on their launch!! Such an important and timely mission - super excited about the opportunity and grateful to be on the journey with them!

@ColinGardiner Big congrats, Colin! Proud to be an early LP.

Big News! I am thrilled to finally announce the launch of Yonder Fund I - an early-stage fund that invests in marketplaces that create new economies. After I helped scale Outdoorsy to $3B+ in gross revenue, helped raise $200M across companies, worked with 50+ marketplaces, and created the largest marketplace newsletter, I kept running into the same problem: There is no first-check/pre-seed fund built by marketplace operators, for marketplace operators. Thus, Yonder Fund I was born. Why marketplaces? 1. Since 2010, 50% of the top VC IPOs, 80% of the top 5 exits have been marketplaces. 2. If you invested in every seed deal the year Airbnb did its seed, you would have a 3.5x fund (Airbnb was a 7,000x outcome). Uber was also that year. That's the power law in action for marketplaces. I have been working hard on this. In the past three years, I've put together $4.5M in AUM across 36 investments, including early checks into Autopilot ($13M ARR, $800M AUM, Craft), Packsmith (Bessemer, Interplay, Trust Fund), Throne (Moxxie, Long Journey), and Howie. The fund has been very active, and the early results are promising: - 14 investments completed before or alongside Founders Fund, Norwest Venture Partners, Lerer Hippeau, Seven Seven Six, Mucker, Precursor, Hustle Fund, Night Capital, Motivate, Slauson & Co., m]x[v, Boost VC, Flex Capital, Unusal Ventures, m]x[v, SNAK, ANIMO, Ritual Capital, Coughdrop Capital, Superangel, Mu Ventures, and more! - 2/3 of companies graduated to their next round - Top decile trajectory based on Carta's benchmarks. - World-class LPs: Founders from Grubhub/Seamless, ACV Auctions, Mercari, OLX/FJ Labs, Outdoorsy, Avail, Rematter. Operators from Airbnb, Uber, Amazon, DoorDash, eBay, Thumbtack, StubHub, OpenTable, Trulia, Zillow, Whatnot, Turo, Peerspace, and more. The thesis is proving out, and the timing is right. AI is the key to a new marketplace model in which the heavy lifting of aggregation, matching, and decision-making is no longer human-driven but agent-led. The Cambrian explosion is happening, and there are so many great founders to invest in right now. I am going to need a bigger fund! I am announcing my fund but also reopening and increasing my initial, fully subscribed proof-of-concept fund. Learn more about being an LP below. 👇 Thank you to... - Jack Greco for convincing me to do this and for being my first check. - The LPs who believed in the vision before I had a website. - The founders who trusted me as their first institutional check - The 4,000+ Take Rate readers - Sydecar for making it easy to launch And the best for last, a very special thank you to my wife and family for their support. I would be nothing without you! 🙏 If you're building a marketplace, I want to meet you: I'm writing $50-200K checks at first-check and pre-seed. Let's create the next generation of marketplaces together! Link to the full announcement in the comments. 👇

Vertical SaaS x AI is on 🔥 in Austin. Excited to co-host a happy hour w/ Shaun Vanderkaap + @AntlerGlobal bringing together founders, builders & VCs working at the intersection of vertical markets & AI. 🗓 July 23 📍 Austin 🔗 lu.ma/2mgtvme6 Let’s hang 🤙