Alder VC builds companies with experienced vertical founders. You bring 10+ years of scar tissue in an industry. We bring a GTM playbook that actually converts and an engineering team that ships your MVP in weeks, not quarters.
Most venture studios hunt for generic founders and hand them a generic problem. We do the opposite. You arrive with the wound. We bring the tools to treat it.
We are not a coach. We are not a fund that writes a check and disappears. We sit next to you and build the first version of the company.
A written, tested, customer-validated plan for the first 50 conversations and the first 5 paying customers. We run it with you.
An in-house engineering and design team ships a real product in 8 to 12 weeks. No outsourced agency work. No vaporware demos.
The thousand small things that sink first-time and second-time founders. We handle the ones we can and introduce you to the ones we can't.
We don't do cohorts. We don't do demo days. You come in when you're ready and we start the week after the term sheet.
A 30-minute call. No deck required. We want to hear the story of the problem.
We spend two weeks together pressure-testing the thesis with real buyers.
If we both want to move forward, we sign and the build starts Monday.
MVP live, first customers signed, seed round prepared within a quarter.
Weekly 1:1s with a partner who has been in your seat.
We source and screen your first engineering and GTM hires.
Vetted counsel for formation, contracts, IP, and employment.
Bookkeeping, payroll setup, and a clean QuickBooks from day one.
Brand, website, and product design from a senior team.
Warm paths to 150+ downstream VCs and strategic buyers.
Analytics pipeline and a weekly metrics review you won't dread.
A peer group of other vertical founders going through the same week you are.
We publish our terms. If a studio won't tell you their numbers upfront, that's a signal. Here are ours.
You keep majority equity from day one. We take a minority stake sized to the capital and work we put in.
Your equity is yours. We don't punish founders who hit a rough patch with clawback provisions.
Our active build period is one quarter. After that, we're on your cap table and your corner, but you run the company.
No application form. Send us two paragraphs about the problem you know better than anyone, and we'll be back in 48 hours.
pitch@aldervc.com