(deh-VOH-toh) the art of building with belief.
Devoto Ventures backs early and growth-stage brands with more than capital—we bring the operational firepower to help them grow.
Capital should be as driven and sharp as the founders it fuels.
Capital should be as driven and sharp as the founders it fuels.
The Devoto Ventures Manifesto
I. The Age of Passive Capital
Venture capital was once a conviction game. Today, it's become a commodity. Firms chase trends like tourists—moving from AI to climate to whatever's next, not out of belief, but fear of missing out. They stamp logos, attend panels, write checks, and vanish. Startups become statistics in portfolios, not partners in progress.
Capital, for many firms, is the product. The GP's true customer isn't the founder—it's the LP. This shift has warped incentives. It has replaced taste with traction, judgment with FOMO, and long-term conviction with quarterly optics. As a result, too many companies are over-funded and under-supported. Founders are left navigating chaos with money—but without guidance, strategy, or brand.
We reject this model. Venture should not be a spectator sport. It should be a craft.
II. What's Broken
The modern VC landscape suffers from three fatal delusions.
A. The Delusion of Capital as Contribution
A check is not contribution. It's an opportunity to contribute. Too many firms conflate writing with working—assuming that funding is the value itself. But most founders don't lack access to capital; they lack partners who know how to make it matter.
B. The Delusion of Signal as Substance
There's a growing obsession with "signal"—who else is in the round, what name's on the cap table. But signal is not substance. Execution is. Signal doesn't ship product, build brand, close hires, or win markets. Signal is a story others tell about you. Substance is what you deliver.
C. The Delusion of Infinite Optionality
The idea that every investment must be optional, passive, and scale-free has created bloated portfolios with minimal engagement. But true advantage comes from focus. Great companies are not lottery tickets. They're forged in the furnace of effort, design, iteration, and support.
III. What Founders Actually Need
Founders don't need just capital—they need clarity. They don't need passive spectators—they need embedded operators. They don't need fifteen "value-add" partners on a Notion doc—they need one who actually shows up.
What does that look like?
- Strategic Focus: Clear decision frameworks, not more opinions.
- Operational Depth: GTM, hiring, pricing, retention—tested, battle-ready support.
- Creative Firepower: Not just brand advice, but brand development. Not just positioning theory, but narrative craft.
Startups are not spreadsheets. They are stories, symbols, and cultures formed under pressure. Founders are not traders—they are artists, generals, and builders who need aligned partners in the trenches.
IV. What We Believe
We believe venture capital is not about luck. It's about judgment.
We believe great companies are not found—they are forged.
We believe capital is necessary, but never sufficient.
A. Taste is a Competitive Advantage
We're not interested in indexing the world. We're interested in backing the right few. Our filter is aesthetic, strategic, and personal. We invest where our sensibilities align with the founder's vision—where our judgment and taste can actively sharpen the company's edge.
B. Brand is Not a Nice-to-Have
Brand is strategy in public. It's the story that survives when products change and markets shift. We believe building a market-defining company requires building a market-defining identity—and that starts early, not after product-market fit.
C. Partnership is Earned Through Action
We don't believe in monthly coffee chats. We believe in solving the real issues that block progress. That might mean rewriting a landing page, fixing a deck, rethinking your pricing model, or helping close a candidate. We help where others spectate.
V. How We Operate
We operate on conviction, not consensus.
We invest deliberately, not reactively.
We embed, not observe.
When Devoto backs a company, we back it with teams, tools, and time. We help founders move faster, operate sharper, and craft clearer stories.
- Fewer investments. Deeper involvement.
- Creative partners. Not consultants.
- Executional support. Not cheerleading.
We believe the highest form of venture is not betting—it's building.
VI. Our Areas of Focus
We invest in the tools, platforms, and brands shaping the way people work, live, and buy. The categories may shift—but the throughline is this: we back companies where design, storytelling, and execution create defensibility.
We are especially drawn to:
- Products with cult potential and brand leverage.
- Software with outsized UX and clear distribution strategy.
- Consumer experiences where aesthetics are not superficial—but structural.
This isn't about sector—it's about sensibility.
VII. Who We Back
We back founders with taste, grit, and obsession.
Founders who see around corners and push through walls.
Founders who don't want more VCs—they want a creative co-founder with capital.
We are not stage-constrained, but we care deeply about momentum. The best time to partner with us is when vision is high and clarity is low—when every decision matters and the stakes are real.
We seek alignment with:
- Founders who value brand as much as product.
- Founders who want partnership over portfolio.
- Founders who believe execution is everything.
VIII. Devoto Ventures Is Not a Studio. Not a Syndicate. Not a Spectator.
We are not another passive fund. We are a company-building firm.
An executional partner. A brand strategist. A strategic accelerant.
We bring capital, but we also bring our team, our aesthetic judgment, and our operational leverage.
Startups don't need more money. They need the right kind of money—paired with the kind of taste, clarity, and support that changes the outcome.
Devoto Ventures exists for those building something meaningful, lasting, and category-defining.
We back those who expect more—because we give more.
Written by Walter P. Hassell
The Devoto Ventures Manifesto
I. The Age of Passive Capital
Venture capital was once a conviction game. Today, it's become a commodity. Firms chase trends like tourists—moving from AI to climate to whatever's next, not out of belief, but fear of missing out. They stamp logos, attend panels, write checks, and vanish. Startups become statistics in portfolios, not partners in progress.
Capital, for many firms, is the product. The GP's true customer isn't the founder—it's the LP. This shift has warped incentives. It has replaced taste with traction, judgment with FOMO, and long-term conviction with quarterly optics. As a result, too many companies are over-funded and under-supported. Founders are left navigating chaos with money—but without guidance, strategy, or brand.
We reject this model. Venture should not be a spectator sport. It should be a craft.
II. What's Broken
The modern VC landscape suffers from three fatal delusions.
A. The Delusion of Capital as Contribution
A check is not contribution. It's an opportunity to contribute. Too many firms conflate writing with working—assuming that funding is the value itself. But most founders don't lack access to capital; they lack partners who know how to make it matter.
B. The Delusion of Signal as Substance
There's a growing obsession with "signal"—who else is in the round, what name's on the cap table. But signal is not substance. Execution is. Signal doesn't ship product, build brand, close hires, or win markets. Signal is a story others tell about you. Substance is what you deliver.
C. The Delusion of Infinite Optionality
The idea that every investment must be optional, passive, and scale-free has created bloated portfolios with minimal engagement. But true advantage comes from focus. Great companies are not lottery tickets. They're forged in the furnace of effort, design, iteration, and support.
III. What Founders Actually Need
Founders don't need just capital—they need clarity. They don't need passive spectators—they need embedded operators. They don't need fifteen "value-add" partners on a Notion doc—they need one who actually shows up.
What does that look like?
- Strategic Focus: Clear decision frameworks, not more opinions.
- Operational Depth: GTM, hiring, pricing, retention—tested, battle-ready support.
- Creative Firepower: Not just brand advice, but brand development. Not just positioning theory, but narrative craft.
Startups are not spreadsheets. They are stories, symbols, and cultures formed under pressure. Founders are not traders—they are artists, generals, and builders who need aligned partners in the trenches.
IV. What We Believe
We believe venture capital is not about luck. It's about judgment.
We believe great companies are not found—they are forged.
We believe capital is necessary, but never sufficient.
A. Taste is a Competitive Advantage
We're not interested in indexing the world. We're interested in backing the right few. Our filter is aesthetic, strategic, and personal. We invest where our sensibilities align with the founder's vision—where our judgment and taste can actively sharpen the company's edge.
B. Brand is Not a Nice-to-Have
Brand is strategy in public. It's the story that survives when products change and markets shift. We believe building a market-defining company requires building a market-defining identity—and that starts early, not after product-market fit.
C. Partnership is Earned Through Action
We don't believe in monthly coffee chats. We believe in solving the real issues that block progress. That might mean rewriting a landing page, fixing a deck, rethinking your pricing model, or helping close a candidate. We help where others spectate.
V. How We Operate
We operate on conviction, not consensus.
We invest deliberately, not reactively.
We embed, not observe.
When Devoto backs a company, we back it with teams, tools, and time. We help founders move faster, operate sharper, and craft clearer stories.
- Fewer investments. Deeper involvement.
- Creative partners. Not consultants.
- Executional support. Not cheerleading.
We believe the highest form of venture is not betting—it's building.
VI. Our Areas of Focus
We invest in the tools, platforms, and brands shaping the way people work, live, and buy. The categories may shift—but the throughline is this: we back companies where design, storytelling, and execution create defensibility.
We are especially drawn to:
- Products with cult potential and brand leverage.
- Software with outsized UX and clear distribution strategy.
- Consumer experiences where aesthetics are not superficial—but structural.
This isn't about sector—it's about sensibility.
VII. Who We Back
We back founders with taste, grit, and obsession.
Founders who see around corners and push through walls.
Founders who don't want more VCs—they want a creative co-founder with capital.
We are not stage-constrained, but we care deeply about momentum. The best time to partner with us is when vision is high and clarity is low—when every decision matters and the stakes are real.
We seek alignment with:
- Founders who value brand as much as product.
- Founders who want partnership over portfolio.
- Founders who believe execution is everything.
VIII. Devoto Ventures Is Not a Studio. Not a Syndicate. Not a Spectator.
We are not another passive fund. We are a company-building firm.
An executional partner. A brand strategist. A strategic accelerant.
We bring capital, but we also bring our team, our aesthetic judgment, and our operational leverage.
Startups don't need more money. They need the right kind of money—paired with the kind of taste, clarity, and support that changes the outcome.
Devoto Ventures exists for those building something meaningful, lasting, and category-defining.
We back those who expect more—because we give more.
Written by Walter P. Hassell
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