We seed the future by funding, supporting, and championing early stage entrepreneurs.
Core values
Diversity
Diversity is an essential part of Ulu’s investment thesis; it makes sense and is profitable. Diverse teams tend to be more effective, more profitable and more likely to outperform less diverse organizations because their backgrounds give them a wider array of tools and talent.
Disciplined decision analysis
We generate attractive venture returns using a disciplined, repeatable decision making process that analyzes risk-reward trade-offs. Ulu’s portfolio construction takes into account the low chance of an outlier and optimizes for outlier success. This approach makes us conventional in the world of institutional investors, but contrarian as compared to other VCs.
Transparency
We show entrepreneurs how we evaluate startups before they even meet with us by making available a rubric for evaluating startups for seed funding. This communicates the high bar companies must demonstrate to be moved from our qualitative process to the next level of diligence.
Insights
The Insanely Fast Wave of Octant Bio
Why a hot startup open-sourced their most in-demand technology during COVID19 Octant Bio, an Ulu portfolio company, uses synthetic biology to advance computational drug discovery. They are developing a database of how new drugs [...]
Managing Risk in a “Risky” Environment
Venture investing has always been based on a healthy understanding of and appetite for risk. Even during the long bull expansion that ended in the first quarter of 2020, success in venture investing was characterized [...]
How to be an Ally in a Diverse Community (part 2)
With the pandemic and the uprisings profoundly affecting minority communities across the country, people go to work everyday and may have no idea that their colleagues of color are undergoing traumatic experiences and even losses. [...]
