Haystack is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2013 by Semil Shah, focused exclusively on the initial chapters of software and technology startup formation. One of the most consistently performing seed funds in the US, Haystack has backed market leaders across consumer, cloud and SaaS, autonomy, national security, and AI over more than a decade. With Haystack VIII and Needles III, the firm now operates two vehicles and manages assets across eight consecutive core funds. Semil Shah has been named to the Forbes Midas List for Seed Investors in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Haystack invests in software and technology companies at pre-seed and seed stage, with a generalist sector approach and a stated orientation around founder selection above all else. The firm looks for people before ideas, often engaging founders before there is a clear concept, and prioritizes deep, personal engagement over analytical process. Haystack has built particular track record strength in consumer (DoorDash, Instacart), cloud and SaaS (Figma, HashiCorp), autonomy (Applied Intuition, Nominal), national security (Saronic, Hadrian), and AI (Exa, Granola, Suno).
Haystack VIII, the firm's core fund, closed at $85 million in early 2026. Needles III, a companion select fund for high-conviction opportunities, closed at $25 million. Both funds were raised earlier in 2026. No LP details have been publicly disclosed. Needles is structured as a concentrated vehicle to double down on the most compelling opportunities identified through the core fund's pipeline.
Leadership
Semil Shah is founder and Partner. He has been focused on early-stage investing since 2013, and since 2018 has also served as Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners focusing on enterprise, consumer, and frontier investments. Prior to investing, he held product and operational roles at early-stage startups, including one acquired by Apple. He is a long-time writer on technology and investing for Harvard Business Review, TechCrunch, and Quora. Aashay Sanghvi is Partner, having joined Haystack nearly seven years ago and now a full partner in the fund. He leads investments with a focus on founder selection and conviction-led decision-making. Divya Dhulipala is Principal, leading the Needles companion fund and managing LP relationships across the firm.
Investment Strategy
Haystack typically invests $1M–$3M in initial rounds and can lead or participate. The firm's approach is explicitly relationship-first, spending real time with founders in deep conversation, often before they have a defined idea or round, and prioritizing being useful during the messiest and most uncertain early stages. The Needles companion fund allows the team to take higher-conviction positions in selected opportunities beyond the standard core fund check. The firm is small and deliberately so, with the core team working together for many years and operating with a high degree of internal trust.
Notable Investments
Notable Exits
United States
