Begin Ventures

We back design-led operators with a history of building and leading teams. Our founders are usually mid-career professionals with 10+ years of work behind them. Many are second-time founders; others have deep knowledge of a specific industry and are ready to build in it. We look for founders who can clearly explain the work they see as their life’s work and who are already moving toward it. These are people choosing problems that matter to them, which shows up in the way they work, how they learn their industry, and how they engage with the customer.

Since 2015, we have helped launch more than 150 companies through partnerships with Techstars, Expa, Human Ventures, Betaworks, Samsung Next, WeWork Labs, and others. Michael’s prior companies—The New Company and Huddle—built a reputation for supporting founders through the early stages of company creation. The top 40 companies we supported achieved a 50% Series A graduation rate, and the top ten were marked up 34x in aggregate, creating roughly $1.7B in enterprise value. These long-term relationships give Begin early, high-trust access to teams well before they enter traditional deal pipelines.

We invest $50K–$250K at pre-seed and prefer to invest at sub-$10M post-money valuations before the Seed round.

Our primary value-add is talent, especially design talent. As AI and platforms like Lovable make it easier to build software, design, product judgment, and brand become more important. We help founders hire and work with strong design talent from day one. We also help founders craft clear fundraising narratives, structure their process, and close capital efficiently.

We invest in companies improving everyday life across consumer technology and consumer goods. This includes health, wellness, food, home, relationships, transportation, and the future of work—often led by operators rethinking legacy industries.

Michael Saloio has spent his career in equity research, startup studios, venture-backed startups, and early-stage investing. Begin brings together 16 years of working with founders and operators, giving LPs early access to teams long before they enter traditional pipelines. Our thesis is built around how AI is reshaping consumer industries. As software becomes faster and cheaper to build, design, problem selection, and operator judgment matter more than ever. Begin backs founders who understand their industry deeply and can use AI to reimagine everyday life in simpler, more human ways.

Before Begin we invested through an angel syndicate we started. A few current investments (2024-25) include: ZZ Driggs — AI-powered home furnishing platform, co-founded by Matthew Brimer (General Assembly, $400M exit) Packsmith — Distributed fulfillment platform for brands, co-founded by operators from Lyft, Postmates, Uber, and Slack Different Health — Functional health for employees, co-founded by Dylan Gambardella (prior exit; Forbes 30U30) Playground — Feminine wellness platform, co-founded by beauty industry veterans and Christina Aguilera Rosy Soil — Biochar-based, peat-free soil, co-founded by Chad Massura (prior exit to Walmart) In addition to our investments, we've advised and consulted with hundreds of companies through our prior work at The New Company and Huddle. A few of these companies include: Thesis — CPG, founded by Dan Freed and Adam Greenfeld, fundraising support Try Your Best (TYB) — Blockchain/consumer, founded by Ty Haney, design and recruiting support Neura Health — Consumer health/neuroscience, founded by Elizabeth Burstein, design and product support Titles — Blockchain/consumer, founded by Sören Wrenn, design and recruiting support Lola — Consumer/CPG, founded by Jordana Kier, product support Rally — Consumer/fintech, founded by Rob Petrozzo, product support Cube — Enterprise/fintech, founded by Christina Ross, product and design support Garage Beer — Consumer/CPG, founded by Brian Mohr, brand and marketing support Carbon Direct — Climate tech, founded by Jonathan Goldberg, design and recruiting support Citizen — Consumer/social, founded by Andrew Frame, product support