Grit Capital Partners is a New York-based 📝venture capital firm founded in 2015, investing at the 📝Pre-Seed and 📝Series Seed stages in applied 📝Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups disrupting 📝FinTech, commerce, media, and 📝MarTech. The firm is led by founder-operators — Managing Partner Paul Palmieri is a zero-to-IPO founder (Millennial Media) and former 📝Verizon executive — and positions itself as a conviction-first investor that only backs sectors where its partners have personally built companies.
Grit's thesis centers on AI as an enabling layer across its target industries, with a particular emphasis on connecting portfolio companies to the corporate data partnerships and distribution channels that accelerate model development. The firm has delivered two top-decile pilot funds and over $1B in exit enterprise value across its portfolio.
I first came across Grit Capital Partners by way of its General Partner. 📝Jennifer Byrne, who also co-founded the 📝Female Investors Club (FIC). Since then, I've heard nothing but good things about Grit and Jenn's guidance of the fund from those who know it and her in various capacities.