🎄 Quit by Christmas Program 🎄
There’s never been a better time to start a company
There’s never been a more exciting time to start a company. AI is completely transforming how people work. And new upstarts are challenging incumbents across every sector of the economy.
But while starting a company has never been easier, raising your first round of funding hasn’t. Maybe you’ve been quietly building something on nights and weekends but haven’t quit your job yet. Or may be you’re afraid of quitting without first raising funding. What would it take for you to take the plunge?
🎄 Introducing the Quit By Christmas Program 🎄
At 1984 Ventures, we believe the warm intro is an arbitrary gatekeeper of capital. Several of our most successful investments came via cold inbound. That’s why we’re launching the Quit By Christmas program. If you’ve been tinkering on an idea but haven’t quit your job yet, apply and get an investment decision in a week. And then quit your job before Christmas :)
Our process
Apply here (~20 mins).
You’ll hear back from us in 24 hours if we want to interview you. From a first interview, we’ll get you an investment decision (on a check of up to $1M) within a week. If we invest, we’ll introduce you to other VCs in our network to fill out the rest of your round.
Who should apply
If you’re thinking about quitting your job but aren’t excited about joining an accelerator program with 200 other startups, we want you to apply.
If you’re still at school but have been building something on the side, we want you to apply.
If you’re already full-time on an idea, we want you to apply.
What do we look for?
We predominantly invest across three broad categories: B2B applications (both horizontal and vertical), digital health and infrastructure software/open source.
We get excited about investing when we see three things:
- An exceptional founding team
- The identification of a hair-on-fire problem
- A solution to that problem that is 10x better than the status quo
What makes someone “exceptional”?
‘Exceptional’ can sound subjective and abstract. But in startup land, what we really mean is someone with a clear strength or skillset. Someone can be exceptional at engineering, sales, design, product or marketing. They can be exceptionally intelligent, resilient or charismatic. Strength is more important than well-roundedness or pedigree (although having seen what great looks like increases your odds of business success). You should aim to highlight what makes you exceptional in your application.
What is a hair-on-fire problem?
A hair-on-fire problem is a burning need that customers are desperate to have solved. You can uncover the intensity of a problem by observing how customers describe it (including how they’ve already tried to solve it). These problems can also come about when the world changes radically - for example with regulatory changes (e.g. tariffs) or emerging tailwinds (e.g. GLP-1s).
What is a 10x better solution?
The AI revolution has unlocked radically better ways of doing things. For founders, this means you should be targeting building something that is 10x better than incumbent offerings. You can be 10x better by making customers more money (topline improvement) or saving them an order of magnitude of cost (bottom line improvement) . If the efficiency gain is not visceral, you aren’t thinking big enough. See here for some examples of 10x better solutions.
FAQs
- What are the terms of your investment?
We will invest up to $1M for 6-10% of your company. The exact dollar amount will depend on the company’s ask and needs.
- Is this an accelerator or incubator?
No, this is not a batch program for a large number of startups. This is a core investment from our fund where we will work closely with you until you raise your Series A and deliver programming that is tailored to your specific needs.
- When is the application period?
You can apply any time between October 6 and November 10, 2025. Completing the application should take ~20 minutes. If you have any difficulties completing the application, please email us at [email protected].
- Do you invest in solo founders?
We have a preference for investing in teams of co-founders (with at least one technical founder). From time to time, we do also invest in solo founders if they are technical.
- What sectors do you invest in?
We predominantly invest in B2B, healthcare and infrastructure/open source startups at the pre-seed and seed stage. Our partners have strong expertise across each of these sectors. Our programming is bespoke to each company.
Our B2B partners Samit and Ramy have backed over 30 B2B AI companies across a range of sectors. Samit has invested across various “AI for services” sectors and Ramy has backed several PLG companies.
Our healthcare partner, Farzad , is a practicing ER physician and former healthcare founder with deep ties to hospitals, payers, and medtech/pharma. Think of him as an extension of your clinical, business development, and sales teams. He regularly helps portfolio companies land their first major clients.
Our infrastructure software partner Mark is an active engineer and frequent open source contributor. He helps our portfolio companies vet early engineering talent, scale early engineering teams and helps our open source portfolio companies build their brand and community.
- What kind of help do you provide post investment?
Our goal is to work closely with you to achieve product-market-fit and then raise your next, large institutional round of capital. We tend to bucket our help into: Fundraising , Recruiting and Founder Therapy .
For fundraising, we have a 75% seed-to-Series-A conversion ratio, with our portfolio companies having gone on to raise from Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, a16z, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Greylock, Accel, Emergence Capital, Bessemer, General Catalyst, Lightspeed and many others.
We frequently help source and vet early hires at our portfolio companies.
And we’re on WhatsApp 24/7 with our founders to answer all your ad hoc questions.
We’ve also written a Founder’s Handbook that contains useful, practical information for founders about topics they may be less versed in (e.g. cap table math, M&A offers, crafting your deck).
- How much revenue do I need to have when I apply?
We are happy to invest pre-revenue B2B companies. Our preference is for you already have an idea and some early design partners or customers (including unpaid) so we can better validate the customer need and pain point.
- Will you invest outside of the US?
At this point we are predominantly focused on US startups. If you do not live in the US but sell into the US market, we are open to considering your application.
About 1984 Ventures
1984 Ventures is a pre-seed and seed firm HQ’d in San Francisco with $200M AUM. We are currently investing out of our third fund. We are a team of four partners who have previously been early-stage founders, CTOs, and multi-stage fund VCs.
Over the years we’ve been fortunate to be early investors in a number of well-known companies, including:
