Susa gave its own portfolio founders no-fee, no-carry LP slots in a parallel $2M fund

In July 2019, six-year-old San Francisco seed firm Susa Ventures closed its $90 million third fund plus a $50 million opportunity fund for follow-ons. The unusual piece was a $2 million parallel fund inside Susa III: existing portfolio founders were invited to become limited partners alongside the institutional investors, with no fees and no carry. More than 40 founders put money in.

Stord founder Sean Henry, whose Atlanta warehousing startup Susa had co-led at seed in April 2018, told Crunchbase News he had been approached before about angel investing or mentoring but lacked the confidence and time. Investing alongside an established firm felt different: 'If they were so awesome with us, they must be doing the same with other companies in their portfolio.' His verdict on the structure: 'I've never heard of a fund giving current portfolio founders the opportunity to invest alongside them' — funds typically ask only founders who have already had large-scale exits.

The fund Susa's founders were buying into had a track record to point at: 90 companies with an aggregate value above $12 billion, 4,000 employees and over $2 billion in annual revenue, including Flexport and Robinhood, plus seven exits such as Periscope Data's reported $100 million sale to Sisense. Susa's funds had scaled from $25 million (2013) to $50 million (2016) to $90 million.

Convert the founders you already backed into your LPs: a small parallel fund with no fees and no carry turns proven service quality into long-term alignment

Current portfolio founders are the best-informed LPs a seed firm can recruit — they have watched the firm's help, network and follow-on behavior from inside.

Zero fees and zero carry signal the vehicle is about alignment, not fee income, which keeps the invitation credible.

A pooled, structured vehicle lowers the barrier for first-time angels who lack the confidence or hours for ad-hoc angel investing.

Founders gaining LP exposure to the whole portfolio have an incentive to help every company in it, not just their own.

Your happiest customers are your most credible investors. Letting them buy into your upside — economics stripped out so it reads as alignment, not fundraising — deepens the relationship both ways.

Over 40 Susa founders invested in the parallel fund at its July 2019 close. Henry's own Stord, then at $15 million raised including a $12.4 million Kleiner Perkins-led Series A that April, was an early example of the type the fund targeted: operating founders who had directly consumed the firm's help.