Bespoke growth investments for unconventional technology companies

Octave invests in unconventional technology companies that are focused on building durable, monopolistic businesses through exceptionally strong products. Our goal when investing is to build cap tables that serve the priorities of the business, not build businesses that serve the priorities of the cap table. To do this, we are uncompromisingly flexible and start with figuring out what the business needs and working backwards into how we make the investment, which is often a combination of primary and secondary equity. We don't have a sector focus, specific stage or ownership target. We only make a handful of investments per fund and don't invest in lottery tickets.

We like the unconventional in every shape and form. Sometimes that means the situation surrounding the investment is complex, like when a company is carved out of another, a business is bought back by its founder, or a misaligned shareholder needs liquidity. Other times it means that the situation is straightforward, like a traditional venture round, but the business is unconventional in a way that makes it stand out against the generic horde of grow-at-all-costs-figure-the-rest-out-later-Valley-darlings.

The way we invest is less important than with whom we invest

We are a small NYC-based team investing out of our first fund and got started in 2025. I started working in technology companies in high school and haven't stopped since. Since then I've been a part of three exits to public businesses, twice bootstrapped, once venture backed as an operator and once as the majority investor. My learning from this has been that it's a big world out there and there are a lot of ways to win. You can find out more about me here.

We have strong principles around how companies should be built and financed

Founders should get rich from building valuable companies. We don't believe in all-or-nothing propositions when it comes to company building. Capital structures should be constructed in a way that ensures wealth creation in a broad range of outcomes.

You ship the incentives of your cap table. Cap tables are not neutral entities. They can be a headwind or tailwind to the priorities of the business. We think that subtle misalignments in the incentives of the owners of the business create big ripple effects that are not always appreciated ex ante.

Strength over scale. Top-line growth is a rough approximation of durable success. Easy come easy go. Instead, we believe that generational companies are built on the foundation of pricing power, barriers to entry and operating leverage.

The best founders need the entire toolkit. Great founders should not be constrained in the ways they choose to build their businesses. They should be able to acquire competitors, buy back shares, fire customers, run profitably, and shutter underperforming products if it means building a stronger, more durable business, even if it goes beyond the "mandate" of their investors.

Unreasonable awareness of the progress of technology. Since the dawn of the integrated circuit, all the gains have gone to those who believed in the scale, reach and speed of technological progress more than everyone else. Too many founders and investors are insufficiently AGI-pilled — heads in the sand about how fast and how ruthlessly they'll have to adapt to harness what's coming.

If these beliefs resonate, we should talk.