David Frankel
VCManaging Partner, Founder Collective
Seed GP backing bold founders from day one
Background
David Frankel is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Founder Collective, a seed-stage VC fund with offices in Cambridge, MA and New York. Before venture, he co-founded Internet Solutions, Africa's largest ISP, which was acquired by NTT, and co-founded NextUp, a youth employment accelerator in South Africa. He holds an honors degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He was ranked #2 on the 2025 Midas Seed List and has appeared on the Forbes Midas List nine times. His notable bets include Coupang, PillPack (acquired by Amazon), Suno, Shield AI, and SeatGeek.
Investment Thesis
Founder Collective invests at the seed stage with the aim of being the most aligned VC for founders; Frankel prioritizes exceptional people over ordinary ideas and values long-term compounding over hype.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $500K–$2M (seed)
Sectors
Based in: USA (Cambridge MA, New York) (North America)
Notable Investments
Coupang
Lead seed investor; NYSE: CPNG, $20B+ market cap
PillPack
Seed investor; acquired by Amazon for ~$753M
SeatGeek
Lead seed investor; live event ticketing
Suno
Lead seed investor; generative AI music platform
Shield AI
Lead seed investor; autonomous defense AI, ~$2.7B valuation
Olo
First capital; digital ordering platform NYSE: OLO
Airtable
Seed investor; no-code collaboration platform, $11B+ valuation
The Trade Desk
Seed investor; programmatic advertising platform NASDAQ: TTD