Nikhil Basu Trivedi
VCCo-Founder & General Partner, Footwork
Traction-first seed investor, consumer and enterprise
Background
Nikhil Basu Trivedi is Co-Founder and General Partner at Footwork, an early-stage VC firm based in San Francisco that raised a $175M Fund I in 2021 and a $225M Fund II in 2025. Before Footwork, he was Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, where he invested in companies including Canva, ClassDojo, Frame.io, and Lattice. He previously worked on the investment team at Insight Partners and earlier co-founded Artsy. He holds an A.B. in Molecular Biology with a certificate in finance from Princeton University. He writes the public essay series 'next big thing,' analyzing category-defining companies to identify investment opportunities.
Investment Thesis
Invests in companies with early signs of product-market fit, focusing on consumer technology and the consumerization of enterprise technology.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $1M–$15M
Sectors
Based in: San Francisco, USA (North America)
Notable Investments
Canva
Backed at Shasta Ventures; multi-billion dollar design platform
ClassDojo
Backed at Shasta Ventures
Frame.io
Backed at Shasta Ventures; acquired by Adobe
Lattice
Backed at Shasta Ventures; people management platform
GPTZero
Footwork portfolio; AI-text detection
Elicit
Footwork portfolio; AI research assistant
Tracksuit
Footwork portfolio; brand-tracking platform; $25M Series B
Confido
Footwork led $15M Series A 2025; AI-powered CPG financial ops