Early stage venture capital — Ann Arbor, Michigan ↔ The Internet

BananaCapital

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Banana Capital is Turner Novak's early stage venture capital firm. I currently invest up to $250k in Pre-Seed and Seed rounds. I'm not afraid to be your first investor, and currently investing out of my third fund. Areas I've invested in historically or interested in the future include consumer software, health, fintech, gaming, media, housing, dev tools, B2B software, and some deeper tech. I'm really interested making food better for us, housing more affordable, government more efficient, and how AI will change the way we build and operate businesses. I primarily invest in the US, and occasionally invest in Europe and parts of Asia. Some prior investments include BeReal (acq by Voodoo), Bun (acq by Anthropic), ScienceIO (acq by Veradigm), Bee (acq by Amazon), Chainguard, Flex, Inngest, NewMe, Forage, Hanover Park, Howie, Amo, Liveblocks, Mindset Health, Goals, Upwards, Secureframe, Overtime, Primer, Artie, and many more that are not yet public.

01 / Portfolio

Backed before it was obvious.

$0k

Max first check, Pre-Seed & Seed

First fund or largest investor, Fund II

Investments to date

Funds — currently deploying Fund III

26 / 26

+ many more that are not yet public.

02 / What I look for

What I look for:

Resilient, obsessed founders with a secret and chip on their shoulder.

Category-defining products with defensible distribution channels.

Clear revenue prospects and hints of large markets.

"Would I want to work for this founder for the next 10 years?"

I may be like, probably like the truest generalist and I will do pretty much anything. It's really just, can you build a company that can get really big?

— Turner Novak · Fun Raising podcast

03 / What I bring

What I bring:

I move fast.

I'm a one-person team, and don't have a rigid process. I like meeting in-person, but can also meet for a few hours on Zoom.

I act on my own conviction.

I was the first fund or largest investor for 78% of investments made from my second fund.

I can help spread the word.

I'm one of the most followed people in startups and tech, with 250k+ followers / subscribers across my Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, email, and podcast. This includes potential customers, investors, and your future employees.

04 / Content