High Hit Rate — CapitalX
CapitalX has raised more than $5M since August and is open for new LPs for 2021 Q1. Please apply on my website or AngelList.
Below is a summary of my previous portfolio breakout winners by valuations (estimated range):
- 4 x $1B+ (unicorn exit Cruise valued $30B in 2021)
- 5 x $500M+(with Retool nearly a unicorn);
- 10 x $250M+;
- 3 x $100M, etc.

This also helps to demonstrate why and how an annual portfolio of 20 startups with “High Hit Rate” may work very well. Imagine — if the initial check represents 0.5% — 5% ownership (not a lead position).
$1B+
1. Cruise — self driving cars, Unicorn exit in 2016. Valued $30B in 2021.
2. Zapier — API integration and automation. Profitable. Remote only.
3. Rippling — Payroll and employee management platform, valued $1.35B.
4. Boom Supersonic — 2016 Seed. Unicorn with $50M Series C.
$500M+
5. Algolia — Search API: Site, App, Geo. $184M raised.
6. ShipBob — tech-enabled 3PL that fulfills ecommerce orders for DTC brands. $131M raised.
7. SendBird — Chat APIs: Text, Audio, Video. $121M raised.
8. People.ai — Revenue Intelligence: AI for Sales and Marketing. $100M raised.
9. Retool — Build internal tools remarkably fast. $75M raised, nearly a unicorn.
$250M+
- Epic! — Leading digital library for kids. $52M raised.
- EightSleep — #1 Smart mattress and sleep fitness. $70M raised.
- Bevi —Smart water cooler with pure, flavored and sparking water. $60M raised.
- Go1 — Enterprise on-line learning platform. $84M raised.
- BitMovin — provides adaptive streaming infrastructure for video publishers and integrators with fastest cloud encoding and HTML5 Player. $62M raised.
- FlutterWave — Payment APIs in Africa. $65M raised.
- Proxy — Touchless workplace and mobile identity. $59M raised.
- Redacted — Collaborate. $82M raised.
- UpKeep — Modern, intuitive, and mobile first CMMS that is proven to streamline the work order process.$49M raised.
- LambdaSchool — Free online web dev and data science education: pay with ISA after getting hired with annual $50k+ income! $122M raised.
$100M+
- Flirtey — real-time delivery by flying robots. $16M raised.
- Gravitational — Remote access and secure deployments for developers via SSH and Kubernetes. $29M raised.
- Zeplin — Connected space for design and product teams. $1.4M raised.
$50M+
- Platzi — Online education platform in LATAM for marketing, coding, business and design. $16M raised.
- Paperspace — Cloud Machine Learning, AI, and effortless GPU infrastructure. $19M raised.
- TBC — full previous portfolio list here.
