Sunflower Capital

From Seed to SunFlower

Sunflower Capital

From Seed to SunFlower

Sunflower Capital

From Seed to SunFlower

Sunflower Capital partners at the earliest stage with companies building foundations for modern enterprises, critical industries, and the physical world.

OUR ETHOS

We often write the first check to founders before their first line of code—and remain trusted advisors through every pivotal moment.

We partner with N-of-1 companies that combine defensible tech with novel go-to-market.

These category-defining companies create new markets or reimagine legacy industries.

We operate with over a decade of hard-earned experience.

We bring context and inside stories that don't exist online. We develop theses independently and move with conviction.

We know how to nail market timing.

We partner with founders whose ideas seem improbable to others, but whose success seems inevitable to us.

We work on founders' terms, not ours.

Every founding team is unique. From day one, we proactively help founders find PMF, hire world-class talent, and grow to their first few million in quality recurring revenue.

Partners, not just investors.

A glimpse of the future we’re betting on.

Accrue Savings

Fintech

Save now, buy later

AgentSync

Fintech

Automating insurance compliance

AlpacaML (Captions)

AI visual rendering engine

Cal

Developer

Open source scheduling infrastructure

Canopy Labs

Digital humans indistinguishable from real humans.

Clay

SaaS

Scaling GTM with data enrichment and personalized outreach

Cohere

LLMs and RAG capabilities for enterprises

Comfy

The ComfyUI company

Commure

Healthcare & Bio

Integrated healthcare operations platform

Conductor AI

Defense and Hardware

Automating government and defense compliance

DBT

Data

Transforming data in your warehouse

Deel

SaaS

Powering the future of Global HR

E2B

Code interpreting for AI apps

Exo

Crypto

Unify your everyday devices into one powerful GPU

Fillout

Developer

Build any form, without code

Footprint

Security

KYC and identity verification

Freshpaint

Healthcare & Bio

Enabling patient privacy and HIPAA compliance

Gem

SaaS

Recruiting with speed and efficiency

Hadrian

Defense and Hardware

Manufacturing the future

Houm

Fintech

Real estate marketplace for Latin America

Knock

Developer

Flexible, reliable notifications infrastructure

Letta

Long-term memory for AI agents

Lilt

The AI platform for enterprise translation

Loyal

Healthcare & Bio

Veterinary medicine for longevity

Monad

Crypto

Extreme parallelized performance for EVM

Nebra

Crypto

Universal proof aggregation that scales ZKP verification

Ollama

Easiest way to get up and running with LLMs

Omni

Data

Next-generation business analytics

Pendulum

Healthcare & Bio

Next-generation probiotics

Pika

SaaS

The front office for residential services

PostHog

Data

Open source product analytics

Project Discovery

Security

Open source vulnerability scanning

Railway

Infra

Deploy software instantly at scale

Rerun

Data

The multimodal data stack

Retool

Developer

Fastest way to build internal software

Roboflow

Build and deploy computer vision models faster and more accurately

Salient Motion

Defense and Hardware

Motion control systems for aerospace and defense

Semgrep

Security

Guiding developers towards secure by default practices

Slingshot AI

Healthcare & Bio

Increasing global access to mental healthcare

Statsig

Data

Feature management and experimentation platform

StrongDM

Security

Zero trust privileged access

Tabular (Databricks)

Data

Storage platform from the creators of Apache Iceberg

Taktile

Fintech

Automating risk decisions for fintechs and banks

Tecton

Abstracting away data engineering for AI

Temporal

Infra

Open source durable execution

TipLink

Crypto

The simplest Solana wallet

Tldraw

Developer

Collaborative whiteboarding with an infinite canvas

TollBit

AI content monetization at scale

Trucksmarter

SaaS

Build, manage, and grow your trucking business

Truffle

Security

Open source secret scanning

Turnkey

Crypto

Secure, flexible, and scalable key management infrastructure

Vercel

Developer

The frontend cloud for a faster, personalized web

Verkada

Defense and Hardware

Integrated physical security platform

VoidZero

Developer

Unified toolchain for Javascript

Waldo

Become an expert in seconds

Warp

Developer

The modern terminal, reimagined with AI

Hear from our founders.

A few words from the teams we’ve partnered with.

Quality is really what really sets Liu apart from other investors. Working with Liu was unique because she was extremely proactive. She was my first call, and she was always trying to find ways to help, not just relying on me to think about what I needed. We had regular discussions on diverse topics ranging from hiring, scaling internal operations, securing early customers, negotiating contracts, monetization, evangelizing open source, securing a standard around iceberg, and more.
Ryan Blue
Tabular
Liu is the best kind of investor: she is technical, understands product deeply, and can quickly understand the big picture. She's really well connected with top talent and investors. She'll help when she's needed and give you space to operate otherwise. Highly recommend working with her.
Kareem Amin
Clay
Liu had a uniquely early conviction in Verkada. Her ability to quickly immerse herself in new markets is a real differentiator amongst early stage investors. I was very impressed by her deep knowledge of our industry, which led to insightful and strategic questions coupled with tailored advice and direction.
Raj Misra
Verkada
Liu invested in our seed and then doubled down in multiple subsequent rounds. She helped us with initial positioning and messaging on our website and customer materials, discussing our key product use cases, and thinking through developer ubiquity.
Maxim Fateev
Temporal
Liu was one of the first investors and believers in Hadrian. She helped us settle into Los Angeles, and she guided us through Hadrian's rapid growth, expansion, and fundraising journey.
Chris Power
Hadrian
Liu is the most energetic investor I've ever met. We raised our seed round during COVID, and Liu was one of the first to commit to investing. She made more intros and was more engaged than anyone else - without her enthusiasm I don't know how we'd have closed the round!
James Hawkins
Posthog
We really enjoyed working with Liu in the early years of Semgrep. She was always a thoughtful and insightful voice inside and outside the boardroom on early product and GTM questions in the painful pre-PMF days!
Isaac Evans
Semgrep
Liu has been an invaluable investor for Warp, going way beyond just investing money. She invested a bunch of her time helping us with GTM, Growth, and Product. She brings deep expertise in the developer space, and we've learned a lot working with her. She is more willing and able than most investors to roll up her sleeves and help the leadership team operate.
Zach Lloyd
Warp
Liu strikes the perfect balance of an early stage partner. She was one of the first to back us at the pre-seed, and she's supported us consistently. She'll trail all your investor updates, ready to provide critical guidance immediately when called upon. Whether it's GTM, product, or just hard founder shit, she's got you.
Jake Cooper
Railway
Even before leading our pre-seed, Liu impressed us with her spot-on perspectives on strategy. From the onset, it was clear she took the time to thoroughly understand our business on a deeper level. We've gotten a lot of value from her advice on scalable GTM plans and ensuring we are focusing our efforts on the right ICP and partners.
Olivia Joslin
Tollbit
Liu led our pre-seed. She is the investor you want on your team early on if you really care about GTM, getting customers, and smartly positioning your product. She will make you think from first principles and ask you the right set of guiding questions, while also opening a lot of doors to folks in the industry and other founders.
Vasek Mlejnsky
E2B
Liu is fantastic to work with. She's easy to talk to and strategically astute. She happily makes intros to her excellent network, and she's been a tremendous value add in helping us with customer intros. She also helped orchestrate our Series A, and she is highly trusted by later stage investors.
Zach Long
ConductorAI
Liu was one of the first investors we started working with at Knock. Not only was she an instrumental part of our early fundraising, she also helped introduce us to many potential customers. Even now, several years after her initial investment in Knock, Liu continues to respond to our investor updates, offering ways to help. I'm grateful she's been a part of our journey.
Sam Seely
Knock
Liu immediately understood our business because of the market work Sunflower had done previously, and they moved quickly with an investment. We are a company with European roots, and they opened their deep network of potential U.S. customers and partners to us. They are real hustlers, willing to do ground work to help their founders succeed. They've also advised us on executive hiring and on expanding our team. Brilliant to have Sunflower with us!
Moritz Schiebold
Rerun
Liu has a deep understanding of open source and AI infra, and is very well connected to hires, customers, and partners in the space. She's a pleasure to work with and is an amazing resource for early-stage AI founders.
Charles Packer
Letta
Working with Liu has been one of the best decisions we have made! She has helped us on strategically planning out our roadmap, securing key hires, navigating partnerships, and building community and ecosystem.
Yoland Yan
Comfy
Since the pre-seed, Liu has been a great resource for tldraw as a design technology company. She's a familiar name in the industry, generous with introductions, and has delivered timely advice for our GTM, hiring, and financing strategy.
Steve Ruiz
Tldraw
Liu built a close relationship with us while we were still at Uber building Michelangelo. She had the conviction to co-lead our seed and Series A, and she was pivotal in helping us hire our early team and close our first few marquee customers.
Kevin Stumpf
Tecton
From our initial launch to our ultimate acquisition, Liu was with us every step of the way – working through problems, facilitating intros, and helping us hone in on our goals. The first time we met, we sat down in a coffee shop and meticulously discussed our progress and every facet of our business strategy. She's an incredible thought partner who will consistently show up for you in the good times and the bad – one of the traits I now look for very closely when I meet VCs. Hands down the most helpful and engaged investor on our cap table.
Nicole Fitzgerald
AlpacaML (acquired by Captions)
Liu has been a powerhouse of support since day one. Her impact on our company has been nothing short of transformative – a level of involvement that's hard to replicate. From helping us find our first hires to shaping GTM strategy and supporting product launches, she's consistently gone above and beyond at every stage. She's also available to her founders at almost all hours of the day.
Elias Fizesan
Canopy Labs
Working with Liu has been an exceptional experience. Her strategic approach to GTM execution, combined with a focus on rapid expansion, was key in driving significant growth. Her ability to navigate fundraising rounds demonstrated strong leadership and commitment to success.
Benjamin Labra
Houm

Quality is really what really sets Liu apart from other investors. Working with Liu was unique because she was extremely proactive. She was my first call, and she was always trying to find ways to help, not just relying on me to think about what I needed. We had regular discussions on diverse topics ranging from hiring, scaling internal operations, securing early customers, negotiating contracts, monetization, evangelizing open source, securing a standard around iceberg, and more.

Ryan Blue

Tabular

Liu is the best kind of investor: she is technical, understands product deeply, and can quickly understand the big picture. She's really well connected with top talent and investors. She'll help when she's needed and give you space to operate otherwise. Highly recommend working with her.

Kareem Amin

Clay

Liu had a uniquely early conviction in Verkada. Her ability to quickly immerse herself in new markets is a real differentiator amongst early stage investors. I was very impressed by her deep knowledge of our industry, which led to insightful and strategic questions coupled with tailored advice and direction.

Raj Misra

Verkada

Liu invested in our seed and then doubled down in multiple subsequent rounds. She helped us with initial positioning and messaging on our website and customer materials, discussing our key product use cases, and thinking through developer ubiquity.

Maxim Fateev

Temporal

Liu was one of the first investors and believers in Hadrian. She helped us settle into Los Angeles, and she guided us through Hadrian's rapid growth, expansion, and fundraising journey.

Chris Power

Hadrian

Liu is the most energetic investor I've ever met. We raised our seed round during COVID, and Liu was one of the first to commit to investing. She made more intros and was more engaged than anyone else - without her enthusiasm I don't know how we'd have closed the round!

James Hawkins

Posthog

We really enjoyed working with Liu in the early years of Semgrep. She was always a thoughtful and insightful voice inside and outside the boardroom on early product and GTM questions in the painful pre-PMF days!

Isaac Evans

Semgrep

Liu has been an invaluable investor for Warp, going way beyond just investing money. She invested a bunch of her time helping us with GTM, Growth, and Product. She brings deep expertise in the developer space, and we've learned a lot working with her. She is more willing and able than most investors to roll up her sleeves and help the leadership team operate.

Zach Lloyd

Warp

Liu strikes the perfect balance of an early stage partner. She was one of the first to back us at the pre-seed, and she's supported us consistently. She'll trail all your investor updates, ready to provide critical guidance immediately when called upon. Whether it's GTM, product, or just hard founder shit, she's got you.

Jake Cooper

Railway

Even before leading our pre-seed, Liu impressed us with her spot-on perspectives on strategy. From the onset, it was clear she took the time to thoroughly understand our business on a deeper level. We've gotten a lot of value from her advice on scalable GTM plans and ensuring we are focusing our efforts on the right ICP and partners.

Olivia Joslin

Tollbit

Liu led our pre-seed. She is the investor you want on your team early on if you really care about GTM, getting customers, and smartly positioning your product. She will make you think from first principles and ask you the right set of guiding questions, while also opening a lot of doors to folks in the industry and other founders.

Vasek Mlejnsky

E2B

Liu is fantastic to work with. She's easy to talk to and strategically astute. She happily makes intros to her excellent network, and she's been a tremendous value add in helping us with customer intros. She also helped orchestrate our Series A, and she is highly trusted by later stage investors.

Zach Long

ConductorAI

Liu was one of the first investors we started working with at Knock. Not only was she an instrumental part of our early fundraising, she also helped introduce us to many potential customers. Even now, several years after her initial investment in Knock, Liu continues to respond to our investor updates, offering ways to help. I'm grateful she's been a part of our journey.

Sam Seely

Knock

Liu immediately understood our business because of the market work Sunflower had done previously, and they moved quickly with an investment. We are a company with European roots, and they opened their deep network of potential U.S. customers and partners to us. They are real hustlers, willing to do ground work to help their founders succeed. They've also advised us on executive hiring and on expanding our team. Brilliant to have Sunflower with us!

Moritz Schiebold

Rerun

Liu has a deep understanding of open source and AI infra, and is very well connected to hires, customers, and partners in the space. She's a pleasure to work with and is an amazing resource for early-stage AI founders.

Charles Packer

Letta

Working with Liu has been one of the best decisions we have made! She has helped us on strategically planning out our roadmap, securing key hires, navigating partnerships, and building community and ecosystem.

Yoland Yan

Comfy

Since the pre-seed, Liu has been a great resource for tldraw as a design technology company. She's a familiar name in the industry, generous with introductions, and has delivered timely advice for our GTM, hiring, and financing strategy.

Steve Ruiz

Tldraw

Liu built a close relationship with us while we were still at Uber building Michelangelo. She had the conviction to co-lead our seed and Series A, and she was pivotal in helping us hire our early team and close our first few marquee customers.

Kevin Stumpf

Tecton

From our initial launch to our ultimate acquisition, Liu was with us every step of the way – working through problems, facilitating intros, and helping us hone in on our goals. The first time we met, we sat down in a coffee shop and meticulously discussed our progress and every facet of our business strategy. She's an incredible thought partner who will consistently show up for you in the good times and the bad – one of the traits I now look for very closely when I meet VCs. Hands down the most helpful and engaged investor on our cap table.

Nicole Fitzgerald

AlpacaML (acquired by Captions)

Liu has been a powerhouse of support since day one. Her impact on our company has been nothing short of transformative – a level of involvement that's hard to replicate. From helping us find our first hires to shaping GTM strategy and supporting product launches, she's consistently gone above and beyond at every stage. She's also available to her founders at almost all hours of the day.

Elias Fizesan

Canopy Labs

Working with Liu has been an exceptional experience. Her strategic approach to GTM execution, combined with a focus on rapid expansion, was key in driving significant growth. Her ability to navigate fundraising rounds demonstrated strong leadership and commitment to success.

Benjamin Labra

Houm

Building something ambitious?

Let’s talk.