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Greylock Partners

Grelyock’s pre-idea/pre-seed track designed for founders who want hands-on company-building.

Menlo Park, CA, USA

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Description

Greylock Partners is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious venture capital firms, headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Founded in 1965, the firm is famous for being an early backer of category-defining giants like LinkedIn, Facebook, Airbnb, and Workday. In 2026, Greylock continues to focus on "day zero" partnerships with founders building the next generation of AI-first software. 
  • Seed & Series A: This is Greylock's primary focus. They specialize in being the first institutional partner and almost always lead or co-lead the round.
  • Inception Stage: They frequently invest at the "pre-product" stage, helping founders build the company from a whiteboard idea. 
Greylock does not use a public application form or a batch-based accelerator model.
  • Method: Founders typically engage through warm introductions from Greylock’s extensive network of alumni founders and technical leaders.
  • Direct Outreach: Technical founders from top-tier research labs or big-tech engineering teams are often proactively sourced by Greylock’s talent team.
  • Edge Program: For very early founders, Greylock occasionally runs the Greylock Edge program, a 3-month company-building intensive for pre-seed founders.

Eligibility

  • Sectors: Enterprise Software, AI Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Fintech, and Consumer Tech.
  • Geography: Primarily United States (with a heavy focus on Silicon Valley and New York).
  • Founder Profile: They prioritize "technical visionaries"—individuals with deep expertise in AI, distributed systems, or data science. 

Process

  1. High-Conviction Vetting: The firm follows a low-volume, high-conviction model, making only a small number of new investments each year.
  2. The Partner Meeting: Finalists pitch to the full partnership; decisions are reached based on the founder's technical insight and market potential.
  3. Core Partnership: Once funded, a Greylock partner becomes a "shadow co-founder," deeply involved in product strategy and first-priority hiring.
  4. Recruiting Engine: Founders gain immediate access to Greylock’s world-class in-house talent and executive recruiting team. 

What an Applicant can Obtain

  1. Elite Capital: Access to high-signal funding that serves as a premier validation for future investors and customers.
  2. Hiring Power: Direct support from an in-house recruiting team that specializes in hiring the "first ten" engineers and the first executive leadership team.
  3. Customer Access: Introductions to a curated network of CIOs and CISOs at Global 2000 companies.
  4. Operational Playbooks: Proven frameworks for moving from product-market fit to global scale.