Footwork is an early-stage venture capital firm based in the Dogpatch neighbourhood of San Francisco. It was launched in April 2021 by Michael Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi. Before starting the firm, Smith was the chief operating officer of Stitch Fix, while Trivedi was a managing director at Shasta Ventures, an investor at Insight Partners, and a member of the founding team at Artsy.
Footwork's investment thesis is built around consumer technology and the consumerisation of enterprise technology. The firm looks for companies with early signs of product-market fit and describes itself as an equal partnership that pairs world-class investing with operating experience. Over five years the thesis has evolved: the partners now spend most of their time on two kinds of companies — small, AI-native teams building products on the frontier of model capabilities, and teams that use AI as an accelerant but are really riding another market or secular tailwind, in areas such as consumer healthcare and marketplaces.
On sectors and stages, Footwork leads and co-leads Seed and Series A rounds. It typically invests between $1 million and $15 million in its first cheque into a company. Its remit covers consumer technology broadly plus consumer-grade products sold into enterprise verticals — including life sciences, financial services, and consumer packaged goods — where the end user behaves like a consumer even if a business writes the cheque.
On fund size, the numbers are publicly stated. The firm launched with a $175 million Fund I in 2021 and began investing a $225 million Fund II in 2025. Its first fund backed 16 companies; as of Q2 2026 the firm says it has invested in 25 companies across both funds.
Notable portfolio companies named by the firm include Anything (an AI agent for building apps, where Footwork led the round), Felt (a collaborative mapping platform), Elicit (AI for scientific research), Fuse (AI-native loan origination for credit unions), Confido (financial operations for CPG brands), GPTZero (AI detection), Tracksuit (brand tracking, which has passed 1,000 customers), Power (clinical-trial infrastructure, now working with major pharmaceutical companies), WindBorne (weather forecasting from proprietary balloon data), Cradlewise (a smart crib), ReflexAI, Table22, Watershed, Honeydew, Benable, Trendsi, Heard, Portex, Waldo, Snout, Protege and Monk. Trivedi was an early investor in Canva, Lattice and Frame.io before co-founding Footwork.
The partnership is just the two co-founders. Nikhil Basu Trivedi, co-founder and general partner, is a 16-year venture investor and a two-time honouree on the Forbes Midas Seed List. Mike Smith, co-founder and general partner, brings the operating side from Stitch Fix and was named to the Forbes BLK Masters 50 list. The firm operates daily from its San Francisco office and favours hands-on, thought-partner relationships with founders.
On programmes, credits and perks: Footwork does not publicly advertise any founder credit programme, accelerator batch, or perks bundle. The pitch to founders is direct partner access and operating experience rather than a structured platform programme.
Why it matters for founders
If you are building a consumer product — or an enterprise product that wins because ordinary users love it — Footwork is a specialist worth knowing. The partners have sat on both sides of the table, as operators and as investors in companies like Canva and Stitch Fix, and they lead Seed and Series A rounds rather than following them. Come with early evidence of product-market fit and a product users genuinely want, and you fit the brief exactly.