Investor Profile: Decibel Partners — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Getting funding from Decibel Partners starts with one filter: are you a deeply technical founder building the software that engineers and security teams rely on? Decibel is a Palo Alto early-stage venture firm created in partnership with Cisco — an industry-first arrangement where a major technology company co-founded an independent VC firm, then gave it access to the scale, talent and customer relationships of one of the world's largest tech companies while leaving investment decisions independent. For founders building in AI, cybersecurity and infrastructure software, that combination is the whole pitch.

Investment thesis: Decibel funding for technical founders

Decibel calls itself an early believer in technical founders. Its thesis is deliberately narrow: invest in the essential software used by engineering and security teams to build and protect our digital world, with a specialisation in enterprise software at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. Founding Partner Jon Sakoda — who spent 12 years as a partner at NEA and previously founded IMLogic, acquired by Symantec in 2006 — has said the firm deliberately hunts for startups still finding product-market fit, because that is where Cisco's customer access and the firm's operator network create the biggest unfair advantage. If a company already has lots of revenue and is scaling, Sakoda says, it is probably too late for Decibel.

Sectors, stages and cheque size

The firm invests at seed and Series A in AI, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, data engineering and developer tools. At launch, the firm planned to write cheques of $5 million to $15 million into seed and Series A rounds — large for the stage, reflecting the Cisco partnership's resources. Cisco is the founding investor and largest limited partner, but the fund is structured as an independent firm with independent governance. Total fund size has not been publicly disclosed by the firm (an early SEC filing suggested a $500 million target, but the final close was never announced).

What founders get beyond the cheque

Decibel's value proposition is organised around four pillars on its site: early customers and evangelists (a community of thousands of early adopters including CISOs, CTOs and VPs of engineering and data), growth and GTM playbooks borrowed from industry leaders, experienced founder advisors who have taken companies from zero to IPO, and talent support for the earliest hires. Partner Dan Nguyen, who focuses on ML/AI, cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity, previously led investments including Databricks at Battery Ventures.

Notable portfolio companies

Portfolio companies highlighted on the firm's site include Censys, Akuity, Penpot and RunZero; earlier investments include Blameless (site-reliability software) and Cmd (cybersecurity). The founding team's earlier track record includes investments in Cloudflare, Elastic and MongoDB.

How to apply for funding

Decibel does not run a public application form. The practical route is through the firm's website — founders can join its newsletter and founder community to get on the team's radar — or through a warm introduction from the firm's extensive network of security operators, founder advisors and early-adopter CISOs. Because the firm is founder-obsessed and stage-specific, a crisp articulation of the technical insight and the path to product-market fit matters more than traction. Expect the conversation to centre on how the team can help you reach your first design partners and reference customers.