Investor Profile: Visible Hands - Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Boston-based Visible Hands is a venture capital firm and accelerator that backs underrepresented founders launching high-growth startups. Its premise is blunt: talent, not race or gender, should predict success. The firm invests before the crowd, pairing funding with bespoke support for founders often overlooked at the earliest stages.

Thesis

Visible Hands invests in and supports underrepresented founders building pre-seed and seed-stage companies. That includes, but is not limited to, women, trans and non-binary people, Black, Latinx, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Indigenous American founders. Its support is bespoke: it diagnoses what each founder needs, whether branding, sales coaching, or even childcare. On its own homepage, the firm reports more than 57 investments of $100,000 or more, $8.3 million invested, 36 portfolio companies closed at pre-seed and seed, and more than $50 million raised by its portfolio companies.

Sectors & Stages

Visible Hands invests at pre-seed and seed stage and is deliberately sector-broad. Its portfolio spans climate tech, consumer products, creator tools, enterprise software, financial services, healthcare, real estate, and travel, among other sectors. Portfolio companies are based across the United States, from Boston and New York to Houston, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

Fund & Cheque Size

Visible Hands' overall fund size is not publicly disclosed. What the firm does publish is its cheque behaviour: investments of $100,000 or more at pre-seed and seed stage, with third-party fund databases putting its typical range at $100,000 to $500,000. Its fellowships are grant-based and non-dilutive, meaning founders keep their equity. Founders should treat the published $100,000-plus figure as the firm's own headline number and confirm current terms directly.

Notable Portfolio

Visible Hands' portfolio includes BlueCore Energy, a climate-tech company founded by Emmanuel Brown and Day Edwards; Churchspace, a real-estate platform founded by Todd Baldwin and Sarah Nesheim; Athlytic, a creator-tools company; Crafted, founded by Sandy Lin; and Creobase, founded by Su Sanni. Founders spotlighted by the firm include Mei-Lin Ng of Hearth Display, Noelle Acosta of Noula, and Brooke A. Hill of Swella.

Partners & Programs

The firm is led by co-founder and general partner Yasmin Cruz Ferrine. Beyond its fund, Visible Hands runs fellowship and founder programmes. VHBOS is a hybrid 10-week Founder Fellowship developed with the Barr Foundation for 15 early-stage, Boston-based underrepresented entrepreneurs. VHNYC, built with NYC EDC, is a hybrid nine-week programme for underrepresented founders building New York-based tech companies, with $10,000 in non-dilutive funding. Blueprint: Tulsa, built with Build in Tulsa, is a hybrid 12-week programme for pre-minimum-viable-product founders in Tulsa and the southern United States, also with $10,000 in non-dilutive funding. No separate credits or perks programme is published.

How to apply for funding

Founders can explore the firm's programmes and portfolio on its website at visiblehands.vc, where the programmes page lists each fellowship with further details. The firm also runs competitive grant partnerships, including with Meta and AWS, and a Google summit that drew 2,000 applications for 20 places. Founders who are pre-idea or pre-product should look at the fellowships first, while companies already at pre-seed or seed stage should approach the fund directly.