About us

Fortify Ventures is an early-stage fund investing in technology that improves human performance. We back founders building products that help people feel better, function better, and perform better.

We bring far more than capital, and our network reaches well beyond founders. We are operators, founders, thinkers, and executors aligned on one mission: helping teams accelerate the path from great products to category-defining companies. Our community shares knowledge, opens doors, and shows up when it matters.

40+
Investments
10+
Successful Exits
100+
Years of Experience
15+
Years Active

How we invest

Rather than investing based on a criteria checklist, we build conviction holistically as we get to know companies, their founders, and their products. We invest post-product but pre-product-market fit, typically at pre-seed or seed.

Things that help our investment team build conviction about a company's ability to succeed are:

➤ The physical world is the center of gravity.

AI has compressed the time from zero to one. Product is increasingly commoditized. The most durable advantages now come from founder quality, product clarity, and commercial execution. We focus on products built around real behavior in the physical world, where hardware creates the anchor and software amplifies the experience. We invest where these layers meet and where consumer willingness to pay is strongest.

➤ Consumers are financially empowered and investing in themselves.

Young people are allocating real money to their health and performance. Credit card companies are adding Oura and Whoop as perks. Health has become a status signal. This generation has the power to create entirely new categories overnight. We build conviction in products positioned to capture that shift.

➤ The best products are evangelized by their users.

Customer obsession matters. We build conviction in products that earn devotion, the kind that gets talked about, shared, and defended. A hundred people who love you beats a thousand who like you. When users become evangelists, we believe companies are bound for explosive growth.

➤ Commercial instincts from day one.

AI has made it easier than ever to build without a technical background. The barriers to starting a company have collapsed. That means the bar for excellence has shifted: founders need to be either unusually technically gifted or exceptional at the business side. Distribution, retention, monetization: these need to be in the plan from the start. We build conviction in teams that translate breakthrough technology into durable, consumer-centric brands.

➤ We invest where we can be great partners.

The product has to be accessible and usable by real humans. That is where we add the most value. We do not invest in biotech, pharma, or medical devices. We validate scientific claims through our expert network, and we lean into consumer adoption and monetization. We stay in lanes where our experience and network propel founders forward.

➤ Thematic alignment with human performance.

We invest in products that fortify the human experience, technology that makes people feel better, function better, or perform better. This includes metabolic health, sleep, stress, recovery, fertility, home health, brain performance, productivity tools tied to measurable outcomes, mental health, relationship wellness, and breakthrough supplements with clinical backing. We have a preference toward differentiated hardware, but invest in software when it is anchored in real behavior and real data.

➤ Human-centric products that drive measurable outcomes.

The product needs to be used by people and drive real improvements in health or performance. Whether direct-to-consumer, B2B where employees benefit, or a marketplace that connects people to better outcomes, the throughline is human impact. Enterprise infrastructure and clinical workflow tools are not our focus.

➤ Breakthrough technology that unlocks something new.

We build conviction in products that demand attention. Proteomics, gut microbiome, continuous endocrine monitoring, food as medicine, precision fertility, circadian regulation. We invest in groundbreaking technology that opens new possibilities, not incremental improvements to the status quo.

➤ Flexibility in check size to maximize opportunity.

We write first checks of $100K to $2M. Our primary strategy is core investments, where we target meaningful ownership and fully immerse ourselves in helping the company from day one. We also make explorer investments, smaller checks in founders and spaces we are excited about, where we earn the right to go deeper by proving our value before the next round.

➤ Lead or follow.

We are comfortable doing either. We lead rounds when it makes sense, but we do not require it. What matters more is the quality of the company and our ability to be a good partner. We only invest when there is a critical mass of capital, enough to act as a clear catalyst for growth. We do not participate in rolling rounds that lack a defined milestone or purpose.

➤ We help founders point the rocket ship.

We work on product, GTM, fundraising, and strategy. We help technical founders build consumer-centric brands. We translate product into market reality. Our job is to help make sure the rocket ship is pointed in the right direction, and then support continued success.

Please click the above headers to expand the section.

Our investment thesis

When we started Fortify Ventures in 2011, we were one of the few funds placing early bets into ambitious founders with a desire to disrupt. We were generalists. We backed brilliant people at the earliest stages, often before they had a product, sometimes before they had a fully formed idea. Many of those bets evolved and morphed as the founders executed on their vision. It was the agility, resilience, and disruptive nature of these founders that allowed them to win.

As the firm evolved, so did our focus. We kept true to our people-driven approach, but we came to a realization: we are standout investors in the human performance space. Our network, our experience, and our hands-on approach all point to the same conclusion. This is where we can be top-tier partners to founders.

Fortify Ventures invests early in next-generation human performance products that fortify how people feel, function, and perform.

We believe the next wave of human health is anchored in the physical world, accelerated by new technology, and evangelized by empowered consumers seeking better lives.
We write $100K–$2M checks post-product and help technical teams translate breakthrough technology into durable, consumer-centric brands.
We're human-performance obsessives with a network that propels fundraising, product, brand, and early adoption for products that earn devotion.

The story behind Fortify

June 2011

Fortify Ventures was created to provide the DC startup ecosystem with a much-needed jolt of capital and operational support.

October 2011

The first Distilled Intelligence was held in Washington, DC, presenting 55 startups to over 500 investors in attendance. Fortify Ventures, along with sponsors, gave away $25,000 in prizes to participating startups.

January 2012

The creation of The Fort, Fortify Ventures’ incubator in Washington, DC. During The Fort’s first cohort, 17 companies were housed on K Street in Downtown DC, just a few blocks from the White House.

June 2012

The creation of The Fort, Fortify Ventures’ incubator in Washington, DC. During The Fort’s first cohort, 17 companies were housed on K Street in Downtown DC, just a few blocks from the White House.

October 2012

Distilled Intelligence 2.0 was held in Washington, DC, presenting 100 startups to over 750 investors in attendance. Fortify Ventures presented $100,00 in investment capital to the top six participating startups.

May 2013

At the culmination of The Fort’s second cohort, Fortify presented nice companies to a group of angels, venture firms, and strategic investors at the second Fortify ‘Investor Day’ in Downtown DC.

December 2024

Fortify Ventures Fund II began deploying GP capital to build the early portfolio.

October 2025

Distilled Intelligence 3.0 was held in Loudoun County, VA, hosting 100 startups and hundreds of investors, operators, and service providers for a three day summit. Over $1M in funding was provided by Fortify to Distilled Intelligence 3.0 participants. Click here to learn more.

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