Unusual Ventures

Unusual Ventures is a Menlo Park venture firm that sells founders on time rather than just money. It invests early in technical founders building enterprise software, then puts a full-time team of operators to work on the hardest early problem: finding product-market fit. Its two founders worked together for about a decade before starting it, as investor and founder of one of the region's notable enterprise software companies.

This page is a neutral profile for founders and readers following the local venture scene. It relies on the firm's own website, TechCrunch and other dated reports. For background on how venture funds work, start with our venture capital guide.

Founding: an investor and a founder

The firm's "Our Story" page tells the history. John Vrionis and Jyoti Bansal first met in 2007, when Bansal was thinking about starting AppDynamics. Vrionis was then an associate fresh out of business school. He became Bansal's first investor. The two then worked side by side as AppDynamics searched for product-market fit. Cisco later bought the company for $3.7 billion.

In 2017, after nearly ten years of working together, the two decided to build a firm around what they had learned. It launched publicly in May 2018, when TechCrunch reported that the AppDynamics founder was starting a $160 million seed-stage fund. Bansal went on to found Harness, a software delivery company. The firm says he is one of only 16 people to build two companies that each passed $100 million in revenue. Vrionis is listed as co-founder and managing partner. Bansal is listed as co-founder and entrepreneur partner.

Vrionis also teaches. The firm says he teaches the course on product-market fit at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Our page on Stanford entrepreneurship programs covers the university's wider startup scene.

Offices

Unusual's contact page lists three offices. The "Menlo" office is at 200 Middlefield Rd, Suite 110, Menlo Park, CA 94025. A San Francisco office is at 434 Pacific Ave and a Boston office is on Newbury Street. The Menlo Park office is a short drive from downtown Palo Alto. Our Menlo Park guide covers the town around it. As with any venture office, it is a private workplace and visits are by appointment only.

The firm is not on Sand Hill Road. Like several younger firms, it chose a Menlo Park address off the famous corridor and a second base in San Francisco, where many of its founders live.

The Unusual method for product-market fit

Unusual's pitch to founders is about engagement, not just capital. Its story page lays out a contrast it draws with typical venture firms:

In practice, the firm says its team helps founders write the value hypothesis, run customer conversations, find the right first market segment, recruit design partners and build a go-to-market motion. It publishes much of this thinking for free. Its Field Guide on finding product-market fit has passed one million views, the firm says. It also runs Unusual Academy programs and a monthly newsletter. Its homepage promotes an e-book on go-to-market in an AI-first world.

Focus and limited partners

The portfolio page sorts companies into four sectors: AI, applied AI, cybersecurity and infrastructure. The firm describes its focus as enterprise founders "from first insight to market leadership." It says it makes a small number of investments each year.

Unusual is also open about where its money comes from. Its story page says its limited partners are primarily non-profits, including hospitals, foundations and historically Black colleges and universities. The firm calls them "forces for good." Wikipedia, citing coverage of the second fund, notes that it came from nonprofit, research and academic institutions.

Notable investments

Unusual's portfolio and news pages name the companies below. Dates come from the firm's own news feed or the reports it links.

The portfolio page also marks exits. It lists Dashbase as acquired by Cisco in 2020, CoScreen by Datadog in 2022, BluBracket by HashiCorp in 2023 and Banyan Security by SonicWall in 2024. Other active names include Descope, Socket, Resolve AI, AirOps, Chalk and Databento. A list like this shows outcomes the firm is proud of. It does not show returns. Many early-stage companies fail.

Funds and size

1. Fund I, 2018. $160 million for seed-stage investing, per TechCrunch in May 2018.
2. Fund II, 2019. $400 million, per Venture Capital Journal and Business Insider.
3. Fund III, May 2022. $485 million in commitments, per TechCrunch.

We did not find a later reported fund in our research. These are reported sizes, not performance figures. This page makes no claims about returns.

How founders reach Unusual

The contact page lists a general inquiries email address for the firm, along with its offices. That is the public channel. Unusual's many free programs are another path: founders who read the Field Guide, join an Academy session or attend an event can meet the team without a cold pitch. Avoid writing to individual partners' personal accounts.

1. Read the Field Guide and test your company against its product-market fit questions.
2. Join the newsletter to hear about programs and events.
3. Ask a founder in the portfolio for a warm introduction if you have a connection.
4. Be ready to talk about your first target customer and design partners in detail.

Our guide to pitching investors covers meetings and follow-up. Our seed funds page compares early-stage firms.

Unusual in the local ecosystem

Unusual belongs to a generation of firms started by people who had already lived the startup story from both sides. Its founders' AppDynamics years tie it to the enterprise software boom that ran from Palo Alto to San Jose in the 2010s. Its teaching ties it to Stanford, where many technical founders first test an idea. The firm's model also says something about the market. As venture funds grew larger, some founders started looking for smaller firms that promise more hands-on help. Unusual built its brand around that promise.

Frequently asked questions