About Longinus
Founded at Stanford University, Longinus Ventures is a pre-seed fund run by the leaders of ASES, the largest entrepreneurship organization at Stanford.
We write the first check to student founders, often before they've raised a dollar.
Most firms compete for founders after they've decided to build. We find them before that.
Most firms meet their founders on pitch day: rehearsed lines, a tailored deck, a founder's best performance. A pitch tells you how someone presents. It doesn't tell you who they are.
We meet founders as peers, in the dorms, the dining halls, and the clubs we run, often years before there's anything to pitch. We see how they treat teammates, what they do after a project fails, whether people follow them. That's an understanding no pitch meeting can produce.
Our General Partners run ASES, the largest entrepreneurship organization at Stanford. Garry Tan came through it. So did David Lee. We operate inside the rooms where future founders develop their first ideas, recruit their first teammates, and decide whether to build at all.
Every incoming class renews that access. Every year the relationships deepen, and our earliest investments become references and champions inside the communities we already occupy. Each cycle, we enter with warmer relationships and stronger proof that the best founders on campus take our capital first.
Returns don't come from meeting the most founders. They come from meeting the right ones first, and backing few enough to be in every round and every hard decision.
The name reflects the philosophy. Longinus was the Roman soldier who recognized what everyone around him missed.
The most consequential moment in a company's life comes before revenue, before product-market fit, sometimes before there's a company at all. It's the moment a founder commits to a vision and starts making it real. That's where we focus.
Why now.
9 percent of new U.S. businesses last year were started by Gen Z founders, ahead of Boomers for the first time.
9%of new U.S. businesses last year were started by Gen Z founders, ahead of Boomers for the first time. (Source: Gusto, 2026)
The cost of building has collapsed. A Stanford sophomore with today's tools ships what took a team of twenty a decade ago. We think that quietly breaks the old rule that founders need years of experience first. We might be wrong. We're betting we're not.
Our team
Get in touch.
Founders from the ASES network and co-investors who want access.