Ignition Partners, a dedicated early-stage enterprise software venture capital firm, invests based on decades of operating experience and enterprise relationships. We have lived through the transitions from mainframe to mini to PC to cloud. We are the only firm operating with significant footprints in both Seattle and Silicon Valley, and our network has a global reach. As we enter our 20th year as a venture firm, we wanted to reiterate the reasons to partner with Ignition.

First, we are focused on solely early-stage enterprise software.

Choosing the right early-stage investor can change the trajectory of your company, and Ignition’s focus on early-stage enterprise software spans from startups selling to the Fortune 100 to those going after the small business market. We have a track record of backing category-defining companies such as Splunk, Docusign, Cloudera, Heroku, Parse, Xamarin and Xensource. More recently, our investments in Archipelago, Aviatrix, Botkeeper, Icertis, Jupiter Intelligence, KenSc, and Tractable reflect our deep conviction around ML-enabled vertical industry transformation.

Second, Ignition is composed of a team of experienced and connected operators.

Enterprise software is not just the space we invest in, it is also the lives we have lived and the circles we move in. We only invest in B2B software companies because this is the space we know. Our understanding is not academic but comes from our team’s collective experience in leadership positions at top technology and Fortune 500 companies, as builders, and investors. Our network is particularly valuable to the B2B companies in which we invest. We help our companies make connections that open up revenue and partnership opportunities, as well as help hire great talent, identify board members, and partner wisely with the cloud vendors.

Notably, we also have deep relationships with the leading cloud vendors through our previous experience working with and within those organizations. We can connect businesses with the right resources to help build solutions and tap into customers via cloud vendors.

Third, and perhaps most important, is that our philosophy is to make only a few investments a year.

We believe the time we invest in helping to shape and scale a new company is more impactful than the money we invest. Thus, we make only a few new investments per year and we’ve structured our service model to spend a significant time with our portfolio companies. We view ourselves as stewards open to helping navigate the pitfalls of early stage businesses, requiring a deeper understanding of a company’s situational context so as to better tailor where we should help.