Niko Bonatsos

Co-Founder

San Francisco, California, United States16 yrs 2 mos experience

Key Highlights

Passionate about partnering with technical founders.
Extensive experience in seed and Series A investments.
Strong background in early-stage venture capital.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a venture capital expert with a focus on early-stage tech startups.

Contact

Skills

Other Skills

Start-upsEntrepreneurshipProduct ManagementBusiness DevelopmentLeadershipCloud ComputingStrategic PartnershipsMergers & AcquisitionsTime ManagementR&DManagementAnalysisE-commerceAndroidVenture Capital

About

--Always SUPER eager to learn more about an ambitious startup idea. Feel free to send your pitch deck my way. I will get back to you if I see fit right now.-- Absolutely love partnering with technical founders who are the customers of their own products. I don’t mind if you weren’t born in the U.S. (talent is universal, while opportunity is not) or if your accent sounds funny (mine does for sure). I don’t care if you didn’t go to Stanford or if you aren’t a domain expert yet. First-timers are more than welcome. I blog at https://medium.com/@bonatsos .

Experience

Verdict capital

Founder & Managing Director

Jan 2026 – Present · 2 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Verdict Capital = First Money Venture Capital

Something new

Always be learning

Jan 2026 – Present · 2 mos · San Francisco, California, United States

General intuition

Seed Investor

Sep 2025 – Jan 2026 · 4 mos · New York, New York, United States

Thrilled to be in business with Pim and his extraordinary team!

Highlight

Seed Investor

Sep 2024 – Jan 2026 · 1 yr 4 mos · New York, New York, United States

Led the seed round as a spin-out from Medal.tv.

Mercor

Seed Investor

Oct 2023 – Jan 2026 · 2 yrs 3 mos · San Francisco, California, United States

Seed round lead investor.

Orchard

Seed Investor

Apr 2023 – Jan 2026 · 2 yrs 9 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Led Orchard’s seed round. They are the AI farmer providing food security to America.

Bandana

Pre-Seed and Seed Investor

Mar 2023 – Jan 2026 · 2 yrs 10 mos · New York, New York, United States

Led the pre-seed and led the seed round.

Pylon

Seed Investor

Mar 2023 – Jan 2026 · 2 yrs 10 mos · San Francisco, California, United States

Seed round lead investor.

Finni health (yc w23)

Board Member

Mar 2023 – Jan 2026 · 2 yrs 10 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Seed and Series A lead investor.

Triumph

Series A Investor

Apr 2022 – Jan 2026 · 3 yrs 9 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Series A lead investor.

Superplay

Seed Investor

Aug 2020 – Nov 2024 · 4 yrs 3 mos · Tel Aviv District, Israel

Co-led their Seed round with my awesome partner Adam.
Got acquired by Playtika - https://investors.playtika.com/news-releases/news-release-details/playtika-enters-agreement-acquire-superplay-creator-hit-mobile/.

Remote

Board Member

Jun 2019 – Jan 2026 · 6 yrs 7 mos · Remote

Pre-Seed round lead investor, Seed round co-lead investor.

Sleeper

Board Member

Oct 2018 – May 2024 · 5 yrs 7 mos · San Francisco Bay Area · Remote

Series A lead investor.

Medely

Board Member

Feb 2017 – Jan 2026 · 8 yrs 11 mos · Los Angeles, California, United States

Seed and Series A lead investor.

Cover

Seed Investor

Sep 2016 – Jan 2026 · 9 yrs 4 mos · Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Seed round lead investor.

Hive

Board Member

Oct 2013 – Jan 2026 · 12 yrs 3 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Seed round lead investor, Series A co-lead investor

Discord

Seed Investor

May 2012 – Jan 2026 · 13 yrs 8 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

General catalyst

Managing Director

Jan 2011 – Dec 2025 · 14 yrs 11 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Early stage venture capital (pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B) investing in tech startups.
I love investing early in:
a. Consumer products and services that upon launch are perceived as stupid, funny, annoying, controversial, maybe insulting and disruptive by most people. My portfolio includes companies like Audius, Bird Buddy, Discord, Saturn (acquired by Snap), Sleeper, Snap, Superplay and Triumph Arcade.
b. Consumer & enterprise products and services that streamline existing cumbersome workflows. Technology exists to make our lives better. Combine this with a timely & huge market and billion dollar companies can be created. My portfolio companies include Bandana, Bounce, Celo, ClassDojo, Collective, Finni Health, Highlight, Hive, Livongo Health, Medely, Mercor, Numerade, Pylon, Remote.com, Sapien and Wag!.
Thrilled to have led, co-led, sourced and/or be closely involved with 6D.ai (acquired by Niantic), Audius, Brighter (acquired by Cigna), Celo, ClassDojo, Collective, Cover, Discord, Hive, Livongo Health (IPO), Numerade, Paribus (acquired by CapitalOne), Remote.com, Sleeper, Snap (IPO), Superplay (acquired by Playtika), Wag! (IPO) and several more (mostly still stealth).
General Catalyst Partners has raised over $20 billion across 12 funds, established a global presence (offices in Bangalore, Berlin, Cambridge, London, NYC, San Fransisco and Palo Alto) and has a unique entrepreneurial DNA. We are very fortunate to have invested in companies like Airbnb, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Canva, Circle, Codeium (Windsurf), Commure, Cred, Datto, Deliveroo, Demandware, Discord, Fivetran, Gitlab, Glean, Grammarly, Guild Education, Gusto, Helsing, Hubspot, Illumio, Instacart, Kayak, Lemonade, Livongo, Maven, Mistral, Modular, Monzo, Oscar, Ramp, Rapyd, Re:Build, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, Sword, Tractian, Warby Parker and Zepto.