Introducing Deviation Capital: In Pursuit of The Exceptions

Era-defining companies are the exception. They break almost every rule of conventional wisdom as they rise, but start the same way. A founder encounters something broken, invents a way forward others couldn't see, and bets everything on bringing it to life. When the perfect idea, team, and timing converge, what began as a deviation becomes the new standard.

Deviation Capital launches today as the spin-out of the Two Sigma Ventures business to find, fund, and support these founders. An early-stage venture capital firm investing at Seed and Series A, we back technical founders using data and computing to build enduring exceptions.

Deviation is technically a new firm, but comes armed with a developed strategy, ~$2B in AUM, and an existing portfolio of 79 companies working to unlock novel insights, experiences and discoveries, like Whoop, Remote, Etched, Kalshi, Gameto, Zeromatter, and Bedrock Robotics.

We invest driven by a multi-decade perspective on technology's evolution –– what we simply call our metathesis.

Developed nearly 15 years ago as the founding conviction behind TSV, the metathesis defines one truth uniting every generational technology company: They are built by harnessing the increasing volume of data and information, and our improving ability to collect and analyze it through advances in computing, hardware, and software. As these capabilities advance, entirely new problems become solvable and new dreams achievable.

This is evident across the past 30 years. The early internet created exponential amounts of data and connectivity; the cloud made it possible to store and process that data at scale; and mobile put that information into the hands of billions. Advancements in AI present the most powerful opportunity yet to turn data into novel insights for businesses, magical consumer experiences breakthrough scientific discoveries. As this worldview becomes more widely shared, we feel prepared for this market, with a team that has spent years investing across the subdisciplines that now define AI.

Deviation also maintains collaboration with Two Sigma through our Technical Expert Council (TEC), a team of seven senior Two Sigma leaders who can provide Deviation with support across sourcing, diligencing, and advising our portfolio. The TEC further drives connectivity to Two Sigma's broader community of 1.3K+ employees, including 200+ PhDs. Many TEC members were tremendous partners to Two Sigma Ventures, and we're grateful to have the opportunity to continue to work with them at Deviation.

We believe that our developed strategy and thesis are foundational, yet the team and presence we're building to execute against that foundation make us most excited to get to work.

We're pleased to have Jonathan Golden joining Deviation as a founding partner, alongside former TSV partners Colin Beirne, Dusan Perovic, and Sidney Costabile. Jonathan is an accomplished investor and product leader, most recently a partner at NEA focusing on early-stage investments in B2B software, API infrastructure, and verticalized AI. Before venture, Jonathan held a number of product leadership roles, including as Airbnb's first PM and Director of Product.

We're also launching a San Francisco office to complement our New York presence. Over the coming months we'll be building out our investing team on the west coast, starting with welcoming Matthieu Schulz. Matthieu joins Deviation from Cognition, where he was the third product hire at Windsurf, helping shape the product through its breakout growth and subsequent acquisition. With offices in both NY and SF, we look forward to meeting and serving founders where they’re building.

None of this would be possible without the foundational support of Two Sigma and its phenomenal team. Two Sigma incubated TSV nearly 15 years ago, provided hands-on support as it invested across four core and two opportunity funds, and now stands behind Deviation as both collaborators and investors. For all of it, we owe them our sincere thanks.

To all the founders reading this, you've now heard about the firm we've built. What we want to leave you with is the kind of partners we're committed to being as we launch Deviation V, our first core fund under this new structure.

We’ll be the co-conspirators who meet you at the fringes, before others can see a path forward. The incisive thinkers who bring years of hard-won experience and a real understanding of what you're building, without the need to prove how smart we think we are. The antidotes to the overnight experts and hype chasers. Most importantly, partners who know that everything we bring pales in comparison to what you know about your own company, and who look to you as the lodestar to understand your world.

Put simply: like the founders and companies we're in pursuit of, we hope to be the exceptions.