Behind Genius
VC Fund
Pasadena, United States
Behind Genius is a VC fund in Pasadena focused on Software and Artificial Intelligence. Behind Genius Ventures makes pre-seed/seed stage investments in companies focused on product-led growth. It has made 12 core investments in companies focused on the "future of work" and "future of play" so far. The firm aims to motivate, educate, and empower the next generation of venture capitalists.
- Total investments:
- 30
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 0%
- Fund size:
- $2.2M
- Last fund:
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Behind Genius invests in
Stages Behind Genius invests in
Countries Behind Genius invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Round size
- Seed
- $2.2M–$10M
- Pre-Seed
- $800k–$5.3M
- Series A
- $12M–$19M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 9 (30%)
- Artificial Intelligence 6 (20%)
- Health Care 4 (13%)
- SaaS 3 (10%)
- Wellness 3 (10%)
Stage
- Seed 17 (57%)
- Pre-Seed 10 (33%)
- Series A 2 (7%)
Country
- United States 20 (67%)
- Canada 2 (7%)
- United Kingdom 1 (3%)
Team
| Name | Title | Investments | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Paige Doherty
Founding Partner
|
Founding Partner | Total investments: 0 | Find email | |
Dale Stephens
Limited Partner
|
Limited Partner | Total investments: 0 | Find email | |
Joshua Schlisserman
Founding Partner
|
Founding Partner | Total investments: 0 | Find email | |
Paige Doherty
Founding Partner
|
Founding Partner | Total investments: 1 | Find email |
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intermezzo is a fintech company that offers a modern global payroll API platform for salary processing and compliance. | $10M / Seed / Sep 10, 2026 | ||
| Hostie is an AI-first customer experience platform designed for restaurants, automating guest inquiries, reservations, and takeout orders. We proudly partner with some of the world’s top restaurants, including Flour + Water, Nisei, Slanted Door, ILIS, and more. Co-founded by a product designer-turned-restaurateur and an AI engineer, Hostie blendshospitality expertise with cutting-edge technology to enhance restaurant operations. | $12M / Series A / Jul 08, 2026 | ||
| The Bland Company is a biotechnology and food startup headquartered in London, focused on developing simple, transformative ingredients. The company operates within the biotechnology research industry and has a small team, with a company size estimated between 2–10 employees. Its official website, theblandcompany.co, indicates it is preparing tolaunch products or services, as the site currently features a "Coming Soon" message along with a newsletter subscription option. | $2.7M / Pre-Seed / Feb 10, 2026 | ||
| Superpanel provides an AI platform that helps law intake teams identify and evaluate potential legal cases efficiently. | $5.3M / Seed / Sep 23, 2025 | ||
| Nox Metals is an AI-powered metals supplier empowering modern American manufacturing at scale. | $5.3M / Pre-Seed / Sep 09, 2025 | ||
| Hostie is an AI-first customer experience platform designed for restaurants, automating guest inquiries, reservations, and takeout orders. We proudly partner with some of the world’s top restaurants, including Flour + Water, Nisei, Slanted Door, ILIS, and more. Co-founded by a product designer-turned-restaurateur and an AI engineer, Hostie blendshospitality expertise with cutting-edge technology to enhance restaurant operations. | $4M / Seed / Apr 29, 2025 | ||
| Maneva develops video-to-action artificial intelligence systems for manufacturing environments, using computer vision and deep learning to analyze production processes and support operational decision-making in real time. Its platform helps manufacturers address quality assurance, downtime reduction, productivity monitoring, and workplace safety byconverting visual data from factory-floor cameras into actionable insights and automated responses. The company offers solutions such as VITA for defect detection, product verification, and equipment monitoring, as well as ALIS, an AI-powered line supervision system that tracks production efficiency and safety compliance. Maneva's technology is designed to work with existing camera infrastructure and can be applied across industries, including food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, electronics, automotive, steel, and distribution operations. The company focuses on helping manufacturers improve production consistency, identify operational issues, and monitor factory processes through AI-driven visual analysis. | $10M / Seed / Mar 05, 2025 | ||
| Licensed To Glow provides membership-based access to salon, spa, massage, facial, wellness, and self-care services through a digital booking platform. The company connects users with beauty and wellness providers and offers tools for scheduling appointments, managing memberships, and accessing personal care services across multiple categories. | $1.7M / Pre-Seed / Jan 01, 2025 | ||
| MoldCo helps individuals to reclaim their health from mold. | $3M / Pre-Seed / Dec 10, 2024 | ||
| Nectir AI is a powerful platform that allows educators to create customizable, FERPA-compliant AI Assistants that live within the LMS. Provide students with 24/7 personalized support, lighten faculty and staff workloads, and drive measurable improvements in student outcomes. | $4M / Seed / Dec 05, 2024 | ||
| See all 30 investments → | |||
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FAQ
What does Behind Genius invest in?
Behind Genius invests primarily in Software, Artificial Intelligence and Health Care startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 30 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is Behind Genius's check size?
Behind Genius typically joins rounds of $2.2M–$10M at Seed, $800k–$5.3M at Pre-Seed and $12M–$19M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Behind Genius participates in.
How do I contact Behind Genius?
Public channels for Behind Genius include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
Who are the partners at Behind Genius?
The team at Behind Genius includes Paige Doherty (Founding Partner), Dale Stephens (Limited Partner) and Joshua Schlisserman (Founding Partner). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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