Masha Bucher Combines VC Funding With Communications Support for Tech Founders at Day One Ventures

Masha Bucher, founder and general partner at Day One Ventures, invests in early-stage startups and leads PR and communications for her firm’s portfolio companies. Drawing from her experience as an angel investor and managing PR for many companies — shepherding them from stealth to unicorn to initial public offering or M&A stages — Bucher helps startups grow quicker and crafts strategic positioning during their formative stages.

The approach has paid off so far, with Day One Ventures recently closing a $150 million Fund III, one of the two largest funds raised by a female solo general partner in the past 12 months. The fund’s backers include U.S. and European institutional investors, more than 25 unicorn founders, Day One Ventures’ own portfolio founders, family offices, and leaders of private equity and larger venture firms.

From Communications to Investing

At the age of 18, Bucher started her first company, a social media agency that grew to almost 100 people in just six months. This experience laid the foundation for her future in working with successful founders, identifying their unique stories, and enhancing her entrepreneurial spirit.

When Bucher was 23, she served as the vice president of communications at Goldman and BlackRock-backed Acronis, a global data protection company with 750,000 enterprise customers worldwide. She later became the head of communications at Runa Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage software startups around the world.

Recognizing the pivotal role strategic communications play in a startup’s success, Bucher launched her own PR studio. Her enterprise, which generated eight figures in revenue, became a magnet for high-potential startups, fielding hundreds of inquiries from top-tier companies.

Partnering with a select group of 30 clients, Bucher led communications and marketing efforts for these companies, from inception through to major milestones such as IPOs or acquisitions. A dozen of her clients achieved unicorn status. Her notable clients included PandaDoc, Gett, HotelTonight, Houzz, and WeWork, among others.

Following a successful exit from the firm, Bucher transitioned to angel investing. Her investments (including companies like Truebill, Lithic, Chatfuel, and Acquired.io) yielded a distributions to paid-in ratio of 11 times, a multiple on invested capital of 15 times, and a net internal rate of return of 113%. The success of these early investments convinced her of the potential of combining investment with communications support.

In 2018, Bucher founded Day One Ventures, which was one of the two firms launched by female fund managers out of the 157 funds started that year.

The firm’s name was inspired by a meeting with Jeff Bezos and his concept of a “day one” company — an organization that operates with the agility and customer focus of a startup, regardless of its size or age.

Through Day One’s Fund I, Bucher invested in Truebill, one of eight unicorns she’s backed. Day One made an early investment at a $15 million valuation in 2018. By 2021, Truebill was acquired by Rocket for approximately $1.3 billion, with revenue exceeding $100 million at the time of acquisition. Fund I reached DPI 1x within three years, and its successor, Fund II, has a net internal rate of return of 48%, outpacing the median for similar-sized 2020-vintage funds in North America. Fund II, which is $52.5 million, saw 80% of its investments sourced through founder introductions.

As of September 2024, Day One Ventures has half a billion dollars in assets under management. Its portfolio companies have a combined valuation exceeding $115 billion, with more than $2 billion raised.

A New Model for Venture Capital

Day One Ventures’ uses communications to help founders craft compelling narratives that help achieve a business goal — whether that’s to secure more fundraising, attract more customers, solidify new partnerships, or rally support for their movement.

“We invest in founders who are building technologies to solve humanity’s most pressing issues,” says Bucher, adding that Day One backs founders who “demonstrate a deep-seated customer obsession and pursue their life’s work with relentless dedication.”

According to Bucher, the firm invests between $1 million to $2 million for the first check, with follow-on checks of up to $15 million, and values certain traits in founders: extreme speed, focus, hunger for change, and kindness. What sets her firm apart is its commitment to betting on exceptional founders working on the most ambitious ideas possible and providing free-of-charge communications support to help its portfolio companies grow.

This support includes everything from messaging and strategy development to media relations and securing publications in top-tier outlets.

The goal is to use these tools to fill in blind spots in the public’s perception of potentially life-changing technology.

“Today, just 10% of Americans believe [artificial intelligence] helps more than it hurts. Eighty percent did not believe in crypto at its peak, and 60% are uncomfortable with new technologies like AI in health care,” says Bucher. “This resistance, born from misunderstandings and polarization, highlights the urgent need to close this divide.”

Technology, Society, and Art

For Bucher, part of what makes Day One Ventures’ approach unique is its use of art and culture to communicate the potential of new technologies. She sees art as a powerful medium to demystify and humanize technology.

“From the Renaissance era, where artist-engineers promoted innovation in beautiful, comprehensible ways, to the Bell Labs artist-in-residence programs, and examples like Steve Jobs presenting the earliest Mac to Andy Warhol, in the past, art has consistently served as a bridge between technology and society,” she says.

Day One Ventures has been exploring ways to reconnect and amplify the relationship between art, culture, and technology. The firm previously organized the first-ever DALL-E art show with OpenAI in San Francisco — attracting over 400 investors, founders, and collectors — showcasing how AI-generated art can enrich the public’s understanding of the creative possibilities of generative AI.

“We are developing new initiatives for the next year and collaborating with prominent creatives in the art world to help bring our founders’ technologies to wider societal adoption,” Bucher says.

What’s Next for Day One Ventures?

TechCrunch recently reported that with the addition of Fund III, Day One Ventures’ assets under management now total over $450 million, a significant increase from the $11 million the firm managed just five years ago.

The firm has had 23 exits, including an IPO with Terran Orbital. In addition to TrueBill (which exited to Rocket Companies in 2021), Bucher has backed seven more unicorns, including Superhuman, Remote, Worldcoin, and DuckDuckGo.

Focus areas for Fund III include AI, fintech, climate tech, the future of work, and Web 3. Day One Ventures is introducing a new investment category — “The Future of Human” — which will focus on projects that could “redefine humanity’s essence.”

Recent investments reflect this forward-thinking approach. The firm has backed companies like Rainmaker, a cloud-seeding startup aiming to induce rainfall in drought-stricken areas; AstroForge, which is developing technology for mining asteroids; and Cradle, which is working on advanced cryogenic freezing technology for human bodies.