Today is an exciting day. I recently sat down with the amazing Yuliya Chernova at The Wall Street Journal to unveil the new Curious, a $16M permanent capital fund dedicated to buying and operating software businesses for the long-term.

Here’s the why behind what we’re doing.

Curious exists to provide a home for all of the great software companies that don’t fit the venture model. As I look back on my nearly 20 years of operating VC-backed startups, there’s been a consistent theme — urgency and unsustainability.

The venture model has somehow convinced us to take the most cost efficient businesses in history — software — and turn them into cash incinerators, all in the name of growth. This is why countless companies have shut down, thousands of workers have been laid off, and so many toxic cultures exist. This is the human impact of the power law.

We started Curious to provide an antidote to that. Linear growth over exponential. Sustainable over unsustainable. Calm over urgent. We’re dedicating the entire $16M fund, and future earnings, to buying and operating software businesses for the long term.

When we buy a business, we intend to operate it for decades, keeping the original brand vision and mission in tact. The goal is to stop as many startups as possible from shutting down, providing liquidity to founders and investors, while injecting the business with a team of experienced operators and frameworks to turn it from unsustainable to sustainable.

If you’re a founder of a software company looking for a long term partner, reach out to us at hello@curious.vc. We’re looking for businesses in the $500K - $5M in ARR range. We’re vertical agnostic and aren’t scared of messy or distressed situations.

If you work in startups and are sick of the erratic nature VC funded companies, we’d love to hear from you as well. We’re always looking for future CEOs and executive level talent to step in and operate.

This is the beginning of something new.