Founders Fund investor joins The House Fund to Invest $1B in Berkeley AI Startups
I’m excited to welcome Zachary Hargreaves home to The House Fund as our new Managing Partner. Zachary is no stranger to venture capital, having previously invested at Founders Fund, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him join forces with us as we continue investing early in the next generation of enduring Berkeley startups.
Zachary, who has always kept a low profile, has a bold vision: he’s setting his sights on deploying a billion dollars into Berkeley’s ecosystem, which Pitchbook recently named as the #1 producer of VC-backed startups founded by its undergrad alums. Under Zachary’s direction over the last two years, The House Fund has already deployed over $125 million, with incredible early results, including over $100 million in unrealized profits for our investors. Some of our standout investments during this period include Databricks and Perplexity, which are leading the Berkeley AI boom.
Zachary and I go way back — we were classmates at UC Berkeley a decade ago. Over the years, we’ve co-invested in early rounds of notable startups, including unicorns Ayar Labs, PsiQuantum, and Flexport, as well as Nikita Bier’s TBH (which became #1 in the US App Store before being acquired by Meta). These early shared successes naturally led to formalizing our partnership, and now Zachary will focus on Series A opportunities and beyond here at The House Fund.
I introduced Zachary to the venture capital world by connecting him with Peter Thiel, who quickly recognized his talent and hired him to Founders Fund’s investment team. He rapidly made an impact there, becoming their youngest-ever Principal and eventually earning a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. At Founders Fund, Zachary was instrumental in supporting portfolio breakouts like Stemcentrx.
Zachary’s passion for technology runs deep. He studied electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley, specializing in robotics and AI. His early research culminated in his work at NASA’s flight research division, where he developed unmanned aerial systems.
Although he considered pursuing a PhD, his time conducting research at Harvard’s Wyss Institute made him realize that he wanted to focus on technology with real-world applications. Zachary once told me that it was hard to go from seeing something put on Mars to putting something in a journal. He doubled down on his love for robotics and began working on smaller flying vehicles — projects that helped shape the drone industry as we know it today.
One of his inventions quickly evolved into a company, becoming one of the first VC-backed aerospace and defense startups in the 2013 wave. After pitching to top-tier funds in the Valley, Zachary chose Tim Draper as their lead investor, and Draper even encouraged him to drop out of school to pursue his venture full-time.
At Founders Fund, Zachary carried these personal experiences with him. There is a clear throughline from Zachary’s background to his belief in companies like SpaceX and Anduril. He once joked that he walked away from NASA inspired, but it felt like rocketships were being made at the DMV. Anduril is still the only drone company he believes in, and it’s clearly the industry leader.
With Zachary onboard, The House Fund is poised to accelerate its growth and support even more incredible startups emerging from Berkeley — from Seed to IPO. In addition to investing, Zachary will take a hands-on role with our portfolio companies, working closely with founders to shape them into the next generation of Berkeley-born unicorns.
I’m excited for the journey ahead with Zachary and what this new chapter means for both The House Fund and Berkeley’s next great founders.
-Jeremy Fiance
Founder & Managing Partner, The House Fund
Berkeley AI Founders, it’s not too late to Apply to The House AI Accelerator Fall Batch
