• Tokyo, Japan

McNamara Family
Investments

Angel investors in deep-tech for a better future.

Who We Are

Hi! I'm Adam.

I'm a computer scientist, entrepreneur, angel investor, and dad. I co-founded Select Start Studios, acquired by Shopify, and helped build Shopify as its first VP Product.

For over a decade, I've been angel-investing in founders working on "moonshots" - wildly ambitious solutions to big, hard, and important problems.

McNamara Family Investments is my family's investment fund, and our mission is to build a better future.

More on that below.

Our Mission

We invest in deep-tech founders building a better future.

Four million years.

That's how long us humans have been around for, give or take a bit.

Imagine those four million years were compressed into a single 24-hour day. For the first 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 50 seconds, life was really hard. We had fire and hand tools and not much else. Then the Scientific Revolution happened, and in the last ten seconds, we invented literally everything else. Life for humans got really good, really fast.

The graphic below from Our World in Data helps illustrate this explosion - four million years of nothing, and then everything all at once.

Our mission is to accelerate humanity's progress even more.

Our strategy is to be the first investor in new technologies that will end up on the chart above.

Our goal is to positively impact the long-term future of humanity.

We're proud investors in dozes of "planet-positive moonshots" like nuclear micro-reactors, grid-scale batteries, and stem cell therapies.

We can back these kinds of high-risk, high-reward startups because, as a family investment fund, we can act more like DARPA than a VC.

Venture Capital

Mission is to make money for its LPs

Culture of minimizing risks

Require oversight of founders

Wants its money back in 5-7 years

Partner may have startup experience

Slow (decisions take weeks or months)

Investor-friendly terms

Us

Mission is to build a better future

Culture of taking risks and tolerating failure

Gives founders trust and autonomy

Wants to build important breakthroughs

Partner is a founder and scientist

Fast (decisions take hours or days)

Founder-friendly terms

If you're working on a moonshot and need an angel investor who specializes in that kind of thing, say hi and tell us what you're working on.

Featured Investments

Fifty Years VC Seth Banon
Fifty Years VC Seth Banon

What We Invest In

Founder-Led

We invest in founders, not companies, and believe that the best companies are built by founding engineers.

We invest in people, not companies. We believe that the best companies are lead by founders.

Moonshot

We back wildly ambitious solutions to big, hard, and important problems.

Deep Tech

We invest in companies solving problems with deep science, technology, and engineering.

In North America

We back founders where we can use our network to help them.

Early Stage

We invest at the Angel, Pre-Seed, and Seed stages.

How We Invest

One Meeting

We just need to meet once. You Explain Like I'm Five (ELI5) what you're working on and we'll listen and learn.

Quick Decision

We get to "yes" or "no" in a few days, not weeks or months.

$250,000 Cheque

We invest up to $250,000 in the first round and follow-on later.

Founder-Friendly Terms

We invest using the YC Post-Money SAFE because it's fast, fair, and founder-friendly.

FAQ

What stage do you invest in?

Do you lead?

How do you help companies that you invest in?

Do you take a board seat?

Do you invest in other funds?

Get In Touch

Tell us what you're working on!

Tell us what you're working on and how we can help!