PSL Ventures

PSL Ventures is the early-stage venture capital arm of Pioneer Square Labs (PSL), a Seattle-based startup studio and venture firm founded in 2015. The platform operates a dual model: PSL Studio ideates and spins out new technology companies from scratch — including Studio III, a $20 million fund with a generative-AI thesis that closed in 2023 — while PSL Ventures invests in both PSL-incubated companies and external pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups. PSL Ventures has raised Fund I at $80 million (oversubscribed) and Fund II at $100 million (oversubscribed), managing more than $180 million across the venture platform. The firm leads rounds and deploys checks from $500,000 to $5 million. The fund focuses on technology-driven companies, with an emphasis on the Pacific Northwest and a current thesis around large-language-model-enabled AI. Across eight-plus years, the PSL Studio has spun out 33 venture-backed companies; PSL Ventures has made 60 investments in total. Notable portfolio companies include Boundless (immigration technology) and Kevala (healthcare staffing). PSL Ventures is led by four Managing Directors: Greg Gottesman (former Madrona MD and co-founder of Rover.com), Julie Sandler (former Madrona partner and ex-Amazon), Mike Galgon (aQuantive co-founder and CSO), and Geoff Entress (ex-Voyager Capital). Beyond capital, PSL Ventures draws on a 22-person team of company-builders spanning engineering, design, product, marketing, analytics, and recruiting to support portfolio companies. In 2024 the firm integrated generative AI into its validation workflow, cutting concept cycle times by approximately 40 percent and enabling five times more idea testing compared to 2019. The combined studio-plus-fund structure gives founders access to an unusually deep bench of operational resources from day one.