We launched FirstMark 20 years ago in New York City, back when the tech industry on the east coast was still in its infancy and most venture capital dollars were concentrated in the Bay Area. Over those 20 years, we’ve been honored to back the founders of companies like Pinterest, Riot Games, Shopify, DraftKings, Airbnb, Discord, Pendo, ClickHouse, Synthesia, and hundreds more.

There has never been a better time to build in NYC, and as we look ahead to the next 20 years of FirstMark, we couldn’t be more proud of and excited about our team, who represent the future of our firm. 

To that end, I’m thrilled to announce that David Waltcher has been promoted to Partner. 

David joined FirstMark in February 2024 after nearly seven years at Accel in San Francisco, where he built a strong reputation and deep expertise in enterprise software by partnering with technical founders across a number of leading companies, like Momentum, Nuvemshop, Fragment, Vercel, and four more to be announced very soon. At FirstMark, David has been focusing on backing founders building products for developers and technical teams, with particular emphasis on developer tools and security. A native New Yorker, David also brings deep roots and longstanding relationships across the local technology ecosystem, as well as the same passion for this city that led us to start FirstMark two decades ago.

Since joining FirstMark, David has consistently demonstrated exceptional instincts and execution across sourcing, investment decisions, founder relationships, and firm leadership. He has championed and helped win several compelling, highly competitive processes, and he has built deep trust internally among his peers at FirstMark, as well as founders and engineering leaders, earned through both his investing work and thought leadership. 

Beyond investing, David embodies the judgment, conviction, and founder-first partnership we value deeply at FirstMark, along with our commitment to excellence, taking the longest view, and relentless intellectual curiosity. As a Partner, David will be leading deals in across developer tools, AI, infrastructure, and security, and if you would like to hear more from David directly, here are three conversations you may find interesting: 

• FirstMark CTO Summit: A Look Ahead: The Impact of AI on Engineering
• Building Momentum & the Future of Enterprise Listening
• Unspoken Rules of Venture: David Waltcher on the DECODED Podcast

FirstMark and the tech ecosystem are entering an exciting new chapter. We’re proud to keep investing in our organization, both by growing the team and recognizing the remarkable people already here, as we  continue our mission to find and back the best founders building generational companies.