Tim is the founder of Essence VC. In less than three years, he’s established himself as one of the most interesting and contrarian venture capitalists around. Chen just recently closed his fourth fund, raking in an impressive $41 million total. This remarkable accomplishment has made headlines without the typical fundraising tug. His unconventional approach to investing in early-stage devtools and infra startups has captured the imagination. Influential folks in the industry, including super VC Tomasz Tunguz and fellow VC Ethan Kurzweil were among his supporters.
Chen’s path to venture capital has been an unusual one. After getting turned down by all of the big-name firms on Sand Hill Road, he decided to strike out on his own. No one was willing to employ me,” Chen said, looking back on his early difficulty in overcoming the concentration. It was his friend Jake Zeller over at AngelList who pushed him to make the jump. He started his initial fund with the aspirational target of raising $1 million.
Since then, Chen’s funds have greatly outperformed. His second fund was $5 million, and his third $27 million. Every move in his career as a venture capitalist has shown an upward arc that is as consistent as his dedication to fostering new ideas.
“I wasn’t fundraising. And I honestly didn’t even know how much to raise. I was really just like deploying and vibing,” said Chen, highlighting the organic process he takes when investing. He has demonstrated an ability to connect with founders who have expressed appreciation for his involvement, stating, “I really enjoyed it. Founders continued loving me, continued telling all their friends.
Chen’s sweet spot is early-stage companies, with a focus on those building for developers and the infrastructure. ComfyUI One of his most high-profile investments is ComfyUI. Canva This Australian company is developing a consumer-oriented visual AI product from the open-source Stable Diffusion model. In particular, he counseled the developers of ComfyUI to evolve into a developer ecosystem for the models they were honing. That’s advice that may strategically yield stunning results. Meanwhile closed-source ComfyUI recently raised a $17 million Series A funding round, bettering its chances to duke it out with bigger closed-source model developers.
Chen’s investment strategies have led to other major wins. One of his 2nd fund portfolio companies, Tabular, was acquired by Databricks for around $2.2 billion in early 2024. Such achievements highlight his beautiful mind for identifying startups that’ll become market leaders.
Specifically, Tim’s background as a software engineer shapes his investment philosophy in important ways. His background as an early employee at Mesosphere adds even more depth to his perspective. His strong technical background allows him to appreciate the multifaceted nature of the companies he invests in. This experience and understanding form the bedrock of a healthy partnership with founders.
With his latest fund, Chen aims to continue supporting innovators in the tech space, focusing on transformative ideas that can drive change in their respective industries. He pursues a deeply thoughtful, imaginative commitment to inclusivity. To this last point, he owns the absence of diversity among venture capitalists when he puts it simply, “There’re so few VCs that look like me.”