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Former Founders Fund VC turns operator, raises $35M for AI sales platform

Sam Blond left his VC job at Founders Fund after 18 months. Now he's back with Monaco, an AI-native sales platform that just closed $35M in funding.

• $35M total ($10M seed + $25M Series A)
• Led by Founders Fund, angels include Stripe's Collison brothers
• AI-native CRM with human sales experts (no avatars)
• Targeting seed/Series A startups
• 40 employees, public beta launched this week

How it happened:
• Left VC role in 2025, partnered with brother as co-founder
• Built team with experienced operators from Apollo, Clari
• Ran private beta, secured backing from former employer

Takeaway: Domain expertise often beats pure capital when building startups.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/11/former-founders-fund-vc-sam-blond-launches-ai-sales-startup-to-upend-salesforce/

Source: TechCrunch

#startups #funding
TechCrunch Former Founders Fund VC Sam Blond launches AI sales startup to upend Salesforce | TechCrunch The startup, Monaco, has come out of stealth as an AI-native all-in-one CRM plus more system backed by names like the Collison brothers and Garry Tan.
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