Julian Shapiro

Seed Investor and Entrepreneur

Julian Shapiro is a prominent seed investor and founder of Julian Capital, a venture capital fund that focuses on early-stage investments. He has been in this role since January 2021, where he primarily invests in startups at the seed stage, typically writing checks ranging from $100K to $500K.1 2

Career Background

Before founding Julian Capital, Shapiro had a diverse career in marketing and technology:

Founder of Demand Curve (2019-2022): This company focused on teaching growth marketing strategies to startups, significantly impacting how many new businesses approach customer acquisition.3
VP of Marketing at Webflow (2014-2015): Here, he contributed to the growth of the company, which has since reached a valuation of over $4 billion.3 2
Columnist for TechCrunch (2019-2021): He wrote extensively on growth marketing, sharing insights that helped many startups.3
Creator of Velocity.js: An open-source JavaScript library that gained significant traction, earning him recognition in publications like Forbes and a grant from Stripe for his contributions to open-source software.3

Current Focus

At Julian Capital, Shapiro emphasizes rapid decision-making and hands-on support for portfolio companies, particularly in areas like marketplaces, supply chain, and proptech. His investment philosophy is rooted in leveraging his expertise in growth and design to help startups refine their customer acquisition strategies and overall branding.1 2 3

In addition to his investment activities, Shapiro is also known for his educational content on startups and marketing, which he shares through his website, Julian.com, and various newsletters that attract a large audience of startup founders and employees.3 4

Highlights

Jul 31 · Marketing Dive

Gap hands mic to kids for back-to-school tie-up with 'Recess Therapy' - Marketing Dive

Mar 29 · TechCrunch

Startup founders are trying to automate the worst part of the job: Fundraising - TechCrunch

Experience

Founder at Demand Curve, Columnist: Growth Marketing at TechCrunch, VP of Marketing at Webflow, Inc., Creator and Lead Engineer at Velocity.js, Founder and CEO at NameLayer, Inc.