Timothy Chen

Timothy Chen is the Managing Partner at Essence Venture Capital, a Seattle-based venture capital firm that specializes in early-stage investments in technical infrastructure and developer tools. He co-founded Essence VC in 2019 and has since raised significant capital, including a recent $27 million for their third fund, which focuses on supporting startups in software development tools, data infrastructure, and artificial intelligence.24

Background and Career

Before becoming a venture capitalist, Chen had a robust career in the tech industry. He was an early employee at several startups, including Z2, Mesosphere, and Grid AI, and served as the VP of Engineering at Cosmos. He also founded Hyperpilot, a machine learning infrastructure company that was acquired by Cloudera in 2018. His technical expertise is complemented by his experience in software engineering roles at major companies like Microsoft and VMware.123

Chen's educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Informatics from the University of Washington, and he has also pursued graduate studies in computer science at DigiPen Institute of Technology.34

Investment Philosophy

Chen is known for his empathetic approach to investing, leveraging his own experiences as a founder to support technical entrepreneurs. He aims to help first-time technical founders navigate the challenges of building their companies, particularly in the infrastructure sector. Essence VC typically leads pre-seed rounds and invests in companies at their earliest stages, often before they have released a product.124

Community Engagement

In addition to his role at Essence VC, Chen is active in the tech community as a co-host of the Open Source Startup Podcast and a member of the Apache Software Foundation. His commitment to fostering relationships within the startup ecosystem is evident in his approach to building a supportive network for founders.34