Norwest is a multi-stage venture and growth firm (six-plus decades old, $15.5B AUM) that partners with founders 'at every stage of their journey' across enterprise, consumer, and healthcare. In its own words, 'the best teams win,' and the best founders are those who have 'experienced – directly or indirectly – the pain point they're solving' and can 'distill complex problems into simple explanations.' Its current investing energy centers on AI infrastructure and application layers, science-backed/community-driven consumer health, and value-based healthcare, with a stated preference for founders who have 'lived the problem firsthand' and understand 'not only what's broken, but why it has stayed broken.'
A clearly framed, important problem the founder can distill simply and has personally lived; founders should explain not just what is broken but why it has stayed broken.
“the best founders...are able to distill complex problems into simple explanations.” — How to Ace Your Series A Fundraise: Lessons from 20 Years in Venture Capital
“They understand not only what's broken, but why it has stayed broken, and what it takes to earn trust.” — Sean Jacobsohn
“the best founders have experienced – directly or indirectly – the pain point they're solving.” — Matthew Howard
A differentiated, paradigm-shifting approach (not incremental) with early signs of product-market fit, ideally owning a foundational/infrastructure layer.
“Do you have early signs of product-market fit, on paper or in practice?” — How to Ace Your Series A Fundraise: Lessons from 20 Years in Venture Capital
“ORION shifts the paradigm to automated, context-driven detection...eliminates the need for static rules or constant manual tuning.” — Dave Zilberman
“Coval's combination of technical depth, founder pedigree, and clarity of product vision puts them in a strong position to become the de facto platform solution.” — Scott Beechuk
A large and growing market, ideally one expanding fast (with credible figures and trajectory), paired with a strong grasp of the competitive landscape.
“Beyond focusing on a large and growing market, the best founders have a strong grasp on the competitive landscape.” — How to Ace Your Series A Fundraise: Lessons from 20 Years in Venture Capital
“The DLP market is currently valued at over $3 billion and is projected to exceed $10 billion by 2030.” — Dave Zilberman
“The voice AI evaluation market is forming now, and the window to build the foundational infrastructure layer is open.” — Scott Beechuk
Early signs of product-market fit shown concretely; rapid customer and revenue growth, plus competitive-bake-off wins that validate the product.
“Do you have early signs of product-market fit, on paper or in practice?” — How to Ace Your Series A Fundraise: Lessons from 20 Years in Venture Capital
“Since launching in 2024, the company has seen rapid adoption, growing its customer base more than fivefold and increasing ARR by over 30×.” — Sean Jacobsohn
“Since launching in 2024, REMEDY has achieved rapid growth across direct-to-consumer, Amazon and TikTok Shop channels” — Lisa Wu
Exceptional, complementary teams who have directly lived the problem; founders who stay close to customers as design partners. Team is the single most important factor.
“The best teams win.” — How to Ace Your Series A Fundraise: Lessons from 20 Years in Venture Capital
“Nitay and Jonathan bring complementary strengths that make them a formidable force.” — Dave Zilberman
“Mary and Kelsey remain deeply involved with customers, treating them as true design partners and prioritizing the features that matter most.” — Sean Jacobsohn
“Instead of building for a quick trend, he focused on the underlying constraint.” — Assaf Harel
Models where quality, cost, and access are not tradeoffs; products positioned to become durable platforms that own the customer/engineer relationship over time.
“quality, cost, and access don't have to be tradeoffs, as it delivers Medicare savings each year.” — Shaping the Future of Home-Based Care: Why We're Backing Ennoble Care
“We believe voice AI infrastructure follows the same arc as cloud infrastructure a decade ago: the category looks like a tool today and becomes a platform over time.” — Scott Beechuk
“Shoppers are increasingly seeking clinical skincare that delivers visible results without the traditional prestige price tag,” — Lisa Wu
A clear articulation of incumbents and why they haven't solved the problem, plus a credible path to owning a defensible layer that competitors evaluate against and lose.
“Articulating who the incumbent players are in a market and why they haven't solved the problem you're addressing are key points.” — How to Ace Your Series A Fundraise: Lessons from 20 Years in Venture Capital
“The companies that own the evaluation and observability layer in the early innings tend to own the relationship with the engineering teams who build on it.” — Scott Beechuk
“One food delivery marketplace evaluated 17 alternatives before selecting Nimble.” — Assaf Harel
A timing thesis driven by a real inflection (AI moving into production, regulatory pressure, behavior shift) that turns a category from optional into urgent and opens a window to build the foundational layer.
“DLP can no longer be a compliance checkbox; it's increasingly becoming a board-level priority.” — ORION Security: Reinventing DLP for the AI Era
“Sensitive information now flows faster, farther and more unpredictably than ever before, and the growth in agentic use cases makes the data risk problem exponentially larger and more complex.” — Dave Zilberman
“The next generation of AI will not be defined by model size alone, but by the reliability of the data beneath it.” — Assaf Harel
An interactive pitch where founders use the conversation to weave in key points; Norwest does not expect everything figured out, and as a large multi-stage fund will support founders at every stage.
“A great presentation is interactive, with investors asking questions and founders weaving in key points in their replies.” — How to Ace Your Series A Fundraise: Lessons from 20 Years in Venture Capital
“Our diversified investment strategy, long-term commitment and collaborative approach allows us to adapt to a wide range of market conditions and support founders and CEOs at every stage of their journey.” — Jeff Crowe
“Raising a large, global fund is one the key differentiators for Norwest as it allows us the flexibility to invest in the right companies at the right time.” — Matthew Howard
“The best teams win.”
“Our diversified investment strategy, long-term commitment and collaborative approach allows us to adapt to a wide range of market conditions and support founders and CEOs at every stage of their journey.”
“She did not study voice agent evaluation from the outside; she built the infrastructure for a harder version of the same problem at one of the most demanding engineering organizations in the world.”
“the most enduring companies are built by founders who have lived the problem firsthand”
“DLP can no longer be a compliance checkbox; it's increasingly becoming a board-level priority.”