Cusp

Backing what's on the cusp.

about|portfolio|contact

---

Cusp are my personal investments in turning point technologies.

about

$ finger drew
Login: drew          Name: Drew Volpe
Office: Kendall Sq.  Home: Cambridge, MA
Plan:
  Back technical founders early,
  before it's obvious.

I'm Drew Volpe. I co-founded First Star Ventures, a pre-seed fund in Kendall Square that backs deep tech at the evolutionary edge of computing: energy, synthetic biology, advanced materials, frontier hardware, and the place where AI meets biology. Cusp covers the rest: angel checks, early protocol bets, and occasional funds.

I came to investing from building. I was early team at Endeca, a search company Oracle acquired for $1.1B. I co-founded Locately, a location analytics company acquired by SMG. I was founding VP of Product Development at Semantic Machines, a conversational AI lab Microsoft acquired in 2018. I studied computer science at Harvard. Dad of two.

selected portfolio

• FiscalNote
• Ethereum
• Ramp
• Zanskar
• Acceleron Fusion
• Glow
• RISC Zero

Also involved with

• Energy & climate: Zanskar, Bedrock Energy
• Bio & health: iOrganBio, ResVita Bio, Manifold AI, Genialis, Plex Research, BacStitch DNA
• Crypto: Ethereum, Sia, Glow, RISC Zero
• AI, software & robotics: Turso, Jellyfish, Bot.Auto

contact

twitter	@cuspventures
work	First Star Ventures
email	drew [at] cusp [dot] vc